Interv LON 1976-07-23 Press--Lon. Observer Sentiment --etc
ANNOUNCER: The following is a newspaper interview,
between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
and the London Observer, recorded July 23rd, 1976, in London, England.
PRABHUPĀDA: So you’re observing our movement?
CLINE CROSS: Yes, really for the first time at close quarters.
First time?
We are here for the last seven years.
I know a little about you, but it’s only in the last hour that I’ve really begun to learn.
JAYATĪRTHA: We showed him the movie… - Your paper is Observer.
Why did you not observe for the last seven years?
MUKUNDA: We just showed him the film. - Huh?
MUKUNDA: We just showed him our film.
How did you like?
Oh, it was very interesting.
Again it taught me a lot [that] I did not previously know.
We are trying to give real life. [splice]
You are religious observer.
What is your idea of religion?
I would say much the same as yours, from what I’ve seen in your writings:
that there’s an underlying truth behind all religion.
- Would you agree with that? - Ahh.
Religion, as it is explained in the dictionary:
“Accepting a supreme controller.”
Is it not?
- Hmm. - Hmm.
So do the people accept a supreme controller?
Do they accept?
There are so many system of religions,
but do they actually know who is the supreme controller?
That is my question.
What do you think?
Just like: This is British government:
And, we know that the Queen is the supreme controller.
Similarly, of all creation— cosmic manifestation—
there is a supreme controller, and who is that supreme controller?
Do they know it?
That is my question.
I mean, what is your attitude towards Christianity?
Don’t come to Christianity; I’m talking on religion: The science of religion.
The religion… When we speak of religion,
there is no question of Christianity or Muslim or Hindu.
Just like when you speak of gold: Gold is gold everywhere.
Gold cannot be Muslim gold or Hindu gold or Christian gold.
Try… Try… Ah… We are concerned with gold,
not the country where the gold is produced.
That is not very important thing.
Whether it is gold: That is our business.
I mean, would you count Jesus Christ as gold?
Yes, why not?
He’s speaking about the supreme controller: God.
So why should we not? [splice]
Religion without science or philosophy is sentiment.
And philosophy without religion is mental spec… speculation.
So they must be combined together.
So far the controller is concerned, this is scientific understanding.
Just like the father… We consider…
Why we? Everyone.
Either he is Christian or Muhammadan or Hindu,
the conception of God is generally accepted as the supreme father.
That is the fact.
- It is fact. - Yes.
Because—just like anything—creation means the mother, the father and the children.
That is ah… our practical experience.
Without mother, we are nowhere.
We are given birth by the mother.
So the material nature is the mother.
From the material nature—material elements—everything is coming.
From the water, the fishes are coming.
From the land: the grass, the worms, and then human being.
They are coming.
From the air also, living entities are coming.
So, therefore material nature is the mother,
and we have come out of the material nature; therefore we are children.
There… there must be father.
Because without father, simply mother cannot give birth.
This is science.
You cannot deny the existence of God simply by a false argument.
This is real argument.
The mother is there—material nature, and we are children there.
There must be father.
In England, the Christian Church in recent years or recent decades
has been doing very badly and losing support.
Your teaching could perhaps provide
a substitute for the more traditional type of Christian teaching.
Yes, this is the science.
Therefore I say religion with… without scientific idea: That is sentiment.
It has no value.
This… This is basic principle of religion:
That the mother is there; the children are there: There must be father.
If you say “I do not see what is God,” it doesn’t matter.
Sometimes the child after birth does not see his father.
Oh that does not mean that he has no father.
Because without father there is no possibility of his existence.
What impelled you personally, when you, at a fairly late stage in life,
to come to the West and teach? What…
That… I must be prepared to teach.
Teaching is not so easy thing.
I was ordered to teach at the age of twenty-five years by my Guru Mahārāja.
But I was finding out the opportunity: How to take up the work.
So it took me so many years, so that at seventy years I came out for teaching.
Why particularly in the West?
Because my Guru Mahārāja ordered:
That “You go and teach this gospel in the Western world.”
- His teacher instructed him to do this. - Yes.
And are you surprised at the great success you’ve had?
That is my Guru Mahārāja’s blessing.
He ordered me; I tried my best, so there is [a] little success.
When I see so many boys and hundreds of centers:
They are living very peaceful… peacefully in a nice house, getting good prasādam,
having good knowledge in the books, and reforming their character,
and getting some good home: Ah, that is my success.
Otherwise, they are loitering: No home, no character, no peace of mind.
So at least this is my success; I have given so many boys a life.
That is my success.
I’m very honored to have met you.
I’ve read some of your work; I intend to read more.
Yes.
So, we are trying to give the best service to the humanity—human society,
and this is the only service.
People should come forward and cooperate with us.
It is not a sectarian, sentimental religious system.
It is [a] scientific understanding of the value of life.
Well, thank you very much indeed, sir.
- Thank you; Hare Kṛṣṇa. - Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Jaya.
Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, Causelessmercy.com