Room Conversation Prabhupada: One of our relatives, long, long ago, he happened to be, as my grandmother…, my cousin’s, oh, grandfather. He went to England in those old days and he became a parsiyas(?) doctor, very… When he came home the brahmanas prescribed that “You went to England, so you have to make this prayascitta and this and so many prescriptions, and unless you follow the prayascitta you cannot live at home. Then your family will be extricated.” So when these things were presented to him he said, “Then I am going out of home.” His mother and father, everyone requested that… (Hindi) [break] Hamsaduta: “Patel Pola(?) of Chicago had observed that he was a construction worker doing a sudra’s work. It would not become necessary to allot the three lower castes to the foreign converts according to their professions. This will not be an easy task. Talking of profession reminds me of a still graver problem—that of the occupation or profession of the white sadhus. If I am not mistaken, the Krsna consciousness movement would turn out legions of new white sadhus in the West whose only aim in life would be to propitiate their Lord Krsna. They would be steeped in the bhakti-rasa and would not soil their hands with doing any work for such a mundane thing as earning a living.” Prabhupada: They are not doing anything. Actually they are not doing anything. They are preaching only. Guest (1) (Indian man): No, but he says that legions of sadhus, such white men, persons from West, become sadhus, then who will do this job of earning a living? Prabhupada: Why he is crying? If he is hungry, let him come here. We shall provide him. Why he is crying for that? What business he has got to cry, “What will they do?” What they will, that they know. Why he is crying? What is his business for crying for this future? If he is hungry, let him come and we shall provide him. This is not… That is a childish conception. “If everybody becomes sadhu, then what will be the nature of the society?” That is, never becomes. That never becomes. To become sadhu and to become a Vaisnava is not so easy thing. These idle questions, why they publish? I do not know. This is idle question. It never becomes. Lord Krsna personally says that “You simply surrender unto Me.” How many have surrendered till now? Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that “You give up everything and surrender unto Me.” So how many have done that? So this is a rascal question, “If everyone surrenders, then what will happen to the world?” But that will never happen. It is very difficult to surrender. That he does not know. (Hindi) It is not expected that everyone become sadhu. To become sadhu is not so easy thing, especially this nature of sadhu, pure. How many are there? We have given the prescription that “Give up this, give up this.” How many have given up this? So that is not possible, but still, these nonsense questions are raised. Hamsaduta: Should I go on? Prabhupada: Hm. Hamsaduta: “As in India, so in the West…” Prabhupada: This class of question is answered…, no, criticized… (Hindi) There was a big market, because in the village there is hatta every weekly. So in the village one old woman, she saw, “Oh, how I shall provide all these men at night? Where they will sleep? So many guests has come. What can I do?” She began to cry. So her son said, “Mother, you don’t bother. They will go away.” “No, no. How can I provide?” So in the evening he brought the mother: “Now see.” So when she saw that, nobody is there. Theoretically, she began to cry, “Where shall I provide all, so many guests?” And this class of question is like that. Simply on theoretical they are asking. Hamsaduta: It goes on. Prabhupada: Yes. Hamsaduta: “As in India, so in the West the sadhus will have to live on alms given by others and will have to forego many of…” Prabhupada: He does not know what is sadhu. He is not sadhu. He is grhastha. I have got many professors, engineers. So they are Krsna-bhaktas. Are they not sadhus? The rascal does not know; that sadhu means beggar, he knows. Arjuna became a sadhu. He was a beggar? So he does not know what is sadhu. Sadhu’s description is given, bhajate mam ananya… Guest (1): This particular letter is written by a woman. It is unnecessarily pushing the… Prabhupada: So it should be replied properly, that “You do not know what is sadhu. You do not know what is Krsna consciousness. Why do you bother yourself?” Just like one, this Jain paper has published that “Swami Bhaktivedantaji says that ‘Krsna is everything; Hinduism is nothing.’ ” So anyone who says Krsna is everything, he is not Hindu. Just see. Such foolishness. Go on. Hamsaduta: So… “The sadhus will have to live on alms given by others and will have to forego many of their luxurious personal needs. The coming years are therefore going to create for Uncle Sam a national problem of magnitude…” Prabhupada: You, already problem. Hamsaduta: “…the like of which he has not seen before.” Prabhupada: What…? What they are doing for the hippies? In U.S.A. they have thousands of hippies. They are doing nothing. That problem is already there. Go on. Hamsaduta: “It will create a national problem of a magnitude the like of which he has not seen before. In fact, Western society is in for a great jolt. A. Karim Saikh.