770706 - Conversation - Vrndavana
Prabhupāda: ...keep one's status position as gentleman, he must have sufficient income. That's all. One should be satisfied in that way and be happy in Kṛṣṇa.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
[Brs. 1.1.11]
Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes. That is real happiness. You should know what is happiness. Whatever we're getting, that is sufficient if... Simply to keep your status quo nicely. That's all. This is secret of happiness. I must not be poverty-stricken, neither I shall hanker after becoming very, very so-called rich. That is happiness. That arrangement is there. Your present position will never be disturbed, you'll improve, and you get, after seven years, 2,500 rupees per month. What do you want more? This is simply idea, that "My father has got so much property for me." And even if your father leaves so much property for you, if you have no luck to enjoy it, you'll be Harendranatha Singh. That you have seen, that your maternal uncles, what they have done? They're all rich men's son. My father-in-law left sufficient property. But what did they do? Simply drunk and die. Where is happiness? Is that happiness, do you think? Now still they are suffering, his family. If Kṛṣṇa has saved you from that...
Vrindavan De: With provocative disturbance.
Prabhupāda: Just see. To enjoy happiness they are sitting in that house. Your grandfather left such a nice property. But they are not happy. And they disturb you. You came out... (coughs) Practically seeing, you are happy more than them.
Vrindavan De: True. That is a correct. That is correct.
Prabhupāda: If you had lived in that house, you would have been simply harassed. So Kṛṣṇa has done so much mercy that you got free from their association, and now you are doing...
Vrindavan De: Also the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: So happiness does not depend on money.
Vrindavan De: They became old, but they are still unhappy like previous, as in the past.
Prabhupāda: So you become devotee. Come as soon as possible, here, or wherever, you'll get advice. I'll give you advice how to become happy. It is not happiness, that "I have got so much property from my father." Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha. Prahlāda Mahārāja said. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "The father-mother cannot make one happy." There are so many examples. Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha. There are many rich father, and the sons are suffering. You have seen your maternal uncles. Their father was rich and left immense property, and what was their happiness?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Drinking.
Prabhupāda: Bas. They simply died by drinking. Got some cheap money from the father, and they habituated. Is it not? Your two uncles, this Barbhavan, Caturbhavan?(?) So what is their happiness?
Vrindavan De: Simply frustrating, they died. That's all. Finish.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually this has always been your program, that you give us a little money to begin, but then you insist that "Now develop it on your own strength."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "I'll give you help to begin it..."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...but you must develop it." In all of the temples, like that.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like in Hyderabad now...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...you want to give some to begin, but they must now develop.
Prabhupāda: That is the duty. But not that you can get happiness. Happiness is in your hand, in your fortunate... That is a different thing. Don't think that "My father left so much property. Let me eat and drink and go to hell." That is not happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam BG 6.21 . Everything explained. Read books. Be devotee. That will bring happiness. And economically you may not be disturbed that you're poverty-stricken, you have to beg something or... No. Whatever is absolutely... More than that. More than that. One man does not require 2,500. Nowadays, even it is very expensive, one thousand is sufficient. Although everything is expensive, one thousand rupees sufficient for a person. You are each getting that. So the plan is all right. Now you try to become devotee. That will bring happiness. Otherwise there is no happiness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have experience of that for sure.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They were all rich men's sons. Where is happiness? They became hippie.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We gave up all of that because we weren't happy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone wants to be happy. Who does not want to be happy? But he does not know how to become happy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I could see my parents. They had so much money, but they weren't happy.
Prabhupāda: Nobody's happy, I have seen. Therefore they drink. Whenever there is unhappiness, they cannot adjust it—"Let me drink." This is Western happiness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or sex life.
Prabhupāda: That's all. They have no other information. So just try. You are comfortably situated. There is no economic shortage. Now you become devotee. Then you'll be happy. Otherwise it is not possible. Don't think by getting large sum money one becomes happy. That is not the fact. That is mistake.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've all given our..., that position up. We were all coming from money, but now we don't have any personal money, but we're millions of times happier.
