Room Conversation

Prabhupāda: ...they're reading now. Here, although we have got books, nobody reads. But there they are reading. Otherwise, nobody is... [microphone moving] That means they are concentrating with so many books. There are other books also. Why they cannot sell so many books? Unless public is interested... If one has read one part of Bhāgavatam, he has got some impression, and actually that is the... [break] ...I think it is in Japan. One young gentleman came, I do not know where, he simply asked me, "Swāmījī, can I talk with you?" "Yes, sit down." His first appreciation was, "Swāmījī, where you have got so vast knowledge?" I have already told some of you. So these people, these Americans and Europeans, they are intelligent. They are seeing that here are some ideas which is not to be found throughout the whole world. Therefore they are purchasing. Actually, it is right here. Every verse, every śloka is so sublime, and if it is properly explained, people must appreciate. There is no doubt about it. And they are doing that. In our country, due to the loss of our own culture and poverty, we have now taken, "Money is everything." [someone enters] Aiye. Wherefrom you are coming?

Rūpa-vilāsa: Gurukula.

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: He's in charge of gurukula. He's here for the last six months. Jagadīśa left him here. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...he has got?

Devotee: What taste does he have?

Rūpa-vilāsa: He seems to have a taste more for studying, but not too much for teaching.

Prabhupāda: Study is not to teach. What is that study?

Rūpa-vilāsa: I mean to say he likes very much studying languages and writing and being... He's a good scholar, but...

Prabhupāda: Has he written anything?

Rūpa-vilāsa: In the classroom with the children he is not so expert.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Has he written anything? You say that he likes to read and write. So has he written anything?

Rūpa-vilāsa: Just as far as I know, some articles for Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: So why does he not write? If he has got a taste for something particular, he can do that. But nobody knows where he is.

Rūpa-vilāsa: What I came to ask was that...

Prabhupāda: He's not fixed up. He wanted to take charge of the Deity worship, then he went away.

Indian devotee: He has got a visa.

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: He has left Bombay long ago. Fifteen days ago.

Harikeśa: With four thousand rupees. [devotees talking in background]

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: He's in Rādhā-kuṅḍa, he says.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Harikeśa: Really? He's in Rādhā-kuṅḍa?

Indian devotee: One boy came from Bombay, he told me, "If I leave, I have to go."

Prabhupāda: When did he say?

Indian devotee: [indistinct]

Prabhupāda: Then he's Rādhā-kuṅḍa.

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: In Bombay you...

Prabhupāda: He has taken four thousand rupees and gone to Rādhā-kuṅḍa.

Devotee: Yogānanda is in Govardhana?

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: No. Yogānanda is in Delhi. He's going to come here.

Prabhupāda: This is his taste. Sit idly, and become famous as very good scholar.

Rūpa-vilāsa: He did not come to class so often. He did not even come to teach so often. Śrīla Prabhupāda, when Dayānanda prabhu was teaching the children he was a very good teacher, and he liked very much to teach. Now I know that he is in Tehran upon your order, but still he was very effective as a teacher of Bhagavad-gītā to the children.

Prabhupāda: Restless, that's all. Mind not fixed up. Restless. Now what he'll do with that four thousand rupees? It is very good program. If I get some thousands of rupees and sit down in Rādhā-kuṅḍa and eat, that is very good idea.

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: I think we can find him. We know where he is.

Prabhupāda: You can find him, that is not difficult, but what is his mentality? Why he has gone to Rādhā-kuṅḍa if he was teaching here? You cannot rely upon him. When he'll go Rādhārāṅī [indistinct]? Rādhā-kuṅḍa, Rādhārāṅī's place, if anyone thinks that it is very easy to remain in Rādhā-kuṅḍa, the topmost place... Rūpa Gosvāmī has spoken—he must speak about Rādhā-kuṅḍa. But what he has spoken about other things?

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ [devotees prompt] jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati [Upadeśāmṛta 2]

[One's devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required; (2) overendeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters; (4) practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically; (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Kṛṣṅa consciousness; and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements.]

Rādhā-kuṅḍa... Who will live Rādhā-kuṅḍa? One is topmost devotee, and if he mixes with third-class devotee, how he is fit for living in Rādhā-kuṅḍa? There is no difference between Rādhā-kuṅḍa and Rādhārāṅī. So how you can jump over Rādhārāṅī? Rādhā-kuṅḍa and Rādhārāṅī, nondifferent. How you can enjoy Rādhā-kuṅḍa by swimming in it? You cannot touch with your feet even Rādhā-kuṅḍa. You can take little water and keep it on the head. That is respectful to Rādhā-kuṅḍa. Of course, things are going on like that, but strictly speaking, Rādhā-kuṅḍa should be respected as Rādhārāṅī herself. That is Rādhā-kuṅḍa consciousness, highest Rādhā-kuṅḍa consciousness. And if you want to live in Rādhā-kuṅḍa, then why he has taken four thousand rupees from Girirāja?

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: Actually, Girirāja gave him that money to buy books for our library of our new temple, for the library...

Prabhupāda: So why should he take? Why should he take the responsibility for purchasing if he's interested in Rādhā-kuṅḍa?

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: Yes, that's not right. He had his own money also. He just got a lot of money from his wife—three, four hundred dollars, he told me.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Money is not the strength for understanding Rādhārāṅī. If you have got some money, by the strength of money you'll understand Rādhārāṅī—that is another bogus thing. Rādhārāṅī...

Bhagatjī: [long Hindi conversation with Prabhupāda and other Indian devotee]

Gopāla Kṛṣṅa: [Hindi] Girirāja was asking me for the books.

Prabhupāda: Just see. The man who paid him, he was inquiring where are the books? [Hindi] That Mukunda, His class friend, he was doing that. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu rejected him. [Hindi] "He goes everywhere." [Hindi] We have got index in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You can find out what is the meaning of khaḍa jāthiyā. [Hindi] ...one who is rejected. [Hindi] [end]