770224 - Conversation A - Mayapur

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770224R1-MAYAPUR - February 24, 1977 - 23:59 Minutes

(Arrival of devotees)

Prabhupāda: That man is unable . . . (break) What is that?

Gargamuni: Well, these are for all the GBC men, special buttons.

Rāmeśvara: (break) I'm very fine, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but how are you feeling?

Prabhupāda: I am not feeling very well, but I am living in Vaikuṇṭha. I am not fit for this place. It is Vaikuṇṭha. Hmm?

Rāmeśvara: This is inconceivable to us.

Rādhā-vallabha: If you're not fit, then we should leave immediately.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Always Hare Kṛṣṇa is going on. I am hearing. Where is such place throughout the whole world?

Rāmeśvara: The appearance of our center here has improved at least a thousand times from last year.

Prabhupāda: On account of that building.

Rāmeśvara: And also the gardens and the lawns being kept nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Even big, big men, they are . . . Tarun Kanti, he said: "Vaikuṇṭha."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said so.

Gargamuni: He landed by helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Everyone likes.

Rāmeśvara: (aside) They're coming in this morning.

Gargamuni: The jumbo jet arrived. There was at least one hundred dignitaries of Air India, TV, radio, watching the plane land on the airport.

Prabhupāda: When it is arriving?

Gargamuni: It arrived around 4:30 this morning. First time jumbo jet landing. They said: "Very good landing."

Prabhupāda: Has to be. Sky was clear also. I was very much doubtful about the sky . . .

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda was watching . . .

Prabhupāda: . . . but Kṛṣṇa's mercy, today there is no fog.

Brahmānanda: Yesterday it was all overcast.

Gargamuni: Now they're all on their way here by bus. We passed them. There was about ten busloads.

Prabhupāda: So many people came?

Gargamuni: Oh, yes. At least . . . full plane, 350.

Prabhupāda: No, the dignitaries, you said?

Gargamuni: Oh, yes. The general manager of Air India . . . in fact, the head of all the pilots of India himself landed the plane. He's the president of the whole pilots, eldestmost pilot.

Prabhupāda: Who is . . .?

Gargamuni: He said: "I must do this."

Prabhupāda: What is his name?

Gargamuni: I don't know his name.

Rāmeśvara: Hṛdayānanda and Pañcadraviḍa Swamis were preaching to this pilot for several hours. They went up to his cabin.

Gargamuni: He's the chief all over India of all the pilots. He personally landed the plane.

Prabhupāda: Where does he live?

Gargamuni: I don't know so much about him, but I can find out.

Prabhupāda: One pilot, he was coming in Bombay, Mr. Sharma. He was driving this 747, and one Parsi gentleman, he was also driving. Might be.

Gargamuni: The general manager of Air India for this side is a Parsi man. I was speaking with him.

Prabhupāda: Oh, then two . . .

Gargamuni: And he said: "It is thanks to your Society that this is landing now." He thanked us.

Rāmeśvara: Some reporters were also speaking with me at the airport, and I told them, "Don't think that Air India can bring plane loads of people to Bengal. Don't think that they can attract people to land in Calcutta. But only because of Lord Caitanya we are making so much propaganda that by the planeload they want to come to Bengal." He was writing these notes. The whole credit goes to Lord Caitanya, we were saying.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Otherwise no one would want to come.

Prabhupāda: So? What other news?

Rādhā-vallabha: We have the figures for the production of your books in every single language since the beginning. Twenty-three languages.

Rāmeśvara: This took several weeks of very careful work to prepare. We were calling up printers . . . we threatened Dai Nippon, they must give us the figures. We called up every BBT office around the world. So this is very accurate. And also I estimate that at least ninety to ninety-five percent of all these literatures that have been published have already been distributed. These are the figures for publishing, but most of them have been sold already.

Rādhā-vallabha: So English is first. 43,450,500 literatures. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Where is such publisher?

Rādhā-vallabha: That's one for every five people in America. And second is Spanish: 2,947,000. Third is German: 2,125,500. Then Japanese, I had to make a guess. I'm not sure, but this is pretty close: 2,125,000. Fifth is French: 1,670,000.

Prabhupāda: There should be . . . a big board should be hung.

Rāmeśvara: We have a big display of this for the Māyāpur exhibit. We made this up as a . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: In the exhibit there is a framed picture, each language and the books, each title, and then there is one big frame, one showing international.

