Interview – February 26, 1977, Māyāpur

Prabhupada started his kirtana in a park in New York City

[First 28 minutes of audio is talk between 2 interviewers and Prabhupada in Hindi, discussing, among other things, books produced in other languages. A few English words interjected.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. What He had said, people could not understand, therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu has appeared as a devotee in this world. The Supreme Personality of Godhead personally descended and preached sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg 18.66]

[Transl. He asserted, but people could not understand His favor. Therefore He again appeared as a devotee, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and taught how to learn devotional service to Krsna. So we are trying to preach the teachings of Mahaprabhu. Actually we not manufacturing anything new. Whatever Lord Krsna had personally tried to instruct when He descended in this world five thousand years ago, that same thing Caitanya Mahaprabhu tried to spread five hundred years ago. And actually He did it.

[Transl. So following in His footsteps this Krsna Consciousness movement is carrying it on. Why this has been done? Not everybody is following? Why are we so much in a hurry? There is reason. The reason is, Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said, He has said to everyone, do this, amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa, yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. [Cc. Madhya 7.128]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Please repeat, let me write it down.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa, you will find in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. tara ei desa?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes, wherever you are.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. tara ei desa.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. yare dekha tare kaha krsna upadesa. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. He further said, bharata-bhūmite haila manusya janma yara, janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara.

[The interviewer notes it down].

This is the condition. Bharata-bhūmite haila manusya janma yara. He also instructed, prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

Interviewer (1): [Transl. prthivite ache yata…]

Prabhupada: [Transl. nagaradi grama. Sarvatra haibe pracara mora nama. Just understand that Bharata-varsa has got a duty. Bharata bhūmite haila manusya janma yara. One who has taken birth in Bharata-varsa as a human being, not as a dog, but as a human being, it is his duty to preach this to the whole world. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. That I am trying to do. Not only trying but also following.

[Transl. Now they are accepting. So far nobody followed this. Anyway, somehow or other I am trying to do it and people are accepting it seriously. So, why people of India are not given this culture systematically? There is a cultural department in the Indian Government where they are simply arranging extra vagant dance festivals. What they are helping in spreading Caitanya Mahaprabhu's messege?

[Transl. You write about this in your paper. What we are doing is beneficial for all. Based on Caitanya Mahaprabhu's authority we are doing this and people respond. Why Indian Government, Indian people are not helpful? They misunderstand on the contrary.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You might be having some discomforts?]

Prabhupada: Yes. The first discomfort is that our land. [Transl. We have big, big buildings as you see here, not in one place in India but six, seven places like Bombay, you must have heard, a huge establishment.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where in Bombay?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. In Juhu.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where did you go? [indistinct] [break]]

Prabhupada: [Transl. …we sell. This is his blessings. He had a heartiest desire to do that. And whatever little intelligence I had with that I tried to fulfill it. According to that order…he left this world in 1936. So I always had that desire within my heart that I should do it. Then in 1944 I started one paper called "Back to Godhead." [devotees showing B.T.G] I started that. It was in 1944.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. How old were you in 1944?]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. What was your age then?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. About 50 years. I was born in 1896.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Oh. 1896.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. That means in 1944 I was 48 years old.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. What was your profession at that time?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. My business was some chemist.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Chemist?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I was the Manager in Bose's laboratory.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Really? Interesting.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Do you know Kartik Bose?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes I know Kartik Bose.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. We had very close relationship with Kartik Bose. I gave him a book called "Paralokera Katha" or topics of the spiritual world. That time I was the Manager. So he said "My son. I belong to this world, so how will I understand the topics of the spiritual world?" He told me like that. Kartik Bose was just like my father. My father's intimate friend. He offered me the post of Manager. He treated me like his son. Pancanan Bose was also there. They were of same age. There I was Manager. Then with his agentship I went to Allahabad. That's a long history.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. When did you go to abroad?]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Abroad? Journey?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. What did you say?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. When did you go to foreign country?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Foreign, oh that my Gurudeva asked me to go and preach there. That he ordered me in the very beginning. He said "You are an educated person, why don't you preach the messege of Mahaprabhu in the west?"]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Were you a devotee from your childhood?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I was born in a vaisnava family.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Born in vaisnava family.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Our family, relatives are all vaisnavas. Therefore from the beginning arranging Ratha-yatra, worshiping Radha-Krsna Deity, not eating meat and fish, were part of our lives. We were fortunate to feed mahatmas. That's why my "Krsna" book I have dedicated to my father.] [aside:] Find out this book Krsna. Krsna.

Devotee: Krsna book?

Prabhupada: Yes. First part.

Devotee: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. Translated into Japanis, Chineses.

Prabhupada: [Transl. We have in Japanis, Chineses also. See them how nicely they are decorated with tilaka. All well behaved vaisnavas. And our boys are roaming around. All together three volumes this Krsna book. Selling like anything.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Sell so many?]

Prabhupada: Millions.

Interviewer (1): Oh?

Prabhupada: [Transl. We have so many books of different kinds. We daily sell about five, six lakhs of rupees worth of books. They are accepting with respect. Many big, big scholars, intelligent persons are accepting that Krsna Consciousness is authorised. They are trying to preach. The big, big universities, colleges…]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. In America?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. ...all standing orders.]

Bhavananda: This is yesterday's. Krsna tattva.

Interviewer (1): I have with me.

Prabhupada: Krsna-lila. Give me spect.

[Prabhupada reads the report]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. I have written it.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Is it good?]

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. The other day we stayed up whole night at the airport.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I was also thinking who would go so early in the morning. But you all went at night.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Whole night…whole night we stayed. Yesterday…the day before yesterday in the evening, whole night we were just waiting. Always telephoning the briting and others, the tower, when the plane is landing, when the plane is landing. Is it in the circuit, is it coming here Calcutta? Ranchi-Calcutta?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. It was published in all newspapers?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. All newspapers. I was very happy to hear the news. I thought "Give a full coverage." I received seven thousand phone calls. So he immediately rushed me. "Go and see and write it peacefully." If you can kindly give me few important books of yours it will be very helpful. I could write it very nicely.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. What important books?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. A few books written by you. Like this Krsna book etc so that I can write elaborately.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. You have got books in different languages. Chinese, Japanese, Russion, the communist countries where people do not believe in this. You have got.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Here is Chinese.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Yes. Chinese, Russion, Polish.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. These books are not sold here, these are here to show people.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Anyhow, You have got them here.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. See. See them all.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Which language is this one?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. This is German.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. This is German. Okay. German. And is this not Russian?] Is it Russian or Polish?

