Srila Prabhupada & George Harrison
Bhaktivedanta Manor, July 26, 1976
George Harrison: Are you ever going to stop traveling?
Prabhupäda: That is Kåñëa's desire. I don't want, personally, but if Kåñëa wants, that is everything. We have got more hundred and two centers, different parts of the world.
George Harrison: Still six more to go.
Prabhupäda: Yes. (laughter) We have got a very nice house in Detroit. If you sometimes go there...
George Harrison: Whereabouts?
Prabhupäda: Detroit.
George Harrison: Ah, Detroit. They need one there. Crazy place.
Jayatértha: Heavy place.
Prabhupäda: That house was constructed fifty years ago at the cost of six million dollars, and we have got it very cheap. Three hundred thousand dollars.
George Harrison: Was it a big house?
Hari-çauri: A very big mansion on the riverside.
George Harrison: Colonial house?
Prabhupäda: Not as big-four acres of land—but the building is very costly. One room will cost now three hundred thousand dollars. So nicely made.
Hari-çauri: They estimated it would cost about fifteen million to build such a house now.
George Harrison: Yes, they probably wouldn't even bother or be able to, at least. Is it an old house?
Hari-çauri: Fifty years old. It's very solid, though, very good condition as well.
Prabhupäda: And on the house on bottom, there is river. Not directly, but an offshoot of river. People come, rowing. A very nice situation, and because it is black quarter, nobody was purchasing. So I said that "For us, what is black or white? Purchase it." So we got very cheap. At that time I paid them hundred and fifty thousand, and (indistinct). So we purchased.
George Harrison: Did they find a temple in Hamburg? In Hamburg. I was there once, but they just had a little tiny house, and they were trying to get another.
Prabhupäda: Hamburg, I think closed?
Jayatértha: They have a place in Frankfurt, where the devotees are.... Just outside Frankfurt.
George Harrison: So they haven't got a place in Hamburg.
Jayatértha: No, it's a heavy city.
George Harrison: I was there one year when they were having fights. It's...
Jayatértha: Rockers. It's a heavy place.
Mukunda: Rockers.
George Harrison: It is full of gangs.
Prabhupäda: And we have got another palace, what is that village?
Jayatértha: South of Paris? That one?
Prabhupäda: No, France.
Jayatértha: Yes, south of Paris. It's near a place called Valancey. Very nice place.
Pradyumna: French chateau.
Mukunda: It's on about 250 acres.
George Harrison: Really?
Mukunda: Huge fields, beautiful place. Show you a picture of it.
George Harrison: Yes. So that's one of the goals now, one hundred and eight temples.
Jayatértha: Should be able to do it this year, I think.
Prabhupäda: Eh?
Jayatértha: Should have a hundred and eight this year, I think.
Hari-çauri: Centers. One hundred and eight centers.
Prabhupäda: Oh.
Hari-çauri: Temples and farms.
Prabhupäda: We want worker. Otherwise, Kåñëa is giving us so many centers. In India I can get so many places, but how to manage? Simply taking from persons, and if I cannot manage nicely, that does not look well. Therefore I say first of all get men, then take donation. There is no harm. How many devotees were living here?
Jayatértha: There's about a hundred, Çréla Prabhupäda.
Prabhupäda: Yes, then it is all right. And if there was no devotees, ten devotees, then how could we manage?
Jayatértha: We have about fifteen devotees that work full time on the grounds.
Prabhupäda: So what is the difficulty sprinkling water that quarter? It is costly?
Jayatértha: We'll try to sprinkle more, but there's a lack of water pressure.
Prabhupäda: No, pressure, by pump.
George Harrison: That's what we have, we had a little Honda pump, but you had to start it off. It's a gasoline engine, I think. And put one pipe into the lake and just pump out of the lake, and then you have a sprinkler on the other side. Makes a noise, though, that's the only thing. Makes a noise and gives off an exhaust.
Prabhupäda: A pump for, say, one hour, two hour.
George Harrison: You could use the water out of the lake, then nobody could really complain about that.
Jayatértha: That's how we'd have to do it, I think.
George Harrison: That probably wouldn't be enough, it wouldn't take the level down. How do you fill that up?
Mukunda: That's a natural watershed. This is the lowest place in the area in about four miles every direction. So we have all those underground water tables feeding it.
Prabhupäda: If there is rain then there is no scarcity of water. The water comes here. Yes.
George Harrison: But how, when you drain it, then how did you stop it from filling up?
Mukunda: Well, it did fill up in the winter quite a bit, but then in the summer it went back down. It's filled up now—we had to use city water to get it started. But as soon as it rains it goes up about this far.
