Room Conversation – January 24, 1977, Bhubaneswar

770124R1-Bhubaneswar [22:36 Minutes]

Indian culture and American money combined together will save the world

[loud kirtana in background]

Prabhupada: The small Deity?

Gurukrpa: Yes.

Prabhupada: He was carried with me. So he was taking care of the Deity, giving massage and cooking. Devananda also doing that. The rascal gone mad, hippie, again...

Gurukrpa: Yes, smoking ganja.

Prabhupada: I know him, very good boy, doing everything.

Gurukrpa: Before him I think was Karttikeya.

Prabhupada: Eh? Yes. Karttikeya was also doing that. What can be done? I was carrying that Deity, you know?

Gurukrpa: In Calcutta.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Gurukrpa: They are now in Calcutta.

Prabhupada: Yes. That's it.

Hari-sauri: They're in Calcutta now?

Gurukrpa: They've been in Calcutta.

Hari-sauri: Somebody told me that They were the small Deities in New York.

Prabhupada: No.

Hari-sauri: The brass ones.

Prabhupada: That is different. That was...

Gurukrpa: They're in Calcutta.

Prabhupada: In my Los Angeles room there is Deity room?

Hari-sauri: Gaura-Nitai.

Prabhupada: No. There is simhasana, now there is a picture, London Deity. Formerly the small Deity was there.

Hari-sauri: In Los Angeles.

Prabhupada: My personal room.

Hari-sauri: Yeah, they have some Gaura-Nitai Deity there now.

Prabhupada: Gaura-Nitai is there, but in the simhasana...

Hari-sauri: Oh. There's just a picture now. Yes.

Prabhupada: That is London picture.

Gurukrpa: They are in Calcutta temple.

Prabhupada: Maybe Calcutta.

Gurukrpa: They're very nice.

Satsvarupa: Srila Prabhupada, there is one man here. We knew he was supposed to come from something "Cultural Affairs of Bhubaneswar." I asked them... He was here earlier today and then later today.

Prabhupada: All right, let him come.

Hari-sauri: When he came this evening you were taking prasadam, so..., and then immediately after was the lecture. [break]

Indian man (1): ...editor cultural affairs, Orissa government. Here there is a large stack of palm leaf manuscripts. Palm leaf manuscripts. And we are editing those the Sanskrit manuscripts, correcting them and publishing them.

Prabhupada: Sanskrit?

Indian man (1): Sanskrit.

Prabhupada: It is published in Sanskrit?

Indian man (1): Yes.

Prabhupada: Palm beach?

Indian man (2): Palm leaves.

Hari-sauri: Some manuscripts on palm leaf.

Prabhupada: Oh, palm leaf.

Hari-sauri: They're translating and publishing. So he is the editor in charge of all that for the government.

Indian man (1): Orissa..Orissan oriental cultural Institute. And myself is the Sanskrit teacher.

Prabhupada: What is the sastra?

Hari-sauri: What is the name of the sastra?

Indian man (1): Sastra. I told yesterday, Bhakti-bhagavatam of Kabisurya Baladeva Rath.

Prabhupada: Oh, yes, yes.

Indian man (1): And there is one Kampha kavya. Kisora-candrananda-campu. The maṅgalacarana begins like this: [Quotes Sanskrit verses] This is one Radha-Krsna lila by Kabisurya Baladeva of Orissa.

Prabhupada: Baladeva Vidyabhusana?

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyabhusana who commented on, wrote Sri Bhasyam.

Gurukrpa: That's the same one you just quoted? By who?

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyabhusana.

Gurukrpa: The one you just sang.

Indian man (1): No. This is Kabisurya Baladeva.

Prabhupada: Baladeva Vidyabhusana, different.

Indian man (1): Different.

Prabhupada: Baladeva Vidyabhusana belonged to Orissa or Bengal?

Indian man (1): Yes, Orissa. And he has clearly mentioned that near Chilika, Chilika Lake he was born. It is clear mentioned.

Prabhupada: But he used to live in Balasore.

Indian man (1): Yes. He used to live in Balasore, and then went to Rajastan, Rajastan. There he wrote Bhasya on Vedanta-sutra and Gita.

Prabhupada: Vedanta-sutra, Govinda-bhasya, he wrote in Jaipur.

Indian man (1): Jaipur. Yes, Rajastan, Jaipur.