Devotee: Russian.

Interviewer (2): This is Japanese.

Devotee: That's Japanese.

Interviewer (2): Which one? This one is Japanese and that one is Chinese. Any other languages?

Devotee: So many languages.

Bhavananda: Communist countries. That one is Polish.

Prabhupada: Spanish language. Bhagavatam. [Transl. I have given you.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes you have given.]

Prabhupada: Spanish language. And English Krsna book. English.

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Yes. English is in our country also. That we will see later.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. What was your previous name?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. A.C. Abhaya charan, Abhaya Charanaravinda.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Abhaya charan De?]

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where did your transformation take place?]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Interviewer (2): [Transl. From here only.]

Prabhupada: What? What?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Your spiritual transformation?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. That I told you, from the very beginning of my life.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes you told me, but what was the turning point?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. After retirement I was living in Vrndavana.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. I see. You retired from Vrndavana?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. After retirement I was in Vrndavana.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Before that you were in that laboratory. From there you took retirement?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. No. I didn't work in the laboratory for a long time. I opened my own laboratory. I was in Lucknow.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Do you know Dr. Akhil Roy in Lucknow?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. That was many years ago. I know Barister Bhattacarya. There is place called Batlarganj where I was staying. [Indistinct] Then in Allahabad I had a big pharmacy. Prayag pharmacy. Jawaharlal was my customer.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Prayag pharmacy. Was it known as King's pharmacy before?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. On Kartik Bose's advice I had go wherever he wanted. At that time I was 21 years old. Then the Director Umesh Bharati put an objection that I should be replaced by his own son. But the Kartik Bose said "No, I need my own man in that post. He is educated. You will see how he will manage everything." [Transl. In 1921, I was Kartik Bose's Manager. And in 1922, I took his agentship and went to Allahabad. There I worked hard to establish my prayag pharmacy. Then in 1945 I opened my own laboratory.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Are those laboratories still present?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. The Supreme Lord has destroyed them all. yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaiḥ [SB 10.88.8] Had He not destroyed them would I be able to come to this line?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. That's true.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. The intelligence…someone read my palm and said to me "You will build a big house and enjoy a lot of fresh air like Birla." So I was trying to become Birla. But the Supreme Lord smashed that idea of mine and made me such a Birla who is bigger than fourteen generations of Birlas. [everybody laughs] That is Supreme Lord that even Birla doesn't have so much money! Birla…who is such a Birla who has got sixty, seventy big, big buildings in the whole world?] [aside:] Somebody told me "You will be like Birla." Oh? Then my business was taken away. Now I am bigger than Birla.

Interviewer (2): Now you are earning daily five lakh rupees. [laughs]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. So after retirement you went to abroad?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. After retirement I was residing in Vrndavana.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Oh, you were in Vrndavana.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. There were others in Gauḍiya Matha like Bon Maharaja and so on who could not do, did not do. But since Guru Maharaja told me to do it, I thought let me try. At the age of seventy, just before leaving, I published three volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam…]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. In Bengali?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. … in English and in 1965 I went to America.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You had any prior invitation to go to America?]

Prabhupada: Eh?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Did you have any invitation to go to America in 1965?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Nothing at all.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. So you went of your own accord?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Of my own accord. All alone.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Didn't take anyone with you?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Eh? No.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You just left alone?]

Prabhupada: Yes.

Interviewer (1): [aside: to his partner] Anything else to ask? [Transl. Didn't any of your family members object? Your wife, children?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. If they object, who cares?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Then?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Everybody objected.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where did you land in America?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. New York.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. New York.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Then I used to sit down in the park and do kirtana.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You used to sit down in the park and do kirtan. This was in which year?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. 1965. I would stand underneath a tree and give lecture and these boys would hear.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Which year was it?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. 1965. The two boys who joined first, they both are present here. You can talk to them.] [aside:] You can call Brahmananda and Acyutananda.

Interviewer (2): [Transl. They took initiation first?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. When I used to do kirtana there they were the first to start dancing and singing. Of the two, Brahmananda was the son of a very rich man. His father was a big businessman. But he left everything and came.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Joined you. One is Brahmananda and the other one is?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Acyutananda. They joined first.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Not individually, but we will interview all of them together separately.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. I had no place. Who would call me? They would come by hearing my kirtan. I would sit down in a park, Tomkin park, Tomkin square.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Tomkin square.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. There I used to perform kirtan from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. daily.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Were you staying in someone's house there?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Not like that, but yes I was living in someone's house in the begining. Then I rented a room.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Their appearance looks like Bengali.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He speaks good Bengali.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes, he speaks good Bengali.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. You speak in Bengali with him. After you finish with me you can talk to them.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Is he Brahmananda?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No, he is Acyutananda. That time perhaps he was 15 or 16 years old. [asks Acyutananda in Bengali. How old were you then?]].

Interviewer (1): [Transl. How old are you?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He came to me in the park.]

Acyutananda: [Transl. I joined in 1966.]

Prabhupada : [Transl. How old were then?]

Acyutananda: [Transl. I was 18.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. 66.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. If you were 18 then how old was Brahmananda?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. 66 or 67.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. How old is Brahmananda?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He may be litter older than him.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. 20?]

Acyutananda: [Transl. 25.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. 25.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. He has learned very good Bengali.]

