Room Conversation in Hindi [Translated] – July 27, 1976, London

Prabhupada: [Transl. I had your darsana once before.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Yes. I had come to meet you here. It's been a few years. I visit all of your centres wherever they are at and help as per my capacity.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. What are the places you have been?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Mombasa, Montreal and recently New York. I met the devotees in New York. Our asrama is at Haridvara.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I see.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Some time before Svami Brahmananda had come there. He is in-charge of Nairobi Mombasa. He stayed there for a few days.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. When did he come?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Four months ago.]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. About three, four months ago. Three, four months ago, because I left for abroad two months ago.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Brahmananda came there?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Yes sir. He is in-charge of Nairobi Mombasa.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes. If he came to India three, four months ago, he didn't meet me?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. He must have met you.]

Indian man (2): [Transl. Our Brahmananda Maharaja or theirs?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. No, the one who lives in Nairobi. Maybe I am forgetting the name.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Not Brahmananda may be Cyavana. Cyavana. Is he skinny?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. No. He is big fat. Big body.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Then it must be Brahmananda.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Yes, I know him very well. He attends my lecture every day in Mombasa. I also visited his place as I had to make some arrangements for the devotees there on his request. I helped them according to my ability. So I know him. He brought a bus with him.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Came in a bus? Then it must be his brother. It might be Gargamuni.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Maybe. It's possible.]

Indian man (2): [Transl. By face, both of them look alike.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Both are stout.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Now you will be staying in London for some time?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. I will be leaving today only. My health is not good. I have cough and cold.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. You have delivered the whole world.]

Prabhupada: Hare Krsna.

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. It is very difficult to preach and bring into practice the eastern culture, Indian culture in the western countries. Recently we had a huge festival here of Guru-purnima. About nine thousand people attended it.]

Prabhupada: Oh.

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. At the Alexander Palace on 11th July. It was a big festival. We are also thinking of building a small asrama here. We would like to become complementary to you and also wish your society's cooperation with us and work together with mutual understanding. Then the world will be benefitted better.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. The goal of our preaching is krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. [SB 1.3.28] But nobody accepts it. They say it is sectarean. What do you say? Their argument is why Krsna is God? I am God, you are God, he is God. Everyone is God. We cannot accept that. krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. They don't agree with this.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Little differences will be there.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Then how can we unite? Answer?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. We will unite wherever we agree.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Not possible. It will be hodgepodge. Anybody and everybody will come and claim to be God. How can we accept them as equal to God?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Our whole culture is based on worshiping the demigods, pancadeva-upasana: five god worship.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Demigod worshipers are foolish.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. How can you say that?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. How? sastra says, kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah prapadyante 'nya-devatah. [Bg 7.20] One who worships the demigods, he is a fool.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. No, see for example, Devi Bhagavata is there…]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes, that's all right and their worship is not denied. But one who worships them is a fool. This is the point. Worship is not denied, it is there in the Vedas.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. The Supreme Lord also says so. Na buddhi-bhedam [Bg 3.26]

Prabhupada: [Transl. That is another thing. Flatter them and get something in return. That is another thing. Otherwise you will be spoiled. Therefore it is not bad. But the fact is different.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. The big, big scholars like Karapatriji are there, if you talk to them they will totally refute your conclusion.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No, they can't. I have proved it practically.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. But on the whole what you are doing is great. There cannot be anything better than this.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. All I know is that you are searching for God, here is God. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. You are looking for God and when God is presented before you, you deny saying why He alone is God. This is the difficulty. But we don't compromise.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. No problem. The mission is the same.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Our proposal is, Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. We don't deny demigod worship. We don't say that. We don't disregard them.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. That's very good. That's enough.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We visit demigod temples, we offer them obeisances. We must offer respect as much as they deserve. Certainly.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. This much is enough.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna. [Sri Siksastaka 3]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. … Amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We give respect even to an insignificant ant. So then how can we not give respect to the big, big demigods? But, in connection to Krsna only. Just like Durgadevi, we worship her. But how? Srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka chayeva yasya bhuvanani bibharti durga [Bs 5.44] Durga is not ordinary.

