750622 - Morning Walk - Los Angeles

Morning Walks by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Morning Walk

750622MW-LOS ANGELES - June 22, 1975 - 38:48 Minutes

Harikeśa: (introducing recording) Morning walk, L.A., June 22nd. (break)

(in car)

Jayatīrtha: . . .palace, fifty-five rooms. Each room is big size with a marble fireplace, and the floors are marble and there's a marble winding staircase and several big rooms. And it's got its own chapel. Very beautiful. And then the land is very beautiful, 250 acres, as far as you can see.

Prabhupāda: So it is worth taking?

Jayatīrtha: It seems to be. The price seems to be about the right price.

Prabhupāda: So down payment has been made?

Jayatīrtha: Yes, it's already . . . It's now in our name. It's been transferred.

Prabhupāda: And when they are moving?

Jayatīrtha: Some devotees have already moved.

Prabhupāda: Oh. It is vacant? Vacant?

Jayatīrtha: It was vacant, yes. Well, the old owner, he is keeping one room in the building for the time being. The man who sold it to us, he's a very . . . Sort of a pious gentleman. He's doing humanitarian work. He's a war hero.

Prabhupāda: War hero?

Jayatīrtha: Yes. In the last war. (Prabhupāda laughs) So he is also helping us. He has a big factory next to the land, and he's letting us use it for the incense business. So he's doing some good service.

Prabhupāda: What is that factory?

Jayatīrtha: He employs these alcoholics and derelicts in different kinds of work, making things. And he was keeping these people living in this palace, but now he's built another place next door where he keeps them and he has them employed. It's sort of an Alcoholics Anonymous group.

Prabhupāda: Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and they will be rectified.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, that's the best thing. Bhagavān hopes eventually to convert them. Anyway, it's a very beautiful place. Especially this time of year, it's very beautiful.

Prabhupāda: How long it takes to go there from Paris?

Jayatīrtha: About two and a half hours.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Two and a half hours? And what is the nearest town?

Jayatīrtha: It's near Lyons, Orleans, Orleans.

Prabhupāda: Oh. How far it is from our palace?

Jayatīrtha: About half an hour, I think. It is between several big towns. And it's very centrally located for saṅkīrtana all over France.

Prabhupāda: Oh, we can go here and there.

Jayatīrtha: Yeah. They're going to use that as the saṅkīrtana base for our traveling saṅkīrtana all over France.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Jayatīrtha: Parties will go out for a few weeks and then come back. So it's very good.

Prabhupāda: What is the climate now? It is cold?

Jayatīrtha: It's nice during the day and a little cold at night.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: Europe is always cold.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Europe is always cold.

Jayatīrtha: Always cold. But this palace is in a fairly warm zone. It's got some sort of breeze coming from the Mediterranean Sea, I think. Anyway, it keeps it a little warmer than most places. And it does not snow very much during the winter, they say. Besides the palace, there are some other buildings also. One place they are going to use for a gośāla, and one place for a gurukula. And then several householder houses.

Prabhupāda: And the land for farming?

Jayatīrtha: Yes, at least half the land is good for farming. It's level, and there's a good water supply.

Prabhupāda: There is some river?

Jayatīrtha: No, there's no river, but there's a . . .

Prabhupāda: Waterfall?

Jayatīrtha: . . .pond there.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break)

Jayatīrtha: . . .fifty devotees in Paris now. So that temple there is very crowded. Impossible.

Prabhupāda: So why not some of them moved?

Jayatīrtha: Yes, that's their plan. (break) . . .enough for several hundred devotees very easily. (break) They're letting us through in the mornings for nothing now, I think, unless this man is going to nip us.

(break) (on walk)

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was in maṅgala āratik. I don't know where he is now. (break)

Prabhupāda: Brahmānanda is not come? Nobody knows why? (break)

Devotees: He was in maṅgala āratik.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was not dancing very much, though. So maybe he was not . . . (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: Here comes Brahmānanda.

Prabhupāda: How he comes? (laughing) He is running. Oh, another car?

