720421 - Conversation with Dai Nippon - Tokyo

Conversations by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720421R1-TOKYO - April 21, 1972 - 24:00 Minutes

Prabhupāda: It will be finished in about sixty volumes, like the one already you have got coming?

Karandhara: Sample. Yes. Five coming. They are printing five already.

Prabhupāda: Five coming. So similarly, we have to reprint our First Canto.

Karandhara: That's what they're printing now. First and Second Canto.

Prabhupāda: First and Second Canto. So all the First Cantos?

Karandhara: Yes. Three volumes.

Prabhupāda: Three volumes.

Karandhara: And two volumes of the Second Canto.

Prabhupāda: Then third, fourth, fifth. And the Tenth Canto will be about . . . there are ninety chapters.

Karandhara: Ninety.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we are accommodating how many chapters? About six?

Karandhara: It depends on the length of the chapters. Sometimes ten, sometimes six.

Prabhupāda: So on the average, if you take eight chapters, then it comes to . . .

Karandhara: Eight volumes.

Prabhupāda: Eight volumes in the tenth chapter. Then Eleventh Canto, Twelfth Canto. So altogether it will be sixty volumes. One book, sixty volumes. Perhaps there is none in the world, one subject matter. (Japanese exclamations) So that I wish to contribute to the world, with the cooperation of Dai Nippon. Yes. It will be record contribution to the world thought.

Karandhara: Already the first volume of the Third Canto and the First Volume of the Fourth Canto, they are ready to be printed. I have them in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So now our Sanskrit editor is there, Pradyumna.

Karandhara: The work will go much faster.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. And if Hayagrīva also finishes, then I can give daily one chapter.

Karandhara: Per day?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: Should be able to produce a volume at least every month.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the editors must be very expedient. Besides that, I think this Kṛṣṇa book, smaller edition, that will have very soon another repeat.

Karandhara: At least ten million we will print in the Kṛṣṇa book pocket size.

Prabhupāda: And Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Macmillan Company's, they have taken, and they are also printing yearly fifty thousand, or more than that. At least in Western countries there is no such thought of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is completely . . . that professor, what is his name?

Karandhara: Dimock?

Prabhupāda: Dimock. He has given very good appreciation. And gradually it will be printed in other languages: German, French, Spanish, Denmark, Holland . . .

Karandhara: Danish.

Prabhupāda: Danish, yes. And we are getting also Hindi layout from India. That Hindi magazine also will be printed. Gradually, other Indian languages. And Japanese and Chinese also. (japa)

Karandhara: If Dai Nippon opens a liaison office in Los Angeles, then it will be very easy to work. The contract is for all the jobs.

Prabhupāda: The officer will remain there, he will be final, or you have to consult with Mr. Ogata and . . .?

Karandhara: Well, their liaison officer there, he will be able to . . . he will correspond with Tokyo. They will fix up estimates and confirmations. But it will make the communication better.

Prabhupāda: (japa) So there are many Japanese vegetarian? Or he is only?

Dai Nippon Rep: Lately it is quite increasing in Japan, yes. It became popular, because we have a lot of problems with pollution. We have a lot of social problem like pollution, traffic jam like anything. So people, in order to keep good health, vegetarian is very good for health.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vegetarian food is very nice. We can give you vegetable menu, three hundred items at least.

Dai Nippon Rep: Three hundred?

Prabhupāda: Three hundred. Simply grains, fruits and butter, that's all, and sugar. You give us these four items and we give you three hundred items. Yes. There is a ceremony in India, annakūṭa, Govardhana-pūjā. So in that ceremony, in each and every temple they prepare as many varieties as possible. Some of them prepare three thousand.

Dai Nippon Rep: Three thousand.

Prabhupāda: Yes. For weeks they prepare. And the competition is the more items the temple prepares, he becomes . . . (break) . . . only. And distribution, prasāda distribution, free of charges. It was a very nice system, that nobody should remain hungry. That is the system. If there is any temple in any neighborhood, in that neighborhood nobody should remain hungry. The Vedic system is that in your house, a householder shall see that even a lizard in the house is not hungry. He must also be given food. Even there is a snake—nobody likes snake—but a Vedic householder has to call the snake and give him food. He also may not remain hungry. This is the . . .