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Right.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He is the proprietor and all others are senior and junior servants. There are big and small servants. This we accept.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Everyone has got his own opinion. That's all right.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No, it is confirmed in the sastra. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself said,

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
[Bg 7.7]

We are foolish therefore we simply accept this statement. We are not very learned in the sastra. What the Supreme Lord says we just accept. Business is finished. And it is being successful. When the Supreme Lord is declaring, mattah parataram nanyat….]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl.

kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva
[Bg 7.7]

Prabhupada: [Transl. then why do we have rack our brains? Respect we must give to all. But as far as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is concerned, sadaisvaryapurna-bhagavan, aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah [Visnu Purana 6.5.47]. That is Krsna. While describing Krsna's incarnations it is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam also,

ete camsa-kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
[SB 1.3.28]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. And in 'hare rama' you accept Balaramaji, is it?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. Rama means Bhagavan. You accept Balarama or Rama, what is there?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Ramante yogino 'nante]

Prabhupada: [Transl.

satyanande cid-atmani
iti rama-padenasau
param brahmabhidhiyate.
[Cc. Madhya 9.29]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. You don't accept Dasarathi Rama.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Why not? They simply accuse us like that. Now we are building a temple in Bombay and in that we will have Lord Ramacandra. Rama, Laksmana, Sita. Yes.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. What is there? There is no difference.]

Prabhupada: [Transl.

ramadi-murtisu kala-niyamena tisthan
nanavataram akarod bhuvanesu kintu
krsnah svayam bhagavan
ramadi-murtisu… Krsna…

What is that?

Harikesa: Krsnah svayam samabhavat paramah puman yo.

Prabhupada: Han, paramah puman yo. .

isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
[Bs. 5.1]

[Transl. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krsna. Arjuna too accepted it.

param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
[Bg 10.12]

Sannyasi Guest: …paramam purusam divyam.

Prabhupada: [Transl. So this is our Krsna Consciousness that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krsna. Serve Him. There is no difficulty.

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
[Bg 9.34]

[Transl. Everyone can do it. No difficulty at all. The learned can do it and even the most foolish person can just offer obeisances. Mam namaskuru. This is the point. [aside:] Bring some prasada. How long have you been here?]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. I have already been here one month and will be here another fifteen days. In Leicester we had eight days of programs. And now its been 10 days in Braunstone Hall. Around four thousand people attended daily. And then in the Guru-purnima festival around ten thousand people participated.]

Indian man (2): [Transl. We held Ratha-yatra here on the Guru-purnima day.]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Ratha-yatra here.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We also had Ratha yatra in New York. About ten, twelve thousand people came. Hindus, Muslims… not Muslims…]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Muslims don't go anywhere. Try to bring them somehow, Maharajaji.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Oh I have many Muslim disciples. In Iran there are Muslim disciples. In Tehran. His previous name was Attar Mia. Now I have changed his name to Atreya Rsi.]

Indian man (2): [Transl. Here also there is one.]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Indian man (2): [Transl. Here also. Sarva sagar his name.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes here also. There was one brahmacari. He died in car accident. He was a Muslim professor.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Was he wearing urdhva-pundra: tilaka marks?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Oh yes. Everything just like us.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Then it's very good.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We have a condition that anyone who wants to be initiated must give up four things. No illicit sex. No meat, fish or eggs. No intoxication. Wine etc. he must give up, even tea and bidi he must give up.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Really?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. One who agrees to follow these conditions, I make him my disciple.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Very good.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. None of my disciples takes tea. That's why I face more difficulty.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Still you have so many. What's the difficulty? You already have ten thousand disciples. That's not small numbers.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We don't allow tea even. We cook our food here, but no tea.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Whenever you come to Haridvara kindly ask your secretary to inform us so that we can welcome you.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Surely will come. Now bodily energy is decreasing. I am already 80 years old.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Yes. This is a hard work too.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I have centres 102 places. If I stay two, three days in each place then…]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. ….the year is over. Two, three days in one place plus traveling time the whole year is finished.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. But these people, these American boys are helping me a lot in every way. To print these books and…]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. Printing in thousands and millions.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No, we sell books like anything. We sell 60 thousand dollars worth of books daily. Now in Hindi…]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. …You have started printing.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We have got Srimad Bhagavatam in French language.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. French. You are doing a great service.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. French, German, Spanish, Portugese, Chinese, Japanise and of course English. So, all together daily 60 thousand dollars worth of books are distributed.]

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. May I take your leave now?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. These books are a great benediction. Please come again. Tomorrow we…]

[aside:] We are going tomorrow?

Harikesa: Tomorrow.

Sannyasi Guest: [Transl. When you return to India I will take you from Bombay to Haridvara to our asrama.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Surely I will go. I will go Maharaja.]

Sannyasi Guest: Hare Krsna.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Hare Krsna. Give them.]

Harikesa: They just have to listen and agree.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Harikesa: They just have to listen when you preach. No one can argue. [end]