We have got practical experience (Conv and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"we have got practical experience" |"we have our practical experience" |"we have practical experience" |"we have some practical experience" |"we have the practical experience"

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Life starting from life, we have got practical experience, but where is the evidence that life started from matter?

Morning Walk -- May 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I said, "Why not think like life started from life? What is wrong in it?" Because he was talking that life started from matter. So why not think like life started from life? What is wrong in it? That is why they thought I was talking about theology, when I asked them.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this protest must be now. If they accept life started from life, then they will have to accept God. That is their difficulty. That is their difficulty. And practically we have no experience... We can see life started from life, father begetting child. We can see father is a living man, and another child will be born. But where is life starting from matter? Where is that evidence? Life starting from life, we have got practical experience, but where is the evidence that life started from matter?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are assuming. There is no proof. They just think, they just assume it.

Prabhupāda: Assuming, what is that? There is no proof?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There is no proof.

Prabhupāda: What is their proof? What they go on, proof?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are just speculating that life started spontaneously. There was a time, they said, it started all spontaneously, only once.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But life, whether begins from life or matter? That is the question. You are saying that life started from matter. We are saying life started from life. How to make solution of this question? For life starting from life, we can see practically. Birds, beasts, human beings, they are begetting children, eggs. The life from life, he's a living entity. That we have got proof. But where is the proof that life started from the matter? Where is that proof? Just give one instance that "Here is a life starting from matter." Where is that instance? Anyway, at least one audience protested. It will be recorded. And he said, "I do not know."

Even dogs sometimes, they take part. We have got practical experience. They don't like to leave us. Yes, I have seen.

Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Guest (1): You teach your children, don't you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, all my disciples, they're taught.

Guest (1): No, I didn't mean disciples. I meant children, little ones.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. We have got children's school also.

Guest (1): They understand, do they not?

Prabhupāda: Everyone will understand. Because hearing is there. Everyone, even a child, after hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, he claps, he dances, he joins. That is practical. We have seen. Small child, say, four, five months old, on the lap of the mother, he's also moving, clapping. So this, this is also yoga system, bhakti-yoga. So it is so practical that even a small child can take part in it, without any advanced knowledge. Universal. Universal. Even dogs sometimes, they take part. We have got practical experience. They don't like to leave us. Yes, I have seen.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Maybe due to that gas, the earth is floating. Because we have got practical experience. When there is gas, you can float anything.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: You say in the, I think it's in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that by doing so much drilling into the earth, they actually disturbed the rotation of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we can think like that. Just like the plane, aeroplane, is flying. There is sufficient petrol stock. Is it not? So the world has got sufficient petrol stock. If you do not know how it is being used, maybe due to this petrol, it is floating. And if you take away the petrol stock, it may drop. Everything is there. There is a purpose. Pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). There is full purpose. Not that whimsically petrol is there within the earth. There is some purpose.

Devotee: What they do, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is take the petrol out and put salt water, because they know there can be a imbalance. And then they put salt water in the holes.

Prabhupāda: But water cannot produce gas. Petrol produces gas. Maybe due to that gas, it is floating. Because we have got practical experience. When there is gas, you can float anything.

Dhanañjaya: Like a balloon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

In India still, in so fallen condition, we have got practical experience. Sometimes we arrange Hare Kṛṣṇa festival. Each day not less than twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand people come.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

tat-prayāso na kartavyo

yata āyur-vyayaḥ param

na tathā vindate kṣemaṁ

mukunda-caraṇāmbujam

Translation: "Endeavors merely for sense gratification or material happiness through economic development are not to be performed, for they result only in a loss of time and energy, with no actual profit. If one's endeavors are directed towards Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one can surely attain the spiritual platform of self-realization. There is no such benefit from engaging oneself in economic development."

Prabhupāda: This is our philosophy, and the whole world is engaged in economic development. So which is better? (laughs) Here it is said tat-prayāso na kartavyo. We see, especially in the Western country, they are very busy for economic development, and unless one is engaged... I think that Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, they questioned that in India, people being fatalist...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They questioned, many people think this is a hindrance to progress.

Prabhupāda: So what is progress? In India still, in so fallen condition, we have got practical experience. If there is some arrangement... Sometimes we arrange Hare Kṛṣṇa festival. Each day not less than twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand people come. Although these, mostly these foreigners, they are chanting, and we are speaking in English, still, to hear the kīrtana, they come from remote villages. In Calcutta I have seen. That is natural tendency of Indians. Bhārata-bhūmi, anyone who has taken birth in India, naturally Kṛṣṇa conscious. By artificial means, they are being suppressed. Just like this Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, they have questioned that... What they have said?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They said that there are many thinkers in India who consider that the Hinduism is fatalistic, and therefore it doesn't encourage people to make material progress.

Prabhupāda: That economic development. Our ācāryas, practically in Indian civilization, there are so many books of knowledge, but there is no recommendation for starting big, big factories for economic development.

What Calcutta was in our childhood days and what is now, I know everything. How we were happy during British days and what is now position, I can speak from my personal experience. We do not belong to the richest class nor to the poor class-middle class. So we have got practical experience.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Hari-śauri: Seems everything is devolving at a phenomenal rate. Every decade that passes, everything breaks down twice as fast. Just in the last twenty years or thirty years everything has become so much degraded and...

