Morning Walk Conversation Prabhupada: …sometimes they do not. [break] Brahmananda: …cows are all becoming devotees. Prabhupada: Yes. That is preaching. (to passerby:) Hare Krsna. Jaya. [break] …not like that. On the head. The Sarasvati’s mandir will be… For the last three years I am seeing. [break]…Matha commander. Hm? Brahmananda: Who is the temple commander? Aksayananda: Hari-sauri. His name is Hari-sauri. Prabhupada: He is sleeping? He does not see? Aksayananda: Yes. I am considering to become the temple commander myself, because it’s not the first time this has happened. So many things have gone wrong. Too many. So I think I will do it myself. Prabhupada: Then? You will be everything. Aksayananda: Because I cannot find anyone more suitable, Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada: And he is the suitable man. [break] (Hindi) Gopala Krsna: Tell him that we had heard he had come and you are free now so he can… Tell him what time. Prabhupada: Hm? He went there? Aksayananda: Yes, yesterday. No. Saccidananda went. [break] …did not know whether he could come or not. [break] Gopala Krsna: …celebration there. The education minister is also coming. He is going to be the chief guest. So we are going to have this time two big ministers coming to our Janmastami pandal. Dhananjaya: Should we hold an abhisekha ceremony for Janmastami? Prabhupada: Yes. You know what is abhiseka ceremony? Dhananjaya: Bathing ceremony. Prabhupada: Yes. Dhananjaya: Should we bathe only the small Krsna Deity? Prabhupada: Yes. [break] …bathe. Brahmananda: How will you bathe? Dhananjaya: Well, the ceremony would begin about ten in the evening, and we would bathe with water, ghee, honey, yogurt. Prabhupada: (Hindi conversation with someone) [break] We shall go. How many? Four? Five? Gopala Krsna: Four, five. Should we have small kirtana there also? Brahmananda: If we have kirtana, we shall have to bring more men. Prabhupada: As they will send car. Brahmananda: They’ve sent, as far as I know, one car. So besides yourself, then three others could go. Maybe four. Gopala Krsna: But it’s so near that we can… [break] Jayapataka is taking quotes over there, and he’ll… [break] Prabhupada: Offset you can take. It will be very cheap. Gopala Krsna: Yes, true. And also then next time we want to reprint it, we can just reprint. It doesn’t have to be composed again. [break] Prabhupada: You give me simply hot milk with misti. [break] They’re going to foreign country, but once they go they become disappointed and not second time. Brahmananda: Someone has gone? Prabhupada: So many. Gopala Krsna: Even this man has gone to Hong Kong. Brahmananda: Really? Prabhupada: They generally go to this Middle East it is called? No? Brahmananda: Far East. Prabhupada: Far East, yes. Because there are many Indians. Dhananjaya: They also go to London. Prabhupada: No, not London. In London the katha vaca, they go, Ramayana of Tulsi das. Aksayananda: Tulsi das teaching bona fide, Srila Prabhupada? Prabhupada: He is not pure Vaisnava. He has got Mayavadi touch. Brahmananda: [break] …Swami from Bombay, his program is to go all around the world and to install the Vedas in Sanskrit. Prabhupada: That he tried, and he failed. Gopala Krsna: Ninety-four-year-old swami. Prabhupada: Gangesvarananda. Gopala Krsna: Gangesvara. I’ve heard he likes us very much. Giriraja told me in Bombay that he likes us. Prabhupada: He is very favorable to our movement. Gopala Krsna: He’s a Mayavadi, but he seems to have a lot of followers amongst the Indians. Brahmananda: Damodar Chanrai follows him. Prabhupada: Hm? Damodar? Brahmananda: Damodar Chanrai from Nigeria. Gopala Krsna: He was in Nigeria recently. Brahmananda: He follows him. Passerby: Hare Krsna! Prabhupada: Hare Krsna. (Hindi) Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that if somebody remembers Krsna by seeing somebody, that somebody is Vaisnava. He remembers immediately Krsna. Brahmananda: That’s a test. Prabhupada: That is the test. Aksayananda: [break] …Srila Prabhupada, I was handed some leaflets, Cinmayananda Swami, and the printed advertisement on the leaflet wanted “Young men with graduation degree to come to our institute in Bombay. They will be trained up in Sanskrit.” Prabhupada: Hm? Aksayananda: “To be trained in Sanskrit and philosophy. Then they will be selected by Cinmayananda for preaching all over the world. And if they qualify, then all their expenses and food and clothing will be supplied by the Cinmayananda Mission.” Advertisement. Gopala Krsna: This appeared in Times of India, it’s only in Bombay. It also appeared in Times of India in (indistinct). It was an ad just like a professional company’s ad. Prabhupada: Nobody will be attracted. Gopala Krsna: They are trying to attract people that they’ll get a chance to go abroad. Prabhupada: That may be allurement. Brahmananda: Actually by placing such an ad, then all the wealthy people read the ad in the newspaper, and they think, “Oh, they are doing such nice work.” So then they go and collect, and they say, “Oh, you see? We are placing the ads.” So on the basis of the ad alone. Aksayananda: That means there