770717 - Conversation A - Vrndavana

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

770717R1-VRNDAVAN - July 17, 1977 - 19:43 Minutes

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I said: "What will I eat it with?" He said: "A little sugar." I thought he was going to give me some bread or something. He said: "No, no. Eat it just like that with sugar."

Prabhupāda: Butter and miśri.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah they eat . . . the Punjabis are very fond of eating a lot of mākhana, fresh butter.

Bhakti-caru: They are also vegetarian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: But Kashmiri are meat-eater, fish-eaters. Bengali are fish-eaters.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oriyas, fish-eaters. What about U.P.?

Prabhupāda: U.P. this ḍāl, cāpāṭi. They prepare first class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ḍāl and cāpāṭis.

Prabhupāda: Vegetable also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the speciality in Punjab?

Prabhupāda: Punjab, this pilau.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is . . .

Prabhupāda: Panir.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Panir.

Prabhupāda: Means this chānā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They make very nice preparation.

Bhakti-caru: Dundhuri preparation.

Prabhupāda: Every province has got.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there a speciality in the Madhya Pradesh area?

Prabhupāda: Madhya Pradesh, they are practically South Indian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then every place has its special fruits and vegetables.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems in that respect that Bengal is very opulent in varieties of vegetables.

Prabhupāda: And fish. They prepare varieties of preparation of fish. Māche jol, māche tal, māche dal, māchera dorma. They kill this jhasere koi and paste with mustard and fry it in oil. Ki bole ota? (What is that?)

Bhakti-caru: Ota bhaper . . . koi er . . . koi sarisar bhaber doi. Macher kalia. (That is "Koi sarisar bhaber doi".)

Prabhupāda: Polao, macher dorma, kopta onek rakomer. (Polao, Macher dorma, Kopt . . . there are many like these.) They know more of fish preparation and also vegetable. Pitha pata.

Bhakti-caru: Ota "Tel koi". (That is "Tel koi" (a bengali dish made of fish).)

Prabhupāda: "Tel koi!"

Bhakti-caru: "Tel koi."

Prabhupāda: "Tel koi-mach!"

Bhakti-caru: Hya. Teler modhye diye sarse diye tarpor capa diye. Oi steame garam hoy. (Yes. That will be put into the oil with mustard and then cover that. By steam it will be prepared.)

Prabhupāda: Bhoger jagat. Krsnar kaje yete hole ei sob bhule yete hobe. (The world of enjoyment. If you want to work for Krsna then you have to forget all this.) Kṛṣṇa baro doyāmoy, koribāre jihwā jay (Prasāda-sevāya I). Kṛṣṇa-prasāda . . . Oita abhyas korte hobe, korle ei ta bhule yabe. (That should be the practice, and by practicing it will be forgotten.)

Bhaki-caru: Bhulte gele asubidha hoyna! (Isn't it difficult to forget it?)

Prabhupāda: Na. (No.)

Bhakti-caru: Sudhu sadhu sanger probhabe. (Only by the association of saints.)

Prabhupāda: The real fact is that this jīvo jīvasya jīvanam (SB 1.13.47), one life is food for another life. That is nature's way. But one has to pass through so many varieties of life, evolution. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi (Padma Purāṇa). How many millions of years we'll take to evolve to become a human being? Then he gets chance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Payeche mānava janma, mano rañjanam alpa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). Emona janma, this janma, manuṣya-janma. If we miss and don't get Kṛṣṇa, again glide down. Mām aprāpya mṛtyu-saṁsāra (BG 9.3). Again you fall down. I'll eat you, you eat me. And the aquatic, 900,000 species, varieties of life. The same struggle—one fish eating another fish. Struggle within the water. A small fish can understand three miles away a big fish is coming. It is all stated in the Bhāgavatam. This struggle is going on. Then in the jungle, animals. The man-eater trees are there in Africa. Trees, man, eat man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How do they do that?

Prabhupāda: You go, and if you are in touch on that tree, then you cannot get out. You'll die and you'll become dead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They eat you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They eat through the roots.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Spider, big, big spider.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah there's a thing called the Venus Fly Trap. It's this special plant, and if anything goes near it, it goes like that. Maybe they have big ones in Africa.

Prabhupāda: Simply eating competition. These American . . . it's called surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: American . . .?

Prabhupāda: What is that sport, surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Surfing. You mean on the board in the water? Surfing.

Prabhupāda: So they may become fish next life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, you said that in a lecture in Hawaii in our temple. I remember. That really gave everybody a thought. Food for thought.

Prabhupāda: It is in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvam tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6).

Prabhupāda: It is not my manufactured idea. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda . . . (SB 7.5.23), this is the only way. In our childhood we used to play golo dhana. You . . . what is called? Dice, going, going, going. Then it comes in the mouth of a serpent, and the serpent, immediately you had to come again. All progress you have made, if you are in the mouth of a serpent, then you have to come to the tail of the serpent. Suppose you are on the fifty point and there is mouth of serpent, then you have to come to point three. Again you have to rise. So dice. Golo dhana We used to play in our childhood.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America they have similar game, but the different points are properties. It's all business. They made a very involved business game.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is same.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same principle. If you get on the wrong spot, you have to go to jail. That's what they have. They put you in jail. Different culture. Demoniac culture.

Prabhupāda: Just see, practically. Indira Gandhi, she came to a point, and then falls again. Is it not? The same golo dhana. She was all-in-all powerful, and once again finished.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.

Prabhupāda: Indira Gandhi—finished. President Nixon—finished. They do not see, these big, big stalwart men of the world. They can be finished in one second. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that, "I have seen my father, such a powerful man, finished. What benediction I shall ask, this material world? Don't allure me. Better engage me as the servant of Your servant." Anything, any opulence. Now nobody utters the name of Indira Gandhi. Every . . . every day the people or newspaper filled up with Indira Gandhi. That the Russian minister, Krushchev? Nobody knows where he is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's unknown now.

Prabhupāda: They said he is living privately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why did they depose him?

Prabhupāda: The cause may be many, but we have to see the result. The main cause was that he was appointing his own men in big, big office.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same thing as Indira.

Prabhupāda: Nepotism. Indira's plan was next prime minister, Sanjay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Family heritage. I saw one cartoon in the . . . in one newspaper. It said . . . a little conversation between Gandhi, Nehru and Indira. They're speaking with Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Each one of them is discussing how he's gone wrong. Cāṇakya is advising them what they've done wrong. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita is advising each one of them what they did wrong.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a cartoon. (pause) I was speaking with Abhirāma today for quite a long time. Now he understands that he will . . . (break) (end)