Prabhupada: (aside) [Transl. Where is Brahmananda?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. That you took up this daring work of going to the west, sitting in the park and so on, how did it come to your mind, who actually inspired you?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. That I already told you. My Guru Maharaja ordered me.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Guru Maharaja.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He said "Go".]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You didn't fear? How people will react? People may not take.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Fear? I didn't fear the fearful?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You didn't fear.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. You didn't face any obstacles then in their country?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Till now they didn't, but nowadays they are putting obstacles.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Now they are creating impediments according to to the law of their country?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Here is Brahmananda. Now you talk to them. These two joined first. They chanted and danced in that park with me.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Come and sit closer. Sit closer.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. I will take them to the other side and talk. Otherwise we can interview them separately.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. No, here is good as all the books are right here. You come to this side.]

Interviewer (1): Come closer.

Prabhupada: They were the first recruits.

Interviewer (1): Ah, they were the first conscious people of the Western world. [laughter]

Prabhupada: Krsna conscious.

Brahmananda: We were the first to dance to the name of Krsna.

Interviewer (1): But how do you feel when…

Prabhupada: [Transl. You tell them about your experience at that time. Of that time. They are press people.]

Brahmananda: It was the first major article written about Prabhupada when he came. Prabhupada started his kirtana in a park in New York City. When Prabhupada came, he did not bring any mrdahga, so one of his students gave him some small drum, with only one head, one drum, and he was playing, and...

Prabhupada: That picture I am playing.

Interviewer (1): Sidney Schanberg he was very good friend of us.

Brahmananda: Shubra?

Interviewer (1): Schanberg.

Brahmananda: Schanberg.

Interviewer (1): Several times he was in India. Couple of years.

Brahmananda: Who? What is his position? He's a writer? Or an editor?

Interviewer: Schanberg is an editor. He is on the editor writing.

Interviewer (2): No, no, no. He was in Singapore.

Interviewer (1): No, no, no. He was editor. He was acting editor of New York Times.

Interviewer (2): He has written a book.

Interviewer (1): Now, maybe now he's written a book, but he's working editor. That time he was working in Delhi or working with Delhi correspondent.

Brahmananda: That paper's very favorable to our movement.

Interviewer: I see. New York Times.

Brahmananda: Throughout all these years, they've always written very favorable articles, positive.

Interviewer: I think New York Times must be one of the most influential papers in the States.

Brahmananda: Oh, yes. We've been covered with very extensive type[?]. We've been certified to be the most widely publicized...

Interviewer: Yeah.

Brahmananda: ...of all.

Interviewer: By all [indistinct].

Brahmananda: Oh, yes. For sure. It was a very famous paper.

Prabhupada: In America, Hare Krsna Movement is known, home to home.

Brahmananda: Home to home.

Prabhupada: So also in Europe.

Brahmananda: Whole of Europe.

Interviewer: Why they react so favorably in the materialistic world?

Brahmananda: Well, I think they are impressed by our…, the purity of this movement. We follow four regulative principles: prohibited from intoxication-even cigarettes, coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs-illicit sex, meat-eating and gambling. So other gurus who have come to the West, they don't say these things. Rather, they say you can…, first you can meditate, then you can go ahead and do these things. They don't prohibit.

Prabhupada: They say, "Why should we prohibit? Lord has given you senses. Enjoy."

Brahmananda: They even say that "Do not restrict yourself in any way." So people actually don't respect them. They may think it's popular, but they don't respect it. So our movement is preaching these principles, and in conjunction we have many books, very respectable books. We're getting reviews-very favorable reviews-from big scholars, all universities. Even now Prabhupada's books are being used as textbooks in major universities. So this gives a…

Interviewer: Anywhere in Europe?

Brahmananda: Oh, yes.

Interviewer: Take books.

Brahmananda: Oh, yes. They've been in Europe. They've been all over-Scandinavia, France, Germany...

Interviewer (2): London?

Brahmananda: London. We have favorable reviews from Oxford, all the big universities. We've published a booklet, and we can give you a copy.

Prabhupada: These are reviews of our books.

Interviewer: [Transl. These?]

Brahmananda: Yes. So many reviews. This is one review from a Harvard scholar. Harvard.

Radha-vallabha: Can you get it? [brings in pictures]

Prabhupada: This is in Los Angeles?

Radha-vallabha: Yes. There are 300 of these, all totaled, like this one.

Brahmananda: Framed like this?

Radha-vallabha: Yes.

Prabhupada: Three hundred?

Brahmananda: Three hundred.

Radha-vallabha: Yes. Plus these.

Brahmananda: These are pictures, for being displayed.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Brahmananda: For the downstairs.

Radha-vallabha: This is an award from a books fair in America, "Excellence."

Prabhupada: What is written there?

Radha-vallabha: Says, "Printing Industries of Metropolitan New York, Certificate of Special Merit for outstanding example of printing displayed in the Bicentennial Exhibition of Printing, 1976, presented to Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta..."

Prabhupada: [Transl. They gave me a certificate. Our printing is so nice. [aside:] Give them a photo.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. We will publish this along with the books.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. No. No. We will write about the books separately.]

Radha-vallabha: Lord Caitanya's Ratha-yatra…

Prabhupada: [Transl. Caitanya-caritamrta has been published.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Already done!]

Brahmananda: This is the volume that won the prize.

Interviewer: [Trans_What is that?]

Radha-vallabha: There's Bengali script. There's an [indistinct].

[indistinct background comments]

This is a Swedish Back to Godhead.

Prabhupada: Oh. Swedish? I have not seen it before. Published in Sweden language. These pictures, framed there or here?

Radha-vallabha: Framed in Los Angeles and shipped here.

Prabhupada: [indistinct]

Radha-vallabha: A few broke-not many.

Prabhupada: Broke…

Radha-vallabha: The glass.

Prabhupada: …glass

Radha-vallabha: They can be repaired later.

Prabhupada: Yesterday I see pictures?

Brahmananda: Of Berkeley...

Prabhupada: Yes. [Transl. We have such beautiful temples there, we brought them here.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. The temples are here?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. The pictures of those temples are here.] Berkeley, San Francisco.

Interviewer: Berkeley.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Have you ever been there?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Abroad?]

Prabhupada: Han?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. I haven't gone as yet, but I have a strong desire to go.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Come and stay with us. We have facility to stay everywhere.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Will you take me?]

