770124 - Conversation A - Bhuvanesvara

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770124R1-BHUVANESVARA - January 24, 1977 - 22:30 Minutes

(loud kīrtana in background)

Prabhupāda: The small Deity?

Gurukṛpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He was carried with me. So he was taking care of the Deity, giving massage and cooking. Devānanda also doing that. The rascal gone, left, hippie, doing . . .

Gurukṛpa: Yes, smoking gañja.

Prabhupāda: And no, he was very good boy, doing everything.

Gurukṛpa: Before him I think was Kārttikeya.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. Kārttikeya was also doing that. What can be done? I was carrying that Deity, you know?

Gurukṛpa: In Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Gurukṛpa: They are now in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's it.

Hari-śauri: They're in Calcutta now?

Gurukṛpa: They've been in Calcutta.

Hari-śauri: Somebody told me that They were the small Deities in New York.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: The brass ones.

Prabhupāda: That is different. That was . . .

Gurukṛpa: They're in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: In my Los Angeles room there is Deity room?

Hari-śauri: Gaura-Nitāi.

Prabhupāda: No. There is siṁhāsana, now there is a picture, London Deity. Formerly the small Deity was there.

Hari-śauri: In Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: My personal room.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, they have some Gaura-Nitāi Deity there now.

Prabhupāda: Gaura-Nitāi is there, but in the siṁhāsana . . .

Hari-śauri: Oh. There's just a picture now. Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is London picture.

Gurukṛpa: They are in Calcutta temple.

Prabhupāda: Maybe Calcutta.

Gurukṛpa: They're very nice.

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is one man here. We knew he was supposed to come from something "Cultural Affairs of Bhuvaneśvara." I asked them . . . he was here earlier today and then later today.

Prabhupāda: All right, let him come.

Hari-śauri: When he came this evening you were taking prasādam, so . . . and then immediately after was the lecture. (break)

Indian man (1): . . . cultural affairs, Orissa government. Here there is a large stack of palm leaf manuscripts. Palm leaf manuscripts. And we are editing those Sanskrit manuscripts, correcting them and publishing them.

Prabhupāda: Sanskrit?

Indian man (1): Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: It is published in Sanskrit?

Indian man (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Palm beach?

Indian man (2): Palm leaves.

Hari-śauri: Some manuscripts on palm leaf.

Prabhupāda: Oh, palm leaf.

Hari-śauri: They're translating and publishing. So he is the editor in charge of all that for the government.

Indian man (1): What is the . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is the śāstra?

Hari-śauri: What is the name of the śāstra?

Indian man (1): Śāstra. I told yesterday, Bhakti-bhāgavatam of Kabisurya Baladeva Acharya.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes.

Indian man (1): And there is one . . . (indistinct) . . . begins like this (quotes long Sanskrit verses). This is one Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā by Kabisurya Baladeva of Orissa.

Prabhupāda: Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana?

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana who commented on, and wrote Śrī Bhāṣyam.

Gurukṛpa: That's the same one you just quoted? By who?

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana.

Gurukṛpa: The one you just sang.

Indian man (1): No. This is Kabisurya Baladeva.

Prabhupāda: Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana, different.

Indian man (1): Different.

Prabhupāda: Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana belonged to Orissa or Bengal?

Indian man (1): Yes, Orissa. And he has clearly mentioned that near Chilika, Chilika Lake he was born. It is clear mentioned.

Prabhupāda: But he used to live in Balasore.

Indian man (1): Yes. He used to live in Balasore, and then went to Bhastrana(?), where he wrote Bhāṣya on Vedānta-sūtra and Gītā.

Prabhupāda: Vedānta-sūtra, Govinda-bhāṣya, he wrote in Jaipur.

Indian man (1): Jaipur. Yes, last time, Jaipur.

Prabhupāda: I have dedicated my Bhagavad-gītā to Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana.

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana? Following Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana?

Prabhupāda: I followed . . .

Hari-śauri: He dedicated it. Yes, this is . . . Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana.

