...our task ahead is very huge, but it will be quite simple and easy if you simply do as I am doing. (From Srila Prabhupada's Letter to: Hrdayananda -- New York 9 July, 1972. The full letter is shown below.)

(Jai Prakash Narayan was a nationally known figure in India; his fast in protest against what he saw as the corrupt and increasingly undemocratic government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a major political event.)

Everyone is hankering after santi [peace]. The santi formula is given everywhere in the sastra. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is personally saying, "This is santi." What is this? bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-mahesvaram suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mam santim rcchati [Bg. 5.29]

Jagannatha is another feature of Krishna, and He is especially favorable to the people who are not strictly advanced to the Brahminical culture of Vedic rituals. Lord Jagannatha is situated in India, at Puri; this place is one of the towns of Orissa province. And the people of Orissa and Bengal, they are sometimes fish-eaters, why sometimes -- about 90% population they are fish-eaters.

Illicit sex is so dangerous. Everyone will be killed with the illicit sex. That is the difficulty -- falldown. What can I do? I have already given instruction. If they do not follow, they fall down. That is sure. So dangerous. And in our society it is very easy to have affair, so many girls are there. I can say "Don't do this," but if you do, what can I do?

Bhaktivinoda Thakura has sung that: "When I work very difficult task for Krsna, that difficult task becomes very happiness for me. That difficult task becomes very happiness for me." That is the standard of happiness. In the material world, there is duality. In the absolute world, there is simply happiness.

They want relaxation, flexibility. That means that spiritually fallen, fallen down.

Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66], but we are revolting, "Why? Why shall I surrender to You? This is too much You are demanding." This is going on. This is the disease. And to cure the disease Krsna Himself comes. Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati, tadatmanam srjami [Bg. 4.7]. But we are so stubborn that we won't, do not like to be cured.

Although we were not allowed off the airplane, no one objected when Prabhupada and I walked through the open door to stand for a few minutes at the top of the mobile stairway. Scanning the dilapidated airfield heavily guarded by soldiers, Srila Prabhupada shook his head. "Everything is so low class. This place has no importance; there is not one other foreign airline here. They wanted their independence from India, but what have they gained?"

Some way or other, originally, we are all Krsna conscious, pure... We cannot ascertain when this transformation took place. There is no necessity of making research how we fell in this material contamination or envelopment. But we should be intelligent enough to understand that we are fallen now. How we fell -- you can trace out the history, but it is very difficult because anadi karama-phale, nobody can ascertain.

Fools who cannot perceive repeated birth and death and the other miseries of materialistic life cannot be sure of what will happen to them in their next birth. Indeed, these foolish, materially contaminated rascals have manufactured an irresponsible way of life that does not consider the next life. They do not know that according to one's own activities, one receives a body selected from 8,400,000 species.

When I go to Los Angeles I am in Vaikuntha. When I am got to New York I am in Vaikuntha. Wherever we have got temple, that is Vaikuntha.