770119r2.bhu
Room Conversation

January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara
Ramesvara: But they have never used it against us. But now they have started. One devotee, a girl from Berkeley temple who is a very big book distributor... Sometimes she could collect five, six hundred dollars in one day. She was just kidnappedby order of the court. They have a psychologist who listens to the parents' description, and on the basis of that secondhand report the psychologist...
Prabhupada: No, kidnapping, that is already law there. If one is minor or without the permission of the parent, with police force she or..., can be kidnapped.
Ramesvara: But this is not for minors. This is for adults.
Prabhupada: Oh. Oh.
Ramesvara: This is a new thing, that the psychologist will write some report to the court that "Based on the information I have received, this person is not mentally competent. Therefore this person must be put under the guardianship of their parents even if they are an adult. Otherwise they will harm themselves." So in this way the psychologists...
Prabhupada: But any psychologist will give report or anyone can...
Ramesvara: Anyone. You just pay him, and he'll give you a report. They are rascals. And then the court issues an order that "Now this person's freedom is taken away," and she's put under the charge of her family for thirty days. Then they come with the police, and they give the paper, and they take her away by force, and they fly her to one of these camps where they harass her for thirty days.
Gargamuni: Brainwash.
Ramesvara: Try to break their faith.
Gargamuni: Actually they are brainwashing.
Prabhupada: So this can be done by law?
Ramesvara: They have some law, and they are misusing it for this purpose.
Prabhupada: Then what to do?
Ramesvara: Well we have... I mentioned we have got these lawyers who want to start a nationwide organization to fight this law for us. So the head of this group is in San Francisco...
Prabhupada: Now, the... Externally, it appears that anyone can be kidnapped simply by the certificate of the psychologist.
Ramesvara: Yes. That is the real point, that this is like Nazi Germany. This is insane. So because it is so anti-American, then many people who would not normally connect themselves with our movement are now coming forward to help us.
Prabhupada: Yes, they must. Otherwise the freedom is lost. Anyone can be kidnapped.
Ramesvara: That is what they are realizing, that this may not stop at just Hare Krsna. They can kidnap anyone. That's our propaganda to get support.
Prabhupada: Just like emergency.
Ramesvara: Yes.
Hari-sauri: In Russia they do that. When they don't like someone, they put him in a mental home.
Ramesvara: That was that whole article I brought from page one of L.A. Times, that how they have made this legal. And now they have got tax exemption. So now it's going to increase. For the next year it's going to increase, because they're going to get a lot of money from the families as tax write-offs.
Prabhupada: Tax invention? What is that?
Ramesvara: They call themselves educational organizations. They are educating the public because they do speaking engagements at colleges and different places. So on the basis of that, they applied to the federal government, "Please, we are just an educational group. You must give us tax exemption." So they have been given that. Now people can donate money to them. Instead of paying taxes to the U.S. government, they can donate money to them in exchange for paying taxes. (laughs) So the fighting will get more...
Prabhupada: Intense.
Ramesvara: This year, definitely. But that means more propaganda for us, more publicity.
Prabhupada: Oh, yes. (chuckling)
Ramesvara: And I look forward to it, because we'll smash them in each confrontation. They now realize that when they have a debate against us, they always lose. We have had maybe five or six confrontations in Los Angeles on television and on the radio, and every time they lose. And every time they go away like this.
Prabhupada: (aside:) You can keep there under the bath section. I'll wash there.
Hari-sauri: Yes.
Ramesvara: So actually we're getting all this free exposure on radio and on television. And each time we come off sounding very intelligent, very religious, very nice, and they come off sounding like fanatics and bigots. So people are getting a good impression of us because of the publicity on radio and television.
Prabhupada: Yes. Just like Sita was put into the fire and she came out unburned. Sita was blasphemed, that "This woman was kidnapped by Ravana, and Ramacandra is so henpecked that He has again picked up her and living with her." So Ramacandra put him (her) in the fire and she came unharmed.
Ramesvara: You were asking me what is the use of, say, if you came to America, if you were on television. But actually people are very interested in this issue, so they will listen. They are listening to see us, hoping that we will be exposed.
Prabhupada: Now, Hari-sauri was (saying) that there are many fanatics. They may attack me: "He's the man who has started this movement."
Gargamuni: Yes.
Hari-sauri: These deprogrammers will go to any length.
Gargamuni: They'll do anything to stop it. You'd have to have professional bodyguards.
Ramesvara: This Reverend Moon, he is not being attacked. The other leaders aren't.
Gargamuni: I think you should carry on your fighting from India through your other men.
Ramesvara: Or at least a place like Hawaii.
Gargamuni: I feel if you went to America during this fight it may be very dangerous also.
Ramesvara: It's possible.
Gargamuni: Because there's a lot of crazy... These people are crazy. But you could give your orders from India, and this way the fight can go on.
