Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Whole thing (Conversations 1968 - 1973)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Because energy and the energetic, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, They are not separate, but it is pleasure. When They are separated, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, that is energetic, that is giving impetus. Just like the man and the woman, they come from the same source, but one body is energetic to the other. Man is energy to the woman. Woman is the energy to the man. Why the creation is not one kind of? Why there is fair sex? They're coming from the same womb of the mother. Why not one, boy only? Why girl? Why nature has provided like that? Let simply boys come. No. It is required. But the whole thing is perverted reflection. Here the man, woman, the energy... It is simply... But by this, one can understand the reality. Just like the shadow, the five fingers. One person who is not misled, he can understand that the original palm has five fingers, although he cannot see it. From the shadow. Similarly, from this energy, work of the energy in this material perverted reflection, one can understand that there is a reality.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then what is this? Why do they not take consideration that "We are making so much improvement, what improvement we have done about these four things?" They have no. And still they're very much proud, advanced in education, science. But the four primary miserable conditions, they remain as they are. You see? There may be advancement in medical science, but there is no medicine which can claim "No more disease, come on." Is there any medicine? So what is that advancement? Rather, disease are increasing in different forms. They have invented nuclear weapon. What is that? To kill. But have you invented something so that no more men will die? That is credit. Man is dying every moment, so you have invented something to accelerate that death. That's all. Is that very, very good credit? So there is no solution of death. They are trying to stop the, I mean to say, overpopulation. But where is the solution? Every minute, there are three persons increasing. That is the statistics. So there is no solution for birth, there is no solution for death, there is no solution for disease and there is no solution for old age. There was a great scientist, Professor Einstein, he also died in old age. Why did he not stop to check old age? Everyone is trying to remain youthful. Where is that process? So they do not care how to solve this because this is beyond their means. They are giving something bluff, that's all. They do not care what is the real problem and how to solve it. They do not care for it. But here is a movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is the real solution of all problems, if people take it seriously. Yes. And the whole thing is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Let them try to understand it. At least, make an experiment. Why they are so much callous and going in their own way?

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now, if you cooperate, then I can change the whole thing in your country. They will be very happy. Their everything will be very nice. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice. Provided you cooperate. Nobody is cooperating. Simply these boys, they have kindly come to me and cooperating. So my movement is progressing, but very slowly. But if the leaders of the American people, they come and they try to understand and they try to introduce this system, oh, your country will be the nicest country in the world.

Journalist: You... How long have you been involved with this?

Hayagrīva: Two and a half years.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, Bhagavad-gītā. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness means practical understanding of Bhagavad-gītā. This is the sum and substance. I thank you for your capturing the idea. Bhagavad-gītā is the sum and substance of the whole Vedic literature, and it is very nicely explained, things as they are. Unfortunately there are so many interpreters. They interpret the verses in their own way. That is the nonsense of the whole thing. But if Bhagavad-gītā understood as it is, oh, it is a great boon to the human society.

Interviewer: In what... Are there fundamental differences between, or is it simply a difference in approach between your awareness and interpretations and, for example, those of the people who are involved with Zen? With some of the other Eastern concepts? Would you like to...

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Allen Ginsberg: But I'm wondering what future is there? What's the future of a religious observance so technical as this? So complicated as this? Requires so much sophistication in terms of diet, daily ritual, ārati, ekādaśī, all, the whole thing that you've been teaching, how far can that spread by it's very complexness...

Prabhupāda: Yes. All are complex. The whole idea is to keep the devotees always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the program. Gradually, we shall introduce more and more so that he has no scope to go outside Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Allen Ginsberg: Well then the question is...

