Conversation with Srila Prabhupada | The Hare Krishna Movement

A Choice of Destinies

04 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Conversation with Srila Prabhupada, Jon Nordheimer Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ability to choose, bhagavad-gita, darkness, God, God is Available, illusion, Jon Nordheimer, light, maya, New Vrindavan 1972, New York Times, Srila Prabhupada

…God is available. and we can associate with Him according to our choice. The ability to choose, or our conscience, is given to us in the human form so we can utilize it. All the ingredients are there for us to cross the ocean of birth and death. This human body is a very nice boat, and we have a very good navigator, the spiritual master. We also have a very favorable wind the instructions of God. So we should take our chance and cross the ocean of birth and death. We can say, “Now here is an opportunity. Take it and be saved from birth, old age, disease, and death.” but if you don’t take advantage, what can we do?

Mr. Nordheimer: Why does all this exist? Why the challenge in the first place? Why maya?

Srila Prabhupada: Maya means illusion, darkness. If I tell you to come from the darkness into the light and if you don’t come, that is your misfortune. Maya is there, and God is there. If you want to remain in maya, then how can you be saved? I can help you by saying, “Don’t remain in darkness. Please come out into the light.” But if you say, “No, I shall remain here,” then how can I save you? You have your choice. God is there, and maya is there. If you take to maya, you remain in darkness. What can I do, and what can God do? That is your choice.

A Choice of Destinies

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks with Jon Nordheimer of the New York Times in a conversation recorded in September 1972 at New Vrindaban.

Full conversation More

Interview with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

16 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Conversation with Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG Vol.1 No.49, disciple, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Iskcon, Krishna consciousness movement, krsna consciousness, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement, Vedic formula

The Search for the Divine
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 1, No. 49

[On his way from Los Angeles to London to attend the annual Jagannatha Car Festival, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual master of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, paused for three days at ISKCON’s East Coast Headquarters in New York City. There he delivered a short series of public lectures, initiated twenty new disciples, gave personal directions to many of his students, and granted audience to selected guests and visitors. The following is a conversation, held in Srila Prabhupada’s personal quarters on the second afternoon of his visit, between His Divine Grace and A Newsman.]

[A newsman, with two assistants and electronic equipment, has been trying to see Srila Prabhupada.]

Newsman (whispering to Syamasundara dasa, Srila Prabhupada’s secretary): Can I ask a couple of questions, and then I’ll leave?

Syamasundara: Please, ask, yes.

In Any Language

10 Sep 2012 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Bhakti Yoga, Conversation with Srila Prabhupada, Kevin Lahart, The Hare Krishna Movement Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, bhakti yoga, conversation with Srila Prabhupada, Kevin Lahart, Krishna consciousness, Krsna consciousness movement, Newsday, Spiritual Life, Srila Prabhupada

In Any Language

Kevin Lahart of Newsday interviews His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Mr. Lahart: I wonder if you could tell me how you came to found the Krsna consciousness movement here in the United States?

Srila Prabhupada: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came to the U.S. I came alone, with no help or money. Somehow or other I stayed.

Mr. Lahart: How did you attract followers? You landed in New York and

Srila Prabhupada: My attraction was this chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. That’s all. I had no magic. Others had some sort of magic. I never showed any magic. At Tompkins Square Park I was chanting, and gradually some boys came. First a picture was published by the New York Times. Then we started a branch in San Francisco, later Montreal, Boston, then Los Angeles.

Mr. Lahart: You just chanted at Tompkins Square Park, and people came.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, I chanted under a tree. (I think that a picture was also published in the East Village Other in a very big article.) Naturally, some boys came and joined me and began to dance. That was the beginning.

The Science of Reincarnation

25 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Conversation with Srila Prabhupada, Reincarnation Tags: eternal spirit soul, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, material body, Mike Robinson, reincarnation, reporter for the London Broadcasting Company, Science of Reincrnation, soul

The Science of Reincarnation

A conversation in 1975 between
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness,
and Mike Robinson, a reporter for the London Broadcasting Company.

Mike Robinson: Can you tell me what you believe—what the philosophy of the Hare Krsna movement is?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Krsna consciousness is not a question of belief; it is a science. The first step is to know the difference between a living body and a dead body. What is the difference? The difference is that when someone dies, the spirit soul, or the living force, leaves the body. And therefore the body is called “dead.” So, there are two things: one, this body; and the other, the living force within the body. We speak of the living force within the body. That is the difference between the science of Krsna consciousness, which is spiritual, and ordinary, material science. As such, in the beginning it is very, very difficult for an ordinary man to appreciate our movement. One must first understand that he is a soul, or something other than his body.

Mike Robinson: And when will we understand that?

Srila Prabhupada: You can understand at any moment, but it requires a little intelligence. For example, as a child grows, he becomes a boy, the boy becomes a young man, the young man becomes an adult, and the adult becomes an old man. Throughout all this time, although his body is changing from a child to an old man, he still feels himself to be the same person, with the same identity. Just see: the body is changing, but the occupier of the body, the soul, is remaining the same. So we should logically conclude that when our present body dies, we get another body. This is called transmigration of the soul.