Guest (1): Well, if there is someone who wouldn't like to, perhaps, join this religion, but still wants to get treated . . .
Prabhupāda: This is not religion. This is not religion. This is a culture.
Guest (1): Oh. Yes, this culture . . .
Prabhupāda: Because we are admitting persons from various religions, various nations, various countries, and they accept this culture and they become purified.
Guest (1): Do they have to wear those clothes and wear this . . . and shave their head and chanting those things . . .
Prabhupāda: That is optional. That is also optional. That is not compulsory. But in India, because the brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, they dress in a particular way, they do that. But that is not compulsory. But it has got a psychological effect, because whenever we go, people chant "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" So by this dress, we give chance, the other men, to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Guest (3): Well, could you correct me if I'm wrong. We have a society called Ramakrishna, a society in Burma. Those people who founded this society and are practicing Kṛṣṇa culture, they don't wear those things, or they don't chant in their temple, but they do all sorts of social welfare type of thing. Is there any difference between . . .
Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna Mission is not Vedic. It is a creation of Vivekananda's concoction. It is not Vedic. Just like they created a God, Ramakrishna. So that is not a Vedic sanction, that you create any fool, rascal, a god.
Guest (3): Isn't yours a product of or derivative of Vedic?
Prabhupāda: Yes, completely.
Guest (3): So how would you . . .
Prabhupāda: Just like whatever question you are asking, we are answering from Vedic literature. We are not answering ourself. That is the difference. The evidence is from the Vedic literature. I don't say that "In my opinion it is like this." We don't say.
Guest (3): I'm sorry, I missed that point. Could you please explain?
Amogha: He said it is Vedic because the answers he is giving are not his opinion or concoction, but he is giving from the Vedic knowledge or the Vedic scriptures instead of making up his own opinion. That is the meaning of Vedic; it is based on the Vedic teachings exactly.
Guest (3): But the Ramakrishna wasn't.
Prabhupāda: No.
Guest (3): They formed their own way.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (3): Do you consider that this kind of practice or the practicing this kind of culture is regimentated? A person has to come in and spend sometimes in the temple, and . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes, the association, the influence of association. If you go to a drunkard association, you become a drunkard. And if you go to a saintly association, you become a saint. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. (aside) Find out.
Amogha:
- dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
- saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
- saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ
- kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate
- (BG 2.62)
Translation: "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust, anger arises."
Prabhupāda: If one becomes lusty, and if it is not fulfilled, he becomes angry. This is all psychological.