771101 - Conversation A - Vrndavana

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

771101R1-VRNDAVAN - November 01, 1977 - 18:04 Minutes

(Śrīla Prabhupāda Vigil)

Prabhupāda: Pondicherry me kuch golmaal? (Has some controversy erupted in Pondicherry?)

Shri Narayan: Aurobindo ji ka hain na sara āshram. (In the Aurobindo āshram.)

Prabhupāda: Suna hai kuch party me hua hain? (I heard that it is some political issue?)

Shri Narayan: Yeh kuch golmaal hui thi party ki golmaal nahi hain. kuch aur karan se hui thi. Rajnitik karan agaya tha. Aurobindo bana raha hain na ek international ek kendra banaye hain Aurobindo. Waha ke kuch logo ne garbar kiya bidesh ke log kuch aaye hain na rahne ke liye, unhone kaha ke hum to apna swatantra hain, Aurobindo society se hamara kya sambandh hai aisa kuch. Aisa humko Vatican city chahiye. Haan swatantra chahiye inko. Kahi barso se kahi Aurobindo . . . (Something has happened but it is not related to the party. It happened for some other reason. Political reasons. They have made an international center named Aurobindo and the foreigners staying there are asking for complete independence similar to the Vatican city.)

Prabhupāda: Apne jalpan kiya? (Have you eaten breakfast?)

Shri Narayan: Kiya. (Yes.)

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo society wo bhi to Gita. (Aurobindo society is also based on the Gītā.)

Shri Narayan: Hmm. Gita ka to hai hi bohot unki. Aurobindo ji ka to Gita ke upar bohot hi jor diya hua hai unhone. (Definitely. Aurobindo laid tremendous emphasis on Bhagavad-gītā.)

Shri Bajaj: Par Aurobindo ji ne unme condition kar diya ki only those who will be . . . to seek divine guidance from within, they will be eligible for admission. Yeh niche gol likhkar yeh bataye. Sara Gita ka to humko 18 chapter nehi aata jaise guidance unki karni hai . . . one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness. Yeh word hai uski. (They have also put a condition that only those who agree to take divine guidance from within are eligible to take admission. This is what we find in the eighteenth chapter of the Gītā. To live in the Aurobindo International Center, one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness.)

Shri Narayan: Haan ek hi baat hain sab. (Yes, there is no difference between them and Kṛṣṇa consciousness.)

Prabhupāda: Ap log ka kya aim hai? Gita Pratistha. Apka kya aim hain? (What is the aim of your Gītā Pratiṣṭhān?)

Shri Narayan: Gita pratistha ka to Gita ka bichar prachar. Wo jitni sangsthaye hai lagi hui sabka ek dusre se parichay karana, aur kaam ko sab milkar shakti smmilit shakti lage sabki, Gita ka prachar sare desh duniya me ho yehi uska aim hai. Jaisa apka bichar hain na ki hum koi kisi interpretation me hum nahi parte, hum to jaisa Gita hai uska prachar karna hai. Sab bhasha me sab jo kam me lage hai unko aur protsah dena aur Gita ka sudh prachar karna. Usme hum interpretations ke bibad me nehi padte. (Gītā Pratiṣṭhān is for spreading the message of the Gītā. Our aim is to bring all the organizations together that are teaching Bhagavad-gītā so that they can know each other and work in union to spread the message all over the world. Just like you are stressing upon the importance of preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is without any interpretation, similarly we also preach the message as it is without any interpretation. Our aim is to preach in every language and encourage those who are purely propagating the message of the Gītā.)

Prabhupāda: Bhagvan Kṛṣṇa bol rahe hain man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Ye 4 chiz humlog sikha rahe hain. Sabsamy Bhagvat chintan, man-manā aur Bhagwan ka bhakt hona, mām evaiṣyasi kaunteya (BG 9.34), sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66) simple thing. Isme koi complication nahi hai. (Lord Kṛṣṇa is telling man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Remembering Kṛṣṇa, man-manā, become His devotee . . . mām evaiṣyasi kaunteya (BG 9.34) . . . sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). It is a very simple thing without any complication.)

Shri Narayan: Haan nahi kuch nahi. Matlab yeh to spast hain bilkul. (Definitely, it is totally clear.)

Prabhupāda: Aur paramarthik jivan wo hain, arthik jivan wo bhi hum usse lete hain. Ye cātur varṇyam mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13) cātur varṇyam — brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya, sudra . . . Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44) śamo damo titikṣāh brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42) ojah tejo balam ye ksatriya dharma hain. Yeh sab hamara uddeshya hai aur isme fal bhi bahut hai. To sab without interpretation as it is agar kuch hai to sara duniya ka mangal hain yehi humara samajhna hain. Ap logo ka bhi yeh sab bichar hai? (This is about spiritual life. We also take information about economic development, cātur varṇyam mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13) . . . brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiṣya, śūdra, everyone has their prescribed work. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44) . . . śamo damo titikṣāh brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42) . . . Ojah tejo balam, this is kṣatriya dharma. This is our aim and it is very effective. So, if people accept this without interpretation then the whole world will be benefited. This is our simple understanding. Is it your understanding also?)

