Morning Walk in the Botanical Gardens – June 2, 1975, Honolulu

Who has put this chemical?

Srutakirti: [introducing recording] The following conversation takes place on Prabhupada's morning walk, June 2nd, 1975, in the Botanical Gardens in Honolulu, Hawaii. [indistinct]

Gurukrpa: What's this tree?

Devotee (1): It's a type of Pandanus. May they weave with that, Prabhupada. They make rugs. [break] ...chiku tree, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Chikel?

Devotee (1): Yeah, this one here.

Srutakirti: Chiku.

Prabhupada: What is that chiku?

Paramahamsa: Like in India.

Srutakirti: The brown fruit, chiku.

Prabhupada: Oh, chiku.

Manasvi: Chiku-chiku. Nah, nah, this is not chiku.

Devotee (1): This one here. This one right here. This big one.

Manasvi: This one? Oh, the big one. Yeah, yeah, that is. Yes, this one is chiku. Very big chiku.

Devotee (1): The chiku tree.

Prabhupada: Is well known, chiku. In Gujarat there is ample chiku. This stone is artificially brought here, I think.

Devotee (1): It looks natural. It looks like it was here all the time.

Prabhupada: Maybe.

Devotee (1): Maybe, yeah.

Srutakirti: Yeah, it's all around. [break]

Devotee (1): ...small trees in here or grass, we can walk in there.

Prabhupada: Yes, which way?

Devotee (2): Oh, this way. We can walk this way. [break]

Gurukrpa: The tree is a ...

Srutakirti: It's an acknowledgment of the first director of this botanical garden. [break]

Devotee (1): ...poison, Prabhupada. This one is poison. It's called a key[?] apple. I think, I don't know, but I'm not sure.

Prabhupada: Without tasting, you say poison? First of all taste. [laughter] If you die, then you say it is poison.

Devotee (1): This is a candlenut tree, Srila Prabhupada. They take these nuts, and in old Hawaii they string it through a coconut frond, and then they light it, and it used to burn for a few minutes. It's full of oil. Candlenut.

Srutakirti: That is the same thing. Poison tree. [break]

Devotee (1): I do not know, Srila Prabhupada.

Srutakirti: It's the same one.

Devotee (1): Poison.

Prabhupada: Poison? What it is written there?

Paramahamsa: "Cerbera[?] tree."

Devotee (1): They told me most of the fruits here are poisonous except for one mango. That yellow [indistinct].

Manasvi: That yellow kind of campaka?

Prabhupada: No, it is not campaka. It is called kaiku[?]. [break] ...Melbourne?

Srutakirti: No.

Gurukrpa: What's that?

Paramahamsa: They have a park, a botanical garden in Melbourne where we went.

Prabhupada: Very big and very beautiful.

Srutakirti: There, there were no fruit trees.

Prabhupada: Huh?

Srutakirti: In Melbourne there were no fruit trees. Here there are many...

Prabhupada: But here the poison fruit. [laughter]

Srutakirti: He says poison.

Prabhupada: It is better not to have fruit tree than to have a poison fruit. [pause] What is for?

Srutakirti: To protect it from the sun, too much sun.

Devotee (1): Srila Prabhupada, this is a cinnamon tree over here, a cinnamon.

Prabhupada: Oh. Cinnamon tree, you can use the leaves for cooking. Teja-patra.

Manasvi: Bay leaves. Aren't they called bay leaves? That dry one? A dry one?

Devotee (1): This is the same?

Prabhupada: No.

Srutakirti: Where is the cinnamon stick?

Devotee (1): It says it's from India and Ceylon.

Prabhupada: Maybe. Leaves appears...

Devotee: There's some smell.

Devotee (1): There's little berries on it. [break]

Prabhupada: So which way? This way?

Devotee: This way. [break] What is that?

Devotee (1): I do not know.

Manasvi: Berry.

Srutakirti: Berry is sweet berry.

Paramahamsa: Blueberry.

Devotee (1): Java berry.

Gurukrpa: Where's the path?

Devotee (1): This way. You can go up this way. In either direction, you know, they're all different plants.

Prabhupada: [indistinct]

Gurukrpa: Straight on. [break]

Prabhupada: ...say "This contains this chemical, that chemical, this chemical," but he will never think, "Who has put this chemical?" That is his dullness. They will analyze and say, "It contains this chemical, that chemical, that..." And who has put this chemical? That they cannot say.

Srutakirti: Very large trees.

Prabhupada: Oh, yes.

Devotee (1): This big one?

Prabhupada: Maybe thousand years old.

Devotee (1): It's from Africa.

Prabhupada: African trees are like tall like this.

Devotee (1): More than hundred years ago, 1850. One hundred years. It's more than hundred years.

Manasvi: This is that same one, they give red, different flowers.

Prabhupada: This is also African?

Manasvi: No, they have in India this tree also. That gives red flowers?

Devotee: The root is up to my head.

Prabhupada: And it was in a small seed. Prepare such seed, you chemist. How strong. [sound of knocking made by walking cane] [laughter] [break]

Manasvi: You know the... from that tree.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Devotee (1): It says..., they put it in mattresses and pillows a long time ago. They used that for their bedding. It's called kapoz[?] [kapok].

Manasvi: We have also in India.

Prabhupada: We make thread out of it.

Devotee (1): Thread? Accha.

Prabhupada: It is called cotton wool.

Devotee (1): Cotton wool?

Srutakirti: Bench here.

Prabhupada: We can sit down here? [break] ...big Zamindar, very rich man, Narottama dasa Thakura. [break] ...cars, but where their men?

Bali-mardana: There is a Buddhist temple here, Chinese Buddhist temple, and I think the cars are for that. And some of the keepers. [break]

Prabhupada: ...be superintend when the garden opens.

Srutakirti: Yeah. That's the times they open. [break] [end]