is no work. Prabhupada: But no educated man, at least in India, is interested any more with philosophy and preaching. No Indian. (Aside) Jaya. [break] Aksayananda: …preach more, then that would help? Because he was previously a principal of a school. Prabhupada: No, how he is preaching? Have you heard? No, you cannot understand in Hindi. Aksayananda: Hindi. Prabhupada: Anyone? Dhananjaya: We’ve been told he preaches nicely. Prabhupada: I have told him that “You simply read my books and reproduce it. That’s all. That will be preaching.” Aksayananda: At least when he speaks to me in English, it’s always very nice. Brahmananda: He can memorize Prabhupada’s books and then just speak it. Prabhupada: That is preaching. Our process is anusrnuyat. We hear from the superior and reproduce it. That is sravanam-kirtanam. Then perfect. If I add something, my own imagination, then it will spoil. No addition-alteration; as it is. As it is you hear from your spiritual master, reproduce. That’s all. Yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] This ‘krsna’-upadesa is coming by parampara, so you reproduce. That’s all. Even a child can reproduce what he has heard from his father. It is not at all difficult. [break] …cheap rate. Gopala Krsna: What we can also do is… I think we should have some publication for one rupee twenty-five paisa. We can just print a small ten-page or ten or fifteen-page. Prabhupada: What you’ll explain in ten or fifteen page? Gopala Krsna: Otherwise all these books, they cost us about 1.40 for printing. Brahmananda: That Hanuman Prasad Poddar, he was producing big books at cheap rates. Gopala Krsna: They were all subsidized by Rama…, all his books. And he had no profit. Harikesa: Also the paper is given free by Samani. Prabhupada: No… Yes. They were receiving contribution. Besides that, he possessed agency of Titagara paper mill. So mill rate— immediately 33% less. Gopala Krsna: And I heard all his books were heavily subsidized by Dalmia. Prabhupada: Yes. Yes. Dalmia and many big, big Marwaris. Harikesa: Maybe they can produce your Hindi lectures in pamphlets. Prabhupada: So if… You can make it cheaper. Instead of three rupees, you can make it two rupees. Gopala Krsna: Like we can have four or five of your lectures for one small book for one rupees, fifty paisa, or one rupee and… If somebody can’t afford two rupees… At the present moment we are selling your Back to Godhead for two rupees. [break] Prabhupada: …educated, he appreciate it. Gopala Krsna: He wants to become your disciple. Aksayananda: What if the Hindi Back to Godhead was in newspaper form? Would that be lowering the standard? Brahmananda: Then they’d throw it away. Gopala Krsna: You can’t have a color picture then. Prabhupada: Hm? Aksayananda: If it was in newspaper form, that would be lowering the standard too much, the Hindi Back to Godhead. Then they will throw it away? Gopala Krsna: Like we have those… Prabhupada: No. We must have quality. Our Godbrothers, they publish tenth-quality papers. Nobody… Nobody cares. Gopala Krsna: In Madras we are printing a big Tamil Isopanisad, and one Sindi man, he has donated eight thousand towards the cost. The total cost is eleven thousand, and he has donated about eight thousand. If we can get this… One way we can reduce our cost is by getting advertisements. Prabhupada: No, no. Gopala Krsna: But that you wish not to do. You’d rather… Brahmananda: Just like this other man has agreed to subsidize the Arabic book? Gopala Krsna: He will pay for the whole thing, not just subsidize. Brahmananda: So, so many can be gotten in this way. If they see the books are coming, then they will want to… [break] Prabhupada: …man is convinced, then our printing of books shall be success. Manusyanam sahasresu [Bg. 7.3] Gopala Krsna: We have thousands of people convinced. [break] Prabhupada: Acaryopasanam. In the Bhagavad-gita: “One should worship acarya.” This is the beginning of spiritual life. Amanitvam adambhitvam ahimsa ksantir arjavam acaryopasanam. Acaryavan puruso veda. These are the injunction. Without taking shelter of acarya, nobody can understand anything. [break]…wants prasada, it is not given? Aksayananda: Yes. Given. Prabhupada: Not given. [break] Gopala Krsna: …women’s,(?) they try and harass us, they try and cheat us. Prabhupada: Accha? Gopala Krsna: Oh, yes. Nirnayika just wanted to use their scale, and they would try and cheat him. They would ask him for money just to let us use their scale to weigh the vegetables we buy. So I intervened one day, and then he got so angry that he abused Krsna also. These are such big demons, these people. They live in Vrndavana but… Prabhupada: So give them prasada; they will be all right. Yes. Give them prasada. Harikesa: The perfect solution. Brahmananda: We were also demons before we took prasada. (laughter) Prabhupada: Jaya. Our preaching means to turn demons into devotees. That is our preaching. If you keep them demon, then your preaching is lacking. Give them prasadam today and tell them, “Whenever you come, take prasada.” (end)
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
August 29, 1975, Vrndavana