Room Conversation – March 27, 1977, Bombay

There is a superior element-life

Hari-sauri: Once this scientific basis is established, then everybody will be finished.

Prabhupada: It is very easy. There is a superior element-life. On account of that superior element, the inferior element has got meaning. Otherwise it has no meaning.

Hari-sauri: No one serves a dead body. Push it in the ground and let it rot.

Prabhupada: That superior element you cannot manufacture by combination of these inferior chemicals. That is also... If you take chemical, that is also chemical. But that chemical is superior. You cannot manufacture it by combination of these inferior things. Therefore it is God.

Hari-sauri: It is actually such a clear and simple thing, but they become so complicated they can't understand.

Prabhupada: They have made it complicated. Insufficient knowledge.

Svarūpa Damodara: They have been misguided, that's all

Prabhupada: Misguided, yes. This rascal leader. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanaḥ [SB 7.5.31].

Svarūpa Damodara: We would also have been misguided if we didn't meet Srila Prabhupada, in the same area.

Prabhupada: I never agreed to be misguided by these rascals. Perhaps I am the first man who protested against these authorized scientists.

Svarūpa Damodara: Oh, yes. Very strongly. Everybody is afraid except Srila Prabhupada. [Prabhupada chuckles] Frankly speaking, I never knew that the problem is this serious before I met Srila Prabhupada. I never thought about this.

Prabhupada: Therefore I took it so seriously. Every morning walk, I was "Where is the scientist?" I thought, "Here I have got an opportunity to impress that will fructify in future." That was my aim. Therefore I was bothering you in so many ways.

Svarūpa Damodara: It is your wonderful mercy, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Because I cannot use the technological words, and he can do that. So he should be trained up. What is the news of Dr. Rao?

Svarūpa Damodara: Dr. Rao died.

Prabhupada: [surprised] Died?

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. That I informed in the...

Prabhupada: Yes, you informed, but it is confirmed?

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. He died of heart attack.

Prabhupada: I thought of him to become good assistant.

Svarūpa Damodara: I thought he would be very..., we would get together very well, and we had plans together to do, to start work, and come back in India. But about...

Prabhupada: Finished.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes.

Prabhupada: He was a good soul, but he wanted little material profit. That doesn't matter. So his father is there.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yeah, his father is actually still alive. Some day, if I get an opportunity, I will pay a visit.

Prabhupada: Yes. He is very intelligent.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. I even asked him to join this writing of our book, to contribute some chapters, and he agreed to that.

Prabhupada: Never mind. He has given some service. It will not go in vain. [coughing]

Svarūpa Damodara: He had the greatest respect for Srila Prabhupada. Every letter he wrote me, nothing but praise of Srila Prabhupada, though he had some difficulty in getting along with some of the prabhus here. He wrote me something about those points, but he never said anything against Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: That is natural. If one gets little prominence, other becomes envious. Society is so polluted. Matsarata. So we have to adjust.

[aside:] Give me my shirt.

So take care of your health and circumstances. You have to adjust things according to...

[long pause] If there is difficulty, his wife and children may come to Vrndavana.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. His family's more or less well off. They have...

Prabhupada: They've got good position.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes.

Prabhupada: Yes. They are zamindars.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. His father.

Prabhupada: They are also ksatriya.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. He was also a good chemist.

Prabhupada: Oh, yes, very qualified.

Svarūpa Damodara: He works very nice. He is very good in experiments, making compounds.

Prabhupada: Great loss. He will get again good birth to become Vaisnava. There is no doubt. He was initiated. Again he will get chance. Anyone who has joined this movement and given little service, his human life next birth guaranteed. There is no doubt. And then he will get again chance to develop. He is not going to be cats and dogs.

Hari-sauri: I remember once in Vrndavana, though, that you said that if someone deliberately breaks the principles even after initiation, he can become a dog in his next life because of that.

Prabhupada: That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Find out this verse. First part. I think here is first part.

Hari-sauri: This is 1.2. I think that verse is quoted here in the Gita though.

Prabhupada: So nice thing. Even little done, you get chance again. The students who are coming, give them nice place, nice food, nice intelligence. Organize Bombay. You will get many enlightened students, professors, doctors. "Come on, live with us."

Hari-sauri: It is quoted in the purport in connection with this,

Prabhupada: Ah.