Prabhupada: I have dedicated my Bhagavad-gita to Baladeva Vidyabhusana.

Indian man (1): Baladeva Vidyabhusana? Following Baladeva Vidyabhusana?

Hari-sauri: He dedicated it. [showing book] Yes, this is... Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana.

Indian man (1): I am glad to talk with Pradyumna Maharaja. He's good Sanskrit scholar. And I also a Sanskrit teacher for ten years in a Sanskrit tola, then with my postgraduate from Kaliṅga University.

Prabhupada: What you are doing now?

Indian man (1): Duhkhishyam Pattanayaka.

Prabhupada: No, what is your occupation now?

Indian man (1): Occupation? Government service editor. Editor of research publications.

Prabhupada: That's nice. So take little prasadam here. Pradyumna, give him little prasada.

Indian man (1): [Transl. Very little. Give very little.]

Pradyumna: I should bring here something? Bring here?

Prabhupada: All right, bring it.

Indian man (1): [Transl. Prasadam is the mercy of the Gurudeva.] Sorry if Prabhupada was taxed by that man [referring to guest at Caitanya-caritamrta lecture]. He did not understand...

Prabhupada: No.

Indian man (1): ...and started arguing. He's not in a mood to understand.

Prabhupada: Where is dvaitavada, advaitavada, in Bhagavad-gita?

Indian man (1): He does not understand only

Prabhupada: Mamaivamso [Bg 15.7]. Amsamsi-dvaita. Aham bija-pradah pita [Bg 14.4]. Pita-putra, dvaitavada. Bahuni, janma, janmani tava carjuna. Arjuna and Krsna-dvaitavada, Arjuna and Krsna-Dualism.

Indian man (1): Virudavali should also be translated.

Prabhupada: Virudavali is Baladeva Vidyabhusana's?

Indian man (1): No, Rupa Gosvami.

Prabhupada: Oh, Rupa Gosvami, yes.

Indian man (1): [quotes long Sanskrit verses from Virudavali]

Prabhupada: Very good. These are for higher devotees, not for the neophytes. For neophytes we have translated Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu.

Indian man (1): Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu.

Prabhupada: Nectar of Devotion. You have seen our books?

Indian man (1): Yes, I have seen some just recently.

[break] ...lucidly and so much correctly brought out that I'm surprised to see these books, that how in a foreign country these books are so correctly brought out. Even we fail here to bring out these books correctly.

Satsvarupa: As research editor, you could write a nice review of Srila Prabhupada's reviews. We have many reviews. All the big Sanskrit scholars.

Indian man (1): Yes, I will write. Actually, if I get a small literature about Prabhupada I will write an article in newspapers. People of Orissa could not know that an international figure came to Orissa and they could not avail of the opportunity.

Hari-sauri: That would be very nice.

Gurukrpa: International. Interplanetary.

Hari-sauri: These are appreciations from all over the world: France...

Indian man (1): Pradyumna Maharaja put some pertinent questions on Bhagavata when he came to know that I am a Sanskrit scholar. [break]

Prabhupada: ...Lainland.

Gargamuni: Yes, Lainland[?] Bank.

Prabhupada: Yes. "Our Guru Maharaja went to America with this hope-that Indian culture and American money combined together will save the world." That's a fact. Everything requires money, but we are securing money with hard labor. If money little easily comes, we can make very nice program.

Gargamuni: Yes. I told him that "If you can finance some of our programs, we can hold huge pandals."

Prabhupada: American government can finance to any point. The present president is religious temperament, so why not arrange a meeting with him?

Gargamuni: Yes.

Hari-sauri: And his wife is very inclined towards India.

Prabhupada: His wife.

Hari-sauri: Yes. She worked here for several years.

Prabhupada: No, no, his mother.

Hari-sauri: I think it was his wife.

Prabhupada: No, mother.

Gargamuni: No, his mother came here. She worked as a nurse in Bombay.

Hari-sauri: Oh. That was it.

Prabhupada: Mother Teresa or something like that.

Hari-sauri: No, no. She has nothing to do with...

Gargamuni: No.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Gargamuni: She worked in some hospital for a few years in Bombay.

Hari-sauri: She was a relief worker. Was it his mother or his wife?

Prabhupada: Mother Teresa, no?

