In India still, especially in villages, they mop the floor with cow dung, and it is so nice and so fresh. You can try. Here also there are cows. You take cow dung, and you can see how it is antiseptic. We are actually doing in America in our New Vrindavan. We are maintaining cows there, protecting cows, because cow protection is one of the item for Kṛṣṇa consciousness people. Especially Kṛṣṇa is worshiped:
- namo brahmaṇya-devāya
- go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
- jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya
- govindāya namo namaḥ
- (CC Madhya 13.77)
He is immediately referred that, "You are brahmaṇya-deva go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca, the benedictor of the cows and the brahmins." Why? Jagad . . . "Next, You are benedictor to the general people in the world. First the go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca." Why? Why Kṛṣṇa should be especially interested with go and brāhmaṇa? These are things.
Now, when Kṛṣṇa was child, He was crawling. This is His pastime. By crawling He used to go to the cowshed and catch one calf's tail, and the calf will drag Him and smear His body in cow dung. He enjoyed it. So cow dung is actually so pure. You can test it. One chemical analyzer in Calcutta, Dr. Lal Madhav Ghosh, he tested. He found all antiseptic properties, although it is stool.
So that is the nature of Vedic injunction. You accept it. You are benefited. You save the time. Whatever is stated in the Vedas, if you accept, that you don't require to make research how to find out God or how to find out yourself. Everything is there, simply if you accept it. Not blindly. If you want to test it, you can test. Just like this cow dung: in the Vedas it is said it is pure, but if you want to test chemically, you will find it pure. That is Vedic injunction.
Therefore our Vedic injunctions are very supreme evidence, Veda-pramāṇam, śabda-pramāṇam. There are three kinds of evidences. First evidence is direct perception—I see personally. And then historical evidence, and then śabda-pramāṇa. Śabda-pramāṇa means evidence from the Vedas. Out of three kinds of evidences, the śabda-pramāṇas, or the evidences received from the Vedas, that is accepted. So for spiritual advancement especially we have to accept the Veda-pramāṇa, or evidences given in Vedic literature.
So this disciplic succession, as Gosvāmī Hanumān-prasād said, that is essential. That is the Vedic injunction. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). This word abhigacchet, it is a form of verb which is used where the sense is "You must! You must!" There is no exception. You cannot say that "I may go to a spiritual master or I may not go. I can study at home." No. You must.
Just like in modern age also, if you actually interested to be recognized as educated, you must get your admission in a recognized school or college and take degree. Then you will . . . if you study at home, you may be very great scholar, and if you say that you have passed M.A. examination, nobody will care for you. Similarly, if you actually want to be advanced in spiritual knowledge, then this is the injunction: tad-vijñānārtham.
Tad-vijñānārtham means . . . vijñāna means science. Spiritual knowledge is also a science. It is not sentiment; it is science. Now, if you like, you can make research work whether this is fact. Just like this cow dung. You may think that, "This is contradiction. In one place it is said that stool of an animal is impure, now here it is again said that cow dung is pure. It is contradiction." So if you like, you can make analysis. But you accept the Vedic injunction as it is—you save so much time, that's all, and immediately become advanced.
Therefore the Veda says that in order to learn that spiritual science, you must approach a person, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva (MU 1.2.12), who is guru. Guru means spiritual master. And who is spiritual master? Who abides by the disciplic succession. He does not change. He does not interpret. He presents things as they are. Just like we are doing. We are presenting Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa says that . . . for spiritual realization, He says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Kṛṣṇa says that, "Always think of Me." Man-manā. Man-manā means "about Me." Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "You just become My devotee."
So we are teaching our students in that way, how to think of Kṛṣṇa always. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. (break) . . . walk on the street, and if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you remember Kṛṣṇa. There is no tax for it. There is no loss for it. Suppose if you are free, traveling on the bus or on the train, you have got time.
So instead of reading so many news from the newspaper, if you utilize . . . the newspaper means the repeated thing. Every morning you see something: "Somebody has stolen, somebody has killed, some political leaders have bluffed you," and so many things, the same thing, repetition of the same.