What’s funny about the following conversation besides Prabhupada being so out of touch yet believing he was far more intelligent and superior to everyone else; and besides how he rambles on without any seeming intent except to put the man down for not surrendering and making Prabhupada his worshipful guru; and besides how he seems to think that his bizarre contradictory rambling is some perfect revelation and law from God; and besides how he presents himself as God’s true enforcer and that everyone is a fool to think otherwise; and besides the strange childish obsession with hating on homosexuality — the funnier part is him trying to convince that if modern society would change to ISKCON’s cultural point of view then everything would be better for everyone. All those aspects of ISKCON have been disastrous and harmful to so many:
- Harsh physically and emotionally abusive schools with pervasive extreme violence and homosexual abuse from teachers and other students
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Many exploitative leaders abusing their position to gain wealth and influence for themselves
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Rampant divorce and illicit sex
- Many unhappy people filled with anxiety over some reason or the other but usually having to do with feeling bored, exploited and uncared for.
The following is different from the above conversation — but complimentary, or rather, contradictory. Either way, the above is comedy gold and so is the below:
Conversation with devotees — Tokyo, April 25, 1972
Prabhupāda: That means your lavatory. Therefore the demigods do not come here even to urine. (laughter) Formerly they used to come. Now they do not come because it is not fit for their urinating. Here, we are very much proud of our advancement, but the demigods do not come even to pass urine. Why they should come? Now, because another house is raised here, even a common man is not coming to urine here. A little less facility, so they are not occupying. So why the demigods will come to this nonsense place? You can understand. These apartments are lying vacant on account of a little less facility. So why the demigods? Their comforts and their standard of living is many millions times better than yours. You cannot imagine it even. The more you go to the higher planetary system, their standard of living is still higher, higher-duration of life, standard of living, beauty, other facilities. Why they are called higher planetary system? Here in this planet even you don’t get the sunshine sufficiently. The bare necessities. Now you can experience that when you go above the cloud by airplane you see there is no more cloudy. The sunshine is free. You can imagine how in the higher planetary system the sunshine is so free. And here as soon as there is little sunshine, oh, today, “Good morning.” Today is very good morning. In London, Lennon’s gardener, he was meeting, I was walking. He was Mr. Johnson or something.
Śyāmasundara: Frank.
Prabhupāda: Frank? So, “Today is really good morning.” “Yes.” Otherwise it is dark. And actually countries which have no sufficient sunshine, they are condemned. I told you frankly, your London is hell, in that television. Actually it is hell. We could understand from outside London, simply dark, moist, everything damp. The trees, they have got, what is called?
Devotee: Moss.
Prabhupāda: Moss. Yes. That moss for want of sufficient sunshine.
Devotee: People get little relief from their misery and they say, “Oh, I am happy now.”
Prabhupāda: Yes. From the miseries, Mr. John is happy by becoming naked and having fireplace. He is bringing the wood personally, putting there. And Yoko is very happy. Japanese wife. She was talking philosophy with me Read the rest of this entry
