760521 - Conversation - Honolulu

Conversations by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

760521R1-HONOLULU - May 21, 1976 - 20:10 Minutes

(Conversation About Deity Making and Tulasi Tea)

Hari-śauri: Twelve inches. That's very small, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That's only . . .

Govinda dāsī: It's about eighteen inches. Oh, you said twelve inches. Twelve . . . twelve is like this.

Hari-śauri: This is a ten by eight.

Prabhupāda: Fifteen. Fifteen.

Govinda dāsī: Fifteen. Fifteen inches.

Prabhupāda: But they are . . . they are done nice. Very artistic flavor.

Hari-śauri: Hmm.

Prabhupāda: So, only make a big hall there. On all sides a brass plate . . . (indistinct) . . . you make of this, like this. You make such small dolls, they can be soldered. They are very good . . . (indistinct)

Govinda dāsī: Hmm.

Prabhupāda: But, that is good price.

Hari-śauri: Hmm.

Prabhupāda: But silicate preparation is, you think, stronger than stone?

Govinda dāsī: Yes, I think so. I have . . . I'm making some I was gonna bring and show you this evening, some heads.

Prabhupāda: They are done already?

Govinda dāsī: Some heads. I was gonna show you . . .

Prabhupāda: They are already done?

Govinda dāsī: Yes, but they're not fully dry. Two of them are done, but . . .

Prabhupāda: So when they dry.

Govinda dāsī: It's not fully dried. It will be dry enough to bring by this evening, I think. It's concrete. It's concrete. You had . . . originally you asked me to make them in concrete. The concrete mixed with silica is stronger than just concrete. The concrete, it was, from what I have been told, it was . . .

Prabhupāda: Inside, whether has to put network?

Govinda dāsī: Armature?

Prabhupāda: Ah!

Govinda dāsī: Armature. Yes, that may be. That's a metal you have to put inside. Metal.

Prabhupāda: That will . . .

Govinda dāsī: For strength.

Prabhupāda: . . . make strong?

Govinda dāsī: Strength, yes.

Prabhupāda: Reinforcement.

Govinda dāsī: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Very strong.

Govinda dāsī: Especially for Kāliya it's going to be necessary. For Kāliya.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Govinda dāsī: Because it's a very large piece.

(pause)

Govinda dāsī: I require some people to help me to do this, but everyone is . . . it's very difficult to get . . . I require two or three girls to help me.

Prabhupāda: So ask Śukadeva Goswāmī.

Hari-śauri: You want him to come up?

Prabhupāda: No. You can ask him.

Hari-śauri:Oh.

Govinda dāsī: I was just discussing it with him when you called me, and he had just told me that no. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: She needs help.

Hari-śauri: This is the problem. And I know when Gurukṛpā Mahārāja gets back, he will stop it as well.

Govinda dāsī: He'll stop everything, and there's nothing I can do, except do it independently, on my own.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Hari-śauri: From, well, from his attitude when he left, he didn't want . . . want anything to do with it at all, any Deity-making.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Hari-śauri: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: No, that's . . . (indistinct)

Hari-śauri: Yeah. I don't know. May be that, that if you write a letter to him, and, and ask him to give some facility. Otherwise, I don't think he'll do it, 'cause he wouldn't be . . . he's objected to it before . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: First of all, let them have this hall.

Hari-śauri: Hmm. And then do the . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) . . . him, now there is no place for Kṛṣṇa. First of all there must be place. Then we can do everything.

Hari-śauri: Hmm. What about their Deity-making that they're doing now, for Fiji? They're doing these deities for Fiji.

Prabhupāda: You have contacted Baradrāj?

Govinda dāsī: I'm going there tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) . . . I am going also.

Govinda dāsī: Baradrāj, I've talked to him. He, he's very busy doing what he's doing. He's building a museum, and he says he doesn't have time to do . . .

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Govinda dāsī: . . . the deities too. So therefore that's why I, I was doing them here. I was getting it all organized here. I was simply going to ask him to help me with the Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta and the deity of yourself.