Prabhupāda: This is the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He wanted it. And because we are trying to do this, he is giving us all blessings. He told me personally, "I wanted to sell this marble and publish some books." Calcutta, that Gauḍīya Maṭha is also marble floor. Now, he said that "Since this temple has been given by Mr. Datta, our men are fighting, 'Which room I shall occupy?' So I know there will be blazing fire here. So before that, I wanted to get out this marble and sell it and turn into some books." He told me like that. So I noted down that, that he wants books. So I tried to do that. That's all.

Rāmeśvara: At the Śiva-rātri festival in Los Angeles, at the end of a lecture I was reading these figures. We had about a thousand Indians who came to that festival in Los Angeles. When I read these figures they were so struck, they were cheering "Jaya," and clapping. They were just amazed. And afterwards, outside they were coming up to me and folded hands—"We had no idea you were doing this work. Is there anything we can do to help your Society?" as soon as they heard these figures. The leaders of the Indian American Association and all the Indian associations in L.A. were coming there, and when they heard these figures they were just offering their service.

Prabhupāda: And you did not send to the reporters and the . . .? No.

Hari-śauri: Did you give these figures to the reporters at the airport?

Rāmeśvara: Well, we want to have a press conference tomorrow.

Gargamuni: We're going to have . . . at the Calcutta Book Fair we finished decorating our paṇḍāl. It promises to be very successful. We're just opposite the Americans, who have spent fifty thousand rupees, the American Embassy. And next door to us is the German Embassy, and on the other side is the British Embassy. So we're in a very good spot, and we'll have all our books. We'll have the displays as well as the movie, the BBT movie, and we have our men there, who will take orders and sell books. It starts tomorrow afternoon. And we'll have a press conference also and release these figures.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Rādhā-vallabha: Want to hear more?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: Sixth is Portuguese, 835,000. Seventh, Dutch, 593,000. Eighth, Italian, 448,000. Ninth, Hindi, 315,000. Tenth, Bengali, 305,000. Eleventh is Telegu, 115,000. Twelfth is Swahili—this is also another estimate— 110,000. Fourteenth is Chinese, 55 . . . thirteenth is Gujarati, 90,000. Fourteenth is Chinese, 55,000. Fifteenth is Marathi, 25,000. Korean, 20,000. Yugoslavian, 20,000. Oriya, 20,000. Polish, 10,000. Hungarian, 10,000. Czechoslovakian, 10,000. Tamil, 10,000. Russian 5,000. And the total is 55,314,000.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Russian is last. Yes.

Rāmeśvara: It's the most difficult.

Prabhupāda: But something is better than nothing. Kānā māmā. (blind uncle)

Gargamuni: When we were in Rangoon and Bangkok, they were most interested in those Russian reviews, and we got very good response there. In Rangoon they're doing reviews, and they loved the books. They treated them as gold. They said: "This printing and Sanskrit and word-for-word . . . we have never seen such a translation!"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They grabbed the books. I had to leave so many books there. They wanted them immediately. And they will pay us in dollars, also.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: They get special grants.

Prabhupāda: How many standing orders?

Gargamuni: Well, in Rangoon I went to the head of the Oriental Studies. They ordered all of Bhāgavatam. Then there's the National Library. They want. Then the National Trading Corporation wants to import our books and sell to the various libraries there. We met . . . we were only there four or five days, but we met so many people of different types of departments who want the books. Then in Bangkok I met the head of the Department of Philosophy. He ordered the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then I met the head of Eastern Languages . . .

Prabhupāda: Did you go to our center, Bangkok?

Gargamuni: No. I didn't have the address. And I heard they were giving up the house because it is not . . . they have to . . .

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gargamuni: There was very good response. And they're all writing reviews on our books. They have never seen such a translation of Bhāgavatam, they said. They said: "We have only seen the summary study, but we have never seen such word-for-word study." So I'm planning a tour of all the Southeast Asian countries, in Hong Kong and all these areas, to do standing orders.

Prabhupāda: So, no new book?

Rāmeśvara: It is coming.

Rādhā-vallabha: It is coming with the truck. 9.1 is coming.

Gargamuni: We have a truckload of books, of new books, that are coming for the standing orders in India.

Rāmeśvara: The 9.2 is at the printers right now, and the artists, some of them stayed back to finish up 9.3. So by the time we come back to Los Angeles, 9.3 will go to the printers.

