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Within the heart (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: If you kindly come and hear about Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will be very much pleased upon you. Anyone. Suppose if somebody is interested with you, he likes your activity, he likes to hear about your qualities, you will be also pleased with him. "Oh, this man is interested with my affairs." So śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is within your heart. Kṛṣṇa is within and without because He is all-pervading. It is not that He is simply without or within. He is within and without. That is all-pervading. Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. And all-pervading does not mean that He is not in Goloka Vṛndāvana. He is there also. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Although He is in His abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is everywhere. Just like sun. He is ninety millions miles away from here, situated in sun globe, but he is everywhere. This light now, it is sunlight. So if sun can remain in that way, everywhere, why not the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He also remains everywhere? So He is within your heart. And when He sees that you are interested in hearing about Him, He becomes sympathetic. He is sympathetic to everyone. Still more sympathetic. So what does He do? Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Kṛṣṇa, when He sees that one is interested in hearing about Him, then He gives you facility. What is that facility? That facility is śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Kṛṣṇa-kathā, talks about Kṛṣṇa, you, either you understand it or not understand it, it doesn't matter, if you simply sit down to receive, give aural reception to such message, you become pious.

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: You come to the fire, you understand it or not understand, you get warm. That facility is there. You don't require to understand how fire is produced, what is the chemical or physical constitution. You do it, understand or not understand. Just like you sit down on a car, motor car. You understand it or not understand it, what is the engineering of the car, but you run on. Similarly, kṛṣṇa-kathā, the simply, the simple method, if you kindly come and hear, then you will be pious. That is the first installment. You don't understand or don't follow, but if the injection is there you become pious. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. And if you give little attention, then the result will be hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi, all undesirable things that is accumulated within your heart, that will be cleared. Kṛṣṇa will help you.

Śivānanda: Now, um, supposedly, the false ego and...

Prabhupāda: What is the false ego and..., now you have to hear. That's all.

Śivānanda: No, I mean the attention itself, this is material, very, very subtle, but...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you give attention, it is better. Even if you don't give attention, simply hear, that will also have some effect.

Śivānanda: Now, can... We should be able to control our attention then, to direct our attention to where...

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of sitting if you don't control your attention? Then you are simply wasting time. Why do you come? That is understood. When you come to hear, that means you must hear with attention. But this is a concession, that even if you don't hear with attention, you become purified. But if you do it, it is very nice. You make progress. You get the result very quickly. So success of life is to please Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, by one's occupational duty. Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ, svanuṣṭhitena dharmena. Svanuṣṭhitena dharmena saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13).

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. So here is Kṛṣṇa. All-attractive. You now find out... You can say, "Why I shall accept Kṛṣṇa?" You can say like that. Your first question is the unifying agent. I say here is Kṛṣṇa. Now we can analyze, "Why you shall accept Kṛṣṇa?" Then I shall reply, "Why you shall not?" What do you want, expect from the Supreme or the unifying, what do you expect? Everything is there in Kṛṣṇa. Opulence-Kṛṣṇa. Beauty-Kṛṣṇa. Wisdom-Kṛṣṇa. Renunciation-Kṛṣṇa. Strength-Kṛṣṇa. Everything in Kṛṣṇa. Whatever you want you'll find in Kṛṣṇa. That is the unifying center. That I will convince you. He is the unifying center actually. And Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ partha sarvaśaḥ. "Everyone is trying to come to Me. Everyone is trying to come to Me." Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "But he's realizing Me in My different phases. But everyone is trying." So so far unifying religion is concerned there are three groups: impersonalists, personalists, and localized. Some are trying to understand the Absolute Truth in impersonal way. Some are... The yogis, the mental speculators, they are trying to understand the Absolute in impersonal, without any personal form. And the yogis, they are trying to find out Kṛṣṇa within their heart, meditation. And some are trying to find out the Absolute Truth in person by reciprocating love. So all these things are in Kṛṣṇa. And Bhāgavata says after explanation of that verse that it is the only business of human being to find out the Absolute Truth. Now, the next verse, the Absolute Truth is explained, analyzed, vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). Now, Absolute Truth is always one. There is no... Absolute Truth cannot be two. Then it is relative truth. Absolute Truth means one. So the knowledge of the Absolute Truth is one. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas (SB 1.2.11). Tattva-vidas means those who are in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, they say that Absolute Truth is one. But He's realized in three phases. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Brahman means impersonal, and Paramātmā is localized, and Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So these are different stages. Just like the sun. The first experience of sun is this impersonal effulgence all over the sky. But that is not very important than the sun globe. Because it is from the sun globe the effulgence is coming.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: So this is going on. So sarva-loka, in all planets, all the planets, actually that is God's place. Nobody's place. We come here empty-handed; we go empty-handed. How we can claim? Suppose you have given me this place to stay. I stay for one week, and if I claim, "Oh, this is my room," is that very nice thing? (laughs) There will be immediately some disagreement, trouble. But you have kindly spared this room. I am living here. I can comfortably live, enjoy. And when my necessity... When I go, there is no trouble. Similarly, we come here in the kingdom of God empty-handed; we go empty-handed. Why we trouble that "This is my property, this is my country, this is my world, this is my planet"? Why we claim like that? Is it not insanity? Wherefrom the claim comes? So Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-loka-maheśvaram: "I am the Supreme Lord of every place." And suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ (BG 5.29). And He is the real friend of every living entity. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). As a friend, He is sitting within your heart. He's so nice friend. In this material world we make friendship. It breaks. Or the friend lives somewhere, and I live somewhere. But He's so nice friend that He's living within, with me and within my heart. He is so nice friend. Sarva-bhūtānāṁ. He's not only selected friend. No. Even the most insignificant creature, he is living there. Paramātmā. So if these three things are understood clearly, then he becomes peaceful. This is the peace formula. So everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā and Vedic literature. Simply one has to learn. Just like in arithmetic. There is all mathematical calculation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, this or that, fraction. One has to learn. So Bhagavad-gītā is so nice book and it is accepted. Not that because we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are advocating for Bhagavad... No. It is accepted by scholarly section, religious section, not only in India, but all over the world. Perhaps you know. In every country there are thousands of Bhagavad-gītā translation, in every language, in English, in French, in German, all languages. And even Mohammedans... Of course, scholarly Mohammedans, they also read very nicely Bhagavad-gītā. I know one Mohammedan professor in India.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: So in the sixth chapter, last verse, you'll find yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatena... You have got our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is here? No? How is that, you don't keep Bhagavad-gītā? You'll find it is clearly stated that all yogis, the one yogi whose mind is fixed up in Kṛṣṇa, he is first-class yogi. Yoginam api sarveṣāṁ. Sarveṣāṁ, of all yogis. There are different kinds of yogis. So yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gata: "One whose mind is fixed up in Me," or Kṛṣṇa, āntarātmanā, "within the heart," śraddhāvān, "and is devotee," and bhajate, "and serves Me, oh," sa me yuktatamo mataḥ, "he is the first-class yogi." Tama. Tama means most, supermost. Yuktatamo. Yogi, better yogi and the supermost yogi.

John Lennon: Whose is that little purple paperback Gītā that we all have? A light grey purple?

Devotee : That's the one.

John Lennon: Oh, that's the one? I've got that in my office. There's another one by that guy, that Spanish guy? (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: One thing that Prabhupāda was explaining, I think, that didn't quite get cleared up was how do we discern which translation of the Gītā is most authoritative. Well, he answered when he said that Kṛṣṇa is the authority. So we have to take it in a channel from Kṛṣṇa, and there are only four lines of disciplic succession that come from Kṛṣṇa. And of these, only one is existing now, or is it two?

Yoko Ono: What do you mean by "channel"? Is it through hereditary or what?

Śyāmasundara: Lines of disciplic succession. Yes, it's hereditary. Swamiji's spiritual master...

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Haṁsadūta: Our meditation consists of chanting the holy name of God. Or, in fact, we are always absorbed in meditating because whatever we do, we do on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. So our mind, which is the center of our activities, is always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa. The principle of meditation is to fix up our mind on Kṛṣṇa. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, "Always think of Me. Become My devotee. Bow down to Me. Worship Me. Give your love to Me. In this way, you will come to Me." So if we want to go to Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: That is the highest, topmost type of yoga. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gata āntarātmanā, śraddhāvān bhajate yo mam sa me yuktatamo mataḥ: (BG 6.47) "Anyone," Kṛṣṇa says, "who is thinking of Me always within his heart, with devotion and love, he is the topmost yogi." Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, as soon as you chant Kṛṣṇa and hear it, immediately you think of. And the chanting is not done by any ordinary man. Unless one has love and devotion for Kṛṣṇa, he cannot chant. You just study with this verse. Śraddhāvān bhajate yo mam, āntarātmanā: "Within, he is topmost." So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we are training people to become the topmost yogis.

Guest (3): Do they have to practice every day?

Prabhupāda: The practice is very simple. Anyone, when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, even child joins. Even a small child, he also claps and joins. Therefore it is recommended in the śāstras, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma iva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). In this age nobody can meditate actually. It is very difficult. Maybe one or two persons can meditate, but that is not for all. But here Kṛṣṇa conscious, the chanting, is so nice, that even a child can take part. It doesn't require that he should be educated, he should be rich or he should be enlightened, no. As he is, simply if he takes part in this... Even woman. We were chanting. There was some roaring. As soon as we begin chanting, it stopped. This is authorized. This is recommended. And this is practically being... Now in European and American countries, four or five years back...

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Not attitude. Development of my God consciousness. Attitude may be artificial. But it is actual development of God consciousness. God consciousness is there in everybody. It requires simply to be developed. Just like a child. A child has got love within her, within his heart. But when he is young, it develops. It develops. And the girl, boy, automatically becomes attached because that propensity has developed. It is not an artificial thing. It was already there. It has to be developed. So God consciousness is there in everyone's heart. Otherwise, how these boys are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Unless Kṛṣṇa was there within. Artificially you cannot force them, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours.

Sister Mary: Do you believe you (indistinct) people, if they hear it? If they hear this?

Prabhupāda: Yes. As they hear, they became purified, and that dormant consciousness becomes awakened. Yes. Awakened. That chance we are giving. We are chanting and others are hearing. By this process, chanting and hearing, both of us will be benefited, awakening our original God consciousness.

Revatīnandana: At the stage of awakening, when you're waking up, when you're becoming cured of the diseased condition, you sometimes have to restrict your diet. Later on, when you are healthy, you can take all kinds of foodstuffs in the proper way. But while you're getting over a disease you have to restrict your diet. Therefore we hear things that are directly concerned with Kṛṣṇa's name, form, activities. Later on, then we'll be able to see God in a flower, God in everywhere. Otherwise we'll see the flower however we enjoy a flower because we're not at that healthy stage. So therefore there are regulations that we follow for curing the disease. That means for a little while we restrict the diet. Then when we're healthy...

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: From me to Him?

Prabhupāda: Because He's within your heart, He's always hearing you. When you are praying or not praying, you are doing some nonsense, He also hearing. And when you pray, that is very good, welcome. But even if you are doing some nonsense, He's hearing.

Bob: Is praying louder than nonsense?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bob: To Kṛṣṇa's ear, is praying louder than nonsense talk.

Prabhupāda: No, He's all-perfect. He can hear any temper, or any degree of saying. Even if you don't speak, even if you simply think, He can hear you. As soon as you think that "I shall do it," then He hears you. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15).

Bob: But one should pray, is that so? That one should...

Prabhupāda: That is his business.

Bob: Excuse me?

Prabhupāda: That is his business.

Room Conversation with Maharishi Impersonalists -- April 7, 1972, Melbourne:

Śyāmasundara: Yes, one can see Kṛṣṇa on three different levels of realization. The one level is this impersonal brahma-jyotir-merging level. That is called the elementary step, the first step towards God realization. And then the second step is when one realizes that God is isolated or localized within his heart, and this is the stage the great yogis and mystics attain. They are able to control their travel and attain other certain mystic powers. And then the highest step of self-realization is when one realizes God is the supreme person and meets Him face to face and spends his eternal life in the association of God in a personal relationship. There are five different kinds of personal relationships one can have with God: as His friend, as His father or His parent, or as His servant, like that, or as His lover. So if one, if one comes to this stage of realization, that "I am part and parcel of God," that "God is a person; therefore I am a person, and I remain person eternally," then he gets fixed up in his final, original, constitutional position, relationship, and there is no more higher place to go. So... And in this relationship, he understands that "Because God is very great and I am very small, then my position is to serve God." So I engage in a personal serving relationship, with a personal serving mode. In this way I'm always satisfied. I'm always relating with God, in everything I do, serving Him with everything I have. And this is where the spiritual master is the representative of Kṛṣṇa because he engages us in serving Kṛṣṇa. Just like there may be some big man and you want to enter into his service and meet this big man, but you have no qualification. But if this big man has a friend who is also your friend, this friend can introduce you and engage you somehow in this big man's service. This is the duty of the spiritual master. He accepts a disciple to make sure and guarantee that that disciple will meet God face to face, if he follows his orders.

