Morning Walk Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
March 2, 1976, Mayapur

Hrdayananda: There is a… There is a problem to some extent, but I don’t think it should be exaggerated.

Prabhupada: Hm.

Hrdayananda: …that you should be disturbed. It’s not that everything is collapsing like that.

Prabhupada: No, no, they should be engaged in some…

Devotee: How can you say the situation…?

Prabhupada: …cottage industry. Cottage industry.

Hrdayananda: Yes.

Prabhupada: And we can manufacture so many things.

Hrdayananda:: Yes.

Prabhupada: The engagement must be there.

Hrdayananda: Yes.

Prabhupada: It can be organized. The children should be raised Krsna devotees. The woman can be engaged. Everyone can be engaged. I can give you suggestion if you can execute.

Hrdayananda: Srila Prabhupada, we were thinking that it would be nice to have the cities, city-centers, for the preachers, and those, for example, women, children, it’s much easier to maintain them on our farms. That way they can do a little work and produce their own food and…

Prabhupada: Yes, in the farms they can live and do some handwork.

Hrdayananda: Yes.

Guru-krpa: They won’t do it, though, Srila Prabhupada.

Hrdayananda: They must do.

Prabhupada: Then you don’t allow. Don’t allow that. Don’t allow.

Guru-krpa: That’s good.

Hrdayananda: Maintenance is much more simple, easier, less expensive for them on a farm.

Prabhupada: If they do not follow the rules and regulations, then what is the use?

Hrdayananda: We were thinking that unless someone is a preacher, he has no real business in the city. Let him go have a peaceful life out on the farm.

Yasodanandana: It has been seen that when many householders come together in many of our big communities, because there are so many women and children, there is a great atmosphere of laziness a lot of times. I have seen in Los Angeles and also in many other temples. But when there’s a lot of brahmacaris preaching, it’s much more enlivening.

Prabhupada: So now you make some regulation. Otherwise… Attending class? No.

Hrdayananda: Excuse me?

Prabhupada: They attend class?

Gargamuni: Yeah.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Gargamuni: Yeah, they attend aratikas and class because there’s no other activity there.

Prabhupada: No, that is also good.

Gargamuni: No, they should attend. They are attending. I have… We had nice… Bhakti… Your Guru Maharaja appearance day, we had nice program. Some people came…

Prabhupada: Everyone should be engaged. That’s all. No idle life. That should be… Karma jyayo hy akarma-krt. (sic) What is that? Sarira-yatrapi te na prasiddhyed akarmanah. Ah. Niyata…. Niyatam kuru karma tvam karma jyayoh’ akarmanah, sarira yatrapi te. Krsna never encouraged laziness, never encouraged. [break] “…people are maintaining some lazy men.” Then everything will be spoiled.

Gargamuni: That boy, Mahendra, told me when you, he came back. I met him in Germany. He said that you remarked that our society is not love-making society. But there are so many of these things are going on, and there is…

Prabhupada: Yes, I have seen In Vrndavana.

Gargamuni: …a burden for maintaining our temples because there’s so many of these women and children with no husbands.

Guru-krpa: Actually, in…

Gargamuni: Because they do not take marriage life seriously in this age.

Guru-krpa: In the temples, they engage the brahmacaris to support the householders.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Guru-krpa: The brahmacaris are supporting the householders.

Prabhupada: How?

Guru-krpa: Well, they are doing the sankirtana and collecting the funds, and the householders are spending.

Prabhupada: [break] …nature. Uparvata pani. (?) [break]

Jayapataka: About five brahmacaris went down there, and they were lifting the karai on the head, and they were encouraging the men, and the people became… And Guru-krpa was coming and Gargamuni… The people were so happy that the devotees were there. They were working much harder.

Prabhupada: When a man takes his work in his own hand, it is sure to be done. So all of you encourage them.

Jayapataka : Mahesvara commented that although all day we’re yelling at the men, when the work is over, they are laughing and saying, “Hare Krsna.”

Prabhupada: Yes. That is association, a mass movement. [break] …our boy, especially boy, in solitary place, then spoiled. Then the maya is there immediately. That is very dangerous. (end)