(?)” Then two more letters. Prabhupada: But the old woman’s crying. Hamsaduta: Do you want to hear the next letter? This is the second letter. “I do not see why you devoted two full pages to the article on ‘Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,’ November 8th. Wearing a plain white sari, applying sandal paste on the forehead and wearing nose-rings do not transform one. Churning milk gopi fashion is no way to attain spiritual bliss. The statements made by the devotees of the Hare Krsna movement reflect an attitude of escapism.” Prabhupada: Hm. Anyway, we are getting publicity. Hamsaduta: (laughs) They’re angry. “How can the chanting of Hare Krsna purify the mind? It only closes it to everything else. Purity of the mind lies in knowing all evil and yet abstaining from it. The escapist attitude of the devotees of the movement is reflected in the reply of Adhikari when he bypasses the question of India’s poverty by giving irrelevant answers. The poverty of our country is known to all of us. I am not an atheist, but I find it difficult to digest the sentimentalism in the article.” Prabhupada: What is that sentimentalism? Hamsaduta: I didn’t read the article. That was in the… Which paper? I think this was in a Bombay paper. What paper is this? Guest (1): This is Times of India. Prabhupada: Bombay. Guest (1): It is published from Bombay and Delhi both. Hamsaduta: Yes. I think in Bombay there was a large article. Prabhupada: What about? Favorable or unfavorable? Hamsaduta: It was an interview with the devotees, if I remember, with Gurudasa. Guest (1): The article, original article, was quite favorable. It was all praiseworthy and all that. That is why these two letters say that author of that article is unnecessarily being sentimental and this and that. Rebatinandan: That was the Sunday edition of Times of India. Hamsaduta: November 8th. Revatinandan: The magazine section. Two page particle with nice pictures. You liked it very much. Prabhupada: Oh, oh, yes, yes. I remember. She is envious, that “Why two page advertisement, publicity has been…” That’s all. Hamsaduta: There’s another letter. It says, “Your leading article on the Krsna cult makes interesting reading. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Indian founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, and his American disciples repeatedly told K.R. Sundarajan, the author of the article in the Times Weekly, November 8th, 1970, during their brief stay in Bombay that theirs was not strictly a Hindu movement. They explained to him that Krsna was above all religions, the universal teacher, the supreme man, the purification of the Absolute Truth. If it is so, then why can’t they go to Pakistan and China for chanting of Krsna’s name and ask them to vacate aggression? The soil of this land where the great master was born…” Prabhupada: Now, now, we have to serve the political, politicians. Eh? Because they cannot do, so they are asking us. Hamsaduta: To do. Prabhupada: Such a nonsense. So we have to help these rascal politicians. You write that, that “Do you mean to say that Krsna consciousness means business is to serve the rascal politicians? We are going every country and when we find time we shall go to Pakistan.” Guest (1): Not for vacating the aggression, but for… Prabhupada: “Not for helping the politicians who are very much eager to join Pakistan. Our joining is different. Even in India we have got so many enemies like you who are criticizing Krsna consciousness movement. So there are rascals everywhere, either in Pakistan or India. So we are not satisfy the rascals. We are meant for intelligent persons.” Write that, like that. Guest (1): (Hindi) Prabhupada: Yes? Then? Who is it? Anything more? Hamsaduta: I think that’s it. [break] Prabhupada: But we have to do in such a way that I may not be in inconvenience. Take something. All right. Bring something; take one piece. That’s all. Finished. You were drinking before? Devotee: Yes, I was… Prabhupada: So you don’t feel any inconvenience? Devotee: No. Prabhupada: That’s nice. You were smoking also? Devotee: No. Prabhupada: That’s nice. Our students, they have very quickly given up the four principles of sinful activity. And that is actually surprising to all these so-called sannyasis also. They are surprised. They cannot give up tea-drinking, smoking. Still, they are passing on as spiritually advanced. They are still servant of smoking and tea and they have become God. Just see the fun. “Narayana.” They address one another, “Narayana. (laughter) You are Narayana. I am Narayana. There is no trouble because you are Narayana.” So begin. [break] Others not, your father. Child: My grandfather. Prabhupada: So asakti…? (end)
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
November 4, 1970, Bombay