Gargamuni: No. It's his mother. I'm sure because I read the article. I did. I read. It was in the Illustrated Weekly.

Hari-sauri: And the Americans very much want to make friends with India. Very much.

Gargamuni: But I think if we can convince the American government that we can stop Communism in India by this movement... Because the people will see. They tried to do it with the priests.

Prabhupada: Simply prasadam distribution-bas. We shall stop them with hari-saṅkirtana, village to village.

Gargamuni: Yes, 'cause they frankly admit, the Americans, that they planted CIA agents in the priests to try and convince the people and change them. But they failed because these CIA agents became detected. So I told them that actually also this Christianity, the Indian people cannot accept, the mass of people. Maybe a few. But they can accept our movement.

Prabhupada: No, that is in lower class, not brahmanas.

Gargamuni: Yes. No. They will not accept. But they can accept this movement.

Prabhupada: This movement will accept because there is prasadam, teaching and actual behavior, Vaisnava.

Gargamuni: And they've been brought up in it thousands of years. They will accept it. And "It's coming from America. Therefore you should support it."

Prabhupada: Yes.

Gargamuni: I told him this. He was interested. He was. But he told me, "Under the present..." The CIA used to give money to certain groups to stop Communism, he said, but recently they have been under investigation for this. So he said it would be very dangerous for them to do such a thing now. But he said he would talk it over. Since then, though, I have not met him. This was at the time when we were called CIA in Calcutta, when it came in the papers. I went to them for advice because they also became very much upset, because just before that, the Consulate with his wife came to Mayapur and saw all of our activities. They were very impressed. And they printed this in the newspaper, trying to show that the Consulate General was also an agent, along with Bhavananda. So he became very angry. He became very angry that they should try to make this up. He said, "Actually, I had personally... My wife wanted to come, but I was not so much interested. But because my wife came, I came also. But I don't see why they are trying to link me, along with your society, as CIA." He said, "This is very bad." And from what I know, they made a formal complaint to the Home Minister of West Bengal, the Home Secretary.

Prabhupada: That is good.

Gargamuni: 'Cause his assistant, Mr. O'Neil, told me that they received a telex from Washington saying that a formal protest should be made that ISKCON is not part of the CIA and also they are not funded by the government of the United States.

Prabhupada: People can say anything. But if there is officially protest, that is...

Gargamuni: Yes. He said. [break] ...there at Puri, yes. In our sampradaya these-Mayapur, Puri and Vrndavana-are most important.

Prabhupada: Hmm. Now if we revive, just like Panihati...

Gargamuni: Yes, and Panihati also.

Prabhupada: Haridasa Thakura Sripata. Here, at Siddha-bakula.

Gargamuni: Yes, then we can...

Prabhupada: Siddha-bakula, Gambhira-if you try, you can get.

Gargamuni: Yes. And this Remuna maybe.

Prabhupada: Remuna.

Gargamuni: Yes. This Gopinatha. Ksira-Gopinatha.

Prabhupada: Accha?

Gargamuni: There may be a chance within the future.

Prabhupada: So we shall be very glad to develop. This is very... Did they speak anything like that?

Gargamuni: Well, it's in the government hands now.

Prabhupada: Oh, oh. So why government? We can take charge.

Gargamuni: Yes. See, whenever the government takes these temples, it's a burden for them.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Gargamuni: So why not we will take and we will take care?

Prabhupada: Yes. So this is under...

Gargamuni: I think they should be approached.

Prabhupada: ...Orissa government?

Gargamuni: Yes. I think so.

Prabhupada: And why not?

Gargamuni: I'd have to inquire, but I'm pretty sure it's managed by the government, because they're allowing us to enter the temple. There's also a place being offered in West Bengal. I personally went there and took photographs. It's in Karimpur.

Prabhupada: Karimpur.

Gargamuni: Yes. It's near the Bangladesh border. It's about eighty kilometers north of Krishnanagar...

Prabhupada: Oh.

Gargamuni: ...near the Bangladesh border. It's five miles... In fact, we took the wrong road and we almost went over the Bangladesh border.

Prabhupada: Accha?

Gargamuni: We went through the border almost by mistake, and the guards came with their guns. Our driver took the wrong road. But it's five miles from the Bangladesh border. And the property... There's a temple there of Gaura-Nitai. [break] [end]