Prabhupāda: This gentleman...?
Devotee son: This is my father.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Thank you very much. (chuckles)
Father: Your Grace...
Devotee: And my mother.
Mother: Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So you are all fortunate. You have got such a nice son.
Father: Thank you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And he is giving you the best service by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Father: The best what?
Devotee: Service.
Prabhupāda: Don't think that he is out of home, he is lost. No. He is giving you the best service.
Father: Well, we're very pleased with him, and we always have been. Thank you for helping him find happiness. It's something which he was able to find through your order. (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Thank you. They are very good boys.
Father: What's amazing to me is where you get the strength to keep the pace that you have. Can you tell me how you do that? (laughter) I am some years your junior, and I have difficult pace, keeping up.
Prabhupāda: The process is genuine, the process which I recommend and they follow. Then it is sure.
Devotee son: (to father) Yes. He's saying that our life style will enable you to have that strength also, by worshiping God.
Prabhupāda: Just like the physician. He gives you medicine, and he give you the process, the dose, how to take the medicine, how to take diet. If the patient follow, then he is cured. (break) That is the the opportunity, human life. This process of God realization can be accepted by human being. It doesn't matter where he is born. Either in India or outside India, it doesn't matter. Any human being can take it up. That is the difference between the animal life and human life. The animal, the dog, he knows how to bark only, that's all. He cannot be taught about this process. But a human being can be. He has got that intelligence, every human being. So in this human form of life, if we do not take this process how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we will remain dogs. Because we are abusing the opportunity.
Father: What is it that Kṛṣṇa consciousness has that offers people so much more than other religions do?
Prabhupāda: This is religion. I have already explained that religion means to become lover of God. That is religion. When there is no love of God, that is not religion. Religion means—I have already explained—to know God and to love Him. So if you do not know what is God, where is the question of loving Him? So that is not religion. It is going on in the name of religion. But religion means to know God and to love Him. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇitām (SB 6.3.19). (aside:) Can you find out this verse? Give him. You don't find?
Nitāi: Yes, 3.19.
Prabhupāda: Third Chapter, nineteen.
Nitāi:
- dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇitām
- na vai vidur ṛsayo nāpi devaḥ
- na siddha-mukhya asura manuṣyaḥ
- kuto nu vidyādhara-cāraṇādayaḥ
- (SB 6.3.19)
Prabhupāda: Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇitām: "The principles of religion is given by God." Just like law. Law means the process of activities which is given by the government. You cannot make law at home. Is it clear?
Father: No, I'm having a language problem, I'm afraid.
Jayatīrtha: He says that law means that which is given by the government. You can't make your own law at home. So similarly, religion means that which is enunciated by the Lord. You can't make up your own process.
Father: Well, I guess I'm missing the point. My question was what does the Hare Kṛṣṇa consciousness have to offer that other religions don't have to offer as far as...
Prabhupāda: This is offering, that you want to be religious, so you try to understand religious principles from God. Because if one is lawyer, if one wants to become a lawyer, he must learn laws which is given by the government. He cannot become a lawyer at home. Similarly, if you want to become religious, you must learn what is religion from God. You don't manufacture your own religion. That is not religion. This is the first principle. But if I do not know what is God, what is the order given by God, then what is religion? That is going on. Everyone is manufacturing his own religion. This is the modern method, that religion is private; anyone can accept any type of religion. That is liberalism, is it not?
Jayatīrtha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Just convince him.
Jayatīrtha: So do you understand? The idea is that this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is based on authority of the Vedas. And the Vedic literatures are coming directly from Kṛṣṇa. So we only accept it as truth what Kṛṣṇa says, and we don't accept anybody's mental concoctions or speculations as being truth. And this is the problem with so many other religious movements today, that they depend on the interpretation or the...
Prabhupāda: Concoction.
Jayatīrtha: ...philosophy of some ordinary man. So this is the primary differential.
Prabhupāda: We don't say anything which is not spoken by God in the Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore it is appealing everywhere. Although it is in Sanskrit language, still, it is appealing. Just like if you go on the street and the signboard is, "Keep to the..."
Jayatīrtha: "Keep to the right."
Prabhupāda: "Keep to the right," this is law. I cannot say, "What is the wrong if I keep to the left?" (laughter) Then I am criminal. You cannot dictate. The government has said, "Keep to the right." You have to do that. That is law. If you violate, then you are criminal. Pay fine. But ordinarily, one may think, "What is the wrong there, instead of keeping right, if I keep to the left?" He may think like that, but he doesn't know that is criminal.