Hari-sauri: Hawaii is unaffected.
Ramesvara: Hawaii is not involved so much.
Gargamuni: Still, if they heard he was in Hawaii they may go there. No one will come to India, to Bhuvanesvara. It's dangerous there.
Ramesvara: But we were just thinking that if Prabhupada spends a few months every year outside of India, his time won't be so occupied by all the particular management things that he has to think about in India.
Hari-sauri: Give Prabhupada some relief.
Ramesvara: There'll be some relief.
Hari-sauri: At least when you go to Hawaii you always get a good rest and there's no visitors, and it's very... Your translation work increases tremendously. It's very nice there.
Prabhupada: Our immediately problem is toward my health. I am not digesting food, so therefore there is some swelling in the hands and the legs.
Ramesvara: That's due to the kidney?
Prabhupada: Kidney or whatever it may be.
Ramesvara: So is it affecting your translation work?
Prabhupada: That is not affected. That is going on. I have translated today seventeen volumes (verses?). That does not affect.
Ramesvara: So what to do? (Prabhupada turns on dictaphone, then off. On again-reading verse) This is the twenty-fourth chapter, Srila Prabhupada?
Prabhupada: Hmm.
Ramesvara: Text five. How many verses are there in this chapter? You know, Hari-sauri? It's very exciting, because it's just about to begin the Tenth Canto.
Prabhupada: Good number.
Ramesvara: Pradyumna was telling me how the last verses of the chapter describe the appearance, getting ready for the appearance of Krsna.
Prabhupada: Yes. Sixty-seven. I am on the five.
Hari-sauri: I think the pen's still in the case. Or the pencil's still in the red case.
Ramesvara: We know you have a very low opinion of doctors. (laughter)
Prabhupada: I wish to die without a doctor. Don't... When I am... It may be. I may be seriously, but don't call doctor. Chant Hare Krsna. Don't be disturbed. Everyone has to die. Let us die peacefully, without doctor. All this medicine, injections, and prohibitions, this, that.
Hari-sauri: Tirtha Maharaja had all kinds of machines. Still didn't save him.
Prabhupada: Chant Hare Krsna and depend on Krsna. Actually... Nartasya cagadam udanvati majjato nauh. That is the Prahlada Maharaja's verse. Find out this. Balasya neha saranam pitarau nrsimha. Seventh Canto.
Ramesvara: Volume Two. That's it.
Hari-sauri: What was that again?
Prabhupada: Balasya. B-a-l-a.
Hari-sauri: Balasyantahpura-sthas...
Prabhupada: Balasya neha.
Prabhupada: Nartasya cagadam udanvati majjato nauh.
Hari-sauri: Taptasya tat-pratividhir ya ihanjasestas.
Prabhupada: Ihanjasestas.
Prabhupada: Tvad-upeksitanam.
Hari-sauri: "My Lord Nrsimhadeva, O Supreme, because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment."
Prabhupada: That's it.
Hari-sauri: "Whatever remedies they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are certainly impermanent. For example, a father and mother cannot protect their child, a physician and medicine cannot relieve a suffering patient, and a boat on the ocean cannot protect a drowning man."
Prabhupada: These are facts.
Gargamuni: That's ultimately, but maybe we could give you some temporary relief so we don't feel... Because when you are ill, we feel...
Prabhupada: Yes, that is... But for that, no severe treatment should be accepted. Better not to take. Chant Hare Krsna.
Bhavananda: Srila Prabhupada, in the past, when your health has not been good, they have begun chanting Hare Krsna in all the temples...
Prabhupada: Yes.
Bhavananda: ...all around the world.
Ramesvara: Special, additional kirtana.
Bhavananda: Perhaps we should institute that. That would...
Prabhupada: No, you... Not for my health you do your kirtana, only then. That first stroke in Second Avenue, that was fatal. You were present, I think.
Gargamuni: Yes. I went to the hospital with Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: So Krsna saved. Otherwise that was fatal.
Gargamuni: The doctor said that "How is it that he is still here?" They said.
Prabhupada: When?
Gargamuni: When you had that attack.
Prabhupada: Ha, ha.
Gargamuni: It was during the... You were lecturing on Caitanya-caritamrta in the morning lectures you were giving.
Prabhupada: Oh.
Gargamuni: I can remember. And one morning you said you were not feeling well. And the doctor said... I can remember. Your left side was paralyzed.
Prabhupada: Yes. Paralyzed, yes.
Gargamuni: Left side. And this is most dangerous, the doctor said. Maybe for swelling we can increase the massaging to three times a day.
Hari-sauri: That's what this guy told me, not to massage very much.
Gargamuni: Oh.
Hari-sauri: At least not while the swelling is there. Actually that medicine that Shiv Sharma gave you, that was reduced. I don't think this homeopathic medicine is any good.
