760804 - Conversation A - New Mayapur

Conversations by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

760804R1-NEW MAYAPUR - August 04, 1976 - 35:46 Minutes

Prabhupāda: So what happened to the tickets?

Harikeśa: The tickets are being locked up in the safe right now. They're going to . . . they're going to bring the tickets tomorrow to this city called Tours, which is very nearby. They have an Air France office, and we can have it converted there. So everything's all right for Saturday.

Prabhupāda: So we shall go by the same plane?

Harikeśa: Yes, everybody goes in the same plane.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. (devotees offer obeisances and leave)

Jayatīrtha: Jaya. (break)

Hari-śauri: This is the first pamphlet that you ever printed?

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: I mean in the West?

Prabhupāda: No, before coming here.

Hari-śauri: Oh, and then you brought it with you.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Says: "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, India's message of peace and good will. Sixty volumes of elaborate English version by Tridandi Goswami A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Carried by the Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd., Bombay, all over the world for scientific knowledge of God." Then it says: "The sufferings of the entire human society can at once be brought under control simply by individual practice of bhakti-yoga, a simple and easy process of chanting the holy name of God. Every country, every nation and every community throughout the world has some conception of the holy name of God, and as such either the Hindus or the Muhammadans or the Christians, everyone can easily chant the holy name of God in a meditative mood, and that will bring about the required peace and good will in the present problematic human society. Any inquiry in this connection will be gladly answered by Śrī Swamiji. The Hindus generally chant the holy name of God in sixteen chain of transcendental sound composed of thirty-two alphabets as Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The Vedic literatures like the Upaniṣads and the Purāṇas do recommend chanting of the above-mentioned sixteen holy names at a stretch, and Lord Śrī Caitanya, whose cult of chanting the holy name of God gave special importance on these transcendental sounds. In this age of Kali, or the age of hate, hypocrisy, corruption and quarrel, the only remedial measure is that every man should chant the holy name of the Lord, both individually and collectively."

"The glories of the holy name have been described by Śrī Caitanya in His eight verses of Sikṣāṣṭaka, which run as follows: 1) Glory to the Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years together, and thus the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death, is extinguished. Such saṅkīrtana movement is the prime benediction for the humanity at large because it spreads rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of transcendental knowledge, it increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it helps to have a taste of the full nectarine for which always anxious we are. 2) O my Lord, Your holy name can render all benediction upon the living being, and therefore You have hundreds and millions of names, like Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, etc. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental potencies, and there is no hard-and-fast rules for chanting these holy names. O my Lord, You have so kindly made easy approach to You by Your holy names, but unfortunate as I am, I have no attraction for them. 3) One can chant the holy names of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking himself as lower than the straw in the streets, tolerant more than the tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and being ready to offer all kinds of respects to others. 4) O almighty Lord, I have no desire for accumulating wealth, nor I have any desire to enjoy beautiful women, neither I want any number of followers of mine. What I want only is that I may have Your causeless devotional service in my life, birth after birth. 5) O the son of Mahārāja Nanda, I am Your eternal servitor, and although I am so, somehow or another I have fallen in the ocean of birth and death. Please therefore pick me up from the ocean of death and fix me up as one of the atoms of Your lotus feet. 6) O my Lord, when shall my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing incessantly by chanting Your holy name, and when all the holes of hairs on my body will have eruptions by the recitation of Your name? 7) O Govinda, feeling Your separation I am considering a moment as twelve years or more than that, and tears flowing down my cheeks like the torrents of rain. I am feeling all vacant in the world without Your presence. 8) I do not know anyone except Kṛṣṇa as my Lord, and He shall remain as such even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or He may make me broken-hearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything, but He is always my worshipful Lord, unconditionally."

"Chanting of the holy name of God is recommended for everyone, both for the mass of people and the class of people. Those who are scholars, philosophers, scientists, religionists and educated may read the English version of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami with particular attention to the purports appended with each and every verse. They have appreciated the publication as follows: 'At a time when not only the people of India but those of the West need the chastening quality of love and truth in a corrupting atmosphere of hate and hypocrisy, a work like this will have uplifting and corrective influence. What is God? He is truth, He is Love. Even an atheist must accept the supremacy of these qualities, and how much they are needed by the people of the world who have been taught to deny God, and these qualities do not require much emphasis. The author has attempted a tremendous task, the perusal will give us in the sample measure a knowledge of the original. The essence of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the exposition of the Absolute Truth. We would recommend this book.' " Then another one. " 'The editor's vast and deep study of . . ."

Prabhupāda: Whose?