Shri Narayan: Haa! Bohot mangal ho sakta hai. Apka kuch karyakram tyay huya, nischit huwa kya Mayapur jane ka abhi nehi huya nischay kuch? (Yes, the whole world will benefit. Have you fixed your program for going to Māyāpur or is it still under consideration?)

Prabhupāda: Ichcha to hai. (The desire to go is there.)

Shri Narayan: Abhi to apka swastha thik hona chahiye. (First of all, your health must improve.)

Prabhupāda: Swasth thik ho or na ho. sarir rahne se . . . (Whether health improves or not, it doesn't matter. As long as the body is there . . .)

Shri Narayan: Aisa hai apne 10,11 barsh me itna kam fail gaya prabhu ki kripa se, apke purusarth se aur asirbad se to ye abhi kuch barsh isko aur gati dene ke liye apka swasth achcha rahna bohot avashyak hum samajhte hain. (By your tireless effort and the Lord's grace, this movement has spread all over the world in the past ten or eleven years. Now, I feel that your health must improve so that you can keep the movement going.)

Prabhupāda: Hmm . . . paramayu to . . . wo kushti ka vichar se paramayu hain 81 barsh ka marna hai. Marna to hoga hi. (My time is over . . . let's see how long I continue to live. According to my astrological chart, I am destined to live till the age of eighty-one years and death is anyway bound to occur.)

Shri Narayan: Wo to thik hai. Wo to sabhiko jana hain. (That is okay. Everyone has to die.)

Prabhupāda: Udhar bhi . . . sangsthan hain. Ekbar sab ap log a jaiye. How many men can we accommodate there? (Both of you can visit there at least once. How many men can we accommodate there?)

Devotee: We have around forty rooms. At least a hundred people can stay.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Devotee: In the guesthouse.

Shri Narayan: Kaha ka mayapur? Kaha ka kyah rahe hain swamiji? (Is Swāmījī talking about Māyāpur? I am not able to understand very clearly.)

Devotee: Oh, in Māyāpur we can easily accommodate over one thousand people.

Prabhupāda: Mayapur me we welcome even from the world iska ek ichcha hain. (I have this desire to welcome people from all over the world in Māyāpur.)

Shri Narayan: Pura ban gaya na? Ya abhi ban raha hai? Waha sab ban gaya na? (Is the construction over or still under progress?)

Prabhupāda: Pura hi bana gaya hai. What is the length of the house? (No, the construction is completed. What is the length of the house?)

Devotee: Seven hundred and sixty eight feet. Very long. One building . . . it is the longest building in West Bengal.

Shri Narayan: Mukhya jo mandir hai? (That's the length of the temple.)

Devotee: No, guesthouse.

Shri Narayan: Guesthouse ka. Achcha! waha bhi ek bada mandir hain na? (The guesthouse. Okay! There is also a big temple I think.)

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Shri Narayan: Apne bataya tha kabhi zaroor waha ayenge humlog. Calcutta se karib 2 ghante ka rasta hai? (I remember you telling me in the past about it. We will definitely go there in the future. How far is it from Calcutta, around two hours?)

Devotee: Two or two and a half hours. At the most, it will take three hours.

Shri Narayan: 3 ghanta. Jela kaunsa hai? (3 hours. What is the name of the district?)

Prabhupāda: Nadia.

Shri Narayan: Nadia. Ekbar chalna chahiye, dekhna chahiye. (Nadia. We should definitely go there one day.)

Devotee: Zaroor ana chahiye, bohot achche hain. (You should surely come. It is very beautiful.)

Prabhupāda: India me 3 jagah hain, ek Mayapur, ek Vrindavan aur Bombay. Bombay ka aplog dekha hain? (We have temples in three places in India. One in Māyāpur, one in Vṛndāvana and one in Bombay. Have you already seen the temple in Bombay?)

Shri Narayan: Bombay ka dekha humlog sab. (Yes we all have seen the Bombay temple.)

Shri Bajaj: Janmastami me humlog rat me wahi the mandir me. Sab satsang, puja path sab. (On Janmāṣṭamī night, we were there in the temple. We attended all the ceremonies.)

Prabhupāda: Thik laga? (Did you like the program?)

Shri Bajaj: Haa thik laga. Bohot thik laga. (Yes, it was very nice.)

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you called for me?

Prabhupāda: No, I was asking how many men we can accommodate in the new building?

Bhavānanda: Comfortably we can accommodate five to six hundred men in first-class rooms with first-class pakka prasādam.

Shri Bajaj: That's already established, and people are already . . .

