770817 - Conversation - Vrndavana

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770817R1-VRNDAVAN - August 17, 1977 - 25:13 Minutes

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. Live like gṛhastha, but don't leave. So where you are staying now?

Madhudviṣa: I just came from Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Where is your wife?

Madhudviṣa: She's there. I just had a baby boy.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Madhudviṣa: I just had a son.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Madhudviṣa: I called him Abhay. I hope that's all right.

Prabhupāda: So remain as gṛhastha and render your service. There is no harm. If one could not proceed, it doesn't matter. Failure is the pillar of success. Then try. Again you shall try. Where is Śrutakīrti? How are you?

Śrutakīrti: Very well, now thank you.

Prabhupāda: Śrutakīrti is also gṛhastha. So jointly you can work and improve this movement. That is our . . . (indistinct) . . . gṛhe bā banete thāke, hā gaurāṅga bole ḍāke, narottama māge tāra saṅga. "Either he remains at home or as a sannyāsī, if he is devotee of Lord Gaurāṅga, I want his association." That is Narottama Ṭhākura's . . . gṛhe bā banete thāke, hā gaurāṅga bole ḍāke, narottama māge tāra saṅga. So follow the principles, and whichever position is suitable. Don't be carried away by the waves of māyā. Capture Caitanya Mahāprabhu and you'll be saved. Is that all right? Don't leave us. You are quite . . . at least you made advance. You are one of the important devotees. So don't lose that position now. Manage in the position you want to remain. Now Gaurasundara has also come. So I'm glad to see that you are . . . your bunch of hair is long. Yes. Cut it. So give them place to stay nicely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Prasādam. And remain here for some time. Of course, according to my horoscope, these days are my last days. But if Kṛṣṇa saves, that is a different thing. They have calculated eighty-two years and two days?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighty-one years, five months, and twenty-eight days.

Prabhupāda: That is the . . . according to calculation of my horoscope. Eighty-one years will be completed, and eighty-second year will begin. It doesn't matter when I leave this body. Even in death there is—one year before or one year after. Now as far as possible, I have trained you. Try to follow the principles. And go ahead. Don't be set back by māyā's tricks. Go ahead, forward, at any cost. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said . . . so many obstacles are coming. Māyā is strong. And still, we are going forward. That's all right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances) (break)

Śrutakīrti: . . . started on the beach walk at Pico Boulevard and went down to Venice Beach. That's where you used to walk, on Venice Beach.

Prabhupāda: Oh, it started from beach.

Śrutakīrti: Yes. All along the beach for two miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A lot of people?

Śrutakīrti: Oh, thousands, tens of thousands of people. They served prasādam. I don't know how many. Several thousand. It was much bigger than San Francisco.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bigger?

Śrutakīrti: Yes. I was at both. And it was very big. It was . . . I think it was the best that I have seen. The carts were very beautifully decorated, nice carnations all over.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People pulled it?

Śrutakīrti: Yes. They had no problem with the people pulling. There was nice kīrtana and a very nice feast. And Sudāmā Mahārāja was there with his players. They put on a play. That was the . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They liked that?

Śrutakīrti: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What preparations did they serve at the feast?

Śrutakīrti: For free they had an orange lassī and halavā and a sweet and a nice potato vegetable with sour cream. And then they were selling . . . they had a sweet booth, and I think they made about four or five thousand dollars selling sweets right at the beach walk. And then they had watermelon and samosās. They were selling samosā. It was very big day.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good weather.

Śrutakīrti: Yes. Excellent weather. It was hot.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Los Angeles has good weather.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Very good weather.

Śrutakīrti: Hawaii's weather is (laughs) . . . it's better.

Prabhupāda: So I wanted to return again.

Śrutakīrti: If not for the traveling, it would certainly be the best place to be for health.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Śrutakīrti: If not for having to travel there, it would certainly be the best place to be for your health. I remember last time when you were sick, you recovered very well in Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Let us see. (laughter) Tamāla Kṛṣṇa wants me . . . wants to go back to . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was encouraging Prabhupāda to . . . I said that if he goes to the Western temples, that the welcome from his disciples would be so much that he would live for hundreds of years.

Prabhupāda: You can . . . go a little . . . and you can take . . . (indistinct)

Śrutakīrti: Tamāla? Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to see the candles.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Śrutakīrti: These are what we've just started. They'll be . . .

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Śrutakīrti: Starting Monday, they'll be selling these in Waikiki.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want a light on, Śrīla Prabhupāda? They're really nice.

Śrutakīrti: These are small ones. They come to twice as big. These here we would sell for twelve dollars.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrutakīrti: And the bigger ones, they will sell for twenty-five dollars.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People buy them?

Śrutakīrti: Yes. This works. And these cost about two dollars to make and about twenty minutes to carve.

Prabhupāda: Beautiful.

Śrutakīrti: Yes. There's a little science. They dip in all different color wax.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It actually costs two dollars to make, though.

Śrutakīrti: The wax. The wax is about two dollars' worth of wax. So it's very profitable. And especially for in Hawaii and Waikiki, it will be very lucrative business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How much you can make in one day, profit?

Śrutakīrti: Well, last year in Toronto they made seventy thousand dollars in two months, profit, during the Christmas season.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Where is the scarcity of money? (laughter)

Śrutakīrti: Also it is a very excellent business for householders in our movement.

Prabhupāda: You American boys, you know how to earn money. Now you have learned how to spend it for Kṛṣṇa. It is wonderful.