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Let me write a full coverage first, then.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. First you write then we will take you.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes. Yes. I am writing. I have come here to write.]

Tamala Krsna: This is a total of books printed, at our press.

Prabhupada: Hmm.

[Prabhupada and interviewer talk in Hindi about architecture of temples]

Prabhupada: Hmm. [Transl. See how beautifully the temples are decorated! Just the way they decorate the Deities in the temple courtyards here in India, same like that.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. The archietecture looks very stylish.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. All they have done. Australian. They visited and saw.]

Brahmananda: They came to India and took photographs of the Indian temples here and studied very carefully. The Berkeley temple is known as New Jagannatha Puri.

Interviewer: New Jagannatha Puri. Accha.

Brahmananda: Yes. It was the scene of our first...

Prabhupada: Ratha-yatra.

Brahmananda: ...Ratha-yatra festival.

Prabhupada: [Transl. The local Government has declared a holiday on that day.]

Interviewer: Accha? In which city?

Brahmananda: In Berkeley.

Tamala Krsna: Near San Francisco.

Brahmananda: New Jagannatha Puri.

[Prabhupada and interviewers converse in Hindi]

Prabhupada: [Transl. In the firsr ever Ratha-yatra festival one of your Reporters, Sarkar came. Does any of your staff Reporter live there?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes. Yes. Someone stays there. Dr. Sarkar.] New Jagannatha Temple.

Brahmananda: Puri.

Interviewer: New Jagannatha Puri. Accha.

Radha-vallabha: Yes.

Brahmananda: Just like there is New England, New York...

Interviewer: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brahmananda: ...New Amsterdam. So Prabhupada has named "New Jagannatha Puri." Berkeley is of…, the scene of the Berkeley University, where every year the students there become very unruly and they make some riots and so on. But when we have our Ratha-yatra parade, we go right where these students are, and there's never any fighting or rioting, and the police have given a certificate, that "Your Society... We commend your Society because when you have your demonstration at Ratha-yatra it is very peaceful and it gives us no trouble."

Prabhupada: And not only that, last year-not last year, but year before last-when I was coming, riding in the car, all the students surrounded me, and-you remember that?-"Thank you, Prabhupada. Thank you, Prabhupada." They are not my students, they're outsiders, but still they have received it, and they said this word: "Thank you, Prabhupada." They're getting a life, new life.

Interviewer: Yeah. Actually, this movement is a movement of the youth.

Brahmananda: That is our great confidence in the future of this movement-it's the young people that're taking it up; so therefore we're progressing the movement.

Interviewer: How the young, the younger generation in the other countries, they're taking...

Prabhupada: Everywhere.

Interviewer: European countries?

Prabhupada: Oh, yes.

Tamala Krsna: Maybe I should give them… These... This is the total number of books we have printed in various different languages, and they'll give you an indication of how our movement is being accepted around the world: In the English-speaking countries we've published a total of forty-three and a half million books. Forty-three and a half million. In Spanish-speaking countries-this is in copies of books-Spanish, three million; in German, two and a quarter million copies of books. In Japanese the same number, two and one quarter million; in French, one and three quarter million copies.

Interviewer: Three quarter million.

Tamala Krsna: One and three quarter million.

Interviewer: One and…

Tamala Krsna: One point seven million. In Portuguese, one million copies-that means Brazil and Portugal. Dutch...

Interviewer: Dutch.

Tamala Krsna: ...six lakhs copies; Italian, five lakhs copies; then Chinese, fifty-five thousand copies; Korean, twenty thousand copies; Yugoslavian, twenty thousand copies; Polish, ten thousand copies; Hungarian, ten thousand copies; Czechoslovakian, ten thousand copies; Russian, five thousand copies. Total, fifty-five million copies of books.

Interviewer: Total.

Tamala Krsna: Yes. Fifty-five million.

Brahmananda: The Russian books...We are of course not able to distribute in Russia, because they don't allow religion; the way our men distributed, that they are trained to travel between Finland and Russia. So the men get on the trains-because the trains go up to the border, coming from the border of Russia-they sell them to the Russian people...

Interviewer: I see.

Brahmananda: ...but not inside Russia. In this way the people bring the books back with them. In this way we're getting books into Russia.

Tamala Krsna: So these books, the books that we have printed, are Bhagavad-gita-the numbers I have given you are for Bhagavad-gita-Srimad-Bhagavatam… You can say Bhagavad-gita As It Is, because our Bhagavad-gita's special name, "As It Is."

Interviewer: "As it is."

Tamala Krsna: …Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, and many other books.

Prabhupada: Just see how our books are reprinted, and here is one list.

Tamala Krsna: Just see how it's increasing in every year, in many languages. The Bhagavad-gita-this is worthy of note-that this year we are printing Bhagavad-gita: one million five hundred thousand copies in English.

Prabhupada: See Bhagavata we printed.

Brahmananda: We're printing history.

Prabhupada: It has nothing to do what I printed in India.

Brahmananda: This is the first book Prabhupada printed, before coming to America. He came with this book, printed in India.

Tamala Krsna: Course, we have printed many lakhs copies of books in India also-I did not give you totals-but we are printing in many Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi... One other I didn't tell you is Swahili...

Interviewer: Swahili, yes.

Tamala Krsna: ...one hundred thousand copies-one lakh.

Prabhupada: Any new book we print not less than twenty lakhs. Then increases it to fifty lakhs.

Interviewer: In India, who published these books?

Prabhupada: India, now we are publishing Usha Printing.

Interviewer: No, previously, before going to the States.

Prabhupada: No. That is a small press in Delhi.

[indistinct background discussion as guests look at books]

Now we are changing the format-more attractive. You have got Bhagavatam?

Tamala Krsna: Yes.

[background discussion about new covers]

Radha-vallabha: This is Perfection of Yoga, which is taken from Bhagavad-gita, essays on Bhagavad-gita.

Prabhupada: We are the first, number-one publisher of these books in religious subject in the world.

Radha-vallabha: They're all of Krsna culture.

Tamala Krsna: These are three new covers... This is a...

