770327 - Conversation B - Bombay

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770327R2-BOMBAY - March 27, 1977 - 26:43 Minutes

Hari-śauri: Once this scientific basis is established, then everybody will be finished.

Prabhupāda: It is very easy. There is a superior element—life. On account of that superior element, the inferior element has got meaning. Otherwise it has no meaning.

Hari-śauri: No one serves a dead body. Push it in the ground and let it rot.

Prabhupāda: That superior element you cannot manufacture by combination of these inferior chemicals. That is also . . . if you take chemical, that is also chemical. But that chemical is superior. You cannot manufacture it by combination of these inferior things. Therefore it is God.

Hari-śauri: It is actually such a clear and simple thing, but they become so complicated they can't understand.

Prabhupāda: They have made it complicated. Insufficient knowledge.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have been misguided, that's all

Prabhupāda: Misguided, yes. This rascal leader. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31).

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We would also have been misguided if we didn't meet Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the same area.

Prabhupāda: I never agreed to be misguided by these rascals. Perhaps I am the first man who protested against these authorized scientists.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. Very strongly. Everybody is afraid except Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Frankly speaking, I never knew that the problem is this serious before I met Śrīla Prabhupāda. I never thought about this.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I took it so seriously. Every morning walk, I was "Where is the scientist?" I thought, "Here I have got an opportunity to impress that will fructify in fruition." That was my aim. Therefore I was bothering you in so many ways.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is your wonderful mercy, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Because I cannot use the technological words, and he can do that. So he should be trained up. What is the news of Dr. Rao?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Dr. Rao died.

Prabhupāda: (surprised) Died?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. That I informed in the . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, you informed, but it is confirmed?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He died of heart attack.

Prabhupāda: I thought of him to become good assistant.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I thought he would be very . . . we would get together very well, and we had plans together to do, to start work, and come back in India. But about . . .

Prabhupāda: Finished.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He was a good soul, but he wanted little material profit. That doesn't matter. So his father is there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, his father is actually still alive. Some day, if I get an opportunity, I will pay a visit.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is very intelligent.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. I even asked him to join this writing of our book, to contribute some chapters, and he agreed to that.

Prabhupāda: Never mind. He has given some service. It will not go in vain. (coughing)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He had the greatest respect for Śrīla Prabhupāda. Every letter he wrote me, nothing but praise of Śrīla Prabhupāda, though he had some difficulty in getting along with some of the prabhus here. He wrote me something about those points, but he never said anything against Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is natural. If one gets little prominence, other becomes envious. Society is so polluted. Mātsarya. So we have to adjust. (aside) Give me my shirt. So take care of your health and circumstances. You have to adjust things according to . . . (long pause) If there is difficulty, his wife and children may come to Vṛndāvana.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. His family's more or less well off. They have . . .

Prabhupāda: They've got good position.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are zamindars.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. His father.

Prabhupāda: They are also kṣatriya.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. He was also a good chemist.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, very qualified.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He works very nice. He is very good in experiments, making compounds.

Prabhupāda: Great loss. He will get again good birth to become Vaiṣṇava. There is no doubt. He was initiated. Again he will get chance. Anyone who has joined this movement and given little service, his human life next birth guaranteed. There is no doubt. And then he will get again chance to develop. He is not going to be cats and dogs.

Hari-śauri: I remember once in Vṛndāvana, though, that you said that if someone deliberately breaks the principles even after initiation, he can become a dog in his next life because of that.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer

patet tato yadi bhajann apakvo 'tha

yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ

ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ

(SB 1.5.17)

Find out this verse. First part. I think here is first part.

Hari-śauri: This is 1.2. I think that verse is quoted here in the Gītā though.

Prabhupāda: So nice thing. Even little done, you get chance again. The students who are coming, give them nice place, nice food, nice intelligence. Organize Bombay. You will get many enlightened students, professors, doctors. "Come on, live with us."

Hari-śauri: It is quoted in the purport in connection with this:

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti

pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya

trāyate mahato bhayāt

(BG 2.40)

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Hari-śauri: (reading) "In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." Purport: "Activity . . ."

