760709 - Arrival - New York

Conversations by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

760709AR-NEW YORK - July 09, 1976 - 44:25 Minutes

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do they own it or lease it?

Rāmeśvara: They lease. The city builds it, and they lease it from the city.

Prabhupāda: What is the name of this airport?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: La Guardia.

Prabhupāda: La Guardia, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There are three airports.

Prabhupāda: I think these buildings are not ten years ago.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. New York has three airports.

Rāmeśvara: This is the oldest airport.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Kennedy, La Guardia, and there's one just across the river, Newark. It's in New Jersey, but it's considered part of the Port Authority.

Prabhupāda: I hear, Māyāpur Project, you have not been sending money?

Rāmeśvara: Not yet.

Prabhupāda: They want money. Gargamuni has written.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they've been calling for money regularly, but we have not been able to send them any.

Rāmeśvara: I met with Gurukṛpā Swami, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he has just transferred from the Japanese collections 125,000 dollars. He is writing one letter.

Prabhupāda: Better . . . (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten thousand a month.

Prabhupāda: Not all at a time. Management is not very good. So . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Little by little.

Prabhupāda: One lakh will be sufficient.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For carrying on the work.

Prabhupāda: Things are going on here nice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're gradually improving. Actually, everything has just begun here; it's by no means complete. You'll see that all of the work is just in progress. It's not . . . it will take a while to make it very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Manage nicely. Kṛṣṇa is giving us everything; there is no scarcity. If we simply sincerely work, Kṛṣṇa will give us intelligence, everything. By His mercy everything is available. That is Kṛṣṇa—He can give you anything.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: That Brooklyn Bridge, I think? That iron bridge?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there is a Brooklyn Bridge, but we're not going over it.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes I was coming there and sitting down near the bridge.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Near the water? You were sitting near the water part?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that river.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a famous bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge. It's the biggest expansion-type bridge.

Prabhupāda: Because I was on that Bowery Street; it is not very far away. So I was coming, walking there, and sitting under the bridge. And thinking, "Whether I shall return to India?" (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said you were always inquiring when the boat was returning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is one sub-railway station . . . beginning with F?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fulton Street?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fulton Street.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Sometimes I am going there. Fulton.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's very well known.

Rāmeśvara: It's in the Village.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This bridge we're going on is called the Triborough Bridge.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This is over New York?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it goes over the East River.

Prabhupāda: That Hudson Street?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hudson River is on the other side. This is going on the east side of the city.

Prabhupāda: That subway that goes to the city office? There are so many bridges.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many, yes, many, many bridges. Every day about seven million people come into this island of Manhattan from the other boroughs, and they go back. From your room . . . our building is very close to the Empire State Building, so from your room you have a very nice view of it.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So Los Angeles everything is going nice?

Rāmeśvara: Everything is very nice. We just had a big saṅkīrtana marathon for this Fourth of July, and they distributed up to thirty thousand Back to Godheads in just a few days.

Prabhupāda: (referring to garland) Make it smaller.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it's all one garland, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You can make smaller.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right.

Rāmeśvara: We had a good success because we sent out all the householders to the parks. During that holiday everyone goes to the parks. So the householders took their children and they set up a tent, and one of them stayed there babysitting, and all the others went out distributing your books. So in that way they went out on traveling saṅkīrtana.

Prabhupāda: What is the name of that boy? He sold one Caitanya-caritāmṛta to a chemist.

Rāmeśvara: Praghoṣa?

Hari-śauri: No, not Praghoṣa. He's originally from New York, big, heavy, thick-set boy. Prominent features. Begins with J.

Prabhupāda: One chemist of Karanpur, he sold one book, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, then he talked with me. He's pleased.

Rāmeśvara: The chemist?

Hari-śauri: Yes. He sold him a Caitanya-caritāmṛta and then he brought him over and Prabhupāda spoke to him.

Prabhupāda: New York climate is very nice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice. Like Calcutta.

Hari-śauri: On July the Fourth Prabhupāda went and drove into Washington to see the fireworks.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really?

