750621 - Morning Walk - Los Angeles
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
(in car)
Prabhupāda: . . . occupied?
Jayatīrtha: Oh, yes. All of them.
Prabhupāda: And is there any house for sale?
Jayatīrtha: Any more houses for sale?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: There are always a couple . . . (break) . . . too much money. (break)
Harikeśa: Morning walk, June 21st, L.A. (break)
Prabhupāda: What does he mean? You are all here. Now I want to see that seventeen books are waiting in the . . . so when it will be finished? I want to know.
Jayatīrtha: This morning, if you like, we can go to the press building,
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: . . . and we can show you what we've done to improve the situation.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Jayatīrtha: And inform you about the schedules.
Prabhupāda: What time do you want me to go there?
Jayatīrtha: Perhaps around . . . when is convenient? Ten o'clock? Before the massage?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: All right. (break)
Prabhupāda: . . . fed up with so-called religion. Therefore they're angry. But when they find this is real, genuine, everyone will accept. (break)
Brahmānanda: . . . wants to come and see you. He likes your movement very much. He has written one review of one of your books. He also met you, I think, briefly. He is from Boston, Mr. Leo Pruden, Professor Leo Pruden. Now he lives here in Los Angeles.
Jayatīrtha: There will be many professors coming over to see you while you are here.
Prabhupāda: Yes . . .
Jayatīrtha: Ph.D.'s, and psychologists . . .
Prabhupāda: Ask them to see me. What time we shall fix up?
Brahmānanda: I think afternoon? You prefer afternoon? Or any time.
Prabhupāda: Afternoon is a nice . . .
Brahmānanda: Yes. (break)
Jayatīrtha: . . . men from the University of Southern California wants to come and see you, the chairman and many of the members.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Then invite them and give them nice feast. Yes. Make arrangement. Time, whatever suitable time you will fix up, I . . .
Jayatīrtha: We'll discuss it with Upendra when is the best time. (break)
Prabhupāda: . . . hīna paśubhiḥ samānaḥ. "As soon as one become bereft of religion, he's animal." That's all. That is the difference between animals and man. They think to become polished animal is advancement of civilization. To become lion is advancement of civilization. "Because I am stronger than the dog, therefore I am civilized." Americans think like that. "Because we are stronger than the Chinese dog or Russian cat, therefore I am civilized." (laughs) This is going on. "Because I am tiger, I am lion . . ." He doesn't think that after, "You be tiger or lion; you are animal." Just see. (break) . . . puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. Śva-viḍ-varāha uṣṭra-kharaiḥ (SB 2.3.19). I think we were discussing this verse? Saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. (break)
Brahmānanda: . . . verse would you like to read from this morning?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Sixth Canto, Ajāmila.
(break) (on walk) . . . got this coat?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gurukṛpa Mahārāja. He got it made in Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. I see that. It is not American. (break) . . . umbrellas. (break) . . . this place?
Jayatīrtha: This is a place where they have social functions.
Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) So many dogs, "best friends." (break) . . . they have erased "No dogs on beach"—"Dogs on beach." (laughter) (laughing) Just see how lawful they are. (break) How many books are pending? Rāmeśvara?
Rāmeśvara: I think we have just added one more in the Sixth Canto since you have started translating it.
Prabhupāda: No, no. How many books are pending?
Rāmeśvara: Still about seventeen.
Prabhupāda: So?
Rāmeśvara: We have just sent Madhya Two . . .
Prabhupāda: They are not complete?
Rāmeśvara: You have finished them.
Prabhupāda: No, I have finished. I mean to edit, editing?
Rāmeśvara: Editing, we are done five volumes in Madhya-līlā and two volumes in Antya-līlā. But they are being held up in the Sanskrit division.
Prabhupāda: So you get it corrected. I am present. I will do that.
Rāmeśvara: I think when Nitāi and Jagannātha come, Śrīla Prabhupāda, all the books will come out within a few months, all of them.
