A Day in the Life of Srila Prabhupada - February 20

February 19 - February 21

Srila Prabhupada's letters, lectures and conversations throughout consecutive years

Click on the year dates to go to the Timeline of Srila Prabhupada's Life for that year.

The Days in the Life of Srila Prabhupada presents 2200+ of his lectures; 905+ of his conversations; 490+ of his morning walks; 65+ of his interviews and 6,570+ of his letters.

This listing covers all available material and includes:

10,300+ links to Vanisource - our repository of all of Srila Prabhupada's words;
450+ short audio clips - Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada sprinkled throughout the months;
1,080 short video clips extracted from lectures, conversations, morning walks and interviews, with subtitles in up to 88 languages, sprinkled throughout the months;
13,350+ concise statements, drawn from Srila Prabhupada's lectures, conversations and letters, highlighted within quoteboxes;
For further study on the different subjects addressed, each statement links to the various categories in our thematic section of Vanipedia named Vaniquotes.

These statements from the Days in the Life of Srila Prabhupada offer unparalleled insights into his devotional character; his vision to re-spiritualize human society; his dedication to translate, publish & distribute his books; his expertise to tirelessly lead & manage his worldwide movement; his empowered ability to encourage, care for, train & clearly communicate the disciplines he expects from all his disciples as he engages them in their pursuit of Krsna consciousness & performance of missionary activities. Through all these situations one can also experience how Srila Prahhupada consistently represents the pure teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates.

See also: A Month in the Life of Srila Prabhupada.

1957 - February 20

Letter to Chief-Justice Sri M.C. Chagla written from Bombay

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I came to Bombay from Vrndavana to see Sri Munshi on the same mission of going back to Godhead, because without this there is no solution of any problem, the world is now facing.

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The human society is now running on in an illusory way, forgetting its eternal relation with the Central Cause. They will have to be reinstated in that original position in terms of the above slokas of the Bhagavad-gita. Without this no solution is possible. There are practical ways and means to do this job in accordance with the present time, situation and objective.

1966 - February 20

Lecture BG Introduction, part two - New York

Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada

"There is one scripture only, one common scripture for the whole world, for the people of the whole world, and that is this Bhagavad-gītā. Devo devakī-putra eva. And there is one God for the whole world, is Śrī Kṛṣṇa. And eko mantras tasya nāmāni. And one hymn, mantra, one hymn only, one prayer, or one hymn, is to chant His name, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare."

660219-20 - Lecture BG Introduction - New York

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The word religion is a little different from sanātana-dharma. Religion conveys the idea of faith. Faith may change. One may have faith in a particular process, and he may change the faith afterwards and adopt another faith. But sanātana-dharma means which cannot be changed.

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We can see no living being is exempted from the practice of rendering service to other living being, and therefore we can conclude that service is a thing which is the constant companion of the living being, and therefore it may be safely concluded that rendering of service by a living being is the eternal religion of the living being.

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The living entities or the Lord, because we are full of consciousness, therefore our consciousness is after happiness. Happiness. The Lord is also perpetually happy, and if we associate with the Lord, cooperate with Him, take part in His association, then also we become happy. The Lord descends on this mortal world to show His pastimes in Vṛndāvana full of happiness.

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The supreme planet means the Kṛṣṇaloka. In the spiritual sky there are innumerable planets, sanātana planets, eternal planets, which are never destroyed, annihilated. But of all those spiritual planets there is one planet, the original planet, which is called Goloka Vṛndāvana. So these informations are there in the Bhagavad-gītā and we are given the opportunity for leaving this material world and get our eternal life in the eternal kingdom.

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The Lord says, vinivṛtta-kāmāḥ, these designations or these attachments are due to our lust, desire. We want to lord it over the material nature. So, so long we do not give up this propensity of lording it over the material nature, up to that time there is no possibility of going back to the kingdom of the Supreme, the sanātana-dhāma.

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So many things unknown to us, therefore this body is ignorant. Instead of becoming full of knowledge it is ignorant. The body is perishable, full of ignorance, and nirānanda. Instead of becoming full of bliss, it is full of miseries. All the miseries that we experience in this material world, it is all due to this body.