Hari-śauri: It doesn't give who is speaking, just the quotes. " 'The editor's vast and deep study of the subject and critical insight are reflected in these notes. We have no doubt that with the publication of these volumes of the rightful interpretations of the Bhāgavatam, which has been the gift of Śrī Caitanya and His Gosvāmī followers, has now been available to the English-knowing world for the first time. The elaborate method is very helpful to the ardent student of Bhāgavatam, who lack in Sanskrit language. It is admitted in all hands that Bhāgavatam is the most difficult text amongst the Purāṇas. The author richly deserves the gratitude of the devotees for his pious learned labor of love.' " And another one: " 'These volumes speak very highly of Swāmījī's scholarship, and especially of his love of cultural pursuits when we look into the enormous labor of sacrifice in producing them single-handed, and that too at a ripe old age of sixty-eight. We honestly pray to the Almighty that He may spare Swāmījī for all the years he may require to finish the magnum opus of sixty volumes and earn the love and gratitude of his fellow men in pursuit of divine love and grace, nay of the entire humanity. You have done a first-class work, and you deserve the hearty commendation of every Indian, every Hindu. Your deep and penetrating study of the subject and your philosophic insight are reflected in this book.' " etcetera, etcetera. That's the whole pamphlet.

Prabhupāda: Complete?

Hari-śauri: Yes. You used to give this pamphlet when you first came?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: There's a very nice picture.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Before coming here.

Hari-śauri: So you would be sixty-nine then?

Prabhupāda: Sixty-nine or seventy.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes, this picture is nice.

Hari-śauri: Taken in Germany, I think.

Prabhupāda: Who is behind?

Hari-śauri: There's, er, this is Haṁsadūta, Vedavyāsa, and then some of the devotees, saṅkīrtana devotees. You were making a joke. (laughs) (break) (during massage) But you were preaching before that, in India, though.

Prabhupāda: Not very much. Oh, yes, that Back to Godhead.

Hari-śauri: In Vṛndāvana you were just translating?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: But the library party said that everywhere in Delhi they went, they found that you had already placed your three volumes of Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In American also. The Congress Library purchased nineteen sets.

Hari-śauri: Which library?

Prabhupāda: Congress Library.

Hari-śauri: Oh, Congress. The one in Washington? The Library of Congress?

Prabhupāda: Or there is a branch in India.

Hari-śauri: Oh. That is where they have your original Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Maybe.

Hari-śauri: The first copy, they have it in Washington there.

Prabhupāda: American government is good organization.

(pause)

Prabhupāda: From 1954 to '66 I struggled very hard. Alone.

Hari-śauri: Twelve years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Twelve years means one yuga.

Hari-śauri: One . . .

Prabhupāda: Roughly one yuga. And big yuga, another.

Hari-śauri: One yuga?

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the ordinary sense.

Hari-śauri: Oh, the term is used differently? It can be used in different ways?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: We always think of one yuga as being like Kali-yuga, or . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is a big yuga, this is small yuga.

Hari-śauri: It's very fortunate for us that you were so determined.

(long pause)

Prabhupāda: They have got so many cars.

Hari-śauri: Here?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Hari-śauri: Actually, I think most of our centers have got many, many vans and cars.

Prabhupāda: That means they are rich.

Hari-śauri: Just like in India they used to measure wealth by how many cows, (laughs) in the West they measure wealth by how many cars.

Prabhupāda: And we have both. Cows and cars, both.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

(long pause)

Prabhupāda: So the devotees like this evening class?

Hari-śauri: They like . . .?

Prabhupāda: Evening class.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes, it's a very enlivening program. In the evening it's very nice out of doors. It's warm from the day. No one falls asleep, except for the children, and that's very good because then they're quiet.

Prabhupāda: Small children, they also clap . . .

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: . . . and dance on the lap of the mother. They are smiling. Fortunate children, from the birth, associating with devotees.

(long pause)

Prabhupāda: Nowadays cheating is a good qualification, huh?

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's their only qualification.

Prabhupāda: If I cheat somebody and get some money, you are very expert.

Hari-śauri: Top-class businessman.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: First-class scientist. And the best politician. Just like in America, once they'd found Nixon was cheating, now they're investigating one man after another, and every one, they're finding all the same.

Prabhupāda: America, cheating is a policy. How a real estate man, lawyer, they're simply planning how to cheat.

Hari-śauri: Hmm. The lawyers are the worst, because they know the law. So they know how to cheat in such a way that they can stay within the law. They said Ambarīṣa's lawyer cheated us out of so many things when we got that Detroit property. (end)