Impersonalist: Why is it that this mahā-mantra is so attractive to Western countries and not particularly . . .
Prabhupāda: Because it is the thing required. Therefore it is recommended in the śāstra. Because it is recommended that . . . what is recommended in the śāstra, spoken in the śāstra, that is perfect. There is no mistake. Therefore it is being accepted. Anywhere we are going, beginning from old man to child, everyone chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is recommended. Our intelligence should be applied there, that what is recommended in the Vedas, that is perfect.
There are so many instances. Just like cow dung. You know cow dung? Stool of the cow? So according to Vedic principle, if you touch stool of an animal you become impure. Even my stool, I pass in the WC, and immediately I wash and become purified. Oh, this is my stool, personal, and what to speak of other stool? So stool is impure.
But the Vedas say that the stool of cow is pure. So if you argue that, "Cow is an animal. So animal stool is impure. How the cow stool can become pure?" that is puzzling, but because it is said by the . . . ordered by the Vedas, it is fact. You analyze cow stool, you find all antiseptic matter.
So therefore we accept the Vedic injunction as truth. We haven't got to make research. We save time. So according to Vedic civilization, whatever is stated in the Vedas, we take it, fact. That's all. Śruti. Śruti-pramāṇam. Śruti means Vedas. Pramāṇam means evidence. According to Indian system . . . there are two persons talking, arguing, but the person who can give Vedic evidence, he is victorious. That's all. That is the system.
Just like in law court two lawyers are fighting, but the lawyer who is giving evidences from the law book, he is accepted by the judge. And therefore, generally you will find, whenever we speak something, we give evidence from the śāstra in Sanskrit, in all our books. That is the way of proving that whatever I am speaking, it is fact. (break)
The Bhāgavata it is already stated, lavaṇyaṁ keśa-dharaṇam (SB 12.2.6). Keśa means hair. To keep long, long hair will be the practice of people, because they will think by keeping long hair they look very beautiful. That is stated in Bhāgavata. Five thousand years this prediction is there, "In this Kali-yuga people will keep long hair, and . . . because that will be appreciated, that a man keeping long hair is very beautiful." So that is happening. Just see. Five thousand years ago that was written, and that is happening. There are so many things.
That is called śāstra. It is truth for all the days—past, present, future. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi. These things are stated. "Husband and wife will keep together so long their sex power is strong. Otherwise they will divorce." This is written. Svīkāram eva hi udvahe: "Marriage will be performed simply by agreement."