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The activities of this life are preparation ground for the next life. We are preparing for our next life by our activities of this life. So if we can prepare our this life for getting promotion to the kingdom of God, then surely, after leaving, after quitting this material body.

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At the time of death, either we can remain in the material energy, or this material world, or we can transfer into the spiritual world. That is the criterion.

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There is no difference because Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name are nondifferent in the Absolute. In the absolute status there is no difference between one thing to another. That is the absolute status. So the Lord being absolute, there is no difference between His name and Himself.

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One has to learn this art, how one can be absorbed both by the mind and intelligence twenty-four hours thinking of the Lord. And that will help one to transfer himself into the kingdom of God or in the spiritual atmosphere after leaving this material body.

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The conclusion is that Bhagavad-gītā is a transcendental literature which one should read very carefully. Gītā-śāstram idaṁ puṇyaṁ yaḥ paṭhet prayataḥ pumān. And the result will be, if he properly follows the instruction, then he can be freed from all miseries of life, all anxieties of life. Bhaya-śokādi-varjitaḥ. All fears of life, in this life, as well as he'll get a spiritual life in the next life.

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There is one work only, that is to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one learns from Bhagavad-gītā, then the people are very much anxious to have one religion, one God, one scripture, and one business or one activity of life. This is summarized in the Bhagavad-gītā. That one, one God, is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not sectarian God. Kṛṣṇa, from the name of Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa means, as we have explained above, Kṛṣṇa means the greatest pleasure.

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The Lord lives within the core of heart in every living being, therefore He is conscious of the psychic movements, activities, of the particular jīva. We should not forget. It is also explained that the Paramātmā, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is living in everyone's heart as īśvara, as the controller and He is giving direction. He is giving direction.

1967 - February 20

Lecture CC Adi 07.109-114 - San Francisco

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Gandhi, he wanted to prove, from Bhagavad-gītā, nonviolence. The Bhagavad-gītā is being preached in the battlefield, and it is completely violence. How he can prove? Therefore he is dragging the meaning out of his own con... It is very troublesome, and anyone who will read such interpretation, he is doomed. He is doomed because the Bhagavad-gītā is meant for awakening your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If that is not awakened, then it is useless waste of time.

1968 - February 20

Letter to Brahmananda written from Los Angeles

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The faith increases in Krishna Consciousness by our voluntary increase of serving Krishna. Serving Krishna is unlimited and he can accept our unlimited service, and award us unlimited transcendental pleasure in the unlimited service of the Lord. That is the meaning of unlimited.

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As I have repeatedly said, that Krishna Consciousness is developed by following two parallel lines, means service of Krishna, and service of the Spiritual Master. This is the secret of success. The Spiritual Master must be bona fide, that is, he must come down from a bona fide Spiritual Master and must act according to the directions of the Spiritual Master, and by doing so, he gives proper directions about Krishna and the devotees serve Krishna under the direction of such Spiritual Master, and Krishna accepts service, and in this way the whole thing becomes beautiful and successful.

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My special mission is to complete the Srimad-Bhagavatam in 60 volumes, so the most important thing on the part of the International Society is to organize the sales propaganda, of all the books that you are publishing.

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Even Krishna is prepared to give us more, we should not accept anything from Him for our sense gratification; if anything is offered by Him, we should accept gladly for His service only; for our sense gratification or personal benefit, we shall not ever ask any favor from Krishna, although He is always willing to deliver such favor to anyone amongst His devotees.

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Ordinarily, we have to try our best to our best capacity to achieve something, and by Krishna's Grace, all of a sudden we shall see everything is there. This sort of help from Krishna is transcendental happiness. Our principle should be therefore, that we should work for the mission with great enthusiasm, with certainty for its success, and patiently follow the regulative principles, and associate ourselves with pure devotees, and work being completely in Krishna Consciousness, that will make us happy and successful.

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We should try our best to our best capacity, and victory will come from Krishna. We should never sit idly and ask Krishna to do everything.