Śrutakīrti: It is very nice, because when you burn the candle it only burns on the inside, so you can burn the candle and still keep this attractive . . .

Prabhupāda: Oh. Outer cover.

Śrutakīrti: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you keep that permanently.

Śrutakīrti: Yes, that's . . .

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is made of . . . the outer portion is made of candle? No.

Śrutakīrti: Yes, all wax. Most of it is all just plain white wax, and then you have different color waxes, tanks of different colors, so you'll dip it in one tank. You have to do that several times. And then they just get a knife and slit on different angles and twist it.

Prabhupāda: Something artistic, wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really attractive. Gurukṛpā Mahārāja was telling me that the people, not just young people, but people of all ages, are attracted to buying such a nice-looking thing. Even an old grandmother would be proud to have such a candle, not just young people. All ages, all types.

Prabhupāda: Get a new life all round. No depression, no hopelessness. Is it not? American boys and girls, they became so much depressed out of hopelessness. Now here is a life, future. (break) Your latest Back to Godhead is very nice . . . (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda liked that, "Prabhupāda Speaks Out."

Prabhupāda: And now our Haṁsadūta is speaking.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, we're printing that, "Prabhupāda's Disciple Speaks Out." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes, that title I have given you. He has cornered one Dr. Kovoor. You have read that?

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you get any response?

Satsvarūpa: No. We just have this letter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dr. Kovoor has responded, and now Haṁsadūta has booked a hall and challenged him in all the newspapers to produce a mosquito. Free admission. They're serving halavā prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Actually, in mosquito you'll find the same arrangement like a big aeroplane—that wings, the body . . . but see the wonderful thing that not only there is mechanism, but there is a pilot. But your, this 747, it is big, there is mechanism, but pilot you have to bring outside. This is our challenge. And millions of such planes are born without your scientific knowledge. You produce one . . .

Satsvarūpa: Just one.

Prabhupāda: . . . then come to combat with God. This is our challenge. Simply jugglery of words, "We have manufactured this element, that element. Now, in future, we are going to . . ." This nonsense we shall not allow. Do it now. Hmm? What do you think?

Satsvarūpa: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Śrutakīrti: Also, flying over here, that 747 that I was flying on it was three hours late because of some mechanical difficulty. So even they make it, they don't make it very nicely.

Prabhupāda: Imperfect.

Satsvarūpa: The scientists are spending more and more time now on death with these weapons. There's more and more new bombs that they're making. So this is all they can do, is how to accelerate death.

Prabhupāda: Die.

Balavanta: Now one British physician has said that anyone over a certain age should be killed. Big, big physician. That is public, all over. He said: "The old people will not like it, but the young people will accept my proposal."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he's older man.

Balavanta: He's young.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's young. If he were old, we could suggest that he should be the first.

Prabhupāda: What? What is? What is that?

Balavanta: Big British physician, he has proposed . . .

Prabhupāda: British?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: English. One British physician has proposed that now all old people should be killed to make room for enough young people.

Balavanta: He says they are useless in society. Actually, they haven't taken sannyāsa, they're not preaching, so these old people are simply useless.

Prabhupāda: Actually they are useless. (laughter) So our challenge to this science society is all right? Hmm? What do you think?

Satsvarūpa: Challenge them to produce even a small living being? What can he do? He can only say: "In the future."

Prabhupāda: That is useless. Then kill them. No future—immediately. Why future?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Practically the scientific community is going to realize that you're their most . . . biggest opposition. They're going to come to appreciate that, because you're the only one, Śrīla Prabhupāda, who has dared to challenge all of these scientists. And as your representatives, when they see what we're . . .

Prabhupāda: Because they . . . nowadays people say: "We don't want any sentiment, religion. We want science, everything." Rascal, where is your science?

Balavanta: They have only blind faith. "Big bang," all these things. There's no evidence, no proof, simply blind faith. And but for you, no one is challenging. They would simply go unchallenged.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It is said in the article that in Ceylon, this man Kovoor has been challenging and being victorious for decades, challenging everyone, "There is no God. There is no soul." But now it said for the first time someone has turned the tables on him and has challenged him for the first time. He never expected such a thing.

Prabhupāda: And public applauded.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about the doll project? That nice museum?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. Some big photographers, they are very much attracted, so they made a new . . . a second set of the changing bodies for the (indistinct—tape glitch) . . . on a mountain, some mountain, or a large hill in California, and all day this national publicity photographer took pictures of it for the press. He said he wants to make this the best-known picture of the year. And I don't know where it's going to be released, but he wants to have it put in the big magazine. There's two of them. They both wanted the rights to take pictures of it. So they let the more famous one of the two go . . . (indistinct)

Śrutakīrti: They set that exhibit up at the Ratha-yātrā festival. They had one large tent of the "Changing of the Bodies" exhibit, and myself and another devotee went to go see it, but there were so many people in line that we changed our minds. Several hundred people were standing waiting to see that exhibit. It's going to be very famous, "Changing of the Bodies."

Prabhupāda: It is a new thing. Many people come to see in our exhibition . . . (break)

Satsvarūpa: . . . sell whatever they produce, whatever they print. There hasn't been increasing much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's staying at about the same pace. The reason is . . . it could increase, but the reason it's not is that more emphasis is going into increasing the big books. The magazine's keeping pretty much at a steady rate of nearly half a million a month, and they are pushing to increase the big book especially. Otherwise it would be very easy to increase. In other words, wherever we want to place the emphasis.

Prabhupāda: So books are selling nice? (end)