SPD03-01 Matchless Gifts, An Interview at 26 Second Ave, New York
SPD03-01
Matchless Gifts,
An Interview at 26 Second Ave, New York
Matchless Gifts,
An Interview at 26 Second Ave, New York
[01:11] [Prabhupada:] I was wandering the street, and some of the boys saw me, and gradually they came to me.
[01:20] And actually I did not try anything for developing this institution; the boys did it.
[01:28] They are all educated. They are not fools.
[01:32] Mr. Howard is M.A.; he is also B.A., he is Dr., Ph.D. So they're all educated.
[01:38] So they are not fools that they're taking this blindly. No.
[01:43] Most of my students, they were under the spell of this LSD, but they have given up everything.
[01:53] They are simply living on this capati and some fruits, and that's all.
[01:58] They don't eat meat, they don't want wine, they don't want cigarettes, they don't want tea, coffee, nothing,
[02:05] and they are chanting Hare Krsna, they are following my instruction. So I am getting good hope.
[02:16] [Kirtanananda:] The meal is composed of rice, and this soup, which we call dal,
[02:21] and a combination of vegetables and capati, which is made out of whole wheat.
[02:35] You see, it's all vegetable and grain. Sometimes some fruit. There's fruit in the dal.
[02:42] No meat, no animal products, such as eggs.
[02:47] This is because in the Gita Krsna has told us what He wants us to eat,
[02:53] namely fresh fruits and grains, not animal products.
[02:59] So we have a very delicious meal here. It is very cheap; it goes a long way.
[03:05] It's quite easy to prepare, and we have a lot of fun.
[03:10] [Raymond:] Essentially, these are foods that are prescribed according to orthodox Vaisnavite discipline.
[03:21] So these foods are prescribed. But we don't necessarily prescribe them for everybody.
[03:25] The main thing is: no meat, fish and eggs.
[03:30] [Interviewer:] Why not?
[03:31] [Raymond:] Well, because in the scriptures it states that certain foods Krsna will accept.
[03:38] So we have to offer our food to Krsna, we have to offer the food that He will accept.
[03:44] The food that He will accept is stated as vegetables, fruits, leaves, water...
[03:51] Well, we believe that vegetables have..., also any living..., any life form has a soul.
[03:58] Therefore the murder of a vegetable is not in any way different qualitatively from the murder of an animal.
[04:04] But the thing is that vegetables are our allotment, according to scripture.
[04:08] We can eat certain foods that are given to us to eat by God.
[04:12] If we eat food that's not given to us to eat, that's robbery.
[04:16] [Lady Interviewer:] Are there any tasks that you have to perform?
[04:19] [Ron:] Well, we're... There's no real task. We're here to learn, and that's what we are doing, and we also...,
[04:27] we have jobs to perform to keep the organization running, to keep the word of Krsna being spread.
[04:34] [Lady Interviewer:] How do you do that?
[04:36] [Ron:] Well, we recently purchased a couple of mimeograph machines,
[04:42] and that's helping our printing. By word of mouth. By constantly being active.
[04:52] [Lady Interviewer:] Do you work?
[04:54] [Ron:] Yeah, we all work.
[04:57] [Lady Interviewer:] But you meet here every day.
[05:01] [Ron:] Well, I'm devoting all my time here, so I work here all day. Money has to come in also.
[05:06] Some of us work regular jobs and devote most of our money here, if not all.
[05:15] [Lady Interviewer:] Do you feel any different since you joined?
[05:19] [Ron:] I feel very good, and closer to God.
[05:27] [Lady Interviewer:] What introduced you to this group?
[05:31] [Ron:] A friend of mine told me about a love celebration at Tompkins Square Park which was last Thursday,
[05:37] or the Thursday before last, and I knew I had been seeking a guru for a while, so Krsna sent me there.
[05:44] I was there, and after meeting some of the initiates, I knew that the Swami really had to be into something,
[05:52] so I came the very next morning, and I've been here since then.
[05:56] [Prabhupada:] I came here, in America, in September 1965.
[06:05] My mission is to preach the philosophy of Lord Caitanya, chanting
[06:15] Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/
[06:19] Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
[06:23] This transcendental vibration will cleanse the dirty things of the mind.
[06:34] It doesn't matter what he is; this transcendental vibration is equally appealing to everyone,
[06:46] without any question of language, nationality, creed or caste,
[06:54] because it is coming forth from the depth of the soul.
[07:01] This simple vibration can deliver the people of this age to salvation.
[07:13] Human life is meant for getting out of the threefold miseries of this material existence,
[07:25] and forgetting their life's aim,
[07:30] they have become too much materialistic. And the result is that actually they haven't got that peace of mind,
[07:44] or peace of the world, which they are hankering. And if they take to this chanting, transcendental vibration,
[07:54] their mind, the dirtiness of the mind, will be cleared, and they will clearly see
[08:04] their actual identity as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, or Krsna.
[08:14] And dovetailing their activities in that relationship, everything will be sublime.
[08:23] [Chuck:] I think how we are different from drug people also is to realize that God is here and in my heart,
[08:30] and all the time, but we are realizing this consciously. We know these things consciously,
[08:36] not just to accept it once and then enjoy. You know, this moment to moment.
[08:43] [Greg:] Well, I've only tried marijuana. But I've never taken anything else.
