Room Conversation Prabhupada: So what happened to the tickets? Harikesa: The tickets are being locked up in the safe right now. They’re going to…, they’re going to bring the tickets tomorrow to this city called Tours, which is very near by. They have an Air France office, and we can have it converted(?) there. So everything’s all right for Saturday. Prabhupada: So we shall go by the same plane? Harikesa: Yes, everybody goes in the same plane. Prabhupada: That’s all right. Jayatirtha: Jaya [break] Hari-sauri: This is the first pamphlet that you ever printed? Prabhupada: No. Hari-sauri: I mean in the West? Prabhupada: No, before coming here. Hari-sauri: Oh, then you brought it with you. Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: Says, “Srimad-Bhagavatam, India’s message of peace and good will. Sixty volumes of elaborate English version by Tridandi Goswami A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Carried by the Scindia Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., Bombay, all over the world for scientific knowledge of God.” Then it says, “The sufferings of the entire human society can at once be brought under control simply by individual practice of bhakti-yoga, a simple and easy process of chanting the holy name of God. Every country, every nation and every community throughout the world has some conception of the holy name of God, and as such either the Hindus or the Muhammadans or the Christians, everyone can easily chant the holy name of God in a meditative mood, and that will bring about the required peace and good will in the present problematic human society. Any inquiry in this connection will be gladly answered by Sri Swamiji. The Hindus generally chant the holy name of God in sixteen chain of transcendental sound composed of thirty-two alphabets as Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The Vedic literatures like the Upanisads and the Puranas do recommend chanting of the above- mentioned sixteen holy names at a stretch, and Lord Sri Caitanya, whose cult of chanting the holy name of God gave special importance on these transcendental sounds. In this age of Kali, or the age of hate, hypocrisy, corruption and quarrel, the only remedial measure is that every man should chant the holy name of the Lord, both individually and collectively. The glories of the holy name have been described by Sri Caitanya in His eight verses of Siksastaka, which run as follows: 1) Glory to the Sri Krsna Sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years together, and thus the fire of conditional life of repeated birth and death is extinguished. Such sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for the humanity at large because it spreads rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of transcendental knowledge, it increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it helps to have a taste of the full nectarine for which always anxious we are. 2) O my Lord, Your holy name can render all benediction upon the living being, and therefore you have hundreds and millions of names like Krsna, Govinda, etc. In these transcendental names you have invested all your transcendental potencies, and there is no hard-and-fast rules for chanting these holy names. O my Lord, You have so kindly made easy approach to You by Your holy names, but unfortunate as I am, I have no attraction for them. 3) One can chant the holy names of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking himself as lower than the straw in the streets, tolerant more than the tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and being ready to offer all kinds of respects to others. 4) O almighty Lord, I have no desire for accumulating wealth, nor I have any desire to enjoy beautiful women, neither I want any number of followers of mine. What I want only is that I may have your causeless devotional service in my life, birth after birth. 5) O the son of Maharaja Nanda, I am Your eternal servitor, and although I am so, somehow or another I have fallen in the ocean of birth and death. Please therefore pick me up from the ocean of death and fix me up as one of the atoms of Your lotus feet. 6) O my Lord, when shall my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing incessantly by chanting Your holy name, and when all the holes of hair on my body will have eruptions by the recitation of Your name? 7) O Govinda, feeling your separation I am considering a moment as twelve years or more than that, and tears flowing down my cheeks like torrents of rain. I am feeling all vacant in the world without Your presence. 8) I do not know anyone except Krsna as my Lord, and He shall remain as such even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or He may make me broken-hearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything, but He is always my worshipful Lord, unconditionally. Chanting of the holy name of God is recommended for everyone, both for the mass of people and the class of people. Those who are scholars, philosophers, scientists, religionists and educated may read the English version of Srimad-Bhagavatam by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami with particular attention to the purports appended with each and every verse. They have appreciated the publication as follows: ‘At a time when not only the people of India but those of the West need the chastening quality of love and truth in a corrupting atmosphere of hate and hypocrisy, a work like this will have uplifting and corrective influence.’ What is God? He is truth, He is Love. Even an atheist must accept the supremacy of these qualities, and how much they are needed by the people of the world who have been taught to deny God, and these qualities do not require much emphasis. The author has attempted a tremendous task, the perusal will give us in the sample measure and knowledge of the original. The essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam is the exposition of the Absolute Truth. We would recommend this book. ” Then another one… Prabhupada: Who? Hari-sauri: It doesn’t give who is speaking, just the quotes. “The editor’s vast and deep study of the subject and critical insight are reflected in these notes. We have no doubt that with the publication of these volumes of the rightful interpretations of the Bhagavatam, which has been the gift of Sri Caitanya and His Gosvami followers, has now been available to the English-knowing world for the first time. The elaborate method is very helpful to the ardent student of Bhagavatam who lack in Sanskrit language. It is admitted in all hands that Bhagavatam is the most difficult text amongst the Puranas. The author richly deserves the gratitude of the devotees for his pious learned labor of love.” And another one. “These volumes speak very highly of Swamiji’s scholarship, and especially of his love of cultural pursuits when we look into the enormous labor or sacrifice in producing them single-handed, and that too at a ripe old age of sixty-eight. We honestly pray to the Almighty that He may spare Swamiji for all the years he may require to finish the magnum opus of sixty volumes and earn the love and gratitude of his fellow men in pursuit of divine love and grace, nay of the entire humanity. You have done a first-class work and you deserve the hearty commendation of every Indian, every Hindu. Your deep and penetrating study of the subject and your philosophic insight are reflected in this book.” etc., etc. That’s the whole pamphlet. Prabhupada: Complete? Hari-sauri: Yes. You used to give this pamphlet when you first came? Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: There’s a very nice picture. Prabhupada: Oh. Before coming here. Hari-sauri: So you would be sixty-nine then? Prabhupada: Sixty-nine or seventy. (pause) Huh? Yes, this picture is nice. Hari-sauri: Taken in Germany, I think. Prabhupada: Who is behind? Hari-sauri: There’s a, this is Hamsaduta, Vedavyasa, and then some of the devotees, sankirtana devotees. You were making a joke. [break] But you were preaching before that in India though. Prabhupada: Not very much. Oh, yes, that Back to Godhead. Hari-sauri: In Vrndavana you were just translating? Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: The library party said that everywhere in Delhi they went, they found that you had already placed your three volumes of Bhagavatam. Prabhupada: Yes. In American also. The Congress Library purchased nineteen sets. Hari-sauri: Which library? Prabhupada: Congress Library. Hari-sauri: Oh, Congress. The one in Washington? The Library of Congress? Prabhupada: Or there is a branch in India. Hari-sauri: That is where they have your original Back to Godhead. Prabhupada: Maybe. Hari-sauri: The first copy, they have it in Washington there. Prabhupada: American government is good organizations. (pause) From 1954 to ’66 I struggled very hard. Alone. Hari-sauri: Twelve years. Prabhupada: Yes. Twelve years means one yuga. Hari-sauri: One… Prabhupada: One yuga. And big yuga, another. Hari-sauri: One yuga? Prabhupada: Yes. In the ordinary. Hari-sauri: Oh, the term is used differently? it can be used in different ways? Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: We always think of one yuga as being like Kali-yuga, or… Prabhupada: Yes, that is a big yuga, this is small yuga. Hari-sauri: It’s very fortunate for us that you were so determined. Prabhupada: (long pause) They have got so many cars. Hari-sauri: Actually, I think most of our centers have got many, many vans and cars. Prabhupada: That means they are rich. Hari-sauri: Just like in India they used to measure wealth by how many cows, (laughs) in the West they measure wealth by how many cars. Prabhupada: And we have both. Cows and cars, both. Hari-sauri: Yes. Prabhupada: So the devotees like this evening class? Hari-sauri: They like? Prabhupada: Evening class. Hari-sauri: Oh, yes, it’s a very enlivening program. In the evening it’s very nice out of doors. It’s warm from the day. No one falls asleep. Except for the children, and that’s very good because then they’re quiet. Prabhupada: Small children, they also clap and dance on the lap of the mother, they were smiling. Very fortunate children, otherwise from the birth, associating with devotees… (long pause) Nowadays cheating is a good qualification, huh? Hari-sauri: Yes. It’s their only qualification. Prabhupada: If I cheat somebody and get some money, you are very expert. Hari-sauri: Top-class businessman. Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: First-class scientist. And the best politician. Just like in America, once they’d found Nixon was cheating, now they’re investigating one man after another, and every one, they’re finding all the same. Prabhupada: America, cheating is a policy. How a real estate man, lawyer, they’re simply planning how to cheat. Hari-sauri: The lawyers are the worst because they know the law. So they know how to cheat in such a way that they can stay within the law. They said Ambarisa’s lawyer cheated us out of so many things when we got that Detroit property. (end)
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
August 4, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm)