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Morning Walk in the Botanical Gardens , Honolulu , 1975-06-02

Śrutakīrti: [introducing recording] The following conversation takes place on Prabhupāda's morning walk, June 2nd, 1975, in the Botanical Gardens in Honolulu, Hawaii. [indistinct]

Gurukṛpa: What's this tree?

Devotee (1): It's a type of Pandanus. May they weave with that, Prabhupāda. They make rugs. [break] ...chiku tree, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Chikel?

Devotee (1): Yeah, this one here.

Śrutakīrti: Chiku.

Prabhupāda: What is that chiku?

Paramahaṁsa: Like in India.

Śrutakīrti: The brown fruit, chiku.

Prabhupāda: Oh, chiku.

Manasvī: Chiku-chiku. Nah, nah, this is not chiku.

Devotee (1): This one here. This one right here. This big one.

Manasvī: This one? Oh, the big one. Yeah, yeah, that is. Yes, this one is chiku. Very big chiku.

Devotee (1): The chiku tree.

Prabhupāda: Is well known, chiku. In Gujarat there is ample chiku. This stone is artificially brought here, I think.

Devotee (1): It looks natural. It looks like it was here all the time.

Prabhupāda: Maybe.

Devotee (1): Maybe, yeah.

Śrutakīrti: Yeah, it's all around. [break]

Devotee (1): ...small trees in here or grass, we can walk in there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, which way?

Devotee (2): Oh, this way. We can walk this way. [break]

Gurukṛpa: The tree is a ...

Śrutakīrti: It's an acknowledgement of the first director of this botanical garden. [break]

Devotee (1): ...poison, Prabhupāda. This one is poison. It's called a key[?] apple. I think, I don't know, but I'm not sure.

Prabhupāda: Without tasting, you say poison? First of all taste. [laughter] If you die, then you say it is poison.

Devotee (1): This is a candlenut tree, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They take these nuts, and in old Hawaii they string it through a coconut frond, and then they light it, and it used to burn for a few minutes. It's full of oil. Candlenut.

Śrutakīrti: That is the same thing. Poison tree. [break]

Devotee (1): I do not know, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrutakīrti: It's the same one.

Devotee (1): Poison.

Prabhupāda: Poison? What it is written there?

Paramahaṁsa: "Cerbera[?] tree."

Devotee (1): They told me most of the fruits here are poisonous except for one mango. That yellow [indistinct].

Manasvī: That yellow kind of campaka?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not campaka. It is called kaiku[?]. [break] ...Melbourne?

Śrutakīrti: No.

Gurukṛpa: What's that?

Paramahaṁsa: They have a park, a botanical garden in Melbourne where we went.

Prabhupāda: Very big and very beautiful.

Śrutakīrti: There, there were no fruit trees.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Śrutakīrti: In Melbourne there were no fruit trees. Here there are many...

Prabhupāda: But here the poison fruit. [laughter]

Śrutakīrti: He says poison.

Prabhupāda: It is better not to have fruit tree than to have a poison fruit. [pause] What is for?

Śrutakīrti: To protect it from the sun, too much sun.

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is a cinnamon tree over here, a cinnamon.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Cinnamon tree, you can use the leaves for cooking. Teja-patra.

Manasvī: Bay leaves. Aren't they called bay leaves? That dry one? A dry one?

Devotee (1): This is the same?

Prabhupāda: No.

Śrutakīrti: Where is the cinnamon stick?

Devotee (1): It says it's from India and Ceylon.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. Leaves appears...

Devotee: There's some smell.

Devotee (1): There's little berries on it. [break]

Prabhupāda: So which way? This way?

Devotee: This way. [break] What is that?

Devotee (1): I do not know.

Manasvī: Berry.

Śrutakīrti: Berry is sweet berry.

Paramahaṁsa: Blueberry.

Devotee (1): Java berry.

Gurukṛpa: Where's the path?

Devotee (1): This way. You can go up this way. In either direction, you know, they're all different plants.

Prabhupāda: [indistinct]

Gurukṛpa: Straight on. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...say "This contains this chemical, that chemical, this chemical," but he will never think, "Who has put this chemical?" That is his dullness. They will analyze and say, "It contains this chemical, that chemical, that..." And who has put this chemical? That they cannot say.

Śrutakīrti: Very large trees.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Devotee (1): This big one?

Prabhupāda: Maybe thousand years old.

Devotee (1): It's from Africa.

Prabhupāda: African trees are like tall like this.

Devotee (1): More than hundred years ago, 1850. One hundred years. It's more than hundred years.

Manasvī: This is that same one, they give red, different flowers.

Prabhupāda: This is also African?

Manasvī: No, they have in India this tree also. That gives red flowers?

Devotee: The root is up to my head.

Prabhupāda: And it was in a small seed. Prepare such seed, you chemist. How strong. [sound of knocking made by walking cane] [laughter] [break]

Manasvī: You know the... from that tree.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Devotee (1): It says..., they put it in mattresses and pillows a long time ago. They used that for their bedding. It's called kapoz[?] [kapok].

Manasvī: We have also in India.

Prabhupāda: We make thread out of it.

Devotee (1): Thread? Ācchā.

Prabhupāda: It is called cotton wool.

Devotee (1): Cotton wool?

Śrutakīrti: Bench here.

Prabhupāda: We can sit down here? [break] ...big Zamindar, very rich man, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. [break] ...cars, but where their men?

Bali-mardana: There is a Buddhist temple here, Chinese Buddhist temple, and I think the cars are for that. And some of the keepers. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...be superintend when the garden opens.

Śrutakīrti: Yeah. That's the times they open. [break] [end]