Prabhupāda: So you have talked to him?

Govinda dāsī: Yes. He told me that he wouldn't have time to even start anything for months, to even begin to help with the Deities for months, 'cause he's doing this museum.

Prabhupāda: So you heard from Baradrāj?

Govinda dāsī: Yes. So what we were doing is, there's three girls here who we're setting up and working. It's not that difficult, you know. It's not that hard to do. What . . . we were just . . . I was going to talk to Baradrāj about it when I went there, also.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: So you talked with Gaurasundara yet?

Hari-śauri: No.

Govinda dāsī: Since he left I haven't seen him or talked to him. He left last week for his farm on the big island. He and his new wife, they left, and I don't know what he's thinking.

Prabhupāda: What does he do in his farm?

Govinda dāsī: He has a lot of animals. He raises goats and horses.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Govinda dāsī: And I think they have one cow. They got recently one cow.

Hari-śauri: What do they do with goats?

Govinda dāsī: They're the girl's pets.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Govinda dāsī: The goats are the pets. They're like pets.

Prabhupāda: Goats for milk?

Govinda dāsī: Umm, yeah, you can get milk, but I don't think they do that very much, because they don't like to take it away from the baby goat. Mostly just for pets. They have horses and goats.

Prabhupāda: Are they killed?

Govinda dāsī: Oh, no. No, they're very much . . . not at all.

Hari-śauri: How many of them do they have?

Govinda dāsī: At least a dozen.

Hari-śauri: Dozen goats?

Govinda dāsī: Yeah, a whole bunch of goats. They have at least six horses, too.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hari-śauri: She said they have about a dozen goats and about six horses.

Govinda dāsī: I mean, it may be more than that. I'm not . . . I don't really know now.

Prabhupāda: So why so many horses?

Govinda dāsī: Because they like to ride horses for pleasure. It's a very nice pleasure to ride horses.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Govinda dāsī: The girl was a rodeo star.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Govinda dāsī: The girl was a rodeo star.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Govinda dāsī: That's where you ride horses, you know? In . . . in rodeos.

Prabhupāda: Uh-huh.

Govinda dāsī: You know? Until she had an accident last year. Now she's crippled, and she can't ride. Her leg is . . . she can't ride now any more, but she used to be a . . .

Prabhupāda: And she introduced these horses?

Govinda dāsī: Yes. He has several people there, like, who follow him and do for him. They will help with the farm work. They have . . . they have gardens. They have nice gardens.

Prabhupāda: No Deities?

Govinda dāsī: Not to my knowledge. They've started chanting recently. Recently they've started chanting. Just since he came back from India, he started chanting.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Govinda dāsī: I don't know what his position is. I feel he's changing. I don't know. I think that he feels that you've sanctioned what he's doing, and so he'll probably go on doing it.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Govinda dāsī: He feels that you have sanctioned his activities, and so he will go on doing what he's doing.

Prabhupāda: I have sanctioned?

Govinda dāsī: You've sanctioned that he has a farm and he's raising vegetables and living there, and that he's got a new wife and everything. And so he will go on doing what he's doing, because he feels that it's sanctioned. Everyone feels that it's not sanctioned. So probably he'll try to get more . . . he tries to get more people to join and come and live there. That was what he was doing in Honolulu.

Prabhupāda: He's sanctioned? He is doing everything without my sanction. (laughs) Who asked him to ride on horse?

Govinda dāsī: Who asked him to what?

Prabhupāda: Ride on horse. He can say like that.

Govinda dāsī: You indicated, or you seemed to approve of what he was doing. Even I thought that you'd sanctioned him to do all these things. I mean, you didn't, you know . . .

Prabhupāda: No.

Govinda dāsī: You encouraged him.

Prabhupāda: I encouraged him?

Govinda dāsī: Yes, you encouraged him to chant and to, erm . . .

Prabhupāda: That I am encouraging everyone.

