Radio Interview Interviewer: Your Grace, what is the basis of your teachings? Prabhupada: The basis of this teaching is Bhagavad-gita As It Is. I’ve already published my book, this Bhagavad-gita As It Is. This book is not new. It is very old book. At least five thousand years old, and it is very widely read all over the world. In your country, I have seen, there are about more than 25 different edtions, English. And similarly, there is in German language, in England, in Japan, everywhere, all over the country, this book is very widely known, Bhagavad-gita. In other words, this is Krsna consciousness. The speaker of this book is Lord Krsna, and the subject matter of this book is what is our relationship with God. And then, after under- standing what is our relationship with God, we can work accordingly. Just like you are citizen of America. You have got a particular relationship with the state and you are expected to work according to that relationship. Then you are good citizen, you are law-abiding citizens, and state gives you all protection, and you can improve to the highest perfectional stage. Similarly, if we know our relationship with God, whom we call Krsna… Krsna means all- attractive. And that is the perfect name of God. Unless God is all- attractive, He cannot be God. God cannot be Hindu’s God or Christian’s God or Jew’s God or Muhammadan’s God. No. God is for everyone, and He is all-attractive. He is fully opulent, He is fully in knowledge, perfect in knowledge, perfect in beauty, perfect in renunciation, perfect in fame, perfect in strength. In this way, He is all-attractive. So we must know our relationship with God. That is the first subject matter of this book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Then if we understand our relationship we can act accordingly. At the present moment we are, some of us, declining God, “There is no God.” Some of them have a little conception of God, “God is great,” but they do not try to understand what is actual relationship with God. They’re not very serious. In this way, practically we are avoiding our eternal relationship with God, and therefore we cannot act properly. And that is the cause of all miseries. That is the cause of all problems. Just like if you do not know the state laws, then you do not act properly. You are always criminal. For example, if you do not know how to drive, keep to the right, if you drive left, to the left, you may think, “Oh, it is after all driving. What does it matter, right or left?” But no. As soon as you drive left, you become criminal. Similarly, because we do not know our relationship with God, therefore we are acting wrongly, and therefore under the laws of God we are becoming more and more criminal, and our problems are increasing. Therefore in spite of advancement of education, science, civilization, nice dress, car, and everything, nobody trusts nobody. You see? Everywhere you go, a gentleman’s house, oh, “Beware of the dog.” “No trespasser allowed.” Always suspicious. An individual person is suspicious of another individual person. A nation is suspicious of another nation. A community is suspicious of another community. So how can you have peace and prosperity? Suspiciousness means animal, animalistic. A dog is suspicious of another dog. As soon as it finds another dog, he immediately begins to bark, “Row, row, row.” So is that human civilization? So what is the mistake of the human civilization? The mistake of the human civilization is that they have forgotten the relationship with God. So here is the scientific statement of our relationship with God. And then according to that relationship exactly in the same way, just like understanding your relationship, your citizenship in the state you can act nicely. Similarly, if we know our relationship with God we can act very nicely, and that is peaceful life. Besides that, this life, the present life, is not all. We have got life after death. That is a fact. Just like we are continuously in life, in this present life… You were a child, I was a child. Every one of us were a child. That was a life. Then we became boy. Then we became youth. Now we are… I am becoming old. And generally, when this body will be useless I’ll have to take another body. This is the way. Unfortunately, the people, they do not believe in the next life. Although in everyday affair they are experiencing that I am eternal—I can remember the days of my childhood, I can remember the days of my youthhood, my boyhood. And I am still working. That means I am continuously there although my body in different ways are changed. So it is a fact that even after changing this body you’ll have another body. Just like you are sitting in this room. Now if you vacate this room that does not mean you are finished. You have gone in some other room. So this is a great science. And people are neglecting this science. They have no, I mean to say, information. There are so many departments in the university, technological, medical, engineering, but where is the department to know or understand what is this life, what is God, what is our relationship? So this is not very good civilization. So there is life after this life. Just like progressive life, a child is progressing to youthhood, the youth is aspiring to become a big man, important man. As in this life there is progressive life, similarly, life after life there is also progress. There are different grades of life. So we get information from authoritative books that there are 8,400,000s of different grades of life. And there are 900,000s of aquatic life, 2,000,000 species of plants and trees, about eleven hundred thousand species of life of birds, 3,000,000 types of species of beast, and 400,000 species of this human body. Out of that 400,000s, different kinds of human bodies, the civilized body is a great boon. And at that time we can make further progress. Either we can transfer to other planets, the standard of living, comforts are many, many thousands times better than this planet. But in this book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, we’ll get information that within this material universe, wherever you go, either you remain in this planet or you go to the moon planet or to the sun planet or there are millions and trillions of planets… The highest planetary system is called Brahmaloka. There the duration of life is very, very great. You cannot calculate even twelve hours of their days. These are