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Interv DAL 1975-07-28 Press At Airport--Without --etc

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ANNOUNCER: The following
is a press conference,

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with by His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda,

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recorded on July 28th,
1975, in Dallas, Texas.

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MAN REPORTER: Swami, why… why are you here?
- Hmm?

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JAGADĪŚA: Why are you here, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
- Hmm?

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Yes, why are you here?

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What?

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Why are you here?

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This is my home.

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I have got some grandchildren, so,
I have come to see them. [break]

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WOMAN REPORTER: Have
you any comment about the…

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the lawsuit that the sect
here is involved in… ah…

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with regard to whether they are…

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should be allowed to… ah… sell
literature and… and collect donations?

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This is good literature.

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It should be encouraged.

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People will become sane: Understand
what is his constitutional position.

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Otherwise in your country, the
other day I saw in the <i>Times</i> paper,

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they are very much perturbed,
“Crime: What to do?”

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They are thinking.

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So if this literature is distributed
and people read it carefully,

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there will be no more crime.

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They will be all saner to
understand—self-realized souls.

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At the present moment
people are misguided,

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accepting the bodily
concept of life.

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The reporters don’t seem to have many
questions; if you like you can speak.

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Oh, yes.

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Who will speak? She’ll speak.

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If you like, you can
speak or we can go.

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You want me to speak?

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I can speak.

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Shall I speak?

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Yesterday in San Diego one
press representative met me.

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So I told that America is
advanced in material civilization:

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All comforts of
bodily concept of life.

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But why the American young men
are becoming hippies and crazy.

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Yesterday, I saw, some of
the girls came almost naked.

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So, why they are dissatisfied in spite
of so much material advancement?

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They have got enough
food, enough shelter,

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enough clothing, enough
cars and everything.

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There is no scarcity.

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Why they are disappointed?

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Can you answer? Why
they are disappointed?

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It means they requires
spiritual fulfillment of desire.

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That is the nature.

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When in the primitive stage of life, a man
is concerned about the bodily comforts.

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And when one is advanced or
satisfied—not satisfied—advanced—

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in our bodily concept of life, the
next question is about spiritual life.

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So, America is in
that point, specially.

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So unless you fulfill
their spiritual [needs],

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they will remain in such
disturbing condition.

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So I compared it just like there are many
zeros: one zero, two zero, three zero,

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or hundreds and millions of zero.

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All these zeros together:
The value is zero.

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But if there is one, then
one and zero: It makes 10.

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The ten times of
one value increases.

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Another zero, it is hundred.

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Another zero, it is thousand.

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Similarly, this material
advancement of America,

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if it is added with God consciousness,
then the value will increase.

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Otherwise, it will remain zero.

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You may advance materially
as far as possible,

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but if you don’t take God
consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness,

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then the value of all this material
advancement is equal to zero.

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Nobody will be satisfied.

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So, therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness
movement should be taken very seriously.

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It is the finishing touch of American
advancement of material comforts.

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Then people will be very happy, and
America is already leader of the world.

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They will be first-class leader.

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The world will be benefited,
and you will be benefited.

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And my endeavor will
be also successful.

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Don’t keep yourself in zero.

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Take the one.

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Then it will be very nice.

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Just like…

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You can understand very easy.

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This life—very important man, but
if there is no spirit soul, it is zero.

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It has no value.

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However an important man may be,
when the spirit soul is out of the body,

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it is a lump of matter;
it has no value.

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Anything you take: This ah… This
machine, that machine, any machine.

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If somebody, some spirit…
spiritual being, some living being,

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is not tackling it, what is the value?

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No value.

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Therefore, everywhere this spiritual
consciousness must be there.

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Otherwise it is zero.

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Would… Would you um…

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Would you comment on the
political situation in India now;

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what do you think
about Mrs. Gandhi?

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Well, we are not very much
concerned with political situation.

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But our proposition is:

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Either political, social, economical
or philosophical—anything:

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Without Kṛṣṇa, it is all zero.

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So far Mrs. Gandhi is concerned, she is
inclined to some spiritual understanding.

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So actually if she becomes
very advanced spiritually,

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then this emergency
situation will improve.

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Otherwise… As it is the public
opinion against democracy…

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Democracy is not
very much beneficial.

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Anywhere and everywhere; in your
country also, you voted Mr. Nixon:

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Democracy, but you were
not satisfied with him.

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That means democracy:

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Ordinary man… They select somebody
and again they try to bring him down.

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Why?

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When he was selected, it
means it was a mistake.

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So… Ah…

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So according to Vedic civilization,
there was no such thing as democracy.

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It was monarchy,

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but the monarchy means the king
was very highly spiritually advanced.

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The king was called <i>rājarṣi</i>:

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Means king—at the same
time: Saintly person.

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We have got another example
in our country: Gandhi.

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When he was political leader,
he was practically dictator,

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but because he was a man
of very high moral character,

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people took him—accepted
him—as the dictator.

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So, dictatorship is good provided the
dictator is highly qualified spiritually.

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That is the Vedic verdict.

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The battle of Kurukṣetra was there
because Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted <i>rājarṣi</i>:

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Yudhiṣṭhira should be on the head.

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So, the king is supposed to
be the representative of God.

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So he must be a godly person.

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Then it will be successful.

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That’s all right.

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Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, Causelessmercy.com