Unfortunately, this Bhagavad-gītā has been misused in so many ways by the so-called scholars and svāmīs. The impersonalist class, or atheist class of men, they have interpreted Bhagavad-gītā in their own way. When I was in America in 1966, one American lady asked me to recommend an English edition of Bhagavad-gītā so that she could read it. But honestly I could not recommend any one of them, on account of their whimsical explanation.
That gave me impetus to write Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. And this present edition, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, is now published by Macmillan Company, the biggest publisher in the world. And we are doing very nice. We published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in 1968, a small edition. It was selling like anything. The trades manager of Macmillan Company reported that our books are selling more and more; others are reducing. Then recently, in this 1972, we have published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, complete edition. And Macmillan Company published fifty thousand copies in others(?), but it was finished in three months, and they are arrange for second edition.
So this Bhagavad-gītā should be read by every individual person to know the science of God. It is a great science. God is not a fiction or an imagination, as people take it. Not always. But in human society, everywhere in civilized human society there is some conception of religion, and the purpose of executing religious faith means to understand God. There is no other purpose of any religion. If in any religion the understanding of God is lacking, that is not first-class religion.
So we are preaching not any particular type of religion. Religion is described in the English dictionary as "A kind of faith." Actually, religion does not mean. The Sanskrit word dharma, that dharma means characteristic.
(aside) That's all right.
It is not a kind of faith. Characteristic, or occupational duty. So generally it means characteristic. The characteristic is that every living being, it does not mean, whether it is animal or human being or trees or plants or insect . . . (feedback sound)
(aside) What is it?
Every living being has a particular characteristic that is visible in all kinds of forms of living being. That is service.
Everyone is rendering service. Here we have so many ladies and gentlemen present, but every one of us is rendering some service to the superior. That is our position. The animals also, the inferior animals, they are rendering service to the superior animal. The superior animal is eating the inferior animal, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam (SB 1.13.47). Big snake is eating small snake. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, apadānam catuṣ-padām.