Letter to Krishna devi written from Los Angeles

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Krishna is very kind. He does not let go anyone who might have done a little bit of service. So how can He allow you to forget Krishna. You may be dragged by Maya for the time being but by Krishna's Grace that will have only temporary reaction; I am very glad that you are doing so much for decorating Krishna's temple.

Letter to Robert written from Los Angeles

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So far school is concerned, we know that modern education in schools and colleges is not very much helpful in advancement of Krishna Consciousness, but still we have to take advantage of such institutions in absence of any other good organization.

1969 - February 20

Lecture BG 06.35-45 - Los Angeles

Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada

"So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice that as soon as you join, you become immediately uncontaminated. But do not contaminate again. Therefore these restriction. Because our contamination begins from these four kinds of bad habits. But if we check, then there is no question of contamination. As soon as I take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness I become free. Now if I become cautious not to accept these four principles, then I am free; I am continuing uncontaminated. This is the process. But if you think that "Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness makes me free, so let me indulge in all these four principles and I will get free after chanting," that is cheating. That will not be allowed."

690220 - Lecture BG 06.35-45 - Los Angeles

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One who is trying to concentrate his mind on the imperson, or voidness, it is very difficult and troublesome. At least here in this temple - these students they are trying to concentrate his mind on Kṛṣṇa. But to concentrate one's mind in void, that is very difficult. So naturally my mind is flickering.

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When we accept any self-realization process, it is practically declaring war against the illusory energy, māyā. So when there's a question of māyā, or a question of fight or war, there will be so many difficulty imposed by māyā, that is certain. Therefore there is a chance of failure, but one has to become very steady.

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If you want divine life, if you want spiritual elevation back to Godhead, back to home, that means eternal life, blissful life, full of knowledge, then we have to train ourselves in divine consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That you can very easily do by association. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ (BG 2.62). If you keep divine association, then your consciousness is made divine. And if you keep hellish association, demonic association, then your consciousness is trained up in that way.

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Association is so important. So if we become serious for developing divine consciousness, then this is the only association—we have established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Here simply the method how one can become divine conscious, that is taught. So this is a good chance. We invite everyone to join and the process is very simple. Simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and you'll feel. There is no difficult process.

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God is pure, and His kingdom is also pure, and anyone who wants to enter there, he must be pure also. That is very natural, that if you want to enter into some particular society, you must qualify yourself.

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If you simply follow these four principles, then you become immediately uncontaminated. Immediately. Without any further endeavor. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice that as soon as you join you become immediately uncontaminated. But do not contaminate again.

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We have to train our consciousness, divine. That is the duty of human form of life. If we make our consciousness divine, then we are preparing for next divine life. As there are different grades of life, so human form of life is a chance to make your next life completely divine. Completely divine means eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. So automatically, by divine consciousness, you’ll try to contact with persons who are developing divine consciousness.

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A person who is chanting in the street, distributing our literature, he's also in Kṛṣṇa. So by ordinary habits we are engaged, as in our material life we were engaged in so many things. If we mold our life in connection with Kṛṣṇa, then in every activity there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness and therefore this yoga perfection is there automatically.

Letter to Hayagriva written from Los Angeles

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In answer to your questions concerning sex life: sex life restriction does not mean that husband and wife live separately. The idea of marriage is to increase spiritual consciousness as far as possible. And by advancement of Krishna Consciousness that restriction becomes automatically practical. Sex life for begetting Krishna Conscious children is as good as Krishna Consciousness. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita so one has to use his own discretion in this matter and Krishna will help such discriminatory method.

Letter to Kirtanananda written from Los Angeles

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I thank you very much for your inviting me to New Vrindaban, but, considering the local climate as presented by you I think I shall postpone it until the end of April.

Letter to Mukunda written from Los Angeles

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My father was very much affectionate, and in my childhood, whatever I wanted from my father he would at once give me. One time he purchased for me one rifle, and so after taking it I demanded that he must give me another. My father denied "You already have one. Why do you ask me for another?" So my argument was that I must have two rifles, one for each hand. Due to my obstinacy my father finally agreed.