Hari-śauri: In the evening. We had traveling kīrtana all around the city.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think this is enough, Prabhupāda? I'll tie it together now.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Hari-śauri: We didn't see much of the firework display, but he liked the kīrtana. It was amazing. The reaction was just amazing. People were dancing and chanting and waving when we went past. Prabhupāda was in ecstasy.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: New York climate is very nice. Sometimes now it rains a little bit, then shining. So just like Bengal.

Rāmeśvara: I observed that these devotees at New York, they've practically given up sleeping this past week to prepare everything for your arrival.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) They are so kind to me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they worked very hard.

Rāmeśvara: It reminded me that time when the Press devotees stayed up all the time to get those Caitanya-caritāmṛta volumes. The same spirit. They just stopped eating and sleeping.

Prabhupāda: That is love. These things can be done only out of love.

Rāmeśvara: There were some hired carpenters and painters, and their last day of working was, I think, Wednesday. So yesterday and this morning they came in voluntarily. They stayed up the whole night without sleep, and they continued working.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They worked now from eight o'clock yesterday, and they just finished this morning. Straight through the night.

Prabhupāda: They are professional?

Rāmeśvara: Professional, but by the association of the devotees . . .

Prabhupāda: They become . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of them now says that he wants to rent a room for the whole year in our building.

Rāmeśvara: He loves the prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says he likes the prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you stay here? No rent; you stay here. You are devotee, you stay here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a celibate right now. He's not married, bachelor.

Prabhupāda: Take prasādam, stay here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what he wants, and let him give part of his income.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because of this rain the atmosphere is actually very clean now. You notice that. It's not very much smog, compared to usual. This is the FDR Drive.

Prabhupāda: These are cooperative buildings?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. These are lower-middle class cooperative buildings. This is the East Side.

Prabhupāda: I selected one cooperative apartment, they wanted five thousand dollars. (laughs) I had no money. Very nice apartment, near city office.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Downtown. This is First Avenue here, at about 116th Street, where we are now.

Prabhupāda: Our building is on the Fifty-fourth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-fifth Street. Just near Broadway, one block from Broadway.

Prabhupāda: Broadway is important place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very important. Our building is right in the midst of the theater, restaurant and entertainment section of the city.

Prabhupāda: In New York I feel little homely, because first I came here. I was loitering on the street here and there. From 1965 September to '67 July, continually I stayed in New York.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two years.

Rāmeśvara: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja gave one class this morning. So he was explaining that we cannot understand the good fortune of this city that you have come here. We cannot begin to estimate how fortunate this city is.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I, when I decided I shall go foreign country, I never thought of going to London; I thought of coming here. Generally they go to London, but I thought, "No, I shall go to New York."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very progressive.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I do not know. It is Kṛṣṇa's dictation. I could have gone. London was nearer. But I thought, "No, I shall go to New York." Sometimes, I think, I was coming this part. Aimlessly . . . I think the United Nation building is somewhere here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's a little further down. It's on this avenue, it's on Forty-fourth Street, and we are on Ninety-sixth Street. We are a little bit uptown.

Prabhupāda: And Ninety . . . yes. That Indian Consulate office is Sixty-fourth.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sixty-fourth Street, and just off Central Park.

Prabhupāda: I was coming there sometime, talking with the officers. One Mr. Malhotra was there, he was showing me, very friendly. He arranged some meeting in Consulate office. They had some organization, Tagore Organization. Second Avenue we'll come?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is First Avenue, then comes Second.

Prabhupāda: Yes, sometimes walking on the Second Avenue.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're going to go up to Central Park and then go along the Park.

Prabhupāda: This is Ninety-sixth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Ninety-sixth Street.

Prabhupāda: There was fire in this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There are many fires in this city, I notice.

Prabhupāda: It is due to the warm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, due to the warm, and also the buildings, some of them are old, and they are not built properly.

Prabhupāda: Not taken care of.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Our building is also an old building. It's seventy years old. But it's made of solid stone and concrete, brick.

Prabhupāda: Then it will never get old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's extremely . . .