Bahulāśva: Yes. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is not like Juhu.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) . . .Mahārāja feeling separation of Māyāpur.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's transcendental.

Prabhupāda: He has constructed Māyāpur. This is very good. Āsaktis tad-vasati-sthale (CC Madhya 23.18-19). If one becomes attracted in the place of Kṛṣṇa—place of Kṛṣṇa everywhere—especially where His līlā was performed . . . So Brahmānanda, why late today?

Brahmānanda: I was in the temple, chanting.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Brahmānanda: I didn't think you would come so early.

Prabhupāda: It is early?

Brahmānanda: Well, earlier than yesterday.

Prabhupāda: No, I don't think. What is the time?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten minutes to six.

Jayatīrtha: Yesterday you left about 5:40 and today you left exactly at 5:30. So . . .

Brahmānanda: I came just after you left.

Prabhupāda: I think your watch is slow. (laughter) (break) . . .actual time now?

Jayatīrtha: It's 5:51.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is my?

Jayatīrtha: Your's is about one minute faster.

Prabhupāda: And what is your?

Brahmānanda: 5:53.

Prabhupāda: Fast. (break) . . .in my childhood, I remember, I went to see football match in the Maidan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta Maidan.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when I was returning—of course, I was walking—throughout the whole . . . At that time our house was that Mullik's house. So from Maidan to Mahatma Gandhi Road I came. And all the watches throughout the road, the same time. Means every watch was . . . every clock was wrong. But I was going, so I, suppose I saw 5:10 here, then few steps away, 5:10, 5:10, 5:10, like that.

Bhavānanda: Not any more.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhavānanda: In Calcutta it's not that way any more.

Prabhupāda: That's very strict in time?

Bhavānanda: No, every clock is hours off (laughter) from each other.

Prabhupāda: Hours? (laughs)

Bhavānanda: Hours.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) . . .today?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think in Los Angeles it is always . . .

Prabhupāda: Always.

Dharmādhyakṣa: The month of June, Prabhupāda, in California is very cloudy. (break) It was one of the few days that it was sunny.

Prabhupāda: Hawaii is clear. Hawaii is clear. Every day we used to see sun.

Jayatīrtha: Very beautiful there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: India is like that also. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .sinners.

Revatīnandana: I think it is a joke, though.

Jayādvaita: Then again commit sins. They'll repent and commit them again.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Atonement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whenever we meet the Christians, they always say that "It doesn't matter, because Jesus came to save us from our sins. So now it doesn't matter, because we're saved."

Prabhupāda: Then Jesus is a fool, and he has taken contract to suffer, and these people are free to commit sin.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Jesus actually said . . .

Prabhupāda: And they are so clever that they can make God's son also fool. Over-clever. (break)

Dharmādhyakṣa: . . .always said, "Your sins are forgiven you. Go, and sin no more." He always gave that injunction, "Go, and sin no more." (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .is no description of sins in Bible? What are the sins?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Killing . . . Killing, adultery, stealing. They mention it.

Jayatīrtha: There are Ten Commandments.

Prabhupāda: That is.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Worship of demigods. They also say, "Putting any god in front of the one Supreme God." Worshiping matter. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Berkeley there's this one demon, so-called Christian, and every day he comes out and he stands behind us with a big sign . . .

Prabhupāda: Big?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Big sign, that "These mantras . . . You will not achieve anything by your mantras and meditation." And he calls us idol worshipers. And now he is writing these big signs, "Don't chant Hare Kṛṣṇa with them." He's chanting . . . He's writing "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and he's telling . . . (laughter)

Prabhupāda: You charge, "Why you are chanting?" (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: . . .day he stands behind us for two hours to three hours of kīrtana. He's becoming one of our men now. (laughter) (break)

Revatīnandana: . . .used to do that, but he never came around. He used to be out there every day in Los Angeles for years.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Prabhupāda? The father of the H-bomb, the man who developed the H-bomb, he retired a week ago, and he said he was very sad that the young people were becoming disgusted with science nowadays, and all the young scientists, they are not as good as the old scientists. They have no desire any more really.

