Morning Walk Conversation Prabhupada: Who is this? [break] Hm? Yes. Upendra: They don’t like nim? The flies. Prabhupada: That ask them. (laughter) You do not expect all answers from me, whether the flies like or not like. This is antiseptic. Nim is very, very antiseptic. Therefore it is natural, the flies and bugs, they are afraid of. Yes. [break]…here? Harikesa: He’s the purchaser. Aksayananda: He does shopping. Prabhupada: Namaskar. Hare Krsna. (Long Hindi conversation with someone) Dandhariya. Where is he? (Hindi) He knows how to capture. He is the… (Hindi) Gunarnava, he has not come? Aksayananda: No. Prabhupada: So he is going to Mathura? You told him? Huh? Aksayananda: He is going after breakfast. Devotee: What is the purpose? Aksayananda: To meet Prabhupada’s relative, I think? Prabhupada: Yes. You have told? Devotee: Yes. Prabhupada: So from Mathura he can bring that medicine. You can give him. Devotee: Castor oil. Aksayananda: I’ll tell him, Prabhupada. Prabhupada: No, no, castor oil can be had… Devotee: I’ll have him bring it. Prabhupada: You can take the vial. There is, what is called? Sadhana ausadhalaya. Indian man: Dakkha. (?) Prabhupada: Yes. Dakkha ta. (Hindi) From there you have to take it. Sadhana. On the bottle it is written there. (Hindi exchange with someone) They will never take seriously your Mayavada philosophy. (Hindi) Krsna aparadhi. They are offender to Krsna, all these Mayavadis. And in Vrndavana this Mayavadi philosophy has become very strong. Even the so-called Vaisnavas, they are also… (Hindi) Buddhist, they say that there is no God. Indian man: They can’t believe God. Prabhupada: Whatever it may be, they deny. Therefore we call them atheist. But these Mayavadi, they take the shelter of Vedas and they preach the same philosophy. “Yes, brahman—nirakara.” (Hindi) …don’t believe in God… (Hindi) For the time being, Sankaracarya might have said something like that to turn the Buddhists again to Vedas, but that is temporary. But they have taken it all true. (Hindi) …eighty-five years they are working. They have no position. (Hindi) What is that? TM? Brahmananda: TM, Transcendental Meditation. Prabhupada: And what is the items they say? Brahmananda: No philosophy, no belief, no restrictions. Prabhupada: (laughs) Just see. He advertises. Mahesh Yogi. Indian man: Mahesh Yogi, yes. Followers, they are taking everything. Prabhupada: He says, “There is no restriction, or no philosophy, no faith.” (Hindi conversation) Recently one book was published by Professor Judah. He has studied this movement for five years. He came to India. So he has written one book, Hare Krsna and Counterculture, but scholarly. (Hindi) He appreciated. (Hindi) …and the fifty books I have, four hundred pages each. And we are selling twenty lakhs’ worth monthly. (Hindi) [break] …it is up to that? Aksayananda: Nobody knows your limit, Prabhupada. Nobody knows your limit. Prabhupada: No, generally. Who remembers? Harikesa: It was way back there. Brahmananda: It was back there by that… (laughter) Prabhupada: Huh? No, no. I remember. Aksayananda: I think it was here somewhere. [break] Prabhupada: Ants are freely moving. They do not know it is dangerous. Similarly, all these living entities in material world, they think, “It is not dangerous. It is all right.” Ant civilization. French devotee (1): Srila Prabhupada, is there some worship of God in the animal kingdom? Prabhupada: No. (aside:) Hare Krsna. Harikesa: Hut hut hut hut! Prabhupada: “Hut” will not do. Brahmananda: Stick will do. Prabhupada: At least show. [break] Trees and other lower animals, they are abiding by the order of Krsna. That is worship. Brahmananda: But is it voluntary or involuntary? Prabhupada: By force. By force now this tree is standing. He has to stand up here. It cannot move an inch. Brahmananda: Is that considered worship? Prabhupada: Yes, it is. Aksayananda: Indirect worship. Prabhupada: …indirect worship, abiding. Just like you don’t worship the government, revolt. But when you are put into jail you have to worship the government. Aksayananda: We don’t worship, yet we don’t break the law. Prabhupada: You cannot break the law. Outside you break law. That you can do. But when you are put into jail, then you cannot. And jail means unless the government finds that you are now obedient to the government laws… (dog growling and barking) Brahmananda: Hut! Prabhupada: He is taking our shelter, (laughter) the other dog. Aksayananda: I’ve seen dogs follow sankirtana party for many miles. Once a dog was following, and he had tilaka, he had a tilaka mark on his head. Prabhupada: No, no. Who? Who marked it? Somebody? No, no. You should not do it. Brahmananda: Did someone put tilaka on the dog? Aksayananda: Oh, I mean to say the color of his body was such. Prabhupada: Oh, that is another thing. But you cannot put tilaka. Don’t make tilaka so cheap. Natural tilaka, that is another thing. Aksayananda: Yes. French devotee (2): If a devotee step on the ant, does the ant receive some benefit? Prabhupada: Hm? French devotee (2): If a devotee step on a ant by mistake, the ant… Prabhupada: You should be careful. Why should you commit mistake? But if unconsciously, by mistake it is done, that is another thing. Brahmananda: He wants to know does the ant receive benefit? Prabhupada: No. Then he will be lenient to kill them to give them benefit. (laughter) He’ll