Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa? Yes, kṛṣ. Kṛṣ means karṣati, "attraction" or "cultivating." "Cultivation." Just like cultivator, he, digging the earth, that is also kṛṣati. And there is another word in Bhagavad-gītā, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṇi . . . karsati. (aside) Find out this verse. Manaḥ-saṣṭhāni indriyāṇi prakṛti-sthani karṣati. Fifteenth Chapter. Karṣati. That is from kṛṣ.
Ambassador George: Kṛṣ, then, has attractiveness and it has cultivator.
Prabhupāda: And cultivating, yes.
Ambassador George: Yes. In Greek my name is also "cultivate." In Greek the origin of my name is "cultivate." Georgios.
Prabhupāda: And this Greek work is kristo. There is a word in Greek. It is called kristo. And Kṛṣṇa is sometimes pronounced by ordinary man as Krsta. And that kristo word means "love," if I am not wrong, that Greek word. And from that kristo the word Christ has come.
Ambassador George: Karitas, yes.
Prabhupāda: So there is some connection of Kṛṣṇa with these things. What is that?
Ambassador George: There are so many parallels between Kṛṣṇa and Christ indeed.
Prabhupāda: So many.
Ambassador George: "Born in the cave." Yes.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Nitāi:
- mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
- jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
- manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
- prakṛti-sthāni karṣati
- (BG 15.7)
"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."
Prabhupāda: That is the position of the conditioned soul. They are struggling for existence. Existence means finding out how to come to the original consciousness, and that is struggle. Kṛṣṇa means "love," so everyone is struggling hard how to be in the platform of love. So many institution—philanthropy, international, and the United Nation—the only attempt: how to love each other. But they are struggling. They have not attained the platform; simply struggling. There have been so many attempts to unite. The vivid example is the United Nation. Formerly that was League of Nation. And people are manufacturing ideas: philanthropism and altruism, Communism, community-ism, this "ism," that "ism." The only thing is, they are trying to come to the platform of love. But they are manufacturing their own way. The Kṛṣṇa solves, that "Not in this way. Simply make Me center, and the whole thing will be done." But that they will not do. They will do in their own way, concocting some idea. And your idea will clash with me; my idea will clash with you. So same struggle continues, that's all. The Communist will not agree with the others, or capitalists, and capitalists will not agree with the Communists. But they are struggling to come to that point—the platform of love.
Ambassador George: Yes, it's the interattractiveness even in a planetary scale that holds the world.
Prabhupāda: And Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives very shortcut formula that, "You sit together, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and everything will be solved." Very simple thing, "Sit together and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." That also they will not do. There is no loss. Let us make an experiment—that also we are not agreed. What is the loss? If we sit together and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you are not losing anything. If there is some gain, why not make an experiment? So if you propose this to the United Nation, he'll think of me, "A crazy fellow."
Ambassador George: Like we did together in Delhi.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. You have seen it. They were very much eager. They were very much eager, "Swāmījī, continue." And the others, like Communist and others, they became upset. I have seen many big, big officers, they were chanting, returning from the office in the office dress, and they were chanting and dancing. And you have seen the crowd, twenty thousand, thirty thousand people. The same thing happened in Calcutta. Now the government did not give us again that land. Yes. Last time when we held that conference in Delhi?
Paramahaṁsa: On the LIC Grounds?
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. They gave us that Tal Kotara Park, you know? That is in the jungle. Nobody could reach there, and they gave us place there. (Ambassador laughs) Still, there were not less than thousand people. It was not easily approachable. The motorcar cannot go. You have to leave your car three miles away to come there.