Prabhupāda: No, no, not a few months.
Brahmānanda: We had some questions about Sanskrit.
Prabhupāda: I want these seventeen pending books must be printed within two months. That I want. Otherwise disqualification. Yes. (break) . . . to be done. Your so many GBCs are here, and you are also here, I am also here. Decide. It must be done. It is too much delay. (break) . . . constructing something here, but stopped? What is that?
Bahulāśva: No, they just use that for cleaning the beach.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bahulāśva: They use that for cleaning up the garbage on the beach.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Jayatīrtha: I think this is some sort of volleyball or tennis that goes on inside there.
Prabhupāda: Inside the wall.
Jayatīrtha: Inside the wall there's some sort of sports arena, tennis and . . .
Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) Satsvarūpa Mahārāja, what is your report?
Satsvarūpa: Report?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Satsvarūpa: Well, er . . .
Prabhupāda: Standing order?
Satsvarūpa: They're still getting them in public libraries in Detroit . . .
Prabhupāda: They have got standing order from Oxford University.
Satsvarūpa: You heard?
Prabhupāda: No, they have got . . . sent me the copy of the standing order.
Satsvarūpa: Oh, that's wonderful. They're getting letters from big professors at Cambridge and Oxford in praise of the books. They'll be very, very useful. (break)
Bahulāśva: . . . professors are very impressed with your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bahulāśva: All the professors are very impressed with your books.
Prabhupāda: Impressed?
Bahulāśva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is nice.
Satsvarūpa: We just got a review published in a magazine called Choice, which is used . . . it's very important. It's used by all the libraries all over the country, and the review was excellent. They didn't say one bad thing. You should see that review.
Prabhupāda: Where? You have got that copy?
Rāmeśvara: We have copy. I can bring it in today.
Satsvarūpa: That one review does more work than we could do by traveling all over the country for a year. Because the librarians, when we go to them, they say, "Well, we usually order our books from this Choice magazine." But now we're in it. So . . .
Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is helping us. Take advantage of it. (break) Vyāsadeva compiled Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for this purpose. Anartha upasamam sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaja (SB 1.7.6). These lokasya ajānataḥ, people are suffering on account of ignorance, so to give them proper knowledge, he made this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. (break) Who can become more learned than Vyāsadeva? Therefore he is known as vidvān, the most supreme learned. He made this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to help these rascals who are spoiling their life only in sense gratification. (break) Life is meant for tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed (SB 5.5.1). They do not know that our existentional condition is impure. The question does not arise that "I do not wish to die. Why there is death?"
They are so dull-headed, this question does not . . . they are trying to solve so many questions, but this question does not arise in their mind, that "I don't wish to die. Why death is forced upon me?" Inquire. Come on, all philosophers and scientists, come and make an inquiry commission, that "I don't want to die. The death is forced upon me. I don't want to become old man, and it is forced upon me. What is the reason?" Therefore they are rascals. The prime problem they have set aside. Big, big scientist . . . that Professor Einstein and other, other, they are big, big scientist. They do not consider this question, that "I am a big scientist. So I am also going to die. So why it is?" That question they have set aside. And they manufacture atom bomb to make death very easy—not to stop death, but death-making very easily available. This is scientific. Hmm? Is that scientific?
Bahulāśva: No.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Everyone is dying, and they accelerate death. And that is taken as scientific.
Satsvarūpa: They are also making research how to stop death.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Satsvarūpa: They're making . . . but it's useless.
Prabhupāda: So that is in our hands; that is not in their hands.
Devotees: Jaya, Prabhupāda!
Revatīnandana: Some time back I was reading an article on an airplane, one of those airline news magazines, about the science of gerontology, the science of putting off death or stopping death. They say, "Within twenty, thirty years we will have stopped it. We will even reverse the process of old age. We'll become younger." That was their claim.
