Morning Walk Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
April 17, 1974, Bombay

Prabhupada: …feverish. But these people, they take bhakti as a means of liberation. That is their mistake.

Dr. Patel: That is their mistake.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: That is where we were quarreling very often.

Prabhupada: Yes. We have now made a conclusion not to fight.

Dr. Patel: (laughs) Yes.

Prabhupada: Otherwise he can become a Jamadagna.

Kirtiraja: I know.

Prabhupada: You know Jamadagna? You know Jamadagna?

Dr. Patel: Jamadagni.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Who asked Parasurama to fill his bowl up.

Prabhupada: No, I mean to say Jamadagna.

Dr. Patel: Jamadagni.

Prabhupada: Means Jamadagni’s son. Parasurama.

Dr. Patel: Jamadagni, the Parasurama’s son. Jamadagna is Parasurama, the father.

Prabhupada: Yes. [break] …being done in America because it is not to be done here. Here religion has become fanaticism and political degradation. It is not possible. Now see in our political paper how they are seriously doing and people taking seriously. Whatever program I give them, they are systematically doing. Here there is no assistance. [break] …cry, “Oh, we are in, put in this condition, put in this…” Complain. But what is the remedy, we do not take. That is India’s position. Mr. Kanunda(?), he’s the son of late governor of Gujarat(?). He came to offer me a land in Bhubhanesvar. So he said… He’s the manager of the coal organization.

Dr. Patel: Coal Corporation of India.

Prabhupada: Yes. He’s the general manager. He told me that “Workers, they are not working. Therefore we have to increase price.” Now, when the, it was private concern, they were managing. They were working very nicely. Now, since it has become government concern, they are not working.

Dr. Patel: Same thing in…

Prabhupada: Everywhere.

Dr. Patel: …in nationalized banks.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: If you go there, you have… [break]

Prabhupada: That is government, no responsibility. [break] …kriya hina. These governments are not… They are not reformed, and they have taken the post of government. Nobody can do(?). [break] …today the political paper, Harmonist?

Giriraja: I read the… Shall I read it now?

Prabhupada: Yes, so that others may hear. [break] …you simply present the card anywhere—you get things. You don’t require to pay. Then your bills will be paid by the bank. This is the system. [break] …Bank of American card, in any American, bank of America, I can get one hundred to five hundred dollars immediately. I have got that card. [break] …the respectable customers… Yes. [break] …money, then you can squander it, and that is the idea. And you more spend money; then they manufacture consumer goods. That is the policy. [break] …sad says, tena tyaktena bhunjitha: “Don’t use anything more than what is allotted to you.” That’s all. But they are creating artificial demand, and the demand is being paid for by artificial paper. The government is issuing: “This is five hundred pounds or five hundred rupees,” but it is paper only. Actually it is cheating. But we are satisfied. [break] …said, “In God we trust.” That’s all. “In God we trust.” What is that?

Devotee: Oh, yes.

Dr. Patel: They have written, “In God we trust”?

Prabhupada: Yes. Because I am giving you this paper—I am cheating you—therefore I am “In God we trust.” [break] And the best in the world. That is a fact.

Dr. Patel: They have given, fathers, by their forefathers.

Prabhupada: Yes. [break] …street you’ll find, both ways, boarding: generally cigarette, wine, and…?

Dr. Patel: And the night clubs.

Prabhupada: Yes. Naked woman, that’s all. Both sides it is there. They advertise. Here… In America, anywhere you deposit forty dollars. Next day you get everything. [break] …they say, “This year it is now reduced.” Mean “Criminality, let go on, but from the last year, this year it is now reduced.” That’s all. [break] “…are drinking. Therefore you cannot call me drunkard.” This is the logic. [break] These rogues and thieves will increase. That is the law of nature. Men… (breaks) They have a fire(?). [break] …took down. [break] …police, they simply only note down.

Dr. Patel: In America also, like here?

Prabhupada: That’s all. My things were stolen from my apartment in the beginning, so I went to the police. They simply noted down. That’s all. [break] …you can narrate the incidents when the negro at San Francisco…

Lilavati: Yes, we were…

Prabhupada: Yes. [break] Ksatriya, this is all finished. Now only sudras and, little vaisyas there are.

