Dr. Harrap: Can you give us an indication where the centres are, where some of them are?
Madhudviṣa: The centres are all over the world. We have centres in America and centres . . .
Prabhupāda: We have got forty centres in America.
Dr. Harrap: Forty.
Prabhupāda: Forty, four zero, yes.
Dr. Harrap: Your knowledge of Sanskrit, this is one of your basic interests.
Prabhupāda: No, not Sanskrit, but knowledge we have received by disciplic succession from my Guru Mahārāja, from my spiritual master. Sanskrit is the language, but mostly we derive knowledge from Vedic revealed scriptures. And this is also one of them, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge.
Dr. Muncey: And you're interpreting this in terms of modern-day living to a large extent in some of your writings, and, of course, some of your disciples writings, as in this book.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Harrap: Could I borrow this for a moment? Thanks.
Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā, yes.
Dr. Muncey: We were very interested in your comments on the dairy industry in particular. Dr. Harrap is in charge of the dairy research. How do you relate your strong interest in dairy products to modern thinking on cholesterol and similar problems? This doesn't disturb you?
Satsvarūpa: There are modern theories that milk is actually harmful.
Dr. Harrap: Well, that butter . . .
Dr. Muncey: The milkfat and . . .
Dr. Harrap: Yes, milkfat.
Prabhupāda: Milk is harmful? (guests laugh) How it is harmful? If it is harmful, why you are giving milk to the child?
Dr. Harrap: There is a certain difference here in that milk that we get from cows has a very low proportion of what we call polyunsaturated fatty acids, only about two percent, whereas in human milk this is about ten or twelve percent. It's a much higher level. So milk from cows, which are ruminants, is quite a lot different to the cow for the milk that we get from the non-ruminants, and of course, humans are non-ruminants.
Prabhupāda: But I think there is a book, Miracles of Milk, written by one American gentleman. He has greatly valued the milk and milk products. Similarly, we Indians, we give very, very importance to milk and milk products.
Dr. Harrap: Yes, I think this is so . . . has always been so here, but in recent years there has been shown to be a relationship between the cholesterol level in the blood and the ratio between the saturated and polyunsaturated fat in the diet. The lower the polyten level of polyunsaturated fat, the higher the level of cholesterol in the blood. And this has been associated with heart disease. So there is quite a move to . . . among many in the medical profession, to prescribe diets which are low in saturated fats.
Prabhupāda: (aside) Have you got our picture, Kṛṣṇa stealing butter?
Dr. Harrap: And we are doing some quite interesting work at the dairy research laboratory aimed at making ruminants' milk, cow's milk, much more like human milk in this way, by a special feeding techniques to the cows.