Prabhupāda: You have to simply change the plastering.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, painting, plastering.

Prabhupāda: Then it will continue new for hundreds of years.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's built like that. It's all steel reinforced everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Ah, then it is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's rated . . . it has the top fire rating in the city.

Prabhupāda: After three years it will require little repairing, then it will keep new always.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now we're in the process of simply repainting it, giving it a fresh coat of paint to make it new, because they had not painted it for about ten years, former owners.

Prabhupāda: It should be painted every three years, then it will be all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay.

Rāmeśvara: On the outside as well.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything. Then the building will keep very fresh always.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This is Second Avenue?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is I think Third Avenue. Next comes Lexington Avenue.

Prabhupāda: This is black area?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Puerto Rican and black. This city has as many, Puerto Ricans as Puerto Rico does. So many Puerto Rican people come here, because it's part of . . . it's a possession of the United States. So the East Side is Puerto Ricans and the West Side . . .

Prabhupāda: Generally they are worker class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. This is Park Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: Some of the billboard signs are even Portuguese also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Spanish.

Prabhupāda: They speak Spanish?

Rāmeśvara: Puerto Ricans speak Spanish.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you sell Spanish books to them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We do. We distribute here Spanish books from New York.

Rāmeśvara: Today Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja is sending to the printer the last volume of the First Canto in Spanish, another volume of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Spanish. And before you leave New York he will give you . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll give him . . .

Rāmeśvara: . . . a new book in Spanish, the Kṛṣṇa Book, Volume One.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Rāmeśvara: That is coming in a few days.

Prabhupāda: You have seen Chinese Bhagavad-gītā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we have seen that.

Prabhupāda: You have got it?

Hari-śauri: Yes, in the back.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I have it also. I sent a copy to Peking.

Prabhupāda: He has done very nice. First six chapters. So in three books it will be finished.

Hari-śauri: The next six chapters are coming out soon.

Prabhupāda: That boy is doing very nice. Yaśomatī?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sūta.

Prabhupāda: Sūta, yes, very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Madison Avenue. Here is Fifth Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Central Park. I was coming to Central Park from the other side, Seventy-second Street.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our temple is four blocks from Central Park. Just walking distance. The mothers and children go there.

Prabhupāda: Central Park? Very nice. So you have advantage of the park.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. And on Sundays we put on saṅkīrtana in the park, and then the people are invited to come to the temple for the feast. Now, because of the good weather, many people leave the city on the weekend, so the numbers of people who are coming on the Love Feast days is not as much as before the summer and after the summer. Now they like to go to the beaches and resort areas, where it's cool and there's water.

Prabhupāda: The zoo is here also here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jewish people?

Prabhupāda: No, zoo, zoology.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Zoo, zoology. Yes, Central Park Zoo is on about Sixty-fourth Street, Sixty-fifth Street, just off of the east.

Prabhupāda: All big, big buildings.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's New York. The population now of the greater New York area is eighteen million.

Prabhupāda: Eighteen million?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It was ten million.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it has very much increased now. That includes the outlying . . .

Prabhupāda: How it is increased?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it includes the outlying suburbs, which have become very developed.

Rāmeśvara: Long Island. It includes Long Island.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just as many people are living here now, and many, many more people are living on the outskirts.

Rāmeśvara: And Queens.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Queens and Brooklyn, much more people are living there than before. Queens and Long Island especially.

Prabhupāda: So Bali-mardana is doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he and I stay together. We get up at two-thirty in the morning, chant sixteen rounds before ārati, saying Gāyatrī strictly on time, eating very little, and he reads a great deal of the day, two or three hours he reads, and he's also preaching, giving classes.

Prabhupāda: His wife?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's engaged in taking care of the Life Members, Indian Life Members who come, and the guest rooms.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. She is expert. (chuckles) She's very expert. She can do nicely. And during winter here it will be so cold you cannot stand even.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, after I left Hawaii, I went to see you in Hawaii, all of the work that we did in this building began from when I returned here. So it's been a great push for the last month or month and a half, I think. They did not do much improvement on the temple the first five or six months they were here. They were just adjusting, I guess.

