770420 - Conversation - Bombay

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770420R1-BOMBAY - April 20, 1977 - 18:50 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Now, how that branches are spread, how there are different places and seas and oceans in every same place.

Patita-pāvana: Should we bring them here, to Bombay?

Prabhupāda: Where it will be possible. Where it is, you propose.

Patita-pāvana: I was thinking that at the time of the opening of the temple they come here, or if that's too crowded, they could come to Māyāpur some time. But if you'd like them to come now, I can . . .

Prabhupāda: Māyāpur is now Maidan. Māyāpur and here, what is the difference?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, here is better. Everyone can come to Bombay much easier. And if you wait until the opening, there's too many other things.

Patita-pāvana: You're right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now is very peaceful for them.

Patita-pāvana: Yes, Mahārāja. So could we fly them here? Could we fly them here?

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Patita-pāvana: Okay. There's two especially, Dr. Arkasomayaji and Agnihotram Rāmānuja Tattvācārya. Spiritually, from what you've taught me, I can understand they have some limitations. Their spiritual understanding is not as high as the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava . . .

Prabhupāda: There is no question of spiritual understanding.

Patita-pāvana: Yes, but . . .

Prabhupāda: It requires real scholar.

Patita-pāvana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: If they understand.

Patita-pāvana: Yes. Both have received President's Award.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One who can understand that description in the Fifth Canto rightly, it is . . . there is no question of whether he's spiritually advanced or not. It is simply academic qualification.

Patita-pāvana: Yes, that is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It has nothing to do with spiritual understanding.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So why not let them come here now immediately.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You're here now.

Prabhupāda: So arrange to bring them here.

Patita-pāvana: I will do that. We can arrange for some apartment for them to stay.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Patita-pāvana: The one man, he only eats what his wife cooks, so he has to have some kitchen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we have your . . . if you like, we have your old quarters.

Patita-pāvana: But that is upstairs. His wife cannot climb stairs. That is . . . that's why I liked Māyāpur, because all those apartments are on the wall.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they're also upstairs. In Māyāpur everything's up the stairs also. There's nothing that . . .

Patita-pāvana: But on the wall . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Front wall?

Patita-pāvana: Yeah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no one can live there. It's too low class.

Prabhupāda: No, in our new house.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Still have to go up.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Both of them are very old?

Patita-pāvana: No. The wife is rather old. He has some problem with lungs. He's about sixty-five. The other is seventy-two. The other one walks like a Sherman tank, very powerful.

Prabhupāda: So we cannot give . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What we could do . . .

Prabhupāda: Here there is no difficulty with lift.

Patita-pāvana: With the lift, yes. Fine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, but they're . . . I mean, there's no problem for getting them here to see you. The problem is whether they can . . . where they will live, their residential quarters.

Girirāja: I was thinking of the Chand Society.

Prabhupāda: That's nice, Chand Society. There are three rooms. That is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They occupied or . . .?

Girirāja: Well, they could have one room and the kitchen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, and the other gentleman . . .

Girirāja: Well, if we . . . yeah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no problem. So there's residential quarter.

Prabhupāda: Why not request Mr. Acharya to exchange? They may go to his . . .

Girirāja: Okay.

Prabhupāda: That "We have kept your request."

Girirāja: Yeah, we obliged him by making him the tenant.

Prabhupāda: "So, if you kindly go up there, as we have been a little convenient . . ."

Girirāja: That's a very good idea.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Downstairs will be utilized in a solid way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You wanted that Mr. Acharya to move to your . . .?

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Girirāja: No, the same building . . .

Prabhupāda: Same building.

Girirāja: . . . exchange. We come from the second floor to the ground, and he takes what we've constructed on the top.

Prabhupāda: "Same space you can . . . everything, that will be . . ."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We prefer to have the ground.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And he can utilize the roof also.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: To get the . . . Yyes. That is another advantage. If it is possible, do. So they can understand the description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Patita-pāvana: They have assured me they can.

Prabhupāda: Then it will be all right.

Patita-pāvana: And even this Rāmānuja Agnihotram Tattvācārya . . . I went to the chief of the Raṅganātha Svāmī Temple and made good friends with him. I gave him your Caitanya-caritāmṛta which was the conversation between Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, I'm sorry, Bhaṭṭācārya, and Veṅkaṭa Bhaṭṭācārya, and Lord Caitanya. And he is the ancestor of him, in charge of the Raṅganātha. And he told me that this Agnihotram is a little bit touched by Māyāvāda. I said: "I understand. But," I said, "can he do the universe good? Even though you're criticizing him, does he know the universal description?" And he said: "That he knows. Many people have praised him like this in different works."

Prabhupāda: It is a simply academic thing.

Patita-pāvana: Sampat Kumāra Bhaṭṭācārya also has recommended . . .

Prabhupāda: It has nothing to do with spiritual advancement. So when we plan, people may not think that it is not according to the . . .

Patita-pāvana: But these men also have the qualification of enthusiasm to serve your project, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is a great kindness. We are trying to do something on behalf of real culture.

Patita-pāvana: Yes. I spoke to other qualified men who lacked this qualification, and so it was impossible. So these two men also have this qualification, and they offered their respects . . .

Prabhupāda: So make arrangements to receive them.

Patita-pāvana: They have asked me several times to convey their respects to you.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. They have got respect for our society?

Patita-pāvana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Patita-pāvana: Yes. They have written beautiful letters which I am going to xerox and give to my friends for preaching.

Prabhupāda: No, every sane man will appreciate our effort. Especially from general . . . even the Māyāvādī, they are also praising.

