Room Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
October 12, 1977, Vrndavana

Prabhupada: He is qualified man.

Kirtanananda: He’s qualified. He’s your friend. He’s very understanding. But, of course, putting ourselves under his care means we have to follow his instruction.

Prabhupada: He instructed hospitalization.

Tamala Krsna: Yes, hospitalization.

Kirtanananda: Ultimately, whatever he says we have to do if we’re going to accept him. But he’s also very understanding, and I think in your condition there may be no need for hospitalization. We need to get some regular care established. There was to be a regimen for recovery.

Prabhupada: No, that I have already explained. I don’t want to go to hospital.

Kirtanananda: So that is not necessary. (Prabhupada coughs heavily) [break]

Tamala Krsna: Jayapataka Maharaja has come from Mayapura.

Prabhupada: Come here. (heavy coughing) Mucus is generating, either you take milk or fruit juice. I have given my opinion in that correspondence. And he’s a qualified man. If you want him, then somebody may go to him and talk.

Kirtanananda: Yes, that should be done. We’ll do that today.

Prabhupada: He wanted to retire and start a clinic here.

Kirtanananda: So he can come now.

Prabhupada: So we can help.

Kirtanananda: Yes. It’s a very good idea.

Prabhupada: So, what is the report, Jayapataka?

Jayapataka: Since I left you in Bombay, then I returned and presented the Show Cause to the additional district magistrate. And he just looked at it and postponed it till November 18th. He postponed, so as far as that goes, there’s nothing until November 18th. Then, I think, Bhavananda Maharaja gave the report about the court. They released… They reduced the bail restriction on the devotees. I went on a tour of Orissa to the two temples there, Bhubaneshwar and Bhadrak. In Bhubaneshwar they have nice garden (Prabhupada coughing up mucus) and about six or seven devotees. They had a nice Vyasa-puja and Janmastami festival.

Prabhupada: Magistrate wants my presence?

Jayapataka: No. It is not required that you talk to him. There’s no… Everyone says that there’s no case for that. The previous ADM said that actually the person that was doing it is this woman district magistrate. That woman is quite inimical to us. So there’s very strong talk that after Durga Puja she’ll be transferred. If she’s transferred, then our situation would become much better, I hope, by Krsna’s mercy. She’s just trying to harass us, but actually she has no legal scope. Indian Overseas Bank came out, the additional general manager, to Mayapura, and he’s very eager to open up the branch at Mayapura also, because they have already in Bombay. I think… They have here also? I don’t know. But he was eager to open a branch there. They have made us an application. The Central Bank sent a letter, withdrew their application for opening the bank. Right now the Gurukula, they have just finished their examinations. Their examinations were writing an English sentence in Sanskrit and writing Sanskrit in English and similar type tests. They, most of the students got seventy percent on the examination. Then the bigger children went out on sankirtana with the two traveling parties, one to Darjeeling. In Darjeeling they sold seven thousand books in less than ten days. They had very good reception in Darjeeling. And one party is still in Bihar. They did four thousand books.

Prabhupada: Bengal book.

Jayapataka: In Bihar—they were doing the border of Bengal in Bihar— so they did both Hindi and Bengali. And in Darjeeling they did Bengali. Every day we’re getting about twenty letters in the mail from people who want to be devotees or want to subscribe to the magazine. We get a big stack of mail. So there’s a lot of interest from the books.

Prabhupada: So utilize them properly.

Jayapataka: Now there’s eighty boys in the Gurukula, and they’re all very bright-faced, chant very nicely. In the other temple that Lokanatha Swami had begun in Orissa, Bhadrak, there they also had a nice program during Janmastami and Vyasa-puja. I visited there. There it’s in a small town, and it’s about two hundred feet from the side of a small river. All the local people there are very favorable and very cooperative. So they help in all the functions.

Prabhupada: Where is that place?

Jayapataka: That’s in Balasore district. It’s about thirty miles south of Balasore. It’s a three-hour bus ride from Bhubaneshwar north. There’s a Gaura-Gopala Mandir there that was being managed by a disciple of Parvat Maharaja, a disciple of Parvat Maharaja. Lokanatha Swami had written to you that they wanted to donate the temple plus twenty-four bighas of land, and you had replied back that he should accept it. So he left three men there from his party and they registered the land in your name, including the mandira. At that place Lord Caitanya had visited on occasion, going back and forth between Bengal…

Prabhupada: Baribhada? That place is called Baribhada?

