Prabhupāda: Rāmānujācārya has given quotation from śruti for every verse of Bhagavad-gītā.
(pause) (devotee enters and offers obeisances)
Prabhupāda: So read from the . . .
Bhavānanda: It starts off with big print: "Ācāryadeva Tridandi Swami Śrīla Bhaktivilāsa Tīrtha Mahārāja. All learned men are aware that in the dark days of India when the Hindu religion was in great danger . . ."
Prabhupāda: (laughs) This is nonsense.
Bhavānanda: ". . . our Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was born at Śrī Māyāpur, destined to remove the dark clouds which had overshadowed true religious thinking by traveling alone on foot throughout the length and breadth of India. Preaching His gospel of love, He brought about a religious upheaval which put an end to all religious conflicts and suicidal vociferous tendencies. The benign influence of His love philosophy made the whole of India a spiritually united cultural domain. Soul-enrapturing kīrtana music was organized from one end of the country to the other. A neo-humanism based on love regarded as the highest objective of human existence held sway. The difference between man and man was forgotten, and the fundamental unity of human nature and human destiny was stressed upon. But in the early nineteenth century, true religion was at a very low ebb due to lack of proper publicity of literature and also for want of great ācāryas to propagate the cults in their true aspect. It was a dark period for the Caitanya or Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism when it fell from its highest transcendentalism to the lowest possible degradation because of so many abuses and evil practices which crept into it through plenty of pseudo-followers. Vaiṣṇavism was almost abandoned by the educated section of people. Its literature was hardly read. Kīrtana was looked upon not as a form of prayer but as a means of gratification by people of loose morals. Most of the Vaiṣṇava followers of the period lost their high standard of morality, their loving aestheticism, their intellectual superiority and devotional fervor, which were the main characteristics of the previous masters. The influx of Western ideas came in, and English educated people fell into the hands of Christians. Fortunately, at that time, we got a great Vaiṣṇava savant and scholar, Ṭhākura Kedāranātha Bhaktivinoda, who wrote widely and successfully created an interest among the educated public in Vaiṣṇava religion and literature. His discovery of Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, the birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which was so long hidden from the public eye, gave a new impetus to its propagation. The age of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism set in. Thereafter, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura took hold of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism with a vow to propagate it in its true perspective, even as it was practiced with unparalleled and unprecedented transcendentalism by Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmīs, followers of Śrī Caitanya. In proper time, he got a great personality who readily shouldered the . . ."
Prabhupāda: Just see now: "He got a great personality." He is that personality. He'll also prove that.
Bhavānanda: ". . . who shouldered the burden of the mighty mission of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. That great personality is President Ācāryadeva, His Holiness Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivilāsa . . ."
Prabhupāda: But you . . . jaya morena apne morol. This great personality, why he is not accepted by other disciples? How he becames a great personality?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. If one proclaims himself to be the king and no one . . .
Prabhupāda: No one accepts him.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of king?
Prabhupāda: That is called in Bengali, jaya mane apna morol. Morol means the leader of the society, of the village. Here there are morol. So in the village nobody cares for him, and he declares that, "I am morol."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That person is insane.
Prabhupāda: Nobody cares for him, and he is thinking that, "Great personality." Where is his greatness? Who knows him? Just see. So he is making a plan to declare himself a great personality.
Bhavānanda: It goes on to explain why he is such a great personality.
Prabhupāda: So why explain? If he is great personality, everyone should know. Why he is trying to explain? What is the use of explanation? If a great personality is unknown, and he has to be known by explanatory notes, then how he is great personality?
Bhavānanda: Just like the President of the United States. He doesn't have to say, "I am the President." Everyone knows.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on reading.