Śatadhanya: And we don't lack any material benefit. We have spiritual and material.
Prabhupāda: Who can live in such house? Royal. Royal palace. We have 102 royal palaces. More than that. So even from economic point of view nobody is happier than us. Nobody is happier.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That New York building cost over one million dollars.
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you go I shall give you chance to see how my devotees are living happy in big, big houses. Big, big house. Do you think to possess a twelve-story house in New York is joke?
Vrindavan De: Even I cannot think of.
Prabhupāda: Is joke? We have got. In Detroit we have got a house which was constructed at the cost of six million dollars, fifty years ago. What is the price six million dollars?
Vrindavan De: Sixty lakhs.
Indian: Five lakhs forty thousand.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no, no. Six million means five crores .
Indian: Five crores for...
Vrindavan De: No. One million is ten lakhs.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Six crores.
Prabhupāda: So that house we are possessing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You should see this house. Fourteen hundred ounces of gold on the ceilings. The ceilings are coated with gold, fourteen hundred ounces. Yes. The floors are heated from underneath.
Vrindavan De: Twenty-two-karat gold.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the floors are heated underneath. All the floors. Because it's cold climate, they have heating underneath the floors.
Prabhupāda: When I entered the toilet bathroom I was surprised. (laughs)
Vrindavan De: In USA or Detroit?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Detroit, Michigan, USA. Prabhupāda's bathroom is nearly the size of this room, and it's all gold-covered on the ceiling, and the sink is a piece of marble this thick.
Prabhupāda: In London my sitting room is bigger than this, double. My sleeping room is like this. And my toilet room is half this. This is my quarters.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have so many places that you cannot visit them all in a year.
Prabhupāda: In everywhere. I have got now 120 places, palaces.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And each place with fifty to one hundred servants.
Prabhupāda: Yes... So happiness, unless Kṛṣṇa gives, there is no question of happiness. Our business should be that we may not be uncomfortably living which will disturb our progress of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—that much. Other things? Depend on Kṛṣṇa. If He wants to make you Indra, you become Indra. There is no happiness even by becoming Indra. You... We read from books. Indra is how much disturbed, always fighting, devāsura. He has to fight. The same thing as here. Only difference is the standard of living in the heaven and the duration of life are greater. But if you have to struggle for existence, then what is the use of this duration of life, greater? Simply struggling, where is happiness? So in different planets, in different species of life... I see at night these small bugs. They have got the same happiness. The husband and wife or the male and female together, jumping and having sex, and everything in a different body. And same thing is going on in higher planetary system. There is no other business. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam: eating, sleeping, sex, and defense. But breath must be there. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam BG 13.9 . So one who is intelligent: "So here is unhappiness. Why I'll have to die?" And that can be solved only by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No more death for a devotee.
Prabhupāda: No. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma BG 4.9 . If you don't attain Kṛṣṇa in this life, then again you go back to the process of birth and death. That's all. And in that process of birth-death, sometimes you become Indra and sometimes you become that small bug, that's all, according to your karma. So our struggle should be how to stop this birth and death, punar-janma-jayāya, to conquer over rebirth. That is real life. Again dying, again entering in the mother's womb, lie down packed up for ten months and then again come out, again another chapter begins—is that life? These rascals, they do not understand.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Imprisonment.