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: That is not finished. You have to go... That is... Upaniṣad says that, he's praying that "Please wind up Your effulgence so that I can see Your true face." The Upaniṣad says. You see in the Upaniṣad. And he's praying that "Please wind up Your this glaring effulgence so that I can see Your real face." So real face is there. And Bhagavad-gītā says, brahmaṇo 'ham pratiṣṭhā. "This impersonal Brahman is standing on My existence." And Brahma-saṁhitā says that

yasyā prabha prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
(Bs. 5.40)

This Brahman effulgence is nothing but His bodily effulgence. You see whenever we put Kṛṣṇa, there's a bodily effulgence. Within that bodily effulgence every creation is there. Just like this effulgence of sun. Within the sunshine all these planets are moving, all this vegetation, everything growing, coming. The whole thing is existing on the sunshine. Similarly, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything existing on brahmajyoti.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: No. Why not senses? This is Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa. But at the same time... This is the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. Acintya-bhedābheda, simultaneously one and different. That is very easy... Suppose this is gold. But this gold is not the gold mine. There is a difference. It is gold. Similarly, everything is Kṛṣṇa, but still is different from Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. Eka-sthānī sthitasyajñer jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā, parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. The same example, that the sun. The sun is, sun-god is situated one place, but it is fiery. Blazing fire. Its heat and light is expanded. You see practically, the heat and light. So whatever this material existence is the sunlight, sunshine. Everything existing on sunshine. It is scientific. Your electricity, your this, that, whatever you take it is all sunshine. All these planets are moving, rotating on the sunshine. Heat. If heat is taken away immediately whole thing spoiled. Therefore everything is resting on the energy of the sunshine, but if you say that "Then let me find out the sun-god in the sunshine," that you will have to go there.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Śaṁbhu is another name of Lord Śiva, Śaṁbhu. Svayaṁbhur nāradaḥ śaṁbhuḥ (SB 6.3.20). He is called Svayaṁbhuḥ, and Śiva is called Śaṁbhu. Vaiṣṇavānām yathā śaṁbhuḥ. Svayaṁbhur nāradaḥ śaṁbhuḥ kumārāḥ kapilo manuḥ (SB 6.3.20). Kumārāḥ. There is a sampradāya from Kumāra, four Kumāras, brahmacārīs. They were sons of Brahmā. When they were born, Lord Brahmā said that "You now make, marry and produce. We want population." In the creation, in the beginning. So they refused. "Oh, we are not going to marry. We shall remain brahmacārī, devotee." Then Lord Brahmā was angry. "Oh, you are refusing your father's order?" So from when he was angry, his eyes became red. From that, Śiva was born. Therefore his name is Rudra. Rudra means anger. So when Lord Śiva becomes angry, the whole thing is finished.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rāmādi-mūrtiśu... In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated. Rāmādi-murttisu kalā niyamena tiṣṭhan nānāvatārān akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu, kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ. Kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ. Svayaṁ means the Supreme Person. Samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo. Parama means the Supreme; pumān means the puruṣa, the male. God is male. God is not female. The conception of female God, that is not authorized. Paramaḥ pumān yo. So female is prakṛti, nature. Parasya śaktīr vividhaiva... Śaktī. So He has got many energies. The whole thing is manifested by energy, multi-energies. Viṣṇu-śaktīḥ parā prokta (CC Madhya 6.154). Viṣṇu, the energy of Viṣṇu, is transcendental, spiritual. Kṣetrajñākhya tathā para. As also this kṣetrajñā-śaktī, marginal potency, that is also transcendental, that is living entities. They are also transcendental. They are not material. Avidyā-karma-saṅga anya tṛtīya-śaktīr iśyate.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, anyone who can manage everything, he should be in charge of the whole thing.

Hayagrīva: Well, factually he's in charge. Actually we very seldom have any disagreements on things.

Prabhupāda: All right. That's all right. Then you remain president. And let him become vice president. That will be all right? In case of your absence he will preside in the meeting. Will that be all right?

Hayagrīva: No, that's all right as long as I have final decision in certain matters, as to what to do with my vehicles, what to do with this and what to do with that.

Prabhupāda: No, you will hold meeting and decide in that meeting. If you form a committee, then whatever you do, something serious, you should consult the committee and do it.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Hayagrīva: I'd rather not be totally in charge because it's too much work. I mean I don't want to be in that sense responsible for the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Then in your absence this secretary will do or this maṭha command will do.

Hayagrīva: Beg pardon?

Prabhupāda: Maṭha command will be Hṛṣīkeśa.

Hayagrīva: Maṭha commander?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you want to stay here. You are not staying here?

Hayagrīva: I'll be staying here ...