Revatīnandana: Edward Teller?

Dharmādhyakṣa: Yes. Teller retired.

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Dharmādhyakṣa: His name is Edward Teller.

Prabhupāda: So what he is?

Revatīnandana: He's famous for inventing the H-bomb.

Dharmādhyakṣa: He invented the hydrogen bomb.

Revatīnandana: Hydrogen bomb. He was the main inventor.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there was a survey of these psychologists, young psychologists, and they asked them whether or not they would like to do research. And the vast majority of the psychologists said no, they don't want to do any research. They don't like to do research because it's all a joke. They don't prove anything. They figure it's a waste of time. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam (CC Madhya 17.186): "You cannot become a philosopher unless you disagree with other philosopher." Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. (break) . . .something drown?

Sudāmā: Yes, they destroyed an amusement park there, and that got stuck in the water.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Why destroy?

Sudāmā: No one was coming any more.

Prabhupāda: All amusement finished.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Dharmādhyakṣa: They did that to get insurance money? (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .they are becoming disappointed in science, philosophy, amusement. That is good sign. (break)

Dharmādhyakṣa: . . .we go to colleges, the young people that are working on Ph.D.'s, they are very . . . (laughs) They say, "We're doing all this research, but you can't prove a thing." I ask them, "Well, this experiment, you know, what will it prove?" He says, "Well, it indicates this, it indicates that, but really doesn't prove anything."

Prabhupāda: (laughs) It proves only that he's a fool. That is the only . . .

Dharmādhyakṣa: I talked to a very nice Indian gentleman. He's a Life Member. He's a young Ph.D. in chemistry, Dr. Bhatt. He dedicated his Ph.D. thesis to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Dharmādhyakṣa: Yes. And he quoted, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). And I asked him, "What is the practical result of your research?" He said, "Maybe in twenty years they'll find some way to use the research that I am working on."

Prabhupāda: So he has dedicated to Kṛṣṇa, very good. (break) . . .also dedicated, our Dr. Sva . . . yes, to Kṛṣṇa.

Dharmādhyakṣa: I was very surprised. I was at his home, and I opened it up, and it said, "Dedicated to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Scientist." He quoted Brahma-saṁhitā. (break)

Prabhupāda: Dr. Wolfe also believes in Kṛṣṇa very strongly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You had a talk with him yesterday?

Prabhupāda: He said, "I believe in Kṛṣṇa unconditionally."

Bahulāśva: Unconditionally. Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is his specialty?

Prabhupāda: He is a linguist, Ph.D. in linguist.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, linguistics.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bahulāśva: Dr. Judah also says like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Bahulāśva: Yes. He was coming to hear Viṣṇujana and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa do kīrtana every day at Berkeley. He said he liked to come and hear the chanting very much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, he comes every day.

Bahulāśva: He was very impressed with the bus. He was seeing Rādhā-Dāmodara bus. He was very impressed.

Revatīnandana: So whenever a devotee visits him, he is very pleased to see the devotees come and visit him also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: At his office.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a devotee. Nice devotee.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: He's been also to Māyāpur, I think, and Vṛndāvana, and he's associated with you before. So he's had a lot of good association.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he saw Tīrtha Mahārāja, Bon Mahārāja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he met them.

Bahulāśva: He told me that if he was not so entangled with family life, he would want to take sannyāsa.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) He is family man?

Bahulāśva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No, so what is the anxiety? We can take charge of their family. How old he is?

Bahulāśva: He's about sixty-five. He's just getting ready to retire. He's retiring this year.

Prabhupāda: So retire.

Dharmādhyakṣa: He's in very good health, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Bahulāśva: We spoke with him that when we incorporate Berkeley temple as a university, he can be affiliated with that, and he thought that would be very nice.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So let him help that our center be affiliated.

Bahulāśva: Yes. We were thinking if it was . . . if it pleased Your Divine Grace, maybe he could teach one class in his book, and we can have some students come there.