Prabhupāda: They can do it—that is credit. But what is this credit, that people are dying and you discover atom bomb to accelerate death very quickly? If they are thinking like that, then sanity is coming. At least they are thinking like that, that "Why death should not be stopped?" That will be credit if they can do so, but at least this question, it comes. Then they become human being, not dogs. And so long this question does not come, they are cats and dogs. This is athāto brahma jijñāsā (Vedanta sutra 1.1.1). This is the inquiry. Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu he first questioned this, ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya (CC Madhya 20.102): "I was minister. That's all right. But I do not know why I shall accept death. Therefore I have come to You." This is minister, intelligence, that "People praise me I am minister, I am very learned scholar. But I do not know why I am under the tribulations of threefold miseries and what is my position." Ke āmi, keno more jape tapa-traya: "Who I am? I don't want all these things. Why they are troubling me?" Grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita, tai satya kori mani: "These fools and rascals, they call me I am very learned scholar, and I also accept it, but I do not know why I am suffering." This is Sanātana Gosvāmī's question. So what they are doing? They are making research?
Revatīnandana: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Who are they? Very important men?
Revatīnandana: Well, it just said . . . the magazine was not terribly detailed. It just said that many scientists involved in this are claiming that within twenty, thirty years they will reverse the aging processes. I think it is a bogus claim, actually. They dream all kinds of things like that.
Satsvarūpa: They say when a person is born, there is a kind of clock inside them that runs so long. If they can change that clock, then they'll make it stretch out.
Prabhupāda: Another foolishness.
Bahulāśva: Most of these big philosophers don't ever think of that question, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bahulāśva: These big philosophers never think of that question.
Prabhupāda: Because they have no answer.
Bahulāśva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: The difficult subject matter, they set aside.
Bahulāśva: They avoid.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Revatīnandana: But this gerontology is not a major subject in any of the universities yet.
Prabhupāda: They know, "It is not possible by us." They know it.
Bahulāśva: I was speaking with Professor Stahl about this point in Berkeley. And he also had no answers for this question. He thought that there was no such thing as eternal life.
Prabhupāda: Well, then, therefore you are a rascal. Then why you are struggling to live? Why, when you are sick, why do you call doctor, physician? Why this tendency? Why you are making research in medical science, opening hospital? Die. Why you are not willing to die? Then what is the answer? He says, "There is no such thing as eternity," but why you are struggling for eternity? Then what is the answer? Hmm?
Bahulāśva: Well, when we tell them your philosophy, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he became silent. The one . . . we were having a debate, and the one chairman of the debate, he then he turned to Mr. Stahl. He said, "So what do you think of this answer, Mr. Philosopher?" And Mr. Stahl just sat there very quiet. He couldn't say anything.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Everyone is trying to live. That is Darwin's theory also, "struggle for existence." So why you are trying to exist if there is no such thing?
Satsvarūpa: Well, they say, "We don't mind if we're not eternal, but we want to live as long as possible."
Prabhupāda: Why? That is my question. Why? Why this tendency?
Revatīnandana: Some years back . . .
Prabhupāda: That means it is unnatural. "I am eternal, but this death has been forced upon me. That is unnatural." That is intelligence.
Revatīnandana: Some time back, in the newspaper . . . this old president of America, Harry Truman, died, and it mentioned that he was eighty-eight years old, and that in the last eight years he had been in and out of the hospital ten times for surgery. So in eight years he had been operated on ten times. At eighty-eight years old he was still trying to live, and finally he died.
Prabhupāda: Just see, just see.
Revatīnandana: So much misery; still, he would not die. He tolerated all these operations.
Bahulāśva: This Professor Stahl, he was saying that his experience is that everything is changing and temporary. So therefore he was thinking that that is the nature of all things, that they are temporary.
Prabhupāda: Temporary, this . . . (indistinct) . . . why this "temporary" word has come into existence unless there is the opposite, "eternal"? Why do you use this word, "temporary"? When you say, "It is fraud," and there must be something as honesty. Otherwise, why this "fraud" has come? Hmm? We say, "This is light"—means there is something as darkness. This is relative world. The Professor Einstein said relativity. This is relative: as soon as there is darkness, there must be light. Otherwise, how you understand light and darkness? So unless there is eternity, how do you bring this word, "temporary"? What is their answer?