Room Conversation -- September 24, 1969, London:

Prabhupāda: Just like... What to speak of ordinary man. President Kennedy. Oh, how much labor he had to undergo to occupy that post, how much money he spent to become president. But he had to quit his family, his wife, his state, his post. So this is going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). For sometimes we are engaged in this way; then again we are annihilated. Again begin another life, enter into another mother's womb, construct another body, then come out, then again begin work, again the same thing, digging and piling, digging and piling, again going away. Is that very good business? This is the karmīs. Karmīs means worker, fruitive worker. They want some result for their work. They are called karmīs. So the karmīs are engaged in this way. (Doorbell rings) In Bhagavad-gītā these karmīs have been described as rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍha. Because they do not know why they are digging, why they are piling and why they are leaving again everything. You can sit here, in the corner. I, I... Ask these boys, yes. This is the problem. The whole world is engaged very busy. Any city you go, they're very busy. The motor car is going this way, that way, and everywhere is constructing and so many things are going on. But if you put this question, "Why you are doing this business, digging somewhere and piling somewhere, again leaving the whole thing?"... (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. They have no answer.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: So first two chapters might be with Janārdana. But you have got the whole thing, Hayagrīva.

Hayagrīva: Yes. That has been... I have gone over that, the one I have. The one that is in New York, no one has gone over that.

Jayadvaita: Some of it has been edited by Rāyarāma, but you can see around it and go to the original behind it.

Prabhupāda: So whatever is lacking, you ask me. I will supply you.

Hayagrīva: Well, I have nothing lacking. But I would like to see that version.

Jayadvaita: That's with a dictaphone. So it's...

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 15, 1970, Surat:

Prabhupāda: That's all right but do not take the position of a teacher unless you have assimilated the whole thing. Simply by hearing others you may misunderstand, you may not present the real thing. Therefore I'm asking you...

Guest (1): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (indistinct) but you must know. Another thing is that you must know Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a bhāgavata, whose life is bhāgavata. First of all you must know what is bhāgavata. What is bhāgavata? Can you give me idea what you have understood? Instead of going through the instruction, first of all let me understand what do you understand about this (indistinct) Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is essential. So you cannot explain what is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have read Bhāgavatam from the beginning? Dharma projjhita kaitavo atra. You have read?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: No, no. If you study the whole thing in that way—Western-Eastern... There is no question of Western-Eastern. It is the question of the living entity.

Guest (1): Yes, how to live in such a way where there is no dearth of thing as well as there is no continuing of that need that a man becomes lost? That is the...

Prabhupāda: That is the point.

Guest (1): That is the point. And for that, what kind of spiritual should we lead?

Prabhupāda: That is... That I am going to explain, that... That is one line: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). This sukham ātyantikaṁ is being searched both by the Western, Eastern, everyone, even cats, dogs, everyone. But the cats and dogs, animals, they cannot adjust what is that ātyantikaṁ sukham. But human being can. So human being, there is no question of Eastern and Western. It is a question of degree only. But actually everyone is searching after that perpetual happiness.

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is. There is. There is. Higher level, lower level, there is, as soon as there is thinking, feeling, and willing. These are the activities of the mind, and there is higher level, lower level, etc...

Guest (1): In that we are missing the main twist out of whole thing.

Prabhupāda: So main twist... But main you are not missing. The point is that if you continue to think on the lower level, then how you can reach to the higher level?

Guest (1): What is the distinction between higher and lower?

Prabhupāda: You do not know? A child is thinking.

Guest (1): No, let us think of what is the highest thing.

Room Conversation -- July 20, 1971, New York:

Pratyatoṣa: And for $185 a month, we could have forty hours a week of computer time, eight hours a day. And they have courses, this company gives computerized courses that'll teach children how to read and how to do arithmetic through the terminal. And also, it has a fantastic editor. If you type in the text, and any mistakes you make, you can just type in a few instructions with a computer and it'll change them. Then after you get all the text the way you want it, it's stored on a magnetic disk at the computer. And then when you get it perfect—you can change it a hundred times if you want—but when you get it perfect, then you just have the computer automatically type out the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: You know how to do that?

Devotee (4): Yes, Prabhupāda, I got A's in that.

