Audio

Gopala Krsna: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the author of all these books that you see. These books are being translated in every major language of the world.

Indian man (1): How many books in number?

Gopala Krsna: Eighty-four books of about four hundred pages each.

Indian man (2): How many in vernacular languages printing?

Gopala Krsna: About twenty-one different languages they have been translated.

Indian man (2): In India? Indian languages?

Gopala Krsna: No, international. French, Italian...

Indian man (2): In India? Indian languages?

Gopala Krsna: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati... Every major Indian language.

Indian man (1): Can you tell us the different subjects covered by the...?

Gopala Krsna: It's Vedic subjects. It's the Srimad-Bhagavatam...

Prabhupada: We are stressing especially on Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Indian man (2): You have printed outside India?

Indian man (3): Do you have special on each chapter of Gita?

Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Each word. You can show Bhagavad-gita.

Gopala Krsna: It's a very authoritative presentation. For example, here's the original Sanskrit sloka, word for word...

Indian man (3): [indistinct] different volumes. For example, saṅkhya-yoga. You have a separate book? Then sthita-prajna. You have a separate...?

Prabhupada: No separately. It is there in the Bhagavad-gita.

Indian man (3): But that way, your volumes are dealing with each chapter of Gita?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Gopala Krsna: Each sloka. Each chapter.

Guest (2): No, no. Not inside the book. Different volumes. Like eighteen chapters, but eighteen volumes.

Prabhupada: No, no.

Gopala Krsna: No. It's in one book. Twelve hundred pages.

Indian man (3): And the interpretation is by you yourself?

Prabhupada: Yes. Not interpretation. I am explaining as it is. You can read one.

Indian man (3): Have you tried to compare with Gita written by Santa Jnanesvara, or by Vinobha Bhave or by somebody else?

Prabhupada: According to Bhagavad-gita, if you don't follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gita, you may be very learned scholar, whatever you write, it is lost. We follow that principle. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [Bg 4.2].

[aside:] Find out this Fourth Chapter.

Indian man (2): Have these books been reviewed in foreign papers?

Prabhupada: It is very widely read.

Gopala Krsna: For example, in the Fourth Chapter Lord Krsna says,

Prabhupada: Krsna says that this Bhagavad-gita has to be received by the disciplic succession. And sa kalena yogo nastah paran-tapa. Because that disciplic succession is now broken, that yoga system is now lost. So all these interpreters, they are interpreting in their own way. Therefore it is lost. So there is no use of consulting this lost version.

Indian man (3): So you just give it as it is.

Prabhupada: That is... Therefore my Bhagavad-gita is named Bhagavad-gita As It Is. No interpretation.

Gopala Krsna: Each verse is the original Sanskrit sloka, English transliteration, word-by-word meaning, so there's no room for manipulation. There's a translation and purport. Every book that Srila Prabhupada has written has the same format, and each book is illustrated.

Indian man (3): Do you believe that the Gita should be followed as it is, or interpretation is another thing?

Prabhupada: Yes, yes. If you read somebody's book, you must read the author's version. Why should you bring interpretation? This is... You have no business. If you want to say something of your philosophy, you can say, but why do you take Bhagavad-gita and give your own interpretation? That is very bad.

Indian man (3): But can you not apply your own philosophy...

Prabhupada: Why? Why should you? If you take Bhagavad-gita, you should speak what Bhagavad-gita is saying. And interpretation is required when the thing is not understood clearly. There you get interpretation. Unnecessarily, why should you interpret Bhagavad-gita? You have no right. Dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre samaveta yuyutsavah [Bg 1.1]. So anyone can understand there is a place Kuruksetra still. Why should you interpret, "Kuruksetra means this body and this and that"? Why? What is the necessity? Do you think there is necessity?

Indian man (3): But just as...

Prabhupada: No, no. First of all let us settle, that Bhagavad-gita begins,

So Mahabharata is the history, and there was Battle of Kuruksetra. And that Kuruksetra is mentioned there in the Bhagavad-gita, and it is dharma-ksetra since Vedic age. So the word used, dharma-ksetre and kuru-ksetre, it is completely understood. Why should you interpret, unless you have got a motive? And why a sane man accepts that interpretation? If you have got a different philosophy, you can write your own book. Why should you cheat others, taking Bhagavad-gita and interpreting in your own way? This has spoiled the whole thing. And Krsna says that as soon as you deviate from the disciplic succession system, then it will be lost. So what is the use of reading something which is already lost? If I want to supply you something food, it must be fresh and palatable. Then you'll enjoy. But if it is rotten, decomposed, and if we supply you that foodstuff, what you will enjoy, and what you will get benefit out of it?

Indian man (2): Most Hindus, they are not properly able to understand Krsna direct.