Prabhupāda: Now answer, question, try to understand. What he has explained, have you understood?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Devotee (1): "We are simply Your maidservants and slaves. Please, therefore, accept us by showing us Your lotuslike beautiful face. Dear Kṛṣṇa, actually we have become very lusty, having been touched by Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet certainly kill all kinds of sinful activities of devotees who have taken shelter there. You are so kind that even the ordinary animals take shelter under Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet are also the residence of the goddess of fortune, yet You dance on the head of the Kāliya serpent with them. Now we are requesting You to kindly place Your lotus feet on our breasts and pacify our lusty desires to touch You. O Lord, Your attractive eyes, like the lotus, are so nice and pleasing. Your sweet words are so fascinating that they please even the greatest scholars, who also become attracted to You. We are also attracted by Your speaking and by the beauty of Your face and eyes. Please, therefore, satisfy us by Your nectarean kisses. Dear Lord, words spoken by You or words describing Your activities are full of nectar, and simply by speaking or hearing Your words one can be saved from the blazing fire of material existence. Great demigods like Lord Brahma and Lord Siva are always engaged in chanting the glories of Your words. (devotees continue reading for several pages) Great yogis like Lord Siva, Lord Brahma or even Lord Śeṣa and others always try to fix their attention upon Kṛṣṇa in their heart, but here the gopīs actually saw Kṛṣṇa seated before them on their cloths."

Prabhupāda: This is yoga. This is yoga system, to see Kṛṣṇa within your heart. That is real.

Devotee (2): (continues reading until end of chapter) (end)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes in the upper, heavenly planet, sometimes down in the hellish planet. Sometimes as human being, sometimes as cat, dog. Sometimes brāhmaṇa, sometimes śūdra, like that. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that the living entities are wandering like this. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite. Bhramite means wandering. Kona bhāgyavān jīva. One fortunate person, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151), by the grace of guru and by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one gets the seed of devotional service. Mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa (CC Madhya 19.152). And when you get a nice seed of plant, you sew it. So that seed has to be sewn within the heart. Mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa, śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale karaye secana. So if we sew the seed within the heart and water it... And the watering required. The watering is this śravaṇa-kīrtana. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). Then it grows. And in due course of time, it gives you the fruit, which is love of Godhead. Then your life is successful. This is the process. So we have to try to sew the seed of devotional service within our heart, and it has to be watered by hearing and chanting. Then gradually it will grow. This is the process. And this is open for everyone. There is no restriction.

Guest (1): And no price.

Prabhupāda: And no price also. (Hindi) Eh?

Guest (6): This morning we didn't want to disturb you to have a darśana.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. You came in the morning?

Guest (6): I came in the morning.

Prabhupāda: You came in the morning, yes. You are for many years here in...?

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So God is acting within the heart of everyone. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15).

Sir Alistair Hardy: Yes. That's what I certainly believe.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sir Alistair Hardy: I certainly believe that. Oh, I think we're very close really, in our views of God, except that I'm concentrating on studying the working of God in the people of today. You are studying the message of God given by Kṛṣṇa in the... And I'm trying to show they are the same, the same view as that revealed by Jesus and by other great...

Prabhupāda: No... When we speak of Veda, Veda means knowledge. So knowledge means knowledge of God. Any scripture that gives knowledge of God, that is Vedas. Don't think that Vedas means that only the Sāma, Yajuḥ, Atharva. Those who are following the principles to give knowledge about God, that is Veda. Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda vido jñāne. Vid-dhātu is called veda, vetti. Jñāne when there is question of knowledge, these three forms are used: vetti, veda, vido, jñāne. Vinte vid vicaraṇe vidyate vid saptāyāṁ labhe vindati vindate. (?) This is the vid-dhātu description. So vid-dhātu means to know. So ultimate knowledge is to know God. That is real knowledge. Vedaiś ca sarvaiḥ. Sarvaiḥ, all kinds of Vedas. All kinds, sarvaiḥ. So Bible can be taken as Vedas because it is trying to give knowledge about God, maybe for a certain class of men. That is another thing. But the subject matter is how to know God. So that can be taken as also, as Vedas. Because ultimate knowledge is how to know God. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). So we accept Bible also as Vedas, but we simply say that they misinterpret the Biblical commandments. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill," and the Christian people are killing, maintaining slaughterhouse. What is this? This is my question. How they'll understand God if they are so much implicated in sinful activities? According to Vedas, there are four kinds of sinful activities: illicit sex, unnecessary killing of animals, intoxication and gambling. Yatra pāpaś catur-vidhaḥ. So God is purest. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). How one can approach God if he leads a sinful life? That is our propagation. You give up this sinful life. Then you'll be able to understand God. You follow Christianity or Mohammedanism or Buddhism. It doesn't matter. You give up this sinful life.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. But we are asking all these students... When I came first in America, in 1965, I simply asked them, "You chant with me, Hare Kṛṣṇa." They did it, and gradually everything has come. So where is the difficulty? (everyone laughs)

Reporter: (laughs) Yes.

Prabhupāda: If they chant, then they'll understand everything. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Everything is misgiving within the heart. So if the ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, if the mirror of the heart is cleansed, then when the mirror is cleansed you can see your face correctly. Similarly when all misgivings, all dirty things is cleared from the heart, you can see things as they are, correctly.

Reporter: In order to clear your heart you have to chant.

Prabhupāda: That is it.

Reporter: Right.

Woman: What about meditating?

Prabhupāda: This is the best medicine, meditation.

Woman: What about the other kind?

Prabhupāda: When meditation, meditation, dhyāna, it is very difficult nowadays. You chant to meditate, you think of your own business. That's another thing. So this is forced meditation: "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" Even if you do not want to hear, you will hear. (laughter) And there is chanting and dancing, everyone who doesn't wanted to hear they also hear.

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

Prabhupāda: Brahman. Brahman. Brahman realization.

Reporter: Ah.

Prabhupāda: Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). They get relief from material conception of life so much. But that is not full understanding of the Absolute Truth. Therefore they're third class, or in the third grade. The second grade, yogis. They realize Paramātmā, Viṣṇu, within the heart. But the first class are the bhaktas. They talk, personally, just like Arjuna is talking. Arjuna is directly talking with Kṛṣṇa. This is the result of bhakti.

Reporter: Hm. You feel the presence.

Prabhupāda: Not feel. Actually talk, just like we are talking. Actually talking.

Reporter: Yeah. You think Mirabhai was a bhakta?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was devotee..., she was a devotee.

Reporter: Yes. She had this quality of presence.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Reporter: Yes. Direct dialogue.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Otherwise, how she could tell the king that, "No, you are not husband; I have got already my husband, Giridhārī."

Reporter: Hm. Yes. And the king sent the poison. Ah? And she drank it.

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

Reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Bhukti. And mukti means "I shall become one with the Supreme." So these two things are described as piśācī.

Reporter: Really?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: Ah, piśācī means witch.

Prabhupāda: Bhukti-mukti-piśācī (etc.)

Reporter: "As long as...?"

Prabhupāda: "So long these two piśācīs are there within the heart, how one can enjoy the company of bhakti?"

Reporter: Ah? But if you are one with the perfect one, you cannot be one with the perfect one without bhakti.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: Therefore, bhukti and mukti do not come together. From bhukti you have to go to bhakti and then you can...

Prabhupāda: You have to go to mukti, and then bhakti. Just as I explained.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Then come here." No. Let him come and hear about Viṣṇu. We speak, discuss about Bhagavad-gītā. They hear. They hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have seen our books? So these books are discussed and gradually... If it is a fact, śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ, if one gives only aural reception to this transcendental message, then, although God is Ajita, nobody can conquer, He becomes conquered. So that is becoming, happening, that although they are American, European, Canadian, African, Australian, not all of them are Indian... Indians are also there. But because they are giving aural reception to this transcendental message, they are becoming enlightened. So anyone who will give aural reception to this message, first of all Bhagavad-gītā, entrance, then Bhāgavatam, then Caitanya-caritāmṛta, like books, then gradually, he'll be self-realized, fully cognizant what is God. What is God, this is... athāto brahma jijñāsā means what is God. So this institution is meant for giving chance to everyone to hear. It doesn't require education. Simply God has given him this ear. Let him receive the message from the ear. Śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. This is the process. Very simple process. Simply to hear, sincerely, then everything will be done gradually. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). By hearing, the mirror of consciousness, consciousness is just like a mirror. It is now covered with dust. Mārjanam. Mirror, if you cleanse with a duster, then you can see clearly what is your face. So by this chanting process and hearing, gradually the dirty things in the heart will be cleansed. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Simply hearing about Kṛṣṇa is puṇya, pious activities. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Either you hear or you chant. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi. There are so many dirty things, nonsense things, within the heart. Hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi, vidhunoti, is washed. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Who is...? Find out this verse. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. In the First Canto, first part, Third Chapter. Where is Paṇḍita Mahārāja? Call him. Śṛṇvatām, you can find out in the index.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Śrutakīrti: "Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā, Supersoul, in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted."

Prabhupāda: This is the process. If you hear about Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa is within yourself. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). When he sees you are anxious, then he helps you in cleansing the dirty things within your heart. Purport read?

Śrutakīrti: Messages of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa are nondifferent from Him. Whenever, therefore, offenseless hearing and glorification of God are undertaken, it is to be understood that Lord Kṛṣṇa is present there in the form of transcendental sound, which is as powerful as the Lord personally. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, declares clearly that the holy name of the Lord has all the potencies of the Lord and that He has endowed His innumerable names with the same potency. There is no rigid fixture of time, and anyone can chant the holy name with attention and reverence at his convenience. The Lord is so kind to us that He can be present before us personally in the form of transcendental sound, but unfortunately we have no taste for hearing and glorifying the Lord's name and activities. We have already discussed developing a taste for hearing and chanting the holy sound. It is done through the medium of service to the pure devotee of the Lord.

The Lord is reciprocally respondent to His devotees. When He sees that a devotee is completely sincere in getting admittance to the transcendental service of the Lord and has thus become eager to hear about Him, the Lord acts from within the devotee in such a way that the devotee may easily go back to Him. The Lord is more anxious to take us back into His kingdom than we can desire. Most of us do not desire at all to go back to Godhead. Only a very few men want to go back to Godhead. But anyone who desires to go back to Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa helps in all respects.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will never accept it.

Yaśomatīnandana: One stupid guy was saying that there is some quotation in the Bhagavad-gītā from Book of John.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is another rascaldom. Tava cārjuna.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what about the heart transplant? The spirit soul is within the heart, but when the... in the medical science nowadays, the old heart can be replaced by a new one. So what happens with the spirit soul with the old one?

Prabhupāda: But that does not mean that new ones will increase their duration of life. That is our challenge.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But the personality is changed?

Prabhupāda: No.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Why not?

Prabhupāda: Why changed? Suppose if I sit from this chair to this chair, why I am changed? I can change my seat. It does not mean that I am changed.

Karandhara: Change the heart also. The heart can change.

Prabhupāda: The heart is seat, sitting place.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But the new heart had spirit soul from the new one.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no, my senses are defective. But the source from which I know, that is not defective. I cannot experimentally know who is my father. But the source from whom I understand, that is perfection.

Yaśomatīnandana: In other words they'll get confirmation within their heart. They'll be satisfied, that "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is God," if they are sincere.

Prabhupāda: Yeah. If they are sincere. That is the budha. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8). Others, rascals cannot (indistinct). Mūḍha narādhama. They cannot.

Devotee (2): They'll say you're sincerely brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: Ah?

Devotee (2): They'll say you're sincerely brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: Brainwashed? Why? These are facts.

Yaśomatīnandana: But we still have some basis...

Prabhupāda: If you cannot reply, you're simply misrepresenting scientists. We say there must be something which is spreading consciousness. Now how can you deny it? It is not brainwash. There must be something. Now if you are scientist, you find out.

Hṛdayānanda: That which is spreading consciousness.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What? Very nice.

Prabhupāda: Just see how they are experienced. They're not afraid of the ocean, although they are very small. They know how to save him. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Kṛṣṇa is there within the heart. They are giving, "Now get off." They immediately get off.

Hṛdayānanda: Boy. That's Viṣṇu within their heart?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...nice, very broad and clean. (break) ...can overflood the whole area, but no. "Up to this, no more, sir." Under whose order they are working? There must be some control.