Jayatértha: It's evaporated about six inches since
Mukunda: You don't have a well in your place?
George Harrison: No, just, well, that (indistinct) pond. Originally the lakes all were filled just like this as well as flooding the drains, and when it rained off the house everything would go, and we have a big storage tank, and then there's ball cocks, and underneath that big bank of rhododendrons was like a room built there, which was a storage tank. Then any other water he must have used just from the mains. But these days, you know, they have meters on the mains, so you have to pay for every gallon.
Mukunda: What about getting those water diviners to come and find water?
George Harrison: Well, you can find it I think anywhere if you just bore a hole. So what we did was just bore at the end of the lake. But you have to go down to the depth of the riverbed, and there there's not much water because the rain, it's all chalk and limestone, so the rains.... That's the problem with watering in the summer, if you put water...
Prabhupäda: From your house the river is near?
George Harrison: Yes.
Prabhupäda: Thames?
George Harrison: Yes. But then the Thames is here, and we're up on the hill, so we bored a hole right down to the three hundred feet, I think, three hundred and fifty feet, to the level of the river, and then a pump, we can pump that. But when it does rain or if you do water the ground, it's so chalky that it runs right through it. So it's hard to keep a lot of moisture in the water. But also at the same time all the rain water runs through, then it hits the rock level of the riverbed, there must be tons of water down there. We can pump out of there all day long for months on end, and nothing seems to dry up.
Jayatértha: Fantastic.
Mukunda: You could even do it by hand if you were out of electricity.
George Harrison: The hole is..., the bore is actually only about this wide. You can have a little bucket. (laughter)
Jayatértha: You have to apply for permission, actually, to dig a well, but around here at least you have to get permission.
George Harrison: We did too. You have to put your name on the list, public notice in the local papers, and if somebody wants to complain about it, then they have a chance to. And once it's been up there for a few days or a week or something, and if nobody's made any formal complaint for any reason, like maybe they've got one and want to bore a hole, and you may be (indistinct) there, so then you just go ahead. Then it's all approved, and then your names goes on the list someplace in the county surveyor's office. So you do have to go through a, you know, a couple of months of waiting. Just to, say, bore a hole to replenish, and you have to just pay for the cost to bore a hole and the pump. To lay out electricity to where the pump is. The pump is, you know, just in the ground, you can't even see it. You know, by that weeping willow tree?
Prabhupäda: So if you want to take little rest, we can arrange for that. Resting.
George Harrison: Rest? Prabhupäda: Yes, for you.
George Harrison: No, no.
Jayatértha: I think, Çréla Prabhupäda, you want to rest.
George Harrison: You take a rest.
Prabhupäda: I am taking rest now these twenty-four hours. I have no other business than to take rest. (laughter)
Jayatértha: Always resting at the lotus feet of Çré Kåñëa.
Prabhupäda: That is real rest.
kåñëa tvädéya-pada-paìkaja-païjaräntam
adyaiva viçatu me mänasa-räja-haàsaù
präëa-prayäëa-samaye kapha-väta-pittaiù
kaëöhävarodhana-vidhau smaranaà kutas te
[MM 33]
The Mukunda-mäla-stotra... There was a big emperor, Samrat(?), Kulaçekhara, emperor Kulaçekhara, he was a great devotee. So he wrote some poetry. Formerly, kings were so advanced, rajarñi. They are king, at the same time, saintly persons. In the Bhagavad-gétä also it is said imaà räjarñayo viduù [Bg. 4.2]—this science of Bhagavad-gétä was learned by the räjarñis. People were happy therefore. The head, or the executive, they were all saintly persons. So this Kulasekhara, he writes in the beginning of his poetry, "Kåñëa, O Kåñëa..." Kåñëa tvädéya-pada-paìkaja-païjaräntam. The paìkaja means lotus flower. So Kåñëa's lotus feet is just like lotus flower. The lotus flower has stem down, and the swans, they take pleasure to go down the water and entangled by the stem. Have you seen their pleasure? Yes. That is their great sporting, to be entangled by the stem and come out, in this way, go deep, this is their sporting. So this Kulasekhara is praying, "My Lord Kåñëa, let my swan of mind be entangled with the stem of Your lotus feet." Kåñëa tvädéya-pada-paìkaja-païjaräntam adyaiva: "Immediately"—viçatu—"let enter." Who?Adyaiva viçatu me, "My," mänasa-räja-haàsaù, "my mind, which is just like a swan." So why adyaiva, immediately? He says that präëa-prayäëa-samaye, "At the time of death," präëa-prayäëa-samaye kapha-väta-pittaiù, "when the physical condition of the body will be in disorder," kapha, pitta, vayu will not be in order.... Präëa-prayäëa-samaye kapha-väta-pittaiù kaëöhävarodha, "At that time I shall not be able to speak. I'll 'ahn, ahn,' but that's all. So I may not be able to chant Hare Kåñëa. Better I am now in good health, so let my mind be entangled in the stem of Your lotus feet." Very nice poetry.