Jayapataka: Now it’s called Bhadrak. They’re… Just a few hundred yards from the place of the mandira is the place where Lord Caitanya sat where He was staying for five days when He was there. Then about two miles away on another occasion He stayed at a Radha-Madana-mohana or some mandira. Lord Caitanya’s been going there on occasion. It’s in the Caitanya-caritamrta. It mentions the place. And the people who have given us the temple, they are the descendants of the devotee with whom Lord Caitanya stayed with. They’re the same family. And so they’re very enthusiastic and they want to give all help. Although it’s a small place, they’ve already made a couple of members, life patron members, and they’re trying to collect donation. There’s a college there, and some of the professors of the college come regularly to the temple, and they are chanting japa and they’re bringing their students and other colleagues.

Prabhupada: Good field.

Jayapataka: Yes, although it’s a village-type area, it seems to be good field. The people are not at all envious but quite cooperative. Also just about a quarter mile from the mandira there’s a gosala which has got 33 acres, about 100 bighas of land and about 100 cows. Cows are not so good cows, but there’s nice, paka buildings and good facilities. It’s managed by some Marwaris. So they’re willing to give that over to us in the future if we want. It’s very nearby the temple. When I was there I gave a lecture at one temple, and about two, three hundred people came without any advertisement. In Haridaspur, at their Janmastami festival they had… Two thousand people came. They had a huge crowd. And every one of the villagers, they organized the whole thing there, the leaders, gathered firewood, helped with distribution. We sent some devotees from Mayapura. Bhakti-prabhava Swami sends his obeisances to Your Divine Grace.

Hari-sauri: What about Mahesa Pandita’s place? [break]

Jayapataka: They want that the case be dropped and that they be given jobs, like before. (laughter)

Prabhupada: Hm?

Jayapataka: They’re sending messenger requesting that there should be some type of agreement whereby the charges against them are dropped, the case is dropped, and that they’re given the old jobs back.

Prabhupada: The charges are made by the government. We cannot drop. Do you follow?

Jayapataka: Yes. The charges can’t be dropped by us, but if the two parties make a type of compromise agreement and file a petition to the court…

Prabhupada: But now the fight is not between them and us. The fight is between government and them.

Jayapataka: Many barristers in Calcutta say that if due to political pressure, this or that, some people come and ask us to try to file a petition for dropping charges, that there’s no need to do that, because the case is well in our favor.

Prabhupada: Yes. If you drop, they get opportunity.

Jayapataka: Yes. No, we have no intention to drop the charges. That will not clear our name. The day I returned, the Secretary General… Rather, the General Secretary of the State Congress Party, Mr. K. K. Sukla, he just happened to visit our mandira, and he heard the whole story, and he said that he’ll give whatever support he can, and if they get back into any power, then he’ll see that our programs get full assistance. Then our lawyer told us that he has been talking to some ministers in the present Communist government, and they’re saying that they’re willing to support our movement if we do some works that are beneficial for the people. They’re not saying that we’re not doing any so far, but any other things like the bridges or the schemes we have, they’re willing to give us support for those. By your mercy everything is gradually changing around. The tantric astrologer there, he gave some predictions.

Prabhupada: What is that?

Jayapataka: Well, about two weeks ago he had told Bhavananda that he would be called to Vrndavana and that all the GBCs or leaders of the Society would be called to Vrndavana to see Your Divine Grace. He said that actually Your Divine Grace is a pure Vaisnava and like type of avatara, empowered person of Krsna, so that he shouldn’t really speak anything, because he’s simply a tantric type of astrologer, ’cause you are able to change your fate or change according to your desire. He predicted that all the GBCs would be coming. He said that up till the November 28th is the last date of the sickness, and that after that, then your sickness… You would take a month or so to fully recuperate, and then from January on you’d be quite healthy again, and for at least seven years you wouldn’t have any trouble with health. The big day… He put the biggest day at November 28th.

Hari-sauri: The worst day?

Jayapataka: That’s the end of the bad period.

Hari-sauri: I’ll get the other chart. This man in Delhi did another chart.

Prabhupada: Why November 28th?

Jayapataka: Why? That’s just his… He may or may not be accurate.

Bhavananda: What is the occurrence on that day?

Jayapataka: He said that that’s the last day of the…

Bhavananda: That’s the day Venus changes houses.

