View source for Number of religious meetings, they start off with the Gayatri mantra three times, and at the end of the meeting they have a santipat. Now is there any real necessity for a religious meeting to start off with the Gayatri mantra and end with santipat?

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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1975]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkOctober121975Durban_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="211" link="Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban" link_text="Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban">
<div class="heading">Yes, that's not bad... We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That includes everything. It is called mahā-mantra. It includes all mantras. Gāyatrī mantra is not to be chanted in the public loudly. That is not the system.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban|Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Indian man (3): (break) ...this country, what do you think is the best way of establishing the āśrama, or the centers, and which way we can help in this matter?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: We have got so many āśramas. You can see how we are doing. We have got hundred and two temples all over the world. You come to India?</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes, I have been to India.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So this time you come and see our temple in Vṛndāvana. We have got, India, four, five temples. We have got in London, New York. In London we have got two temples, big, big. One is very big. In New York we have got, Los Angeles. Everywhere we have got. Here also, yesterday's paper, there was some advertisement, one Mr. Desai.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Jayanti Desai, yes. Yes, he wants to give some charities.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So why not give us? Then we can make a nice...</p>
<p>Indian man (3): I think we could... (break) ...him and see what they are asking for applications from various charitable organizations.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So I have come temporarily. Why don't you approach?</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes, we will...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: If he is known to you, you can approach, that "Here is a good cause, International..."</p>
<p>Indian man (3): I will send a message to him to come and see you this evening.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Ah, that will be very nice. Then I can talk. Yes. When you will bring him?</p>
<p>Indian man (3): I think you are meeting the officials of various organizations this evening?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They've been invited.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh, the organizations.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Different organizations in Durban. Six p.m.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Six p.m. Yes. I will send a message to him today.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Also Dr. Desai, his brother.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes. Dr. Desai has been very helpful in establishing societies and schools and charitable organizations. Yes, I will also send a message to Dr. Desai to come and see you. Dr. Desai sacrificed all his medical practice and all for the people.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Ah.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: (wind blowing) Pranair arthair dhiya vacaḥ śreya acaraṇam... (break) ...by words, by intelligence, everyone should serve Kṛṣṇa, then life is successful. Pranair arthair dhiya vacaḥ.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): What of meetings, religious meetings, especially here in South Africa?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Huh?</p>
<p>Indian man (1): In South Africa here especially, number of religious meetings, they start off with the Gāyatrī mantra three times, and at the end of the meeting they have a ṣantipat. Now is there any real necessity for a religious meeting to start off with the Gāyatrī mantra and end with santipat?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, that's not bad.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): But I don't see that being practiced in the...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That includes everything. It is called mahā-mantra. It includes all mantras. Gāyatrī mantra is not to be chanted in the public loudly. That is not the system.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): Not to be chanted.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the public loudly.</p>
<p>Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, in this country we have to do army training, and on a Sunday we have to attend a church service. We have to attend it. Is it all right to say that we won't attend it because we follow Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or must we go anyway? It's sort of a Christian denomination service on a Sunday.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. That is good. Those who are doing nothing, for them to attend the church at least for one hour, that is better than... Something is better than nothing, you see. That is good. People have completely forgotten God. They are doomed. So better to remember at least for some time. That is good.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): We would like you to stay more longer in this country.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hm?</p>
<p>Indian man (3): We would like to request you to stay more longer in this country.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So if you start a good center I will stay and see that things are going on. (aside:) Just take this stick.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Then I could... I think we would be able to benefit from you much more. See, your arrival in this period in Durban, with so many functions that we are carrying on today in this whole week, that people were sort of distributed and quite a lot of them were unable to even come to your meetings.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh. No, our meetings were well attended.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We have had full house all the time.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes, I know your house, but you could have had even more than full house.</p>
<p>Indian man (1): There are about four hundred thousand Indians alone here.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes. The reason of that Navaratri festival, these Ārya samājīs they have had, well in advance. They had their celebrations and all, so a lot of people were unable to come. Do you think it will be possible for you to come back to Durban from Johannesburg, after your Johannesburg stay?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. I can come back. There is no harm. (break)</p>
<p>Indian man (3): And when you have these āśramas and all, and how to serve the poor people in the way of welfare?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Give them prasāda. Give them prasāda. We are giving two thousand, three thousand men each center, prasādam.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): And also to rehabilitate them.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. We have giving them shelter also, food, cloth, everything, giving them proper chance to live peacefully and be God conscious.</p>
<p>Indian man (3): And in the way of hospitals?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hospitals, there are many, but real hospitals... to cure the material disease, there is no hospital. They are... There are hundreds and thousands of hospitals for curing the disease of the body, but there is no hospital to cure the disease of the soul. That is the defect. So we are opening hospital for curing the disease of the soul. They have no information about the soul throughout the whole world. Even so-called religious organizations, they have no information about the soul. They go to religious ceremonies for material profit. They do not know what is the necessity of the soul and what is the disease of the soul. They do not know. (break) ...nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. What is the goal of life, these people, they do not know, mūḍhas. Mūḍha means rascals, gadha. They do not know what is the goal of life. They take calculation of the duration of life, that fifty, sixty, or hundred years. That's all. Beyond this, after this, they do not know. Yes. That is the defect. (break) Now, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that this temporary attempt to become happy-antavanta phalaṁ teṣām—it will end with the end of the body. But they do not know beyond this. Therefore alpam-medhasām, they are less intelligent. Just like a child playing. He likes to play and does not go to school. So do you think that is all right?</p>
<p>Indian man (3): No.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So therefore we are doing like that. We are concerned that "I have got this body. Let me enjoy to the fullest extent and don't mind what I am going to have in future. It doesn't matter."</p>
<p>Indian man (3): You get attracted by a lot of side attractions.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. And the education is so defective that even university students, if I say that "You are going to be a dog," they say, "What is the harm if I become?" They say like that. The education is so defective, they don't mind to become a dog. They think, "It is a facility to become a dog because I can have sex on the street without any restrictions."</p>
<p>Indian man (3): Yes. I mean they have lost their self-respect for that.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No consideration. They are actually like cats and dogs. This is going on. (break) Nobody knows what is soul; nobody knows what is the goal of life; nobody knows what is the necessity of the soul. These things are not discussed, neither they know it. So-called religious institution or so-called..., they do not know. It is only mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, and that... They do not take care of this Bhagavad-gītā. They manufacture their own ways of...</p>
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