described in this book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Sahasra yuga paryantam arhad yad brahmano viduh. Four hundred… Three thousand years is the duration. Four hundred… Yes, four hundred and three thousand of years, solar years, is the one unit of yuga. Such thousand yugas makes twelve hours of the Brahmaloka planet. Similarly, they live there for a hundred years. But these four things, namely birth, death, old age, and disease, these four things are everywhere, either you live in this planet or moon planet or sun planet or any other planet. The duration of life may be very, very great. Just like in comparison to the ant, our life, human being, we have got hundred years age. So to the ant it may be very astonishing. “Oh, how such a great length of time one can live?” Similarly, we may be astonished by hearing twelve hours duration of Brahmaloka, but actually there is. But still, you cannot avoid death. Death is there. So from this book we understand from the version of Krsna, or God, that a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ’rjuna [Bg. 8.16] Even if you go to the highest planetary system, again you have to come back. In this way all living entities are rotating from one planet to another, from one species of life to another. But we don’t want this actually. If I say that “If I give you a nice body, youthful body, and eternal body, full of knowledge…,” would you not like to have it? Nobody likes old age, nobody likes death, nobody likes to die, nobody likes to take birth again, enter into the womb of mother and live there ten months, air-tight packed. Nobody likes. But what is the solution? Is there any solution by the scientists? No scientist can say, “Well, all right. We shall stop death. We shall stop disease.” They can manufacture nice medicine to counteract disease, but they cannot manufacture anything which will stop disease. You can fight against death very nicely but you cannot stop death. These are the problems. But there is no education in the modern civilization how to stop death, how to stop disease, how to stop old age, how to stop birth, how to attain eternal life, how to attain blissful life. They have no education. But this Krsna consciousness movement, although it appears a new movement in your country, but it is known to the world. But nobody had previously attempted to put these ideas and movement in practical shape. So that I am doing. That I am attempting. And with this mission I have come to your country with a hope that the, if the American people take it very seriously, then it will be the greatest contribution to the world. So I have already published this, my magazines and my books in this connection. So if people take advantage of this movement, try to understand these books, they’ll be benefited greatly. That is the basic principle of my teaching. (conchshell sounds, tambura, mrdanga, harmonium, kirtana begins, Visnujana chanting—ends) Interviewer: Your Grace, how does one attain Krsna consciousness? Prabhupada: Now, this is the basic principle of Krsna consciousness. So for attaining Krsna consciousness there are several stages. The first stage is faith or inquisitiveness. Just like you have come to me. This is the first stage. Out of inquisitiveness or some faith that “These people are teaching Krsna consciousness. We have heard it is very nice. Let us see what it is.” This is the first stage. This is the first stage. One should be inquisitive and have little faith or little respect for Krsna consciousness. “It is very nice. They are speaking, doing nice work.” This is the first stage. The second stage is that… In the first stage, if you find it, it is interesting. Then the second stage is to associate with us, to understand more. Just like we having our classes three days in a week. We have having class in morning daily, but for public we are holding classes in the evening from seven to nine in our temple. Perhaps you know. You have been yesterday there? So we are holding classes there and discussing on this book, having kirtana, distribution of prasadam. So it is very nice. There is no labor. Simply you come, you hear nice songs, you dance, you take nice food, you hear nice philosophy, and you think over, and you may go home. We don’t ask anybody that “You press your nose like this, you make your head down like this, make exercise like this.” We don’t ask anybody. But people automatically like to dance with us. Although dance is labor, but they like it. So the next stage is to associate with us, to understand more and more. This is the second stage, to ass… First stage, faith and respect, and second stage, association. The third stage, if by association one becomes serious that “I shall become a regular student of Swamiji,” that is third stage. That is called initiation. Just like these boys, they are initiated. So in that stage they are guided by me, they follow strictly. Just like we have got, for the initiated students, we have got six… four principles. We do not allow illicit sex life. No. We do not allow these boys or girls sex life without being married. Yes. This is one regulation. We don’t allow them to take anything which is not offered to the Deity. So we offer to the Deity foodstuff in grains, fruits, flowers, milk products, in that way. No meat, no egg, nothing of the sort. Simple food. They are nutritious. We prepare very… Perhaps you have participated in our love feast on Sundays? Yes. Yes. Woman: I’m going to. I’m coming next Sunday. Prabhupada: (laughs) They like it. So many, hundreds of preparations. We can give at least three hundred preparations. Many varieties, simply on grains and milk products and fruits. That’s all. We don’t kill animals, don’t kill birds, no. But we make very nice preparation. Everyone likes. So this is one of the restrictions, that you cannot take anything which is not offered to Krsna, Krsna conscious. This is the second restriction. The third restriction is no intoxication. No smoking, no drinking, even no tea-taking, no coffee-taking. Nothing. These American boys, they’re accustomed to all these habits very naturally, where they have given up. They don’t take. In our temple there is no tea-taking, no coffee-taking, no cigarette-smoking. Nothing of the sort. You see? This is the third restriction. (laughing) And the fourth restriction is that you cannot take part in gambling or some unnecessary sporting because you have to utilize your time. Your time is