760622 - Morning Walk - New Vrindaban, USA

Morning Walks by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

760622MW-NEW VRINDAVAN - June 22, 1976 - 22.34 Minutes

Kīrtanānanda: This is our farm up in here. Lord Jagannātha is staying there now while He is ill. Our big Lord Jagannātha is going to Cleveland tomorrow for Ratha-yātrā festival.

Prabhupāda: Oh. It is the first time?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. They have a big cart, and they will go down the main street.

Prabhupāda: How far it is?

Kīrtanānanda: How far to Cleveland? About 130 miles.

Hari-sauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? You want to wear your hat?

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: . . .not our land. Our land is on the left side.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So this land, how you are utilizing it?

Kīrtanānanda: We are growing a kind of grass, sudan grass. Then we cut that and put it in the tall silos for the cows to eat in the winter.

Prabhupāda: In the winter this is all covered with snow?

Kīrtanānanda: Most of the winter not. We get maybe six inches during the whole winter. (break) . . .farming a lot of land now that's not our land. We are farming a lot of land that is not our land. We lease it, or do it on shares.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What is the share? Half?

Kīrtanānanda: Sometimes half, more likely a third, sometimes a quarter. We like that.

Prabhupāda: Quarter for the proprietor?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. There are many people that have a lot of land, and they don't want to do it themselves. But the hay has to be cut every year, otherwise the trees come, and then the land degenerates. So they like to have it cut. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .land can be cultivated also?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, it could be. It would be very good land. (break) . . .our own lumber now also. Cutting our own trees, and . . .

Prabhupāda: That is the nature's way. You cut the lumber and make cottage, and the land is clear, then cultivate, get your food, and cows, give them grass. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: . . .woods around here. All on this side.

Prabhupāda: Why it is there is no fog here? Due to the trees?

Kīrtanānanda: Because I think . . .

Prabhupāda: It is clear.

Kīrtanānanda: There's a river up that way, and I think there's more fog up that . . . It's always like that, I don't know exactly why. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .animals in the jungle?

Kīrtanānanda: Deer.

Prabhupāda: Deer only.

Kīrtanānanda: Few fox.

Prabhupāda: Fox also. Sometimes fox, they come to our temple?

Kīrtanānanda: No. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No. Fox, they eat men? No.

Kīrtanānanda: Not usually. Only if they get sick, rabies, then they'll attack. They eat rabbits and rodents.

Prabhupāda: Deer also?

Kīrtanānanda: Deer are vegetarian. They eat grain.

Prabhupāda: No . . ..

Devotee (1): Fox will eat the deer?

Kīrtanānanda: Oh, I don't think.

Devotee (1): . . . (indistinct) . . . saw a lynx, a big cat.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee (1): A lynx, a small cat.

Kīrtanānanda: Something like a little wildcat.

Prabhupāda: They eat . . . they're eaten by the fox?

Kīrtanānanda: They'll eat the fox. They're very rare, though.

Prabhupāda: Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam.

ahastāni sahastānām

apadāni catuṣ-padām

nunam mahatāṁ tatra

jīvo jīvasya jīvanam

(SB 1.13.47)

The handless animal is the food for the animal with hands. This is the beginning of life. Uncivilized man eats the animals. Apadāni catuṣ-padām: these grass, plants, they are for the catuṣ-padām, four-legged. Cows, deer, goats, they eat. And those who are weak, they are for the strong. In this way, this is the nature's way. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One life, a living entity is food for another. (dogs barking) Immigration department. (laughter) We have got passport. (laughter) That's all right.

Kīrtanānanda: That is the dog's business.

Prabhupāda: Dog's business. Without any fault, they'll chastise. We have no fault, still they are chastising. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma (SB 7.6.1). You have got this independence, little independence, more than the animals.

Kīrtanānanda: It's the end of the road, so I think we can turn here.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) . . .in the kitchen, this wood or gas?

Kīrtanānanda: Both. Mostly wood.

Prabhupāda: There are so many jungles, we can use wood.

Kīrtanānanda: Actually, we like it better.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, it is better, nice.

Kīrtanānanda: But it is a little dirty. Unless you change it to charcoal, there is always some smoke. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .here.

Kīrtanānanda: This is not ours. Our property comes down this way, but not on this corner. (break) . . .land, Prabhupāda, and they say overpopulation. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .the beginning, I protest against this assertion, there is overpopulation. I never admitted. Perhaps you know.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no overpopulation. If the Americans allow the Chinese and the Indians to come, they can develop all these un . . . "No, this is our land; you cannot come," immigration, gow-gow. (break) . . .creek is pure water?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. The water around here is very nice. We can dam it and have a big lake.