Dr. Patel: No, here, here you have got also brahmanas.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: But they don’t follow them. Nobody follows them.

Prabhupada: No…

Dr. Patel: Many people.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Mr. Ford is going to be the president now. [break]

Prabhupada: …of safety and security. During Maharaja Yudhisthira’s reign there was no unnecessary disease and anxiety also. That is mentioned. You have read? [break] Some hundred years ago. When I went to Kashmir, so they said that “Here the law was if a thief was caught and proved he has stolen, his hands would be cut off.”

Dr. Patel: That is the law presently in Arabia.

Indian Man: Nepal too. Nepal.

Prabhupada: Eh? Yes. [break] So at the present moment Indians means non-Mohammedans. What he is, he does not know—but he is not Mohammedan. That’s all. (laughter) Otherwise he has to be, go to Pakistan. Therefore he’s non-Mohammedan. That’s all. [break] In big, big cities you cannot safely walk. Here, India still, we lie down in the open air. That is not possible there. In Dallas, Dallas I wanted to lie down in the open air. “No, no, you cannot do that.”

Dr. Patel: In that way England is better. England is far better.

Prabhupada: No, no, England… England you cannot lie down on the open. No.

Dr. Patel: No, no, but on the countryside you can pitch a tent…

Prabhupada: No, that is not possible. It is very cold.

Dr. Patel: No, no, not in… I mean in summer.

Prabhupada: Even in summer it is not possible.

Giriraja: (reading:) “…cannot safely walk a city street or sleep without fear of burglars and the government has fallen far short of the actual standard of a legitimate administration.” [break]

Prabhupada: We are criticizing strongly in our paper. [break] …command a position. If you manufacture government like that, it will never be capable.

Giriraja: “But it’s said in all authentic, revealed scriptures, wherein it is declared that the purpose of civilized human life is to live together in peace and harmony so that everyone can advance progressively in spiritual life.” [break]

Prabhupada: …purpose of life. But they do not know what is the purpose of life. They have taken the idea of cats and dogs, simply sense gratification. Now, where, how there will be good government. [break] …all leniency to the Mohammedans to get vote. That’s a fact. [break] Mahabharata, anywhere, or Ramayana, you’ll never find a woman is elected on the topmost post.

Dr. Patel: And that was widow.

Prabhupada: No, woman is never, was made a king. That was… Now it has become a fashion.

Dr. Patel: And the widow with all her virtues.

Prabhupada: Yes. [break] …days greatest politician. Visvaso naiva kartavyah strisu raja-kulesu ca. So our present head of the state is both woman and diplomat. That’s all. [break]

Giriraja: “…pursuit of human culture are not possible. The government, by being weak and impotent, has thus failed to maintain the standard of civilized culture.”

Prabhupada: Yes. Everywhere. Simply rogues. They want money. That’s all. They do not want anything.

Dr. Patel: I think Rama-rajya was the real democracy.

Prabhupada: Rama-rajya was not democracy.

Dr. Patel: No, it was a sort of democracy because it happened that his wife, on seeing ordinary menials…

Prabhupada: Why king should be under any criticism? (breaks) There is a jalebi seller. He is the medium of bribing police. He has got ten lakhs of rupees, ordinary jalebi seller.

Giriraja: “Yet even in places where the police get good scores for solving crime and apprehending law-breakers, the crime rate remains high.”

Prabhupada: When we were children, there was a respectable gentleman, Mullick’s family. He was agent of taking bribe on behalf of… [break] …Los Angeles. The same thing I am talking.

Dr. Patel: So you will have them, all the photos from here also. [break]

Prabhupada: Anardhena nyaya-rahitam: “If you have no money, then you’ll never get justice.” Dalmia, he was imprisoned for two years.

Dr. Patel: He was never in the jail. I know.

Prabhupada: He was in the Delhi Hospital. [break] I am speaking so loudly real thing. Here you cannot. Immediately you’ll be in the black book. [break]

Giriraja: “…must go unpunished. This is itself the business of criminal and lawless men who have no knowledge what it means to protect the citizens under their charge.” [break]

Prabhupada: Therefore it is rogues. So what is the value of that laws? The legislative assembly means a set of rogues, and if they legislate something, what is the value of that? [break] Caught like that, yes. Because people are becoming degraded, so they elected such degraded everything. [break] Shameless. The whole nation is asking that “You resign.” “No.” Such shameless. [break] …that somebody was in the room, and the outsider says, “Who is in the room?” “No, no! I am not stealing!” (laughter) “No, no, I am not stealing.”