very short. If you miss this opportunity of human form of life… Because we do not know when death is coming. It is not that because I am old, I am nearing death, and you are young, you are not nearing death. Who knows that you may die before me? So there is no certainty. So the principle is that because this human form of life is so important to perfect oneself in Krsna consciousness, he should not waste even a minute. You see? So therefore we don’t allow unnecessary sporting. You see? This is simply a waste of time. So no illicit sex life, no meat-eating or animal food, no intoxication, no gambling. So every student has to follow these four principles. Otherwise I don’t initiate. I don’t take cheap students that “You can do whatever you like and you pay me some money, I give you some mantra and you become God.” I don’t say like that. I don’t bluff like that. I have not come to earn money from your country, but I have come to your country to give you something sublime. Not to take you… Not to take from you, not to exploit you, but to give you something sublime. You see. So that is the third stage, initiation. Then, if you are situated in the third stage nicely, that means if you follow the regulative principles under my direction, then the fourth stage automatically comes. After this third stage, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, up to eighth, automatically comes. That is gradual development. So in the third stage, if you follow the regulative principle and chant with some prescribed number, numerical strength, then your all misgivings will be over automatically. What are these misgivings? The first misgiving is that “I am this body.” Everyone is under the concept of this body. This is… I am not this body. That is the fact. But the body is changing. There are many examples. One of the example is very common example. Suppose a man is dead. Now everybody is crying and if we ask, “Why you are crying?” “Oh, my son is dead.” I can say, “Your son is lying here. Why you are saying that he’s dead?” “No, no, he’s dead. He’s gone. His body is lying.” Therefore he’s different from the body. Immediately you can understand. You say, “No, he’s gone. His body is lying.” Don’t you say at that time? So you understand at the time of death that the man was different from the body. But during his lifetime I was taking care of his body only. When did I take care of he? Because I did not know him. You see? This is a misgiving. In this way there are so many misgivings. We are situated in a platform of misgivings only, misunderstanding, our present conditional life. Just like if my body is, I am different from this body, then how can I claim that America is my country? This is also another misgiving. If I do not belong to this body, I call myself an American or Indian… (coughs) Water. Because accidentally this body is born on the land of America. Therefore I call myself American. But if I am not this body, then how I am American? This is another misgiving. Yes. Then I am calling you as my son, you are calling him as your son. But what he is? He’s a product of your body. So if you are not this body, how he is your son? In this way you go on. As soon as you study nicely that you are not this body, you’ll find that you belong to none of this. You are free. You see? This is called Brahman realization, spiritual realization. This stage, when you understand that “I am not this body. I do not belong to this country, I do not belong to this family, I do not belong to this society.” This is negative. Oh, some philosophers are trying to make these things void, but actually I am existing. I am existing in misunderstanding. But that does not mean I am not existing. I am not void. Just like I am existing within this apartment. But instead of knowing myself I have identified this apartment myself. So to, simply to understand that “I am not this apartment” is not perfect knowledge. Then what is my position? What I am actually? When we come to that consciousness… At the present moment I am conscious of this body, of this country, of this society, of the family. But when I perfectly understand that I am not any of these things, then my consciousness also change. Because at the present moment my consciousness is absorbed with all these things. So as soon as I understand that I am not all these, then my consciousness must change. Not that my consciousness will stop. If I am in misunderstanding, if I come to the right understanding, that does not mean my understanding is stopped. Rather, my understanding becomes purified. That means if I am not this, then I am this. And that you do not know, what is that. And that is Krsna, Krsna consciousness. So when you are freed from this illusory consciousness and if you are situated in Krsna consciousness, then we get attachment. Because we are attached to all these things. Attached to this body, attached to this society, attached to the country, so many things in relationship with the body. Now after negativating my identity with this false identification, when I come to the right point, then I understand that “I am Krsna’s. I am Krsna’s.” Then your attachment for Krsna increases because you transfer the attachment. Just like a child. A child is attached to play, but when he grows up his attachment is transferred to study. That does not mean he gives up the attachment for playing, his, that attachment is lost. No. Attachment must be there, but that is transferred or purified. So Krsna consciousness means purified consciousness, real consciousness. And the next stage, after being freed from misgivings, attachment for the real identity. Ruci. Then asakti, greater attachment. Then an ecstasy. That means we, I’m coming nearer to God. Because I am God’s… In the beginning I told you that we have forgotten our relationship with God. So when we are out of misgivings we come to the platform of increasing attachment for God. So this attachment, when it is perfectional stage, it is called love of God. The love is here also. Instead of loving God, we are now loving dog. Love is there, but when you are, out of misgivings you transfer your love from dog to God. These are the different stages to come to the… How do you attain Krsna consciousness? These are the stages. So if you follow cautiously and sentiently these six stages of development, you come to Krsna consciousness. (kirtana— end)
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
June 27, 1969, Los Angeles