Prabhupāda: If there is no foam, that means it is nice water. Foam means sinful water. . . . (indistinct) . . .

Kīrtanānanda: I don't know.

Devotee: It's just a . . . (indistinct) . . .. (break)

Devotee (2): In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa explains that the soul is situated in the body but he's not the performer of activities. In other words, he does nothing within the body, and yet . . .

Prabhupāda: Where it is said he does nothing?

Devotee (2): There's a verse that says that self-realized soul, when he sees the activities of evacuation or moving or so many things, he understands that it is the body alone which is working. So how is it that we see in a dead body, when the soul has gone, there are none of these activities? So it appears, though, the soul is the principle in the body that is performing all these activities. Otherwise, how is it that the dead body, when the soul is gone, is also not carrying on so many functions?

Prabhupāda: So long the soul is there, the activities of the body are there. Otherwise not. That is explained: habit. Knowingly, unknowingly. Just like a child is passing urine. He does not know that he's passing, but the body's action is going on like that. But if the child is dead, there will be no more passing urine. Like that. So long the body is alive, things are happening automatically. Just like this tree, so long it is alive the leaves are coming out, the flowers are coming out, although the trees have no developed consciousness.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: In Bhāgavatam we see that when Nanda Mahārāja felt some disturbances from the demons, they decided to change the place. And they immediately, from Gokula, they immediately went to Vṛndāvana. But we don't find anything that they had to take permission. Hmm?

Kīrtanānanda: That's right.

Prabhupāda: So that means formerly this was the system. If there is any vacant land, one can go and live there. There's no question of permission. When you live there and you make your professional activities, then the king will come, take little tax.

Kīrtanānanda: That used to be the system here. They called it "homesteaders." If you would go and make your home there, you could have the land.

Prabhupāda: But that is not for the foreigners. If some Chinese men or Indian want to come . . .

Kīrtanānanda: It used to be. But not anymore for anybody.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Why?

Kīrtanānanda: Because it has become very profitable for people to keep it. Because people are making money on it now.

Prabhupāda: Money they must make; otherwise, why they should come? But what is the objection? Just like in the marketplace, still in India the system is, the marketplace, anyone can go and sell his goods, and when he's selling, the proprietor takes some contribution. Not that he has to take permission. He's selling there, that's all right: "Give me some . . . a little contribution." The king has the right to tax for maintenance.

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we take that which is not our quota, like using, wasting a lot of clean water, how is that perfect and complete, oṁ pūrṇam?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee (3): How are things still perfectly complete even when we're wasting and destroying it?

Prabhupāda: Why you should waste? Wasting is not allowed. (break) . . .our car?

Kīrtanānanda: No, it belonged to the man who formerly owned the property.

Prabhupāda: So how it is broken?

Kīrtanānanda: Some vandals. There was no one living here, he just left it.

Prabhupāda: (in car:) . . .independently live.

Kīrtanānanda: This farm is for sale now.

Prabhupāda: Ha. There is no limit of purchasing?

Kīrtanānanda: Only limit is money.

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say as in India there is limit, that you . . .

Kīrtanānanda: No, government puts no limit.

Prabhupāda: There is no land; therefore there is limit. Here, there is enough land. (break) . . . (indistinct) . . . No.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What kind?

Kīrtanānanda: Cauliflower, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach . . .

Prabhupāda: Potato?

Kīrtanānanda: Potato, broccoli.

Prabhupāda: Broccoli? What is that?

Kīrtanānanda: It is something like cauliflower.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's that green vegetable, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that's like cauliflower.

Prabhupāda: Cabbage?

Kīrtanānanda: Cabbage, peppers.

Prabhupāda: That is nice, so many. Tomato.

Kīrtanānanda: Tomato. But most things are not yet fructified. This is early in our season. Peas will be ready just shortly. Lettuce is ready.

Prabhupāda: Vegetables, ghee, milk, wheat—then what do you want more?

Kīrtanānanda: The wheat is just about ready for harvest.

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say we can grow all these things and eat very nicely. Where is economic problem? Yajñād bhavati parjanyo parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ (BG 3.14). (break)

Kīrtanānanda: . . .there, it's full of cow stool and urine.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. For fertilizer?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, fertilizer. Nothing is wasted.

Prabhupāda: You can make gas also.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . .for?

Kīrtanānanda: Well, it was originally an oil tank.

Prabhupāda: Oh? (end).