Prabhupāda: That will be very nice.

Bahulāśva: That would be all right?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Dharmādhyakṣa: There's this one psychologist, he comes every week to study Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he plays some of the bhajana tapes in his office. And there's twenty doctors in his office, and he plays it so all the doctors can hear. And they all come in and ask him, "What is that wonderful music?" He says, "Oh, this is from the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement." He says, "No, that can't be from the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. They just chant and dance on the street the same thing." He says, "No, no, no, this is the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement." They are very, very pleased. He gives all his patients mantra cards and tells them, "You should go to the temple. This will really help you." (break)

Prabhupāda: This is nudie beach?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The nude beach.

Revatīnandana: It used to be.

Bahulāśva: . . . on one side and the other.

Revatīnandana: At one time they made it legal to be nude here, and then later on, they repealed the law again.

Jayatīrtha: Venice? It is still nude, Venice Beach.

Revatīnandana: Is it still? Really.

Jayatīrtha: You can either come wearing clothes or not wearing clothes to this beach.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lucky we come early.

Sudāmā: Just like the monkeys.

Revatīnandana: Oh, it was in Laguna that they repealed it.

Prabhupāda: But why, then, the lavatory they have made distinction for woman and for men?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now in the colleges there's no more distinction.

Jayatīrtha: Co-educational bathrooms.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One bathroom. One residence, one bathroom . . .

Revatīnandana: The boys and girls live in the same residence on the same floors and use the same bathrooms. Practically there is no restriction on the association. They're not married.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Congress just passed a law that the health education, means the gym, gymnastic classes . . . Every day there's physical education class . . ..

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Must be co-educational. They must be. They passed a law like that.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Soon they'll get so disgusted with this association, they'll all want to become brahmacārīs.

Revatīnandana: When we noticed that this amusement pier was torn down, I didn't think that it meant that they were less interested in amusement, but they have become more degraded in their approach. The amusement piers . . . They come here instead to be naked on the beach for their amusement. Or they stay at home and use intoxicants mostly. That is increasing. (break) . . .like a prostitute house. And almost every place they are. Not even one part of the city anymore, but you see them everywhere.

Prabhupāda: The woman gives massage?

Revatīnandana: Yes. Always advertising, "Beautiful young girls to massage you."

Dharmādhyakṣa: This is open prostitution now. They advertise very, very . . . very badly.

Bahulāśva: We had a hearing in Berkeley for our temple, whether or not we could live there, and some neighbors were saying that "These Hare Kṛṣṇa people are no good because they don't have any sex life and don't take any intoxication."

Jayatīrtha: "They hate sex, they hate women, they hate drugs . . ."

Bahulāśva: They said, "They are too pure. They will make this whole place . . . They'll take over this whole place."

Devotee: "They'll convert the whole neighborhood."

Dharmādhyakṣa: "They're trying to subvert and infiltrate our philosophy into their neighborhood."

Prabhupāda: So they are coming to know what we are. (laughter)

Woman: (in distance) Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa! Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Mexican Woman: Good morning. Buenas dias.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Prabhupāda: Good morning.

Revatīnandana: The Mexican people are always a little appreciative. They naturally believe in God.

Prabhupāda: Give them invitations. Today is Sunday.

Bahulāśva: Yes, Cit-sukhānanda is speaking with them.

Prabhupāda: No, you have no card? Love Feast card? Give them, that "Come."

Jagannātha-suta: Jayatīrtha has one. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .is our enemy, it means Hare Kṛṣṇa is acting upon him. Yes.