Bahulāśva: They have no answer.
Prabhupāda: Unless there is father, there is no meaning of the word son. Unless there is husband, there is no meaning of the word wife. This is the relative world, and they are accepting this relativity. So how they can deny? As soon as you "temporary" say, you must accept there is eternity.
Bahulāśva: We were telling him that although everything is changing, he was still existing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, existing, but why you are in change? That is the question. "I am existing," that we say, but we are trying to solve the problem of changing. But this changing is not very happy, to die and again accept another body and remain to . . . in the womb of the mother to develop that body in a airtight condition. So why these foolish persons do not take it as very miserable? And with the risk of being killed by the mother. Nowadays they're abortion and killing. So is it very nice life, that you die and you enter into the mother's womb to develop another body, and that also not secure? Is that very nice life? (break) Write many articles on this subject matter and prove them that "You are all fools." (break) . . . major problem, you have left aside.
Bahulāśva: The main problem.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. And Kṛṣṇa says, therefore, "These are your real problems: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9)." If you are intelligent, then you should keep always in your front these problems.
Bahulāśva: They think that we're avoiding the real problems.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bahulāśva: They think that we're avoiding the real problems, because we're not doing business.
Prabhupāda: We are not doing business? (laughs) We are doing the best business. You are working hard day and night, and without working, we are living comfortably. They cannot dream of. (break) . . . is their envy, that "These people, without doing anything, they are living so comfortably. And we are working so hard day and night." (break) Yes, this is envious. (break) He is searching some fish? (break)
Jayatīrtha: Clams. (break)
Bahulāśva: . . . Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have scheduled some meetings with many professors there, from this Graduate Theological Union and other places. Dr. Judah will be there and some of his associates.
Prabhupāda: Dr. Judah, he wanted to see me earlier, no?
Bahulāśva: Yes, he'll be coming here probably on Tuesday or Wednesday. He's just coming from Boston. They had a big library convention there for the theological schools in the United States. So he had to go to speak at that, and then he'll be coming back.
Prabhupāda: Did he speak anything about Hare Kṛṣṇa?
Bahulāśva: He's always speaking about this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. (Prabhupāda chuckles) He gave one lecture just about two weeks ago. It was very very nice. I attended, and I was also speaking something.
Prabhupāda: No, he is serious about studying this movement.
Bahulāśva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is nice. Anyone who is serious, he will appreciate. (break)
Bahulāśva: . . . that any intelligent person who hears this philosophy and reads your books, he'll have to accept.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bahulāśva: No one can even challenge. (break)
Prabhupāda: They are giving standing order. They understand this is worthily. (break) . . . is up? No.
Jayatīrtha: A little early still.
Prabhupāda: Then we can go. (break) . . . many rooms are there in the new house?
Bahulāśva: Oh, there are many rooms. Two very, very large rooms, at least as big as the temple room in San Francisco, er, in Los Angeles, excuse me. Two rooms that big. Then there's about four rooms for living quarters, a big kitchen, and then several offices, and then a nice quarters for Your Divine Grace with a bath, with a shower right there.
Prabhupāda: What it was before?
Bahulāśva: It was a Mormon church.
Prabhupāda: Ohhh.
Bahulāśva: Built very solid.
Jayatīrtha: Made of bricks.
Prabhupāda: So all the churches we are purchasing. (laughter)
Bahulāśva: They are all going out of business. (break)
Prabhupāda: . . . worm and the sun. When the sun is arisen, (chuckling) the glowworms, automatically finished. (break) . . . motto, "Kṛṣṇa is sun." You know it? Kṛṣṇa sūrya-sama. So when Kṛṣṇa sun is there, all these glowworms' lightening will be finished. (break) . . . this sun always shining. Then these glowworms will be finished. (break) . . . that Sikh, Bhajan? What is that?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yogi Bhajan.