Room Conversation -- July 20, 1971, New York:

Pratyatoṣa: Yeah, right, the layout is almost eliminated. Composing is completely eliminated, and the editing is so easy and so fast that it'll be... The thing is, you'll be able to get a final copy that's really perfect, because it doesn't matter how many changes you make, it's so easy. Even if there's... You have one word you want to change, and it's just a minor change. Normally you might not want to do it because that means retyping the whole thing. But with this, it's no trouble, because the computer just types it out in no time.

Devotee (4): I used to think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, "I wonder when the day is going to come when we're going to be able to use computers in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" and now maybe it's come. Composing can be eliminated, done automatically, and the layout can be done automatically because the pages will come out perfect. When they're typed out, they will come out perfect. Therefore, there is no need of layout. You simply photograph those pages.

Pratyatoṣa: With a photon machine, you can do a whole book. You could have a thousand-page book done in one night. It would type the whole thing in one night. That's all you'd need is a (indistinct).

Devotee (4): Those machines are fantastic.

Pratyatoṣa: They're so fast.

Devotee (4): They are fantastic.

Pratyatoṣa: They turn out a page in a couple of seconds.

Devotee (4): Electric brain.

Pratyatoṣa: Yeah.

Devotee (4): Big electric.

Pratyatoṣa: And they're always perfect. There's no variation in the characters or anything like this.

Prabhupāda: But as soon as an electronic is a little sick, the whole thing stops.

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Prabhupāda: Two and a half million.

Mr. Arnold: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: What Dāyananda didn't tell us is that the bank was prepared to finance the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Huh!

Śyāmasundara: The whole thing.

Mr. Arnold: Well the bank and the building society.

Śyāmasundara: One building society and one bank combinedly would have financed the whole thing, but he sent us a letter that said only two-thirds, they would finance two-thirds.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Guest (2): If you're a member, you have to practice the whole thing obviously. (break)

Revatīnandana: Everyone is a member of this movement. But some people have forgotten. Our movement is to remind them. Every living being is by nature a servant of God. Now people are forgetting. We want them to remember. We don't care for some difference of technique in worship. We want people to take up the business of chanting the names of God.

Prabhupāda: Just as in the same family some of the sons have forgotten father and some of them remember, but both of them member of the same family. Because he has forgotten his father does not mean that he is not son. He still remains. So actually, everyone is a member of God's family. That is our vision. Not only human being, but animals also. We therefore consider animals also brothers. We don't support animal killing.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Then find out the soul, if you've got instrument.

Mensa Member: How many angels on the end of a pin?

Dr. Weir: In fact this is coming back to that, the analogy again.

Mensa Member: But the whole thing (indistinct) about this (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa instead of Christ.

Dr. Weir: But the whole business, if you try to explain...

Prabhupāda: In Geometry they say the point has no length nor breadth. But that is not fact. The point has length and breadth but you cannot measure it.

Dr. Weir: Ah, but the mathematician would say that that isn't the definition of a point is something that has no breadth or depth, but his purpose is working out his philosophy.

Room Conversation -- November 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Vasudeva, you just, you can read the whole thing. It is imagination. Tattva... (break) ...imagine yourself, that "My lover will be like this, like this, like that." In this way he will reach to the reality. Do you think it is very nice argument?

Guest: (Hindi conversation with Prabhupāda) He is not a bhakta.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Huh?

Guest: He is not a bhakta, he is a scholar.

Prabhupāda: What is the nonsense scholar (laughter) if he does not know the truth? (Hindi) Māyaya apahṛta-jñānā. Scholar maybe superficially, but real knowledge is taken away by māyā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu (Hindi) māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). If people hear him, then for good he will be lost in bewilderedness. (Hindi conversation) Why do you think you are sinner? (Hindi) Our theory is not that. Kṛṣṇa is fighting, He is inducing fight against irreligiosity.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Devotee: The whole thing. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Now they are not, those Englishmen, as they were in Victorian day. Nobody cares for you.

Devotee: You'll see the last remnants at that Commonwealth Club, I think, engagement. No more, no one cares.

Prabhupāda: Commonwealth is in name. (pause)

Devotee: Still, there is something about London. Everyone likes to come here. There's so many... There's not enough hotel rooms even.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: There's not even enough hotel rooms to accommodate so many tourists who come here to London.

Prabhupāda: London is still famous. People outside, they have got very high idea about London.