Prabhupāda: Not proper leader. What is this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the, ah . . .

Rāmeśvara: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Very famous art museum. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . saw fireworks in Washington.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's the Empire State Building, Prabhupāda, straight ahead.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: I think one day our art paintings will also be in these museums, because our artists are becoming as expert as anyone.

Prabhupāda: Must be.

Rāmeśvara: Already people are coming and offering minimum one thousand dollars to buy a painting. In Los Angeles, I have sold some paintings for a thousand dollars each.

Prabhupāda: Originals.

Rāmeśvara: Original and some copies (laughter) also.

Prabhupāda: Copy, how do you make copy?

Rāmeśvara: We have some artists practicing. So he makes a copy of the original, and I sell it for five hundred dollars. Half the price of the original.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good business.

Rāmeśvara: But that will increase. You can get ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars for one painting in the future, because they are paying that much now for inferior work.

Prabhupāda: Who is painting nice? Muralī?

Rāmeśvara: Muralīdhara, Jadurāṇī, Parīkṣit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Parīkṣit is wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Parīkṣit, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He's expert. We have one boy in the temple here who has been doing murals on the walls in the temple room, and he's done it very quickly with a technique called airbrush. Instead of using a brush, you use a spray gun, and you spray the paint on. It's a modern technique. It's especially good in murals and things.

Prabhupāda: First of all they draw in lines?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And then they spray on the paint. He finishes a painting in two or three days, big murals. (laughs) He's expert. He's known as the human camera. He can copy any picture onto a wall. His name is Viṣṇu dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Expert. So why does he not go to Māyāpur-candrodaya . . .? (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he's meant to go, after he finishes the temple. You already told him to go last time.

Rāmeśvara: We knew you would say that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were talking this morning how as soon as you see his work, you'll say he should go to Māyāpur. He paints very quickly. We could actually send him with that spray gun.

Prabhupāda: Electric spray?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I don't know if they use electricity, or do you use gas? The thing is that he can paint directly, just as fast.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, I had him in L.A. painting with a brush. (indistinct background conversation about painting)

Prabhupāda: What is this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't recognize it. Oh, the Frith Collection, it's an art museum. This whole street is full of art museums.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one gentleman named Frith.

Rāmeśvara: This taxi driver is saying Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Our Jayānanda was driving taxi and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and one day (laughter) he brought to me five thousand dollars.

Rāmeśvara: And you used it to print Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rāmeśvara: Was that the time?

Prabhupāda: I think, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You kept it then.

Prabhupāda: I kept it. It was given for publishing Bhagavad-gītā, but I think Macmillan took it. So I spent it for . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you put him in charge to sell all the Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I remember. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Jayānanda: Didn't sell too many books, though.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I thought he was the best, most appropriate person to drive you.

Prabhupāda: He was chanting and driving. Very good boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cyavana has been here also.

Prabhupāda: Just train him. He is good boy. He has fallen down, just take care of him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, actually the work here needs, you'll see, this building, it actually requires four or five big leaders.

Prabhupāda: One may fall down, but you have to take care.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's much better now.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he'll do. He's good worker, if you can train him, he's a good worker. He can do very nice. He has fallen in māyā, just take care of him. What can be done? He's good worker, very good worker. He can do intelligent service.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very intelligent, very high class, nice devotee.

Prabhupāda: He knows accounting. There was no guide, he became alone . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what he said.

Prabhupāda: . . . and became spoiled.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said there was just too much for himself alone.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the difficulty. As soon as there is lack of good association, one falls a victim. What about that boy, Ṛṣi Kumāra?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he's doing great. He's taken up joint charge of the restaurant.

Prabhupāda: He's also very good boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All day long he cooks, and after he cooks, then the people take the prasādam in the restaurant, he goes out and preaches to them.

Prabhupāda: He's an able worker.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he goes out and he leads a hari-nāma party on the street. He's very enthusiastic to make this restaurant very successful.