Bahulāśva: Like Kaṁsa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (chuckles) Kāmāt bhayāt krodhāt. Either for lust desires or out of fear, out of anger, some way or other, if one is attached to Kṛṣṇa, his life will be nice. So enemy means krodhāt, being angry upon us. "These Hare Kṛṣṇa people does like that," so he is angry. But that will also be effective. Krodhāt.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa is so merciful.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: One day in London a woman came to try to drag her daughter from the temple. She came into the temple room with her shoes on, and one devotee . . . She would not remove her shoes, so the devotee pulled off her shoes and she fell down. It was almost like she bowed down. She became so angry, she was shouting in front of the Deities, and I dragged her out and had to wrestle her out of the temple, literally wrestling with her to get her out the door. And she came back in with a policeman, and she pretended to have a fainting spell because we had beaten her so badly, she said. And so she said, "Get me some water," but we didn't have any water, so we gave her some milk prasādam, and she drank it without thinking what it was. And so in so many ways—she saw the Deities, she had prasādam, and then she left again, and all this, completely out of anger, but her anger was so strong that she got a lot of association because of it. She was so energetic, I think she could become a devotee some day. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: . . .in America from India. They are so much impressed, Śrīla Prabhupāda. But the most impressive thing for these Life Members is to come to America and see our institutions. They have letters of introduction. They don't want to live in the temple, generally, but they come to see.

Prabhupāda: The other, that member, the same?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Different men. I know. I made these men Life Members in Bombay, and I happened to be in Washington, D.C. when they came there. And they attend the āratis, you know. It's very nice. They are very, very impressed.

Revatīnandana: When Karttikeya Mahadevia came to America some time back, he remarked to me that he had come to see all the sights like the Grand Canyon and like that, but primarily, he seemed, now he was just simply going from temple to temple because the temples were nice. Nothing else was so nice as he expected.

Bahulāśva: Some Life Members came to San Francisco, and we picked them up in this Mercedes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's him, that same man.

Bahulāśva: And they were so impressed that we had such a nice car for greeting the Life Members. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They talked about that. It's the same man I met in Washington, D.C., Mr. Poddar.

Bahulāśva: Mr. Poddar, yes. They said, "Oh, this is the Life Member car?"

Prabhupāda: One gentleman came to see me in Hawaii. He's also Life Member.

Harikeśa: Ramesh Lahoti.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Mr. Lahoti. Yeah, actually . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, he knows you very well.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Actually, that plan to have a tour is a very good plan if it can be arranged. Because if they get convinced here by seeing this, then, when they go there, they'll speak so highly to so many people.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that they think that we're bluffing to some extent, but when they come here, they see actually it's not just the pictures that we are showing, but there's something substantial behind the picture. (break)

Dharmādhyakṣa: . . .the colleges and high schools now that the teachers appreciate the philosophy much more than the students. They have more brain substance, and it's even a possibility many of them will actually become devotees if they have more association, because devotees are practically the only intelligent people that they ever get to talk to. Even the other members of the faculty, they are not so intelligent to talk to them. But we went to see one philosopher. He's written seventeen books, and he's a distinguished professor of philosophy. We talked to him for three hours, a very famous . . . His books are used all over the country. He said, "My philosophy is closest to this Hare Kṛṣṇa philosophy, after you've explained it to me." He will be coming back. He's going on tour. He's retiring. We're also going to try to get him to come to Berkeley.

Revatīnandana: Is that the one at Pomona College?

Dharmādhyakṣa: No, this is another one, at U.S.C., University of Southern California.

Prabhupāda: So some professors wanted to see me?

Jayatīrtha: Yes. In fact, one is coming over this afternoon.

Brahmānanda: Today two are coming.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Actually, at the University of Southern California around three or four members of the religion department want to come, including the chairman.

Prabhupāda: So let them come. (break)

Bahulāśva: . . .yesterday that Indian gentleman, Dr. Singh? He had become very doubtful when you told him they didn't go to the moon. He was saying, "Do you think they really didn't go?" (laughter) He never thought of that before, that they might have just made a show.

Prabhupāda: No, if we believe in our Bhāgavata, they have not gone. It is above the sun planet, 1,600,000 miles above. How they can go?

Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, at night, when we see in the sky that moon, that is the same moon that is above the sun?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bahulāśva: Yes? So their miscalculations are due to their imperfect senses.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I told Mādhava dāsa in Atlanta that you had said that the sun is actually closer than the moon, and he immediately was able to prove that that is correct. He sat down and he, "Oh . . ." and was able to prove something by the way they are measuring . . . They are measuring the distance incorrectly in terms of bending light rays and straight light rays.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Brahmānanda: Sometimes does the moon comes in front of the sun?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Brahmānanda: Sometimes the moon comes in front of the sun.

Prabhupāda: What is the front?

Brahmānanda: Between the sun and the earth the moon comes.

Jagannātha-suta: Lunar eclipse.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Eclipse is different, not according to their theory. That planet is called Rahu.

Devotees: Ah, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not the moon. That's Rahu.

Revatīnandana: So Rahu covers sometimes the sun and sometimes the moon?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bahulāśva: This Rahu planet's invisible? We cannot see this with our eyes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why you believe your eyes so much? (laughter) Nonsense eyes.

Dharmādhyakṣa: There's this psychology book, and he says that the light spectrum is this long, and that we can see this much of the spectrum of energy. Very nice. This book makes many points that agree with Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy.

Bahulāśva: So, Prabhupāda, you say that these astronauts have gone to the Rahu planet.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they might.

Bahulāśva: They might.

Prabhupāda: That is also very difficult.

Bahulāśva: I was trying to arrange a meeting between Your Divine Grace and this astronaut, Dr. Mitchell, and also this other famous scientist, Werner von Braun. But they are on the East Coast at this time, so they couldn't come. But they both wrote nice letters that they would like to meet you if they could be in California at the same time.

Revatīnandana: This von Braun is a big rocket scientist from the old days. He designed the V-2 missile in Germany during World War II, and then he designed the American missiles during the space program.

Prabhupāda: What benefit he has done?

Revatīnandana: Well, he's recently said . . . He retired, and he said now he thinks the only purpose of life is to research about God, to find out about God. He's very famous, so . . .

Prabhupāda: Just see. That is good. They have finished already science. Now if they do not come to God, then they are finished. They have nothing to say any more. Athāto brahma jijñāsā (Vedanta Sutra 1.1.1). That is Vedānta. Now they have finished all their so-called talent. Now they have to come to brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry about the Supreme. That is their concern now. Now they have cheated public and bluffed them—they are going to this, going to this—but they are all failures. Now they are anxious how to keep their position. That is the problem.

Bahulāśva: They get lots of money for their position, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Because if they are not employed by government with big, big salaries, who will care for them, scientists? Hundreds of scientists may wander or walk in the street. Who will recognize him unless he has got money? I have seen in India. So many scientists are loitering in the street without any employment. Who cares for them?

Dharmādhyakṣa: They will have to go on welfare, Prabhupāda, pretty soon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But a saintly person, even he has no money, people care.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. (break) . . .Paṇḍita says, vidvat tvaṁ ca nṛpatvaṁ ca naiva tulyam kadācana: "A rich man, or a king, and a learned man, learned vidvān, they should not be compared. There is no comparison." Why? Sva-deśe pūjyate rājā: "A rich man or a king may be worshiped in his kingdom," vidvān sarvatra pūjyate, "and if a man is learned, he will be worshiped everywhere." Therefore, he says, "Never compare with rich man with learned man."

Bahulāśva: Therefore it's very important that all the devotees study your books so they become learned.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Anarthopasamaṁ sākṣād (SB 1.7.6). This is the learning only, to keep them saved from this illusory material energy. (break) . . .means knowledge, and this Bhāgavatam is the essence cream of Vedas. Nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam (SB 1.1.3). Nigama means Vedas, and this is the galitaṁ phalaṁ, ripened fruit of the tree.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's one professor . . . (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . drags the home. (break)

(in car) . . . living?

Jayatīrtha: No. Maybe he is. I think in . . . he lives in Switzerland or some place. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .make research about God. Somebody told me?

Brahmānanda: Yeah. Dr. Werner von Braun. That has been his conclusion now, at the end of his career. He is interested in meditation and self-realization.

(arriving at temple)

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. (devotees offer obeisances) (end)