[break] People treat these books as holy scriptures. They don't take these books as ordinary. They keep them in special places on their bookshelves. And many people have become full-time Vaisnavas simply from purchasing these books. They have become so much impressed with the philosophy that they have dedicated their life to Lord Caitanya after reading these books.

Radha-vallabha: In the English language alone Srila Prabhupada has printed sufficient books that one out of every five people in the United States can have a copy.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where did you get these pictures?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Our boys painted them.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. They did it. Took from old books?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. I explained to them.]

Radha-vallabha: Our recent order for Bhagavad-gita As It Is, we had to order the paper to print it, so it required seventy-six cars on the train to carry it to the printer.

Tamala Krsna: I think that's worthy of mentioning in the newspaper.

Radha-vallabha: Seventy-six ox carts.

Brahmananda: Wagons. Seventy-six wagons, full of paper.

Prabhupada: For printing one book.

Interviewer: Fantastic! I don't think these people know about the world so much, for the publications. They know about the movement overall. In the West, Prabhupada's books.

Radha-vallabha: The paper company, which is one of the largest in the world, sent us one letter-it will be here in a week-stating that this is the largest paper order ever made for one book in history.

Tamala Krsna: Phew!

Radha-vallabha: Any book.

Interviewer: This is in the States?

Radha-vallabha: United States. And the printer for that particular book said he has never heard of one single order for a hardbound book being that large.

Tamala Krsna: One million, five hundred thousand copies.

Interviewer: One million, five hundred thousand.

Tamala Krsna: Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

Brahmananda: Now we are starting to reprint the books here in India and exporting. This Bhagavad-gita is published here, printed here in India, and it's being exported to UK, Australia and other countries. This is printed in Bombay.

Interviewer: Yes.

Tamala Krsna: Bombay is the center of our publication of books.

Interviewer: This is Thomson Press?

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Usha offset.]

Brahmananda: No. Usha.

Prabhupada: Thomson is in Delhi.

Interviewer: Punjabi.

Brahmananda: Now Usha Press is going to establish a special press-they're going to import a special printing press machine-and it's going to be established somewhere in Gujarat, where the government has given one area only for export industries; and therefore they will be getting certain tax benefits. So everything that they print there must be exported-they cannot use it in the country. So this is specifically for our printing needs.

Prabhupada: We get paper from government on concession.

Interviewer: Oh, from the government of India.

Interviewer (2): Then why they're encouraging on one hand and they're discouraging the other hand to do something

Prabhupada: They have got different department, encouraging and discouraging.

[others all laugh]

You know better than me.

Interviewer: Uh?

Prabhupada: You know better than me. Discouraging department; encouraging. And we are concerned with both departments.

Interviewer (2): Concerned with both department.

Interviewer: How can I get some of your books? We take and write a special article on the books.

Prabhupada: So, which book you want?

Interviewer (1): Some of the specific, specially written, which will give you more publicity.

Prabhupada: Bhagavatam.

Tamala Krsna: Maybe one copy of Bhagavatam, one copy of Caitanya-caritamrta...

Prabhupada: Yes. We have got so many. You can give one of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Tamala Krsna: One Srimad Bhagavatam...

Prabhupada: First part.

Tamala Krsna: [indistinct]

Devotee: Then you can...

Prabhupada: You can take that copy, that Bhagavatam there. That Bhagavatam? Yes?

Tamala Krsna: That one?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Interviewer: [indistinct] completed [indistinct]

Brahmananda: This is a special edition which they printed for you, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: This is the latest, printing.

Radha-vallabha: It's the gold copy, special gold copy for you.

Prabhupada: Hmm. Give him gold. [others laugh] If you want to give, give gold. So you can take it.

Tamala Krsna: Oh boy!

Interviewer (1): You have to write something. Please.

[indistinct background comments as they find Caitanya-caritamrta]

Interviewer: Complete in seventeen volumes.

Tamala Krsna: Yeah. You can see.

Interviewer: So we need the Caitanya-caritamrta complete volumes, complete translation.

Prabhupada: [Transl. What is your full name?]

Interviewer: [Transl. Amar Prasad Sarkar.]

Radha-vallabha: The Srimad-Bhagavatam will be completed in sixty volumes. Sixty.

[indistinct background comments]

Brahmananda: Prabhupada begins writing between one and two o'clock in the morning. He rises at one o'clock in the morning and begins his writing in the early morning hours.

Radha-vallabha: He has to fit this in while managing an international Society.

Brahmananda: He dictates tape on this Dictaphone here. He dictates tapes. Then these tapes are sent to America.

Radha-vallabha: And it shows where it is...

Brahmananda: Yes.

Prabhupada: What is the date?

Tamala Krsna: Today's the twenty-sixth; 26/2/77.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Read thoroughly whether you write or not. Read.]

Interviewer: [Transl. Sure. Definitely.]

Tamala Krsna: I think that you'll also be able to keep one of these copies, because this will give you a lot of detailed information.

Interviewer (1): Certainly.

Interviewer (2): [Transl. And listen, try to get a picture of their temple in the west.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes. Will you publish a picture of their temple abroad? They have wonderful Indian sculpture.] Indian sculptural beauty, in Berkeley and other places. Typical Indian.

Brahmananda: This…

Prabhupada: There is similar temple in Australia? Melbourne?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Radha-vallabha: Same rock.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. They were made of rock like Indian sculpture. They sent this photo.]

Brahmananda: That sculpture is outside the temple, it weighs over one ton, made of stone.

Interviewer: Huh. But where is it?

Brahmananda: In Berkeley.

Radha-vallabha: It was made on location.

Tamala Krsna: Simha-dvara.

Interviewer: Simha-dvara. Simha-dvara. Berkeley.

Radha-vallabha: When they held the grand opening of the temple...

Prabhupada: You can bring our New York Deity?

Radha-vallabha: When they held the grand opening of the Berkeley temple all the television stations came. In the news it showed the kirtana and the Deity.

[pause] Have you been to [indistinct]?

Brahmananda: Never.

[indistinct background comments]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. This is sufficient.]

Prabhupada: This is our New York Deity.