Giriraja: There’s a saying that when you throw a stone in a pack of dogs, the one who is hit will scream. [break]

Prabhupada: Others also, followers. These ordinary, so-called Gosvamis in Vrndavana, in the outwardly, in religious dress, and inwardly they are committing so many sinful activities, they will become the dogs and hogs and monkeys in Vrndavana. So one Gosvami, he has taken very much objection to this writing, and he is making propaganda against me like anything. There was arrangement of reception. He stopped it. [break] That I have also written, that now, after finishing the sinful reaction, these monkeys and dogs will be liberated. That I have also written. [break] …one has passed stool, during daytime, due to the sunshine, the upper side is dry. So if somebody says, “This side is better than the other side. The moist side is not so good. The dry side is good.” [break] …nation, you’ll find (indistinct) gentlemen, but they do not know that these things are criminals. They think it is ordinary thing, illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication.

Dr. Patel: Natural.

Prabhupada: Yes. They say it is ordinary necessities. [break] Therefore we call mudhas. They do not know what is what.

Dr. Patel: I think Abraham Lincoln was the best of the whole presidents. What is your opinion, Abraham Lincoln?

Giriraja: Well, moist stool or dry…

Prabhupada: He gave the negroes freedom, Abraham Lincoln?

Giriraja: Yes, emancipation.

Dr. Patel: The Americans say he acted with negroes just we have acted with the aboriginals, the Aryans. What have we done with the poor aboriginals of India?

Prabhupada: We have… [break] “…one sect. Because we are sitting in Haridvar, and people will come here. And A.C. Bhaktivedanta, he is going.” So…

Dr. Patel: Bhaktivedanta has formed a canal to take the spiritual India.

Prabhupada: So they are now envious. [break] Abaddha karuna sindhu, katiya mohan, abaddha karuna sindhu, katiya mohan… That “All men, you take…” “Nityananda has cut open the stagnant water, and now it is overflooded.” Like that. Abaddha karuna sindhu… [break] Caitanya Mahaprabhu also said,

prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

that this is business. Not that prthivi loka will come. You have to go and preach.

Indian man (1): That is the purpose and duty (indistinct) of saints who have already realized…(?)

Prabhupada: Yes. Another… That is said,

bharata bhumite manusya janma haila yara janma sarthaka kari karo para-upakara [Cc. Adi 9.41]

Paropakara. Yes, that is India’s duty. [break] …nonsense, that sitting at, very comfortably at Haridvara. [break] …says, everything… Isavasyam idam… Everything has got control of the Supreme. Isavasyam idam sarvam. How you can say it is material when it is, it can be used… There is another verse. What is called? Prapancikataya buddhya hari-sambandha-vastunah. Everything has got relation with the Supreme because it is a production of the supreme energy. So everything is connected. So

prapancikataya buddhya hari-sambandha-vastunah mumuksubhih parityago phalgu-vairagya kathyate

If we do not take everything in that relation, that “Everything belongs to Krsna. Everything has got relationship with Krsna,” and if we simply give it up, “Oh, this is material. This is material…” [break] …has got relation of Krsna. Therefore everything should be dovetailed in the service of Krsna. And that is real understanding. [break] You’ll find simply drunkards lying down on the street. I lived there for some time.

Giriraja: “Nowhere in the Newsweek article is the quackery of these signs…”

Prabhupada: But they were very much respectful to me. On my door they are lying down and passing urine. As soon as I will come, “Come on. Come on. Come on, sir. Come on,” respectful. They were very respectful. Hm. Hare Krsna. [break] …grudge because I am presenting Krsna the Supreme Personality of God. That is their grudge. That is the grudge of the all impersonalists.

Giriraja: “This allegation, however, betrays such a profound lack of knowledge that the so-called swami sounds more like one who is learned at Hinduism at New York University than an authentic scholar of the Vedas.” [break] “Supreme Brahman, the ultimate…” (end)