Prabhupāda: A big garden. Yes. That was viceroy's house. Now it is dilapidated. Otherwise, formerly it was very, very nice. Huge palace in India. Lord Curzon's policy was to bring one of the princes from England and make him king of India.
Haṁsadūta: King of India.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That was his policy. He favored that policy, that Indian people are in favor of monarchy. So introduce this system: one of the royal family's son should come and become king of India. That was good suggestion. If Britishers would have ruled India for the interest of India, making one king from the royal family, it would have been great success. That policy of Lord Curzon was very nice.
Haṁsadūta: That never happened.
Prabhupāda: The same thing. The parliamentary members . . . just like nowadays, party. India is suffering in party politics. And they did not like to give importance to monarchy. They wanted to rule according to their whims, and therefore the whole scheme failed. The so-called democracy under party politics is nonsense. Monarchy . . . I have said. That day I was in remarking that "This democracy is the government of the asses," because the population are asses and they vote another ass to be head of the government.
So what you can do? Sayuddhe kriyate rājan sa kim asnu pahanam. These are instructions in Sanskrit. "If you make a dog a king, don't you think that he will still lap the shoes?" (laughter) You cannot change his habits. Sva . . . yasya bhāvasya na sa sudurate kramaḥ. Anyone's habits, even if you give good position, you cannot change it. The example is just like if you make a dog the king, he will immediately come from the throne and lap the shoes. You see? So materially you cannot change. Only by spiritual understanding one can be . . .
Haṁsadūta: Cāṇakya Paṇḍita . . . I have seen that book, and he says in his book that if a crow sits on a high plinth, he says it doesn't become . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you make a crow . . . the crow generally sits on the roof of the house, but that does not mean he has become a great man—"How great I am, a very beautiful bird."