International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Conversations, 1968 - 1975)

Expressions researched:
"iskcon" |"international society for krishna consciousness" |"krsna consciousness society" |"krsna conscious society"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

It is not exactly a church, but it is an institution for understanding the science of God.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Swami, will you get a little closer to that microphone, if you will. You are the head of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interviewer: Is it a church?

Prabhupāda: It is not exactly a church, but it is an institution for understanding the science of God.

Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the society, they're supposed to be my disciples.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to... "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swami Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderer. He had wandered across the sea upon the order issued to him by his guru who told him he should prepare to go to America to teach the principles taught in the Bhagavad-gītā and to translate the sixty volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam into English." Now, are you a guru?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the society, they're supposed to be my disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are initiated by me spiritually. So therefore the spiritual master is called guru. That is Sanskrit language.