770108 - Conversation C - Bombay

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Conversation

770108R3-BOMBAY - January 08, 1977 - 14:12 Minutes

Indian man (1): As you have said, it comes and goes, somehow attached to the body.

Prabhupāda: Today or tomorrow. Best thing is so long we have got this opportunity of human form of life, let us cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is . . .

Indian man (1): I came other day also, and you were advised by the doctors not to see you.

Prabhupāda: No—doctor says like that. I see everyone.

Indian man (1): So Gopāla Kṛṣṇa told me . . . that was the first day with the doctor. You had . . . your Worship had accepted that doctor's decision. So it was first day when I came. So Gopāla Kṛṣṇa told me this is the problem as it is, and I'm not disappointed at all. I am one with Prabhupāda, so there is no difficulty. So I took a chance today.

Prabhupāda: So I did not like that idea.

Indian man (1): No, but sometimes, Prabhupāda, just to keep . . . you may not require your body for yourself, but we require your body also for ourselves. So we always . . . all the devotees always pray to our Lord to give you a long physical body and healthy, so that the cause which you have taken up in your hand should be completely fulfilled. And this is the way I feel.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I also desire at least let me finish . . .

Indian man (1): I have gone to the Fourth Canto . . . Fifth Canto.

Prabhupāda: We have finished now Eighth Canto, and Ninth Canto is also at the press. Tenth Canto is already printed, this KṚṢṆA as the summary of Tenth. Now I have to publish in detail.

Indian man (1): We have been praying, Prabhupāda, to Lord Kṛṣṇa that, "We want him for a long time. Till this movement is fully bloomed and blossomed." So for our sake your body has to last.

Prabhupāda: After all, it is Kṛṣṇa's body.

Indian man (1): Yes. But what I said we pray for not for your sake but for our sake.

Prabhupāda: The body is dedicated to Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (1): Yes. And through you we get inspirations. If we go to wrong path, we remember you, we are checked.

Prabhupāda: The similar question was Sanātana Gosvāmī. Sanātana Gosvāmī, after leaving his . . . resigning his post, he was living as a mendicant, and there was no bodily comfort. Naturally there was so many eczema, and it is wet eczema. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as soon as will meet him, immediately embrace him. So he would say: "Don't touch me! This is not for Your . . . touch me. This is the disease . . ." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu . . . "I'm touching just to purify Myself." Then he consulted some friends, that "Caitanya Mahāprabhu will not hear me, and He'll touch forcibly. Better I give up this body." He desired to commit suicide. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "Do you think it is your body? You already dedicated to Me for My service. How you are thinking in that way? It is not your body." Then his body became released from all this eczema. He was thinking like that, that "Caitanya Mahāprabhu forcibly embraces me, and my body is so unclean. Better I shall give up." So He said: "It is no longer your body. You have dedicated the body to Me. You have no right to think like that."

Indian man (1): We are, Śrīla Prabhupāda, small children. You take us with your fingers to the path.

Prabhupāda: The path is open.

Indian man (1): Yes. But sometimes we falter in the path.

Prabhupāda: Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam . . . ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). It is open for you. It is open secret.

Indian man (1): No, we make mistakes.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. But path . . . mahat sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes (SB 5.5.2). Everything is there. That is the difficulty. Although everything is there, we find it . . .

Indian man (1): But I'm sure that with your protection, Prabhupāda, I'll reach the goal which I have contemplated.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving protection: ahaṁ tvāṁ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. But still we are not agreeable. Kṛṣṇa says that, "I shall give you protection from all reactions of sinful life." But we are not taking that protection. You simply surrender. It is only process.

Indian man (1): I am taking your shelter, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: No, I am not talking of me. I mean to say generally everything is declared. We have to take advantage of this. Then it is everything.

Indian man (1): I mean to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lord Kṛṣṇa also has said that, "My pure devotees are more powerful than Me."

Prabhupāda: You have all my blessings. You have done so much for Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (1): So, Prabhupāda, I can come here till you are here. I thought that I should not, because medically you are not advised to. You talk less, but at least we will have your darśana.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Five to seven you can come.

Indian man (1): That is sufficient for us, without much . . . we will take your leave so that you can have rest.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Indian man (1): Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Prasāda? (break) Jaya. How are your sons?

Indian man (2): One was sick for six months.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Indian man (2): He was getting a temperature. He was weak. He was operated on the tonsils.

Prabhupāda: What is the age?

Indian man (2): He is twelve years.