Bhavānanda: Yes, it's already established.

Shri Bajaj: Functioning.

Prabhupāda: Bahut bara hai. (It's quite huge.)

Shri Narayan: Bahut bara. (It's quite huge.)

Shri Bajaj: But you have plans to further expand and add many more buildings into that. Because I've seen the big plan.

Bhavānanda: Yes. Prabhupāda has made a plan for fifty thousand devotees to live there.

Shri Bajaj: Fifty thousand devotees in one place.

Shri Narayan: Unki kalpana hain . . . Sablambi, har haat se kam karna, gobar gas yeh sab bataya tha na? Bijli wagera bhi nehi sayad. (They have lots of plans like rural development, self-sufficiency, handicrafts, biogas. I think maybe there is no electricity.)

Prabhupāda: What activities going on, just describe.

Bhavānanda: At Māyāpur now we have two hundred resident devotees. We have the handloom; we have our own handloom production. We have prasādam distribution to the local people on the weekends. Two to three thousand people a day are given prasādam, and during the week seven hundred to a thousand take full prasādam.

Shri Narayan: Free? All free distribution.

Bhavānanda: Yes. And we have our gurukula, mainly local boys, resident boarding, no day students. When I left there were eighty-five boys. Probably it's increased.

Shri Narayan: All local.

Bhavānanda: All local. Our international gurukula is here. There is local.

Shri Narayan: This is international, here.

Bhavānanda: This gurukula is international, and our gurukula in Māyāpur is mainly local Bengali boys, many coming from brahmin families, very nice.

Shri Narayan: Then any industries? Hand industries?

Bhavānanda: Our handloom.

Shri Narayan: Handloom. Kheti, dairy hoga, Gai ka goshala hoga. (Handloom. There will be agriculture, dairy and gośāla also.)

Bhavānanda: And our gośāla is just developing. That area of Māyāpur, Navadvīpa, is a big handloom . . .

Shri Narayan: Yes, handloom area.

Bhavānanda: Many handlooms. So we have designs to expand that into a very large area, and most of it will be exported to our temples and devotees all around the world. And all of the handloom workers, they're devotees, so they don't take any salary. None of us take any salary. And they get nice rooming and full prasādam, and their children are educated. All medicine, everything is supplied to them.

Shri Narayan: You could also, perhaps, introduce this new spinning wheel for the yarn. At present you must be purchasing yarn from the mills.

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Shri Narayan: But have you seen this small nice charkha, spinning wheel?

Bhavānanda: Well, we do our own spinning.

Shri Narayan: Spinning also?

Bhavānanda: Oh, yes. We're training up those who have children . . . they're trained in the varṇāśrama system. Some of the children in the school have a scholastic bent of mind, so they're educated in Sanskrit and higher studies. Some of them have a vaiśya bent of mind, and they work in the gośāla helping to develop . . . milk the cows. Some are . . . their parents are working in the handloom. They also have that desire, so they're trained to be handloomers. In this way we will be able to develop a city of fifty thousand devotees.

Shri Bajaj: Let us not overstrain him and whatever if . . . he'll feel tired.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Shri Narayan: Sabhi desh ke log aye hain sammilan ke liye, khas apka sangstha hi hum chahte the sab log dekhe. Karya sab dekhe to bohot achcha sab ko lag raha hai. (People have come from every country for the union. I especially wanted people to see your organization. Everyone is very happy to see how people are working together in your organization.)

Prabhupāda: Ap bhi aiye Nadia Mayapur me. (Please come to Nadia Māyāpur.)

Shri Narayan: Mayapur me ayenge humlog. Zaroor aayenge. (We will come. definitely come.)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We have our main festival in Māyāpur at the end of March, March 24th.

Shri Narayan: March 24th?

Bhavānanda: This year? Dola-yātrā. Dola-pūrṇimā.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Our biggest festival. All the devotees from all over the world . . .

Prabhupāda: Recently there was a scientific meeting here. Where is that Statesman report?

Shri Narayan: The report from . . . about Māyāpur? Some literature?

Prabhupāda: No, here. We . . . just describe.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We had a science conference here in gurukula just about a little more than a week ago.

Shri Narayan: Here in this new building?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the same building, at the same hall that you're going to hold your conference. I invited several scholars, scientists around Delhi and Agra. Also Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples, scientist disciples, came from around the world. The basic theme was to show that life is coming from the supreme life. In other words, everything is coming from Kṛṣṇa. But modern science says that we are just products of atoms and molecules.

Haṁsadūta: This is an article which was published in The Statesman, October 22nd . . .

Shri Narayan: I see.

Haṁsadūta: . . . which covers this meeting. It says: "The Non-Physical View on the Origin of Species. Materialists and men of faith continue to disagree over the origins of life. According to the first group life is derived from atoms and molecules . . ." (break) (end)