Indian man (1): I am glad to talk with Pradyumna Mahārāja. He's good Sanskrit scholar. And I also a Sanskrit teacher for ten years in a Sanskrit school, then with my postgraduate from . . . (indistinct) . . . University.

Prabhupāda: What you are doing now?

Indian man (1): Duḥkhi-sampat-nyāya(?).

Prabhupāda: No, what is your occupation now?

Indian man (1): Occupation? Government service editor. Editor of research publications.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. So take little prasādam here. Pradyumna, give him little prasāda.

Indian man (1): . . . (indistinct)

Pradyumna: Bring here?

Prabhupāda: All right, bring it.

Indian man (1): (indistinct) . . . prasannata. (satisfaction.) Sorry if Prabhupāda was taxed by that man (referring to guest at Caitanya-caritāmṛta lecture). He did not understand . . .

Prabhupāda: No.

Indian man (1): . . . and started arguing. He's not in a mood to understand.

Prabhupāda: Where is dvaitavāda, advaitavāda, in Bhagavad-gītā?

Indian man (1): He has not understood.

Prabhupāda: Mamaivāṁśo (BG 15.7). Aṁśaṁśi-dvaita. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Pitā-putra, dvaitavāda. Bahūni, janma, janmāni tava cārjuna. Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa—dvaitavāda.

Indian man (1): Virudāvalī should also be translated.

Prabhupāda: Virudāvalī, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana's?

Indian man (1): No, Rūpa Gosvāmī.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Rūpa Gosvāmī, yes.

Indian man (1): (quotes long Sanskrit verses from Virudāvalī)

Prabhupāda: Very good. These are for higher devotees, not for the neophytes. For neophytes we have translated Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

Indian man (1): Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

Prabhupāda: Nectar of Devotion. You have seen our books?

Indian man (1): Yes, I have seen some. (break) . . . lucidly and so much correctly brought out that I'm surprised to see these books, that how in a foreign country these books are so correctly brought out. Even we fail here to bring out these books correctly.

Satsvarūpa: As research editor, you could write a nice review of Śrīla Prabhupāda's reviews. We have many reviews. All the big Sanskrit scholars.

Indian man (1): Yes, I will write. Actually, if I get a small literature about Prabhupāda I will write an article in newspapers. People of Orissa could not know that an international figure came to Orissa and they could not avail of the opportunity.

Hari-śauri: That would be very nice.

Gurukṛpa: International. Interplanetary.

Hari-śauri: These are appreciations from all over the world: France . . .

Indian man (1): Pradyumna Mahārāja put some pertinent questions on Bhāgavata when he came to know that I am a Sanskrit scholar. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . Lainland.

Gargamuni: Yes, Lainland(?) Bank.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Our Guru Mahārāja went to America with this hope—that Indian culture and American money combined together will save the world." That's a fact. Everything requires money, but we are securing money with hard labor. If money little easily comes, we can make very nice program.

Gargamuni: Yes. I told him that "If you can finance some of our programs, we can hold huge pandals."

Prabhupāda: American government can finance to any point. The present president is religious temperament, so why not arrange a meeting with him?

Gargamuni: Yes.

Hari-śauri: And his wife is very inclined towards India.

Prabhupāda: His wife.

Hari-śauri: Yes. She worked here for several years.

Prabhupāda: No, no, his mother.

Hari-śauri: I think it was his wife.

Prabhupāda: No, mother.

Gargamuni: No, his mother came here. She worked as a nurse in Bombay.

Hari-śauri: Oh. That was it.

Prabhupāda: Mother Teresa or something like that.

Hari-śauri: No, no. She has nothing to do with . . .

Gargamuni: No.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: She worked in some hospital for a few years in Bombay.

Hari-śauri: She was a relief worker. Was it his mother or his wife?

Prabhupāda: Mother Teresa, no?

Gargamuni: No. It's his mother. I'm sure because I read the article. I did. I read. It was in the Illustrated Weekly.

Hari-śauri: And the Americans very much want to make friends with India. Very much.

