Allen Ginsberg: So who is the most perfect of the Vaiṣṇava poets? That would be Mīrā?
Guest (1): Mīrā was a devotee. She was a Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Devotee means...
Guest (1): Vaiṣṇava. She was, Mīrā, Kṛṣṇa devotee. Oh, her songs has called me.
Allen Ginsberg: Have you used her songs here at all?
Prabhupāda: Yes, in India it is very popular, Mīrā's song. Mostly they are written in Hindi, and some of them have been interpolated. But Mīrā was a devotee. She saw Rūpa Gosvāmī, a contemporary. She has written many poetry about Lord Caitanya.
Allen Ginsberg: Oh, she was a contemporary of Caitanya?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Allen Ginsberg: Did they meet?
Prabhupāda: No. She appreciated that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa, and she has written one poetry, song, that "Now You have left aside Your flute, and You have taken the sannyāsī rod." In that way she has written nice poetry. "And where is Your hair and peacock feather? Now You are bald-headed." In this way. So Mīrā appreciated. Her life is also very excellent. Her father gave her a small Kṛṣṇa doll to play, and she developed love for Kṛṣṇa as husband. So when she was married... She was princess, daughter of king, and she was married with another prince.
Allen Ginsberg: What position does Anandamayi Ma have now?
Prabhupāda: She is also impersonalist.
Allen Ginsberg: She is impersonalist
Prabhupāda: She is not a devotee. There are many impersonalist, they take advantage of... They say, "Caitanya's patha, Śaṅkara's maṭha," that "Follow the principle of Caitanya, but ultimately take the conclusion of Śaṅkara." That means...
Allen Ginsberg: Śiva.
Prabhupāda: No. Śaṅkarācārya.
Allen Ginsberg: Aha. What was the conclusion of Śaṅkarācārya?
Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya's conclusion was to defeat Buddhism. They do not know it, but actually, when there was too much animal-killing and people became almost atheist under the shadow of Vedic rituals, Lord Buddha appeared. He wanted to stop men from the sinful activities of killing unnecessarily under the plea of Vedas.
So he invented that ahiṁsa, nonviolence. And... Because people will give evidence, "Oh, in the Vedas there is..." They were not following, actually, the Vedic rituals, but just like crooked lawyers take advantage of law books, similarly... Therefore, Lord Buddha said that "I do not follow Vedic rituals. I have nothing to do with Vedas. It is my own formula."