Room Conversation Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali) Regular lecture about health and disease in popular language with demonstrations by charts, models, projectors, and cinematography. (Bengali) Maintaining health cards for children. Every six months have their height, weight… (Bengali) Building health science museum. (Bengali) … models, charts, shows various parts of the body… (Bengali) …for propagating health science amongst the inmates of Gurukula and the public. (Bengali)… gymnasium for health. (Bengali) Prabhupada: (Bengali) Dr. Ghosh: If you approve, then we can go on. Prabhupada: Amadera spiritual… (Bengali) Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali) …should be taken care of, ’cause this is God’s temple. Prabhupada: (Bengali) Dr. Ghosh: Our people are steeped in ignorance about the laws of health. In the most impressionable age… (Bengali) …young, the most impressionable age… (Bengali) He can have a little glucose in water? Bhavananda: Taking glucose in juice. Upendra: We have lunch ready. Getting ready. Dr. Ghosh: Glucose in water. Bhavananda: He’s been taking glucose in fruit juices. He hasn’t taken today very much. Dr. Ghosh: Every hour, a sip, sip. If he can’t take at one time, let just him sip every half an hour a teaspoon. Otherwise it is very low. Prabhupada: Teaspoonful I can take. Teaspoon I can take. Dr. Ghosh: Teaspoon, yes. Bhavananda: Every half an hour. Dr. Ghosh: Every half an hour? Every few minutes. Or four teaspoons every half an hour. Bring some. Let me see how he… Bhakti-caru: He is going to take some food now. Bhavananda: Prasadam. Dr. Ghosh: Prasadam. Rice water or rice, a little rice, soft rice. Very good soft rice a few teaspoon. Bhavananda: A little luci and legume. Dr. Ghosh: Well, if he can take it, let him have. Upendra: Should we give Prabhupada a bath now? Dr. Ghosh: Bhala luci? Yes, certainly, he must have something. Tamala Krsna: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada: So, let me sit up. Bhavananda: Would you like a blanket around you, Srila Prabhupada? Hm? Dr. Ghosh: (indistinct) Tamala Krsna: Urine, urine? To do what? Take blood pressure? Dr. Ghosh: (indistinct) Bhavananda: Yes, he took. He took one at 11:15. Yes. Vitamin C and liquid vitamin. Then the next one should be… We mix the B with the C. Three times a day. Three times? Three times? He should take today. Two more. Dr. Ghosh: Yes. (faint background talking about diet, etc.) Stomach is all right. Liver is all right. So then only what have got to do is to eat. (Bengali) Bhavananda: Apricot, raisin, dahi and milk. Papaya. Avocado, coconut milk… Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali) (indistinct conversation about medicines, hydrogen peroxide, etc.) Bali-mardana: The other doctor from Ramakrishna Mission is here. Should he come in? Tamala Krsna: Dr. Ghosh? The other doctor has come. Dr. Ghosh: Doctor has come? Bali-mardana: Yes, from Ramakrishna. I’ll bring him in? Dr. Ghosh: Yes, please. Tamala Krsna: Bring another chair. Dr. Ghosh: (indistinct, talking of Dr. Gopal) Prabhupada: I saw you yesterday Dr. Gopal: I examined you yesterday. Bhavananda: There’s bad cough when he takes any milk. Give him very deep cough. (doctors talking) Tamala Krsna: The surgeon in London, he said that Lassix might be dangerous for Prabhupada. (chanting in background, doctors talking faintly) Dr. Gopal: Let us lay him down on his back. That’s it. Bhavananda: Is that comfortable, Srila Prabhupada? (doctors talking) Dr. Gopal: Say “Ah.” Prabhupada: Ahhhhh. Dr. Gopal: (Hindi) (pause) Prabhupada: Bhavananda? Upendra: He’s talking with the doctor, Srila Prabhupada. This is Upendra and Giriraja. We’re just with you while they’re talking with the doctor, finding out information. Prabhupada: Giriraja? Giriraja: Yes. Prabhupada: News from Bombay? [break] Giriraja: …activities are going on. Haridasa promised that he would, you know, maintain the collections for maintenance. So he’s doing that with the help of one or two other boys. And I asked about the attendance at the morning and evening programs, and they wrote back that the attendance at the morning program is very good, mangala-arati and Srimad-Bhagavatam. And it’s fair attendance in the evening. And then the construction is going on. It’s in the final stages. And then you probably know we had a meeting to discuss the plans for the opening and the management of the new guesthouse and restaurant and theater. So I think the plans are very good. Actually last night we were discussing that the cullis pieces which go on the top of the domes, that those are ordered in, I think, brass or copper like here. But those become black very quickly. So we decided that we would try to plate them in gold. So we had also decided that we would not try to have more men donate for rooms, because we want to make sure we have enough rooms available for outside guests that might be coming. So some of the big men who might have donated for that, I could approach them to get donations so that we could gold plate… [break] So we decided that we want to open around January so that we could take advantage of the facilities immediately, so that the building doesn’t lie vacant for two months. Prabhupada: No, no. Subhasya(?) sighram. As early as possible. Giriraja: Yes. So the reason we selected January 8th was because many of the important devotees like Yasodanandana Swami, they’re going out of India for collecting during the (indistinct) time, so they felt that it would be easier for them to be back by January 8th. Prabhupada: No, no. It cannot remain vacant. Consult with Jayatirtha. Hari-sauri: Jayatirtha’s here. Prabhupada: I’m asking Giriraja. Hari-sauri: Consult with Jayatirtha. Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? For the Bombay opening, is it necessary to have those South Indian brahmanas? If Yasodanandana Maharaja knows the ceremonies… Hari-sauri: Which he does very, very well. Prabhupada: Then why? Hari-sauri: He does know. Tamala Krsna: Because many of the… Gurukrpa Maharaja and others were expressing the feeling that Bombay is not like Vrndavana. Prabhupada: No. Tamala Krsna: In Vrndavana there are so many smarta-brahmanas, but Bombay is a very materialistic, modern, Western city. Some of our devotees have already been invited, Acyutananda and one other, for themselves opening a temple. So it was the common opinion of most of the devotees, “What is the need of hiring these fourteen, fifteen brahmanas? The people don’t care in Bombay for this.” Prabhupada: No. Tamala Krsna: Rather, they may be more impressed to have the Western devotees doing it, and we save so much… Prabhupada: Western brahmanas. Hari-sauri: Western brahmanas, yes. Giriraja: Imported. (laughter) Prabhupada: That was my prediction. As they’re importing ghee, milk, similarly, brahmana also. Go-brahmana-hitaya. That’s nice proposal. Hari-sauri: Jaya. Yasodanandana can do it very nicely. He did it very expertly in Fiji. Prabhupada: Yes. Hari-sauri: And the Indians there were very, very appreciative that the Western, white brahmanas had done the installation. They were telling Vasudeva that “Now we must take instructions from these men. They know the puja.” Prabhupada: That is good proposal. Hari-sauri: Jaya. Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? Would you like it to be opened on your Guru Maharaja’s disappearance… Prabhupada: Any… Early as possible. That would be nice, Guru Maharaja appearance day. It is… Tamala Krsna: It’s his disappearance day. Giriraja: The disappearance day is on December 29th, which is just the correct time when we want to open. Prabhupada: Ah, that’s nice. Giriraja: So we could begin… Prabhupada: We have no such difference, disappearance and appearance. Giriraja: Except in your case. We don’t want disappearance. Prabhupada: (chuckles) Jivo va maro va. Because we are going to accept eternity, so appearance and disappearance of this body is no a very important thing. Nitya-lila, eternal life—that is our Krsna consciousness. So, as early as possible. Take as far as possible our men. We can keep some assistant, local brahmana. If we keep one or two South Indian brahmanas, they may take it that we are doing with cooperation. One or two can be kept. Hari-sauri: Just one or two. Tamala Krsna: South Indian brahmanas. Prabhupada: Yes. Or local brahmanas. Tamala Krsna: Local brahmanas might be a lot easier. Once you get these South Indian brahmanas, then they say there has to be twelve, fourteen, fifteen. But local brahmanas, one or two would come. Probably there are some devotee brahmanas that we can find. Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Tamala Krsna: They won’t even charge, probably. We can simply give donation to them, but they won’t even demand charge. That will be best. Hari-sauri: The South Indians probably would not agree to one or two. Tamala Krsna: No. They’ll want fourteen or fifteen. Hari-sauri: Now they’ve already got the idea of taking so much money from us. They won’t like it if one or two come. Tamala Krsna: No. They won’t agree to it. They’ll say it’s not possible. Hari-sauri: It’s better to tell them… Prabhupada: You can get local brahmana to assist us. Perform the yajna little gorgeously, that’s all. If you can distribute to the local brahmanas, important, some (indistinct) silk cloth, and grains, and…, they will come. And let them cook themselves and take prasadam and do that. Tamala Krsna: Yes. Hari-sauri: I think the local brahmanas will be very pleased to be connected with the opening of such a big temple. Prabhupada: Yes, yes. Tamala Krsna: That’s better. Better to involve the local people. South Indian people will come, take money, and go back to South. No use. Prabhupada: Local brahmana will be… Where is Bhavananda? Tamala Krsna: Bhavananda? He’s in… They’ll check. Want to call Bhavananda? He’s with Dr. Ghosh. Bhavananda: Yes, Srila Prabhupada? Prabhupada: So, what doctor says? Bhavananda: I was just