And these things will be explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that anything, wherever it is—on land, on the air, sky, within the water, everywhere—God's kingdom; and all living entities, they are God's sons. So everyone has got the right to take advantage of his father's property. This is Bhāgavata communism.

The Communists are thinking in terms of their own country. But we, a devotee, we think in terms of all living entities, wherever he is, either in the sky or in the land or in the water. These things are explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Everything—politics, sociology, religion, philosophy, science, astronomy—everything is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And we should not take this movement as a religious movement. It is not religious movement. It is a movement for understanding knowledge. Veda. Veda means knowledge.

So religion, according to English dictionary, is a kind of faith. Faith you can change. You have faith today in something; tomorrow you may change. So this is knowledge. Any human being must be interested with advancement of knowledge.

So you are waiting to stop me?

Photographer: No, sir . . . (indistinct)

Sudāmā: He is waiting to have a very nice pose of Your Divine Grace. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So Veda . . . Veda means knowledge. So every human being should be interested for advancement of knowledge. So our movement is not a religious movement; it is a movement for advancement of knowledge. And this knowledge, God consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is especially meant for this human body. Because knowledge cannot be given to animals. I cannot speak to the other . . . animals about knowledge, because they are imperfect. Their body is imperfect. They are not suitable for receiving knowledge. Only elementary knowledge for maintaining this body, they have got: where to secure food, where to sleep, how to have sexual intercourse and how to defend. These knowledges are there in animals also.

So human being requires further knowledge. That is special prerogative, gift by God, by nature. Whatever you say. So we should utilize this human body for furtherance of knowledge. And the first important knowledge is that we should know that there is life after death. That is the basic principle of knowledge. Unfortunately, at the present moment, in no university there is any department of knowledge where this education is given where there is life after death. I am traveling all over the world. There is no such department. They have completely evaded or set aside, because they cannot make any solution whether there is . . . I talked with one Mr. Kotovsky, a Russian professor in Moscow. I was in Moscow. He said: "Swāmījī, there is no life after death." Just see. He's a big professor, and his knowledge is so imperfect that he says that there is no life after death.

So that is the position everywhere. Those who are teachers, they are with imperfect knowledge. The teachers in the universities, they are with imperfect knowledge. Now, life after death, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very easily explained that just like a child has next life, boyhood; the boy has next life as youthhood; the youthhood has next life, the old age; so why not the old age next life?

If we are passing through so many stages of life, from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death? Can you say, any one of you? What is the reason? You remember your boyhood body; I remember my youthhood body. So that body is no longer existing, but I am existing. I remember my childhood body. My babyhood body also I remember, particularly. When I was about six months old, I still remember very vividly, I was lying down on the lap of my eldest sister, and she was knitting. I remember still.

Dai Nippon Rep: Six months?

Prabhupāda: Yes, six months. I remember when I was only about one year old, there was a great saṅkīrtana in our house, and I was . . . I also joined the dancing party. And I was seeing up to their knees, very small. So I remember those days. And then after that, I was a boy. I was very much fond of cycling. So many things. Yes. So many dangers, so many adventures. Now I am old man. So all those different stages of body, I remember. But these bodies are not existing. So similarly, I remember or forget, but I was in different types of body—that's a fact. So similarly, after leaving this body, I will have another body. That is natural conclusion. What is the difficulty? Why I shall conclude that after end of this body, there will be no body? Why I shall conclude like this? I have got experience that I have passed though so many different forms of body, but I am existing, although the bodies are not existing.

Similarly, in my past life I must have had another body. But . . . that is the law of nature. We get from the book of knowledge that a living entity is injected through the father's semina to the mother's womb, and that that living entity develops a certain type of body. The mother supplies the ingredient. So according to the mother's body, the body is prepared. And when it is matured to come out, it comes out.

This is very important part of knowledge. But there is no educational system to understand this important part of knowledge. So we are distributing not a system of religion, but a very important department of knowledge, which human society requires to understand. Don't take it that is a system of religion or faith. No. It is a important department of knowledge, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (japa)

Anything more you want? No. That's all right. (pause)

Devotee: They want to know . . . they don't want to take any more of Prabhupāda's time . . . (indistinct)

Karandhara: We can discuss outside.

Prabhupāda: So I can go?

Karandhara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So thank you very much for your coming.

Devotee: Thank you very much. (end)