Srila Prabhupada & George Harrison
Bhaktivedanta Manor, July 26, 1976
Prabhupäda: No. Now we can begin.
George Harrison: Okay, Hare Kåñëa.
Gurudäsa: Nimbu-päni?
Prabhupäda: Hare Kåñëa. You give him two more samosas, he likes it. So now you can begin also. Yes. All the boys and girls are so nicely qualified for Kåñëa's service.
George Harrison: They are looking better and better all the time. It's nice for me to see Gurudäsa. He's turning into a mountain. (laughter)
Prabhupäda: His wife has also sannyäsé, renounced. Have you seen her latest?
George Harrison: No.
Prabhupäda: She has cut hair and white dress, living alone in the temple.Vairagya-vidyä-nija-bhakti-yogam [Cc. Madhya 6.254]. This bhakti-yogameans vairagya-vidyä, means detachment. That is the perfection of life. If we remain attached, that is conditional. Mäyä has made so many things attractive so that we have to remain attached, and to come out of this attachment is calledbhakti. So one man, you can sit down, you can eat. Pradyumna, you can eat.
Pradyumna: I've taken some milk before.
Prabhupäda: Oh, you don't require. Now you can eat, go on. Prasäda prapti mätrena. Our Jayatértha prabhu is a good manager. Management, looking after. Yes, he's a very good manager, experienced.
George Harrison: Hm?
Prabhupäda: He's experienced manager.
Jayatértha: Not very good managing this place now.
George Harrison: Well, it seems okay. Seems to be taken over pretty good. Peacefully.
Prabhupäda: He was also managing Los Angeles. Now we have brought him here to see things nicely managed.
George Harrison: It feels good, nice vibrations.
Prabhupäda: Yes. One thing, Jayatértha, why don't you sprinkle this water in this ground?
Jayatértha: Well, we do sprinkle it.
Prabhupäda: Just have an ordinary pumping, then it will be green.
Jayatértha: There's a kind of a limit on the amount of water pressure you can get these days.
Prabhupäda: Limit?
George Harrison: There's been a drought in England, there's no, very little water.
Prabhupäda: This is very dangerous. Everything is now yellow.
Jayatértha: It's greener here than most places around, but...
George Harrison: Everything's so dry this year, lots of trees and things dying without water.
Prabhupäda: That is the punishment for this age. It is stated in the Çrémad-Bhägavatam. There will be scarcity of rain and there will be scarcity of food and heavy taxation by government. And people will become mad on account of these three things. Anävåñöi, durbhikña, karopé.(?)
George Harrison: It's getting dryer in England each year. It's probably going to end up as a desert in another hundred years.
Prabhupäda: They expect like that?
George Harrison: Well, I don't know. I think the whole world's changing. Somebody said it's the pollution, leaves so much..., there's so much of the oceans now with polluted and with oil on the top, there's not so much evaporation anymore.
Prabhupäda: Not in the ocean. It is the sinful activities of the populace. That is real problem. They are all engaged in sinful activities. Especially this innocent animal killing. These are the all reaction.
Gurudäsa: In New York they had one island of refuse floated in to shore. For years they were building up island of refuse, and it floated in, and now no one can go to the beaches.
Prabhupäda: Samosa. Where is samosa? There is only one left?
George Harrison: I'm okay, actually.
Devotee (2): There is sour cream.
George Harrison: I've got plenty, thanks.
Prabhupäda: Prasada, we can eat up to the neck. (laughter) There is no harm. You'll never get indigestion. You have got some fruits?
George Harrison: Yes.
Mukunda: There's a very nice mango preparation there, did you taste?
George Harrison: Which one?
Mukunda: Mango.
George Harrison: Oh, this one.
Prabhupäda: One German girl has prepared. We are introducing restaurants like this, and people are liking very much. We have got one restaurant in Hawaii, another restaurant we are organizing in Boston. That is being directly done by Alfred. You have met Alfred?
Gurudäsa: Alfred Ford, the grandson of Henry Ford.
George Harrison: No, I've never met him.
Prabhupäda: Oh. He is also a very nice boy. Of course, younger than you. He's only twenty-four years. What is your age now?
George Harrison: Thirty-three.
Prabhupäda: Thirty-three. That boy is also very nice young boy. Give Jayatértha? No?
George Harrison: Do you feed everybody who comes Sunday?
Prabhupäda: Sunday we have about five hundred to one thousand.
George Harrison: :So they must cook for days to feed all those people.
Gurudäsa: No, day before, night before.
George Harrison: Do they bring food as well?
Gurudäsa: They bring grains or something like that.
Prabhupäda: We had a very gorgeous Ratha-yäträ ceremony in New York last Sunday.
George Harrison: Hm?
Prabhupäda: Sunday, eighteenth.
Pusta Kåñëa: A week ago yesterday.
Prabhupäda: Give...
Gurudäsa: We fed about ten thousand that day.
Prabhupäda: Cauliflower. Take little.
George Harrison: I can't finish. (laughter) I'm trying to finish one so I can start on the next. I was sick also lately. I had something, I went yellow. I had jaundice. Don't know why, just had food poisoning or something, and it affected my liver.