discussing with them. They’ve given a, a series of medicines. That one doctor, Dr. Gopal, he said that you have a chronic kidney infection, and they both, Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Gopal, say it is very serious, that if it’s not treated, that it could develop into uremia, which could be fatal. So he’s given a whole group of medicines. However, the medicines can be combined. They say everything is functioning well, but the kidneys are not. (sic:) Renial, they call it renial infection. Tamala Krsna: Renal. Renal damage. Bhavananda: Chronic. And Dr. Gopal, just like all of the other doctors, both Ayurvedic or allopathic, they all insist that you have to take more liquid. They said that you should measure how much you pass urine today. Say you pass 250 cc’s of urine. That means that tomorrow you should take that amount plus 400 more in liquid. Each day. Tamala Krsna: Always 400 more than the urine passed. Bhavananda: Four hundred more than you passed urine the day before. You should take any sort of liquid—milk, juices, water, anything. He also said that you have to take rich protein foods. Milk, curd, chana, Proteinex, fruits, juices… Tamala Krsna: But milk causes mucus for Prabhupada. Bhavananda: They say that the lungs are… Anyway… Hari-sauri: They haven’t seen the difficulty that Prabhupada has in bringing this stuff up. Bhavananda: Milk… There has to be some protein. Tamala Krsna: Chana seemed good. Today you had the curd. It seems to have been all right. The cheese this morning, Prabhupada. I don’t notice any cough today. Prabhupada: Cough generates later on. Hari-sauri: Yes. It usually comes about half a day or a day later. Tamala Krsna: Oh. Hari-sauri: After it’s been in the stomach for awhile. Tamala Krsna: (low voice) What about all these people being in the same room? Did you ask the doctor about that? Hari-sauri: The Proteinex is good because it’s made from soya. It’s not made from milk base. So that may not cause mucus. Bhavananda: So we can try. Tamala Krsna: Bhagatji says that this Dr. Gopal is the best doctor in Mathura district. Very, very expert doctor, he said. He seemed pretty competent. Bhavananda: Competent and confident. Tamala Krsna: He disagreed with Dr. Ghosh on a number of points. He did not advise Lassix tablet, this Dr. Gopal. Just like the surgeon in London also did not advise. Then he explained why, and Dr. Ghosh agreed. Bhavananda: Also he said that you shouldn’t take… What is it? Hydrogen peroxide rinse in the mouth. He said that could be very dangerous. Tamala Krsna: He said because of the fact that your mouth is not normal. It doesn’t salivate as much as someone else’s. So some of the hydrogen peroxide might remain there and then it might be swallowed. He advised a much milder mouthwash. Bhavananda: And he gave one tablet… He said that you should only take one half tablet in the morning in place of the Lassix. It’s a very, very mild dialysis for the swelling. He said it’s not… He doesn’t want to give any sort of… Very, very mild. He also said that your feet should be raised on two pillows or the bed, at the foot of the bed, should be raised on one brick on each side. That will reduce the swelling a great deal, he said. Most important though, Srila Prabhupada, is that we increase the liquid intake for flushing the kidneys, and it will give you some strength. Now your condition is so weak. Tamala Krsna: Actually, Prabhupada, your condition has become much weaker since you stopped eating more and more. In Bombay, when you had more strength, you were eating…, at least drinking three times what you are drinking now. So if you gradually increase your drinking, your strength will come back. As long as you’re passing urine, it means it’s being digested all right. Bhavananda: Everyone… All the doctors agree that your liver and digestion, spleen, is all in good working order. Tamala Krsna: And also the blood pressure is normal. It’s 130. It’s very reduced, Srila Prabhupada. It’s normal blood pressure now. Bhavananda: But he said that your pulse is so weak that every 18 beats it skips a beat, misses, because you’re in such weakened state. Tamala Krsna: But he was hopeful in general. Prabhupada: Dr. Gopal. Tamala Krsna: Yes, Srila Prabhupada. Is he still here, Dr. Gopal? Bhavananda: Yes, he’s still here. So, Srila Prabhupada, I think that we should… Dr. Ghosh has come all this distance, and he’ll get very upset if we don’t at least try this course of medicines. I think that we should try and see what happens. It was a lot of medicines, but they can be combined together in one dosage, once in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, so it won’t be all the time having to take. Hari-sauri: It can be drunk down with some liquid as well. Bhavananda: Yes. You can mix it with fruit juices or… Prabhupada: So do it. Tamala Krsna: You want to take rest now, Srila Prabhupada? Okay. (end)
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
October 17, 1977, Vrndavana