Author: Let us imagine that the reader who picks up the book, this book that I am going to write, I hope, is very much like a person who sees the devotees dancing in the street, because he is seeing something for the first time. Now, it's necessary, surely, to describe these external and superficial features.
Prabhupāda: It is not superficial. This dancing is spiritual ecstasy. Otherwise, it is not a dog's dancing. You see? Any gentleman, if I ask you, "Please dance on this footpath," will you agree? It is not that dancing. You don't compare with that dancing. It is not dog's dancing. They chant, they feel—they dance.
That is another thing. You try to understand it. If they are coming from respectable family . . . now, here is a boy. He is a professor. So if I ask him, "Please go and dance on the footpath," will he agree? A professor will agree? But when a professor dances, there is something. You should understand.
Author: But, sir, I'm not saying that the dancing is meaningless. I was saying that when one sees people dancing, that doesn't mean anything.
Prabhupāda: That does not mean to you.
Author: That's what I mean.
Prabhupāda: But it means to them.
Author: Yes. No. I'm not saying that it's meaningless. I'm saying that it appears to be meaningless in the same way that one should wonder why he has his head shaven and why he wears those clothes. If one doesn't understand, these things are . . .
Prabhupāda: At least, they can take by shaving head means it cleans, cleanses. The head is not overburdened with unnecessary . . . (laughter) We want clear brain, and that is the system, Vedic system. All learned scholars, they cleanse head. Cleanse head. Yes. And at least we get relief. A little hair growing is also burdensome. We cleanse. So it is personal convenience. So that is not the point of preaching.