be so… Brahmananda: Like they say “mercy killing,” that “This is good for you. I will kill you and it is good for you.” Prabhupada: Yes. You should always think that you are responsible for its killing. But it may be Krsna may excuse you. That is another thing. Consciously you cannot kill. [break] Aksayananda: …people in India, Prabhupada, are still pure vegetarians, but almost all of their children eat eggs, and try to smoke cigarettes, and they don’t stop them because they don’t have any philosophy because of the Mayavadi philosophy. Prabhupada: Yes. Aksayananda: Almost 90% of all the people we preach to, they are all influenced by Mayavadi philosophy. Prabhupada: Yes. That I was talking. [break] Brahmananda: …say that the egg is from God, and the apple is from God. Prabhupada: So why don’t you eat apple? (laughter) Aksayananda: They are also envious of you, Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada: I know that. Do they say like that? Aksayananda: Not directly. But when we explain how many things, what is being done and we show photographs, how people have become devotees, they will say, “Yes, but have you heard of Swami so and so?” And we’ll say, “Yes, we have heard of him. But our Guru Maharaja has got thousands of devotees all over the world.” “Yes, he has also got thousands of devotees.” They’ll minimize, even though it’s there in black and white. Prabhupada: But where they are? Brahmananda: Yeah. Where are those thousands of disciples of these other swamis? Prabhupada: “Here we are, but where are the swami’s disciples?” Ask them. Aksayananda: Then they will become angry. Prabhupada: “No, no. Well, don’t be angry. Well, Bhaktivedanta Swami’s disciples, we are present here. Present anyone else. So how shall I believe you?” Aksayananda: Then they will say, “We are doing the same as you. But we don’t have to help you because we are already doing the same thing. We are feeding the poor, giving charity.” Prabhupada: Yes. They do not understand. Aksayananda: But yet their children are eating eggs, giving up. [break] Brahmananda: …say that they are doing the same thing that we are doing, then that should be a reason to help us, not to not help us. If we’re doing the same thing, therefore if you are helping one, then you must help the other also. Aksayananda: Yes. That’s what I tell them. They say, “We already helped the other, but you came too late, so therefore we can’t help you.” Prabhupada: “So you are so poor?”—(aside:) Hare Krsna—“that you cannot help the second man? Then how you are charitable? You must be open to give charity to everyone.” No use talking. French devotee (1): They are very rich, Srila Prabhupada. They are very rich. Prabhupada: Richer than us? (laughter) Do you think? French devotee (1): No. Prabhupada: How many branches he has got of his business? Aksayananda: So I usually tell them, “It is not for us that we want help, but so that we can help others.” They like that. They can appreciate humanitarian viewpoint, material benefit. That’s all. Prabhupada: So we are giving the best humanitarian service—to stop his repetition of birth and death. Brahmananda: The final solution. Prabhupada: Yes. Brahmananda: This is the final solution. Aksayananda: In India, now in the cities, wherever we go, there are so many big cinema houses being built. So if the young people are not yet tired of that, then how will we convince them of Krsna consciousness? They all go by the thousands to the cinema house. Prabhupada: You approach the cinema proprietor and make him a member. We have got contribution from a very big cinema man. Brahmananda: Raj Kapoor has become a patron member. Prabhupada: You can show his letter, how he appreciates. So similarly, you can collect some money. So this money is coming from the cinema visitors, so indirectly they will be benefited. Yes. Aksayananda: Money is there, and they give. Still they’ll go on showing the nonsense, and all the young people are going and being corrupted. Prabhupada: That is going on everywhere, not only in the cinema, karmis. So our duty is to take some service; then they will be benefited by that. Kurusva tad mad-arpanam. Krsna says, “Whatever you do doesn’t matter. The result, give Me.” [break] French devotee (2): They go to cinema because they have no adventures in their life. So they go to cinema. If they become Krsna conscious, so they don’t need to go to cinema. Prabhupada: Krsna conscious is not so cheap. Have you come to Krsna consciousness? Don’t take Krsna consciousness so cheap that they will go to cinema and become Krsna conscious. Brahmananda: No, he says that if they become Krsna conscious, then they will stop going to the cinema. Prabhupada: Yes. That is the test. (aside:) Hare Krsna. Jaya. This is the test. Bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktir anyatra [SB 11.2.42] Advancement of Krsna consciousness means he’s no more interested with anything material. That is Krsna conscious. There is a Bengali proverb, ami dugdha khaya eta mako khaya: “The children, they take milk, and adults, they smoke.” So one is speaking that “I take milk and smoke also.” Brahmananda: He thinks he’s all right. “I’m okay.” Prabhupada: Yes. “I go to temple and I do all nonsense also.” Hare Krsna. We shall go directly temple? Brahmananda: Yes. (end)
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
August 27, 1975, Vrndavana