I reminded Srila Prabhupada of what he had said in London about his toothpaste. "You said your teeth were so rotten they want to fall out, but the toothpaste won't allow them."
Srila Prabhupada grinned. "Yes, actually my teeth have gone all bad. It is useless. But on account of this toothpaste it is still working." He gave a laugh. "Otherwise, according to dental science, it has to be extracted. It is no other remedy. If you go to a dentist, immediately he will say, 'Extract all this and have a new set, artificial.' That is, I know that. But I don't want to extract. As far as possible, use them and let them fall out automatically, as they have already fallen out so many. Fifty percent already fallen out, and twenty-five percent are shaking, and still I am eating. Otherwise, according to the dental science, I should not eat any salt. In Bengal there is a word that when teeth is rotten, then your eating is gone. You cannot digest, you cannot eat. If the foodstuff is not properly chewed, it causes digestive disturbance. Digestive disturbance means so many diseases. This coughing is due to digestive disturbance. I know that."
"That's because liver's not working?" I asked, remembering the doctor's opinion in New York.
Srila Prabhupada agreed. "Yes. It is old man's disease. Liver doesn't work nicely, teeth does not work nicely, there is susceptibility to cold. Old age. All my young friends, they have all died. Nobody's living. One or two still. You know that Dinanatha came? I think you know. He's living. He's seventy-five, seventy-six. Little younger than me."
He was referring to his old friend Dinanatha Misra in Calcutta. "That very thin man? Oh, I know. Yes. He was very sick actually when we were there."
"Yes, he was sick," Srila Prabhupada said. "He was half dead."
- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu
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