Prabhupāda: Solve this problem. And don't be poverty-stricken. That's all. That is happiness. There is no need of... So we, the members of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are living hundred times happily than anyone else, hundred times. They cannot dream. They are envious. In Los Angeles the neighborhood men, they're envious, that "These people, these devotees, they do not do anything, and they are living so comfortably—so many cars, nice palace, nice food." They inquire. They do not know. Don't expect in that way happiness. That is futile, that "Our father will leave lakhs of rupees and we shall get the interest and enjoy and then drink and go on." That is not happiness. Work hard how to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy in this way. Kṛṣṇa will give. And yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. Teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham BG 9.22 . He knows what is your need. Depend on Kṛṣṇa, but don't sit down like lazy. Yudhyasva mām anusmara BG 9.22 . This is instruction. We are trying to teach the whole world that "Be Kṛṣṇa conscious, and keep your status quo very nicely without any being poverty-stricken, and that is happiness." That is happiness. And so far the bodily disadvantages, so as soon as you get this material body, you'll have to... You have to die. You have to suffer from disease. You have to take birth. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā. So therefore śāstra says, that verse, that "Don't be attached to karma-kāṇḍa, fruitive activities." Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam. "By karma-kāṇḍa you can get better body, but that will not solve your problem." Yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ BG 9.22 . This body is temporary, but so long you have got this body, you have to suffer, this way or that way. So this is your real unhappiness, to get this material. Kleśada. Kleśada means always giving trouble. From the childhood they are crying. He has got some kleśa. The mother cannot understand. He's crying.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The first sound the baby makes is the crying.
Prabhupāda: He cannot express what is his inconvenience, and he's feeling one inconvenience, and the mother is trying to make him happy in other way. He's crying more, more, more, more. Where is happiness? Within the womb there was unhappiness, packed-up. When he comes down there is unhappiness. Then go to school, take education, appear for examination—that is unhappiness. Then grow up, then engage in some earning money—that is unhappiness. Then maintain your children, and that is unhappiness. Where is happiness, rascals? Rascal. Both are suffering.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Without Kṛṣṇa, there is no question of happiness.
Prabhupāda: This is simply anarthas, unnecessary creating unhappiness. Unnecessary.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But with Kṛṣṇa, all those things you describe become happy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa makes adjustment. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and He is giving advice that "Do like this. You'll be happy in this life and next."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually we work all day long—no salary, no vacation—and we're...
Prabhupāda: Still, they are happy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...feeling ecstasy.
Prabhupāda: Every letter I receive from my disciple, how happy they are, it is explained.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every letter it's the same.
Prabhupāda: Cakhu-dān dilo jei, janme janme...
Devotees: Prabhu sei.
Prabhupāda: Prabhu sei. So this eye-opening is given by guru. Cakhu-dān dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei. Then?
Śatadhanya: Divya-jñān hṛde prokāśito.
Prabhupāda: Divya-jñān hṛde prokāśito. Oh, he understands, "This is the way of happiness." Śrī-guru-caraṇe rati, ei sei uttama-gati, ār nā koriho mane āśā. T hat if one gets just guide, then that is happiness. Otherwise there is no happiness. Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakati-sadma... Hm?
Bhakti-caru: Bandoṅ mui sāvadhāna...
Prabhupāda: Bandoṅ mui sāvadhāna. So fortunately we got right guru. He has given us the way how to live, and that is happiness. Munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo 'ham... SB 1.2.5. What is that verse I referred?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Today? Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra nirmatsarāṇām SB 1.1.2 .
Prabhupāda: No, no. Munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo 'haṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam, kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati SB 1.2.5 . Happiness is there. Unless you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, there is no question of... This is a false happiness, that "If I get money, I'll be happy." That is false. So many men, they have got money. We see practically. The whole European civilization, American civilization, is based on this fundamental idea that "Let us have money and we shall be happy." And nobody is happy. Nobody is happy, a single man. Very big, big buildings, very nice car, very nice road, but there is no question of happiness. Always restlessness. Is it not? They are practically proved. And becoming implicated, karma-bandha, loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ SB 1.2.5 , one after another, one after another. Because he is not independent, he is under karma-bandhana. If you touch fire, it must burn you. You cannot avoid it. That is not possible. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sar... SB 1.2.5 , ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha. Are you independent? Suppose if you touch fire, are you independent that your finger will not burn? It must burn. So you'll search after so much so-called happiness—they're simply burning their finger, that's all. Karma-bandhanaḥ. Yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ SB 1.2.5 . So I'm insisting you about this distribution of the book. That is a service. If you can do some pushing on these books some way or other, you get material profit; at the same time, it is service.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. Not just a business.