Prabhupäda: Who cooks for you?
George Harrison: Sometimes me, sometimes, ah.... I don't know, I think we'd had some Chinese food.
Prabhupäda: Oh, you should not take.
George Harrison: Because I was working as well, so I, you know I think I was pretty tired.
Prabhupäda: Better you cook simple food yourself and take it.
George Harrison: The only thing I could eat was papaya.
Prabhupäda: Papaya is very good, yes.
George Harrison: I still have...
Prabhupäda: Give him, give him, give him. No, that is the different. Oh, all right. We are just attempting a big planetarium in Mäyäpur. We have asked government to acquire land, 350 acres. That is negotiation going on. We shall give a Vedic planetarium.
George Harrison: Is that the one you were talking about? With all the...
Prabhupäda: In the Fifth Canto.
Gurudäsa: The planetarium will be 350 feet high and show the cosmology of the spiritual world.
Prabhupäda: The construction will be like your Washington capital, like that.
George Harrison: A big dome.
Prabhupäda: Yes. Estimated eight crores of rupees. Is there any dahipreparation? Oh, that's all right. Now, there is fruit. You...
George Harrison: Very good. Fantastic. Maybe just a little bit of, but now I'm not.... Thanks. That's fine. No, okay, thanks, fine, that's enough, that's fine.
Prabhupäda: That watermelon, you can give. It is water.
George Harrison: Now let me finish all this.
Prabhupäda: This is that mango preparation.
George Harrison: Okay.
Devotee (2): It's coming.
Prabhupäda: You like that preparation? Yes.
George Harrison: We used to have this with milk at Hrsikesa. Every day they'd leave outside of the door. It's good. Do you, Mukunda, break even with all the costs, running cost? Do you do okay with all this food, fruit and stuff?
Mukunda: Oh, yes. More than even. We have about thirteen hundred life members in the Indian community. And then when they come on the weekends they bring food, they bring these hundred pound donations, money in the box.
George Harrison: At one time you just had the Godhead and incense.
Mukunda: Yes, now it's all public support.
Jayatértha: We don't sell incense anymore.
Mukunda: And the books we just sell for very little; we hardly make any money on them at all.
Prabhupäda: Are you reading sometimes my books? Which one?
George Harrison: Mainly Kåñëa.
Prabhupäda: That is the main book. (laughs)
George Harrison: Mukunda gave me the new books, but there's so much in, ah, there's just so much to read.
Prabhupäda: Philosophy.
George Harrison: I don't know how anybody could have written it, it's difficult enough to read all that amount.
Prabhupäda: Sometimes they are surprised how one man can write so many books, but it is Kåñëa's grace. Otherwise not possible. Human being, it is not possible.
Mukunda: That one series of books I brought you, the Caitanya-caritämåta.
Prabhupäda: Oh, yes. Hari-çauri? There is no sweet melon.
Mukunda: And every single word is written by hand, five hundred years ago.
Prabhupäda: You are in the same house?
George Harrison: Hm? Henley.
Prabhupäda: Henley, yes. Very nice house.
George Harrison: Hm, very nice. I work from the house. I have a studio, recording studio in the house. So I don't have to go to London anymore.
Prabhupäda: Oh, you have all arrangement there. That's very nice. How many acres?
George Harrison: It's about thirty-five.
Prabhupäda: Oh, very good area.
Devotee (2): Do you get (indistinct).
Mukunda: Yes, only five hundred pounds.
Devotee (2): Really? Amazing.
George Harrison: Five hundred pounds!
Mukunda: Yes, for four acres.
George Harrison: That's quite cheap.
Mukunda: Yes, we were really surprised. But if it hadn't been for that, we'd have had no cow pasture. Cows are out there.
Prabhupäda: We have got one cow, many cows in Philadelphia. The milk bags, she gives hundred and two pounds daily.
George Harrison: Of milk? Who owns this? Who milks the cows?
Gurudäsa: Some of the devotees.
Prabhupäda: We have got tanks for storing milk, tanks.
George Harrison: Yes?
Prabhupäda: Yes. All up-to-date refrigerator and everything. That extra milk they are selling. Similarly, in New Vrindaban we are getting one thousand pounds milk daily. One thousand pounds.
Mukunda: That's our place in West Virginia.
George Harrison: How many cows? Must be hundred of them.
Prabhupäda: But the Philadelphia is more organized.
Jayatértha: Yes.
Prabhupäda: Through the nozzles, milk carrying, always hot water is washing it.
Jayatértha: There's much better facility in that Pennsylvania place. New Vrindaban's kind of.... They built it up from scratch by themselves.
Gurudäsa: Rustic.
Jayatértha: Yes, rustic is the word. (laughter) Pennsylvania they bought this fabulous farm all made up.
Prabhupäda: Pradyumna, give him little, this one here.
George Harrison: Oh, no, no. Please, no more. I'm really full. I won't have to eat for a few days. (laughter)
Prabhupäda: Sweets.
George Harrison: Very well.