Interviewer: That's the New York Deity.

Tamala Krsna: Radha-Govinda.

Interviewer: Ah, Radha-Govinda.

Prabhupada: This is Los Angeles Deity.

Tamala Krsna: Los Angeles.

Radha-vallabha: Rukmini-Dwarkadisa.

Interviewer: But who has done all these Deities?

Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada. [devotees chuckle] We have taken instruction from him in this way.

Interviewer: These photographs?

Brahmananda: The photographs are taken by our own men.

Interviewer: Ah. From…, from Indian temples?

Prabhupada: No. That... This our New York temple Deity.

Interviewer (2): Accha.

Interviewer: But how you got this Deity?

Prabhupada: Huh?

Interviewer (2): Here.

Brahmananda: From India.

Tamala Krsna: From Jaipur.

Brahmananda: Jaipur, but all the srhgara decorations, they're all made in America...

Interviewer: Oh, I see.

Radha-vallabha: Everything's made in America.

Brahmananda: ...by the American devotees.

Interviewer: Accha. Beautiful. [pause]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Like this we got one hundred and two places.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. One hundred and two places. All over the world.]

Interviewer: All over the world.

Prabhupada: All big, big cities. London, we have got two temples.

Interviewer: London, two temples?

Brahmananda: Many gurus and svamis have come to the West, but they have not established not one temple. And Prabhupada has established one hundred.

Prabhupada: Neither so many devotees.

Tamala Krsna: The daily…, the monthly expenditure in our New York temple is six lakhs rupees, every month...

Interviewer: Every month.

Tamala Krsna: Just for that one temple in New York.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Don't our ministers and others from India visit New York and see all this?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Tarun went to London.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. What did he say?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He and his wife. He was praising so much.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. He is fond of all this.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Here he says "This is Vaikuntha." He always praises us.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Any other minister like Siddhartha Roy or any Central ministers or Prime minister?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. No. Only Tarun went. When I was in London that time he, Shipu and some of the secretaries visited.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. This year I have applied for a sponsorship and discount in the Home ministry, if it works out then I will go and see.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Good. Go and stay in our temples. Either in the city or outside the city. The temple donated to us in the outskirts of London… have you heard the name of George Harrison?]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes. George Harrison.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He donated that house worth 55 lakhs.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Harrison? In London?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Hmm. He is one of our good devotees. There is another devotee named Alfred Ford who is the great grandson of Henry Ford.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Alfred Ford.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He also gave me so much money. Millions of rupees.]

Brahmananda: Ambarisa.

Prabhupada: Ambarisa. [Transl. He is my disciple. I changed his name to Ambarisa.] Ambarisa.

Interviewer: Ambarisa.

Prabhupada: Ambarisa.

Interviewer (2): Ambarisa.

Prabhupada: Ambarisa. [Transl. There was a king named Ambarisa.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes, Ambarisa Maharaja.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He was a son of a rich man. He used drink wine and do nonsense. Now he has become a devotee. He says "Now all my money is yours."]

Interviewer: Where is that?

Tamala Krsna: In Berkeley; Berkeley, California; just next to San Francisco.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Just recently you brought 316 devotees from New York by chartered Jumbo flight, so how was the response from the Government of India?]

Prabhupada: That is recent.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes. Did the Government react favourably?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. That I don't know. But they have come.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. They came. Every year they come like this?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. They come every year like this for Dola or Holi festival? These] devotees are only from States or from other places also?

Prabhupada: No, no. Various places...

Interviewer (2): Various places.

Prabhupada: Europe, America, Australia... More from America.

Interviewer: [Transl. More from America. These names ending with "Dasa"] You have given the Indian names, Vaisnava names. [Transl. You have got thousands of ] …devotee also. How you give every individual an Indian name, spiritual name?

Prabhupada: That is a mystery.

Radha-vallabha: Jaya.

Brahmananda: It is a mystery.

Prabhupada: [Transl. They are there in the Sastra.]

Interviewer: I asked some of the women devotees who were just standing front of your car, and they are giving typical Indian names. I asked, "How you got the names?" "My spiritual leader who has given," and so I have that name.

Prabhupada: [Transl. They get initiation. At that time their original name is changed.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. But how? You are sitting here. How do you change the names of devotees who are living far away?]

Prabhupada: No. [Transl. I do it. I manage it through letters.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. By letters. How many letters do you receive?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Every day I get about twenty, twenty-five letters at least, sometimes more. I have to manage everything personally. But I have chosen some secretaries.] I have got about twenty secretaries.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Twenty secretaries. Why twenty secretaries? What they do?]

Prabhupada: Different parts of…, of the world managed by them.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Are all of them here now?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes. They have come now. He looks after Africa.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Africa.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. He is in-charge of Africa.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Where do you live in Africa?]

Brahmananda: Nairobi. East Africa.

Tamala Krsna: [indistinct] Brahmananda Swami.

Interviewer: [Transl. All the] ...money he was speaking totally on your books and collection, from your devotees.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes. We have no other special source of income. They also contributed, but not in cash. They gave house, land etc.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Who?]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Just like George Harrison.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. George Harrison.]

Devotee: Just in Chinese language.

Tamala Krsna: He's translated Bhagavad-gita into Chinese, and this is his wife. She is from China also.

Prabhupada: [Transl. He has also come,] and his wife.

Interviewer (1): I see. [Transl. Tell me his Indian name.]

Tamala Krsna: Yasomatisūta dasa.

Interviewer (1): I see. Very good.

Prabhupada: So you can come forward and bring me book. Both, your wife also.

Interviewer (1): [Transl. [aside: to his partner, Hey, you talk to them separately.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. Okay. I can take them outside. But I don't have...]

[indistinct background discussion]

Prabhupada: After this, you take them to the prasadam pavilion.

Tamala Krsna: Yes, yes. Actually when we all take-I don't know if they could all… They want to show them all over, and if they take prasadam...

Prabhupada: Anyway, they must take prasadam.

Tamala Krsna: Yes.

[indistinct background discussion]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. We can use gestures and actions to interview them.]

