Geneva, Switzerland. May 30

Flying here, Srila Prabhupada said, "This is a very dangerous spot [amidst the Alps]. Many planes crash here." Later I asked if great sages still lived in the Himalayas. He said yes: Vyasadeva, Valmiki and Nara-Narayana. I mentioned to him that in the Bhagavatam he says that there's a gold peak in the Himalayas. "Yes," he said, "if they find that out, they will become mad to go there." This afternoon we were given an official reception by the governor of Geneva. Srila Prabhupada spoke on the verse sa vai pumsam. . . "The science of God must begin with knowledge that one is spirit soul, not the body." The governor asked, "If everyone becomes Krsna conscious, won't the economy be in trouble?" "No," Srila Prabhupada said, and he quoted the same verse he cited over a month ago in Hyderabad: annad bhavanti bhūtani. "Everyone subsists on grains." So he proposed that if everyone cultivates his own land and keeps cows, there will be no economic problem. One should live simply and spend the saved time solving the problems of birth, death, old age and disease. Later Srila Prabhupada asked, "Were my answers all right?" I said that the governor asked about the economy being in trouble if everyone became a devotee because he thinks we are simply beggars. "Therefore," Prabhupada said, "I talked about tilling the land. We are not beggars. We are giving the highest knowledge. We gave him the book of highest knowledge [Bhagavad-gita], but he could not give us anything."