Prabhupāda: So you are Sanskrit scholar. You can join with this movement and help us.
Professor: Thank you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because it is worldwide movement.
Professor: I cannot help you. That's, that's...
Prabhupāda: No, you can help us.
Professor: That's very strange.
Prabhupāda: Some of our students are trying to learn Sanskrit. You can help them.
Professor: Well, he knows very well Sanskrit. He pronounce it very well.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He has learned out of his own accord, without taking help from anybody.
Professor: Really?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Whatever little help I give, that's all.
Professor: He knows how to chant the Sanskrit...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Professor: ...verse.
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.
Professor: So probably this comes from you.
Yogeśvara: But here in Paris we are also translating these books now into French.
Professor: Into French?
Yogeśvara: Yes.
Professor: Many people are able to read it in English.
Yogeśvara: Oh, but for those who cannot read the English, there's necessity in French.
Professor: Quite. Oh, yes.
Yogeśvara: For example, Bhagavad-gītā, we're preparing now in French.
Professor: Oh? Yes.
Prabhupāda: Give him some prasādam.
Yogeśvara: In France, I believe, the only version of Bhagavad-gītā that people know is Aurobindo's translation.
Professor: No, there are many others.
Yogeśvara: Many?
Professor: There are many others.
Prabhupāda: English?
Professor: No, no. In French.
Prabhupāda: In French.
Professor: Bhagavad-gītā? Yes. I think translated I think something like ten or twelve times.
Yogeśvara: Ten or twelve times in French?
Professor: Oh, yes.
Yogeśvara: He says there are ten or twelve different French translations of the Gītā.
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: In English also there are...
Professor: Oh, English, more than that.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Professor: English, more than that.
Yogeśvara: So now we wish to present the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.
Professor: As It Is.
Prabhupāda: Without interpretation. And, according to the trades manager of MacMillan Company, our book is topmost selling.
Professor: I see.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Than all other editions. Their report is. They, they print at a time fifty thousand copies. So three or four times they have already printed.
Professor: Really?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Since last August, within one year.
Professor: Wow. That's a great success.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.
Professor: That's good.
Prabhupāda: Now they are out of stock.
Professor: Out of stock?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Professor: So they will print it again, no?
Prabhupāda: They will print it. They will supply in August or July, they said. They'll supply. So it has come out very successful. Just imagine, 200,000 copies distributed within one year.
Professor: In one year. That's very good.
Prabhupāda: And in America, our people go to saṅkīrtana. Many gentlemen comes down, gets down from the car, inquires, "You have got Bhaktivedanta's Bhagavad-gītā As It Is?" They purchase like that. Yes. At least, they have become inquisitive on account of the word "As It Is."
Professor: What?
Prabhupāda: "As It Is."
Professor: Oh, As It Is, yes.
Yogeśvara: Because of the fact that our title is "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is."
Professor: "As It Is."
Yogeśvara: "As It Is." Yes.
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Because they have read different interpretations. Now they want to read as it is.
Professor: That's fine. That is fine.
Prabhupāda: What, what is your opinion about interpretation?
Professor: Well, it's much better to have a commentary separated, not an interpretation given mixed with the translation. It is not to be...
Prabhupāda: It is not good. No. Yes. We cite them...
Professor: It has to be different.
Prabhupāda: No, if you have got your own opinion, you can write your own book. But you cannot interpret on the Bhagavad-gītā.
Professor: Yes, that's right. You are right.
Prabhupāda: Then the authority of Bhagavad-gītā is gone. But everyone is doing like that, even Dr. Radhakrishnan and others.
Professor: Yes. I already know...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Even Gandhi has done.
Professor: Gandhi also?
Prabhupāda: Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi. He has also interpreted. He has interpreted, "This body... Kurukṣetra means this body."
Professor: But he didn't write it...
Prabhupāda: Well, it is not widely read, but this has become a fashion, to give his own interpretation. Yes.
Professor: Yeah, that's right, the fashion. That's the word. That's right.
Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa was not a so, I mean to say, ignorant, that He left something to be interpreted later on by another rascal. No. That was not Kṛṣṇa's intention. What Kṛṣṇa says, that is final. So we accept in that way. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So we appeal to the people that "You think of Kṛṣṇa. You become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa." All these disciples, they have been taught like that. "You offer obeisances to Kṛṣṇa." Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī. "You worship Kṛṣṇa." That's it. And by doing that, they are advancing. Advancing. And before me, for hundreds of years or more than that, the Bhagavad-gītā was known to the European and American countries. As you say, there are so many trans...
Professor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But not a single soul became a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. There is no history. Yes. So far we know, that by reading Bhagavad-gītā, it is meant for making a person devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). But before my coming here, so many swamis came, and they preached on Bhagavad-gītā, so many scholars came, but not a single soul became a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa.