710316 - Conversation - Bombay

Conversations by Date, 1971

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

710316R1-BOMBAY - March 16, 1971 - 14:44 Minutes

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (indistinct) . . . let's say our needs. But we know people who will buy it somewhere else. But . . . (indistinct) . . . will change. Perhaps we should have our own place of worship.

Prabhupāda: Indians . . . (indistinct) . . . students are from all over the world, through birth. We should, when we see that . . . (indistinct) . . . also try for . . . (indistinct) . . . it is not like your country, that velvet road and everywhere there is motel, there is supply of gas and this, that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then we'll come with you immediately.

Prabhupāda: What?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then we'll all come with you now. The only reason we want to remain in Bombay was to purchase vans, trucks. Now I fear, Prabhupāda, is that . . . that we know that Your Divine Grace . . .

Prabhupāda: But what . . . where you shall remain? This place is not for . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we won't remain.

Prabhupāda: That man, Jamun, that building, that Sītā-Rāma . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: . . . they are welcoming us. They are . . . (indistinct) . . . to help when the building is . . . (indistinct) . . . and they are also prepared to give you transport facilities. But it is very away from Bombay.

Śyāmasundara: The only reason we were thinking to remain in Bombay for a short time is to get equipment and printing leaflets to pass out in Indian languages along the way while we will travel.

Prabhupāda: If you get equipment for traveling, you still you do not know Indian language. How you will preach in the villages?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's right. I think Prabhupāda's right. There's no preaching in . . .

Prabhupāda: Villages, you have no scope for preaching . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, only the major cities.

Prabhupāda: Major cities, and amongst the enlightened class. Just like last evening we had, they are all enlightened. So unless we get such support, from the mass of people you cannot.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? Say if we try to establish temples wherever you go now . . .

Prabhupāda: No. Apart from establishing temple, you don’t establish.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's just, the saṅkīrtana party will be depleted if every time we go and leave the city we try and leave some men there to open a temple. There won’t be any men left.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This should be a tour of the world, I think, trying to give the whole world an idea of Krsna consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. We were thinking that everywhere we go we could take down names and addresses in great detail, as well as make members throughout the world, and then to retrace our steps later on and open temples. For instance, to come back to Bombay . . .

Prabhupāda: Now, in Bombay we are finding difficulty, forth-class at the present moment. This is temporary. And that place is not good.

Devotee: . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: I think it was, that Madanan's place, it is not Madanan's place. It has been wrong place shown. Madanan is very rich man. I think that proprietor . . . you showed me one house?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That place is right place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And you are shown a wrong place.

Devotee: Oh. And there's no one in there. He said there was no one home . . .

Prabhupāda: You went to . . .

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: . . . bring the . . .

Śyāmasundara: There was no one there . . .

Prabhupāda: That place is the right place.

Śyāmasundara: There were locks on all the doors. Big locks on every door.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why did they do that?

Prabhupāda: That is another cheating?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's a cheating.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I do not know what is the policy of this . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lalji.

Prabhupāda: Lalji.

Devotee: Tomorrow that gentleman . . .

Prabhupāda: Why don’t you call him? He cannot be seen. He cannot . . . he did not come. Call . . .

Devotee: . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Call and let him come. Who is it? Who is it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's this man from Agarwal.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants the list of men who will come.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We’re not prepared, though, to do it, unless . . .

Prabhupāda: (indistinct Hindi) . . . aur thoda wait karo (. . . wait a little more.)

Gurudas: . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Hindi me likh de do. Accha. Hindi me . . . (Write it down in Hindi and give to me. Okay in Hindi . . .) that Sītā-Rāma temple, they are very much anxious to receive us.

Gurudas: How long does it take? It doesn’t take that long to get there.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gurudas: How long does it take to get there?

Devotee: Half hour.

Gurudas: If . . . if we don’t have . . .

Prabhupāda: And they are prepared to give you transport facilities also.

Śyāmasundara: But do we . . . do we need all of this equipment for traveling, then? Amplifiers, microphones, tents?

Prabhupāda: Traveling equipments, not for Indian villages.

Śyāmasundara: No, for towns, for cities.

Gurudas: Why do we need tents in cities?

Śyāmasundara: Well, if it rains. Camp. Set up camp for big cities? Is that . . . is it better to go . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes. You, you can preach in cities. You cannot preach in the villages.

Śyāmasundara: Because just like here we are at the mercy of so many people. Only if they provide us can we go into their place.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: We shift here, shift there. If we have our tents, we have our own transport, we can find some field or some beach.

Prabhupāda: But that is a . . . that is a big job. You have, if you have to fix your tents, and somebody will have to go find out some place where to fix it.

Gurudas: Also the machinery, repair it.

Prabhupāda: Requires at least one hundred men.

Śyāmasundara: Oh.

Gurudas: So the priority is the printed literature. That is the priority.

Devotee (3): (speaking on phone) Yes, is Lalji there, Shri Lalji?

Prabhupāda: Sa . . . Sadajitlal.

Devotee (3): Saja, Sadajitwa-lal.

Prabhupāda: (on phone) Hello. Ah, Swāmījī. Sadajitlalji ko hum chahte hai. Hum to idhar Natanchi Road se bol raha hun. (I want Sadajitlalji. I am speaking from Natanchi Road.) Swāmījī, Swami Bhaktivedanta. Swami Bhaktivedanta. Bhaktivedanta. Hello. Hello. Boliye? Nahi hai . . . accha. (Please talk. Not there . . . okay.) (to devotees) He is not.

Gurudas: Not there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Call his residence now. That's . . . that's his business phone. Should I try his other business phone or . . . no, they're in the same room I think. It seems to me he should have come to visit you today, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He did not come?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Gurudas: Besides, in age of Kali-yuga, most of the land is taken up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (referring to phone) Both are engaged. So, do you like the idea of traveling all over the world, Prabhupāda? Having a full kirtana party travel with you?

Prabhupāda: That is our original idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: See, we can open temples later on . . .

Prabhupāda: Temple, that temple, if somebody comes forward to give us temple, then think of temple. We cannot take responsibility opening a temple.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can . . . not for this mission. Later on. Later on we can come back for that purpose specifically. Just like when we sent someone to Berlin to open a temple, we can send men to Bombay, to this place. But for now, if we can travel widely around the world, throughout the Middle East, Africa, South America, go to Europe . . .

Prabhupāda: This man dealing, that was apparatively nice. He did see even the whole day, and for him I stayed. And wherever there is phone he is not there, he is not there. And he is waiting for the list. That is a perplexity. If you want to go out, then give out the names. But this man's dealing is not very satisfactory.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no doubt that if . . .

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You see, if we open up the temples now, on our way around, traveling around, then it limits our ability to travel. But if we stick to our principles, simply traveling and preaching widely and distributing great literature, in great, great quantity, and making many, many members throughout the world, then we'll have many contacts for later on, when we can go back and open temples. There'll be many contacts. Just like Your Divine Grace, Prabhupāda, you have made many contacts, so that now, coming back from India, immediately there are many people we can go and see who you already know.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that seeing is useless. Now this man is waiting so long. What to do?

Śyāmasundara: Do you think we should take advantage of being in Bombay to see Mr. Birla, people like that, for some financial help?

Prabhupāda: But where you will stay?

Śyāmasundara: Well, if there are only four, we can stay someplace, any place. Only four men.

Prabhupāda: Then give him the names and we will stay . . .

Gurudas: Also printing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is our purpose in staying behind now, Prabhupāda? This we don't understand. What . . . that's our difficulty.

Gurudas: When we need some funds, wasn't the reason that you didn’t come from Calcutta to here is because no one arranged for the trip?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not funds that are needed. We don't require funds to travel. I am . . .

Prabhupāda: Then let . . . let us go out to Amritsar.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's our program to be out there. That's what is confusing me, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's . . . I don’t know if Your Divine Grace would rather travel or to open temples. I, I am confused by that, because I don't know whether I should be thinking about my . . . you know, my attention should be on.

Prabhupāda: Which?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The three of us would like to work in a very organized way, but we don't know how to place our, our, our efforts together, because we are not certain if we should be thinking in terms of establishing a center or in terms of just widely spreading for a shorter time.

Prabhupāda: No, widely spreading, that is our main business. You think in that way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right.

Prabhupāda: Temple, if you have got sufficient nice men to manage temple, then you will keep it just like Gauḍīya Maṭha—that getting some money by begging and eating and laying down.

Gurudas: Yes, the men have to step forward. If they don't, it's useless. If they don't step forward . . . we are preachers, and if they don't step forward seriously enough, it's very difficult. What about printing? That's the thing that's on my mind.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Gurudas: I would like to hand out leaflets, if possible. Hand out something. Do you think that is . . .

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gurudas: . . . a worthwhile thing?

Prabhupāda: What's that?

Gurudas: To get some printed material that we can hand out?

Prabhupāda: Printed materials, thousands, they are giving us so many books. So many people come and give . . . (break) (end)