Interviewer (3): Some sort of religious epithet.
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly religious. You have taken by it because we misunderstand the meaning of religion. Religion generally understood as a kind of cult and faith. But in the Vedic literature, religion means the characteristic. Just like sugar is sweet, that is its religion. If sugar becomes pungent, that is not sugar's characteristic. Similarly, a human being must be God conscious. So that God consciousness is religion. Because in the human form of life one can understand what is God, and if he does not become, he remains an animal. Animal cannot understand. So therefore his business is how to athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is not our manufactured word, this is the Vedānta words. Atha, now we have got this human form body, based on that transmigration of the soul after millions and millions of years, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), you have got this human form of life, now it is your business to inquire about the Absolute Truth. This is the business of human life. And āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithuna, how to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life and how to defend, that is animal business. If you remain busy with these four principles of bodily necessities of life, āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithuna, then you remain on he animal platform. Beyond that, when you inquire about God, that is human life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So we are trying to raise him from this animal life to human life. This is our business.
Interviewer (3): So you help people inquire God.
Prabhupāda: Yes, because that is business. Athāto brahma jijñāsā But they are forgetting that, that there is necessity of inquiring about God. To inquire about my relationship with God, what is God, they are neglecting this. Not only here, all over the world, it is becoming more and more acute.
Interviewer (4): So in relation to your movement, where does Marxism stand?
Prabhupāda: It is not my movement, it is the Vedic culture. Don't think... If you say "my movement," I have manufactured something. Not. This is the Vedic culture.
Interviewer (4): No, from the standpoint of this culture...
Prabhupāda: Standpoint is that I am trying to revive the Vedic culture, that's all. That is my business. I am not manufacturing anything.
Interviewer (4): No, but how do you explain the advance that Marxism has made in the world?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Hari-śauri: How do you explain the advance that Marxism has made?
Prabhupāda: There are so many "isms." If I go to criticize and study, it will take most of our time. Better positively present what you want. If you like you can take it, that's all. There are so many "isms." When we become animal, then we manufacture so many "isms."
- vyavasāyātmikā buddhir
- ekeha kuru-nandana
- bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca
- buddhayo 'vyavasāyinām
- (BG 2.41)
Those who are not fixed up, they have got so many "isms," and those who are fixed up, they have got one "ism"—that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). We are teaching that.
Interviewer (4): So is it correct from what that any culture...
Prabhupāda: It is correct because Kṛṣṇa says. Kṛṣṇa is infallible. We are not manufacturing anything, so it is correct because Kṛṣṇa says. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7), He is the supreme authority. But we have no faith in Kṛṣṇa, therefore we manufacture something other than Kṛṣṇa. That is our misfortune.
Interviewer (4): You mean to say that any system that doesn't subscribe to this movement has no future at all?
Prabhupāda: No.
Interviewer (4): But that is (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Yes, that we say practically. What is the use of "ism," manufactured by imperfect senses. We have got defects. Our..., we commit mistake. Who is the person who does not commit mistake? None. We accept this body, which I am not, this is called pramada. Pramada vipralipsa,(?) without any perfect knowledge you want to teach. That is cheating. Vipralipsa. And karnapada(?), our senses are imperfect. So how you can give perfect knowledge with all this imperfection? Unless you become perfect, you cannot give perfect knowledge. So any knowledge given by any imperfect person, we reject immediately, useless waste of time. And actually that is the fact. If you are blind, you cannot see. You say, "Here is the elephant, a big stambha, pillar," by seeing his leg, by touching his leg. But elephant is just like a pillar? That is our speculation. Andha-kūpa, what is called? Kūpa-maṇḍūka. A frog in the well is trying to study Atlantic Ocean.