Prabhupāda: Ah-ha. He came to invite me.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really? In Hawaii?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: He came to our temple a few nights ago also, for āratik.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has a big following.
Prabhupāda: So he came to invite me. I indirectly refused.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He has a very big following all over this country. But they have no books, no philosophy.
Bahulāśva: Actually, they read our books, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We were speaking at this one yoga center, and they say that they go to their svāmī to learn exercises, but for knowledge they must read the books by Your Divine Grace.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Even he has recommended, Mahesh Yogi.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really? To that boy.
Prabhupāda: Yes, you know? To his secretary. When he asked him that "I want real spiritual life," then he said, "Then go to Kṛṣṇa consciousness."
Bahulāśva: They have started a university also, and they are using your books at that university.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. (laughs)
Bahulāśva: Yeah, Maharishi, they are reading Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: No, Maharishi has got respect for me. Even this, what is that? Cintāmaṇi?
Harikeśa: Chinmayananda?
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sri Cinmoya.
Bahulāśva: From Bombay?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he's from Bengal.
Prabhupāda: No, no. He has also. He has also. He has given us a certificate: whatever I wrote, he has signed it. Everyone has respect.
Nalinī-kaṇṭa: But they do not go together. Their practice and our practice, they do not mix.
Prabhupāda: No, no. (break) . . . our practice, then they are defeated. That they . . . (break) What they can do? But at heart they know what is their value. (break) . . . and push on. You will come victorious everywhere. (break) . . . sūrya-sama, māya andhakāra yāhān kṛṣṇa, tāhān nahi māyāra adhikāra (CC Madhya 22.31). If you remain seriously in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then these people will have no, I mean to say, right to come before you. Adhikāra. They will remain far away. (break) What is time now? (break) . . . how to make my watch right time?
Jayatīrtha: Oh. It's 6:32. We can change it.
Prabhupāda: You have talked with Rāmeśvara that we are not any more going to send cash money.
Bahulāśva: I will tell him.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)
(in car) . . . Jayatīrtha, another good news, that African government is understanding the importance of this movement.
Jayatīrtha: Ah. Brahmānanda was telling me some things about Africa. (break) . . . professor who is doing a study on Kṛṣṇa consciousness now. He wants to come and see you. He comes over at least four or five times a week to the temple. He's becoming very serious. He's a psychologist, and he tells his patients that they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; that will be the answer.
Prabhupāda: He says? (laughs)
Jayatīrtha: Oh, yes. He gives them cards and tells them to come and visit the temple. (break) . . . publish some book about us. (break)
Prabhupāda: They should come forward and cooperate. It is such a nice thing. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21). They are leading men. If they understand, the others will accept it. It is a good thing. They must accept it.
Brahmānanda: In Kenya we went into one government officer asking for some land for a farm. He also said, "We want to give you land right in the middle of the village, so you can build your church there."
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Brahmānanda: He offered that. He said, "All the other religions, they have their . . . we have certain plots for them, and there is a church for Catholic, a church for Protestant, a church for Baha'i."
Prabhupāda: No, no, take anywhere they give land. Yes. That will be recognition. We don't mind for the land, but the government has given land means recognized. That is wanted.
Brahmānanda: Oh, yes. Yes. (break) One of the African devotees was explaining to the vice-president that verse dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13).
Prabhupāda: Ācchā.
Brahmānanda: And he was explaining it to him from Bhagavad-gītā. And the vice-president, he asked, "Who has given you this knowledge?"
Prabhupāda: Just see. (laughs)
Brahmānanda: He was so impressed. He accepted immediately, "Yes, you are right." (break) . . . karate place that that doesn't cause so much noise. (break)
Devotee: Sixth Canto that Prabhupāda will read.
Jayatīrtha: Yeah, I'll go get it right now.
(devotees offer obeisances to greet Prabhupāda on arrival at temple) (break) (end)
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