Gargamuni: But I think if we can convince the American government that we can stop Communism in India by this movement . . . because the people will see. They tried to do it with the priests.

Prabhupāda: Simply prasādam distribution—bās. We shall stop them with hari-saṅkīrtana, village to village.

Gargamuni: Yes, 'cause they frankly admit, the Americans, that they planted CIA agents in the priests to try and convince the people and change them. But they failed because these CIA agents became detected. So I told them that actually also this Christianity, the Indian people cannot accept, the mass of people. Maybe a few. But they can accept our movement.

Prabhupāda: No, that is in lower class, not brāhmaṇas.

Gargamuni: Yes. No. They will not accept. But they can accept this movement.

Prabhupāda: This movement will accept because there is prasādam, teaching and actual behavior, Vaiṣṇava.

Gargamuni: And they've been brought up in it thousands of years. They will accept it. And "It's coming from America. Therefore you should support it."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: I told him this. He was interested. He was. But he told me, "Under the present . . ." The CIA used to give money to certain groups to stop Communism, he said, but recently they have been under investigation for this. So he said it would be very dangerous for them to do such a thing now. But he said he would talk it over. Since then, though, I have not met him. This was at the time when we were called CIA in Calcutta, when it came in the papers. I went to them for advice because they also became very much upset, because just before that, the Consulate with his wife came to Māyāpur and saw all of our activities. They were very impressed. And they printed this in the newspaper, trying to show that the Consulate General was also an agent, along with Bhavānanda. So he became very angry. He became very angry that they should try to make this up. He said: "Actually, I had personally . . . my wife wanted to come, but I was not so much interested. But because my wife came, I came also. But I don't see why they are trying to link me, along with your society, as CIA." He said: "This is very bad." And from what I know, they made a formal complaint to the Home Minister of West Bengal, the Home Secretary.

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Gargamuni: 'Cause his assistant, Mr. O'Neil, told me that they received a telex from Washington saying that a formal protest should be made that ISKCON is not part of the CIA and also they are not funded by the government of the United States.

Prabhupāda: People can say anything. But if there is officially protest, that is . . .

Gargamuni: Yes. He said. (break) . . . there at Purī, yes. In our sampradāya these—Māyāpur, Purī and Vṛndāvana—are most important.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Now if we revive, just like Pānihāṭi . . .

Gargamuni: Yes, and Pānihāṭi also.

Prabhupāda: Haridāsa Ṭhākura had part. Here, at Siddha-bakula.

Gargamuni: Yes, then we can . . .

Prabhupāda: Siddha-bakula, Gambhīra—if you try, you can get.

Gargamuni: Yes. And this Remuṇā maybe.

Prabhupāda: Remuṇā.

Gargamuni: Yes. This Gopīnatha. Kṣira-Gopīnatha.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Gargamuni: There may be a chance within the future.

Prabhupāda: So we shall be very glad to develop. This is very . . . did they speak anything like that?

Gargamuni: Well, it's in the government hands now.

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh. So why government? We can take charge.

Gargamuni: Yes. See, whenever the government takes these temples, it's a burden for them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: So why not we will take and we will take care?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this is under . . .

Gargamuni: I think they should be approached.

Prabhupāda: . . . Orissa government?

Gargamuni: Yes. I think so.

Prabhupāda: And why not?

Gargamuni: I'd have to inquire, but I'm pretty sure it's managed by the government, because they're allowing us to enter the temple. There's also a place being offered in West Bengal. I personally went there and took photographs. It's in Kharampur.

Prabhupāda: Kharampur.

Gargamuni: Yes. It's near the Bangladesh border. It's about eighty kilometers north of Krishnanagar . . .

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: . . . near the Bangladesh border. It's five miles . . . in fact, we took the wrong road and we almost went over the Bangladesh border.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Gargamuni: We went through the border almost by mistake, and the guards came with their guns. Our driver took the wrong road. But it's five miles from the Bangladesh border. And the property . . . there's a temple there of Gaura-Nitāi. (break) (end)