Prabhupāda: No. That is not my proposal. Why shall I engage you in business, karma-bandhana ? That is not. If you can give little service, that is benefit. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. They are doing without any personal profit. You are gṛhastha. You can take some profit. That's all. But it is service. Anyone who will give some service to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, he'll make progress. Therefore I'm trying to engage everyone in this movement some way or other. A little help, svalpam api. It is such a nice thing. With that spirit you do and live comfortably. There is no question of unnecessarily taking a life of poverty-stricken. There is no necessity. But there is no necessity of luxurious life. And luxurious will already come for devotees. That I have already example. Who can live more luxuriously than ourself? Where is that? It is practical. All over the world we are living like princes. Princes even cannot live like that. All our devotees, and what to speak of myself? Six crores of rupees one house, who can possess? How many men there are in the world who has got many houses, each six crores of rupees? Hm? Bolo.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another letter just came today about the property they want to purchase in Washington. Ambarīṣa wants to purchase?
Prabhupāda: Now this Ambarīṣa, Alfred Ford, he is prepared that "Here is two hundred seventy crores of rupees for you. You take it whenever you like." Two hundred seventy crores . He has got his property. He has offered, "You take it immediately, and I'll give you." So you are engaging that money to construct a huge building in Washington for showing this planetary system. What shall I do with the money, two hundred seventy crores ? (chuckles) Three hundred million? No?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: About thirty million. But he has other, plus other... That he has, money in the bank.
Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the money is coming unless Kṛṣṇa sends? Did I go to America with some money?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Forty rupees.
Prabhupāda: That's all. And one tin box. (laughs) Give up this mistaken idea that "If we get some large sum of money from our father, then we shall be happy." That is not... That is wrong idea. Happiness depends on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You can take advantage from your father that you may not live uncomfortably. That's all, that much. That I am making sufficient arrangement. In your present position you'll never be disturbed. Now try to become happy by advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is required.
nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam
asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ
SB 5.5.4
Pramattaḥ. These persons are mad, pramattaḥ. Prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa mattaḥ. Mattaḥ means mad, and pra means still more, more than mad. Kurute vikarma. They are engaged in so many nefarious activities—black market, white market, stealing, burglaring, so on, so on. Vikarma. Idam adya mayā labdham idaṁ prāpsye punar dhanam. This is asuric thing. If one can squander away crores of rupees like Harendra Singh... Suppose if I give you each one lakh of rupees, how long it will take? You can squander away in one day. Take some regular income. Be comfortably situated. Advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Bas. That is happiness. In your whole life you'll never be disturbed for economic condition. That I am arranging. That's all. That "I am suffering for money." No. It will regularly. Is not that scheme? So what is next Mukherjee? Hyderabad (Hindi) It will be great service to Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi)
Indian (2): (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Provided they take up the step. Yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ BG 3.14 . Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and pāni will come from up, not from the ground. Otherwise Gītā is false. Yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ. (Hindi) That is going on. (Hindi) This is the way. The nature is forcing, yajña. Yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ. Perform yajña. And in Kali-yuga the yajña is so easy. Saṅkīrtanair yajñaiḥ, yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ.
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
SB 11.5.32
(Hindi conversation) ...such fulfillment hai for all demands. (Hindi)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think it's time for you to go upstairs. Vrindavan, he has to take his meals in the evening or he may miss... [break]
Prabhupāda: ...you try to become Vaiṣṇava. Keep it, whatever it may be. For the time being, you have got guarantee that your present position will never be disturbed. Is that all right?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whatever he wants. If he becomes a Vaiṣṇava, then he'll only want Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: So you... For the time being, we have given guarantee they'll not be disturbed in the present position. Be satisfied. Do business. (end)