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is we call kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya(?), the frog, Dr. Frog of the well. He cannot conceive what is Atlantic Ocean, but still he will theorize, "Atlantic Ocean may be so big, so big, so big." What experience you can get Atlantic Ocean living in a three-foot well? That is going on. And if I ask you, "What is the measurement of the space?" You cannot say that. You cannot say that. But there is measurement (indistinct). It may be unlimited for you, but as it is a created thing, there must be measurement. Any created thing has measurement. Unless they agree to submit... They must submit. Just like you have submitted, you are (indistinct), so you can understand God. This is the only qualification. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), "First of all submit, rascal, then I shall (indistinct), you will be able to understand the truth." There is no possibility of understanding the whole thing by challenge. That is (indistinct). Their only challenge (indistinct).

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Later on it became political, because as soon as the spiritual power, culture become diminished, the whole thing became material. So people wanted material advantage, so separated from Vedic culture. Just like Buddhists. Buddhism was a Hindu culture. But Lord Buddha wanted to stop animal sacrifice. In the Vedas, animal sacrifice is recommended under certain conditions. He even denied that, "No that also cannot be done." So therefore they are separate from Vedic culture. After all these, all these religious systems-Mohammedanism, Jewism, then Christianism, Buddhism—they are at a stage not more than 2,000 years. And before 2,000 years, what was the culture?

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Śyāmasundara: But the whole idea is that if you create a spiritual atmosphere that's so enlivening that everyone will want to participate in it, that's the solution. You can't individually treat each person. You have to get the whole thing generated by, by pouring water on the root.

Prabhupāda: That if you sit down for chanting, they should automatically sit down. If one is left, then you can maybe say, "Why you did not come?" But if there is no chanting, no sitting, simply wake up, wake up, wake up, all right, I'm waking up (indistinct). But one may wake up or not, you begin your work immediately.

Pañcadraviḍa: We go to the āratik.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That we are discussing. That was not a very (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: The whole thing is that we're sort of at a crisis in India, in terms of our presence here. Our prestige has hit an all-time low simply because of our conduct, that's all. Not because of our teaching, or because we are white, or anything like that. It's just because of our conduct. It's been so bad. Abominable. We don't in any way compare with the Indian sannyāsīs in our conduct. So how can we expect to honor Śrīla Prabhupāda if we conduct ourselves like that? So it's part of our responsibilities as the leaders not to avoid it, not to avoid the other devotees, but to train them now, begin training them.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Devotee (2): And it goes up very quickly because the people are automatically attracted. And then you teach them, you train them. So less Americans and just one or two people who want to manage and then start with the people here, the Indian people. And as they develop and become strong, then develop a center. It may take a long time but it will be solid. It will be more solid then. Just bring a bunch of Americans here and then the whole thing just falls to pieces. And then we ruin our reputation in that particular area where we want to open a...

Prabhupāda: Then what is your suggestion?

Devotee (2): That we start a small center and then you develop it gradually with less, with less inexperienced people...

Śyāmasundara: We've had a small center here for...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but the thing, we have to see by the effect. Similarly, if the small particle of... Therefore our knowledge is perfect. We take it from Vedas. The small particle of soul, because it is present there, you will see the whole thing is going on nicely.

Karandhara: But they say the soul is subject to material conditions. They are seeing the body as the soul; so they say because it is subject to material conditions, therefore it's not eternal.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Maybe material conditions, that is... But soul you have to accept there is soul.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once they accept the existence of the soul, then there is not much difficulty. Once they accept this, then automatically they have to accept.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Paramahaṁsa: That's the soul, Prabhupāda, but about God...

Prabhupāda: First of all let us understand the soul. Soul is the, a small God, sample God. If you understand the sample, then you can understand the whole thing.

Umāpati: Some scientists are claiming that just because they haven't yet discovered how to create life, they are soon to, and...

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Umāpati: They are in the process of trying to create life.

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Prestige. Still if he sticks to his position, that is his foolishness. He should have resigned. If, if... Upright man: "All right, you do not like me. I resign." Then whole thing would have been quashed off. But he's a foolish man. He's sticking to his position.

Śyāmasundara: Prasādam...?

