Morning Walk in Raṅga Gardens , Vṛndāvana , 1976-04-07

Prabhupāda: [Hindi with Indians] [break] ...dozen carts.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It looks like it came from here. [break]

Prabhupāda: ...cannot say Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is such competition. [Hindi with others] I like this garden very nice. [Hindi conversation] It is maintained very nicely. We can get flowers. [Hindi conversation] Water is supply there? [Hindi]

Indian man: There are two wells. [Hindi conversation] The river is very near. Just after that garden, Yamunā.

Prabhupāda: [Hindi conversation] These people, they like Vṛndāvana. [Hindi conversation] What is our telephone number?

Akṣayānanda: 179.

Indian man: 179.

Devotees: 8.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Vṛndāvana 178.

Indian man: 178. [Hindi conversation]

Prabhupāda: So they are not trustee. [Hindi conversation] ...are agreeeable. Whatever you think, as you like, we can ex... [break]

Indian man: [Hindi conversation; man mentions monthly donation] [break]

Tripurāri: [laughter] I can remember from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, one devotee of Lord Rāmacandra was always chanting the name of Rāma, but Lord Caitanya convinced him to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: [laughs] There is competition like that. One will say "Hare Rāma." Another will say "No, Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He was very obstinate.

Hari-śauri: Or that man in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hari-śauri: That man in Delhi thought we had something against Lord Rāmacandra.

Prabhupāda: [laughs] There are many versions like that. Somebody will say, "Your Rāmacandra may be very important person, but when Rādhārāṇī goes to Kṛṣṇa, Lord Rāmacandra becomes His [Her] guard with arrows." [laughter] When Rādhārāṇī goes to Kṛṣṇa, and Rāmacandra has to serve Rādhārāṇī with arrows and bows.

[pause]

Prabhupāda: This is gorur.[?]

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is that six-pointed star significance?

Prabhupāda: Cakra.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Hari-śauri: What is the symbol on the right-hand side, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I think śaṅkha.

Hari-śauri: Is that the conch, is it? [break]

Akṣayānanda: ...thread from the Deity, the old sacred thread, and they tie it on their wrist. They tie it here.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Akṣayānanda: Some of the devotees have started to do that now.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Akṣayānanda: I don't know. It's just like wearing beads. The sacred thread from the Deity, after replacing, they take the old one and they wear it here.

Prabhupāda: Who has told them?

Akṣayānanda: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Then why you...?

Akṣayānanda: Well, I told one boy to stop it, and because I couldn't quote any authority, he keeps wearing...

Prabhupāda: No, no, there is no author... Where is his authority?

Akṣayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This nonsense should be stopped.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, I thought it was wrong. That's why I mentioned it. I wanted to make sure.

Prabhupāda: Stop this.

Akṣayānanda: Okay. Sure.

Hari-śauri: I think their idea is that because it's prasādam, it's from the Deity, that they're able to wear it like that.

Prabhupāda: That is another concoction. The sacred thread is not used like that, in the hand.

Akṣayānanda: I thought it was wrong. It seems like some kind of fashion or something, concocted fashion. [break]

Hari-śauri: ...small black beads that the devotees are wearing from Rādhā-kuṇḍa. They have a string of beads made of clay from Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Are they...?

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-kuṇḍa clay is not bad.

Hari-śauri: So it's all right to wear them?

Prabhupāda: Not very constantly.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you're worried that one thing will lead to the next. Actually, all we have to do is follow your example.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, we don't have to add anything. What can we add?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the use of it?

Akṣayānanda: What can we add?

Prabhupāda: There is a proverb in Bengali that the crows, they eat stool. But when the crow is very young, he eats more stool. [break] ...tendency always, how to become hippie as soon as there is little opportunity.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, it's something we have to guard against very carefully.

Prabhupāda: Don't allow them. Don't allow all these.

Akṣayānanda: Even in India people say like that = "Oh, you are hippies?"

Prabhupāda: As soon as you become hippie, immediately your all prestige will go.

Akṣayānanda: Finished, yes.

Prabhupāda: Very carefully.

Hari-śauri: The thing is, a lot of the devotees, they're not very much conscious that they're being watched by the..., very carefully by the public. [break]

Prabhupāda: [bird is singing nearby] Bird of paradise? No.

Hari-śauri: No, the bird of paradise is different.

Prabhupāda: Different. [end]