[08:48] You might say I was fortunate enough to have my self-realizations and other changes without drugs.
[08:57] [Chuck:] Leary and some of the drug followers,
[08:59] they are functioning high on a low level, and we are functioning high..., we are functioning low on a high level. Did you get that?
[09:09] [Lady Interviewer:] Could you explain that?
[09:11] [Chuck:] They are functioning high, this feeling, this sensual perception which is extended so far but they
[09:21] are enjoying their foods, and they are enjoying their incense and colors and all these things.
[09:25] This anybody can do. And we are not enjoying these things,
[09:29] but we are functioning on this high level, on the level of God.
[09:32] [Greg:] We must consider ourselves as the gopis so that we can love Krsna that much more;
[09:40] that we devote our whole lives to Krsna, and we must consider ourselves as females, you see.
[09:49] [Kirtanananda:] But be careful! It takes many, many lifetimes of perfection to get to be a gopi.
[09:56] One has to be the supremely developed perfect in perfection to qualify as a gopi...
[10:04] [Young man:] But the reason that one of the people mentioned before, that being feminine,
[10:09] is that the masculine love and the feminine are loved, and that you are feminine
[10:15] so that you can be loved by Krsna.
[10:17] [Interviewer:] Well, does this have anything to do with being celibate or...?
[10:19] [Kirtanananda:] This has to do with... The Supreme Being, of course, is male,
[10:24] because He is Purusa, as they say in Sanskrit.
[10:27] That is, He is the origin. He is the creator. He is the seed.
[10:31] He plants the seed in the material universe, of which we are the result.
[10:36] Therefore we are the feminine. The whole material creation, He is the Supreme Father.
[10:41] [Interviewer:] Are you celibate?
[10:42] [Kirtanananda:] That has nothing to do with it. I may be or I may not be. This has nothing to do with it.
[10:50] [Young man:] I just came in, and I was tired, and they said, "You're tired. Go to sleep. Lay down here."
[10:56] [Interviewer:] You mean this is your first day?
[10:57] [Young man:] Yes.
[11:00] [Interviewer:] And this is your first chanting session?
[11:02] [Young man:] Yes, this is the first time I have been into it at all.
[11:07] [Kirtanananda:] I came about the first of August. Ray was here a little earlier, I believe.
[11:11] [Young man 2:] I came around the middle of August.
[11:14] [Kirtanananda:] And then others, of course, have come within the last week.
[11:18] But the one thing that usually happens is that those who come like this,
[11:23] they come, and they just never go. Once you come, you stay,
[11:28] because the Swami has something which you are looking for.
[11:32] [Stanley:] The first thing he did for us was to give us our method of chanting,
[11:36] which is so powerful a method that it will work for anyone.
[11:41] In other words, you don't need to be one person in a million who can really be successful
[11:49] in meditation and yoga, where you have to spend years at that discipline without getting any place
[11:56] and then finally achieve it.
[11:59] Our method is so powerful that it will work for anyone in two days.
[12:03] [Greg:] Should I bow down when I don't feel anything?
[12:06] Should I say these words when I don't feel anything?
[12:09] He says, "Yes," because this is a training.
[12:12] You see, you want to train yourself, and this is the most important.
[12:17] Then you'll gradually just fall right into it, if you work hard at it.
[12:23] You must go..., you must practice, and this is the main thing, and then you'll become entrapped by it.
[12:32] [Lady Interviewer:] How about now? Do you feel [indistinct].
[12:34] [Greg:] Excuse me?
[12:37] [Lady Interviewer:] Do you feel uncomfortable?
[12:39] [Greg:] Oh, no. I see all this practicing and work, it just had to be done for where I am now.
[12:50] [Stanley:] Anyone who chants Hare Krsna... Have you got the whole chant?
[12:55] [Raymond:] ...that's a special location. Just the same as we are all sitting here, but if I call "Stanley,"
[13:01] that's not the same as calling you. But if I call your name, then that shows my attention is riveted on you.
[13:07] So by riveting our attention on Krsna, we are able to...
[13:12] In other words, if I meditated on the word "Raymond, Raymond, Raymond," that wouldn't be the same at all.
[13:17] The word "Krsna" is God; the word "Raymond," at least to my knowledge, the word Raymond is not.
[13:26] [Greg:] Well, you have to concentrate on these words. You have to be sincere about the words.
[13:33] You have to surrender yourself to these words, and through this...
[13:39] This takes practice. It's not done in one session. This takes time.
[13:44] It took me maybe four sessions before I began to even chant, you see.
[13:51] [Interviewer:] What happens when you do chant, when you're in it?
[13:54] [Greg:] Well, that's hard to explain. I guess that each person has a different reaction, but you just seem to open up.
[14:01] It seems as if something flies out of you. It's like a door opens.
[14:09] It slowly opens, till finally it's open, and then you walk into the unknown. But the unknown is beautiful, this unknown.
[14:19] [Kirtanananda:] You have every muscle of your body engaged in the exercise.
[14:23] You're singing, you're dancing; your mind is fully engaged in thinking about God.
[14:29] What more can there be? This is the full aim of any kind of yoga.
[14:33] It's to concentrate the energy to a point, and in this kirtana your energy is concentrated on one point: God.
[14:41] Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/
[14:43] Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
[14:47] What more could you want?
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