Dec 7 1975 conversations Vrndavana
Prabhupāda: Yes. On the other land. Make a shed immediately and keep some cows. And Viśvambhara, he is experienced. He will help. [break] …necessary vairāgya, there is no need. We don’t approve that. Yuktāhāra-vihāras ca. What you require for keeping health but not to eat too much. But what is absolutely required must be done.
Aksayānanda: I heard that if you pass stool more than once a day you become a bhogī? You are called a bhogī?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Aksayānanda: Does that mean a serious devotee should only pass stool once a day?
Prabhupāda: Don’t artificially do that. (laughter) First of all become yogi. Then do it.
Aksayānanda: Yes. Of course, it can only be done by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, but one should at least try for that.
Feb 27 1976 conversations
Jayapatākā: French-lover.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayapatākā: Lover of the French.
Prabhupāda: He?
Jayapatākā: Aurobindo?
Prabhupāda: No, who says?
Jayapatākā: He always had some French people with him?
Prabhupāda: No, no. That… One French girl entrapped him. That woman spoiled him. He was actually practicing yoga very nice. After his release from political entanglement, actually he became a yogi, but this Frenchwoman, who became later on “Mother,” she spoiled her ca…, his career. He became a bhogī then. (laughter) Instead of yogi… Otherwise, he was becoming yogi. You’ll find from his photo. In the beginning, he was very lean and thin, and later on, when he died, he was very fatty. Means bhogī. [break] …yogibhogī, rogī. There are three.
Devotee (3): Rogī.
Hṛdayānanda: Rogī.
Prabhupāda: Who told you. Eh?
Jayapatākā: Some devotees were holding their stool for the next day to be a yogi, (laughter) the second time coming. And getting stomachache.
Prabhupāda: Is it a fact?
Jayapatākā: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Jayapatākā: I heard… They thought that was the criterion.
Prabhupāda: This is called makṣī maṇḍakanani. (?) A clerk was making a fair book from the rough book. So he went to the toilet room and he was… Like this. So all of a sudden his boss came: “What you are doing here?” “Sir, I am trying to capture one fly.” “And why?” “No, I am making the fair copy of the book, but in the original book, there is a fly smashed. (laughter) So I have to paste one fly.” There are such fools. Makṣī maṇḍakanani. “There is a fly, paste. So in the fair copy, there must be a fly, paste.” [break] Yes. Unless there is pūjārī, what is the meaning of temple?
April 7 1976 Vrndavana conversations
Prabhupāda: I think śaṅkha. That is the conchshell.
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.
PuṣṭaKṛṣṇa: 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
Some Conclusions–Prabhupada said there will be two kinds of people who come to this movement. The intelligent and the crazies. Let us not worry about stool passing or fly pasting but instead try to develop some love for God-Krsna thru the bona fide process given to us by guru sastra and sadhu
damaghosa das