Prabhupada: No, I have already explained that when you cannot understand, then you interpret. But when it is clearly understood, why should you interpret?

Indian man (2): How you explain the act of Krsna taking away the saris of the gopis?

Prabhupada: First of all try to understand Bhagavad-gita, then go to the sari of gopi. You do not know what is Krsna and you are going to His gopis. This is another malinterpretation. You are studying Bhagavad-gita. Talk of that. In the Bhagavad-gita the gopis' saris are not mentioned. So why you are bringing gopis' saris now? This is our fault.

Indian man (2): Normally, you know, our people...

Prabhupada: No, no. This is our fault There is no mention of gopis' saris. We are talking of Bhagavad-gita, why you are bringing gopis' saris?

Indian man (2): Because that...

Prabhupada: Again "because." There is no subject matter there. You have no right to bring that. That is our fault-to bring a horse before a cart. We are talking of Bhagavad-gita. There is no mention of Krsna and gopis' saris there. So let us talk. Finish that.

Indian man (3): So you clearly said that interpretation is wrong.

Prabhupada: Interpretation means lost.

Indian man (3): No, no. You clearly said that interpretation is wrong.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Indian man (3): What has been done all these years?

Prabhupada: If you have done all these years wrong, that does it not right. If all of them have done wrong, then combined together it does not become right.

Indian man (3): Will you repeat your...

Prabhupada: I mean to say if everyone has done wrong, then combined together will it become right? Hundreds of zeroes will make one? It will remain zero. It will not be effective. Krsna says, sa kalena yogo nastah paran-tapa. And what is the next line?

Gopala Krsna: Yogo nastah paran-tapa.

Prabhupada: Then? Next line?

Gopala Krsna: Sa evayam maya te 'dya [Bg 4.3].

Prabhupada: Sa eva ayam yogah proktah puratanah. "Therefore I am saying you again the old yoga system. It is not that because the time has changed, I am changing it." Somebody says, "Now it was spoken some millions of years ago. Now it is modern ways, I am explaining in the modern way." That is not the system. The system is, "I am speaking the same yoga system," yogah proktah puratanah. And they are modernizing, making compromise. That is nasta. That is the defect. Therefore we did not get any benefit. And in the foreign countries, before me, so many yogis, svamis had been there for the last two hundred years.

Not a single person became a Hindu. Now they are calling "American Hindus." Why? Because it was lost. Rotten thing was given. Yogo nastah paran-tapa. If you supply something to me which is rotten and decomposed, such foodstuff, what shall I get benefit? Now they are getting benefit. Our mission is to put Bhagavad-gita as it is. It is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission that He said, amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa [Cc Madhya 7.128]:

"Every one of you become a guru and deliver these persons, these fallen conditioned souls." That is your business. Now you can say, or I can say that "How can I become guru? I have no education, I have no talent. How can I become guru?" The answer is, yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa [Cc Madhya 7.128]. You simply repeat what Krsna has said, you become a guru. So we are doing like that. We haven't got to manufacture. We haven't got to take so much trouble or create it by our fertile brain. We are simply repeating what Krsna has said. That's all. And see how it is effective.

Indian man (1): Do you mean it that a man who is under so much tension can...

Prabhupada: No, no. First of all, try to see the distinction. Before me, so many people went. They misinterpreted Bhagavad-gita, there was no effect. And we are not misinterpreting. We are simply presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is given. That is the point. Everyone says, "Swamiji, you have done wonderful thing." But I say, "I do not know any magic, jugglery. But wonderful thing is that I have not adulterated." That is wonderful. Otherwise, nothing wonderful. What I am saying? Man-mana bhava mad-bhaktah [Bg 9.34]. I am creating them bhaktas, that's all. I am starting these temples and ask them that "Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. You become devotee, you always chant Hare Krsna." That's all. And they are giving up everything. Their father and mother, they are thinking, "They are our lost child." They are now giving the opposition. They have brought so many cases against me.

But unless it is effective, how they are feeling the weight? Now these boys, their father, mother constantly kidnap them: "Stay here." No, they will not stay. They'll not eat with their father, mother. So they think that "Our son is lost." Other yogis and svamis go, they give some method. And the son is there at home: "All right, a young man is going there." But here, their son is lost. Here their son is lost, and they are now called "American Hindus." So naturally they are very much against me. And counter movement is going on. They induce the government that "This is not a religion. The svami knows some mind-controlling power, and he's brainwashing." In this way, there is charge. So because America has got freedom of religion, so if they accept my movement as Hindu religion, they cannot do anything. The people are free to accept. But they are giving in a different charge, that I have manufactured something, that "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling-how people can accept all these things? They're brainwashed." There are so many charges. But anyone who comes to me, I don't make any compromise. Yes... [end]