Paris Aug 3 1976 conversations
Prabhupāda: Yes. Anyway, just inquire. These are our garden flowers.
Jayatīrtha: Oh, very nice.
Prabhupāda: This is also?Bhagavān: Yes.
Prabhupāda:Yes. Anything grown in the garden, that is hundred times valuable than it is purchased from the market. (pause) Bhagavad-gītā is a book which can guide the whole human society. In all different branches of knowledge, namely in politics, in sociology, in religion, in culture, in philosophy, in economics, everything, all lines are described very vividly, and the human society can take advantage of it.
Aug 3 1976 French farm conversations
Bhagavān: Yes. No one is getting any salary here, they are just working and taking…
Prabhupāda: Yes, that’s all. Why salary? Kṛṣṇa’s servant. We are eternal servant. That is the beauty of our institution. We have no hired men. Unless one is sincere, why he’ll work? What is the time now?
Bhagavān: Eight-thirty.
Prabhupāda: I think it is stopped. Just see how beautifully it is colored. This sense, aesthetic sense. Kṛṣṇa knows how it will become beautiful. Svā-bhāvikī jñāna–bala–kriyā ca. Construction—eh?—of the flower. And there is no intelligence.
Prabhupāda: So beat them with shoes and when they protest, “Oh, it is chance, don’t mind. It is by chance I am beating.” (laughter)
Bhagavān: It seems they are struggling so hard for existence they do not have time to contemplate these simple things, working so hard.
Prabhupāda: So show the simple example that how by simple living and thinking of Kṛṣṇa, one can become perfect and happy.
Some Conclusions–In the above Prabhupada is telling us that anything we grow in our gardens is a 100 times better than any store bought food-even if its organic ! Why is this so? Because the life force wanes the minute you pick the vegetables and store bought food has been out of the ground, in transit by truck, then stored in some refrigerator for who knows how long?He also says that no sincere devotee works for a “salary”. Tell that to all the thousands of salaried people in iskcon these days who are making a lot of money doing their paid for hire work-therefore its not bhakti but bhukti.Hare Krsnadamaghosa dasbelow is some of the vegetables I just picked for Krsna’s dinner tonight.
Rutabagas, peppers and beets-fresh corn on the cob not shown in this shot
two different kinds of steamed beets