Patita-pāvana: The Māyāvādīs, yes.

Prabhupāda: Even the Māyāvādīs, they are also praising these activities. Yesterday two Māyāvādī sannyāsīs came, Śaṅkara-sampradāya.

Patita-pāvana: This Arkasomaya . . .

Prabhupāda: They are taking from this point of view, that India's culture has been so nicely spread that people are taking serious con . . . that is their appreciation. We have got differences of opinion, philosophy. That is our nomenclature. But India's culture is being accepted. That they are appreciating.

Girirāja: During the New York case, one of the leading men in the Arya Samaj wrote a very personal letter in support of us. Not a standard letter, but in his own words he was glorifying your work like anything, and especially from this point of view.

Patita-pāvana: Even this Arkasomayaji, his iṣṭa-devatā is Kanaka Durgā from the Kabur district of the Godāvarī in Andhra, and he's a Māyāvādī. I told him, "We have some difference, but please shelve your differences and simply follow our point of view." He said: "That's all right, but I think your guru is the Divine walking the earth, and I must serve him." (laughs) So I said: "Very good. Please come and help."

Prabhupāda: So arrange to receive them. Give them very kindly . . . if Acarya agrees, that will be great success.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So both you and Mahadevia together supply, this friend of Mahadevia.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This facility, the space is the same. Mutual arrangement. And he gets the advantage of the roof.

Girirāja: Mrs. Warrior wants to move up.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Girirāja: Mrs. Warrior wants to shift to a higher . . .

Prabhupāda: So he is in the downstairs?

Girirāja: She is on the ground floor.

Prabhupāda: Then it is . . . if she moves, that is also good. But that space is bigger.

Girirāja: Yes, Acharya's is much nicer place.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: So we will try that.

Prabhupāda: So Warrior . . . what is this? Warrior?

Girirāja: Warrior.

Prabhupāda: Mrs . . .?

Girirāja: She met you, the widow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's the one that was coming with the . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the Acharya's place and her space bigger?

Girirāja: No, Acharya's is much bigger.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Double nearly. Nearly double the space.

Prabhupāda: Then how you can accommodate?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he's suggesting that she can also, in her own house . . . I think you're suggesting, aren't you?

Girirāja: Well, she wants more space than what she has. She'll . . . I think we can avoid this. Otherwise, some special cases, we can use the Chand Society.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Girirāja: For the time being, once in a while we can use what we have.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Chand Society.

Girirāja: And then, when the building is ready . . .

Prabhupāda: That's very good. Make some arrangement . . .

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He is recommending, they are very good scholar. We have to simply present Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as it is. That's all. Whether it is right, wrong, we are not concerned. Sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yad vadasi keśava (BG 10.14). This is our position. You know this verse?

Patita-pāvana: This verse I don't know. I don't know this verse. Sarva . . .?

Prabhupāda: Find out. Sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yad vadasi keśava. Find out. Bhagavad-gītā.

Girirāja: "Whatever You say, I accept in toto."

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Patita-pāvana: Oh, that's from Arjuna speaking.

Prabhupāda: This is our position. That is very easy for us. We haven't got to manufacture. To manufacture idea is troublesome. Why should we take trouble? And as soon as you want to manufacture something, to . . . (indistinct) . . . that is dangerous. Guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete kariyā aikya, āra nā kariha mane āśā. This is . . . you are singing every day, "What our guru has said, that is our life and soul. We do not want . . ." āra nā kariha mane āśā. And your guru's article, you have given. Do you think is all right? We are reading every day, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ. As soon as this poison will come—"Suppress guru and I become prominent"—everything finished. Spiritual life is finished. Gauḍīya Maṭha finished, that . . . violated the orders of Guru Mahārāja.

Patita-pāvana: In that press release that we gave the paper we wrote a great deal about the work of Your Divine Grace in the West and how . . .

Prabhupāda: So how you get it that "Here is only prominent, Surabhi Swami"?

Patita-pāvana: One thing is, he's a Christian.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be . . .

Patita-pāvana: I guess so. It's true.

Prabhupāda: He has nothing to do . . .

Patita-pāvana: But we have emphasized that several times in the talk.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. What is that?

Girirāja:

sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye

yan māṁ vadasi keśava

na hi te bhagavan vyaktiṁ

vidur devā na dānavāḥ

(BG 10.14)

sarvam—all; etat—these; ṛtam—truth; manye—accept; yat—which; mām—unto me; vadasi—You tell; keśava—Kṛṣṇa. Translation: "O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor demons, O Lord, know Thy personality."

Prabhupāda: So it is easy for us. What Kṛṣṇa says and Vyāsadeva says, that's all. We haven't got to manufacture. And as soon as you manufacture, fall down. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayaḥ . . . (BG 4.2). This manufacturing idea is very, very dangerous in spiritual life. Whatever little success is there for me, I did not manufacture any idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neither you take any credit.

Prabhupāda: No. Why shall I take?

tāṅdera caraṇa-sevī-bhakta-sane vāsa

janame janame mor ei abhilāṣa

(Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura)

Our mission is to serve bhakta-viśeṣa and live with devotees. Not that you take the place of the guru. That is nonsense, very dangerous. Then everything will be spoiled. As soon as you become ambitious to take the place of guru—guruṣu nara-matiḥ . . . that is the material disease. The article clearly says that it is everything "Your city," "His city." That is clearly intimated that, "You have dropped from the sky to give this city to the world." That is the sum and substance. Is it not? What is this nonsense? (pause) So do the needful.

Patita-pāvana: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances) (end)