Morning Walk Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
January 18, 1976, Mayapur

Madhudvisa: …Bhagavatam you say that we should greet the sun with the verse from Gayatri mantra. Does that means we should wait for sunrise to say our Gayatri? Just as the sun is rising, we should say the Gayatri.

Prabhupada: No. Early in the morning. (Gurukula boys in background)

Tamala Krsna: Sometimes we take bath before sunrise and put on tilaka. Should the mantra be said at that time, after putting on tilaka? Or should we wait and then say it…

Prabhupada: No, no.

Tamala Krsna: …when the sun rises? After tilaka?

Prabhupada: No, no, tilaka should be done after bathing.

Tamala Krsna: And then when should the Gayatri be said? Right after…

Prabhupada: After tilaka. Gayatri mantra is description of the sun. [break] …our land?

Bhavananda: Yes, Srila Prabhupada.

Jayapataka: This is wheat growing here.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Jayapataka: This is wheat growing.

Prabhupada: This land?

Jayapataka: This is not our land.

Prabhupada: And this? Up to this…?

Bhavananda: This is our land, and this is our land. This is not. [break]

Jayapataka: Srila Prabhupada? Would it be nice to have lampposts here? Little lampposts to light the road?

Prabhupada: It is cold. (laughs) Bare? No. That’s nice. Hike for(?) barefooted. It is there, up. [break] You have to make little shade like this, just like upon the wall the shade is there. You make to the walls so that the water may not spoil the painting.

Bhavananda: Oh, on the front wall.

Jayapataka: A little sunscreen.

Bhavananda: Sun…, rain screen.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Jayapataka: Stick it one foot out, one, two feet out.

Prabhupada: Yes. Not two foot. One, one-half foot will do.

Jayapataka: I was thinking that this morning, Srila Prabhupada, when I woke up.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Jayapataka: You must have been thinking…. I woke up thinking that the paintings needed a sunscreen because rain will fall on them.

Prabhupada: Which way? [break] All the members, they should water in front. Hm? Just like if somebody remains in this room, he must water. Then there will be no difficulty. Here is water. So you have to engage them. Why it will dry? [break]

Jayapataka: You suggested prasadam, books, cloth…

Prabhupada: Cloth you are not going to sell. Cloth are you going to sell?

Jayapataka: We can take donations for cloth. We won’t sell. We’ll take donations for cloth.

Prabhupada: That, for that purpose…

Tamala Krsna: What is the harm of selling cloth, Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: No, then you will require extra energy.

Jayapataka: No, I mean our own production, not outside.

Prabhupada: No, no, your production…. You should make production for your necessity.

Tamala Krsna: The American devotees, when they come, they want to purchase the cloth.

Prabhupada: That is amongst ourself, not public. That one can purchase from that side. Why a shop? You make one utensil shop, basana, basana, karatala. So one, prasadam; one, basana; and another?

Jayapataka: Books.

Prabhupada: Books. And another? Four you have got.

Tamala Krsna: Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Hm?

Tamala Krsna: You know those quotations you gave from your guru maharaja? Yesterday you wrote some quotations?

Prabhupada: Yes, yes.

Tamala Krsna: Here is a place where they might be displayed. This is a blank place.

Prabhupada: Yes, yes. There it should be written.

Tamala Krsna: This is very prominent.

Prabhupada: Not only there, here also.

Jayapataka: In big letters here.

Prabhupada: Yes. And there are so many places. Yes. First of all you place this and the other. We can give the upadesa of Prabhupada. I’ll give you matter for writing. So writing, that charges should be reduced. One…

Jayapataka: Yesterday Caitya-guru, the man he brought from Calcutta, he only wanted one rupee, seventy-five paisa.

Prabhupada: For painting. And for writing that should be…

Jayapataka: Writing, maybe one twenty-five.

Prabhupada: No. One. One. Make it one.

Jayapataka: One rupee.

Prabhupada: Yes. Which way we shall go?

Tamala Krsna: This way. We haven’t gone walking this way.

Prabhupada: So where you are going to give that shade upon?

Jayapataka: So what we’d have to do is we’d have to break the top.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Jayapataka: We’d have to break the top and then…

Prabhupada: Break? Why break? Another expenditure. Simply you make two brackets, wooden brackets, like that, and have a tin. That’s all.

Jayapataka: Tin.

Prabhupada: Tin or steel. Why breaking, again another?

Jayapataka: There’s already a…. I was thinking about the rain, if it’s falling straight down, that will be somewhat protected by this arch. Only if the rain is coming from this side, and even then it won’t protect…

Prabhupada: Oh, yes. The arch will…. That’s all right. Then don’t require. Then it is all right. Don’t require. [break] It will be colder in Bengal. Maghi, Magha-masa. Who has done this mischief, “Mayapura”?

Jayapataka: Someone put mud over “Mayapura.” This is our land, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Hm?

Jayapataka: This is our land here.

Prabhupada: Which one?

