Room Conversation , Washington, D.C. , 1976-07-05

Prabhupāda: One, the origin of life, and the other, planetary system. There is no knowledge. They are simply speculating.

Rākṣana: It is correct that the illumination of the moon is caused by the movements of the vegetation on the surface?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Rākṣana: The illumination?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rākṣana: So it should be fairly easy for scientists to prove, Svarūpa Dāmodara and such, that... I know that they can't prove there is illumination caused by the deserts.

Prabhupāda: That is the point. Therefore it is doubtful whether they have gone.

Devotee (1): Did they go to some other planet, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That is different question. But they did not go to the moon planet.

Vipina: I think in the Bhāgavatam you also explain that the moon is about 1,600,000 miles away, so they couldn't have gone. It's beyond the sun, you said, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. [break]

Devotee (2): ...rectifying the senators and the congressmen, is there much hope in talking to them?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The politicians in Washington. He would like to know if it's worthwhile talking to them, preaching to them.

Devotee (3): Much hope talking to people like that?

Prabhupāda: He wants to talk?

Devotee (2): Yes, I want to talk to them.

Prabhupāda: No, no. He wants to talk or you want to talk?

Devotee (2): I want to talk to them.

Prabhupāda: No.

Rūpānuga: I tried that, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I tried that. It wasn't very successful. They're not serious. They shake hands and smile, but they don't want to talk any business.

Hari-śauri: They're so filled up with diplomacy anyway, it's impossible for them to understand anything. [break]

Devotee (2): If Hare means energy of the Lord, what energy is that?

Prabhupāda: Reply, someone.

Hari-śauri: "Hare" refers to the spiritual potency of Kṛṣṇa, Śrīmatī Rādhārānī. You can't approach Kṛṣṇa directly; you have to go by the mercy of Rādhārānī. So when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa you're asking Śrīmatī Rādhārānī to engage you in Kṛṣṇa's service.

Devotee (2): I heard on a tape, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were talking about the same thing, and you happened to mention that Hare meant the energy of the Lord in terms of māyā, and that we were calling upon to free us from her clutches.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We call upon Kṛṣṇa to become free from māyā because Kṛṣṇa is the master of māyā. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ [Bg. 9.10].

Devotee (3): You mentioned a deranged man can be cured by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. But if it's necessary that the senses be controlled and the mind be controlled to understand spiritual subject matter, how is it that a person whose mind is completely out of his control, by chanting the holy name of the Lord can become spiritually advanced?

[break]

Devotee (4): ...we will go on ten thousand years, and they are celebrating two hundred year anniversary. And maybe they'll go on another hundred years, maybe.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Another ten if they're lucky.

Devotee (4): Already there is a big decline in their civilization. We are just coming alive, being born. We have a great future. In Philadelphia they had a big cake, five stories high, for the Bicentennial. They made a big cake, five building stories high, and they brought it in big trucks.

Prabhupāda: Cake?

Devotee (4): Big cake, birthday cake for America. And then the health department came and condemned it after people had been standing three, four hours in line to get a piece, because it had gone stale. [break] [end]