View source for Whichever religion you may like, you can follow, but we want to see whether you are God conscious. If you are not God conscious, then we take it simply useless waste of time, these so-called religions

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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1973 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1973 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="InterviewswithMacmillanandvariousEnglishReportersSeptember121973London_0" class="quote" parent="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="74" link="Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London" link_text="Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London">
<div class="heading">Neither the teachers are serious, nor the students are serious. So our principle is that not this religion or that religion. Whichever religion you may like, you can follow, but we want to see whether you are God conscious. If you are not God conscious, then we take it simply useless waste of time, these so-called religions. Śrama eva hi kevalam.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London|Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prof. Gombrich: My speciality is Buddhism.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Buddhism.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Yes.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: A religious student. A specialist in religious, comparative study of religion?</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Well, not so much comparative. I main, I really teach Buddhism itself.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Through Sanskrit and Pali.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Pali, yes. Pali is almost Sanskrit language.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: It's not so different, yes. Derived from Sanskrit. And at Vṛndāvana you studied at a later time, then, did you?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana, I studied the Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as I mentioned so many, Upaniṣads, Vedānta-sūtra.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Then that was after the university?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, that was after my retirement.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: I see.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But in student life I had knowledge in Sanskrit, and that was utilized later on.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Yes, of course. And do you return to Vṛndāvana often?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Every year I go there, during the month of October.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Do you have a particular āśrama there?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Yes. Now we are constructing our own temple also, very big temple. You had been in Vṛndāvana?</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: No, I haven't, I'm afraid. No. And do you think that the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness or Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is very different from the message of realizing God which is promulgated in other religions, for instance the Śaiva religion or...?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No I don't think so. Any religion, you follow nicely. Just Christian religion, there is God consciousness. So actually it is not this religion or that religion. People have given up religion. All over the world they have no more interest in religion. And especially I see that in your London that so many churches are vacant. Nobody's going there. So thing is that there is no more regular teaching of religious system. It has become a profession like. Neither the teachers are serious, nor the students are serious. So our principle is that not this religion or that religion. Whichever religion you may like, you can follow, but we want to see whether you are God conscious. If you are not God conscious, then we take it simply useless waste of time, these so-called religions. Śrama eva hi kevalam. You understand Sanskrit.</p>
:dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
:viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
:notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
:śrama eva hi kevalam
:([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.8|SB 1.2.8]])
<p>Śrama eva hi kevalam: "Simply waste of time, laboring." If one does not understand what is God, even after executing very rigorously about his own religious system, if he does not awaken his dormant God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he has simply wasted time.</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: But do you think for instance, in this country, if somebody is a Protestant, or I mean a Christian and goes to church, this is also, you don't try to convert them away from that?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, no. We have no such process (indistinct).</p>
<p>Prof. Gombrich: Because your movement is extremely distinctive.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. We don't try to convert. Just like one gentlemen was asking, "Why these ladies, girls, they are putting Indian sari?" I never said that "You do that." But they're doing out of their own accord. So I never canvassed to become a Hindu, or like that, no. Our propaganda is, "Just become God conscious."</p>
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