Room Conversation

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
I said, “What will I eat it with?” He said, “A little sugar.” I thought he was going to give me some bread or something. He said, “No, no. Eat it just like that with sugar.”

Prabhupāda:
Butter and miśri [sugar candy].

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
They eat… The Punjabis are very fond of eating a lot of mākhana, fresh butter.

Bhakti-caru:
They are also vegetarian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda:
But Kashmiri are meat-eaters, fish-eaters. Bengali are fish-eaters.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Oriyas, fish-eaters. What about U.P.?

Prabhupāda:
U.P., this dāl, chapāti. They prepare first class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Ḍāl and chapātis.

Prabhupāda:
Vegetable also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
What is the speciality in Punjab?

Prabhupāda:
Punjab, this pulao [fried rice].

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
What is…

Prabhupāda:
Panir.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Panir.

Prabhupāda:
Means this chānā [curd].

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Yes.

Prabhupāda:
They make very nice preparation.

Bhakti-caru:
Tandoori [cooked in coal fire] preparation.

Prabhupāda:
Every province has got.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Is there a speciality in the Madhya Pradesh area?

Prabhupāda:
Madhya Pradesh, they are practically South Indian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Yeah. Then every place has its special fruits and vegetables.

Prabhupāda:
Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
It seems in that respect that Bengal is very opulent in varieties of vegetables.

Prabhupāda:
And fish. They prepare varieties of preparation of fish. *Māche jol [fish curry], māchera tak [fish cooked in tamarind], māchera jhāl [chilly fish], māchera dorma. [fish cooked in mustard paste] They kill this jessore koi [climbing perch fish] and paste with mustard and fry it in oil. [Transl. What do they call it?]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. Bhāpā. Steamed climbing perch fish with mustard paste. Also fish kālia or fried fish with chilli and spices.]

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Māchera dormā and koftā or pakorā. Many varieties.] They know more of fish preparation and also vegetable. [Transl. Piṭha-pānā.[rice cake]]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. That is called tel koi. [climbing perch fish fried in oil]]

Prabhupāda:
Hun?

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. Tel koi.]

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. Tel koli?]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. Tel koi.]

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. That koi fish.]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. Cooked in oil and added with mustard paste and steamed it. By steaming, it becomes soft and cooked.]

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. This is the world of enjoyment. If you want to go to Kṛṣṇa then you have to forget all this.] Kṛṣṇa bada dayāmaya, karibāre jihvā jaya Prasāda-sevāya [song I, Gītāvalī, Śrīla Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura.] Kṛṣṇa-prasāda… [Transl. You have to practice this. And by practicing this you will automatically forget all that.]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. There will be no problem for that.]

Prabhupāda:
[Transl. No.]

Bhakti-cāru:
[Transl. By the influence of sādhu-saṅga…]

Prabhupāda:
The real fact is that this jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. [SB. 1.13.47] One life is food for another life. That is nature’s way. But one has to pass through so many varieties of life, evolution. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi [Padma Purāṇa]. How many millions of years we’ll take to evolve to become a human being? Then he gets chance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Payecha mānava janama, emana janama ara pabe na. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante [Bg. 7.19]. Emona janma, this janma, manuṣya-janma. And if we miss and don’t get Kṛṣṇa, again glide down. Mām aprāpya mṛtyu-saṁsāra [Bg. 9.3]. Again you fall down. I’ll eat you; you’ll you eat me. And the aquatic, 900,000 species, varieties of life. The same struggle—one fish eating another fish. Struggle within the water. A small fish can understand three miles away a big fish is coming. It is all stated in the Bhāgavatam. This struggle is going on. Then in the jungle, animals. The man-eater trees are there in Africa. Trees, man, eat man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
How do they do that?

Prabhupāda:
You go, and if you are in touch on that tree, then you cannot get out. You’ll die and you’ll become dead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
They eat you?

Prabhupāda:
Yes, the tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
They eat through the roots.

Prabhupāda:
Yes. Spider, big, big spider.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
There’s a thing called the Venus Fly Trap. It’s this special plant, and if anything goes near it, it goes like that. Maybe they have big ones in Africa.

Prabhupāda:
Simply eating competition. These American… It’s called surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
American…?

Prabhupāda:
What is that sport, surfer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Surfing. You mean on the board in the water? Surfing.

Prabhupāda:
So they may become fish next life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Actually, you said that in a lecture in Hawaii in our temple. I remember. That really gave everybody a thought. Food for thought.

Prabhupāda:
It is in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Yes. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvam tyajaty ante kalevaram [Bg. 8.6].

Prabhupāda:
It is not my manufactured idea. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda… [SB. 7.5.23], this is the only way. In our childhood we used to play golok dhāndhā [Snakes & Ladders]. You… What is called? Dice, going, going, going. Then it comes in the mouth of a serpent, and the serpent, immediately you had to come again. All progress you have made, if you are in the mouth of a serpent, then you have to come to the tail of the serpent. Suppose you are on the fifty point and there is mouth of serpent, then you have to come to point three. Again you have to rise. So dice. Golok dhāndhā. We used to play in our childhood.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
In America they have similar game, but the different points are properties. It’s all business. They made a very involved business game.

Prabhupāda:
That’s all right. It is same.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Same principle. If you get on the wrong spot, you have to go to jail. That’s what they have. They put you in jail. Different culture. Demoniac culture.

Prabhupāda:
Just see, practically. Indira Gandhi, she came to a point, and then falls again. Is it not? The same golok dhāndhā. She was all-in-all powerful, and once again finished.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Finished.

Prabhupāda:
Sanjay Gandhi—finished. President Nixon—finished. They do not see, these big, big stalwart men of the world. They can be finished in one second. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that “I have seen my father, such a powerful man, finished. What benediction I shall ask, this material world? Don’t allure me. Better engage me as the servant of Your servant.” Anything, any opulence. Now nobody utters the name of Indira Gandhi. Every… Every day the people or newspaper filled up with Indira Gandhi. That the Russian minister, Krushchev? Nobody knows where he is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
He’s unknown now.

Prabhupāda:
They said he is living privately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Why did they depose him?

Prabhupāda:
The cause may be many, but we have to see the result. The main cause was that he was appointing his own men in big, big office.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Same thing as Indira.

Prabhupāda:
Nepotism. Indira’s plan was next prime minister, Sanjay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
Family heritage. I saw one cartoon in the…, in one newspaper. It said… A little conversation between Gandhi, Nehru and Indira. They’re speaking with Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Each one of them is discussing how he’s gone wrong. Cāṇakya is advising them what they’ve done wrong. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita is advising each one of them what they did wrong.

Prabhupāda:
Ācchā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:
It’s a cartoon. [pause] I was speaking with Abhirāma today for quite a long time. Now he understands that he will… [break] [end]