Prabhupäda: Sweet will help you digest. Don't give three—at least four.
George Harrison: I won't be able to eat much more.
Prabhupäda: Three is given to the enemy. According to our Indian system, if you give somebody three, that means he is enemy.
George Harrison: Oh, really? I always liked the number three.
Prabhupäda: (laughs) You must give at least four.
George Harrison: I like three, five, seven, nine. Those numbers.
Prabhupäda: Bring some fruit. What are the three enemies? Kama, krodha...
Pradyumna: Lobha.
Gurudäsa: Lust, anger, greed.
Prabhupäda: Three enemies-lusty desire, anger and greediness.
George Harrison: Yes. But there's a lot of nice threes.
Prabhupäda: Yes. Just like Brahma, Viñëu, Maheçvara. Three worlds, çaìkha, martya, padma. Trinity. These are nice things.
George Harrison: Tri-guëa.
Prabhupäda: Tri-guëa, yes.
Jayatértha: The three modes, they're not so nice.
George Harrison: Well, they're all necessary.
Jayatértha: Yes.
George Harrison: I met, I think, one of your master's other devotees, I forget his name. Gosvämé, big, in Våndävana, big, tall, with a staff, bald hair. Said you knew his name?
Gurudäsa: Puruñottama?
George Harrison: Puruñottama? Yes.
Mukunda: In Våndävana.
Prabhupäda: He's not a sannyäsé.
George Harrison: Pardon?
Prabhupäda: He's not sannyäsé.
George Harrison: Oh, well, the one I met had a staff. Maybe it was a different one.
Gurudäsa: Mädhava Mahäräja maybe.
Prabhupäda: Maybe Mädhava.
Jayatértha: He's big.
Prabhupäda: He's my Godbrother.
George Harrison: Yes, but he didn't speak English. But all the people I was with said he spoke very good Sanskrit, had a good understanding of Sanskrit. But I couldn't understand anything that he, you know.... I just watched him.
Pradyumna: I think Puruñottama Gosäi.
Prabhupäda: He's talking of Puruñottama.
Pradyumna: Gosäi.
Prabhupäda: He's blackish?
George Harrison: No.
Prabhupäda: Not fair complexion. Puruñottama.
George Harrison: I think he was fair, but he was very tall, very big, and you know, like this, huge size. You know that place where I stayed the night?
Pradyumna: That's his place, Puruñottama Gosäi.
Gurudäsa: He's not a sannyäsé.
Prabhupäda: He's not sannyäsé, he is householder.
Jayatértha: He's married man.
George Harrison: Yes, he had.... His son lived there.
Jayatértha: Yes.
George Harrison: But maybe he's taken, I don't know, I thought he had adaëòa, one of those staffs. I saw the little temple in the garden, Kåñëa and Rädhä, where they stay in bed. It's like a bed like this. You know the one?
Pradyumna: Nidhuvana Mandir.
Prabhupäda: Nidhuvana.
George Harrison: I saw that, where He's been out all night so He doesn't get up until ten o'clock in the morning.
Prabhupäda: You have not seen our temple since it is inaugurated? No.
George Harrison: No.
Prabhupäda: This time you come. Many thousands people come to see daily.
George Harrison: I saw the photograph, looks really nice. It's big.
Gurudäsa: Now they say it's the most beautiful modern temple in Våndävana.
Prabhupäda: You have seen our.... There is any film of the temple?
Gurudäsa: No, but there's photographs.
Jayatértha: We have a nice photograph at the reception room downstairs.
George Harrison: Actually it was half built.
Gurudäsa: Yes. Even the building you went into, there's more, the roof.
Prabhupäda: That courtyard is very beautiful. There is a tämala tree. That is a very valuable tree. The Bisanchand Seth asked me to cut.
Gurudäsa: Yes, I remember.
Prabhupäda: What a nonsense, such a.... He has no idea. Now, on account of that tree, it looks so beautiful.
Hari-çauri: It is, it's very wonderful. The whole tree has flourished since the temple began.
Gurudäsa: We planned the whole temple around that tree. The whole plans.
George Harrison: It's a big old tree?
Pradyumna: Tree's just in the courtyard of the temple, so we left it there.
Gurudäsa: Same color as Kåñëa, çyäma. Like a fresh rain cloud color. So when Rädhäräëé sees the tree, She thinks of Kåñëa. So when we see the tree we think of Kåñëa. And Çréla Prabhupäda sits underneath the tree and watches.
Prabhupäda: Rädhäräëé in separation was embracing that tree, tämala tree. And they say that in Våndävana, only there are four tämala trees left.
Gurudäsa: Yes, they've said four or six. Very few.
George Harrison: Is this tree still living?
Devotees: Yes, it's alive.
George Harrison: My compliments to the chef. (laughter)
Prabhupäda: What is this water?
Hari-çauri: Lemonade.
Prabhupäda: Is there any more?
Hari-çauri: I just took it out. I can get some.
Prabhupäda: Bring little. So I am very much pleased that you take so much trouble to come here.
George Harrison: It's my pleasure.
Prabhupäda: Yes, give a little for drinking. You want little more?
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