Prajāpati: They would say it's under the control of the moon. The moon controls the tides.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the moon is controlled by whom?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They'll say, "By nature."

Prabhupāda: Nature is controlled by whom?

Bali Mardana: Who is controlling the moon?

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Well, there were better telephones. You do not know it. Just like Sañjaya is sitting with his master, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and he's relaying all the war affairs going on. He asked, kim akurvata sañjaya: (BG 1.1) "What did they do?" But he was sitting in the room. Where is your that telephone? It is television within the heart. He is seeing everything and relay. Bhagavad-gītā, don't you see? Sañjaya uvāca, dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca. Dhṛtarāṣṭra inquired, "Now, after meeting my sons and nephews, what they are doing?" And he's relaying, "Now Duryodhana is going to see Droṇācārya. Droṇācārya says like this. Bhīṣmadeva says..." How does he say within the room? But you know that science?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they will say that that was only possible...,

Prabhupāda: He will say... They may say, but we are putting some fact. They may say all nonsense. We are not going to accept that.

Karandhara: Some of them say, "Well we've improved on nature. By making things like plastics and medicines, we've improved nature."

Prabhupāda: All right. Very improvement. People were eating in silver plates, golden plates, and you have improved by plastic plates. (laughter) This rascaldom can be understood by another rascal. We are not going to do.

Hṛdayānanda: The plastic is a great problem because they can't get rid of it. Plastic has become a great problem because there is no way to dispose of it. So it just piles up and piles up, and they can't get rid of it.

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

Prabhupāda: So if you make up God, then is that God? If God is subjected to your manufacturing process, so what kind of God He is?

Prajāpati: Largely they've come to realize that, so they've turned away from even discussing God. They use their theology simply to make comments about the world situation. Theology today, they do not even discuss deity.

Hṛdayānanda: Sometimes they argue that "God has revealed Himself within my heart, so I don't need to read any books because I have a special connection with God."

Prabhupāda: But your revelation and my revelation different. Why?

Hṛdayānanda: "Because God has so many different aspects that He reveals a different aspect to everyone."

Prabhupāda: That is their argument. Then what is the standard of that aspect? Just like in the material world we see, somebody richer than others. This is also aspect of material situation. So if one is millionaire, he is better than a person who has got a few coins. So similarly, your realization of God and my realization of God, different. So I may be greater realized than you. What do you say, theologian?

Prajāpati: Well, today, Prabhupāda most of the literature is written on subjects of death of God, an eclipse of God, the fact that the people in general, it's a secular society and no one is even discussing God.

Prabhupāda: That means they have failed. After discussing when they could not find out actually what is God, they have given up the idea. Failure.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was giving the example that the, the jewel, gem, cintāmaṇi, it produces so many other jewels, but it remains as it is. That is pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). God, by His... Here. Just like energy. The petrol energy is now being finished. Finished. But what is the petrol there in the sun? It is never finished. But this is also material. So find out what, what is that source of...? Now, after hundred years, your stock is finished now. There is problem now, how to drive your motor car. But here, the sun, aśeṣa-tejāḥ. Aśeṣa-tejāḥ. The moon is giving light. Nobody can calculate from where the moon is situated, created and it is spreading light, the sun is, light is there. It is material. You find out. Therefore it is called parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). His energy is unlimited. He can create millions of sun. He has already done it. But still, He's the same. Nothing is lost in His energy. That is God. That is acintya-śakti. Here you have got some money. You spend it. Next day it is all zero. So God never becomes zero. That is God. These rascals, they say ultimate truth is zero, śūnyavāda. They do not know. God is never zero. He's always positive. So you must have a clear idea of God, you theologician. You take all these ideas from Vedic description. Don't be misled by fools and rascals. Here is the God—full energy. There is no loss of energy. That is God. Our energy is lost. Just like I have lost my youthful energy, so God is not like that. That is the difference between God and me. I cannot walk so swiftly or eat more, or so many other things as a young man can do. Because I have lost my youthful energy. But God is always youthful. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca (Bs. 5.33). This is definition of God. That He's the oldest person. Because He's the original person, He must be the oldest. But nava-yauvanaṁ ca, but He's always youthful. That is God. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). He has got millions and millions. Just like īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe... (BG 18.61). He's staying within the atom, within your heart and everywhere. But still, He's one. That is God. Advaitam acyutam. Advaita means without any duality. Not that because He's living within your heart and within my heart, these two personalities are different. No, They are one. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā: yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra: "One who can see that, although God is everywhere, even within the atom, but still, He's one. That is vision of God."

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kapoor: After creation it came from...

Prabhupāda: Tene brahma hṛdā, ādi-kavaye. Tene brahma. Brahma means before the creation. Aham evasam agre. Before creation Kṛṣṇa was there, and it was, the kṛṣṇa-bhakti was injected within the heart of Brahmā. (Hindi—break) ...three to four hours at night and one hour or one and half hour, altogether five hours. Gosvāmīs (Hindi) ...brahma-bhūtaḥ. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26).

Dr. Kapoor: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī (SB 1.2.18). Uttama-śloke. Uttama (Hindi)

Dr. Kapoor: Minor accident with the bus (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Oh. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (laughter) . Tat padma vipad. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām (SB 10.14.58).

Dr. Kapoor: ...accident.

Prabhupāda: Tell me.

Dr. Kapoor: One you see I was going from Kanpur(?) to Benares, with (indistinct) in the same car, and when I went on a crossing a badly loaded truck, you see...

Prabhupāda: Oh, so...

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, he desires. He creates his body. Just like the, sometimes the Mohammedans, they think that tiger is the best life. Sera. Sera. Wa (?) sera haya. Means to become a tiger is the perfection of..." You become sera. That's all. Kṛṣṇa gives... He is within the heart. "All right, I'll give you chance. Become a sera." But when he becomes sera, he does not eat for months. You'll never find a sera very fatty. Because he cannot eat. Every animal knows, "There is a tiger." They avoid. By chance, he can hunt out.

Viṣṇujana: Farrow.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Viṣṇujana: The farrow bird.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Viṣṇujana: He'll call.

Prabhupāda: This is the position. "You wanted to become a sera. All right, you become a sera. Jump over some animal and immediately suck his blood." All facility is—the nails, the teeth-given. But is he happy? But everyone thinking that "If I could become like this, I would have been happy." So Kṛṣṇa gives all chance. "All right, you become this." This is transmigration. This is transmigration. (break) ...yathāndhair upa... We are thinking something like that, and Kṛṣṇa is giving us chance, "All right, you take this chance; you become like this." Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). But it will not make you happy. Therefore ultimately says, sarva-dharmān. "You give up all this rascaldom. What I speak, you can accept. That is your dharma." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam... (BG 18.66). That will be beneficial for you, the most confidential instruction. There is that story that one old woman, she was suffering.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He's situated as Paramātmā, antaryāmī, everywhere, aṇḍāntara-stham, within the universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, within the heart of everyone, and even within the atom. Then how we can walk? Kṛṣṇa is within the atom. How we can walk? If somebody says, "How we are walking on the road?" Because in the atom there is God. Within... Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35).

Guest (1): In everywhere...

Prabhupāda: So this, this is combination of paramāṇu, atom. So how we can walk? People may question like that, that "In, within the paramāṇu, there is Kṛṣṇa. How we are walking on this road?" So this question you should all understand very... You know that upon the mandira, we do not stay. Just like our Vṛndāvana mandira is being constructed. There is no residential quarter upon the mandira. Similarly, when the mandira will be constructed, we are not so fool that we'll show, we'll go and stay upon the mandira. But mandira is not constructed yet. So what shall we do?

Guest (1): Worship should go on.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore we have temporary situated mandira in the same building. We cannot stop our worship. That is not possible. Because one cannot go upon the mandira, because the Lord is now being worshiped within the residence, it does not mean we can stop His worship. Worship must continue in any condition, apratihatā, without being impeded by any rules and regulations. This is called rāga-mārga. Vidhi-mārga, and there is rāga-mārga. Vidhi-mārga means under rules and regulations, and rāga-mārga means out of love. That is another thing. There is another instance. Govinda was personal servant of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So after His dinner, Govinda used to give Him massage on the leg. So one day Caitanya Mahāprabhu fell down on the ground and began to sleep on the door. So Govinda was to give massage to His leg. So he crossed Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and began to...

Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So īśvara... That, this, this, I was discussing the other day. Bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san. Īśvara. Bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi sann avyayātmā. So Kṛṣṇa is always īśvara. We are īśvara in the family or in the office or in my society. But we are not that type of īśvara, that I can live within the heart of everyone. Therefore there is distinction between this īśvara and we īśvara. The Māyāvādīs, they do not understand this. He claims that "I am the same īśvara." But do you remain in everyone's heart? Can you study, can you study what I am thinking now? But still, they will say, "I am the same." This is Māyāvādī philosophy's defect.

Chandobhai: Difference.

Prabhupāda: No, this is defect. They do not understand their incapability, and still, they claim, "I am the same, one, So 'ham." This is their deficiency. Here is the de... īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe... (BG 18.61). Do you stay... Can you stay, can you say what I am thinking now? Then why you are claiming that īśvara? You are a rascal. Why you are claiming. Namaskāra. And īśvara, īśvara means he knows... That is also described in Bhagavad-gītā... What is that? Kṣetrajña, kṣetrajña.

Chandobhai: Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata.

Prabhupāda: Ah! Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. Kṣetra-kṣetrajña-jñānam. Kṣetra means this body, and kṣetrajña means one who knows. Kṣetrajña. Now, you know the pains and pleasure of your body. I know the pains and pleasure of my body. But I do not know the pains and pleasure of your body.

Chandobhai: And the Lord knows the pains and pleasures of everybody.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Sañjaya was speaking in the room to Dhṛtarāṣṭra and he said that "Now He showed." That means he was seeing. That is another television. Another television. That television is unknown now. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu. Premāñjana-churrita-bhakti-vilocanena. This is also television. The television machine is within the heart. One can see everything, provided he has learned the art how to see, that television within the heart.

Girirāja: (finishes synonyms) "Translation: Sañjaya said: O King, speaking thus, the Supreme, the Lord of all mystic power, the Personality of Godhead, displayed His universal form to Arjuna."

Dr. Patel: Shall I read?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel:

aneka-vaktra-nayanam
anekādbhuta-darśanam
aneka-divyābharaṇaṁ
divyānekodyatāyudham
divya-mālyāmbara-dharaṁ
divya-gandhānulepanam
sarvāścaramayaṁ devam
anantaṁ viśvato-mukham
(Bg. 11.10-11)

Prabhupāda: So even in the universal form, there is personality. Divya-mālya, divya-gandha, kirīṭina, dressed, well-dressed. Well-dressed is possible not in the imperson. If you want to dress somebody, he must be a person. You cannot dress in the sky. "Here is helmet, here is garland." Where you put? (laughs) So in the universal form also there is personality.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Italian Man (1): When we see Kṛṣṇa in us, in our hearts, the moment Kṛṣṇa comes, the moment that the link takes place with Kṛṣṇa in our hearts...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa is always within your heart.

Italian Man (1): Yes. But at the moment that our soul opens itself and succeeds in putting a link... (break) I mean, I'm sorry, I mean...

Prabhupāda: He has this feature.

Italian Man (1): It is a matter of words. It is difficult to explain this.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You cannot create God.

Italian Man (1): No, of course not.

Prabhupāda: These Māyāvādī philosophers, they create God. Anthropomorphism. What is that anthropomorphism.

Satsvarūpa: To imagine that God has a form. Man imagines God, not that God exists originally, but man imagines God based on his own form.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is avidhi-pūrvakam. That is said, avidhi-pūrvakam, "Not in order."

ye 'py anya-devatā-bhaktā
yajanti śraddhānvitāḥ
te 'pi mām eva kaunteya
yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam

That is not vidhi. Vidhi is here. Śravaṇam kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam. The first word is Viṣṇu, of Viṣṇu, not of any other. So these are the demonstration of bhakti. Śravaṇam kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ (SB 7.5.23). This is arcanā. Just like we perform in the morning, in the evening, at noon, arcā-vigraha. Viṣṇu, arcayam, Viṣṇu. It is not idol worship. Arcayaṁ viṣṇu-śilā-dhiḥ. If one thinks the arcā-mūrti, the worshipable Deity in the temple, as stone or as wood, arcayaṁ viṣṇu-śilā-dhiḥ guruṣu nara-matiḥ... To accept guru, in the paramparā system... All the gurus in the paramparā system... Evaṁ paramparā prāptam (BG 4.2). Nara-matiḥ, consider him as ordinary human being... In this way there is a list. Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. A Vaiṣṇava, a devotee: "He is brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava. He is American Vaiṣṇava. He is śūdra Vaiṣṇava." No. When one is Vaiṣṇava, there should be no distinction by the caste. Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. In this way there is a list that should be avoided. So these things required. If actually... The same thing, that if a girl is married to the husband, she must be always engaged in the service of the husband. That will be appreciated. If she says, "Sir, now we are married. You go home and I remain at home," there will be no prayojana-siddhi. The real purpose of marriage is to get children. Putrārthe kriyate bhāryā. So if the husband and wife simply love within the mind and there is no action, there is no prayojana-siddhi. We should be practical, not simply theoretical. So love between two persons, there must be exchange of loving feelings. These are the exchange of loving feelings. Unless the exchange loving feelings are there, that is not love. That is theoretical. That is not practical. It is... I have explained in the beginning of Kṛṣṇa Book that love is practical exhibition. It is not theoretical. We cannot keep love within the heart. If actually it is within the heart, it must be expressed practically, and these are the...

Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. When you think... Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The yogis, in dhyāna, in meditation, they always see the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu within the heart. So that is meditation. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The jñānīs, they see by cultivation of knowledge, and the bhaktas, they see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, is understood from different angles of vision. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). That is Absolute Truth. Yaj jñānam advayam. There is no difference between Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. The same thing in different angle of vision. The jñānīs, they realize as impersonal Brahman. The yogis, they realize as Paramātmā situated in everyone's heart. And the bhaktas, they realize as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But the thing is the same. It is the different angle of vision only.

Guest (2): What exactly is guru's role in your system?

Prabhupāda: To teach how to get rid of this disease of birth, death and old age. That is guru's business. That is also father's business, that is also guru's business, or the caretaker's business, the government's business. Because this human life is meant for getting out of these clutches of māyā, constantly, repeatedly changing body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), bhūtvā pralīyate. This business should be stopped. Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyuṁ gurur na sa syāt. Śāstra says, "One should not be guru if he cannot deliver the disciple from the chain of birth, death, old age and disease."

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: There's no question of being half-real friend or unreal friend. A friend is a friend.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the best friend is the spiritual master because he saves from the blazing fire of confusion. That is best friend.

O'Grady: The problem is to find this friend. The problem is to find this spiritual master.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no problem. The problem is if you are sincere. Yes. That is stated. Because actually you have got problems, but God is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is not far away. God is within your heart. So if you are sincere, then God will give you spiritual master. If He knows that now you are sincere, then He will give you a spiritual master.

O'Grady: O.K. Thank you. That I know.

Prabhupāda: Therefore God is called caittya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. And the physical spiritual master is God's mercy. If God sees that you are sincere, He will give you a spiritual master who can give you protection. He will help you from within and without, without in the physical form of spiritual master, and within as the spiritual master within the heart.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: The body is just like a machine, and the spirit soul is sitting on this machine, and God is there within the heart. So He is giving the direction. "You wanted to do this. Now you go and do this." This is the... So if you are sincere, "Now, God, I want You," then He will give you directions, "You go and get it." This is the process. But if we want something else than God, then God will give you direction, "You go and take it." He's very kind. Īśvaraḥ sarva... I want to have something and He is within my heart, and He is giving me, "Yes, you come here. You take this." So if that God can give direction to give you indication, "You go and take this," why not the spiritual master? First of all we must know, we must be eager to again revive our God consciousness. Then God will give us the spiritual master.

O'Grady: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

O'Grady: His Grace must be very tired.

Dhanañjaya: We can distribute some prasādam now?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Give them.

Bhagavān: Stay, we have some prasādam.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes, but if you follow the rules and regulations, automatically, you'll love Kṛṣṇa. Sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ. These are the stepping-stones. The devotional service develops by association. So if the associates are pure devotees, anyone who will come to that association will become devotee. (break) ...just like a young man and young woman. The devotion is there, love is there, but in the beginning, they should mix, or some presentation should be given, some, something eatable should be accepted, should be given. In this way, when the association is thick and thin, the love is there. The love is already there. It has to awakened by a certain process. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam. These are six types of loving principles, that you give, if you want to love somebody, you give something. And whatever he or she offers, you take from him. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. You give him something to eat, and whatever he or she gives, you eat. Bhuṅkte bhojayate ca. And guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. And you try to understand his heart, and your heart be disclosed to him or her. If you follow these principles, automatically the loving propensity will awaken. It is already there. It is not artificial. It has simply to be awakened by a certain process. So that process we are prescribing, to rise early in the morning, have maṅgala-ārātrika, worship Deity, offer food stuff, eat prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anyone who will follow this principle, he will become purified. There is no need of education, because the devotion is already there. By following these rules and regulations, it will be awakened. As, as, as in this straw, there is fire. Now, you ignite it, and just fan it, and the fire will come. It is already there, fire. But you know, you must know the process how to ignite fire. Huge fire will come. You can burn the whole garden from this straw. Is it not? So you must know the process, how to ignite fire. Fire is already there, in these trees, in these straws, in this grass. Fire is already there. That, that is the process. First of all, you must know that fire is already there. Now ignite. Then it comes more. Then burning, blazing. So the blazing fire is required. But that will come gradually. If you follow the process. That is described by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the Śikṣāṣṭakam, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The first step will be cleansing of the heart. And in the heart there is God, already. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. So actually yoga system is to find out the Lord within the heart.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Bali Mardana: (break) ...sanctify the whole world by your footsteps. You are criss-crossing the world.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the śāstra. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā. Because a pure devotee carries Kṛṣṇa within his heart, therefore wherever he goes he makes a holy place. It is said in the śāstra. So not me, but every one of you, if you are pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, then wherever you'll go, that is a holy place. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni svāntaḥ... To become sannyāsī means that, that he'll be pure devotee, and wherever he will go, he will purify. That is sannyāsa means. Mahad-vicalaṁ nṛnāṁ gṛhināṁ dīna-cetasām. Mahātmās, they'll travel so that the householders, who are cripple-minded and full of sinful activities, they'll go there and make them purified. This is the idea of sannyāsa. And in the Vedic civilization a brahmacārī and a sannyāsī has open door. There is no restriction. No "Beware of dog." (laughter) But now they are prohibited. I have got practical experience. After my sannyāsa, when I was touring India, so in Ahmedabad, or Baroda, I was entering one man's house. So he was standing on the balcony. (laughter)

Devotee: Saying "Don't come"?

Prabhupāda: "Don't come."

Bali Mardana: The age of Kali is perpetrating itself. (pause)

Prabhupāda: It is not their fault. Because in India a sannyāsī has become a professional beggar. Just change the dress and you can easily eat without any working.

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Acireṇa dhīraḥ. So advanced spiritual life means he becomes dhīra. He is no more disturbed by these material laws, and he becomes free of all lusty desires. This is spiritual perfection. So long you have got lusty desires, any position immediately you will try to same way snatch (indistinct). Never satisfied. Hṛd-rogaḥ kāmam, that is the heart disease. It has been described as heart disease. Lusty desire within the heart. Just like one who has got heart disease, he succumbs to that disease, similarly, all these living entities they have succumbed—what is called, succumb?—by lusty desires. By spiritual advancement means that heart disease is cured. Then you will be... Then there is no more envious that "I shall become superior. I shall become Kṛṣṇa. I shall become God." These are different symptoms of the same material disease. Somebody is thinking "I shall become minister," somebody is thinking "I shall become leader," somebody is thinking "I shall become millionaire," and at last, "I shall become God." So even the so-called religionist, that heart disease is there. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi kāmī. Bhukti means ordinary karmīs want to enjoy in this material world. And mukti, they also want "I shall become God, I shall become one with God." That means "I shall become God." One with God means I'll become. Bhukti-mukti and siddhi. The yogis, they want to show some magic power and gain. Just like this rascal is doing, (indistinct) Baba. He has some yogic siddhi, so he has some (indistinct). Otherwise what is the attraction? He is a most wretched man, always he's smoking, and he sleeps too long, no regulation of life. But people are attracted because they have been captivated that "If I pay him one lakh, I shall get two lakhs." This is the propaganda. It is a..., what is called, gambling. You put one rupee, and if you are successful you will get four rupees. Siddhi. Because material world, they think "If I get more money, then it is perfection." Everywhere, the whole world is thinking-nationwise, individual—how to become. You will find in Europe the same propensity.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Of all the yogis... There are different kinds of yogis. We receive this authorized version, that yoginām api sarveṣāṁ. Of all the yogis, the first-class yogi is he who is thinking of Kṛṣṇa always within the heart. Mad-gata antarātmanā, antarātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate. That is our process. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, so we're thinking of Kṛṣṇa. This is the first-class yoga system. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). In the Vedic... Yes. Dhyāna, meditation, means thinking of the Supreme. And that is real yoga, not this gymnastic. That is physical.

dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena
manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino
yasyāntaṁ na viduḥ surāsara-
gaṇā devāya tasmai namaḥ

(break) ...learned scholars, professors. Try to understand this movement, and let us cooperate. It is very important, scientific movement. It is not a mental concoction. Based on Vedic principle.

Interview -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Reporter: Swamiji, I have one other question for you, please. By definition, it seems to me anyway, and I think to other observers, and sympathetic observers at that, that you have asked your spiritual children to leave the outer world in the West and to go deep within the heart of ISKCON, within your heart and the heart of the Supreme, to accomplish what you've set as their goal. What about outer service to humanity in this incarnation?

Prabhupāda: This is the best humanity's service. They were all fools and rascals and we educated them for spiritual understanding. The material... If I think "I am this body," then I am no better than cat and dog. That is going on. "I am American." "I am Indian." "I am Hindu." "I am Muslim." "I am Christian." Only this bodily relationship. But suppose you have come to me, can I ask you whether you are body or something else?

Reporter: Swamiji, perhaps the deficiency is in my question. Let me rephrase the question, if you'll permit. And I realize there isn't much air to breathe. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But I will make the question brief. My question has to do with karma-yoga in the outer world, for instance, in New York City. From what I understand, your disciples do not pursue the professions. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: No, we are also, we are also karma-yogī. We are also eating, we are also sleeping.

Reporter: Oh, no, I understand that. I'm speaking in terms of outer service to people who are not in your mission. Other than preaching the truth of Kṛṣṇa, is there any other outer service to humanity?

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Then? Where is Christian?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are. We are the Christians.

Pañcadraviḍa: Well, they say then, "You can't do any of these things, so you have to accept Christ in your heart."

Acyutānanda: That was my challenge, that "We are doing them better than all of you, so you... That's..."

Prabhupāda: No, if you keep God or Christ within your heart, then your heart will be purified. That means you are cheating.

Trivikrama: Yeah.

Pañcadraviḍa: Yeah, that's what it boils down to.

Prabhupāda: You are all cheaters, not Christians, but cheaters. You do not keep in the heart Christ's name or God's name, but you keep your own ideas. Therefore you think it is impossible. Otherwise, your heart would have been cleansed. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is keeping Kṛṣṇa within his heart, he becomes cleansed of all dirty things. And because the dirty things are there, that means he is not keeping.

Acyutānanda: You know the Cardinal that you spoke with in Paris?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Acyutānanda: You know how he died?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: So.

Brahmānanda: It has happenned again.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Brahmānanda: Just when I was in Germany, a big Bishop in France, he was also found in a similar... He had died in a similar circumstance.

Pañcadraviḍa: Worse state.

Brahmānanda: Worse, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, these things are... And in Vṛndāvana, one big Gosvāmī, he died at the house of her (his) one woman disciple, lying there, sleeping with her. There are so many.

Pañcadraviḍa: That's how this Bishop died also. He died unclothed.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: In the Gītā you use the term field. You use "the enjoyer of the field."

Prabhupāda: That is his breathing period. (?) One who is suffering, where is enjoyment? Every field, every body, is given to the living entity because he wanted. Just like some of you want to become hog, so that field of activities, hog's body, will be given to you. Enjoy it. You want it, and Kṛṣṇa is there within your heart. He understands that you want it—"Take it." That's all. "Now enjoy. Become hog."

Brahmānanda: One question, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Brahmānanda: If the planets, they have always been floating, but the stones of Lord Rāmacandra has put in the ocean, they are still not... Where are they?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Brahmānanda: The stones that Rāmacandra put, they are not still floating.

Prabhupāda: Floating, that is Rāmacandra's desire.

Pañcadraviḍa: What happenned to the stones?

Prabhupāda: That Rāmacandra knows. You go there. (break)

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: You can know also.

Carol: You might know something in your heart but not be able to express it.