Prabhupāda: Only? That's all.

Indian man (2): Yes. They failed him in the examination also.

Prabhupāda: What does he say?

Indian man (2): What do you say? He has met me for the last three years. He is now in my car. I brought him from Bombay.

Prabhupāda: So you are living there or what?

Indian man (2): They were staying here. They could not get subsequent accommodations. We have shifted to some hotel.

Prabhupāda: Hotel?

Indian man (2): Here, near Juhu.

Prabhupāda: There is no sufficient place here?

Woman devotee: He was here, but there were many, many life members.

Indian man (2): Many life members were here, and so there was not accommodation. So they were told, or they voluntarily shifted to the hotel. Because many life members came from abroad here on Christmas and all that. So therefore the accommodation was not there, so from there they have shifted in Juhu. Some hotel. They come here every day.

Prabhupāda: No . . . you woman, you can live together.

Indian man (2): They're living together. Both ladies are living together. She wants to buy some land at Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: (to devotee) When you have come?

Bhavabhūtī: Just today, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Just today from Madras. I closed the bank account there. Also I was in Madras, there's one movie playing there by the government. The name of the movie is called From the Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi. It's a government movie put out, and in the movie there's a picture of the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees chanting and also a display of your books.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Bhavabhūtī: And it's giving . . . this is a movie put out by the government of India, and it included us in it, and it's very favorable for us. It actually includes a picture of devotees chanting, and it shows the books, saying how this sanātana-dharma is being spread to other countries.

Prabhupāda: This is very nice.

Bhavabhūtī: So I think it is very favorable that the government is now accepting us.

Indian man (2): Things are going very good for our movement here. Other day I was with one Air India officer, and I told him, "Why don't you attract more tourists and show our pictures of Hare Kṛṣṇa and what our activities in India?" to attract more tourists by giving our activities in India. They said: "We will discuss." They will be discussing with me in the preliminary stages, and of course I will take Girirāja and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. And one school has agreed, Prabhupāda, which is a very famous school in Bombay, center of the city where all the affluent people are staying—that school is very big school, good school, which are all . . . (indistinct) . . . they have agreed that once in a week we can give you forty-five minutes to your . . .

Prabhupāda: Saṅkīrtana.

Indian man (2): Saṅkīrtana. So this I will be discussing with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. And there are about 1500 students in that school from . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana can be performed. So the movie, how long it is?

Bhavabhūtī: It's a one and a half hour movie, and we're in about eight minutes of it.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Eight minutes. Showing our books. That I want. Let them read our books, then they'll understand what we are.

Bhavabhūtī: So Prabhupāda, I just visited also our boat program on the Ganga. Śravanānanda has the boat. They distributed 15,000 Back to Godheads in one month in Bengali. Fifteen thousand. So I have challenged Śravanānanda. I told him we're going to distribute more Hindi books on this side of the country.

Prabhupāda: No, there the Hindi is not so . . .

Bhavabhūtī: But here in this side we're going to start to distribute this Hindi Back to Godhead very profusely, just like in America.

Prabhupāda: And what about Gītār Gān?

Bhavabhūtī: Yes. Also that's included. Fifteen thousand BTGs and Gītār Gāns included. The boys are so enthusiastic now, just like . . .

Prabhupāda: In the boat?

Bhavabhūtī: Yes. On the boat. But even when we came into Calcutta—it was a two-hour train ride—the boys were not simply sitting. They were going from car to car selling books. One boy, he sold fifty BTGs just coming from outside of Calcutta to Calcutta. Just two-hour train ride. He was going from car to car, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and he would give them Bengali Back to Godhead. And they are taking very nicely now. All along the Ganga . . .

Prabhupāda: They know how to take. (laughs) It is for them that the movement is being pushed on.

Indian man (2): Sincerity in the . . . (indistinct) . . . two things are there.

Prabhupāda: Everything they are doing. That is . . . because these American boys and girls they are cooperating, this movement is advancing. Otherwise I don't get any cooperation.

Indian man (2): I wish to retire soon from this my professional business as early as I can, and settle here.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (2): With Your Grace's . . . it can materialize. All glories to Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Give prasādam.

Indian man (2): I got prasādam. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming. Jaya. Koi chinta nahi, sab thik hojayega. (There is nothing to worry about. All will be good.)

Indian man (1): Aap hai toh Prabhupada, humko koi chinta nahi. (If you are there Prabhupada, then there is nothing to worry about.) You are our father.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (pause) (break) (end)