Prabhupada: So you can give me that.
Gargamuni: My father, he also used to get swelling, but this was due to diabetes.
Prabhupada: I have got diabetes also.
Gargamuni: He was getting swelling in his legs and hands. But he had to take this insulin, and this kept the swelling nil by taking insulin. Every morning he would give himself a shot. But he had no more swelling.
Hari-sauri: He'd just stick a needle in his arm every morning.
Prabhupada: There are many gentlemen who take insulin twice, at least once.
Ramesvara: The diabetics. They have diabetes. Very common. We have a devotee who does that. This boy in New York whose parents have kidnapped him many times. He is actually... That's their charge against us, that "Oh, my son is diabetic, and you are not spending $25,000 on doctors. You are not taking care of him." That is their charge against us. Then Adi-kesava Maharaja said, "All right, if you want him to have such excellent medical treatment, you give us the money and we'll spend it on it." So then the parents say, "Just see! Blackmail." That is a big charge in the paper. It's called extortion. Adi-kesava Maharaja was indicted for kidnapping and for extortion.
Hari-sauri: He's that Ed Shapiro.
Ramesvara: Yes. The parents cheated again. They said, "Just see, blackmail."
Hari-sauri: That's how that charge came up.
Ramesvara: Yes. They lie and say, "This president, he said, 'If you do not give us this money, we will let your son die.' "
Prabhupada: In a different way.
Ramesvara: Yes.
Gargamuni: He didn't write it, did he?
Ramesvara: No, it was on the telephone. But he has been charged by a Grand Jury of attempted extortion.
Hari-sauri: They can never prove that. It's ridiculous.
Ramesvara: I have heard that now, this month, we have already been on the biggest television shows in America, big night shows. They have these shows that go two, three hours at a time, and everyone in America watches them. Forty million people watch them. So we've already been on those shows now. Our devotees have already been on those shows now because of this controversy. We're becoming more famous.
Prabhupada: And they are chanting Hare Krsna.
Ramesvara: Yes.
Jayapataka: You are getting everyone to chant Hare Krsna, Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: That's all right. Yadaiva sraddhaiva(?). Some way or other, let them chant Hare Krsna. So that is being done, whole countrywide. It has become a national show. (laughter)
Gargamuni: All over the world.
Prabhupada: That is wanted.
Hari-sauri: Every town and village.
Jayapataka: If you ask them who is Vivekananda, no one knows. But everyone knows Hare Krsna.
Prabhupada: We are known as "Hare Krsnas," and sometimes "Krsnas."
Hari-sauri: They call us the "Harries."
Prabhupada: (laughing) Accha?
Ramesvara: In the deprogrammer newsletter that we intercepted, they did not like to chant so much, so after awhile they just started saying "The HKs." They didn't want to say the whole name of God. You noticed that?
Prabhupada: Now, "H," to pronounce it, and "Hare," Hare is shorter. "H." It is a long.
Ramesvara: But for writing, "HK."
Prabhupada: Writing, you can, but if you say, "HK," it is not shorter than Hare Krsna. It is longer than Hare Krsna. (laughter)
Ramesvara: Anyway, whenever they see "HK," they are thinking in their mind, "Hare Krsna."
Prabhupada: Then what is the news of Germany?
Ramesvara: The news from Germany? I have not heard any changeexcept that Satsvarupa's men, they began... Just before Christmas the schools close. They began to go to Germany to take standing orders, and it was the most difficult country, they said, very difficult. And because... One of the reasons is they have such a very bad opinion of us. The church is against us. But still, they managed to get a few standing orders, and then the schools closed for Christmas.
Hari-sauri: Any reviews?
Ramesvara: Not yet. They just began. Now they are spending this month, January and February, in Germany. This will be very valuable for our case there, if the scholars begin appreciating us from a different angle. But meanwhile, book distribution is bigger than ever in Germany.
Prabhupada: That is the proof we are gaining ground.
Hari-sauri: The two champion big-book distributors are both German boys.
Ramesvara: Yes. They have outdistributed everyone, even in America.
Prabhupada: Oh. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Just see how small animal it is, and how freely it is going. Let them manufacture a small animal like this with chemicals. It has got all the symptoms of animal. It has got the desire. It has thinking, feeling, willing, then eating, sleeping, mating. Everything is there. And as such, the anatomic physiology is there, within such a full stop. Everything is there. If you check them going here, they'll protest. And wherefrom they are coming? Where they are going? Just see how small it is. You cannot see even with naked eyes, so small. But it has all life symptoms. And they say there is no soul.
Ramesvara: No, it is some wonderful chemical mixture that they have not discovered yet, very mysterious chemistry. It is all based on this idea of a study of genes and chromosomes, genetics. They have so many words for describing how it happens.
Prabhupada: Jugglery, word jugglery.
