Prabhupāda: So we are trying to push this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like in your country there is Lenin consciousness, similarly, it is also a different type of consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa is also historical personality as much as Lenin is also historical personality. So His philosophy . . . just like you are trying to understand his philosophy, you are trying to understand Kṛṣṇa's philosophy. In this way this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is going on.
Prof. Kotovsky: And have you many participants . . .
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Prof. Kotovsky: . . . in these fifty-five branches?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, more than three thousand, three thousand initiated. And outside admirers, there are many. Many. And this means these three thousand who have accepted the principles, just like these boys. So there are fifty-five branches. In each branch we are maintaining twenty-five to hundred students. So just imagine.
Prof. Kotovsky: But does that mean the students, they abstain for normal West European universities their own . . . all their . . . How to explain it? Their . . . for instance, can a normal student from, for instance, from one of the Paris universities, who is attending lectures in normal way, etc., also be initiated and admitted to your community?
Prabhupāda: No, both ways. Both ways. If you want to be initiated, you are welcome. If not, you come, try to understand our philosophy, read our books. There are so many books, magazines. And question, answer. Try to understand the philosophy. It is not that all of a sudden a student comes and becomes our disciple. No. They first of all come, associate, try to understand. Then . . . we do not canvass. When he voluntarily says that "I want to be your . . ."
Prof. Kotovsky: No, yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no canvassing.
Prof. Kotovsky: No, yes. That's what . . . (indistinct) . . . but what I am most interested in . . . For instance, not a student but a young worker or a young son of a farmer, he would abstain from his old life and he would be initiated and join your community into a given center. How he would entertain himself . . .
Prabhupāda: The thing is . . . I have alre . . .
Prof. Kotovsky: . . . in the sorts of day-to-day life . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prof. Kotovsky: . . . material life?
Prabhupāda: Now, material life, it is . . .
Prof. Kotovsky: Would he be paid to stay in that center?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I am answering. As I told you that this propaganda is meant for creating some brahmins all over the world, because the brahmin element is lacking. So one who seriously comes to us, he has to become a brahmin. So he has to adopt the occupation of a brahmin, and he has to give up the occupation of a kṣatriya or a śūdra. But if one wants to keep his profession, at the same time wants to understand also, that is allowed.