kåñëa tvädéya-pada-paìkaja-panjaräntam
adyaiva viçatu me mänasa-räja-haàsaù
präna-prayäëa-samaye kapha-väta-pittaiù
kaëöhävarodhana-vidhau smaraëaà kutas te
[MM 33]
"At that time I may be not able to utter 'Kåñëa' or think of You, and now I am healthy, let me finish this business." That means "Let me die immediately. Now I'm healthy, I'm quite fit." This is the ideal. Ante näräyaëa-småtiù [SB 2.1.6]. At the time of death, if one remembers Kåñëa, then his life is successful. Immediately he goes to Kåñëa. Just like Ajamila. He chanted "Narayana," and immediately his path to Vaikuntha become clear. So this practice means, whatever we practice all through life, there is chance of coming that remembrance at the time of death, and then it is successful, life is success. If at the time of death one can remember Kåñëa, then his whole life is successful. Our one student, Kärttikeya, his mother was very fortunate. So his mother had nothing to do with this Society, but the boy was attached, and she heard several times "Kåñëa," that this boy is attached to Kåñëa. At the time of her death, she asked her son, "Is your Kåñëa here?" and died. Just see how fortunate she is. She simply uttered this word, "Is your Kåñëa here?" then she died. Very fortunate. So on account of her son she got salvation. Otherwise, Kärttikeya told me that he went to see his mother, and the mother was going to ball dance, and the mother did not receive him well. "All right, you sit down. I'll come again." She was such lady. But by Kåñëa's grace, at the time of death, she inquired her son, "Is your Kåñëa here?" Very fortunate.
George Harrison: When my mother died I had to send my sister and father out of the room, because they were getting emotional, and I just chanted Hare Kåñëa.
Prabhupäda: She chanted.
George Harrison: I did.
Prabhupäda: Oh, very nice, so she could hear?
George Harrison: I don't know, I don't know, she was in like a coma or something. It was the only thing I could think of.
Prabhupäda: When it happened?
George Harrison: In 1970. It was the only thing I could think of that may be of value, you know.
Prabhupäda: Anyway, if she has heard Hare Kåñëa, she'll get the benefit. Either she chants or somebody chanting, if she hears, çravaëaà kértanam, both the same thing. Little chance. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya träyate mahato bhayät. So let us practice in such a way that at the time of death we may remember. That is success. Tyaktvä dehaà punar janma naiti mäm eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9]. So you are reading Kåñëa repeatedly? Kåñëa book you are reading repeatedly?
George Harrison: Well, you know, I read it every so often. I always take theGétä with me wherever I go. I mean that's the one I just keep all the time. But you know, I'll just sometimes read a little of something, a little bit of something else. I've never been a great reader.
Prabhupäda: (laughs) No, you have got chance here to think soberly. But on account of your chanting "Kåñëa" so many people are chanting.
George Harrison: I don't think it's on my account.
Prabhupäda: No, they say "George chants Hare Kåñëa." They say. Do they not?
Mukunda: Yes.
Prabhupäda: And you have got many thousands followers.
George Harrison: It's nice, but I think we all...
Prabhupäda: Anyway, you go on chanting. That will influence. There is a poetry written by, I think in the Caitanya-caritämåta. Rupa Gosvämé is wondering, "I do not know what sweetness there is in these two words, Kåñ-ëa."
Gurudäsa: The verse starts with priya, "dear."
Prabhupäda: Varna-dvayé. You remember this verse? No jane, "What kind of nectar it is there in these two words, Kåñ-ëa?" You have seen Deity today? No, it was closed.
George Harrison: It was closed.
Jayatértha: It's open again now.
Prabhupäda: When it is open?
Jayatértha: It's open now, the ärati is going on.
Prabhupäda: Oh. Sometimes you can come and stay here, see the ärati, at least one day, whole program, how they are doing. What is the program whole day?
Jayatértha: It starts at four-fifteen, the ärati, then we worship Tulasé-devé, chant japa and have class, and then prasädam eight-fifteen. Then during the day we all work, and in the evening again, seven o'clock, everyone comes together for the ärati, class.
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