[indistinct background discussion] [laughter]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Just see how their behavior! We have vaisnavas everywhere.]

[indistinct background discussion as interviewers ask Yasomatisūta questions]

Interviewer: Get closer. Where from you came from?

Yasomatisūta: Hongkong.

Interviewer (1): Hongkong. You belong to Hongkong?

Yasomatisuta: Yes.

Interviewer (1): You adopted this movement in Hongkong or outside Hongkong?

Yasomatisuta: In Hongkong.

Interviewer (1): In Hongkong. In what year?

Yasomatisūta: Nineteen seventy-four.

Interviewer: Back then, what you were doing?

Yasomatisūta: I was working.

Interviewer: Working as?

Yasomatisūta: [indistinct conversation with interviewer]

Yasomatisūta: As an Industrialist, But I was not satisfied.

Interviewer (1): Then?

Yasomatisūta: So I change to [Indistinct] There I met the devotees.

Interviewer (1): Met the devotees of this movement?

Yasomatisūta: Yes. Then I met Srila Prabhupada.

Interviewer (1): You said before you had a temple in Hongkong?

Prabhupada: Still we have got.

Interviewer: Still you have got. So, you were used to go to that temple...?

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Interviewer: Is it part of city Hongkong?

Yasomatisūta: Ah, yes.

Interviewer: Kowloon.

Yasomatisūta: Kowloon.

Interviewer: Ah.

Yasomatisūta: Kowloon is a, is a part of Hong Kong.

Interviewer: Is another place?

Yasomatisūta: Kowloon is a...

Interviewer: Kowloon.

Yasomatisūta: ...is a, is a district. Hong Kong's the whole place.

Interviewer (2): Kowloon.

Yasomatisūta: Yeah.

Interviewer: You've been there since 1975, Kowloon? [indistinct]

Interviewer (1): I met your Prime minister in 1975 Mr. [indistinct]

Yasomatisuta: Kowloon?

Interviewer (1): I met your Prime minister Mr. [indistinct] They did all the preaching and all that?

Yasomatisūta: Devotees have been in Hong Kong since 1974.

Interviewer: [indistinct] How you, you make a totally transformed in the Vaisnava philosophy? In '74?

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Interviewer: Why you came then?

Yasomatisūta: This question… I very much dedicate to Srila Prabhupada, and I was convinced totally of the philosophy.

Interviewer (2): When did you meet him? Before devotee or after devotee?

Yasomatisūta: Ah, yes, before.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Those who become my disciple, mostly they become after reading my books.]

Interviewer (2): [Transl. After reading books.]

Interviewer: You're mainly attracted on the conception of these books, right?

Yasomatisūta: Yes, and after then...

Interviewer: And why…?

Yasomatisūta: And nice devotees, and dedication and devotion to His Divine Grace.

Interviewer (1): They have some, some kind of contact with social work in Hongkong? They used to do?

Yasomatisūta: Yes. Yes.

Interviewer: So what were your previous names?

Yasomatisūta: My name, my parental name is Yeung. Y-e-u-n-g-that's how you spell it.

Interviewer: What is it again?

Yasomatisūta: Y-e-u-n-g.

Interviewer: Y-e-u-n-g.

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Interviewer: Yeung.

Yasomatisūta: Yes. Yeung.

Interviewer: I think this is not a full name.

Yasomatisūta: It's the surname.

Interviewer: Huh.

Yasomatisūta: And then my family name is Pak Hei, P-a-k H-e-i.

Interviewer: P-a-k... This is your full name, huh?

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Tamala Krsna: Pak Hei Yeung.

Interviewer: You transformed into? Your present name now?

Yasomatisūta: Yasomatisūta dasa.

Interviewer: You are Yasomati?

Prabhupada: Yasomatisūta. Yasomatisūta means krsna.

Interviewer: Ah, Krsna.

Prabhupada: [Transl. Sūta means son.]

Interviewer (2): Ah. [Transl. You have given him a wonderful name.] And your wife?

Yasomatisūta: Ah, Mai Shen Wa. She's from Taiwan.

Interviewer: From Taiwan. You married Krsna conscious or after coming?

Yasomatisūta: After.

Interviewer: After. What is her name-previously, or present name?

Yasomatisūta: Mai Shen Wang. Ah, M-a-i S-h-e-n. Family name. S-h-e-n. Wang.

[interviewer repeats spelling]

Interviewer: Present name.

Yasomatisūta: Nityalila dasi.

Interviewer: What?

Yasomatisūta: Nityalila. [spells name for interviewer]

Interviewer: Nityalila dasi. Oh I see. You believe in this Vaisnava teaching?

Nityalila: Yes.

Interviewer: Can you say [indistinct]?

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Interviewer: You can speak in Sanskrit or Bengali or any language?

Yasomatisūta: Oh, no.

Prabhupada: Huh? Ah.

Interviewer: Only Chinese.

Prabhupada: Chinese, English.

Yasomatisūta: Also English.

Interviewer: English? Do you believe that, ah, this philosophy will still be here several thousand years in this world?

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Interviewer: Krsna is already [indistinct]. Do you get special, ah, response from your heart after this prayer and all that? You get mental peace, other peace?

Nityalila: Surely. [indistinct]

Interviewer: [indistinct]

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Interviewer: Do you believe in its eternity?

Nityalila: Pardon?

Interviewer: Do you believe in its eternity, that this is eternal? This will live long for years?

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: It is eternal.

Yasomatisūta: Eternity.

Interviewer: You believe so?

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Interviewer: So now you have your own copies full of this devotional work.

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Interviewer: But your translations will reach the Chinese people?

Yasomatisūta: Those you mentioned.

Nityalila: [giggles]

Tamala Krsna: Yes, because they come over to the Hong Kong side, and we have distributed so many thousands of these literatures; so some of them have taken and gone back.

Nityalila: China.

Interviewer: You will go then after this Dola, or you stay here?

Yasomatisūta: Ah, [indistinct].

Interviewer: In the festival. After the festival you go back to Hong Kong.

Tamala Krsna: He has job there also.

Interviewer: He?

