750918 - Morning Walk - Vrndavana

Morning Walks by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

750918MW-VRNDAVAN - September 18, 1975 - 25:10 Minutes

Dhṛṣṭaketu: It says that, er . . . stated that the Lord's pastimes in Vṛndāvana and Dvārakā are passing through the universe just as the sun passes over the face of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Where is that? Hmm.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: So, and each time they are the same. The same pastimes beginning from His birth up to mauṣala-līlā, they are the same each time.

Prabhupāda: No.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: No? They are different in different universes?

Prabhupāda: Varieties.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: Oh. So that means that we just get a glimpse of . . .

Prabhupāda: (to passerby) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: . . . Kṛṣṇa's pastimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited; His pastimes are unlimited.

Indian man (1): Could I permitted to take a Bengali class one hour daily, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust room, for foreign and also Indian boys?

Prabhupāda: They are interested in learning Bengali?

Indian man (1): Yes, some of them are interested.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man (1): I think they should learn Bengali well to go through the books written in original—Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura's and Jīva Gosvāmī. If they learn, then they will be able to understand the siddhāntas very well.

Prabhupāda: We are presenting them in English.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: If the Lord's pastimes are . . . they are manifested differently—are they manifested the same in each, in one universe? In this universe are they the same, or . . .? Are they different every time? In other words, is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam a history of what took place once, and then it will be different next time?

Prabhupāda: That is not different. Each of them are identical.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: But there are new ones also? New pastimes?

Prabhupāda: Everything identical. Now this grass grown here and this grass grown there, there may be some difference, but they are identical. Harer nāma harer nāma . . . (CC Adi 17.21). (break) . . . that professor who has reviewed Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Brahmānanda: I think it was J. Bruce Long, Cornell University. Very respected university.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And what he is there?

Brahmānanda: Professor of Asian Studies. Kirtirāja says that he is considered one of the authorities.

Prabhupāda: Of Indian. Indology.

Brahmānanda: Yes. And his reviews are published extensively in various journals. So they are going to try to get this review published also. (break)

Prabhupāda: Charity box daily counted?

Dhanañjaya: Yes. Daily counted.

Prabhupāda: So how much it is?

Dhanañjaya: Pūrṇa-candra, charity box . . . (indistinct) . . . how much was collected?

Pūrṇa-candra: 120 rupees.

Prabhupāda: So you write separately.

Pūrṇa-candra: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: And it is sent to the bank. And foodstuff selling? Prasāda?

Pūrṇa-candra: It is . . . collected sixty rupees.

Prabhupāda: Book?

Pūrṇa-candra: Ninety rupees.

Prabhupāda: So they are all differently?

Pūrṇa-candra: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: What is the sale proceeds of the prasāda?

Brahmānanda: How much do you sell of the prasāda?

Dhanañjaya: During the week it's about sixty to eighty rupees, and at the weekends, over a hundred rupees. At weekends there are far more people coming to the temple from Delhi.

Prabhupāda: So average, eighty rupees. So you are purchasing ghee, four kilos or more.

Dhanañjaya: Now we have stopped that.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dhanañjaya: Now we have stopped. We've reduced the quantity.

Prabhupāda: Why you were purchasing more?

Dhanañjaya: Well, we were purchasing because the ghee was being used in all the preparations, in all the vegetable preparations . . .

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So what is the price of four kilos?

Devotee (2): Eighty-eight rupees.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Dhanañjaya: Eighty-eight rupees.

Prabhupāda: So you collect only the ghee price. And what about others? Hmm? Other, āṭṭā and sugar and so many things? That means you are spending hundred rupees, and the kitchen department, you are collecting eighty rupees. So twenty rupees lost. Hmm? So what is this business? What you are spending, you must collect also. Or balance you are eating?

Dhanañjaya: A few days ago a devotee donated three hundred rupees to the Deities.

Prabhupāda: Donated, that is all right. I am talking of the business.

Dhanañjaya: I see.

Prabhupāda: Donate . . . I may donate three thousand. But that is a different thing. But from practical point of view, you are spending hundred rupees per day, and you are collecting eighty rupees.

Dhanañjaya: So we should only make what we . . .

Prabhupāda: You should only . . . you do not know what you are doing. That is my point. You do not know what you are doing.

Dhanañjaya: The point is, we want to keep a good standard of prasādam. So one day if we . . .

Prabhupāda: That's all right, good standard, but you must collect good standard also. (chuckles) Spend good standard and collect bad standard, what is this?

Indian man (1): But there is great demand for prasādam. Great demand for prasādam.

Prabhupāda: So why you are not making more and sell?

Dhanañjaya: No, during the week there are not so many people. Like yesterday Patita-pāvana was explaining that there was prasādam left over.

Prabhupāda: So you should know. You have experience when it is demand and more.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. That we know. We know the demand is at the weekends, and there's also some special festivals, so we make more prasādam for these occasions.