Bhagavān: Prasādam will be here in a few minutes. Our position, I guess, is just to make it an easy choice for people.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: To come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: But choice means, a child cannot be given for choice. He must be forced. Right child is a rascal. So you cannot give him choice. He must do it. That's all.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No. The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater then the whole thing is spoiled.

Mr. Wadell: But the human situation is often a sort of mixture of the two. Sometimes...

Prabhupāda: No, mixture of two, that may be, but the process is that we have to approach the real teacher. Just like I approach the mother. Mother is supposed to be not cheater. But if the mother happens to be a cheater, then I am cheated. I am cheated. I don't get the information of my real father. But it is expected the mother should not cheat.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, you don't, you do not want, you want or not want, that is not the question. First of all you must know what is your real identity. You do not want and do want, that independence you have got always. That is a different thing. But first of all you must know what is your identity. Your identity is... That I have already explained. The... You are part and parcel of God. So far we understand, our philosophy is... From the Bhagavad-gītā. Mamaivāṁśaḥ. The whole thing is one unity, unit, and everything is part and parcel of God, His energy. So we, the marginal energy, living entities, we are also part and parcel of God. As part and parcel of God, what is my duty? Just like this finger. There is itching. Immediately it comes, serves. (end)

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Hm. The technology is here in the teeth. (laughter) God has given.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. You'll have to eat the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have to eat. That is the technology.

David Lawrence: Perhaps a parrot's beak would be a very good thing to grow.

Prabhupāda: So give them this... You use your technology.

David Lawrence: Thank you. You know, I think that later on it may well happen, you know. (eating) Our boys don't eat meat, anyway. They eat baked beans the whole time. We have a generation in our country who could eat virtually anything, but they insist on sugar drinks and baked beans. Have you come across these strange English things? Baked beans? Most peculiar.

Prabhupāda: Baked beans?

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Take rest. That's all. Not that you shall take rest like Kumbhakarṇa. (Prabhupāda laughs) Just to, I mean to say, answer the call of this deficient body, we have to take little rest. But as far as possible this should be conquered. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. The Gosvāmīs, they conquered over eating, sleeping... Stress on saṅkīrtana, and let them chant and dance as long as possible. If they can chant and dance twenty-four hours, that is very good. That should be stressed. Just see, this boy yesterday, he came, he said, "Oh, I like this saṅkīrtana very much." Immediately. He was talking of so much, yoga and this and that, so many nonsense, but he came this morning. He said, "Oh, I will come again. It is very nice." Saṅkīrtana has got so power. Stress on saṅkīrtana, chant yourself, induce others, dance. Whole thing will be a successful. And especially outside India, these rituals and ceremonials, that will be simply artificial. They cannot take it seriously. But saṅkīrtana they can take seriously. This is practical. And if you recite all the Vedic hymns throughout the whole day they will join, but they will not benefit out of it. So why should we waste. Is that all right?

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: "Don't bother with any other things." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So we are teaching them, that always think of Kṛṣṇa, always become devotee of Kṛṣṇa, always offer obeisances to Kṛṣṇa. So what is our difficulty? There is no difficulty. But if we actually do this, then I am Kṛṣṇa's representative. Who is representative? What the original master wants, if one does the same thing, he is representative. It is not difficult. But people will not do that. He'll try to avoid Kṛṣṇa and take Kṛṣṇa's book Bhagavad-gītā and interpret nonsensically and spoil the whole thing. This is going on. He's not ready to speak what Kṛṣṇa has spoken. He speaks his own words of the authority of Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: It is clear. If you are actually surrendered soul, then to you it is clear, it is very clear. Kṛṣṇa gives direction, that this is the business of the brāhmaṇa, this is the business of kṣatriya. So politics is the business of the kṣatriya. So if you act according to Kṛṣṇa's direction in politics, then you are surrendered soul. It is not that because we have got this mālā and tilaka we are surrendered soul, and a kṣatriya cannot be surrendered soul, or a vaiśya cannot be surrendered soul. You have to act according to the direction. Kṛṣṇa is giving direction: "This is brāhmaṇa's karma." You do it. That means you are surrendered soul, at the same time you are acting as a brāhmaṇa. But if you act whimsically, then what is your surrender? And why did you become a brāhmaṇa? Then there is chaos. That is the present position of the society. They are not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, they do not abide by the direction of Kṛṣṇa. Still, they have become leaders. Then the whole thing is chaos.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Haṁsadūta: Mexico, yes. Mexico City is built on..., also (indistinct). But that's not very... In New York, in New York, you know, they have so many tunnels under the ground that every now and then there's some place, some place just caves in, the street will suddenly just cave in. Because there's so many tunnels for electric wires and plumbing, for the subways, everything. And the whole thing is...

