April 7 1976 Vrndavana morning walk
Akṣayānanda: [break] ...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…
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.
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.
Hari–śauri: [break] …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: 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?
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.
(end)