Indian man (1): There is another great demand for photos of . . . almost everyone asks for photos of the Deities of the temple and of other places also. They all . . . the temples and Deities. Actually everyone asks for photos, nice photos.

Prabhupāda: So why they are not printed?

Indian man (1): They will be good sale of photos, I think maybe supplied to Iskcon temples all over the world. It may be supplied in that book shop.

Dhanañjaya: So Bhārgava has taken many good shots of the Deities on color film, and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa informed me that we should print postcard-size photos of the Deities and sell them for fifty paisa each. So that, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is arranging for. (break) . . . demand for prasādam will go on increasing, because one doctor came to our temple and informed us that at Bankebihari Mandir, because they have been giving out old prasādam, selling old prasādam, which is not in accordance with the health safety rules, they are going to take away that privilege of selling prasādam from Bankebihari temple.

Prabhupāda: So you don't do that. You prepare and sell fresh. Don't prepare more what is required. (pause) You have brought that pulleys?

Dhanañjaya: Yes. He got two pulleys.

Prabhupāda: You have fixed up?

Guṇārṇava: They are fixing today. They started the work.

Prabhupāda: You know how to fix?

Guṇārṇava: Yes. They know how to do it.

Prabhupāda: One bamboo, you just crosswise fix up and then in the middle . . . the rope should come through one pulley first, then the second pulley. Then it will not go out.

Indian man (1): The ringing also will be nice. Ringing will be nice, very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you see to fix it up nicely. Harer nāma, harer nāma. Saccidānanda said they are purchasing vegetables, fruits, 125, but you have increased, 190. Why?

Dhanañjaya: The devotees' prasāda? Devotees' bhoga?

Prabhupāda: Devotees or . . . daily they were purchasing 125. But you said: "No, it must be more," and the banana is rotting. Why do you purchase more?

Dhanañjaya: No, I allotted five rupees per person.

Prabhupāda: Therefore it must be spent?

Dhanañjaya: No, not it must be spent.

Prabhupāda: Then? Because five rupees allotted, then it must be spent, never mind the fruits are rotten. What is this intelligence? To save money or to squander it, that is your policy.

Dhanañjaya: So when you told Smara-hari to purchase in quantity, the first thing he purchased was bananas.

Prabhupāda: Because he is monkey, he wants banana, very nice.

Smara-hari: You see, Prabhupāda, yesterday we fasted in the morning, and because it was ekādaśī there were extra bananas bought for yesterday morning, and they weren't used, so there are some left over. So this is why . . .

Prabhupāda: Why some left over?

Smara-hari: Well, because they weren't used yesterday morning.

Prabhupāda: They weren't, but why it is left over?

Smara-hari: They were saved for this morning to save money, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Rather than eat a lot of bananas yesterday afternoon, they were saved for this morning.

Prabhupāda: When it is required, you can purchase. But I understand that you purchase more and it is left over. Don't squander money. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaṣ ca prajalpo niya . . . (NOI 2). Atyāhāra—to eat more, to collect more, they are against bhakti principle. And why they are going twice in the market?

Dhanañjaya: Because sometimes Daivī-śakti, she does not give her list.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Does not give list—then don't bring. Everyone must supply list in the evening, and once it should . . . (aside) Jaya. It is not that Daivī-śakti gives one list—you have to go. What is this? Everything purchased in the morning, that's all. And rice, ḍāl, āṭṭā, ghee, for fifteen days. Only the raw fruits and vegetables should be purchased every morning. That's all.

Dhanañjaya: So Viśvambhara is going this morning to grain merchants to arrange.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Dhanañjaya: Viśvambhara is going to arrange that today, to purchase for fifteen days.

Prabhupāda: Any shopkeeper will supply fifteen days. He will bring at your home and you pay him, forthrightly.

Indian man (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda? Should not the temple be kept open earlier than six o'clock in the afternoon? Many people are . . .

Prabhupāda: Six o'clock?

Guṇārṇava: 5:15.

Indian man (1): Six o'clock. The temple is going to open in the afternoon at six o'clock.

Dhanañjaya: Temple opens at four o'clock. The door of the gates.

Indian man (1): No, temple, mandir.

Dhanañjaya: The gates open at four o'clock, and the doors open at 5:15 for ārati. Ārati is at 5:15.

Prabhupāda: But 5:15 means six, because you are very expert.

Dhanañjaya: Always it's 5:15.

Indian man (1): Not earlier than 5:30, I find.

Guṇārṇava: No, it's 5:15.

Dhanañjaya: (to Indian man) You are saying wrong. It's 5:15 every day. It's never late.

Prabhupāda: No, why not five? Why 5:15? Make it five.

Dhanañjaya: All right. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Your signboard is "five." Why you make 5:15? Everything should be on routine, strictly.

Dhanañjaya: But the main gates are open to the public at four o'clock.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. They can wait on the corridor. So I wanted Praṇava to speak, but he is not interested. What I can do? I told you that, "You read books and speak. Try to preach." Yes. Did I not say? Did I not say to you that you and Dīkṣita, "Study together and . . ."

Praṇava: We started immediately on the very same day. Next day I was asked to leave, so I have left.

Prabhupāda: You have left forever.

Praṇava: No. I can never leave for . . .

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Then why don't you do that business? In the evening, four o'clock, you can speak. The whole day you can read and reproduce in the four o'clock. Then you understand what is the philosophy. If you simply reproduce what is written there in the book, you become preacher. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). We haven't got to manufacture anything.

Praṇava: Since you have asked me, I have got one question I ask you. Yesterday my wife went for saṅkīrtana, and the mike was stopped in the middle, so she felt little . . . but I said: "Since we have to make kīrtana, Prabhupāda . . ."

Prabhupāda: Why the mike was stopped?

Indian: " . . . like it and you should go on." So if your kind permission is there, she will continue in whatever way . . .

Guṇārṇava: In what way was the microphone stopped? What do you mean?

Praṇava: Yes, it was stopped for some time.

Prabhupāda: That mike stops sometimes. That is another thing, not that purposely . . .

Praṇava: It stopped purposely, Mahārāja. And especially at the time of that tulasī ārati also, because somebody may not have liked that she should come or . . .

Guṇārṇava: Who stopped your wife from singing?

Praṇava: That I don't know.

Brahmānanda: You have to say.

Guṇārṇava: You have to tell.

Brahmānanda: You have to say.

Praṇava: I'll find out.

Brahmānanda: You find out.

Praṇava: I didn't come. She came at that time only. In the morning time the mike is not . . . also it is not allowed to use. I think it is . . .

Prabhupāda: No, no, unless there is crowd, don't use the mike.

Praṇava: But in morning time . . .

Prabhupāda: Morning or evening, unless there is crowd, what is the use of using mike?

Praṇava: For broadcasting outside.

Prabhupāda: No, no. No, no. When there is crowd, you use mike. (break) . . . Saheb is doing?

Dhanañjaya: Mr. Cyavana? Well, now he is sitting at the reception desk in the morning, and Nayanābhirāma . . .

Prabhupāda: What is the reception? Who is coming?

Dhanañjaya: Some people are always coming. They are inquiring about the guesthouse, about Life Membership. And Nayanābhirāma is instructing him how to inform the people about membership and about the guest rooms. Actually Rājasābha, he keeps a hotel in Madhya Pradesh.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Dhanañjaya: He has his own hotel business, so he is quite experienced.

Prabhupāda: So he can manage.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. So there's no need for added expense of getting someone from outside.

Prabhupāda: No. No. If he can manage, that is nice.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. Otherwise I am sure such a person will simply try to cheat us. And he is quite prepared to do that service for us.

Prabhupāda: All right. Let him do that. Now bring guest.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. So Tejiyas, he has prepared some ads for the Delhi newspapers.

Prabhupāda: What is ad?

Dhanañjaya: Advertising.

Prabhupāda: I know that.

Dhanañjaya: And we have also prepared signs.

Brahmānanda: How much did you spend on ads?

Dhanañjaya: One hundred rupees.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dhanañjaya: One hundred rupees.

Prabhupāda: For advertising?

Dhanañjaya: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is the subject matter?

Dhanañjaya: Well, he made a design of the front of the temple, and he put underneath, "Come and stay at the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma āśrama for . . ."

Prabhupāda: "Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple," not "āśrama."

Dhanañjaya: "Temple." All right. "And become . . ." Something like "and become enlightened with transcendental knowledge." Something like that. He's explaining briefly.

Prabhupāda: He . . . what does he know? He'll explain? He is explaining. What does he know, he'll explain?

Dhanañjaya: Tejiyas has written.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That Rājasābha.

Dhanañjaya: Oh, Rājasābha.

Prabhupāda: Rājasābha, what does he know about our philosophy?

Dhanañjaya: Well, Nayanābhirāma is there to guide him. And he's reading every day also. He's got our books, and he's reading every day, without fail.

Prabhupāda: Then it is all right.

Dhanañjaya: In fact, he was asking for more books, and I said: "First of all you read all these books I have given you. Then I will supply you more." So he spends at least three or four hours a day reading in his room.

Prabhupāda: That's good. So he should read Śrīmad-Bhagavad-gītā, Nectar of Devotion, then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then Caitanya-caritāmṛta. (break) . . . but he still has asked for books. He wants to become member. From Jaipur. How to . . .? (break)

Indian man (2): Aapke table pe hai. (It is on your table.)

Prabhupāda: Haan, who to padke sunaye the. Accha. (Yes, they read it out. Alright.)

Indian man: I cannot start because I have shifted. I'll arrange.

Harikeśa: He comes every night at ārati, the nine o'clock ārati.

Prabhupāda: Call him. I want to talk with him. (end)