Prabhupāda: But keep watch on him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For the women.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He gets deluded. Well, you know what we've done with all of these people, Prabhupāda, we've . . .

Prabhupāda: If they are disturbed, let them marry.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He doesn't want. He says he knows it's a waste of time, marriage. What we have done with Ṛṣi Kumāra and Bali-mardana is that we are living with them. Like Ṛṣi Kumāra lives with Ādi-keśava Swami.

Prabhupāda: Somebody must be with him. Then it is all right. Not alone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've put them with the senior . . .

Prabhupāda: Either Cyavana or him, some experienced devotee must be with him. Then they . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do nicely.

Prabhupāda: And I think Ṛṣi Kumāra is a good cook also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: My personal opinion he's the best cook that I've so far seen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Since he has come here, the prasādam in the restaurant has at least doubled in the quality.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Completely different prasādam. He's learned the Gujarati style. Kachorīs, samosā, every kind of special prep. When we stayed in Kailash Shiksharya's house when we were first in Bombay, the things that those cooks were cooking, he knows how to cook. Very high class Marwari and Gujarati cooking.

Prabhupāda: He's very intelligent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Maṇibandha, he's another one. He's cooking with Ṛṣi Kumāra.

Prabhupāda: He's also very intelligent boy, but sometimes spoiled.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a lot of them here.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, we have to take care of so many souls. (taxi-driver yells) What does he say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said you have a nice car. That's good they like the car.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Ask "Why don't you come here?" (laughter) "Why you are driving taxi? Come here."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's amazing how everybody is looking at us.

Prabhupāda: Now, formerly it was thirty-five, now it is sixty-five?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. Everything has doubled in price. This car is very ordinary, but it is because you are in it, Prabhupāda, that they are looking. Ordinarily it is not such a special car.

Prabhupāda: What is the maker?

Hari-śauri: LTD. What is it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's the same, more or less the same car that you had when you were driving in Los Angeles.

Hari-śauri: The same as what you had in Melbourne also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a Ford.

Prabhupāda: Los Angeles, this was Mercedes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Mercury. Right? Mercury?

Prabhupāda: No, this is nice car.

Rāmeśvara: It's their version of Cadillac, Mercury's version of Cadillac. They cannot understand. Because we say we are not after material opulence for ourselves, they cannot understand that we drive in these cars.

Prabhupāda: They think that we unnecessarily criticize. But we require everything. But just like a man, when he's alive his decoration, his nice dress, everything is very good. But if he's dead, then it is useless. Similarly, without spiritual consciousness we are dead, because the body is dead. Because the spirit soul is there, therefore it is moving. The important point is the spirit soul. So if you are simply taking care of the body very nicely, that means you are decorating the dead body. What is the value of it? It is clear? The body is important because the soul is there. So long the life is there, if you decorate the body everyone will appreciate. But if you decorate the dead body, people will say: "What a fool he is!" Aprāṇasyaiva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam (Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya 3.11). That is simply a popular applause, "Ah, the dead body is decorated." But what is the value of it? Similarly, without spiritual knowledge, this dead civilization simply on the bodily concept of life, it is ludicrous. That we have to condemn. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything is . . . just like one, if there is zero, then it is ten. Another zero, hundred. But without one, simply zero, it is only useless.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That one is Kṛṣṇa.

Rāmeśvara: And Kṛṣṇa's representative.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: One, if there is one, then zero has value. If there is no one, then simply increasing zeroes, what do we get for that? That is the position. There is no spiritual understanding; they are simply after material advancement. Therefore despite all advancement materially, they are not happy. You cannot be. Now they are trying to bring life by material combination. It is all impossible, childish. Our scientists, they have come? No.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Sadāpūta. Yes, they are all here, aren't they?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara here?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah.

Prabhupāda: Mādhava and Svarūpa.

Hari-śauri: Three of them, Mādhava, Svarūpa and Sadāpūta also.

Rāmeśvara: Ever since we published that article that they wrote in Back to Godhead, many people have been impressed that, "Oh, Ph.D's, they are accepting this movement." Many Indian guests in Los Angeles, they all comment that they have read this article, and now they are taking our movement ser . . .

