Morning Walk Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
June 27, 1975, Los Angeles

Devotee (1): They only take one master usually.

Brahmananda: It’s a German dog.

Prabhupada: Oh. Don’t care for other?

Devotee (1): No. They train them that way.

Brahmananda: What are those, deer?

Satsvarupa: This is a zoo.

Kurusrestha: Those are elk. [break]

Prabhupada: …your American Congress Library they placed a standing order, eighteen books, whatever I published each book. So I have tried so many, what is called, GBC. They are not very expert to organize in India. So if you think you can do it… Now we have got sufficient place in Bombay. So if you take charge of this distribution of books not only in India but neighboring countries just like Hong Kong, Singapore, if you think you can do that, that will be nice. You have got experience, how to distribute books. So you think over. Now we have got very nice place in Bombay. We have got place for at least fifty men very comfortably. Is it not?

Brahmananda: Oh, yes. And there’s godowns and (indistinct) space, everything.

Prabhupada: Everything, we have got enough facility. We are not going to rent anyone, anyway, any room. We shall utilize it for our purpose only, receiving guest, organizing this book sale. That is my idea.

Jagadisa: Thank you very, very much for asking me. I will go immediately.

Prabhupada: You are capable. I know that. He is very capable. You know how to do business, yes. In India an educated man and big, big government officers, lawyers, they will purchase. We do not approach them. School, colleges, library, universities. After all, English language is still current in India. It is not stopped. So they will like to read their own literature in English. They made vigorous propaganda to replace English by Hindi. That has failed. That has failed. No gentleman cares to learn Hindi. (chuckles) At least I never cared. I know Hindi, not by diverting my attention, no. That is very important, no. Automatically whatever I learned, that’s all. I am not in favor of that Hindi. Especially in South India, they are all… So by appointing some professional men also.

Brahmananda: Some agents.

Prabhupada: Some agents, selling agents. Simply one has to organize vigorously.

Paramahamsa: There’s that big book company, Wheeler?

Prabhupada: Wheeler, yes. They can take all small books. They cannot take…

Brahmananda: We’d sell them in the train stations?

Jagadisa: Yes.

Brahmananda: That Wheeler, they have shops in every train station.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Jayatirtha: When I was there once, I was in the market and I had a Krsna trilogy with me and the man who was selling the fruits he started to look at it, and he was so impressed that he immediately offered me ten rupees. And then a big crowd of people came around, and they were looking at the pictures and everything, and they were all bidding, they all wanted that, for ten rupees, they were demanding that I sell it to them. A big crowd of people, they were all willing to pay ten rupees because they’d never seen anything like this book before.

Prabhupada: What is the position of Bhagavad-gita? Macmillan, you are not taking supply, so they have stopped?

Jayatirtha: We’ve informed them that the…, we want to make the…, because they no longer have it in print, that the abridged edition, we want to break the contract.

Prabhupada: No, that is already, they have permitted. Anyway, you can…

Jayatirtha: But as far as the other one is concerned we have a stock on hand.

Prabhupada: What they are doing?

Brahmananda: They’re picking the papers.

Prabhupada: Oh. He’s earning forty dollars daily?

Jayatirtha: At least.

Prabhupada: Just see. For picking up the paper they have to pay so much. [break] (walking:) …is we want to distribute books vigorously because general public, they have not yet understood what is the importance of this movement; neither they have any knowledge. The general public, maybe with some exception in India, they are simply like cats and dogs. They have no knowledge, that what is the purpose of this life (indistinct) and… Pravrttim ca nivrttim ca na vidur asurah jana. That is stated. Pravrtti means what we should accept, what kind of life we should accept and what kind of life we shall reject. This is their first ignorance. Pravrttim ca nivrttim ca na viduh asurah jana. And what is the next line? Jagad ahur anisvaram [Bg. 16.8]

