Prabhupāda: So this is like that. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not for ordinary man, but it is very important movement. Those who are interested, why they should be denied? It should be maintained. We cannot expect everyone can give up all these bad habits, illicit sex, illicit meat-eating, or drink, or intoxication, gambling. That is not expected. But if one wants to be for higher status of life, why he should be denied? This is not a bad thing. Why the city fathers are thinking that this should be stopped? All right, let us now... So my appeal to you, that you are journalist; you at least study this, our movement, and present very nicely. That is my request.
Journalist
Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Yogeśvara: Mr. Rougemont is a journalist from Combat magazine, newspaper. Combat is the newspaper of the socialists of France. Political newspaper, and Mr. Rougemont had some questions about the political and government programs of the Society.
Prabhupāda: Very nice.
Reporter: You accept to answer my questions?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Swami Cinmayananda also comes from there?
Ambassador: Yes. Swami Cinmayananda comes from Vernayakulam.(?)
Prabhupāda: Vernayakulam(?), yes.
Ambassador: I come from about five miles. I actually used to know him when, before he became... When he was a journalist.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Ambassador: I used to know him when he was a journalist.
Prabhupāda: Oh, he was a journalist?
Ambassador: Yes, before. In Dacra.(?)
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Ambassador: But is there any special, specific person who wants to go to India immediately?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ambassador: Who would like to have visa?
Prabhupāda: No, we can give you the names if...
Ambassador: I see. Please give me the name and the nationality. I can immediately (indistinct).
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Haṁsadūta: But she says serious, not in the way it was written by her, because she is a journalist, and this is her natural inclination, and she has been here now since the beginning, and she is noting everything. So it is her natural tendency. Whether you think it is worthwhile for her to write a little book for the public?
Prabhupāda: It is... It will be great service, provided you write nicely the right things.
Haṁsadūta: (German)
Girl: To help you?
Prabhupāda: Yes. People are in ignorance, ninety-nine percent.
Faill: "A new and living interpretation." This is you, is it?
Prabhupāda: This is...? Yes.
Faill: That's you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you read these books and write regular articles on the basis of my talk with you, it will be actually great benefit to the public.
Faill: Well, I'm about the only person in Durban, I think, who tries to write about this at all.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is the duty of the journalist to give real knowledge to the public. That is the duty of the journalist, not to give some hodgepodge idea without any effect.
Reporter: Well, thank you very much.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. You have taken lunch? So, it is very important movement. Try to study, understand. And it is the duty of the pressmen, journalists, to propagate. They must know the first science of the living force within the body. That is the most important part.
Reporter: I just feel that, in a way, I have enough to write, and I have enough to... Well, I believe in giving a little message of something in those things that I write. I try not to make them negative, and at least, I can present people with what they have and what you are saying. But I feel that within myself, and this concerns myself, that I haven't spoken to you enough, that I haven't heard you enough, and that I have...
Prabhupāda: No, you can ask me more, more, other question. I can reply. There is no harm.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He speaks good English?
Acyutānanda: Very... He's an orator.
Prabhupāda: He's M.A. in English. I know. He's...
Acyutānanda: He used to be, I heard, a journalist.
Prabhupāda: Yes, journalist.
Acyutānanda: But he got into some big embarrassment.
Prabhupāda: Journalists, they write very good English. Every journalist, they learn how to write good English.
Prabhupāda: The thing is that human life, the system of society should be divided... Just like you are journalist, so you are not motor mechanics. But there is necessity of motor mechanics also and the journalist also. Is it not?
Interviewer: Yes.
Prabhupāda: And you are journalist, you are not expected to become a motor mechanic or a medical man. But your function is also required in the society. Similarly, the Vedic society was divided into different sections. That is called varṇāśrama-four varṇas, four āśramas. That is very scientific. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra and brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement includes this system of division of society. It is perfect society. Therefore we are trying to introduce the varṇāśrama system, although it is very difficult nowadays. But if one becomes a devotee, which is above varṇāśrama-dharma, then the purpose is solved. In this age, although varṇāśrama-dharma is very scientific, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement includes this, but we are mostly trying to get to the topmost part of varṇāśrama, sannyāsa, or above that. That means Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: I shall request you, you are young man, just try to study our philosophy. And as you are journalist, try to do some good to the people. That is your duty.
Mike Robinson: Well, certainly we're trying to present both other people's views and...
Prabhupāda: Don't take it as a sectarian religious system. It is very scientific understanding for spiritual life.
Atreya Ṛṣi: The young man who just came is Terry Graham. He'd come to see you two years ago when you were here.
Prabhupāda: Oh, jaya.
Atreya Ṛṣi: He's a journalist.
Prabhupāda: Oh yes, I remember. He has got any questions?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Terry, do you have any questions?
Terry: I have a question about this particular age. The world seems to be dividing itself between two kinds of materialists, the one which pays lip service to spiritual precedents but really devotes itself to self-aggrandizement, and the other which establishes an atheistic doctrine in the name of moral struggle with that greedy self-aggrandizement. In fact this atheistic moral doctrine has now taken over virtually the entire Sinic world—China, Tibet, Indochina. Is there some way that, the question is, what is the cosmic purpose for this and how should one come to terms with this prevailing, this increasingly prevailing notion that justice can be established in a material state or a material dimension?
Prabhupāda: In the material world there cannot be any peace, justice, morality. It is not possible. You may try to make some adjustment, but it will never be possible. So, by their concocted imagination, they are thinking, "This way will be beneficial," but unless they come to the spiritual platform, there is no question of peace, prosperity, justice. It is not possible.
Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
Page Title: | Journalist |
Compiler: | Rishab, Visnu Murti |
Created: | 17 of Feb, 2011 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=10, Let=1 |
No. of Quotes: | 11 |