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In India (how is Krsna consciousness received)?

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

In India everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious. They are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Reporter: Let us understand you first of all.

Prabhupāda: I have no personal presentation. I am speaking only what Kṛṣṇa... Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Here is the book, you see. This book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, which we are presenting, and publisher is Macmillan Company, and every year they are printing at least fifty thousand copies. This is for our fifth edition. They are printing this book since 1968. '68, '69, '70, '71, that, I think, I know they have, they are fifth edition, and people are reading it, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Our..., we don't change. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the Supreme," and we are saying Kṛṣṇa is the same, Supreme. Even I do not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, I am simply presenting what is written in the Bhagavad-gītā. mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no superior element above Me." So we say, "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. There is no other Supreme." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). We say that "You follow, think of Kṛṣṇa, you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, you offer your respect to Kṛṣṇa." So we are not (indistinct), because we are presenting Kṛṣṇa as He is speaking in the Bhagavad-gītā, that's all.

Reporter: How do you feel the modern world...

Prabhupāda: This is the feeling. You see the effect.

Reporter: What's your feeling?

Prabhupāda: My feeling, I am very satisfied that Kṛṣṇa is accepted by presenting as He is. I must be very satisfied, because before me, who did not present Kṛṣṇa as He is, there was not a single Kṛṣṇa conscious person in the Western world. Now I have got thousands. So why I shall not feel satisfied? Those who misinterpreted Bhagavad-gītā—"This is this, this is that, this is that"—they could not get even one Kṛṣṇa conscious person, and by presenting Bhagavad-gītā, they are selling fifty thousand copies per month, and I am getting every year one thousand, two thousand Kṛṣṇa devotees. So why it is not practical?

Reporter: In India?

Prabhupāda: In India everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious. They are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Reporter: Oh, we are. I see.

Prabhupāda: Everyone Kṛṣṇa conscious. Who does not know Kṛṣṇa?

Reporter: That's right, sir, that is we are very poor specimens. I mean every...

Prabhupāda: No. By force you are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa, that's all.

Reporter: Sir, I beg your pardon, sir. We are very poor specimens.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Reporter: If, as you said, sir, we are all, everybody is Kṛṣṇa conscious in India, still I can say we are to (indistinct) problems here. We are very poor specimens. I won't talk in all other...

Prabhupāda: But you do... Don't you... You have not heard Kṛṣṇa's name?

Reporter: We have heard...

Prabhupāda: No, no. You have not heard Kṛṣṇa's name? Then why you are not Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Reporter: We are conscious of the Kṛṣṇa's existence.

Prabhupāda: Outside..., out of India they ask us this question, that "In India, how many Kṛṣṇa conscious?" Every Indian is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Every Indian is Kṛṣṇa conscious. But he's trying to forget by artificial means.

Reporter: So you mean by Kṛṣṇa conscious...

Prabhupāda: By nature every Indian born is Kṛṣṇa conscious, but at the present moment they are trying to forget Him. That is the problem, going on.

Page Title:In India (how is Krsna consciousness received)?
Compiler:Mangalavati, Rishab
Created:20 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1