Prabhupada Vigil (Hindi) Bhavananda: Srila Prabhupada, you called for me? Prabhupada: No, I was asking how many men we can accommodate in the new building? Bhavananda: Comfortably we can accommodate five to six hundred men in first-class rooms with first-class pakka prasadam. Sri Bajaj: That’s already established and people are already… Bhavananda: Yes, it’s already established. Sri Bajaj: Functioning. Prabhupada: (indistinct) Sri Bajaj: But you have plans to further expand and add many more buildings and temples. Because I’ve seen the big plan. Bhavananda: Yes. Prabhupada has made a plan for fifty thousand devotees to live there. Sri Bajaj: Fifty thousand devotees in one place. Sri Narayana: (Hindi) Prabhupada: What activities going on, just describe. Bhavananda: At Mayapura now we have two hundred resident devotees. We have the handloom, we have our own handloom production. We have prasadam, distribution to the local people on the weekends. Two to three thousand people a day are given prasadam, and during the week seven hundred to a thousand take full prasadam. Sri Narayana: Free? All free distribution. Bhavananda: Yes. And we have our Gurukula, mainly local boys, resident boarding, no day students. When I left there were eighty- five boys. Probably it’s increased. Sri Narayana: All local. Bhavananda: All local. Our international Gurukula is here. There is local. Sri Narayana: This is the international, here. Bhavananda: This Gurukula is international, and our Gurukula in Mayapura is mainly local Bengali boys, many coming from brahmana families, very nice. Sri Narayana: Then any industries? Hand industries? Bhavananda: Our handloom. Sri Narayana: Handloom. (Hindi) Bhavananda: And our gosala is just developing. That area of Mayapura, Navadvipa, is a big handloom… Sri Narayana: Yes, handloom area. Bhavananda: Many handloomers. So we have designs to expand that into a very large area, and most of it will be exported to our temples and devotees all around the world. And all of the handloom workers, they’re devotees so they don’t take any salary. None of us take any salary. And they get nice rooming and full prasadam and their children are educated. All medicine, everything is supplied to them. Sri Narayana: You could also, perhaps, introduce this new spinning wheel for the yarn. At present you must be purchasing yarn from the mills. Bhavananda: Yes. Sri Narayana: But have you seen this small nice caraka, spinning wheel? Bhavananda: Well, we do our own spinning. Sri Narayana: Spinning also? Bhavananda: Oh, yes. We’re training up those who have children… They’re trained in the varnasrama system. Some of the children in the school have a scholastic bent of mind, so they’re educated in Sanskrit and higher studies. Some of them have a vaisya bent of mind, and they work in the gosala helping to develop…, milk the cows. Some are… Their parents are working in the handloom. They also have that desire, so they’re trained to be handloomers. In this way we will be able to develop a city of fifty thousand devotees. Sri Bajaj: Let us not overstrain him and whatever if… He’ll feel tired. Prabhupada: Thank you very much. Sri Narayana: (Hindi) Svarupa Damodara: We have our main festival in Mayapura at the end of March, March 24th. Sri Narayana: March 24th? Bhavananda: This year? Dola-yatra. Gaura-purnima. Svarupa Damodara: Our biggest festival. All the devotees from all over the world… Prabhupada: Recently there was a scientific meeting here. Where is that Statesman report? Sri Narayana: The report from, about Mayapura? Some literature? Prabhupada: No, here. We… Just describe. Svarupa Damodara: We had a science conference here in Gurukula just about a little more than a week ago. Sri Narayana: Here in this new building? Svarupa Damodara: Yes, the same building, at the same hall that you’re going to hold your conference. I invited several scholars, scientists around Delhi and Agra. Also Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, scientist disciples, came from around the world. The basic theme was to show that life is coming from the supreme life. In other words everything is coming from Krsna. But modern science says that we are just product of atoms and molecules. Hamsaduta: This is an article which was published in The Statesman, October 22nd, which covers this meeting. It says, “The Nonphysical View on the Origin of Species. Materialists and men of faith continue to disagree over the origins of life. According to the first group life is…” [break] (Bhakti-caru and kaviraja—Bengali to end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
November 2, 1977, Vrndavana