Meeting with Godbrothers in Bengali
I always had a desire to publish Back to Godhead magazine with colourful pictures.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
[announcing:] Prabhupāda goes to the Caitanya Math in Māyāpur in the morning of March 6th, 1976. Speaking with his Godbrothers there.
Godbrother:
[Transl. Should there be little kīrtan?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Hmm. Give them mṛdaṅga and karatāla and let them do some kīrtan.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. May be we can go over there so that they can do kīrtan and circumambulate.] [indistinct]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Give them mṛdaṅga and karatāla and they…]
Godbrother:
[Transl. … take them for darśana. Take them to Prabhupāda’s Samādhi mandir for darśana.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl.[indistinct] Walking. No, no problem for walking.]
Godbrother:
[indistinct]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. We have served together in the Back to Godhead. You are a…]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Yes. To work combinedly requires huge learning.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That literary work…You have given it up now. Why don’t you start it again?]
Godbrother:
[Transl. I can’t see anything with my eyes any more.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. There is no need to see. Nowadays they have got machines. Just you have to hear and check it. Your ears are all right, no?]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Yes.
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That’s all right. There is so much work to do. Literary work. Solid work.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. I still do it but in a small scale. That’s my only service.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. I always had a desire to publish Back to Godhead magazine with colourful pictures. I think you have seen it the other day. Now I wish to publish something like that in Bengali. Whatever we are publishing here that is in Hindi paper. If we use good quality paper and good quality printing and present to educated people…I want to bring out a quality magazine. But I have no man power.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. No man power? So many people!]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. They are all foreigners. English speaking people cannot understand all this. I have got many foreigners.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. They cannot read this. All your books are in English.]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl. Most of the literatures are in Bengali.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Yes, in English we have got. Many other languages like German….]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Hindi, English and Bengali are prominent in India. If literatures in these three languages are published it will be a huge success.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Hindi and Gujarati are being published.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Mahārāja, didn’t you translate Back to Godhead in Bengali?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Yes, we did. But it is not being continued due to lack of qualified persons.]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl. Did you mention about Mahāprabhu’s Mandir [Yogapītha] discovered by Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura in your books?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Oh yes. In each and every book I mentioned.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. What I like about you, Mahārāja, is that as far as I remember, from your childhood you always wanted something big-international. You always had that desire. And now it has been materialised. When you started Back to Godhead magazine it was two paisa or something, isn’t it? But in the world status it was the best of religions. All right. Bring a mṛdaṅga and karatāla and let us have some kīrtan.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Give mṛdaṅga and karatāla to do kīrtan.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Get one mṛdaṅga and karatāla. Actually at this time most of the devotees are out.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That’s okay. We will…]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Our mṛdaṅga player is not here. He is sick.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Where is our Nitāi? Where is Nitāi? Nitāicānd? He can play mṛdaṅga. And you, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.] [break]
jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭottara-śata śrī śrīmad bhaktisiddhānta sarasvatī gosvāmī ṭhākur ki jaya. ananta-koṭi vaiṣṇava-vṛnda ki jaya. nāmācārya śrīla haridāsa ṭhākura kī jaya. premse kaho śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda kī jaya. śrī śrī rādhā-kṛṣṇa gopa-gopīnātha śyāma-kuṇḍa rādhā-kuṇḍa giri-govardhana kī jaya. vṛndāvana-dhāma kī jaya. navadvīpa-dhāma kī jaya. gaṅgāmayī kī jaya. yamunāmayī kī jaya. samavetā-bhakta-vṛndā kī jaya.
All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. Thank you very much.
Devotees:
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [offer obeisances]
Godbrother:
[Transl. While going to America you took blessings from here.] [laughs]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. We have to go, because our class is at 7AM.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. What will you do next?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. They all have different services at the temple. The service must be continued. In Middle East, in Arabian countries, in Tehran we have good response. They all hear with interest. One big…] [aside:] What is the name of that professor?
Ātreya Ṛṣi:
Ah? Dr. Bakt [?]
Prabhupāda:
Dr….?
Ātreya Ṛṣi:
Bakt[?]
Prabhupāda:
He is the most erudite scholar in Iran. He has received our books. [aside;] What he has said about our books?
Ātreya Ṛṣi:
That not only they have the philosophy but they have also Vedic culture.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
Represents the real Vedic tradition.