Prabhupāda: Now I have collected one Indian, four items he is Ph.D. He is Ph.D. in chemistry, Ph.D. in engineering . . .

Hari-śauri: Dr. Sharma?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Ph.D. in pathology. Four. And he's lawyer also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is he going to do?

Prabhupāda: He's going to help our, this . . . (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These are bookstalls. Look at that. Barnes and Noble, they are putting up bookstalls here.

Rāmeśvara: Another Ph.D. from India has joined our movement in Denver. He's just moved into the temple. He has a Ph.D. in psychology.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are horse carriages here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is Fifty-seventh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-ninth. You don't want to turn here, huh, Jayānanda? Do you? Go up Fifty-ninth, it would be nicer. This is where the parade begins. From here down, straight. All the way down Fifth Avenue.

Prabhupāda: The Ratha-yātrā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. From here all the way down, we go all the way down to the park. You know that park? Washington Square Park. All the way down, three rathas. It's the biggest avenue.

Prabhupāda: Is there any hour limit?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Two or three hours it will take. You've got to get on the right side, Jayānanda.

Prabhupāda: It appears more congested than before.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, business is increasing.

Prabhupāda: Population are increased.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They had a festival to celebrate the Fourth of July in the Battery, down at Battery Park. Four million people attended. We sold prasādam there. Over one thousand dollars of prasādam (laughs) was sold from our prasādam cart.

Prabhupāda: They liked?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. They were selling kachorīs, sandwiches.

Prabhupāda: This Doubleday Company, they take our books?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah . . .

Rāmeśvara: I don't know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm not sure.

Rāmeśvara: I don't know. Generally the bookstores, they don't take our books because our distributors are distributing on the street in front of the bookstore; they say it is competition. But the college bookstores, they all take our books. We just got a report from Satsvarūpa Mahārāja that this past month of June in America they sold seventy-five standing orders. And that is remarkable, because all the schools are closed in June, and still they sold them books. They closed for the summer, and still they are ordering your books.

Prabhupāda: In this street I think there is one library office . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's Fifty . . . it's either Fifty-fifth or Fifty-third, and it's called . . . it's one of main sub-branches. Yes, it's a very well known one.

Prabhupāda: "Free rent"?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Free rent. Rent a safe deposit box for one year and we'll give you an extra six months free." But first you have to pay for one year. Chemical Bank. Huge buildings now everywhere.

Prabhupāda: This is Rockefeller?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Prabhupāda. Now everything looks like the Rockefeller Plaza. All of the buildings are built in that same style. Very opulent. Now every day I look out the window of our building and I think when it will come that we will have one of these buildings. It won't be long. You can see how big these are, Prabhupāda. This is Sixth Avenue.

Prabhupāda: So we are between Sixth Avenue and . . .?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we're between Eighth Avenue and Ninth. Actually, our building can be seen from here. Hare Kṛṣṇa is on the outside of it.

Hari-śauri: I can see it, just on the left.

Rāmeśvara: Straight ahead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's on the left straight ahead. It's a brown building on the left side.

Hari-śauri: There's a tree on the top.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It has gold letters going down the side of it saying Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: It's the brownish one with the white . . . little white cabin-type thing on the top of it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're very lucky. We rented a garage one block away which can house four buses and twenty vans. Only one block away from it. It's very unusual. Otherwise . . .

Prabhupāda: You have taken the whole garage?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, otherwise it's not possible to get parking space in New York. See the "Hare Kṛṣṇa" now, Prabhupāda, on the side of the building?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayānanda, maybe you should park on the right side. We can walk across the street rather than getting out . . .

Rāmeśvara: Yes, good idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pull over if you can on the right side, then Prabhupāda can see the building from across the street. (break) Yes, at least for the next five or ten years.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Then you'll have to change again.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then we want the Empire State Building. (laughter) We have a nice banner which flies in front of the building also. I think you should park on the right side, Jayānanda, unless . . . (indistinct discussion on where to park) All right, park on the left. See the banner?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (end)