Prabhupāda: The most dangerous type of fear is if my next life I become an animal. That is the most dangerous. But those who have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, given some service, for them there is no such fear. He gets another chance. Hmm.

Hari-śauri: (reading) Purport. "Activity in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or acting for the benefit of Kṛṣṇa without expectation of sense gratification is the highest transcendental quality of work. Even a small beginning of such activity finds no impediment, nor can that small beginning be lost at any stage. Any work begun on the material plane has to be completed. Otherwise the whole attempt becomes a failure. But any work begun in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has a permanent effect, even though not finished. The performer of such work is therefore not at a loss even if his work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is incomplete. One percent done in Kṛṣṇa consciousness bears permanent results, so that the next beginning is from the point of two percent, whereas in the material activity, without one hundred percent success, there is no profit. Ajāmila performed his duty in some percentage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but the result he enjoyed at the end was one hundred percent by the grace of the Lord. There is a nice verse in this connection in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer

bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi

yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ

ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ

(SB 1.5.17)

"'If someone gives up self-gratificatory pursuits and works in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and then falls down on account of not completing his work, what loss is there on his part? And what can one gain if one performs his material activities perfectly?' Or, as the Christians say, 'What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world yet suffers the loss of his eternal soul?' Material activities and their results end with the body, but work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness carries the person again to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even after the loss of the body. At least one is sure to have a chance in the next life of being born again as a human being, either in the family of a great cultured brāhmaṇa or in a rich aristocratic family that will give one a further chance for elevation. That is the unique quality of work done in Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Yes. These chances are there. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). Find out this verse. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati. At the time of death, if you simply offer Kṛṣṇa, He will know everything, what I have tried to do. "Now You consider my position. Send me wherever You like." Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati.

Hari-śauri: (reads)

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā

śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati

kaunteya pratijānīhi

na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati

(BG 9.31)

"He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes." Purport. "This should not be misunderstood. In the Seventh Chapter the Lord says that one who is engaged in mischievous activities cannot become a devotee of the Lord. One who is not a devotee of the Lord has no good qualifications whatsoever. The question remains, then, How can a person engaged in abominable activities either by accident or intention, be a pure devotee? This question may justly be raised. The miscreants, as stated in the Seventh Chapter, who never come to the devotional service of the Lord, have no good qualifications, as is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Generally, a devotee who is engaged in nine kinds of devotional activities is engaged in the process of cleansing all material contamination from the heart. He puts the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, and all sinful contaminations are naturally washed away. Continuous thinking of the Supreme Lord makes him pure by nature. According to the Veda, there is a certain regulation that if one falls down from his exalted position, he has to undergo certain ritualistic processes to purify himself. But here there is no such condition, because the purifying process is already in the heart of the devotee due to his remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. Therefore the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations."

Prabhupāda: Our abridged edition of Bhagavad-gītā is there in the paṇḍāl?

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. All the big books. The Bhāgavatams, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Gītā.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We need some artists in Bombay, some artists to paint.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some artists. I was told that some are coming from Los Angeles?

Prabhupāda: Why?

Hari-śauri: Los Angeles? I think they went back. You need some paintings done now?

Prabhupāda: So you are feeling on this stronger platform? Hmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is wanted.

Hari-śauri: In this movement we can't do anything except gain—become stronger more and more.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: You have taught us how to become strong.

Hari-śauri: Hmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: You have taught us how to become fearless and strong. Those are good platform.

Prabhupāda: Anyone who does not know Kṛṣṇa is a mūḍha. So the only difficulty is that we have to deal with mūḍhas. But our position is different. We are not mūḍhas. (long pause) (break) He was in good position. I don't think he had much anxieties.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What is it, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Dr. Rao.

Hari-śauri: The cause of his heart failure.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I don't know. He had a little over . . . he was a little heavy, he became. I don't know. I never had any encounter that his heart was weak. Never knew before. So unpredictable.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. He was young man.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. (end)