Prabhupada: Hm?

Kirtanananda: That’s the day Venus changes houses.

Jayapataka: He said that he is praying that Krsna will keep you here, ’cause without a pure devotee in the world then everything becomes dark. West Bengal Council for Child Welfare and the West Bengal Government Health Department Inspector came out and inspected our distribution. We have five centers where we distribute five days a week, Monday through Friday, the foodstuff. We eat another thing given by the government. We prepare that and offer it to the Deity and distribute that from our temple as well as from a nearby village. The local villagers help to distribute. Right now twelve hundred people are taking every day. So they were very satisfied with the arrangement. And one of the centers is Mayapura village. They had been refusing to take, and he said, “You just change and put into another village. They’re not the only poor people in the world. Any other village can take.” They are very favorable to our program. They given us a full quota that daily 1,846 people can get food and they’ll bear the costs of the grain and oil, etc.

Prabhupada: What is this preparation?

Jayapataka: It’s wheat that’s chipped. It’s called bulgar wheat. It’s wheat that’s chipped into small pieces so that’s it’s… It’s like oversized suji, about three times the size of suji, and that’s just boiled and cooked with oil and some gur and spices. Or it can also be cooked with vegetables and spices. It’s supposed to be nutritious, healthy, strength-giving food. Mayapura Muslims tried to get the other Muslims in other villages not to take it because it was being given by us, but they said, “Why we shouldn’t take? Just because you’re giving them trouble doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take.” So now they’ve all rebelled, and they’re all taking now prasadam. He gave us address where we can get powdered milk possibly also.

Prabhupada: It is mixed with powder milk?

Jayapataka: What we have right now isn’t mixed with powdered milk. We want to mix powdered milk with it, but this department ran out of powdered milk, so another department has it. This is… They give oil to cook it in, like halava type, vegetable oil. It’s like a cereal that they have in the West, in America and some places. Like dalya, they call in Western India.

Prabhupada: They take it relishably?

Jayapataka: Yes.

Prabhupada: How much they can take?

Jayapataka: Well, the government calculates that each person gets 80 grams of dalya and 7 grams of oil, and when that’s cooked that comes to nearly about four, five hundred grams cooked per head. It’s about three, four clay cups.

Kirtanananda: Srila Prabhupada, if we could prop you up for a few minutes you could clear all that mucus out. It would come out much easier. Can we do that?

Prabhupada: Yes. [break]

Tamala Krsna: Come over here, Pisima.

Upendra: This side.

Prabhupada: (converses with sister in Bengali) Somebody may be sent to Imlital Math to call her son.

Tamala Krsna: Which matha, Prabhupada? Imlital Math. All right. Pradyumna will go. Here, Bhakti-caru is here. Prabhupada said someone should go to Imlital Math to call Pisima’s son.

Hari-sauri: Can we take the car?

Tamala Krsna: A ricksha.

Prabhupada: Give them here a small room.

Kirtanananda: Where, Srila Prabhupada?

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Tamala Krsna: What do you want, Srila Prabhupada? The fan. You want it more?

Prabhupada: No.

Tamala Krsna: Stop the fan.

Prabhupada: Oh, it is going on?

Tamala Krsna: Yes, a little bit.

Prabhupada: Switch it off.

Upendra: Decrease. [break]

Jayapataka: At first some of the devotees were disturbed, but after the Balarama Appearance and Jhulan Purnima procession, that gave everyone new encouragement, because they saw how much the local people were appreciative of your work, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Everything will be settled up. Don’t be disheartened. So when you left Mayapura, things were in order? Hm?

Jayapataka: When I left Mayapura, everything was in order. Nitaicand and Sarva-bhavana Prabhu, as well as Panca-ratna, are there. Actually one of our workers, he is filing his own case against thirteen Mayapura villagers, because they had attacked him while he was riding on his bicycle. So that was the only disturbance that had happened in the past month. But he’s doing a case against them, and the police said that they would prosecute against them for what they did. So because the people are of such a bad nature, they are continually making such mistakes. This is even getting the authorities against them.