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. He is a Mussalman, but very learned gentleman. He took all our books.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Not so much in Arab. Egypt.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Not yet. But gradually they will take everywhere. Cairo also they will take gradually.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Cairo should be favourable.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. I entrusted them the responsibilities of spreading everywhere. And people are coming.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. How about Japan?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. In Japan also we have. But the problem is of language. The boys of Japan are very good.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Don’t they know English?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. They know, but very little. They know the philosophy.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. I heard in Germany…]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Yes. Germany there is so much.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. West Germany?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Ah? West Germany. Poland.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. You went?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. In Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rome.]
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
Even Hungery.
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Hungery. Hong Kong. Everywhere. So much preaching in the foreign countries.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Do they speak German language in Hungery?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. German. See here. We have published Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Germany. Did you read a few pages?]
Godbrother:
[Transl. With the help of a torch.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Oh torch?]
Godbrother:
[Transl. With ordinary light not possible. Didn’t you complete the 24th chapter?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. The whole book is complete.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. I need that part.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. We have got them all.]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl. Sanātana-śikṣā*] [Lord Caitanya’s teachings to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. He entire book is completed in seventeen volumes.]
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
Beautiful color illustrations.
Godbrother:
[Transl. Seventeen or eighteen?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Seventeen volumes. All the Universities, colleges and professors are placing standing orders.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Calcutta library may place standing order.]
Godbrother (2): [indistinct]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. They know us.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. First of all you taste then others.] [laughs]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Give to others.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Giving. Are you distributing prasādam?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. We have opened restaurants. We prepare huge quantity of ghee in New Vṛndāvana.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Ghee?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Hmm. Every day we produce 1000 pounds of ghee in New Vṛndāvana.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Really?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That’s why the farm is there. We receive 1000 pound milk. Each cow gives fifty to sixty pounds of milk. Didn’t you see our New Vṛndāvana pictures?]
Godbrother:
[Transl. How much land do you have in New Vṛndāvana?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. 1000 acres.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Where?]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl. In New Vṛndāvana.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. New Vṛndāvana? 1000 acres? So much land was lying vacant?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. There is plenty of land in America.]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl.[aside:] Nārāyaṇa, serve them water.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. It’s just that it is not being utilised. I always tell them that there is so much land in the whole world. If properly utilised, then you can feed ten times more population than there is now. People say that there is over population, it is totally nonsense.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. India is also not over populated.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Nowhere it is. Only foolish people talk like that.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Our land is comparatively smaller.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. We get information eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13] So what’s the problem even if there is over population? Can’t He feed all? But these fellows have become Godless. When Pṛthu Mahārāja asked Mother Earth that why are you not supplying, what did she answer? Mother earth said that I will not supply anything to these demons. I will make them starve. When people become demons, they will die of starvation. Godless. Otherwise is there any scarcity in the God’s kingdom?]
Godbrother:
Viśvambhara:
the Lord who maintains everyone.
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That’s why it says eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti Kāmān. He is feeding everyone. Over population? The animals also. They are also over populated? They are also eating. They give birth one dozen at a time. Are they over populated? He is feeding all. They simply talk nonsense. The real fact is, according to Bhāgavata, when people will become Godless and demons they will be destroyed by starvation. That’s a fact.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. There is no problem if people are God-centric.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. No problem. We see one year there is plenty of food grains and next year there is nothing. It is all in the hands of nature. If there is unlimited population God can supply unlimitedly also. Because they are fools and demons therefore there is scarsity of food. Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. [Bg. 9.22] Why there should be shortage in the kingdom of God?]
Godbrother 2:
[Transl. Actually people are sinful.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That’s enough. No more.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Take little more.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. No. I usually don’t eat in the morning.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Did you bring water? There is no scarcity of anything.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Prabhupāda used to say that the only scarcity is of devotional service to Hari.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Scarcity of Hari-kathā.]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Scarcity of Hari-kathā. This I have explained to them very clearly that famine is of Hari-kathā. Prabhupāda said that. I am experiencing. They throw away surplus wheat in the ocean.]
Godbrother:
[Transl. Throw away?]
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Yes!]
Godbrother:
Hare Kṛṣṇa!
Prabhupāda:
[Transl. And they request the farmers to produce less food grains, otherwise it will be cheaper. If there is more supply the cost will be less in the market. Therefore they throw away.] [end]