Prabhupāda: Why not express it? You can express it. If whatever is within your heart, if you cannot express, then you are not perfect. You must express what is within your heart very clearly. Not that I have got something within my heart and I cannot express. That means my knowledge is imperfect.

Carol: So often our understanding moves sort of separately the emotional, the heart.

Prabhupāda: Emotion is not required for scientific knowledge. Emotion is not. Useless. It must be factual. Emotion is no use. Emotion is useful in high, ecstatic love. Not for scientific study of something you require emotion. No.

Carol: In the bhakti way of doing things, this emotion and love are very closely entwined, aren't they?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is higher stage. Not in the beginning. In the beginning devotion means I should be devoted to you. Why should I be devoted to you unless you are worthy? Just like Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." So unless I understand that Kṛṣṇa is worth for my surrendering, He is worthy, why shall I surrender to Kṛṣṇa? If I demand, immediately you have come, that you surrender. Would you like to do that?

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, still love him. He's trying. God is situated in everyone's heart, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61).

Jesuit: God cannot change.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is friend always. He is sitting with the individual soul within the heart and giving him good advice that "You come to Me, you'll be happy." But he's not going. Therefore he's (indistinct). Still God is with him, "All right, let me see." Just like the father, he loves his son. He always gives him, "My dear son, why you are going out? Your father has got nice property, you live with me." But he'll not do, he'll go away and become hippie. What can be done?

Jesuit: "Kṛṣṇa," what exactly does "Kṛṣṇa" mean?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. That is great. You say, "God is great." We say God, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Unless you are the great, you cannot be all-attractive.

Jesuit: When you speak of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it means...

Prabhupāda: God consciousness, God consciousness. God is great and I am His eternal servant. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Two words: God is great and I am His eternal servant, I am small. This consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Jesuit: Do you know the prayer that the Russians use, the Jesus prayer?

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Pāpī-tāpī jata chilo. So His business was pāpī-tāpī? No, His business was with the most exalted personalities like... Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda, śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta. They were all very exalted personalities. But all of their mission was to deliver the pāpī-tāpīs. That we have described in our that small book, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya in Five Features. So pāpī-tāpī is everyone, in this age especially. But if we take shelter of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by His mercy we get everything. So now Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda has come to Melbourne, very nicely looking. So keep yourself always engaged in the service of the Lord. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Śrī-vigrahārādhana, this arcana process, beginning from maṅgala-ārātrika up to the sāyam-ārātrika, everything should be done very nicely. And the temple should be made very clean. Tan-mandira-mārjanādau. To dress the Deity is as much important as to cleanse the temple also, not that temple will remain dirty, simply you are dressing the Deity.

No. Everything within the temple should be kept very, very neat and clean. And the more you keep the temple neat and clean, you will be neat and clean within your heart. And then your understanding will be very easy. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa because our heart is piled up with many garbages. That we have to cleanse. Then it will be easy to understand Kṛṣṇa. So I am very much pleased that we have secured this nice building. Keep it very neat and clean and go on chanting. You have got nice place for chanting and dancing. And utilize the open land for growing flower. In this way make this center unique. And it is a recognized building. If people understand that this building is now a temple and very nicely kept, people will come and see. So keep yourself always in touch with the principles and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and those who are... All of you, I think, you are educated. Read books. Try to understand the philosophy. Then your life is successful. Thank you very much for your coming.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Mind is... I will meditate on my office work. When I close my eye I shall sleep. I have seen it. Big... (makes snoring noise) (laughter) I have seen it, old ladies meditating. This is not practical. Meditation is described in Vedic..., dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ: (SB 12.13.1) mind is fully absorbed in God, and he is seeing the Supreme Lord within his heart. That is meditation, not snoring. That is not meditation. Impractical. But if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, immediately you can join, immediately, "Oh." Even the child will join. So this is practical. And that is recommended,

kalau doṣa-nidhe rājan
asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
(SB 12.3.51)

That is recommended by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, that "I have described so many faults of this age of Kali, but there is one very biggest gain." What is that? "That simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one becomes free from all material bondage." This is the special advantage of this age.

Dr. Wolfe: Could it be called the true yoga of our time?

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. It is bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga begins with chanting. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). And the more you chant and hear, you become purified. So I think you leaders of your country, you should take this movement very seriously and take it for acceptance. It is not difficult. Chanting. You can chant in school; you can chant in college; you can chant in the factory; you can chant on the street. There is no special qualification required. But if we introduce this chanting, you will be benefited great. There is no loss, but there is great gain.

Morning Walk -- July 2, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Mental platform is mixed sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, not pure. But if you keep always Kṛṣṇa in your mind, then you are purified. The mind has no other opportunity to keep anything else. Kṛṣṇa is sitting there, then guarantee. (break) ...they keep always seeing Viṣṇu form within the heart. Therefore they keep in sattva-guṇa. Similarly, if you keep Kṛṣṇa, then you are in sattva-guṇa. And when that concentration on Kṛṣṇa is not disturbed, then it is śuddha-sattva. That is spiritual platform. (break) ...ekādaśī?

Nitāi: It's Saturday, the 6th.

Devotee (2): What does the yogi perceive when he cuts off the outer senses, he finally reaches the...

Prabhupāda: Perceive?

Devotee (2): What does he experience when he cuts off the outer senses and is able to...

Prabhupāda: Outer senses, what do you mean by outer senses-dead?

Devotee (2): His bodily senses.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of outer senses. Senses purified. What do you mean by outer senses?

Devotee (2): The senses with which you perceive the outer gross...

Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everywhere. This is the age of forgetting God. We say it is Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means the age of misunderstanding. And that is, I said, dirty things within the heart. So God is so powerful that if we chant the holy name of God, then we become purified. So our movement is based on this principle, chant the holy name of God. We give all facilities to everyone without any distinction that "You come with us. Come in our temple, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and take little prasādam, refreshment, and gradually you become purified." So if the government authorities give us facilities for this business, that we hold mass saṅkīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa, and give them little prasādam, then we are sure the whole place will change.

Lt. Mozee: If I understand you then correctly, sir, you would say that the emphasis should be returned to the religious aspects.

Prabhupāda: Certainly. Without religious aspect what is the difference between dog and man? Man can be turned to be a religious man, the dog cannot be. That is the difference between dog and man. So if you keep the human society to the status of dogs and cats, how you can expect peaceful society? If you bring one dozen of dogs and if you want to keep them peacefully, is it possible? So if we keep human society as dogs, then how you can expect peacefulness?

Lt. Mozee: Some of my questions might sound disrespectful. If they do it is only because I do not understand completely your religious beliefs, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Living entities within the body, they come out, hundreds and thousands. They have not died. Suppose in this jungle there are so many living entities. If I die, what has got to do with them?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But science tries to understand what is life and in order to do that they just want to understand what is cell. Because science tries to understand what is life, and in order to do that they just want to study what is the cell because cells are the smallest living units of life. That is their understanding. So once they understand what a cell is, then they know what life is. That is their aim. So if the cells and the jīvātmā within the heart, they are different and they are independent, then they cannot conceive of just having a jīvātmā in the heart.

Prabhupāda: That... The particular jīvātmā who has been given this body, he is living in the heart.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: But according to the scientists, our body is made up of little cells just like a brick wall is made up of so many individual bricks. Each... Like in one piece of skin there is...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is body. Just like I live in a house. The house is made of so many bricks. But I am not brick.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: But they say that...

Prabhupāda: "They say!" They are foolish, we always say. Because I am living in a house consisting of so many bricks, it does not mean that I am brick.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: But is each cell an individual living entity?

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. What do you mean by cell? But there are many living entities within this body. That we know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is different from the concept of cell. there are many living entities like germs...

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: Then? Seeing means Kṛṣṇa as He is. That's all. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. You never read Brahma-saṁhitā? Do you read?

Devotee (2): Yes, Prabhupāda. What you have of the Brahma-saṁhitā in your books.

Prabhupāda: Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Those who are saintly persons, they always see Kṛṣṇa within his heart. Everyone can see if he tries. Why you and me? Anyone can see. Kṛṣṇa is open to everyone. But He is not open to the rascals. That is Kṛṣṇa's distinguish... Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). He is open to everyone, but not to all others, only to the devotee.

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Paramātmā feature is in the heart.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): And the pure devotee, does he see the Paramātmā feature or does he see...?

Prabhupāda: When you see Kṛṣṇa, you see Paramātmā, Brahman, everything. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). If you see... Just like when you see the sun, you see sunlight also. The sun... We see the sun globe, the sun light, simultaneously. Nobody says, "I am seeing the sun but not the sunshine." Is it? (laughter) He is seeing everything. He is seeing everything.

Devotee (3): But does he focus his mind upon the two-armed...?

Prabhupāda: There is no question of focus or no focus. One who sees Kṛṣṇa, he sees everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. There is no question of imagination. This is fact. What is that?

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: And purport?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Purport. "Kṛṣṇa and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa is referred to as Bhagavān throughout the Gītā. Bhagavān is the ultimate in the Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely Brahman, or the impersonal, all-pervasive spirit; Paramātmā, or the localized aspect of the Supreme within the heart of all living entities; and Bhagavān, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this conception of the Absolute Truth is explained thus:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti
bhagavān iti śabdyate
(SB 1.2.11)

'The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical. Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān.' (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, eleventh verse.) These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun's surface and the sun planet itself. One who understands the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun's surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine, its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramātmā feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere, every direction.

Hariśauri: The land, the sky, the...

Prabhupāda: Everything.

Hariśauri: Sun, moon, everything is witness.

Prabhupāda: They are bearing the witness. And especially He is sitting within the heart of everyone, īśvaraḥ sarva... How can you deceive Him?

Hariśauri: Kṛṣṇa knows more about what's going on than we do.

Prabhupāda: Anumantā upadṛṣṭā. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata (BG 13.3). How these rascals think that "I can deceive God"?

Harikeśa: Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna.

Prabhupāda: Hm. mayācyuta.

Harikeśa: Vigata. Vigata-jñāna.

Prabhupāda: Vigata-jñāna, yes. Vijñāna.

Hariśauri: Like children playing, they think that they've become a king or this or that, and they're completely absorbed.

Prabhupāda: Why children? The children, the father also.

Harikeśa: I think they're all ready. (end)

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So why they do not do? Kṛṣṇa says that "You surrender, and I take care of."

Acyutānanda: " 'Cause Kṛṣṇa is not here. We can see the man, and we can see him giving us."

Prabhupāda: That means he has no eyes to see. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. I say aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayā... Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. He is within your heart. But that means you are rascal. You do not know to see Kṛṣṇa.

Gurukṛpā: "But that's conditional."

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gurukṛpā: "If I surrender to the big man, he should give me anything I want."

Prabhupāda: Yes, so Kṛṣṇa says that.

Gurukṛpā: But Kṛṣṇa says, "You cannot do this. You cannot do that." Therefore it is conditional.

Prabhupāda: Then there is no surrender.

Acyutānanda :"Ultimately I know that Kṛṣṇa takes away everything."

Prabhupāda: Then there is no surrender. You do not surrender.

Acyutānanda: "But I know that Kṛṣṇa takes away everything from His devotees ultimately, so I don't want to surrender."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is good for.... That is good for you. Just like the physician says that "You surrender. You don't eat these things. I'll cure you." Will you accept this?

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dr. Patel: You have to analyze, sir, with Sāṅkhya philosophy, by jñāna-mārga, that you are not this body.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, you analyze. Just like you take breathing. Breathing is taken as the life, breathing. When the breathing is stopped, then there is no life. So analyze this breathing. What is this breathing? It is air. So when breathing is stopped, then you can take air. There are so many persons here. And by some machine you can put within the heart or somewhere. Let the air go on passing. But that is not possible. Therefore immediately the air is rejected. Then take the bone, the muscle. Everything will be rejected. There is no life. So this is analytical study. And then what remains? That soul. Very common thing.

Dr. Patel: Kiṁ pariśiṣyate... (Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: Neti neti. "This not soul, this is not soul, this is not soul." Then still, there is the living force. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. Immediately come to the conclusion. But they have analytical laboratory, but they have no brain how to analyze. They are thinking that because the blood has become white, therefore life has been lost. So is it very difficult to make the secretion within the body red?

Dr. Patel: No.

Prabhupāda: You can make it red.

Dr. Patel: Now, sir, they think the body does not extinct with the stoppage of the heart, but it gets extinct after complete disorganization of the brain or what we call...

Prabhupāda: That means mūḍha. You are mūḍha, again mūḍha. Double mūḍha. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Material, spiritual, you do not know anything. You don't talk. Better you become silent.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa said, sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe, specifically said, "within the heart." The.... Even a germlike, what is called, atom, less than atom, there is heart. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa says, hṛd-deśe?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe. Every living entity.