Jayapataka: This, with the wheat. We have a tube well there. We irrigate these lands. There are six and sixty, twelve bigas… [break] …last year’s harvest. We haven’t had to purchase any wheat this year.

Prabhupada: The chapati we eat, that is our wheat?

Jayapataka: Yes.

Prabhupada: Very good, yes.

Jayapataka: [break] …bigha is also ours.

Prabhupada: This one?

Jayapataka: Yes.

Prabhupada: What you have grown there?

Jayapataka: Chick peas.

Prabhupada: Oh, that’s nice. Chick pea, chapati, gur—first class. (laughter) And milk.

Jayapataka: [break] …land next to us, this gentleman.

Prabhupada: (Bengali) Hm.

Tamala Krsna: What is his name?

Jayapataka: Vakresvar. He worked on our original house. [break] In the rainy season the Ganges, when it rises high, it comes through here. It runs right by the birthsite. They say this is the original Ganges, over here. [break]

Prabhupada: Hare Krsna.

Gurukula boys: Hare Krsna!

Prabhupada: Jaya. Brahmacaris.

Jayapataka: [break] Not so many gosas come for prasadam. (break— to room conversation)

Devotee (1): “…Sanat Kumaras were going to Vaikuntha to visit Lord Visnu. They were stopped at the door by the doorkeepers, Jaya and Vijaya. But specifically, the Supreme Lord cannot be seen by ordinary eyes. But He now became visible to the eyesight of the Kumaras. Another significant word is samadhi-vakyam. Meditators who are very fortunate see the Visnu form of the Lord within their hearts by following the yoga process. But to see Him eye to eye is a different matter. It is only possible for pure devotees. The Kumaras therefore…” [break]

Bhavananda:aratika?

Prabhupada: No. No. That…

Bhavananda: They have kirtanas…

Prabhupada: Going on.

Bhavananda: Yes.

Devotee (1): [break] They couldn’t see the Lord face to face?

Prabhupada: Yes. Dhruva Maharaja saw face to face.

Sudama: [break] …factured this in Hawaii.

Prabhupada: [break] So then the chance is lost. Repeatedly Krsna is saying, “You give up all this habit. Just become Krsna conscious. Sarva-dharman…” Nobody will hear. “Why shall I not?” There is a Bengali song, cakse yadi lage bhalo keno dekhbo na: “If it is gratifying to my eyes, why shall I not see a beautiful woman? Why you are forbidding me?” Cakse yadi lage bhalo: “It is pleasing to my eyes. Why you are forbidding me? This is going on. Cakse yadi lage bhalo. If there is little happiness, don’t mind it is flickering. It will go on. The Carvaka Muni: rnam krtva ghrtam pibet: “Some way or other prepare foodstuff with ghee.” “I have no money.” Rnam krtva: “Just take. Beg, borrow, steal, bring ghee and prepare nice foodstuff and eat and enjoy life.” This is the material world. But sastra says, “No, no, no. Don’t do this. This is the hog’s business. Tapo. Just try to go, follow austerity.” Even those who are so-called advanced in knowledge, karmi, jnani, yogi, they are also after sense gratification. Karmi is openly after sense gratification and jnani is subtly. “No, no. This kind of…” Brahma satyam jagan mithya. “Now I shall enjoy Brahman. I shall become God.” This is another side, the same sense enjoyment. Because I have failed becoming a minister or becoming a king, becoming a leader, becoming—I have failed, now I shall become God. Same sense grati…. They cannot understand that this is also sense gratification. “I am not no more satisfied by becoming a little minister and king and…. No. I shall become God. Why shall I…. By becoming king or minister I beg to the goddess of fortune, ‘Mother, give me a little money.’ Why shall I beg? I shall enjoy her. I become Narayana.” Same disease. A yogi also, after mystic power they want to show magic: “I shall make like this and gold will be there. People will worship me as I am God.” Do that. People do that. If you play something wonderful they will accept you: “Oh, you are God.” But he does not know that he cannot become God. That is not possible. Although he gets little fractional authority to puzzle others that he has become God…. Because people are fools, if he can produce little gold like this, they will be immediately amazed: “Oh, how powerful he is.” They have no capacity to understand. If God is meant for making gold, why not worship the God who has made already millions of gold mines? Unlimited. There is no limit. Why this paltry god? They have no such knowledge. They are amazed.

Hari-sauri: They have to go to so much trouble as well just to achieve that little flickering…

Prabhupada: Very, very great trouble. You have not seen the yogis? Of course, there are some…. But still, they have to undergo very severe processes for achieving this yogic power. And a devotee, they kick it, that “What is this nonsense?” That is devotee. “What is this nonsense? What shall I do by producing gold?” And I never tried for making gold, but is there any scarcity of gold? I never tried for that, how to make gold. That Sai Baba is showing some magic power. What of the Maharsi? Maha…. He was also after some yogic power.

Harikesa: I don’t know.

Prabhupada: You were with him. You do not know? “The transcendental meditation—you will get this, you will get that.” He is advertising in that…

Hari-sauri: All material opulence.