Prabhupada: Yes, they are gundas. (laughter)

Jayapataka: Because we are foreigners, so when they first came and said that “The foreigners, they are firing upon us Indians although we did no wrong,” so rather than take what is the actual situation, they immediately said, “Oh, yes, foreigners are firing upon our Indians.” They took a national stand, influenced by different reasons. That is why that matter initially was against us. But now the fact that they are such type of gunda and anti-social, they are just showing by their own mistakes. They can’t hide their nature. They’ve already been summoned by the SDO on what’s called sabdara,(?) that they are undesirable elements, twenty of them, on another account, because they had done something else wrong, and they’re all on a type of bail, even apart from our case. So day by day, it’s becoming more and more apparent, their nature. You gave me the name Jayapataka, Srila Prabhupada, and I hope that by your mercy this name can become true. Then there will be victory in all these efforts.

Prabhupada: It has become true.

Jayapataka: Even after the incident, when Gopala Krsna went and saw the chief secretary of West Bengal, he requested him that “Please do not be discouraged by these incidents. Do not shift your plan from West Bengal. These things will all be settled up, and I’ll see that there will be an impartial investigation and trial.” The chief minister wrote a letter that his party… [break]

Prabhupada: He wants to sell it. What does he want?

Jayapataka: Right now he’s asking… Actually right now he’s more eager than ever to sell his land. The sadhu next to us, Praphulla Brahmacari, both of us, we met together, and we made a verbal agreement that we wouldn’t give him any hope for purchasing his land at a high price. And as the result, now because of this incident… Before he had some hope that some outside person would come and buy land. But now the outside people, they don’t want to purchase land at Mayapura. So now he has no other hope than to sell either to us or to that brahmacari. So now he’s still asking four thousand. He’s come from six to four. But it’s even appearing that within a short time he may come down to three thousand.

Prabhupada: So if he comes three thousand… How much land there is?

Jayapataka: There’s four bighas.

Prabhupada: So purchase it. Do you follow?

Jayapataka: Yes. That brahmacari, he would purchase it also. If you wanted to have him purchase, he would purchase and give us a piece. He said he would give us a piece alongside the building as big as we want, and he would purchase the rest.

Prabhupada: My idea is it is a land where we shall dig another pond. No building.

Jayapataka: Build another pond.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Jayapataka: The pukura. That land, at least at the front… The land at the whole length is very long and wide.

Prabhupada: Long and wide.

Jayapataka: And it would be a very… It’s not so big to be a pukura. The whole width of the land, I think, is about sixty feet wide.

Tamala Krsna: It sounds like Prabhupada wants a moat.

Bhavananda: We could make a moat, a water barrier, so no one… (laughs) They couldn’t attack from the back of the building.

Tamala Krsna: Is that your idea, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: You dig the earth and make it a lake like.

Tamala Krsna: Right along the building?

Prabhupada: No. Throw the earth this side and that side. Automatically it will be like a small canal.

Kirtanananda: Put crocodiles. (laughter)

Bhavananda: Srila Prabhupada, I was somewhat disturbed after the incident, but I’m feeling much better now. After that, in the jail, and I was discouraged, I was feeling, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada is working so hard to develop this Mayapura, and the people don’t appreciate it or… What is the use?” But that I think was… That’s all gone now. So many people, they’re coming, and books are being distributed. Increase.

Jayapataka: Bhavananda, when he… Just the day after he left here, there was a letter addressed to him. One gentleman wrote and said, “I am fifty years old and I am a M.A….” He was a professor of something. And he said, “Now my children are all grown up and I’m simply working. So I have heard that you are a pure Vaisnava, so I want to take shelter and serve Krsna at your asrama.” So although people are putting in paper so many things, but they are understanding that “No, he is a Vaisnava.” So people believe what they want to believe. So whatever… It’s all that… The devotees are devotees. When we see people, they always say, (Bengali). They don’t believe it that the report is true. Everyone doubts the reports. Only those that are of envious mind, they believe in, because they want to believe that.

Prabhupada: What… (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Jayapataka: They all think that actually the matter was not properly presented. So they’re always asking that “Everything is now all right? Was it actually a fact or not?” In other words, they don’t believe the reports that were given in the paper. They feel that, just from their own side, although they don’t have any access to the truth, they all have a faith that the thing as it was presented couldn’t have happened.

Prabhupada: So you can sit me up and wash.

Jayapataka: I think…

Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? Should we bathe your whole body now?

Prabhupada: Not now.

Tamala Krsna: Just face and hand. Okay. [break]

Prabhupada: (Bengali with Bhakti-caru and Pisima)

Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? Two telegrams came for you. One of them was sent by one of your Godbrothers.