Prabhupāda: Eh? And you say there is no.... You are our student. You are saying there is no heart. That means you do not carefully read.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, that's there, but is that the heart of the soul or the heart of the gross material body?

Prabhupāda: Then.... Heart there is, as you have got heart. What you are? The same constitution.

Hariśauri: In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad it describes how they're sitting side by side.

Prabhupāda: The same constitution of the body. Otherwise there is no question of heart.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You've just challenged the whole field of biology also.

Room Conversation -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976 :

Prabhupāda: (indistinct).

Devotee (2): Purport. "This should not be misunderstood. In the Seventh Chapter the Lord says that one who is engaged in mischievous activities cannot become a devotee of the Lord. One who is not a devotee of the Lord has no good qualifications whatsoever. The question remains, then, How can a person engaged in abominable activities—either by accident or intention—be a pure devotee? This question may be justly raised. The miscreants, as stated in the Seventh Chapter, who never come to the devotional service of the Lord, have no good qualifications, as is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Generally, a devotee who is engaged in the nine kinds of devotional activities is engaged in the process of cleansing all material contamination from the heart. He puts the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, and all sinful contaminations are naturally washed away. Continuous thinking of the Supreme Lord makes him pure by nature. According to the Vedas, there is a certain regulation that if one falls down from his exalted position he has to under go certain ritualistic processes to purify himself. But there is no such condition, because the purifying process is already there in the heart of the devotee, due to his remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. Therefore, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations."

Prabhupāda: It is the only process to save yourself.

Devotee (3): You..., you told a story once about, there was one, the devotee of Lord Caitanya, where he had never met Lord Caitanya, but he had some water sprinkled on him from a Muslim, Muhammadan, and that, that astrologer told him to pour..., to drink lead, hot lead. And he said, I was (indistinct)...

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Just bring little salt.

Hṛdayānanda: "...or kūṭa-stha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth in the womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing and primeval—that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man therefore feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls, and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body. In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad also we find a similar passage which reads:

na jāyate mriyate vā vipaścin
nāyaṁ kutaścin na babhūva kaścit
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(BG 2.20)

The meaning and purport of this verse is the same as in the Bhagavad-gītā, but here in this verse there is one special word, vipaścit, which means learned or with knowledge. The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness.

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: You recognize: "God is my father, and I shall be obedient son." That's all. You do what father says. Then you become obedient son. The father says "Always think of Me." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). You can think of the father always. Where is the difficulty? Just like we're.... Kṛṣṇa is the father. You see Kṛṣṇa daily. And if you think of Kṛṣṇa, where is the difficulty? If you see within your heart the Deity, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, you don't require to pass M.A., Ph.D. examination. You can do it. And He asks man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. That's all. Simple thing. You come to the temple, offer obeisances. Everyone is offering. Where is the difficulty? What you lost? Where is your loss anything? If you come to the temple and offer your respectful obeisances, "Father, please accept my obeisances," where is the difficulty? And father is so kind: "Oh, My dear son, you have come. Very good. Thank you." Immediately you become recognized: "Oh, you are a good son." Where is the difficulty? You don't require the so-called meditation. Meditation is good if you think of your father. If you meditate on something nonsense, what is the use? This is going on. "Real father don't recognize; we are meditating." Misleading. Real meditation is to think of God. But if you do not know God, what is God, and when we present "Here is God, Kṛṣṇa," you don't accept, then what can be done? Everyone accepts Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, God. But if somebody says, "No, I do not accept," that is his business. If he wants to be misled, let him do. What can we do? But here is God. Thing is very simple. There is no difficulty. But we are so obstinate, lowest of the mankind, we would not accept simple things. We will make it complicated and be frustrated. That is our disease. Unnecessarily we make things complicated. Otherwise, father is there, father's instruction is there, father's favor is there, everything is there.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Not necessary. (indistinct) (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...God, Christ, they believe that Christ is God, some Christians.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Many different understandings.

Satsvarūpa: Some say he's a perfect man. Some say a son of God or he's actually God. (break) ...a spirit within.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...Holy Ghost is like Brahman and Paramātmā. All-pervading God and God within the heart speaking.

Satsvarūpa: And Jesus Christ is the only son of the Lord, and he's the Lord also at the same time.

Hari-śauri: And they say he has a material body, and he is God incarnated into flesh.

Prabhupāda: We also say. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ.

Satsvarūpa: The guru is as good as God. And only by the guru...

Prabhupāda: But he's servant.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. And we also say only by the mercy of the guru. But they say only through Jesus. (break) ...so many similarities. Sometimes a Christian asks, "What is unique about your religion? Why should I...? It seems to be the same as what we have."

Hari-śauri: The unique thing is that we're actually able to follow teachings, whereas they are not.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I lived in one Christian monastery, Śrīla Prabhupāda, before, with monks. There is no bliss. They don't have kīrtana and prasādam.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām (BG 18.66), you surrender, you become qualified. You agree, "Yes, I surrender, Kṛṣṇa says." Then immediately you become qualified. But that you do not do. Kṛṣṇa is personally canvassing, but we are not agreeing. What can be done? If I say, with a bag of million dollars, "Take this bag," if you don't agree, then you remain poor man. But you agree, "Yes, without any labor I'm getting the million dollars. Well, all right." Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). To come to that Kṛṣṇa consciousness rightly and surrender to Kṛṣṇa, it takes many millions of births. But if one is intelligent, if this is the ultimate goal, that one has to come to this point, to surrender to Vāsudeva, why not do it immediately? That is intelligence. That is intelligence. Kṛṣṇa is canvassing. One has to take millions of births to come to this point, and Kṛṣṇa is personally promising, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). Why not take advantage? That means you do not agree. If you agree, the result is immediate. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). They are thinking, "Ah, Kṛṣṇa is also human being like me. Why shall I surrender to Him?" They are mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ. Then remain a rascal. What can be done? We have got little independence, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. But because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have got little independence, so we can refuse. Although Kṛṣṇa canvassing, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), we can refuse: "Why shall I surrender to You?" That is our misfortune. But if you agree, you get immediate result. Therefore this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. To agree, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Because we have got so many nasty, dirty things within our heart, we cannot agree. But if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, then we become cleansed in heart, and then agree. Those who are not agreeing, for them it is recommended, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalaṁ kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir... (CC Adi 17.21). You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name is not different, by association of Kṛṣṇa you become purified. Then you understand, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā (BG 7.19).

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: If he wants to remain in this material world, creates a situation and continues his desire, then he has to take... And when he understands that "To live in this material condition is very troublesome. Why shall I live here?" then he becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious and he goes back to home, back to... And so long he desires, "No, why not? If I remain in this situation, I'll be happy," then he'll have to get a body. Nature will give him all chances: "Get this body." If one is very pleased to take raw flesh, "All right, why artificially? Take this body, tiger." That's all. Nature is... God is so kind. Before we were talking of God's mercifulness, so if you are thinking that it is very happy life to eat, without any discrimination, anything, so immediately God orders nature, "You give him body of a pig. He can eat anything, even up to stool. Give him this body." Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). This yantra, this vehicle, this body, is given to him: "Yes, now you can eat anything, up to stool." And he is very pleased. He wanted it. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). He does not hesitate or feel any inconvenience. God is there, even within the heart of the pig, "My dear pig, you wanted a body like this. You have now got it, now eat, here is stool. You eat." And he enjoys. So the living entity within this material world, he wanted to enjoy, "I am the monarch of all I survey." So God gives him all facility: "Whatever you want, you do." Karaṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad yoni-janmasu. He wanted it, therefore he gets different types of body. That is transmigration. But still He comes and teaches, "Rascal, why you are suffering in this way? Give up this plan; surrender to Me immediately." But he is making plan only. Just like in your country, there is everything opulent. The hippies are making plan, "We shall be happy in this way." What can be done? Everyone has got little independence. Let him do. So, so long we shall make plan to enjoy this material world, God will give us all facility, "All right, enjoy." Not enjoy, suffer. But because He is compassionate, kind, merciful, still He comes and begs, "You rascal, why you are making plan? Give up this. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam... (BG 18.66). Then you'll be happy."

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Somebody's staying here?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, Bhāgavatānanda and a couple of the other construction members stay here. (break) This is the way it will look when it's finished—the balusters and the brackets supporting the sunshade. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...When God is there, within the heart, He'll give you, "Do like this." Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te. If one is sincere to serve the Lord, the Lord is situated in everyone's heart, He'll give him, "Do like this." Teṣām evānukampārtham aham (indistinct) (BG 10.11). It is special favor of God. Even if he's less aware of everything to be arranged(?), He'll give instruction, "Do like this." So there is no scarcity of instruction if one is sincere. Thank you very much. (leaves house) (break) ...I came to your country for preaching this, I had no idea how to do it. (laughs) But things are being model. People are surprised how within a short so many short years this world movement has sprung. I had no idea how to do it. (laughter)

Kīrtanānanda: Seeing your palace here is almost like seeing the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple for the first time.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Raman Reti there was no temple. Similarly, in this quarter there was no such building. Many people will come to see it.

Kīrtanānanda: They already do, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, I can understand.

Kīrtanānanda: Many people come by every week to see what progress has been made. And everybody who drives by, they stop.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is something wonderful in this quarter.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Purport. "The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality, who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in the Vedic literature, the Upaniṣads, there are two birds sitting in one tree; the one is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences."

Prabhupāda: Now discuss any points.

Kulādri: One of the richest men in the United States, Howard Hughes, he just recently died, and he had sores all over his body. With all of his money, he died in a very miserable condition. He had so many millions and millions of dollars.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He said at the time of death, "I think I've made a mistake."

Prabhupāda: What he was?

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is the proper treatment. (laughter)

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is one common philosophy also held by a lot of religious groups that God can be understood directly from within, and that no guru or spiritual master is necessary. If I desire to approach God, and if He's all-powerful, He can instruct me from within. They feel like this. Therefore they dispute our claim that we understand God in a different way, that you need a genuine spiritual master. And yet when we approach them, one man will say he has God within his heart and he understands God in this way, and another man is receiving instruction from God from within the heart, and yet he's saying another thing.

Prabhupāda: So?

Devotee (2): Yet, they continue to claim like that, so...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, when God teaches Arjuna... His realization from within should be the same as Kṛṣṇa is teaching to Arjuna. It should be confirmed by śāstra.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He was saying that these people say "God is instructing me from within," but they all have different philosophies.

Prabhupāda: But he's a rascal, and who accepts him, he's a rascal. How do you think that God is speaking to him? How do you accept it? How do you accept that God is speaking to him?

Devotee (2): Well, I don't accept it.

Prabhupāda: But you are advocating. Why do you accept this?

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Where is that boy? You are hearing?

Devotee (2): Yes, Prabhupāda.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Knowledge of the transcendental science of the Upaniṣads can free one from the entanglement of existence in the material world, and when thus liberated, one can be elevated to the spiritual kingdom of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by advancement in spiritual life. The beginning of spiritual enlightenment is realization of impersonal Brahman. Such realization is effected by gradual negation of material variegatedness. Impersonal Brahman realization is the partial, distant experience of the Absolute Truth that one achieves through the rational approach. It is compared to one's seeing a hill from a distance and taking it to be a smoky cloud. A hill is not a smoky cloud, but it appears to be one from a distance because of our imperfect vision. In imperfect or smoky realization of the Absolute Truth, spiritual variegatedness is conspicuous by its absence. This experience is therefore called advaita-vāda, or realization of the oneness of the Absolute. The impersonal glowing effulgence of Brahman consists only of the personal bodily rays of the Supreme Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Since Śrī Gaurasundara, or Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, is identical with Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Brahman effulgence consists of the rays of His transcendental body. Similarly, the Supersoul, which is called the Paramātmā, is a plenary representation of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The antaryāmi, the Supersoul in everyone's heart, is the controller of all living entities. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, wherein Lord Kṛṣṇa says sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ: "I am situated in everyone's heart." (BG 15.15) Bhagavad-gītā also states; bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29), indicating that the Supreme Lord, acting in His expansion as the Supersoul, is the proprietor of everything. Similarly, the Brahma-saṁhitā states, aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham: (Bs. 5.35) the Lord is present everywhere within the heart of every living entity and within each and every atom as well. Thus by this Supersoul feature the Lord is all-pervading.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ritual is a practice based on tapasya. Unless one undergoes the ritualistic ceremony, he remains unclean. But in this age, because it is practically impossible to induce people to take all these ritualistic processes, therefore it is recommended that "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra." That is special advantage of this age, that by constant chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra he automatically becomes purified. That is recommendation given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The beginning is cleansing the heart, because we are impure on account of dirty things within our heart accumulated life after life in the animalistic way of life. So everything, advancement of spiritual life, culture, tapasya means cleansing the heart. So this process, chanting the mahā-mantra, the first installment of benefit is cleansing the heart. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. And when the heart is cleansed, then he becomes eligible for being free from the clutches of māyā or the materialistic way of life. When he understands that he is not this body, he's spirit soul, his business is different, and he understands that "I am engaged only in these bodily comforts of life, it is not at all essential because it will change. Today I am in American body, I have got so many duties as American. Tomorrow I may be American dog body. So immediately my duty changes. So that is not my real business. My real business is how to elevate myself as spirit soul to the spiritual world, back to home, back to Godhead." Then he changes his... Ceto... Bhava... Then this materialistic activity is stopped. He is no more interested, that "This is simply waste of time." That is knowledge, that "I am simply acting for the benefit and comfort of the body. This is simply waste of time. I must act spiritually." That is called ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the heart. He is wrongly working on the basis of bodily concept of life. That illusion is over simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. This is the first installment, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Don't you see Kṛṣṇa there? (laughter)

Guest (2): When I'm looking at the picture, is Kṛṣṇa right here?