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New York, Park Street...

Devotees: Park Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Park Avenue, that one skyscraper foundation was... And I see within the foundation, the subway train is running.

Haṁsadūta: Within the foundation.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like he is manager. He has got the qualification of manager and he is working as manager. Then he is a manager. Even if he has got the quality, if he does not work, he is not a manager. Suppose he has got the qualities, but he does not work, he sits at home, nobody will call him bank manager. He must have the qualities and he must work. Then he is. So here is guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. A brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya or vaiśya or śūdra must have the requisite quality. And at the same time he must work as such. Then he is brāhmaṇa. This is the (indistinct). But now in India they have taken: no quality, no work, still, he is brāhmaṇa. He is pulling on ṭhelā, no brāhmaṇa quality, neither work is brāhmaṇa, but still, he is paṇḍitjī. I have seen it in Calcutta. One man was pulling on ṭhelā with great difficulty, and another man is offering respect, "Paṇḍitjī, namaskāra." And he was... (Hindi) He was pulling ṭhelā. I have seen it. I have seen it in the street. You see. He is still thinking that "I am brāhmaṇa." He is working like an ass. He has no qualification. Neither he is qualified. Still, he is thinking that he is brāhmaṇa. Is it not? Yes. That is the cause of India's falldown. You work... These things should be... I am accepting somebody as brāhmaṇa; then I must see that he has the quality of brāhmaṇa, that is there, satya, śama, dama, titikṣā, and he is working as a brāhmaṇa. When this was not examined, checked, anyone born in a brāhmaṇa family became a brāhmaṇa, the whole thing topsy-turvied.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: There are many instances but this is the injunction of the śāstra. And practically also. Suppose a man is a medical practitioner. He may be born in a brāhmaṇa family or śūdra family. Nobody wants to know to which family he belongs to. If he sees that he is a medical practitioner, he has passed the MD examination and that he is practicing then people accept him as doctor, medical man. Nobody asks him, "Are you a brāhmaṇa, then I make my treatment with you?" Nobody asks that. So, this is śāstric injunction. Then later on this caste brāhmaṇism, śūdraism made the whole thing, whole Hindu culture, Vedic culture spoiled.

Guest: Quite right.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But if it can be attained, then you do not know. Then you are foolish. You say that cannot be attained. But I say it is possible. Śāstra states, Kṛṣṇa says—the whole thing is discovered. Simply understand Kṛṣṇa and next life you become eternal. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply if you go to our temple and see Kṛṣṇa, you'll be devotee. You don't do anything. Don't talk anything. Simply see Kṛṣṇa. It is so easy. You simply see Kṛṣṇa and take Kṛṣṇa's prasādam and live comfortably and next life you'll go to back to home back to Godhead.

Yaśomatīnandana: Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2).

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Another rascal. Another rascal proposition.

Candanācārya: I asked him, "How can a theologist be an atheist?"

Prabhupāda: The whole thing is that because the whole world is full of rascals, they are all talking nonsense. No meaning. No meaning. It is only we, we have pointed out that "You are a rascal. You speak all nonsense." Now, taking this word atheist, what does he mean by atheist?

Candanācārya: Without theism?

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not explanation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atheist means not believing in God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Say like that. Don't say in a negative way. In a positive way.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I am cheating you, and people accepting my cheating.

Karandhara: The governments actually started the whole thing. They instituted paper money and they instituted it because it is a cheating process. But everyone is participating. So it is just going on and on. That is the real cause of inflation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's it. They are getting encouragement in their cheating business.

Bahulāśva: They won't let you have any gold.

Prabhupāda: Now they have made law that you cannot store gold?

Karandhara: That's been since 1933.

Page Title:Whole thing (Conversations 1968 - 1973)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:13 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=43, Let=0
No. of Quotes:43