Rādhā-vallabha: This is the book, conversations between you and Bob Cohen here in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Perfect Question . . . what about that Dialectic Spiritualism?

Rādhā-vallabha: Hayagrīva's almost finished with that. We'll produce it after the Māyāpur festival.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Rādhā-vallabha: After the festival we'll produce it. Hayagrīva's just finishing now. He's half-finished.

Prabhupāda: So you have not begun printing?

Rādhā-vallabha: No.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Rādhā-vallabha: The type on the spine will be white. (break)

Gargamuni: . . . Bangkok I left a copy of The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, and the professor remarked, "Oh, these books we especially want, 'The Scientific Basis.' "

Rāmeśvara: This is very timely, because the President's mother, of United States, just came to India, and it's all over the American press how she was in the Peace Corps. So this book, the copy on the back cover, "A search for meaning carries a young American Peace Corps worker to ancient city in West Bengal . . ." There he meets you and finds out everything he ever wanted to know. It's very timely.

Gargamuni: Why don't you put the Jimmy Carter quote on it too?

Rādhā-vallabha: This is Satsvarūpa's book.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. (noise of traffic arriving) Buses arrived?

Gargamuni: One has come. The other nine will be at least another half hour or so.

Prabhupāda: Nine bus?

Gargamuni: Ten total.

Rāmeśvara: This book has already gotten scholarly reviews even before it's published, so we printed them on the back cover. It says: "Readers, be of good cheer. To those of you who have surveyed in confusion the trackless path of Indian philosophy, this volume offers hope and respite. You are holding in your hands a reasonable and highly readable account of the particulars of Vedic thought. Read and find enlightenment." By Professor Jerry Clack, Department of Classics, Duquesne University. And another one . . . this professor is very favorable. Dr. Thomas Hopkins of . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes. He saw me several times.

Rāmeśvara: . . . Franklin and Marshall. He wrote, "I am impressed by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami's presentation. His initial chapter is one of the best statements available on the importance of the guru in transmitting spiritual knowledge." They have already taken hundreds of orders for this book, and it will be . . . it's being printed right now. It's at the printer right now.

Prabhupāda: These two books are very important. (chuckles) Everything improved. (leafing pages)

Gargamuni: Keep showing more.

Rādhā-vallabha: More's coming on the truck.

Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna Mission, in the beginning they asked me, "You be in coat and pant." Otherwise nobody will hear me.

Gargamuni: Ramakrishna suggested Prabhupāda use coat and pants.

Prabhupāda: Their sannyāsīs, they dress in coat-tie.

Brahmānanda: Swami Nikhilananda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have seen.

Rādhā-vallabha: Printing quantity is up here.

Rāmeśvara: "Two and one-quarter million copies in print." They can understand that millions of people are studying this. And at the bottom of the back cover there is a review by a scholar, a professor of Humanities, Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota, which is one of the largest schools in America, Dr. Robert Tap. He says: "Kṛṣṇa has been too transforming a figure for too many people to remain confined to India or to be known only through the Bhagavad-gītā. Here we have the rounding out of His story that has proven so fruitful for Indian art, song, dance and devotion." ". . . the rounding out of His story."

Rādhā-vallabha: Perfection of Yoga also has the printing quantity on the cover, "Over 2,300,000 copies in print."

Rāmeśvara: Gorgeous. Look at those pictures of Prabhupāda.

Rādhā-vallabha: We also calculated how many hardbound Bhāgavatams are in print. That's one million. And there's almost three million Gītās in print too.

Prabhupāda: So this should be displayed here.

Rādhā-vallabha: That . . . we have one big framed stat showing the English. You have five or six books that have over one million copies in print.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is very good, putting the quantity on the cover. It's very impressive. (devotees exclaiming among themselves about books) It's like McDonald's. They advertise . . .

Prabhupāda: This is the combination of American money and Indian culture. This is the result. In every field of our activities, this will prove wonderful, American money and Indian culture. Andha-paṅgu-nyāya. Therefore Kṛṣṇa sent me to America: "Go America." Generally people come to Western country means London. But I never thought of that. I thought, "I shall go to New York," from the very beginning.

Rādhā-vallabha: Īśopaniṣad also. "Over one million copies in print" at the top.

Rāmeśvara: It has new color pictures on the inside, the different selections.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There are no such handsome books anywhere else in the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Rāmeśvara: This is called a "teaser." All paperback books in America have this kind of teaser to attract the reader to find out more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The back cover is very good also.

