Room Conversation About Deity-Making and Tulasi Tea – May 21, 1976, Honolulu

Who asked him to ride on horse?

Hari-sauri: Twelve inches. That's very small, Srila Prabhupada. That's only...

Govinda dasi: It's about eighteen inches. Oh, you said twelve inches. Twelve…, twelve is like this.

Hari-sauri: This is a ten by eight.

Prabhupada: Fifteen. Fifteen.

Govinda dasi: Fifteen. Fifteen inches.

Prabhupada: But they are…, they are done nice. Very artistic flavor.

Hari-sauri: Hmm.

Prabhupada: So, only make a big hall there. On all sides a brass plate [indistinct] you make of this, like this. You make such small dolls, they can be soldered. They are very good [indistinct].

Govinda dasi: Hmm.

Prabhupada: But, that is good price.

Hari-sauri: Hmm.

Prabhupada: But silicate preparation is, you think, stronger than stone?

Govinda dasi: Yes, I think so. I have… I'm making some I was gonna bring and show you this evening, some heads.

Prabhupada: They are done already?

Govinda dasi: Some heads. I was gonna show you...

Prabhupada: They are already done?

Govinda dasi: Yes, but they're not fully dry. Two of them are done, but...

Prabhupada: So when they dry.

Govinda dasi: It's not fully dried. It will be dry enough to bring by this evening, I think. It's concrete. It's concrete. You had… Originally you asked me to make them in concrete. The concrete mixed with silica is stronger than just concrete. The concrete, it was, from what I have been told, it was...

Prabhupada: Inside, why don't you put network?

Govinda dasi: Armature?

Prabhupada: Ah!

Govinda dasi: Armature. Yes, that may be. That's a metal you have to put inside. Metal.

Prabhupada: That will...

Govinda dasi: For strength.

Prabhupada: ...make strong?

Govinda dasi: Strength, yes.

Prabhupada: Reinforcement.

Govinda dasi: Yes.

Prabhupada: Very strong.

Govinda dasi: Especially for Kaliya it's going to be necessary. For Kaliya.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Govinda dasi: Because it's a very large piece.

[pause]

Govinda dasi: I require some people to help me to do this, but everyone is… It's very difficult to get… I require two or three girls to help me.

Prabhupada: So ask Sukadeva Goswami.

Hari-sauri: You want him to come up?

Prabhupada: No. You can ask him.

Hari-sauri: Oh.

Govinda dasi: I was just discussing it with him when you called me, and he had just told me that no. [laughs]

Prabhupada: She needs help.

Hari-sauri: This is the problem. And I know when Gurukrpa Maharaja gets back, he will stop it as well.

Govinda dasi: He'll stop everything, and there's nothing I can do, except do it independently, on my own.

Prabhupada: Why?

Hari-sauri: He, well, from his attitude when he left, he didn't want…, want anything to do with it at all, any Deity-making.

Prabhupada: Why?

Hari-sauri: I don't know.

Prabhupada: No, I don't say that.

Hari-sauri: Yeah. I don't know. May be that, that if you write a letter to him, and, and ask him to give some facility. Otherwise, I don't think he'll do it, 'cause he wouldn't be…, he's objected to it before, [indistinct].

Prabhupada: First of all, let them have this hall.

Hari-sauri: Hmm. And then do the dioramas.

Prabhupada: For the time being now there is no place to show the dolls. First of all there must be place. Then we can do everything.

Hari-sauri: Hmm. What about their Deity-making that they're doing now, for Fiji? They're doing these deities for Fiji.

Prabhupada: You have contacted Baradraj?

Govinda dasi: I'm going there tomorrow.

Prabhupada: [indistinct], I am going also.

Govinda dasi: Baradraj, I've talked to him. He, he's very busy doing what he's doing. He's building a museum, and he says he doesn't have time to do...

Prabhupada: Ah.

Govinda dasi: ...the deities too. So therefore that's why I, I was doing them here. I was getting it all organized here. I was simply going to ask him to help me with the Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and the deity of yourself.

