Room Conversation – May 26, 1972, Los Angeles

720526R1-Los Angeles [16:44 Minutes]

My husband is such a fool

Prabhupada: …the crow and a peacock dance. Kaka-moya[?]. There is a story. Do you know it? Do you know? The crow imitated a peacock. He got some tail feathers and put, [laughter] holding his head up, and began to… So that is imitation.

But if guru-vaisnava blesses, even a crow can become a peacock. That is the... There is vast ocean of difference between peacock and crow. Still, by guru-vaisnava, a crow can become a peacock.

Syamasundara: The other day I was hearing a tape, a philosophy tape, of you telling a story about a man who sawed himself off a limb.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Syamasundara: He cut himself off the limb. The sages said, "Oh, you are such a great fool, you should marry the queen."

Prabhupada: Oh.

Syamasundara: But I forgot the end part. After Sarasvati, Goddess Sarasvati, gave him knowledge, then what happened? I can't remember.

Prabhupada: Then he is coming back.

Syamasundara: After he was given knowledge... Then how does the story go?

Prabhupada: Then he returned to his wife. So he was knocking door. The wife was very, very sorry, that "My husband is such a fool." And he began to write. Asti-vada visesa[?]. Asti-kascid vada visesa[?]. The wife was very great Sanskrit scholar. [indistinct]. "Yes. I will write book." Then he began to write. She was very happy.

Asty uttarasyam disi himalayo nama nagadhirajaḥ uttpaparam[?] toya-nidhi avagahya [indistinct], description of Himalaya. Asty uttarasyam disi himalayo nama nagadhirajaḥ. On the northern side of the earth there is a big hill, Himalaya. Toya-nidhi avagahya. He's touching both side, great oceans, sthita pratijnana eva mana gandha. He is standing just like the… What is it called, weighing rod, two sides?

Syamasundara: Balance.

Prabhupada: Balance? What it is called? Rod?

Syamasundara: I know what you mean. I know what you're saying. Scale.

Prabhupada: Scale, yes. Standing like a scale, keeping the two oceans as balance. So I think the Arctic region, the Arctic region, where there is big mountain, this is mentioned here. Not that Himalaya. Himalaya means "the resort of the snow." Hima, hima means "snow"; alaya. So, uttarasyam disi, North Pole.

Syamasundara: There is huge mountain.

Prabhupada: Yes. Huge means that. Asty uttarasyam disi himalayo nama nagadhirajaḥ, toya-nidhi. Toya-nidhi, that is Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Avagahya-touching; sthita pratijnana-of the earth, scale rod, and taking these are two scales. These are the description of the North Pole. That means he had full knowledge of the whole world situation. Asty uttarasyam disi himalayo nama nagadhirajaḥ. Asti kascid vada visesa, these four words which was uttered to his wife, asti... With asti, he began Kumara-sambhava. Asti kascid vada visesa. And with the verb, with this word he wrote Raghu-vamsa. He wrote this Kumara-sambhava. [indistinct] and sakuntala. These four works are very famous of Kalidasa.

So when he turned back to meet his wife, he uttered first four words: asti kascid vada visesa: somebody who is a master of language. Because he [she] kicked him. The wife kicked him. So he was going to die, and Mother Sarasvati appeared. She prayed..., he prayed very feelingly, that "Mother Sarasvati, you did not do me any favor, so I am so fool that I have been kicked by my wife, so I'll suffer [indistinct]." So Mother Sarasvati said, "What do you want?" "I want to be learned scholar." "Whatever you speak, that will be [indistinct]. Go back. Don't [indistinct]. I give you blessing, whatever you will speak, that will be learned."

Syamasundara: So those four words, what do they mean?

Prabhupada: The four words, when he came back, he was knocking the door. His wife come and said, "Who is that?" So he replied in Sanskrit, asti kascid vada visesa. So she was surprised at the words [indistinct]. "I kicked him out; now he's speaking in Sanskrit. How is that?"

Syamasundara: What does that mean?

Prabhupada: Oh, asti kascid vada visesa: "Here is standing something, personified language."

Syamasundara: Ohh. [laughs] Ah, that's [indistinct].

Prabhupada: Somebody who is personified language. So, "Are you speaking?" "Yes." Then he began to write books with the four words-four books.

Syamasundara: And each book began with one word, with one of those four words?

Prabhupada: Hmm. With asti he wrote Kumara-sambhava, birth of Kartikeya. Kartikeya is known as Kumara. So how Kartikeya was born, the story is written with the..., beginning with the word asti. Asty uttarasyam disi himalayo nama nagadhirajaḥ.

Syamasundara: Oh, Siva and Parvati…

Prabhupada: Then with bhag, this word, bhaga ta pratipattaye. Bhaga ta pratipattaye.

Syamasundara: Asti bhag…

Prabhupada: Asti kascit.

Syamasundara: Kascit.

Prabhupada: Kascid vada visesa[?].

Syamasundara: Kascid vada visesa[?]. Megha-dūta...

Prabhupada: Megha-dūta, Sakuntala and Kumara-sambhava, Raghu-vamsa. Asti kascid vada visesa. So many scholars, panḍitas, poets are there in the mundane world, but they have no knowledge of Krsna consciousness.

Syamasundara: Are these considered mundane poems?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Syamasundara: Oh.

Prabhupada: Gramya-kavi. Gramya-kavi. They are called gramya-kavi, mundane poet. We read in our I.A. I have Sanskrit up to I.A. In the B.A. I gave up Sanskrit and I took history of the world, economics and philosophy. [indistinct] History of England.

Syamasundara: Yes, I remember you used to tell us all of the history in London-kings, all the kings…

Prabhupada: In economics I read your president's book, Woodrow Wilson, State. Woodrow Wilson, State, his book.

Syamasundara: Philosophy?

Prabhupada: Hmm. Philosophy we studied Dr. Stephen's[?] Metaphysics and Psychology.

Syamasundara: And now you're commenting on all of them, [indistinct].

Prabhupada: No, at that time we did not read all these things. But there was reference to Aristotle, Kant, Percival. Percival. And then one Milt?

Syamasundara: Mill?

Prabhupada: Mill, Mill, yes. John Stuart Mill.

Syamasundara: That was on one of the tapes that was lost. Maybe we'll have to do that one over again.

Prabhupada: John Stuart Mill was big name.

Syamasundara: Yes. British.

Prabhupada: And Aristotle. [pause]

Devotee (2): Srila Prabhupada, the nitya-mukta, a person who it says in the Bhagavatam sees the [indistinct] form, he sees the variegatedness of the material world…

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Devotee (2): He sees... He thinks that... He doesn't... He thinks the variegatedness of the material world, that is just produced of illusion, nescience. The liberated soul…

Prabhupada: Oh, yes. That is. We Vaisnava philosopher, we don't say false; we say temporary. Why we shall say God's creation is false? We don't say that. Huh?

Devotee (2): We're got exactly the verse. [indistinct]

Prabhupada: That is Mayavadi philosophy. No. Why shall I say creation of God is false? That is insult. If some Mayavadi philosopher comes, that "Oh, you have created this Krsna consciousness institution. It is all false," so what shall I think? "What a nonsense, that I have worked so hard, and after you say something [indistinct] he says false?" I'll not be very much happy. Similarly, God's so nice creation, why shall I say false? And if He is true, why He shall create false? That theory we don't accept. We say that it is temporary. Temporary, illusory.

Devotee (2): [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Huh? Means? [end]