Gargamuni: "Eighteen age-old secrets."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The back cover is very good also, the heading.

Rāmeśvara: It says: "Eighteen age-old secrets of inner peace and fulfillment." These are the popular themes in America. Everyone is wanting this. Now we're telling people that, "This chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa . . ." we are describing it using the language of the modern psychologists that, "This will give you inner fulfillment. It will enable you to handle more stress and the pressures of daily life. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you get a stronger sense of your real identity. You feel more in control of your life." By using scientific descriptions, everyone appreciates it.

Prabhupāda: Recent printing, how many?

Rāmeśvara: This printing was 300,000, and that brought it over one million copies.

Prabhupāda: All together.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. (devotees talking in background)

Gargamuni: Rangoon is a Communist state, but still, they say: "We must have these books, and we will make arrangement for payment." No one has refused that they will not pay.

Prabhupāda: Through this Communist country, other Communist countries also.

Gargamuni: Oh, yes. They were very impressed by the Russian reviews in Rangoon. They said: "Oh, in Russia also." I said: "Yes, our Guru Mahārāja, he went there in '71 and gave lectures at the University of Moscow." They were highly impressed with that.

Prabhupāda: This is very improved.

Rādhā-vallabha: For the next printing of Bhagavad-gītā, so much paper was ordered that it would take seventy-six train cars to carry it. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: They've written us a letter about this. They have never received such a large paper order at one time for one book. We have a letter glorifying the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust from the paper company, and another letter from the printer. This is the largest . . .

Gargamuni: They said that . . . I read that letter. Not since 1930 they cannot remember that such an order has ever been placed. Right? It was 1930?

Prabhupāda: These letters should be published.

Rādhā-vallabha: They're the second largest printer in America, and they say they've never printed so many of one book.

Rāmeśvara: We had a ceremony for our new warehouse, opening up of the new warehouse, and they published one article in the papers in California. It circulates about almost fifty thousand, this local paper. It says: "Hare Kṛṣṇa publishing office opens. Culver City councilman Paul Jacobs, assisted by Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders, cut the ceremonial ribbon last week at the grand opening of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement's new office building in Culver City Business Park at 8500 Higuera Street. The new 30,000-square-foot warehouse and office building will house the organization's publishing arm, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, parentheses, BBT. BBT prints millions of dollars' worth of books every year and is the world's largest publisher and distributor of books on the culture, religion and philosophy of India."

Prabhupāda: Present this in the court.

Rāmeśvara: "It publishes it in eighteen languages . . ." But now we see it's twenty-three languages. Made a mistake. ". . . including Russian. The books are predominantly translations of Indian classics by the movement's founder and director, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda."

Prabhupāda: But why "director" and not "ācārya"?

Rāmeśvara: Why director?

Devotees: Why not ācārya?

Rāmeśvara: Oh, that's the wording they used. We told them you are directing the whole movement, so probably they used that word . . .

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Rāmeśvara: I have also gotten different letters from the state government of California, the mental hospitals that we're visiting. These are official letters on their letterhead. This one . . . I'll read the best one. "Dear friends, it is a great pleasure to thank you all for the extraordinary party you gave for Residence 32. The clients on 32 loved your chanting and enjoyed clapping along with you. This simple activity allowed them to take part in the fun and warm spirit. Everyone really liked the tempura-like cauliflower," the pakorās, "that you brought. It was a very tasty and special treat. We at Fairview," a very famous state hospital, "we at Fairview were so impressed with the way you related to the clients on the residence . . ."

Prabhupāda: So these are the recommendation how we wash brain. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: "As you can imagine, it is not every community group who is able to work with these people so well as you. The staff and clients will welcome you back any time you care to arrange another visit! Again we thank you for your wonderful party and for all your thoughtfulness and concern which made it possible." This woman is from the governor's office, and we go now every week to these different state institutes. We've gotten so many different letters from them. And this one is from the state hospital for prisoners, Camarillo. It's the most notorious in America. And it says: "This letter is to thank you for the interest and service that you have given to Camarillo State Hospital and our patients. It was a pleasure to provide an orientation program for your group on Saturday, January 29th. I hope to see many more members attend the orientation classes which are scheduled for February. I hope to be hearing from you soon." This is also from the governor's office. (end)