Tamala Krsna: He's working there also.

Interviewer: In, in that...

Yasomatisūta: Hong Kong.

Interviewer: Very good; very intelligent.

Tamala Krsna: He has to translate all these books into Chinese now. Lifelong work.

Yasomatisūta: [indistinct] [laughter]

Interviewer: How is the standard of the translations?

Nityalila: [indistinct]

Yasomatisūta: This one, ah, [indistinct].

Tamala Krsna: What did he say?

Yasomatisūta: Well, he said he's going to write a comment [indistinct].

Tamala Krsna: One Chinese professor from Harvard reviewed his translation work and was willing to give a review for it. He appreciated so much he's willing to write a complete review on the book.

Interviewer: Is this in South China [indistinct]?

Yasomatisūta: [indistinct]

Brahmananda: In Harvard University...

Yasomatisūta: Harvard.

Brahmananda: ...in America.

Tamala Krsna: Harvard.

Interviewer: Harvard. Have you been to United States?

Brahmananda: He just spent, uh, six months in New York, in our New York center…

Interviewer: I see.

Brahmananda: …doing translation. [pause]

Interviewer: Thank you very much. Just fold your hands like this. That's all. They are never happy with photographs, you know? Please stop this. Please stop this. Not to me.

[indistinct discussion between interviewers and devotees]

Interviewer: Special fair, or something like that is going? I'm totally sure that you're on a special fair.

Yasomatisūta: Thank you.

Interviewer: How is the reaction of the other Chinese people about this movement?

Yasomatisūta: Well, their recep…, their reaction is, ah, rather slow. [indistinct] ...we have so many books in so many languages that [indistinct].

Interviewer: It is slow but steady.

Yasomatisūta: Yes.

Brahmananda: Just like Prabhupada came to America alone.

Tamala Krsna: Forty rupees only.

Interviewer: Forty rupees only?

Tamala Krsna: Yes.

Interviewer: This is really an adventure, just think of, that a man, at the age of seventy, with such difficulty.

Tamala Krsna: Hmm. Most daring.

Interviewer: Most daring.

Prabhupada: Many friends doubted, that "This man is going to die."

Interviewer: Going to die.

Brahmananda: Before Prabhupada left...

Interviewer: Ah.

Brahmananda: ...and people were saying that "You will go there, you will die."

Prabhupada: They discouraged, that "Don't go at this age..."

Interviewer: Accha.

Prabhupada: "...leaving Vrndavana." The babajis said.

Interviewer: [laughs] And what is the reaction of your coming back as such a [indistinct] preacher?

Prabhupada: Appreciate.

Interviewer: They appreciate.

Tamala Krsna: The main road of Vrndavana, Chattikara Road, they have renamed it, ah, "Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Road." In Vrndavana.

Interviewer: They have transformed the name.

Tamala Krsna: Yes.

Brahmananda: And we will build two gates, Bhaktivedanta Gates, on eith…, on both, either entrance to Vrndavana.

Interviewer: Why?

Tamala Krsna: City, ah, Municipal…, the Municipality has decided the main resolution for this-changing the name of the main road and putting two main gates on the entrance of the city in Prabhupada's honor.

Brahmananda: Some people in the Municipality wanted to make it "Indira Gandhi Road"...

Interviewer: Ah.

Brahmananda: ...but they have decided to make it "Bhaktivedanta Swami Road."

Tamala Krsna: The things they questioned, "Who has done the most to spread the fame of Vrndavana worldwide?" And they had to certainly agree that Srila Prabhupada had done it.

Interviewer: I think that is why Government is sometimes discouraging. [laughter]

Prabhupada: No, I don't mind that, discouraging. Only that I did not say that they do not allow these boys to stay...

Interviewer: In Vrndavana.

Prabhupada: No...

Prabhupada & Brahmananda: …in India.

Prabhupada: The Immigration Department....

Interviewer: Why? What is that?

Prabhupada: That is their policy; special policy is there. And the result is that I have to send back, and again they come back, at ten thousand rupees. Such fifty cases, at least, happening every year. So just imagine, at least fifty cases, ten thousand per-head-what is the loss.

Brahmananda: Big money.

Prabhupada: Unnecessary. [Transl. Try to do something about this.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Yes.. For this you will have to ask the External Affairs Minister.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. You should write about this. These people are vaisnavas. They come here to live and study. Here they have a misconception that the English priests had come here before like this also. But these people are not politicians.]

Tamala Krsna: So Srila Prabhupada, we should give them a tour now...

Prabhupada: Yes.

Tamala Krsna: ...of…, and of everything ending with the prasadam pavilion with prasadam. All the devotees will be taking prasadam, so they may get some good photographs.

Prabhupada: Ah, [Transl. While taking prasadam you take a photo.]

Tamala Krsna: All is.... We have at least five hundred international devotees assembled, and they all take prasadam. Make a good photograph...

Interviewer: Oh, yes.

Tamala Krsna: And there's plenty of light inside.

Interviewer: Is it... Will there be special anything special during this Dola festival?

Prabhupada: [Transl. There will be a theatrical performance. You all come and watch. See how they act.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Because I am going to mention that you are preparing some special function for Dola.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Yes. You write.] What play we shall...?

Tamala Krsna: We're performing Rama-lila, Caitanya-lila, and some Krsna-lila. Oh, yes, and also some special plays of, ah…

[aside:] What is the playwright? That playwright, Ghosh, the Bengali playwright?

Prabhupada: Oh, Girish Ghosh's Caitanya-lila, a portion of it.

Interviewer (1): That we will write tomorrow in English.

[interviewers discuss whether or not to remain for dramas]

Prabhupada: [Transl. The scripts are from our books.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. You have them all.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. And a portion of Girish Ghosh's Caitanya-lila. If you simply read that book of ours nicely, you will understand everything about us.]

Interviewer (1): [Transl. Okay.]

Prabhupada: [Transl. Everything.]

Interviewer (1, 2): [Transl. So we take your leave.]

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Devotees: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. [offer obeisances]

Yasomatisūta: There's a tape on.

Prabhupada: Then stop it. [break] [end]