Prabhupada: Who is he?

Tamala Krsna: Madhava Maharaja. He sent you a telegram from Chandigarh. It says, “Extremely anxious for your health. Praying to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Gaura-Krsna for Their blessings unto you.”

Prabhupada: So send him back telegram: “Thank you. Excuse my offenses—all Godbrothers.” What you have written?

Tamala Krsna: “Thank you. Excuse my offenses, all Godbrothers.”

Prabhupada: What is the other say here?

Tamala Krsna: The other telegram is from Australia.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Tamala Krsna: “Dearest Srila Prabhupada, please do not leave us, for without your lotus feet we have no shelter. We are trying to distribute more books. Your eternal servants at Sydney Mandir.”

Prabhupada: Yes, I am willing to stay. After all, it is Krsna’s desire. (Bengali)

Tamala Krsna: You want kirtana, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Tamala Krsna: Jaya Sri Krsna Caitanya.

Prabhupada: Kirtaniyah sada harih [Cc. adi 17.31]. Kirtana is our life.

Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? Two new Krsna book trilogies arrived from Brazil.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Tamala Krsna: Portuguese. How many copies are printed?

Hrdayananda: Altogether, about one hundred thousand.

Tamala Krsna: One hundred thousand copies printed.

Prabhupada: Ah, Hrdayananda has come.

Tamala Krsna: Yes, Hrdayananda Maharaja is here.

Prabhupada: Thank you very much. Printing of book is our real work. (Bengali) (kirtana)

Prabhupada: Let me see the book.

Tamala Krsna: What, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: The book.

Tamala Krsna: This one is easy to see. Sri Radha-Krsna. Your picture is there on the back.

Prabhupada: Very nice.

Tamala Krsna: Very nice. Pictures are in the front.

Prabhupada: How many copies?

Tamala Krsna: One hundred thousand.

Prabhupada: Oh! How we are selling?

Tamala Krsna: How they are selling, Hrdayananda?

Hrdayananda: Very nice.

Tamala Krsna: Very good, he said.

Hrdayananda: Over a thousand per day.

Tamala Krsna: Over one thousand per day are selling in Brazil.

Prabhupada: Oh. What is the price?

Hrdayananda: Price? They’re charging to the public around eighty cents.

Prabhupada: So you have got a good collection?

Tamala Krsna: Good collection, Hrdayananda?

Hrdayananda: Yes.

Prabhupada: Print more books.

Hrdayananda: Yes. Also in Brazil the Bhagavatam is very, very popular.

Prabhupada: This is life. This material world and the bones… The bones are not our… This is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our real concern is the living force. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakrtim param, jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat. The living force which is sustaining the bones… Bone is not important. It may remain; it may go. It doesn’t matter. Real life, what is sustaining the bone, is steady. We have got history that there was a rsi, he had only bones. So there is a science by which you can sustain life—only bones. Hiranyakasipu did it, practically.

Tamala Krsna: You are also doing it, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: So take care of the bones as long as possible. Real life is here. Always remember that. And material world means there are simply all protecting bones and flesh together. They have no idea what they are.(?) Bones and flesh… Bhumir apo ’nalo vayuh. Apareyam. It is useless. Not useless—inferior. Real? That jiva-bhuta, which is sustaining. Thank you very much. Print books, and as I have given in my will, half, again print, and half spent for propaganda as you like. In this way go on. Jayapataka, you are doing that?

Tamala Krsna: Jayapataka, are you doing that? Half spending and half for printing?

Jayapataka: In Bengal, because the people are so poor, so there we are giving the book and just taking five or ten percent profit margin…

Prabhupada: No, no.

Jayapataka: …for the small books, for propaganda purpose, so that we can reach many people.

Prabhupada: Yes. Whatever propaganda require you spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English book we have got, if we translate into Bengali, we have got enough stock.

Jayapataka: Yes. We have a treasure house.

Prabhupada: In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.

Jayapataka: Jaya Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Chant Hare Krsna. (kirtana) [break]

Tamala Krsna: What, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: You replied to Madhava Maha…?

Tamala Krsna: Yes. I’ll reply it in your name, telegram from you in your name. I’ll do the needful. Should I close these curtains or leave them open?

Prabhupada: No harm open.

Tamala Krsna: No harm open. Should I open the window? Get some fresh air, morning air? [break] (Bengali conversation with Niskincana Krsna dasa) (end)