Prabhupāda: Whether you look or not look, He's there. If you have got some eye disease, you cannot see. But He is there.

Dr. Sharma: Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61).

Prabhupāda: Hṛd-deśe, He is within your heart. He is within atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). But you have no eyes to see Him. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. Therefore those who are on the first-class platform of devotional service, they see everywhere Kṛṣṇa. Sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe, nā dekhe tāra mūrti, sarvatra haya nija iṣṭa-deva-sphūrti (CC Madhya 8.274). He's seeing to the tree, but he's not seeing the tree; he's seeing Kṛṣṇa. That is a different. Sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe, nā dekhe tāra mūrti, sarvatra sphūrti. He sees this tree, how it is Kṛṣṇa's energy, how it is acting. He studies all things as He has studied in the Bhagavad-gītā. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Sadaiva, on account of his love... That is a very common sense. If you love somebody, wherever you are, you are seeing your lover, "When I shall meet him, where he is, what he is doing?" That was the gopīs' business. Kṛṣṇa was on the pasturing ground, and gopīs are crying at home that "Kṛṣṇa's foot is so soft, and He is walking in the fields barefooted. How many, these crags, pricking Him?" In this way thinking, thinking, they were crying. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14).

Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you say in your books so many times that somehow or other we have fallen into this material world due to our enviousness or our independence.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Everyone has got the gold.

Interviewer: Who has the gold?

Prabhupāda: No, everyone has got the gold, but they have, they are not in awareness that what is that gold.

Bali-mardana: Everyone has the gold. They are simply unaware that they have it. Everyone is originally Kṛṣṇa conscious or God conscious. What Prabhupāda is doing is making people aware of it, that it's within them, within their heart.

Interviewer: Well, are there other paths to awareness of spirit consciousness other than the Kṛṣṇa consciousness path?

Prabhupāda: That, how can I say? That is your subject matter. You study both of them and see and give your judgement.

Interviewer: What is your view? Are there other paths to spirit consciousness?

Prabhupāda: There is, but not very elaborate.

Interviewer: There are but not very what?

Bali-mardana: Elaborate, scientific.

Prabhupāda: Not very elaborate.

Interviewer: Not very good?

Prabhupāda: Not very elaborate.

Bali-mardana: Elaborate.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can become, everyone can become. The more the dirty things within the heart is cleansed, more one becomes a devotee. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167). You have to make zero all dirty desires. Then it is pure.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
(Brs. 1.1.11)

That is bhaktir uttamā. I was asking you that you have already booked for India on Tuesday?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Which day?

Harikeśa: Tuesday.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is not a good proposal.

Prabhupāda: It can be changed?

Harikeśa: I suppose.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Of course. We know the President of Air India in Tehran.

Harikeśa: He's on Iran Air.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Iran Air also, no problem. You'll get the best flight.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Rituals are meant for the neophytes who are given education to begin with. But if he's stuck up with rituals, do not make any further progress, then his progress is checked. You have to go, progress, more progress. Instead of having no sense of God, they, if it is prescribed that "Go to the mosque and pray to God, five times," that is good, ritualistic. At least you're accepting there is God, I must offer. Similarly... This is Muslim process. Hindu process, they say go to the temple and see God. And this Christian, go to the church and offer... The subject matter is the same—accept God. Accept God. But the ultimate, shall we say, goal is not only accept God... They go to God for some material benefit, because they have no other idea. Like the Christians say, "O God, give us our daily bread." I do not know what the Muhammadans say in the prayer. Hindus also, they go to God, "Sir, I am very poor, give me some money," or "I am diseased, please cure me." So these things are the same in different ways according to country and customs. But it is good because they have approached God. That much is good. They are accepting there is God. That much is good. But when he makes further progress, that there is God, what kind of person He is, what is His business, then you make further progress. So these, for the neophyte, these ritualistic formula is good, but he must make further progress. Instead of godlessness, these processes are better. Let him go to the mosque, let him go to the temple, let him go to the church. At least, let him maintain the idea of God. That is the ritualistic. Then there is further progress. One must be interested. But people are losing interest even in the neophyte stage. They're becoming godless. That is going on. So that is very dangerous. Instead of becoming godless, if somebody approaches God, it doesn't matter in some way, some ritual, it is better than this atheist class of men. At least they are accepting God, and if they offer prayers sincerely, God is there within your heart, He'll gradually reveal. The more you become purified, the more He reveals. Then He'll talk with you. So everything depends on the sincerity and seriousness. And if we take these ritualistic ceremonies, "Now I've gone to church or mosque, I have gone to temple, finish. Now let me do whatever I like." Then that is waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, they are also asuras. They do not know what is the meaning of meditation. That is psychology. It is not meditation. Or some medical treatment. Meditation is different, real meditation.

Devotee: What is... What is real meditation?

Prabhupāda: Real meditation is to find out the Supersoul within the core of the heart. That is real meditation. God is situated in everyone's heart, so the yogis, they try to find out the Supersoul within the heart. That is real yogi. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginam. This is real yogi, trying to contact the Supersoul. They are searching after the God in His all-pervading feature. But, ah, some of them, they want to become one. That is asuric. One with God, that is asuric. Because they are being defeated by God, so therefore they want to become God to stop this defeat. That is asuric. Therefore they will never be able to be, but they are trying for it.

Jñānagamya: It is the highest blasphemy.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jñānagamya: It is the highest blasphemy, isn't it? If one says, "I am God."

Prabhupāda: No, highest ignorance, highest rascaldom. (laughter) Yes. How one can become God? If one can become God, that means the such-and-such, he was God. Then how he has become dog? That is another rascaldom, ambition.

Jñānagamya: A devotee is only supposed to want service, and sometimes he very much wants to be liberated to be finished with all this difficulty, isn't it?

Morning Walk -- September 2, 1976, New Delhi:

Lokanātha: You have to understand the position of Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava's position is far far greater than the demigods. Demigods, they shower flowers on the Vaiṣṇavas. So they are very exalted personalities, especially the spiritual master. There's no comparison of the spiritual master with any entities in the universe or brahmāṇḍa. As Prabhupāda's purport has said many places: "The spiritual master is the external manifestation of the Supersoul, Paramātmā within your heart." Paramātmā is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and He becomes manifest before you in form of a guru or spiritual master. So you cannot compare a spiritual master or guru with any other...

Prabhupāda: No, his question is why the demigods... Just like Lord Brahmā, he is the original spiritual master. So why the demigods should not be equal to the spiritual master. That is his question. Is it not?

Caraṇāravindam: Yes.

Lokanātha: They are not equal to the spiritual master.

Prabhupāda: Why? That is his question.

Lokanātha: As you are explaining in your scriptures that the spiritual master is Paramātmā externally manifested but do not in case of other demigods.

Prabhupāda: Why the spiritual master is given so exalted position than the demigods? That should be the answer. Demigods, they are also Vaiṣṇava, mostly.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If they could understand that. That will be helpful if you chant. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's statement will never be false. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). If they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then gradually the dirty things accumulated within the heart will be cleansed. And if he comes to the understanding, clear idea, that "I want to eat something and my necessities... So if I get my necessities, primary necessities of life, and satisfaction of mind, then why shall I go to city?" That they can have very easily. If they follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, that "Your first necessity is food." So produce food here. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). And you'll find here so much land is lying vacant. Because they have gone to the city for twenty rupees daily to manufacture Goodyear tire. And who will work here? Now I have seen in Delhi, the government is advertising, "Go back to the village." Rascal, you are manufacturing wine and keeping them engaged whole day in the work. So after being tired, he requires some wine. And why he'll go? And no spiritual education, no cleanliness. Simply inviting "Go to the village" they will go?

Lokanātha: Just a propaganda.

Prabhupāda: No, they're thinking that so many people are coming to the cities, how we shall provide them? That's a problem. After all government has to supply them rations. Where is so much foodstuff? And if they are not supplied, then there will be resentment. That's a fact. What they are doing in the city, so many scooter (makes motor sound), going here and there. Actually no engagement. The girls are loitering in the street by dressing. It will become more and more problems, city life. So this is the solution, that they must go back to the village. But they are trained up to enjoy the facilities, so-called facilities, of the city. They are not going to village. But if we can introduce this hari-saṅkīrtana, and if they have little taste, that is success. It's a great program. And that taste will come-ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jagad-guru: He is asking where is the soul.

Prabhupāda: Can you see? So soul is within the heart. When the soul goes away you cannot explain what happened. You say, "heart failure." So why the heart failure? The nerves and the bones and the muscle and the blood, everything is there, and still, you say that "It stopped. Heart failure." So just like machine is running but somehow or other stopped, but you do not know what is the cause of stopping. The cause is that the heart, when it goes away, then the machine stops.

Guest (3): God is within the soul also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is along with you. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is there.

Guest (4) (Indian man): Swamiji, in Bhagavad-gītā it is telling karma also and surrendering also. Now, how it is possible? In karma-kāṇḍa (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Karma, if you do... Just like we are preaching so many people to surrender to Kṛṣṇa but will do not do. Do you think our, this instruction, that "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa," is taken by everyone? Do you think? Suppose you are all here. We are preaching the same thing, that "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa." But these boys, they have surrendered, but you have not surrendered.

Guest (4): (indistinct)

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **.

Devotee (3): " 'I worship the primeval Lord Govinda who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of Śyāmasundara situated within the heart of the devotee.' At this stage Lord Kṛṣṇa never disappears from the sight of the devotee, nor does the devotee ever lose sight of the Lord. In the case of a yogi who sees the Lord as Paramātmā within the heart, the same applies. Such a yogi turns into a pure devotee and cannot bear to live for a moment without seeing the Lord within himself."

