Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His question is whether is it due to our impurity that we cannot convince people to stop cutting their throats.
Prabhupāda: No, it is due to their impurity, they do not take. What you are saying, that is pure. But the difficulty is if you instruct a rascal, he becomes angry. The example is given that if you give milk and banana to the serpent, he increases his poison. Payaḥ-panaṁ bhujaṅganaṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanam. Therefore we have to select sometimes that our preaching is in the proper place. Because a snake-like person, they will not hear. But if you are a good charmer, you can charm the snake also. (laughter) That depends on your quality. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu did. He made these snakes, the tigers, the elephants, all dancing Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is possible by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Tripurāri: Just like you have charmed all of us, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Well, I am not going to imitate Caitanya Mahāprabhu. (laughs) I have come to New York, not to the jungle. (laughter)
Sudāmā: New York is worse than jungle.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It is called an asphalt jungle.
Prabhupāda: After all, they are human being. Therefore we have collected some nice souls. (break) If you can go to the jungle, that is no hindrance, but let us take the opportunity of the civilized nations, preach them. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21). They are leading the whole civilization. If they are convinced, it will be great benefit to the human race. (break) Also my Guru Mahārāja said that "You go to the western country." If he had said that "You go to the jungle," I would have gone. (break) ...preacher, either the jungle or the city is the same. Nārāyaṇa-paraḥ na kutaścana bibhayati. One who is devotee of the Lord, he does not make any discrimination that "This is jungle and this is city." Svargāpavarga-narakeṣv api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ (SB 6.17.28). For them, everywhere, Kṛṣṇa's property. So where Kṛṣṇa asks him to go and serve, he will go. That's all. (break)
Jaga-jīvana: All classes of men should preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all he must know what to preach. If he does not know what to preach, what he will preach? You have got a preaching capacity, provided you learn the art of preaching. But everyone can preach. That's a fact.
Devotee: What is to become of those devotees that leave ISKCON and take to breaking the regulative principles, and stop chanting sixteen rounds?
Prabhupāda: Explain.
Devotee: There are even brāhmaṇas in our temple who have left the temple and they are acting just like karmīs.
Prabhupāda: So they were wrongly initiated. We want recommendation from the authority, whether one should be initiated, but they gave wrong information. That is the defect of the informer. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Hari-nāma initiation can be a little more liberal.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But brāhmaṇa initiation should be strict.
Prabhupāda: Very strict. Very strict means he must be observed that he is actually chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulative principles. That's all.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those are the important...?
Prabhupāda: These are the criterions, that he is actually, seriously doing this. Then he can be initiated. Otherwise useless. He will fall down. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...stated that one who does not, an unsuccessful person in yoga practice takes his next birth, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe (BG 6.41).
Prabhupāda: That is another thing, but you are fallen. Who take birth in high family or in opulent, that is the fallen condition. That is not successful con... But they are taking, "This is success. I have got so much money. I have got so much prestige. This is success."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a fallen condition.
Prabhupāda: That is fallen condition.
Devotee: They think that is the success of life.
Prabhupāda: They think. They are foolish. They can think like that. Generally, that is... Not that devotees are not opulent. No, that is not. But this materialistic opulence means fallen condition.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The demigods are in a very opulent position also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But they are devotees.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they are devotees, not fallen.
Prabhupāda: They can fall. Everyone can fall. (break)
Tripurāri: ...says that a sannyāsī should not take, be anxious for disciples but should only take those who are qualified. But sometimes, when there's no one qualified, he takes a risk.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One who does not like to take the risk, they do not take the risk of preaching. But one who takes the risk, he is recognized by Kṛṣṇa immediately, "Oh, he is taking risk." But he must know where to take risk and where to act foolishly. Just like Nityānanda Prabhu took the risk of being injured. But He was certain that "I can deliver him." That is...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You took a great risk also, Prabhupāda, by coming to us.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. I have already written that. I was thinking that "What shall I do here? I have come here. As soon as I shall impose these four principles they will say, 'Go home.' " But I took that risk. I never said anything palatable. Against their activities, "You don't do this, don't do this." (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...compromised at all, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: No, what is the use of compromise if there is no good result?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Someone who compromises, he actually wants followers.
Prabhupāda: That is not good. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu decried, na dhanaṁ na janam, "I don't want these followers." What is the use of follower if he does not follow? (break) ...idam. Everything is sufficient, complete. Why they are embarrassed with incompleteness? Everyone is trying to adjust incompleteness, but the Vedic information, "Everything is complete." That means lacking knowledge. The car is complete. One who does not know to drive, he will find it incomplete, "Where to push on, this way, that way." He does not know how to drive the car. (end)