Prabhupada: So you have talked to him?

Govinda dasi: Yes. He told me that he wouldn't have time to even start anything for months, to even begin to help with the Deities for months, 'cause he's doing this museum.

Prabhupada: So you heard from Baradraj?

Govinda dasi: Yes. So what we were doing is, there's three girls here who we're setting up and working. It's not that difficult, you know. It's not that hard to do. What…, we were just… I was going to talk to Baradraj about it when I went there, also.

[pause]

Prabhupada: So you talked with Gaurasundara no?

Hari-sauri: No.

Govinda dasi: Since he left I haven't seen him or talked to him. He left last week for his farm on the big island. He and his new wife, they left, and I don't know what he's thinking.

Prabhupada: What does he do in his farm?

Govinda dasi: He has a lot of animals. He raises goats and horses.

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Govinda dasi: And I think they have one calf. They got recently one calf.

Hari-sauri: What do they do with goats?

Govinda dasi: They're the girl's pets.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Govinda dasi: The goats are the pets. They're like pets.

Prabhupada: Goats for milk?

Govinda dasi: Umm, yeah, you can get milk, but I don't think they do that very much, because they don't like to take it away from the baby goat. Mostly just for pets. They have horses and goats.

Prabhupada: Are they killed?

Govinda dasi: Oh, no. No, they're very much…, not at all.

Hari-sauri: How many of them do they have?

Govinda dasi: At least a dozen.

Hari-sauri: Dozen goats?

Govinda dasi: Yeah, a whole bunch of goats. They have at least six horses, too.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Hari-sauri: She said they have about a dozen goats and about six horses.

Govinda dasi: I mean, it may be more than that. I'm not…, I don't really know now.

Prabhupada: So why so many horses?

Govinda dasi: Because they like to ride horses for pleasure. It's a very nice pleasure to ride horses.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Govinda dasi: The girl was a rodeo star.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Govinda dasi: The girl was a rodeo star.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Govinda dasi: That's where you ride horses, you know? In…, in rodeos.

Prabhupada: Uh-huh.

Govinda dasi: You know? Until she had an accident last year. Now she's crippled, and she can't ride. Her leg is… She can't ride now any more, but she used to be a...

Prabhupada: And she introduced these horses?

Govinda dasi: Yes. He has several people there, like, who follow him and do for him. They will help with the farm work. They have..., they have gardens. They have nice gardens.

Prabhupada: No Deities?

Govinda dasi: Not to my knowledge. They've started chanting recently. Recently they've started chanting. Just since he came back from India, he started chanting.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Govinda dasi: I don't know what his position is. I feel he's changing. I don't know. I think that he feels that you've sanctioned what he's doing, and so he'll probably go on doing it.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Govinda dasi: He feels that you have sanctioned his activities, and so he will go on doing what he's doing.

Prabhupada: I have sanctioned?

Govinda dasi: You've sanctioned that he has a farm and he's raising vegetables and living there, and that he's got a new wife and everything. And so he will go on doing what he's doing, because he feels that it's sanctioned. Everyone feels that it's not sanctioned. So probably he'll try to get more… He tries to get more people to join and come and live there. That was what he was doing in Honolulu.

Prabhupada: He's sanctioned? He is doing everything without my sanction. [laughs] Who asked him to ride on horse?

Govinda dasi: Who asked him to what?

Prabhupada: Ride on horse. He can say like that.

Govinda dasi: You indicated, or you seemed to approve of what he was doing. Even I thought that you'd sanctioned him to do all these things. I mean, you didn't, you know...

Prabhupada: No.

Govinda dasi: You encouraged him.

Prabhupada: I encouraged him?

Govinda dasi: Yes, you encouraged him to chant and to, erm...

Prabhupada: That I am encouraging everyone.

Govinda dasi: Yes. Well, anyway, they feel that you've sanctioned their activities now, and that they can proceed and have more people come and live there.

[long pause]

Govinda dasi: You asked him to come and travel with you?