Prabhupāda: No, I have got experience. I am Calcutta born. What Calcutta was in our childhood days and what is now, I know everything. How we were happy during British days and what is now position, I can speak from my personal experience. We do not belong to the richest class nor to the poor class-middle class. So we have got practical experience. My father's income was not more than 250 rupees. How opulent we were. At least, there was no question of need. We were receiving daily four, five guests, and my father was functioning so many festivals and he was asking... My father gave in marriage four daughters. There was no difficulty. The income was not more than 250 rupees. Of course, that 250 rupees at least ten times now. But still, there was no needy. Not very opulent, but there was no need. The first necessity is to feed and to clothe. So there was no such scarcity. May not be very luxurious life, but there was no scarcity for food and shelter or cloth. There was no scarcity. Happy. That is wanted. Happiness in whatever circumstance. Not that because we did not possess a motorcar, therefore unhappy. I purchased one motor car in 1925, Buick car. Not for personal use, but for using it as a taxi. My one nephew, he was a good driver, so my father, "Why don't you give him? He can do that, we can use it our own car also taxi." So I took it, Buick car, I think I paid eight thousand rupees.

We have got practical experience. When there is some itching, we cannot stop it.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

We have got this something, human form of body, to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Instead of doing that, in spite of possessing this something, I am utilizing it for sense gratification. If you want sense gratification that's all right. Get one child, two child. Why again and again? Therefore śāstra says tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇāḥ. Because he's kṛpaṇa, he's never satisfied. He's suffering—again, another child, again, another child. All right, you have got two child, one child, that's all right. Be satisfied. Why again and again? The kṛpaṇa. Kṛpaṇa, he does not know how to utilize this asset of human life. He's wasting the asset in a different way. Kṛpaṇa. One has to become brāhmaṇa. The opposite word of kṛpaṇa is brāhmaṇa. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). That is wanted. So we are giving brāhmaṇa's position. Instead of taking the brāhmaṇa position, if he wants to take again kṛpaṇa position, then what is the use of being initiated? All these great sages, saintly person, who were they? They were all brāhmaṇas. Brāhmaṇa. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is always addressed, brāhmaṇa. Is it not? This is brāhmaṇa's business. It is not the kṛpaṇa's business. Kṛpaṇa's business means he does not know how to utilize the asset. So (Hindi) it is my duty to speak the truth. So now you can do whatever you like... Give him prasāda. (Break) ...these words, tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. They have been described, it is just like... Of course, it is very difficult, this itching. We have got practical experience. When there is some itching, we cannot stop it. We cannot stop it. Even if I do not want it, still... So it is like itching. Nothing more. Kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. The tapasya means how to control this itching sensation. This is tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). Tapasya means, tapasya begins, now brahmacārī. That is tapasya. Tapasya means brahmacārī. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena, tyāgena, satya-śaucābhyāṁ yamena niyamena (SB 6.1.13). This is tapasya. It is very strong power, this... Therefore Bhāgavata said that this power, sex power, is there in the hogs. They have no discrimination between mother, sister, daughter. And simply busy. The example is given. This capacity is there in the hog. Are you hog? How example is given. Do you like to remain like a hog? One should be saintly. Yes. Then where is the difference, I'm a human being? I am treating like hog. Therefore this very example.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: My position is different. Why shall I die? The rascals, they agree to die. We do not agree to die. We want to come to our original position, no more death. This is our motto, because we get information from the Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die on account of my material body mixed up... "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." This body is made of five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. And this is my gross body. The gross body is finished, but my mental, subtle body—mind, intelligence—that is not yet finished. That is carrying me to another body. Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody. I have forgotten this, but... It is practical. Although I am sitting here, I have forgotten it, and I am working, thinking myself that I am in New York. Similarly, in dream my body is on the bed. I am thinking I am on the Himalayan top. So as it is possible even in this body, similarly, I get another body, gross body. Then I forget this body. This is transmigration. I have explained it. This is the factual. Everyone can experience.

1969 Correspondence

We are selling Back To Godhead through the personal approach, through the Sankirtana Party, so I expect each center to sell 50 copies daily on the average as we have practical experience here.

Letter to Rayarama -- Los Angeles 22 February, 1969:

Now the policy should be straight that this Back to Godhead is completely different from all other magazines. As there are different magazines for different subject matters, this magazine will be simply devoted for Vaisnava philosophy, or Krishna Consciousness movement. That should be our policy. So immediately you can arrange for two months layout. How are you going to select the articles? I would like to know. We should lay out the subject matter as nicely as possible to our intelligence and capacity, and without any ambition that it must attract customers. They may attract or not attract, it doesn't matter. We are selling Back To Godhead through the personal approach, through the Sankirtana Party, so I expect each center to sell 50 copies daily on the average as we have practical experience here. In this way, if four centers sell on an average 200 copies daily, then we come to the point of selling 6,000 copies directly which will cover the expense of printing and other charges. The balance 14,000 copies can be sold by the temples simply on profit. If they are not sold, then we distribute free to different societies, libraries, public institutions, respectable gentlemen, schools, etc.