Letter to Rayarama written from Los Angeles

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Either this department or that department, if you quarrel amongst yourselves it will be detrimental to my missionary ambition. Please therefore stop this unnecessary strain.

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So far as your fraternal quarrel is concerned, I may recite in this connection one story: An old father required massaging so all the children wanted to serve the father. The father divided the right and left portion of his body to be served by the children. Later along with the service, there was some quarrel between the children, and they were competing by hitting the parts of the father which was assigned to the opposing party. So the father said that you are hitting my different parts due to your opposition to one another, but I am therefore dying.

Letter to Satsvarupa written from Los Angeles

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So far envy is concerned it can be used only upon the non-devotees. In the transcendental world a devotee is never envious of another devotee on account of his excellence but on the contrary if a devotee finds some excellence in other devotees he eulogizes the devotee admitting his own subordinate position. Although in the spiritual world there is no such concept of subordination still devotees on account of being very humble and meek think that way.

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Lord Caitanya's advent day is on the 4th of March 1969. On that day you should keep fasting up to the moonrise in the evening, and the whole day may be utilized in performances in kirtana and reading of Lord Caitanya's teachings. In the evening after ceremony of kirtana is observed, light refreshments like fruit and milk, boiled potatoes may be taken and the next day general feasting and distribution of Prasadam to public may be observed.

Letter to Yamuna, Malati and Janaki written from Los Angeles

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I lost my mother when I was only 14 years old. So I didn't get much of my mother's affection in my childhood. But in my old age, Krishna has given me so many young mothers to take care of me. Another mother Govinda Dasi is there in Hawaii. She is always asking me to go there. So I will go there within this month.

1970 - February 20

Lecture Initiation Sannyasa - Los Angeles

Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada

"There are two conditions: pavitra and apavitraḥ. Pavitra means purified, and apavitraḥ means contaminated. We are all spirit soul. By nature we are purified, but at the present moment, in this material condition of life with this material body, we are contaminated.So this whole process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to liberate ourself from the contaminated state to the pure stage."

700220 - Lecture Initiation Sannyasa - Los Angeles

Lecture - Los Angeles

Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada

"We should always remember that we are trying to be elevated to the spiritual platform, so spiritual platform means no more anxiety for sense gratification. That is spiritual platform. Material platform means everyone is hankering after sense gratification, all the people they’re working day hard, day and night very hard, the aim is sex, at night. That’s all. Sense gratification."

700220 - Lecture - Los Angeles

Letter to Jagannatham Prabhu written from Los Angeles

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I am sure if he sees me it will not be difficult to convince him about this Krsna Consciousness philosophy because after all he is your son. I do not know his present address, otherwise I would have called him here directly. But if you ask him immediately to see me, it will be very nice. He can live with me in my personal apartment or in the Temple for as many days as he likes.

Nectar Drops from Srila Prabhupada

"The quantity of consciousness is the difference between God and the living entity.Our consciousness is limited, and Kṛṣṇa's consciousness is unlimited, unfathomed. So we may have forgotten everything in our past life, but Kṛṣṇa does not forget. Kṛṣṇa keeps account every beat of your action. He is sitting in your heart: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is keeping account. You wanted to do something. "All right," Kṛṣṇa says, "Do it." You wanted to become a tiger? "All right," Kṛṣṇa says, "you become a tiger, and you hunt animal and suck fresh blood, satisfy your senses." So Kṛṣṇa gives you chance. Similarly if you want to be Kṛṣṇa-ite, Kṛṣṇa conscious, and enjoy with Him, He will give you the facility. All facilities He will give you. If you want to become something, He will give you full facility. If you want to forget Him, He will give you so much intelligence that you will forget Him forever. And if you want to associate with Him, He will give you chance, personally association, just like the gopīs, the cowherd boys, playing with Kṛṣṇa."

700220 - Lecture Initiation Sannyasa - Los Angeles

Letter to Tamala Krishna written from Los Angeles

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So far Ksirodakasayi is concerned, or anyone else who is newcomer, should be allowed some concession. And after some time when he is accustomed to our principle, then we can make the screw tight. I think this point will be sufficient hint to deal with him.