Evening Conversation – January 25, 1977, Jagannātha Purī

Prabhupada: It was heart attack.

Hari-sauri: Yeah.

Prabhupada: Otherwise I could not understand. So I passed through third heart attacks. One, two, three. They say that anyone who gets heart attack, the third attack, he must expire. Heart attack.

Hari-sauri: You had three attacks on the ship.

Prabhupada: Two.

Hari-sauri: Oh. And then one when you got to...

Prabhupada: New York. Third one-paralyzed.

Hari-sauri: Very bad one.

Prabhupada: Left side paralyzed. I do not know how we were saved.

Hari-sauri: [chuckles] Krsna.

Prabhupada: And one girl, that captain's wife, she studied astrology. She was... She said, "Swamiji, if you can survive your seventieth year, then you'll live for one hundred years." [Hari-sauri laughs] So, somehow or other, I survived my seventieth year. I do not know whether I shall live for hundred years, but seventieth year was severe-three heart attacks and paralysis.

Hari-sauri: All in the same year.

Prabhupada: Then without any family. At that time none of you were with me. I was alone. I was completely dependent on anyone.

Hari-sauri: Krsna.

Prabhupada: But on the ship I saw that "Krsna is with me." I was going for this reas...

[someone enters] Hare Krsna. So they are not here, some prasada to eat?

Hari-sauri: There's a little extra. He can take some. They'll all be eating Jagannatha prasadam.

Prabhupada: We shall be eating also?. No? No? Jagannatha prasadam?

Hari-sauri: Well, he was going to cook.

Prabhupada: Which is better, eh? Jagannatha?

Hari-sauri: [laughs] I don't know. Whatever you like. At least, if we cook here, you'll get hot prasadam.

Prabhupada: A little Jagannatha prasadam also.

Hari-sauri: Yes. They can bring some. I traveled for a month myself on a boat. I went from England to Australia on ship.

Prabhupada: One month? Only?

Hari-sauri: Twenty-eight days.

Prabhupada: Hmm. Through Atlantic.

Hari-sauri: Yes. We had to go Atlantic and then right round the tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean, because the Suez Canal was finished then. It was blocked by the war.

Prabhupada: Suez Canal still not open?

Hari-sauri: No.

Prabhupada: What they have done, these...? They were getting, minimum, fifty thousand rupees daily.

Hari-sauri: Oh, at least.

Prabhupada: So what, these nonsense politicians? They lost the money, and inconvenience to others. These rascal politician, they can do anything whimsical. They were getting money, not less than fifty thousand, not smaller than daily fifty thousand. From business point of view they could have raised the toll. They could get more money. What is the use of stopping?

Hari-sauri: Well, they raised the price of oil instead.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Hari-sauri: They raised the price of oil instead. [laughs]

Prabhupada: Muhammadan... Brain fag. And they are thieves. The captains said that they are all thieves, these Egyptians.

Hari-sauri: Arabs.

Prabhupada: Arabs. Vast desert we saw, passing. Huge stack of sand. How they are living there?

Hari-sauri: Certainly not for a civilized man. [pause]

Prabhupada: This stove is our?

Hari-sauri: It's Gargamuni's. [break] [end]