Ramesvara: DNA, RNA.
Hari-sauri: But they still can't explain the power force that activates them. They still can't explain the actual source of power that activates those chemicals.
Prabhupada: They cannot. It is not possible.
Ramesvara: In the late 1800's there was a very famous story in America called Frankenstein.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ramesvara: This Doctor Frankenstein, he took dead bodies from the graveyards, and he sewed them together, and then, by electrical energy, it charged...
Prabhupada: This is imagination.
Ramesvara: ...like a battery.
Prabhupada: "Young Frankenstein." Oh, I have seen that picture. (laughter)
Ramesvara: But actually people all over the Western world then became convinced that one day science will create life. This popularized the idea.
Prabhupada: How rascal they have been educated. Mudha.
Ramesvara: And the only problem was he had the wrong brain.
Prabhupada: Huh?
Ramesvara: They took the brain from a known criminal and put it inside the dead man. So when he came back to life he was a demon. That's their only problem, they say. If they'd only taken a brain from a dead body who was a good man, then everything would have been all right.
Prabhupada: Why do you not take the brain of scientist and make another scientist? Why you should, they should regret "That this scientist is dead"?
Ramesvara: That's their goal. That is their goal.
Prabhupada: Goal that may be, but what they have done? That is the first thing.
Ramesvara: Then another goal they have is, by controlling the genes, they expect that one day they will be able to produce many men with the same talents, with the same physical appearance, duplicate.
Prabhupada: "Will," everything "will." (chuckles) Never practical. Such a rascal, they are going on as scientists. Everything in future. "Trust no future, however pleasant." And they are depending everything on future. "Yes, we are trying. We shall do it within millions of years." And people believe that. Ramesvara: Because there's no God, so this is the only hope-science. The only hope for immortality is science. That's what people think.
Prabhupada: But that is bogus.
Ramesvara: That means people want to believe in immortality. They want eternal life.
Prabhupada: Yes. That is factual. Nobody wants to die. Even on death bed, one thinks, "If something could have been done for my saving..." One gentleman in Allahabad, he was our friend. So he was dying at the age of fifty-four. So he was requesting the doctors, "Can you not prolong my life for four years more? Then I could finish my scheme." Such a madman. What is nonsense scheme? Asa-pasa-satair baddhah kama... Find out this, asa-pasa-satair baddhah.
asa-pasa-satair baddhah
kama-krodha-parayanah
ihante kama-bhogartham
anyayenartha-sancayan
Prabhupada: Anyayenartha-sancayan.
Hari-sauri: "They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification."
Prabhupada: Is there any purport?
Hari-sauri: "The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality..."
Prabhupada: I am talking of that man. (laughter)
Hari-sauri: "...who even at the point of death was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in Vedic literature, the Upanisads, there are two birds sitting in one tree. One is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith. Therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequence."
Prabhupada: Ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate [Bg. 3.27]. So on the whole, people are in darkness. And that is going on as advancement. This is the only institution to give them some light. There is no doubt about it. All in the darkness. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanah [SB 7.5.31]. They are in darkness, and some leader comes, he is also in the darkness, and both of them fall into the ditch. This is going on. Do you agree to this point? Otherwise you cannot become good preacher. You must yourself, must be convinced that actually this is the position. All these rascals, scientists, philosophers, politiciansthey're all in darkness, and they're misguiding people. That's all. One of the first-class rascal in darkness is your Darwin. He's in favor of Darwin's theory. Another first-class demon is that Freud. (laughter) These are the guides of the modern civilization. Anthropomorphism. No? What is called?
Gargamuni: Anthropology?
Prabhupada: Anthropology.
Jayapataka: Now the latest demon is the one who says the population theory, overpopulation.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Jayapataka: He is causing the trouble now.
Prabhupada: Because everyone is ghostly-haunted and speaking all nonsense. Pisaci paile yena mati-cchana haya, mayar grasta jivera sei dasa upajaya. One who is under the control of maya, he speaks like ghostly-haunted manall nonsense.
Jayapataka: They're actually ghostly-haunted, or as if ghostly-haunted?
Prabhupada: Ghostly-haunted. maya is acting as ghost. They attack mostly their guardians-father, mother. These ghostly-haunted men becomes very inimical to the guardians and wants to kill them. Many cases. And abuses the father, mother, like anything. "Ah! You rascal! Why you have come? I shall kill you!" Like that. I have seen it. Mad, you call, or ghostly-haunted. Very dangerous.
Jayapataka: What is the cure?
Prabhupada: No cure. He must die. No cure. These hospitals are there, mental. They keep in the mental hospital. But ultimately there is no cure.
Jayapataka: I read one... In a purport you said that hari-nama can even cure insane people.
Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Hari-nama can cure anything. You have kept there. All right.
Jayapataka: Would you like to take a drive to that... (end)

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