Prabhupāda: They have their own program. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Blind men leading blind men. You realize that your Constitution is defective?
Sita Ram Singh: Yes, of course.
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of changing? The same instrument... So our proposal is that unless the limbs are perfect, the end cannot be perfect. So we are presenting, therefore, the limbs of Bhagavad-gītā, perfect, everything. But they are manufacturing their own way. There are so many parties, Ch.D., D.A.C., Ph.D....
Sita Ram Singh: All they have got a party for their own selfish end. Actually though I belong toward the party, but I must (indistinct). Because they have all got their own selfish aims.
Prabhupāda: They are interested to keep the new position of the party. Who is thinking of the public? Public is in the same distressed condition.
Sita Ram Singh: Same distressed condition.
Prabhupāda: Rather, they are more distressed. Take for example, in our childhood my father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees. So we were not very rich men. But we had no want. Father was maintaining his family, getting children married, distributing the wealth. Everything very nice. And we never felt any want. In this mango season, because father saw it that "There must be a full basket of mangoes daily for the children," so we were jumping, playing and eating mangoes. And now, taking consideration of gold standard... At that time my mother was purchasing gold, twenty rupees...
Sita Ram Singh: Per tolā.
Prabhupāda: Twenty-two rupees. Now the same gold is six hundred rupees. So three hundred times more?
Sita Ram Singh: Yes.
Prabhupāda: If my father's income was three hundred rupees, increased by three hundred, it becomes nine thousand. So where is the nine thousand rupees income for a middle-class man?
Sita Ram Singh: Quite.
Prabhupāda: Nine thousand rupees', ten thousand rupees' income is for very, very big man. But comparing, say, sixty-seventy years ago, we were a middle-class man, so a middle-class man has not increased his income from three hundred rupees to ten thousand rupees. That means everybody has become poor. So where is the advancement? Simply beating the drum, will this...? In our childhood we have seen mustard oil, first-class, made in Kanpur. We were purchasing, eight annas per two and a half ser.
Sita Ram Singh: And now it has gone to ten rupees.
Prabhupāda: No, thirteen rupees.
Sita Ram Singh: Thirteen rupees in our time.
Prabhupāda: Ghee, first-class ghee, we were purchasing, one rupee, Vardwa(?) ghee. Now what is the price of ghee?
Indian man (1): Twenty-five.
Sita Ram Singh: Twenty rupees.
Indian man (1): Twenty, twenty-five. Between twenty and twenty-five, depending upon the place.
Prabhupāda: That means between twenty-five to thirty times, the price has increased. But income has not increased.
Indian man (1): Not in the real sense.
Prabhupāda: No sense. All nonsense.
Indian man (1): No sense not at all.
Sita Ram Singh: No sense. No sense at all.
Prabhupāda: Simply nonsense. So what is remedy? Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). All over the world... Of course, we do not want to criticize, but according to śāstra, people will suffer more and more. And they must suffer. Because they are becoming godless, they must suffer. That is nature's punishment.
- daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
- mama māyā duratyayā
- mām eva ye prapadyante
- māyām etāṁ taranti te
- (BG 7.14)
They won't take the real culture given by God Himself, Kṛṣṇa, "Do like this." Therefore they are godless. They must suffer. Now the suffering is awaiting to the general mass of people. Durbhikṣa... Anāvṛṣṭi-durbhikṣa-kara-pīḍitāḥ (SB 12.2.9). There will be no rain from the sky, and therefore there will be no sufficient grains. Anāvṛṣṭi-durbhikṣa. And in the name of improving the situation, government will tax. Kara-pīḍitāḥ. In this way, so the people in general, they'll be so much harassed that, without being able to manage things... Ācchinna-dāra-draviṇā gacchanti giri-kānanam. "Let whatever I may have to the family eating. Let me go." This is the position.
Sita Ram Singh: What will be the future of India?
Prabhupāda: Anywhere. Why you are speaking of India? What is spoken in the śāstra, that is not for India or for Bihar. It is for everywhere.
Sita Ram Singh: And the situation is going from bad to worse. Will it go...
Prabhupāda: Yes. And at the end there will be no wheat, no rice, no sugar, no milk, and you'll have to eat... I shall eat your flesh; you shall eat my flesh. They are eating already fetus of their own sons. What is that?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In some countries in the West...
Prabhupāda: Do they not?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In some countries in the West they perform this operation for... What do they call it?
Indian man (1): Abortion.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Abortion. They have legalized abortion. So the unborn fetus, after it's aborted, they're eating as food.
Sita Ram Singh: They have devised also even in Indian also. I don't know about...
Prabhupāda: Therefore I said, "Why do you speak of this country?" This will happen everywhere.
Sita Ram Singh: If such pāpa hoga,(?) how one can expect betterment of the nation?
Prabhupāda: Pāpa? (Hindi) Prakṛteḥ kriya...
Indian man (1): Is there any way out?
Prabhupāda: Where the Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Why don't you come? You'll not come. You'll stick to your own principle. Here is the way out. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. "No." You'll make your own party, that's all, and suffer. What can be done? You'll never take good advice from Kṛṣṇa. You'll take advice from Indira Gandhi. That's it.
Sita Ram Singh: (Hindi) And discontentment.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are trying to adjust things by the external nature. (Hindi) Mūrkhāyopadeṣo hi prakopāya na... (Hindi) Come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be happy.
Sita Ram Singh: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) "I will explain." And "Who cares for you?" (Hindi conversation) Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). (Hindi) Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate. He is a rascal who is thinking, "I am independent," rascal number one. Everyone is thinking, "Ah! I am independent." What is their independence? Hm? (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) (break) (Hindi conversation) We are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. (Hindi) ...compromise and interpretation... (Hindi) (Hindi conversation)