Jayadvaita: Na saucam napi cacaro…

Prabhupada: Napi cacaro. Na saucam napi cacaro…

Jayadvaita: Na satyam tes…

Prabhupada: Na satyam tesu vidyate. This is the whole population. They do not know… There are big, big nation, big, big philosopher, big, big scientists and all very big, but what kind of life they should live, they do not know. What is the accurate destination of our life, that they do not know. And all humbug, big, big scientist, philosopher, theologist, and so on, so on, politician, sociologist, welfare. But real thing, they are rascal. They do not know which way we have to go. So what is the use of these big, big words? They do not know which way to go. Suppose we are walking. If we go to the this side without knowing that “This is water; we should not go,” then what is the use? That is their defect. Pravrttim ca nivrttim ca na vidur asurah jana. Na saucam napi cacaro. (chuckles) Saucam, cleanliness, they do not know, neither behavior. Napi cacaro. Jagad ahur anisvaram; [Bg. 16.8] “Oh, there is no God. It has come out out of the sand.” This is the whole population. Jagad ahur anisvaram [Bg. 16.8]. Which way we shall go? [break] Therefore we require vigorous propaganda to make these fools to understand what is the real aim of life. That should be our propaganda. Idam adya maya labdham imam prapsye punar dhanam. They have simply calculated, “Now today the bank balance is now three millions dollars, and tomorrow it will be four million.” Simply, they say. Idam prapsye punar dhanam. And everyone is proud, “Who is greater than me? Who can understand more than me? I am very great man.” Adhyo mam abhi… What is that? Adhyo mam, hmm? “I am the richest man. I am the most aristocratic. I have killed so many enemies. Now I shall kill that enemy.” Everything is described in the Bhagavad-gita. This is their position. The rascal does not know whether he is going to be a dog next life, and if he is going to, he says, “Oh, what is the wrong? I can become dog.” This is the position. [break] …ahur anisvaram. [break] …trying to go to the planet, this planet, that planet. Rascal, say… They did not recognize, “Who has made this planet, where I am going?” They are taking credit by going there, but he is not giving any credit to the person or the agent who has made it. Just see. What do you think? That, “I am going there, but who has made it? Who is that person?” “No, it has come out… There was a chunk, and it became plant and then so on.” This is their knowledge. And people are accepting, “Oh, great scientist. There was a chunk.” Just see. Why don’t you get yourself a chunk and it burst into big, big planet? (laughter) Such rascals are governing the whole human society.

Radha-vallabha: They have another theory, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Any theory, they are all rascals, that’s all. (laughter) [break] …arrangement in one planet, it has come accidentally by chunk bursting, and we have to believe them. This is their position. [break] …this understanding comes automatically when one understands that he is soul, then. And that requires brain. Therefore we are discussing tapasa brahmacaryena [SB 6.1.13] We have to to create brain how to understand it. [break] …phalam tesam tad bhavati alpa-medhasam. It is stated, alpa-medhasam, a slight brain substance. Medha, medha what is called, cere… cere…

Harikesa: Cerebral?

Prabhupada: Cerebrum, yes. So intelligence becomes more more who has got more cerebrum. So psychologically, it is… A very intelligent man has got sixty-four ounce cerebrum. And woman, even she is very intelligent, is not more than thirty-four ounce. Therefore we don’t find, amongst women, any big scientist. It is impossible. Don’t be angry. (laughter) And these rascals giving equal rights. Just see. And Vedic civilization: “No, they should be protected.” The woman should be protected by the father, by the husband, and by elderly sons. No independence. [break] …she is my sister. She is old, about three years less than me, but she has got sons. She is very happy moving, protected by the sons. Even Kunti, such intelligent woman, such educated and…, she also kept herself under her sons, the Pandavas. The Pandavas lost the game. They were banished, but Kunti was not banished. But she said, “Then how shall I…? I must go with my sons.” Sita, wife of Lord Ramacandra. So Ramacandra was ordered by His father, “My dear son, You have to go forest for fourteen years.” Sita was not ordered. But she voluntarily followed. “Where shall I go? You are my husband. You are going to the forest? I shall go to the forest.” This is Vedic civilization. And because she went with her husband, the Rama-Ravana fight was there. Pathe nari-vivarjitah. It is said that “When you go to a, foreign country, you don’t take woman with you.” Pathe nari-vivarjitah. But she said that “Where shall I remain for fourteen years? I must go with You.” So Ramacandra had to agree. And on account of taking this wife along with Him, there was so much trouble. And the husband is so responsible that… Lord Ramacandra, He is God. He could create thousands and millions of Sitas, but not for one Sita He killed the whole family. That is husband. That is the duty of the husband. If wife’s a little hair is infringed, he should take steps immediately. That is husband, not that accept wife today and give it up tomorrow. That is not husband. Husband must be very responsible to take care of the wife, and wife must be very chaste to serve the husband. Then family life is all right. [break] …do not understand that “I am a living entity. I am encaged in this material body, and this material body means subjected to so many miserable condition.” That they cannot understand. So my first business is how to be free from this repetition of accepting a material body. That they are not… A temporary life for fifty years or sixty years, they are busy, making very, very, gorgeous arrangement. This is asuric civilization. He does not take it very seriously that “I am encaged in this material body. My first business is how to get out of it and remain in my spiritual body.” They get one type of body, and, like cats and dogs, engage, how to keep that body in sense gratification. That’s all. [break] …spiritual education, that “I am spiritual, spirit soul. I am encaged in this body. I want freedom. That is my first business, how to become liberated.” No, that question set aside. Now, for the time being, we are walking here, and if there is some misunderstanding, we fight, forgetting that we have come here for walking, say, for half an hour. And why we shall forget our real business? That intelligence is not there. [break] …India the Indira Gandhi was made as all in all. Now there is a catastrophe. We do not know what is going to happen.

Brahmananda: They say she is the most powerful woman in the world.

Prabhupada: Yes, very powerful. Now she is going to hell, so powerful. She is so powerful, now she is going to hell.

Kasirama: The United Nations has declared this year International Woman’s Year so that all the women can gain more liberation from the bondage of being under the supremacy of man.

Prabhupada: But how to get liberation, not being pregnant?

Kasirama: That’s one of the programs.

Prabhupada: Yes. Let them be liberated, not being pregnant. The man will be pregnant equally. (laughter) Where is that liberation? Can they make any resolution, “Now, man has to become pregnant also equally.”

Jayatirtha: The scientists will begin work on that.

Prabhupada: Yes, let these rascals engage in that work, how a man can become pregnant. (laughter) “Yes, we are trying, we shall do in the future.” They will say like that, yes. [break] …there are women police. You know that? So they were guiding… I said that “If somebody captures your hand, then where is your police force?” Any young boy sixteen, seventeen years old can capture any two, three women, and he can control. And where is the police force?

Brahmananda: They’re now making women firemen.

Prabhupada: Firemen?

Brahmananda: Yeah. So all the wives and girlfriends of the firemen, they have lodged a protest because they are afraid… Because the firemen, they, often they have nothing to do. So they are afraid that if there are women firemen that the women firemen will steal away the husbands. So they have made a protest. Because practically they have to remain together. They have to live together in the firehouse.

Prabhupada: Oh. That is bondage.

Brahmananda: Well, they’re afraid that there will be illicit activity between the firemen and the firewomen. (laughter)

Jayatirtha: Now they’re changing the names. Anything that implies sexism they want to change the name. Just like “seamstress,” now they have to call, “sewing machine operator.” Because “seamstress” implies that it’s a woman’s job. So they say, “sewing machine operator.” Or “firemen,” they have to say, “fire prevention operator” or something like that.

Kirtiraja: Mailman?

Jayatirtha: Mailperson.

Kirtiraja: Mailperson. But then they can’t even do that because it’s male.

Revatinandana: (indistinct)

Bahulasva: They’re going crazy now in this country, Prabhupada. Men are having operations to become like women.

Prabhupada: Yes, there is a student here? (laughter)

Bahulasva: He’s in San Francisco. Or she’s in San Francisco.

Prabhupada: Why not woman become man? Then that will be nice. Manpower will increase. Because every country the population of woman is bigger than the man. So if a woman can be made into man, then manpower will increase.

Jayadvaita: Then the women will decrease.

Prabhupada: No, there is no question of decrease. They are already increased. They will be equal quantity. [break] …is there, therefore the dogs are not there. Dogs? Best friend, dogs, are not there today because the policeman is there.

Jayatirtha: Oh, this man.

Kirtiraja: That’s Hayagriva’s and Kirtanananda’s friend.

Jayatirtha: Dr. Henderson.

Kirtiraja: George Henderson, yes.

Prabhupada: Who?

Kirtiraja: Right here, standing here. He just went like this to you. [break]

Brahmananda: I asked him to prove mathematically that one minus one equals one.

Prabhupada: [break] …doing there?

Brahmananda: Getting the clams.

Bahulasva: He is going to eat them.

Brahmananda: (in car) …difficult to get visas for Trinidad and Guyana. Especially Trinidad. And once he even got a visa and they rejected it at the border.

Prabhupada: There is no need of… [break]

Brahmananda: Oh, Same situation of having a Negro government with a large Indian population. [break] …will have to be gotten from inside the country and then sent to us here.

Jagatpurusa: Well, we would call Sesa Narayana who is the speaker of the house and he would tell us that we could come.

Prabhupada: On the whole, we should not take any risk. That is not good. Then we shall postpone everything. [break]

Brahmananda: …this Mr. Henderson, he is living, looking like a…

Prabhupada: Hippie.

Brahmananda: Yes, hippie.

Jayatirtha: He makes things for Spiritual Sky. He’s not employed by them, but he makes things and sells them to Spiritual Sky. [break] …job as a professor, but he doesn’t want to. [break]

Prabhupada: …say “impossible” is a word found in fool’s dictionary.

Jayatirtha: Jaya. (car drives past devotees chanting)

Prabhupada: Hare Krsna. (end)