Room Conversation

Indian man:
Yes.

Prabhupāda:
I was very much satisfied. New Vrindaban. Who wrote it? Somebody went there in my New Vrindaban.

Indian man:
I think Mr. Dvari. That I can find out.

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. So all of you kindly make some propaganda in favour of this movement.] The people are misled. They do not know. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum [SB. 7.5.31]. You are a brāhmaṇa-paṇḍita. Pāṇḍiyā* means…

Indian man:
Yeah, brāhmaṇa.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa:
He’s from Benares.

Prabhupāda:
Pandiya means paṇḍita. Brāhmaṇa. [Transl. Brāhmaṇa means paṇḍita or learned. What is the use if a brāhmaṇa is foolish? He follows proper code of conduct. Even if he is a fool, illiterate, he is righteous.] Illiterate.

Indian man:
Actually if a man is literate but if there is no saṁskāra, I can’t say he is better man… If saṁskāra is there and no education, then still I call he is better man. The man without saṁskāra is nothing.

Prabhupāda:
It is… That brahmacārī means saṁskāra, how to become satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ jñāna… * [Bg. 18.42]. Jñāna, * you can have knowledge simply by hearing, not by reading books.

Indian man:
Yes, by reading and writing all these things. [Transl. How it used to be in the ancient times? The spiritual master would be sitting and the disciple would be sitting. The spiritual master would instruct and the disciple would follow. That’s all. That’s why it is called śruti or that which is learned by oral reception. Śruti means heard.] [laughs] By hearing, knowledge by hearing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa:
I gave him Rāja-vidyā, which that Mrs. Dutt… You know that editor of that government paper? So I just wanted him to have a final look, grammatical. [Transl. All these are our spiritual master’s books. Total 84 books.]

Mr. Pandiya: Whoa!

Hari-śauri:
Śrīla Prabhupāda? What are these beads?

Prabhupāda:
I do not know. It was lying here, so I have packed.

Hari-śauri:
Oh. Have they been chanted or anything?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa:
[To Indian man: Have you seen the Chinese Gītā?

Prabhupāda:
I do not know what for it was taken here.

Hari-śauri:
I don’t know where they came from.

Mr. Pandiya: [Transl. In the Communist country China also! Very good, very good.]

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa:
[Transl. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam* in French.]

[break]

Prabhupāda:
They take it trifle. Husband and wife who are fighting, dāmpatya-kalahe caiva bahv-ārambhe laghu-kriyā. If there is fight between husband and…, it will be… The show will be very big, and the result will be nil. Bahv-ārambhe laghu-kriyā. “Never come to me! I shall not see your face! If you come, I shall kill you!” So on, so on.

Then next moment they are talking. Bahv-ārambhe laghu-kriyā. These are taken very lightly, no seriously. Now they are going… Nowadays, in the court case, fifty percent of cases are divorce in India.

Hari-śauri:
Same in the West.

Prabhupāda:
And that is also younger age, no old. Old age, they are never. There is no such case. Only younger generation, within thirties, twenties to thirties, they are fighting.

Hari-śauri:
Even in the West, the Roman Catholic Church wouldn’t allow divorce. The Church of England was started on that because Henry the VIII didn’t like his wife, and he wanted to divorce, and the Roman Catholic Church wouldn’t let him. So then he did do, so they excommunicated him. So then he started his own church and made up his own laws.

Otherwise, now there’s a big push in Italy for divorce and everything, but even in the last ten years there’s been no divorce. They don’t allow it. And chastity of the woman was still very greatly appreciated too. ’Cause now in the last…

Prabhupāda:
Woman infidel, they are stoned among the Muhammadans. Christian also. “You have done…” If a woman proved unchaste, she was punished. Is it not?

Hari-śauri:
Yes.

Prabhupāda:
The public would stone and kill. You know that punishment? Stoning?

Hari-śauri:
Stoning, yes. It’s mentioned a lot in early Christian times. They used to stone.

Prabhupāda:
Everyone will throw a stone. Very torturous death, stoning.

Hari-śauri:
I remember my auntie’s mother. She was Italian, and she used to wear black all the time. Just like the widows here, they wear white, so she was wearing black. She was a widow. So all the widows, even I saw some young women…

Prabhupāda:
Here also, in Gujarat, they wear black, black sāri.

Hari-śauri:
Yes, right. And they wear black, and they don’t dress attractively at all. And there’s no question of marrying again.

Prabhupāda:
And Russia also, respectable widows, they used to live in widow’s home. They would never marry.

Hari-śauri:
And they would wear black too.

Prabhupāda:
I have seen that house when I was in Moscow. That was one of the… What is called? They go to see, especially tourists.

Hari-śauri:
Red Square?

Prabhupāda:
Red Square. No, I mean to say what is that called when they go to see specially something? Monument or…

Hari-śauri:
Sightseeing?

Prabhupāda:
That. Sightseeing. So anyway, they took us to a house.

Hari-śauri:
Oh, you went on a sightseeing tour.

Prabhupāda:
Ah, yes, that “Here, respectable widows.” In Russia, after being widow, they used to live along with other respectable widows. They would never marry. Widow house. Live with queens and other respectable ladies. This was…

Hari-śauri:
Now I think about seven or eight marriages out of every ten in Russia end up in divorce.

Prabhupāda:
Hmm?

Hari-śauri:
Seven out of every ten marriages in Russia end up in divorce.

Prabhupāda:
Everywhere.

Hari-śauri:
Yeah.

Prabhupāda:
[pause] So we shall go?

Hari-śauri:
I just have to finish…

[break] [end]