Hari-sauri: [reading] "In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." Purport: "Activity..."

Prabhupada: The most dangerous type of fear is if my next life I become an animal. That is the most dangerous. But those who have taken to Krsna consciousness, given some service, for them there is no such fear. He gets another chance. Hmm.

Hari-sauri: [reading] Purport. "Activity in Krsna consciousness or acting for the benefit of Krsna without expectation of sense gratification is the highest transcendental quality of work. Even a small beginning of such activity finds no impediment, nor can that small beginning be lost at any stage. Any work begun on the material plane has to be completed. Otherwise the whole attempt becomes a failure. But any work begun in Krsna consciousness has a permanent effect, even though not finished. The performer of such work is therefore not at a loss even if his work in Krsna consciousness is incomplete. One percent done in Krsna consciousness bears permanent results, so that the next beginning is from the point of two percent, whereas in the material activity, without one hundred percent success, there is no profit. Ajamila performed his duty in some percentage of Krsna consciousness, but the result he enjoyed at the end was one hundred percent by the grace of the Lord. There is a nice verse in this connection in Srimad-Bhagavatam:

"'If someone gives up self-gratificatory pursuits and works in Krsna consciousness and then falls down on account of not completing his work, what loss is there on his part? And what can one gain if one performs his material activities perfectly?' Or, as the Christians say, 'What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world yet suffers the loss of his eternal soul?' Material activities and their results end with the body, but work in Krsna consciousness carries the person again to Krsna consciousness, even after the loss of the body. At least one is sure to have a chance in the next life of being born again as a human being, either in the family of a great cultured brahmana or in a rich aristocratic family that will give one a further chance for elevation. That is the unique quality of work done in Krsna consciousness."

Prabhupada: Yes. These chances are there. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktaḥ pranasyati [Bg 9.31]. Find out this verse. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktaḥ pranasyati. At the time of death, if you simply offer Krsna, You know everything, what I have tried to do. "Now You consider my position. Send me wherever You like." Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktaḥ pranasyati.

Hari-sauri: [reads]

"He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes." Purport. "This should not be misunderstood. In the Seventh Chapter the Lord says that one who is engaged in mischievous activities cannot become a devotee of the Lord. One who is not a devotee of the Lord has no good qualifications whatsoever. The question remains, then, How can a person engaged in abominable activities either by accident or intention, be a pure devotee? This question may justly be raised. The miscreants, as stated in the Seventh Chapter, who never come to the devotional service of the Lord, have no good qualifications, as is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Generally, a devotee who is engaged in nine kinds of devotional activities is engaged in the process of cleansing all material contamination from the heart. He puts the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, and all sinful contaminations are naturally washed away. Continuous thinking of the Supreme Lord makes him pure by nature. According to the Veda, there is a certain regulation that if one falls down from his exalted position, he has to undergo certain ritualistic processes to purify himself. But here there is no such condition, because the purifying process is already in the heart of the devotee due to his remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. Therefore the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations."

Prabhupada: Our abridged edition of Bhagavad-gita is there in the panḍal?

Hari-sauri: Oh, yes. All the big books. The Bhagavatams, Caitanya-caritamrta, Gita.

Svarūpa Damodara: We need some artists in Bombay, some artists to paint.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Svarūpa Damodara: Some artists. I was told that some are coming from Los Angeles?

Prabhupada: Why?

Hari-sauri: Los Angeles? I think they went back. You need some paintings done now? [break]

Prabhupada: So you are feeling on this stronger platform? Hmm?

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: That is wanted.

Hari-sauri: In this movement we can't do anything except gain-become stronger more and more.

Svarūpa Damodara: You have taught us how to become strong.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Svarūpa Damodara: You have taught us how to become fearless and strong. Those are good platform.

Prabhupada: Anyone who does not know Krsna is a mūḍha. So the only difficulty is that we have to deal with mūḍhas. But our position is different. We are not mūḍhas.

[long pause] [break] He was in good position. I don't think he had much anxieties.

Svarūpa Damodara: What is it, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Dr. Rao.

Hari-sauri: The cause of his heart failure?

Svarūpa Damodara: I don't know. He had a little over... He was a little heavy, he became. I don't know. I never had any encounter that his heart was weak. Never knew before. So unpredictable.

Prabhupada: Hmm. He was young man.

Svarūpa Damodara: Yes. [end]