Prabhupāda: No, if you have got your own opinion, you can write your own book. But you cannot interpret on the Bhagavad-gītā.
Professor: Yes, that's right. You are right.
Prabhupāda: Then the authority of Bhagavad-gītā is gone. But everyone is doing like that, even Dr. Radhakrishnan and others.
Professor: Yes. I already know...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Even Gandhi has done.
Professor: Gandhi also?
Prabhupāda: Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi. He has also interpreted. He has interpreted, "This body... Kurukṣetra means this body."
Professor: But he didn't write it...
Prabhupāda: Well, it is not widely read, but this has become a fashion, to give his own interpretation. Yes.
Professor: Yeah, that's right, the fashion. That's the word. That's right.
Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa was not a so, I mean to say, ignorant, that He left something to be interpreted later on by another rascal. No. That was not Kṛṣṇa's intention. What Kṛṣṇa says, that is final. So we accept in that way. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So we appeal to the people that "You think of Kṛṣṇa. You become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa." All these disciples, they have been taught like that. "You offer obeisances to Kṛṣṇa." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī. "You worship Kṛṣṇa." That's it. And by doing that, they are advancing. Advancing. And before me, for hundreds of years or more than that, the Bhagavad-gītā was known to the European and American countries. As you say, there are so many trans...
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But not a single soul became a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. There is no history. Yes. So far we know, that by reading Bhagavad-gītā, it is meant for making a person devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). But before my coming here, so many swamis came, and they preached on Bhagavad-gītā, so many scholars came, but not a single soul became a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa.
Professor: Yes, because other... So, for instance, you have the Ramakrishna Mission...
Prabhupāda: What the Ramakrishna mission has done?
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna mission has done this, that they have learned to drink wine and eat meat, that's all, from the Western countries. That's all.
Professor: Yes. This is so.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their contribution. And they have spoiled the Hindu culture.
Professor: Oh. Yes?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Because Vivekananda said, "Oh, what is the harm there, in eating? You can eat whatever you like. It doesn't matter in religion." It was the first. And he himself was eating anything. So all the Ramakrishna mission sannyāsīs still, they are eating meat, egg and everything, especially in America. Yes. Fish is no consideration. That is daily affair. And the turkey,... Yes. Instead of preaching here, they have taken the Western method. And Vivekananda's preaching is like Western missionaries-open hospitals, school...
Professor: You are right, yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He had no spiritual knowledge. So therefore it has not been successful. They are preaching in the Western countries... As far I know, in America they have got ten or twelve branches. I am working for the last six years only. I have got already fifty branches. And each branch, there are devotees like them, not less than twenty-five, up to two hundred, three hundred, all dedicated souls.
Professor: And what about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi?
Prabhupāda: I don't take account of these because they are not standard.
Professor: Oh, I see.
Prabhupāda: They are not standard. We are following Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, standard, and they have got their own manufactured way. So we don't recognize them. Our process is evaṁ paramparā prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Paramparā. What Kṛṣṇa said, the disciplic succession will say the same thing. But they are speaking differently. So therefore we don't take them as bona fide. They are not bona fide. And from external point of view, we have got so many literatures, so many branches, so many devotees, within six years. But they haven't got such thing. Even Ramakrishna Mission. They are working for the last eighty years. And I have worked only for six years. And my result is eighty times more than them. They also acknowledge.
Yogeśvara: Phalena paricīyate.
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Phalena paricīyate. Yes. And we shall... Our manuscript is ready for sixty volumes but we are gradually publishing. Already we have got about twenty volumes, different kinds of literatures. Yes. Show all the books. You have seen our books? No.
Professor: No, not very well.
Prabhupāda: Show all the books. Bring. Bring him. Yes.
Yogeśvara: These are nice paintings as well, you'll find in here. Yes, all done by the devotees. Some prasādam. This Kṛṣṇa Book is a summary study of the Tenth Canto, Bhāgavatam, the intimate pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Professor: And it is just two volumes or...?
Yogeśvara: Yes, two volumes.
Prabhupāda: Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The other book is Nectar of Devotion. It is translation from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu of Rūpa Gosvāmī.
Professor: This is also a translation of it or...?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Professor: It's about that, or is it a translation.
Prabhupāda: It is summary study.
Professor: Summary study, yeah. Well, the books are well-printed and very well... I like books like this.
Prabhupāda: This is summary study of Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
Yogeśvara: We also have now the complete Caitanya-caritāmṛta being printed by our own presses in New York City, with the original Bengali.
Prabhupāda: We have got the manuscript printed? Not yet. No...
Professor: Such wonderful books...
Prabhupāda: No, our books are selling nicely.
Professor: (laughs) Well, I believe that. One... It's nice to see that all these books around.
Prabhupāda: Two thousand, three thousand dollars daily.
Yogeśvara: More than that.
Prabhupāda: More than that.
Yogeśvara: Much more than that.
Guru-gaurāṅga: Haṁsadūta said twenty-thousand.
Prabhupāda: Twenty-thousand? Oh.
Haṁsadūta: Yeah, we also have so many small books.
Guru-gaurāṅga: These books are all by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Later on they will write.
Professor: Eh?
Prabhupāda: Later on they'll write. Yes. For the time being, I am writing.
Haṁsadūta: Each disciple writes one book.
Professor: No.
Prabhupāda: And we are printing 100,000 of these small books at a time.
Professor: Each of them, or...?
Prabhupāda: Yes, each of them. And as soon as they brought books in saṅkīrtana, people take it immediately—"Give me one, give me one, give me one..." That's... These books, we charge fifty cents. They pay easily.
Professor: I saw that in the streets of New York.