Prabhupāda: You are seeing also Kṛṣṇa, but because you have no love, therefore you cannot appreciate how we are seeing. If you love some person you keep his photograph on the breast. Is it not? So you are seeing Kṛṣṇa in the temple, but because you have no love you think that "I am not seeing Him." That is the defect. They are seeing Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why they have sacrificed everything for worshiping Kṛṣṇa, for dressing Kṛṣṇa, for feeding Kṛṣṇa? They are seeing Kṛṣṇa. They are not wasting their time. But you have no love for Kṛṣṇa. You're thinking that "They have not seen Kṛṣṇa. They are worshiping an idol." That is the difference. One who loves somebody he keeps his picture on his chest. He does not? He throws it, same picture. It is question of love. Therefore it is said, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu (Bs. 5.38). One who has developed that love and bhakti, he can see Kṛṣṇa at every moment. Otherwise it is not possible. And because you cannot see, you ask them also, "Can you see?" But the seeing process is different. We do not know the process; therefore we are thinking that Kṛṣṇa cannot be seen. And one who knows the process, he sees every moment. Is it clear? You learn the process; you will see Kṛṣṇa every moment. Therefore this word is used, premāñjana-cchurita. By the eye ointment of love you have to smear your eyes; then you'll be able to see Kṛṣṇa. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). Find out this verse. Yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. When one's eyes is covered by the yoga-māyā he cannot see, see Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: The point is that... You can explain in this way, that goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Kṛṣṇa is in the Goloka planet which is far, far away from our planet, but still He is everywhere. That is the difference. That you cannot imagine. In our material knowledge you cannot imagine that. But that is the fact. Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad aham aśnāmi: (BG 9.26) "Anyone offering Me in devotion patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, I eat." Now, Kṛṣṇa is living far, far away in the Goloka planet. How He can eat? That is your imagining. But Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes, I do." That is Kṛṣṇa. Although He is far, far away, He is within your heart. That you cannot imagine, how it is possible. That is your material knowledge. But you have to accept from the statement of śāstra that although He is far, far away, within your heart. Aṇḍāntara-stha-para... He is within the atom also. So that you cannot imagine. That requires a different knowledge, Vedic knowledge. The material knowledge will not help you, but you cannot imagine. You have to accept Vedic knowledge. What is stated in the Vedas, that you have to accept. That's all. Otherwise there is no possibility. Therefore to understand Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's activities you have to learn from Kṛṣṇa. That is Bhagavad-gītā. You cannot manufacture your knowledge. That is not... Because you are defective—your senses are imperfect—so whatever knowledge you get through your senses, that is all imperfect. You cannot get perfect knowledge by your imperfect senses. That is not possible. Therefore the Vedic injunction is tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to learn that transcendental science you have to approach a guru who knows it.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Kṛṣṇa is without. That is Kṛṣṇa, antar bahiḥ. Antar bahiḥ. Kuntī says in her prayers that "Kṛṣṇa, You are antar bahiḥ. Still, people cannot understand. You are... Without, You are existing, and within, You are..." Still, they are so rascal, they cannot understand. Antar bahiḥ. Kṛṣṇa is without, Kṛṣṇa is within, but they cannot see. That is their misfortune. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). Kṛṣṇa is within the paramāṇu, atom. Can you find out Kṛṣṇa? He says, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd... (BG 18.61). He is within your heart. Can you find out? Then where is your science? It is already indicated that He is here. Find out. How you can find out? The dimension of the soul is given, one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair. The tip of the hair, you divide into ten thousand parts and that one part is the dimension of the soul. How can you find out? Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca jīvo bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). Everything is written there. Now you find out the measurement. You cannot find out measurement of the tip of the hair. And you have to divide into ten thousand parts. Then the measurement of the soul will come. So how can you do it? But they are described in the śāstra. So go and see ārati. (end)

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: "You simply take this process. Think of Me always." And the next, He says sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). No. There are other processes? Give away, kick away. Take this. Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is meanings of the... But because one cannot understand, therefore He has explained karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, haṭha-yoga, this yoga. And He has explained also the meaning

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntarātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
(BG 6.47)

"He is first class yogi who has taken to Me only, thinking of Me." Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntarātmanā. "Always within the heart, who is thinking of Me, first-class yogi." One who does not understand Kṛṣṇa, he may be a yogi, a third-class, fourth-class yogi. Not a first-class. (Hindi conversation) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...to make dāl puri, dāl baḍi. Do they make? Inside it is dāl. (break)

Life Member: When I come here for one day, I wish to stay here for three days, five days, seven days, I mean, always extend it for awhile. It is never on the set day. Whenever I come for a day, I stay two days. If I come for three days I stay about five days. (break)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: Imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. (break)

Dr. Patel: Tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ. Mahātmā is the guru.

Prabhupāda: Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Caitanya Mahāprabhu. "By guru's mercy and Kṛṣṇa's mercy, one can enter into bhakti-mārga." Without guru's mercy you cannot do, and without Kṛṣṇa's mercy also you cannot do. Kṛṣṇa is situated within your heart, and if you are sincere, Kṛṣṇa will give you the right guru. And then, by guru's mercy, you'll understand Kṛṣṇa. This is the process.

Indian (1): All hours... 'Cause passion will come you, when at times of anger gets temporarily the better of you, what is the guidance which can bring you back to normality? Because in anger you can do a lot of things. Because you lose, spontaneously you lose your temper. Though it can be for the good...

Prabhupāda: When you can conquer over your anger, then you become gosvāmī. Vāco vegaṁ krodha-vegam. Krodha-vegam. Mānasa-vegam udara-vegam upastha-vegam, etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt (NOI 1). A guru... One cannot become guru who has no control over these things: vāco vegam, the urge of speaking nonsense. Vāco vegam. Krodha-vegam, the urge of anger. Mānasa-vegam, urge of mind. Udara-vegam, urge of the belly. Upastha-vegam, urge of the genital. In this way, all the six vegas, one who can control, he is fit for becoming guru.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: "...who even at the point of death was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in Vedic literature, the Upaniṣads, there are two birds sitting in one tree. One is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith. Therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequence."

Prabhupāda: Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). So on the whole, people are in darkness. And that is going on as advancement. This is the only institution to give them some light. There is no doubt about it. All in the darkness. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are in darkness, and some leader comes, he is also in the darkness, and both of them fall into the ditch. This is going on. Do you agree to this point? Otherwise you cannot become good preacher. You must yourself, must be convinced that actually this is the position. All these rascals, scientists, philosophers, politicians—they're all in darkness, and they're misguiding people. That's all. One of the first-class rascal in darkness is your Darwin. He's in favor of Darwin's theory. Another first-class demon is that Freud. (laughter) These are the guides of the modern civilization. Anthropomorphism. No? What is called?

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: It is stated clearly, kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.20). Rascals are hṛta-jñānāḥ. They have no knowledge even.

Hari-śauri: Lusty desires within their heart.

Prabhupāda: Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ. For kāma... Just like one is lusty for sex, they are for false name. "I shall become God. People will adore me." This is their.... "And we shall bluff like this, by magic, word jugglery." This is the aim.

Hari-śauri: Simply cheating process.

Prabhupāda: No aim how to make people understand about God. They have no such, neither they do know personally. Their only aim is that "If I become a God-man, if I can bluff, jugglery of words and this magic and..., then I'll..." The same material thing, pratiṣṭha. As ordinary people, they are working so hard for some material gain, material reputation, these people are like that, in a different manner. This Satya Sai Baba, this Vivekananda, this, all of them, like that. They want some material position, misusing their mediocre knowledge. That's all.

Hari-śauri: It's called "A cloak of respectability."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: Saintly person.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, no. It doesn't matter. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa always, the medicine is there already. Then it will rectify you automatically. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Where is the loss? It is open for everyone. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). Especially in this age it is very difficult to... But if you take to this harer nāma, then gradually ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Everything will be cleansed within your heart and you'll understand. You take to this immediately. Somebody is giving prasāda?

Satsvarūpa: There's is regular distribution.

Prabhupāda: Go and take prasāda. Jaya. Go and...

Satsvarūpa: Yes, everyone is taking

Prabhupāda: Go and take prasāda. Prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate. Our propaganda is "Please come here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take prasāda." That's all. Is that very difficult task?

Guest (3) (Indian man): Whether the scriptures have real potency?

Prabhupāda: Yes. All scripture has got. And we are having our members' building and library, you can come and read. We are trying to give you all facility. You should take it and be perfect.

Guest (4) (Indian man): Bhagavad-gītā was a distinct... Before, Śaṅkarācārya had another, Bhagavad-gītā was distinctly personal, antaryāmī gurudeva.(?)

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Real intelligence you see in the flower. How intelligently colorful it is made. Every nature study. Study this machine, how intelligent. And just the hand, coming up, this finger, because we have to capture something, the nail is required. If it would have been all skin, you could not capture. How... And every machine is coming automatically. You study your body. And if the same machine, you producing a machine like that, automatically coming out, one thing, male machine, one female machine, and they'll bring another machine. Where is that? And here God has made such a nice machine. He says, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni (BG 18.61). That is also not made by God. It is made by God's agent, māyā. Now, see how God is intelligent. God's servant māyā, God says, "Give him a machine like that." Immediately she gives, supplies. Clearly says, bhrāmayan sar... "He wants to still travel in this material world, bhrāmayan. He wants to go there. Then all right, give him a machine." He's so kind. He's sitting within your heart. You want to do something. And He's so kind, because you are son, beloved, He says, "These are not required. Better come back. Live peacefully." You'll not hear. "No. I..." Just like naughty child. "All right, Māyā, give him. Give him." This is meaning. Hm? What is that? Read it.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Very nice. It is all right. Now you have become expert, painting Kṛṣṇa so many years.

Rāmeśvara: 'Cause we feel that there's never a limit how beautiful Kṛṣṇa can be painted.

Prabhupāda: (chuckling) Yes, unlimited.

Rāmeśvara: Now, also there are many descriptions, or there are several descriptions in this verse, of the Lord's expansion as Paramātmā within the heart of every living entity and also within each atom. Now, a few years ago Bharadvāja drew this picture for Back to Godhead. We were thinking to make a painting similar to this showing that Viṣṇu is within the atom. And this will be used not only in this book, but also we were thinking to use this on the cover of Life Comes From Life.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Rāmeśvara: We can show these atomic rings?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Rāmeśvara: Cause the scientists, when they draw pictures of the atom, they show these rings.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Hm.

Rāmeśvara: Now, this picture, this shows the story of King Rantideva's renunciation. He was fasting for so long, and these different personalities were coming.

Prabhupāda: And he was distributing.

Room Conversation -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: (reads)

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā
śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati
kaunteya pratijānīhi
na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati
(BG 9.31)

"He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes." Purport. "This should not be misunderstood. In the Seventh Chapter the Lord says that one who is engaged in mischievous activities cannot become a devotee of the Lord. One who is not a devotee of the Lord has no good qualifications whatsoever. The question remains, then, How can a person engaged in abominable activities either by accident or intention, be a pure devotee? This question may justly be raised. The miscreants, as stated in the Seventh Chapter, who never come to the devotional service of the Lord, have no good qualifications, as is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Generally, a devotee who is engaged in nine kinds of devotional activities is engaged in the process of cleansing all material contamination from the heart. He puts the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, and all sinful contaminations are naturally washed away. Continuous thinking of the Supreme Lord makes him pure by nature. According to the Veda, there is a certain regulation that if one falls down from his exalted position, he has to undergo certain ritualistic processes to purify himself. But here there is no such condition, because the purifying process is already in the of the devotee due to his remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. Therefore the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations."

Prabhupāda: Our abridged edition of Bhagavad-gītā is there in the pandal?

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. All the big books. The Bhāgavatams, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Gītā. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We need some artists in Bombay, some artists to paint.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we say that the soul is in the heart. So how can we convince the other doctors, for example, of the presence of the soul within the body and especially within the heart?

Prabhupāda: They do not know that the soul is there. Because they have misunderstood. So when the soul goes away, they think their heart has pain. Material cause. They do not know because the soul has left, the heart is not working. They take it on the other way, that because the heart is not working, therefore he's lying down.

Dr. Sharma: Some of the ancient Indian medical texts, they do describe that heart is the seed of consciousness. (Hindi) The Suśruta Saṁhitā says that the heart is considered the consciousness. But the modern medical texts, they are actually...

Prabhupāda: Modern means rascals.

Dr. Sharma: Yes. Actually, they are only two hundred years old.

Prabhupāda: Say, rather, modern rascals. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61).

Dr. Sharma: Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). And the (Sanskrit) says that the heart is the most important organ because it is concerned with ātmā and...

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Nice place. Better than anywhere?

Guru dāsa: Wherever you are is a tīrtha. When you are there, it is better than any place. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Where you are is...

Prabhupāda: Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā. One who keeps Kṛṣṇa always within the heart, wherever he goes, that is tīrtha. Everywhere Kṛṣṇa is there, but one who remembers, he is the yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā (BG 6.47). It is very simple. People will not be... Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. The human life is a boon... One can do this very easily. Māyā is so strong. Very easy thing. Even a child can do. Dehāntara vasthite siddhi.(?) Maintaining this body. All right. What is their business? How to maintain the... Huh? What is their aim in life? How to live comfortably. That's all. They do not know anything. So what is the Rādhā-Dāmodara arrangement?

Guru dāsa: There is no trouble there. I wanted to know if the Rādhā-Dāmodara file is in your almirah?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Guru dāsa: The Vṛndāvana almirah? Akṣayānanda Swami thinks that it's in that almirah, the file?

Prabhupāda: What is the need of that?

Guru dāsa: Not needed, but...

Prabhupāda: All right. So I have arranged with the bank to pay.

Evening Darsana -- May 11, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian man (4): The one in the basis of ourself?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Can we find the one in ourselves?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Self is there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). That one Lord is there within your heart. Where is the difficulty? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61). All living entities—not only you, me-cats, dogs, everyone, even ants... Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. He is within the atom also. So there is no denying, He is everywhere.

eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ
yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ
aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
(Bs. 5.35)

So Īśvara, this, the Supreme, is living with you as Supersoul. So there is no doubt about it. You are also within the body, and He is also within the body. Find out this verse, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam (BG 13.3). You are individual soul, and He is also living as individual soul, but sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata: He is living everywhere; you are living within your body. That is the difference.

Page Title:Within the heart (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:21 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=87, Let=0
No. of Quotes:87