Harikesa: Ultimately you will become God.

Prabhupada: Yes. This is the attempt.

Hari-sauri: And in the meantime, you can enjoy material world.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Harikesa: They never said anything more than you’ll just get good sex life and good health.

Prabhupada: That is…. Becoming God means the same, money and sex. That’s all.

Harikesa: Wouldn’t it be handy, though, to be able to fly around without having to use airplanes?

Prabhupada: Hm?

Harikesa: I mean, if you had some mystic opulence like being able to fly.

Prabhupada: Yes, the yogis can do that.

Harikesa: Wouldn’t that be handy? Couldn’t a devotee utilize that?

Prabhupada: What is the use?

Harikesa: Well, instead of taking airplanes here and there, you could just…

Prabhupada: No, no. What is the difference? If by practicing severe yogic means you fly, the birds are also flying. They are flying without airplane. Does it mean that it has become very great? There are many birds, garuda bird. They can fly from one planet to another. Just like small birds—they fly from one tree to another, take rest again—so they fly from this planet to another. Take rest, again another. What is the value of your airplane? You cannot go to another planet. There are birds; they catch up elephants and take it away for eating. Does it mean he has become, it has become God? There are Siddhaloka planets where the people can go without any airplane from one planet to another, Siddhaloka. They have got all yogic siddhi automatically, by birth. Just like we cannot fly, but a small bird, a small fly, from the birth it can fly. There are so many. So similarly, by birth they have got all yogic siddhis. This is called Siddhaloka. There are different varieties of planets, different varieties of perfection. Just like here also, I cannot dive into the water. A small fish can dive. I cannot fly in the sky but a small sparrow, it can go from here, here, immediately. Does it mean he is very advanced in yogic power because he can fly? You are proposing that. Nothing is any big achievement. The big achievement is how to become Krsna conscious. That is wanted. Not these things. These things…. You cannot do; I can do. I cannot do; he can do. What is the greatness?

Harikesa: It seems harder to control the tongue than to fly.

Prabhupada: Fly?

Harikesa: It takes more austerity to control one’s tongue by chanting and taking prasadam.

Prabhupada: Even that is not achievement. To control the senses, that is not very great achievement. The great achievement, how we have become a pure devotee of Krsna. So that will include everything. You haven’t got to prepare gold, but if you want gold, Krsna will send you. So why should I try for that and waste my time? Let me become fully Krsna conscious. That is required. Krsna…. Yoga-ksemam vahamy aham: [Bg. 9.22] “I shall give you all protection. I shall supply whatever you want,” Krsna said. So I shall do such thing when Krsna will be my protector and supplier and everything. He is all-powerful, so He will do that—if I require. I don’t require anything. I…. Simply I have to become a sincere, pure devotee. But if I require something, it will come from Krsna. Why shall I try for it? A rich man’s son, he doesn’t do anything for earning money. He knows, “My father is rich and as soon as I require money, he will give me. So why shall I become a big, big businessman and become a karmi?” Tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah. You try for that thing which you did not achieve so long, even if you have traveled from different species of life, different planets. For that thing you try, which you have not achieved. Simply you have become implicated.

Hari-sauri: Why bother with something that’s available to a hog?

Prabhupada: Huh?

Hari-sauri: Why bother with something that is available even to the hogs?

Prabhupada: Yes. Now, even if you achieve such thing, achievement, so where is the guarantee that you’ll…, it will stay? The so-called achievements for sense gratification, that means body. The body is always troublesome. That day I was asking, “Did you taste the Birla’s eggplant?” You said, “No, I could not take it,” due to the body. So even things are there, the body will not allow you. There are many rich men, they have got money, but they cannot eat anything.

Hari-sauri: That John Paul Getty is the richest man in the world, and they asked him, “What would be your wish if you could have anything?” He said, “I just want to be healthy. I’ve got so much money but I’m not healthy.”

Prabhupada: Yes. There are many. There was a big, rich man in Calcutta, Raja Jyotindramana Thakura. So just like you give me so many things, he was king, he was getting more supply, but he had no appetite. So one day he was given so many things—because it was routine. So one coolie was going on the street, taking a fish and chanting very pleasingly. So he said that “Instead of becoming Raja Jyotindramana Thakura, if I could have been a coolie like that, at least I could enjoy by eating. And what is this? I have got everything but I cannot eat.” He regretted, “I would have become a coolie like that instead of becoming a Thakura.”

Hari-sauri: Everybody’s mad after getting some big position, and then when they get it they find out it’s even worse than where they started.

Prabhupada: Because the body does not allow. So all, from all side we were discussing Prahlada Maharaja’s…, how he is experienced of this material way of life. It is all useless. So by following this mahajana devotee we can make our life perfect. Nothing is wanted except Krsna consciousness. That is perfection of life. That is instruction of…. Na dhanam na janam na sundarim. No, we don’t want. Then what do you want? Mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki. Without any motive let me become a sincere devotee of…. (end)