Govinda dāsī: Yes. Well, anyway, they feel that you've sanctioned their activities now, and that they can proceed and have more people come and live there.

(long pause)

Govinda dāsī: You asked him to come and travel with you?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Govinda dāsī: You asked Gaurasundara to come and travel with you?

Prabhupāda: That I do.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: So time is up when?

Hari-śauri: No, another hour yet.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hari-śauri: It's only 10:15.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: You're not sleeping in the mornings now?

Prabhupāda: I do not bother.

Hari-śauri: Just rest a little.

Govinda dāsī: How's your health?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Govinda dāsī: How's your health?

Prabhupāda: Health?

Govinda dāsī: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Not well.

Govinda dāsī: Do you want to see some doctor?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

(pause)

Prabhupāda: Now it is working; (laughing) we must be prepared.

Hari-śauri: I think you're already prepared, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Govinda dāsī: Yes.

Prabhupāda: A broken house, you cannot expect.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: What Śukadeva's gone . . . (indistinct)?

Hari-śauri: No. It's a public holiday today.

Prabhupāda: All right. (devotees offer obeisances)

Govinda dāsī: Śrīla Prabhupāda, can I ask one question?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Govinda dāsī: On the tulasī plants. Sometimes they are taking and putting in . . . they boil some water and put the tulasī and make some tea and drink it. Is that . . . I've been told both that it's wrong, and I've been told that it's okay, and I'm wondering whether or not it's . . .?

Prabhupāda: Not wrong.

Govinda dāsī: Is it wrong to heat the tulasī, to put, put her in hot water, or is, is that okay?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not wrong, but they are constantly doing that?

Hari-śauri: Oh, I don't know whether they're constantly doing it.

Govinda dāsī: There's so much tulasī that they sell it, tulasī tea, at the restaurant, which is . . .

Hari-śauri: Yeah . . .

Govinda dāsī: . . . people like it . . .

Hari-śauri: . . . but Prabhupada . . .

Govinda dāsī: . . . it's very tasty.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupada said that's all right.

Govinda dāsī: Yeah, that's very tasty. There's just, there's tons of tulasī, and there's, there's . . .

Prabhupāda: No. That they cannot drink themselves. For customers, that's all right.

Govinda dāsī: All right. It's not good for devotees to drink it?

Hari-śauri: No. Because it encourages tea-drinking habit. Becomes a habit to drink tea.

Govinda dāsī: Ohh, I see.

Hari-śauri: So the devotees shouldn't . . . shouldn't drink anything like that, unless it's medicinal. Unless they're sick, they have a fever, and tulasī . . .

Prabhupāda: Tulasī drink, drink is very palatable.

Govinda dāsī: It's very palatable. I used to put tulasī in your water, remember? We used to put . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Govinda dāsī: . . . tulasī flowers in your water, and it flavors the water. Well, when boiled water is poured on it, it's supposedly very medicinal too. And they drink the tea with a little bit maybe of honey or drink it plain. And it's very palatable. Customers like it. I've . . . I used to drink it, but I heard that it was an offense to, to drink it, so I didn't know. I just thought it was really good.

Prabhupāda: No. That as soon as we like it, that means sense gratification.

Hari-śauri: Once you drink it for the taste . . .

Govinda dāsī: But we like prasādam. (laughing) I didn't know, so I . . . I didn't know if it was wrong.

Prabhupāda: No.

Govinda dāsī: I thought to heat the tulasīs, what I'd heard . . .

Prabhupāda: Tulasī, tulasī leaf you can take, but . . .

Govinda dāsī: Heat. Eat, but not the . . .

Prabhupāda: . . . but this tea habit, that means we may revive our tea-drinking. That is.

Govinda dāsī: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, tulasī leaf eating is good. You can eat leaf, especially palatable with water. Water, that is good. But you make it, imitation tea, that means I remember tea-drinking.

Govinda dāsī: I see. Especially the English. That will be very difficult for the Englishmen.

(long pause)

Prabhupāda: So you come at half past twelve.

Hari-śauri: Hmm. (end)