Room Conversation – June 26, 1976, New Vrindavan

This is equal-Krsna consciousness. Otherwise not

Prabhupada: So, in Detroit they do not go on the street?

Hari-sauri: No, not in the local neighborhood.

Prabhupada: So far, there was no disturbance.

Hari-sauri: No, not while we were there.

Prabhupada: No, before that.

Hari-sauri: No, they haven't reported any disturbance.

Prabhupada: And the black man, they come also?

Hari-sauri: Yes, I think they are...

Prabhupada: Sympathetic.

Hari-sauri: Yes, because the devotees are not prejudiced in any way. We have white devotees and we have black devotees also. And if the neighbors want to come and see the place, then they are allowed in and shown around. We are about the only ones who could possibly live there.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Hari-sauri: We are the only ones that could live there.

Prabhupada: Yes.

[long pause]

Prabhupada: What is the reason they are given equal facility, still they are so wretched, poor, ruffian?

Hari-sauri: Just low class. They have no... There's no intelligence how to utilize their wealth correctly.

Prabhupada: Same thing in Africa.

Hari-sauri: I think you give that example. If you give... If there's a dog and you put him on a king's throne, [Prabhupada laughs] he'll still come and lick your feet.

Prabhupada: Yes, he'll lick up shoes. Another example is given: ahgaraḥ sata-dhautena malinatvam na muncati. If you take a piece of coal, you can wash it hundreds and thousands of times, it never becomes white. And these are material things, but spiritually you can reform. It doesn't matter. If one comes to the spiritual platform then everything is possible. Otherwise not.

Hari-sauri: They're always looking for a platform of equality.

Prabhupada: The black men.

Hari-sauri: No, just the people in general, for happiness. Because they understand that if there are so many different groups, then there will always be fighting and dissent. So they are always looking for some compromise how to get the groups to live together.

Prabhupada: This is equal-Krsna consciousness. Otherwise not.

Hari-sauri: No. Materially speaking, they've tried so many ways to integrate the blacks with the whites here in America, but what has actually happened is, through those efforts, they've created a worse situation. By deliberately forcing black children and white children to go to the same schools... Sometimes they have what's called here bussing. It's a big, major issue in politics now. Because they take all the black children, and they take them to a white area just so that they can go to the school there. They actually take them further away from their local schools to another school, where it is all white children, so that they'll integrate and mix. So it's very controversial.

Prabhupada: The parents do not like.

Hari-sauri: No. They say that..., because it's like an artificial.

Prabhupada: Yes, it is artificial. They are lowborn, there is no doubt about it. Otherwise, they are getting the all facilities, still they are wretched, poor, unclean, not educated, not gentle-everything. All bad behavior. [end]