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Govinda dasi: You asked Gaurasundara to come and travel with you?

Prabhupada: That I do.

[pause]

Prabhupada: So time is up when?

Hari-sauri: No, another hour yet.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Hari-sauri: It's only 10:15.

Prabhupada: Oh, yes.

Hari-sauri: You're not sleeping in the mornings now?

Prabhupada: I did not go there.

Hari-sauri: Just rest a little.

Govinda dasi: How's your health?

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Govinda dasi: How's your health?

Prabhupada: Health?

Govinda dasi: Yes.

Prabhupada: Not well.

Govinda dasi: Do you want to see some doctor?

Prabhupada: Hmm?

[pause]

Prabhupada: Now it is working; [laughing] we must be prepared.

Hari-sauri: I think you're already prepared, Srila Prabhupada.

Govinda dasi: Yes.

Prabhupada: A broken house, you cannot expect.

[pause]

Prabhupada: Why today there is no man?

Hari-sauri: No. It's a public holiday today.

Prabhupada: All right. [devotees offer obeisances]

Govinda dasi: Srila Prabhupada, can I ask one question?

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Govinda dasi: On the tulasi plants. Sometimes they are taking and putting in…, they boil some water and put the tulasi and make some tea and drink it. Is that… I've been told both that it's wrong, and I've been told that it's okay, and I'm wondering whether or not it's...?

Prabhupada: Not wrong.

Govinda dasi: Is it wrong to heat the tulasi, to put, put her in hot water, or is, is that okay?

Prabhupada: No, it is not wrong, but they are constantly doing that?

Hari-sauri: Oh, I don't know whether they're constantly doing it.

Govinda dasi: There's so much tulasi that they sell it, tulasi tea, at the restaurant, which is...

Hari-sauri: Yeah...

Govinda dasi: ...people like it...

Hari-sauri: ...but Prabhupada...

Govinda dasi: ...it's very tasty.

Hari-sauri: Prabhupada said that's all right.

Govinda dasi: Yeah, that's very tasty. There's just, there's tons of tulasi, and there's, there's...

Prabhupada: No. That they cannot drink themselves. For customers, just to attract.

Govinda dasi: All right. It's not good for devotees to drink it?

Hari-sauri: No. Because it encourages tea-drinking habit. Becomes a habit to drink tea.

Govinda dasi: Ohh, I see.

Hari-sauri: So the devotees shouldn't…, shouldn't drink anything like that, unless it's medicinal. Unless they're sick, they have a fever, and tulasi...

Prabhupada: Tulasi drink, drink is very palatable.

Govinda dasi: It's very palatable. I used to put tulasi in your water, remember? We used to put...

Prabhupada: Yes.

Govinda dasi: ...tulasi flowers in your water, and it flavors the water. Well, when boiled water is poured on it, it's supposedly very medicinal too. And they drink the tea with a little bit maybe of honey or drink it plain. And it's very palatable. Customers like it. I've…, I used to drink it, but I heard that it was an offense to, to drink it, so I didn't know. I just thought it was really good.

Prabhupada: No. That as soon as we like it, that means sense gratification.

Hari-sauri: Once you drink it for the taste...

Govinda dasi: But we like prasadam. [laughing] I didn't know, so I… I didn't know if it was wrong.

Prabhupada: No.

Govinda dasi: I thought to heat the tulasis, what I'd heard...

Prabhupada: Tulasi, tulasi leaf you can take, but...

Govinda dasi: Heat. Eat, but not the...

Prabhupada: ...but this tea habit, that means we may revive our tea-drinking. That is.

Govinda dasi: Oh, I see.

Prabhupada: Otherwise, tulasi leaf eating is good. You can eat leaf, especially palatable with water. Water, that is good. But you make it, imitation tea, that means I remember tea-drinking.

Govinda dasi: I see. Especially the English. That will be very difficult for the Englishmen.

[long pause]

Prabhupada: So you come at half past twelve.

Hari-sauri: Hmm. [end]