Prabhupāda: Government means they are full of rascals. Government by the people. So you are all rascals, the government is also rascal. Because your democracy means government by the people for the people. So all the people are rascals, beginning from the Pope down to the common man. Therefore the government is rascal.
Paramahaṁsa: But not all of us are Christians. Some of us are Muslims, and in the Koran Muhammad says that eating meat is all right. In fact, it is required, to be a good Muslim, to eat meat.
Prabhupāda: They spoke in the desert. What they will eat? But you are not in the desert. Meat-eating is a crude form of eating when people are uncivilized. When there is no other food, you cannot produce. But when you are civilized, when you learn how to produce other foods, why should you eat meat? How are you civilized?
Amogha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Sikhism there was Guru Nanak and the Guru Granth Sahib. Is that actually a real scripture, and was Guru Nanak actually a devotee? Or is that not correct?
Prabhupāda: They created a system of religion which can include Hindus and Muslim. That was at the time needed. But that is not a good system of religion.
Paramahaṁsa: You mean a compromise between the two.
Prabhupāda: Compromise, yes. There was too much strain between Hindus and Muslims, so he wanted to make a compromise. Actually, there was only Vedic culture all over the world. As the things deteriorated, new system of religion came in—either the Sikh religion or the Christian or this religion, Muslim religion. They are, what is called, deformed type of religion. Real religion is that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ (BG 18.66). That is religion. These are later on, deformed religion.
Gaṇeśa: So is that according to time, place and circumstance we must discriminate in our eating?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Gaṇeśa: According to time, place and circumstance we must discriminate whether to eat meat, whether to eat the vegetables?
Prabhupāda: Yes, you must eat. But when good things are available, why should you eat bad things? You must be classified.