Prabhupāda: That you have to consult śāstra. There is direction. It is . . . practically it is the same. Just like Manu-saṁhitā, it says that if one is a murderer then he should be killed. Life for life. He should be hanged. That is the old system. The king used to kill a murderer. So that is almost the same punishment.
Rāmeśvara: Capital punishment.
Interviewer: What . . .
Rāmeśvara: What Prabhupāda said is that you have to consult the ancient law books which were written, which are part of Indian culture, thousands of years ago.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Part of the Vedic scriptures.
Rāmeśvara: They are our lawbook. Just like we have books of philosophy, there are also books of law, how to govern society, how to deal with criminals. In other words, we are sticking to the Vedic literatures. As they instruct, we are following.
Interviewer: What do the Vedic literatures say about adultery?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about adultery, Prabhupāda? She wants to know what the Vedas say should be the . . . what is the reaction for adultery? How does one deal with an adulterer? If someone is an adulterer and he's caught, what should be the . . .
Prabhupāda: No, there is no such direct punishment, but it is prohibited. It is prohibited.
Rāmeśvara: There is no direct punishment, but it is prohibited. Part of education and social convention, it is prohibited. Not that the government allows propaganda to be made for illicit sex.
Prabhupāda: The other words, the woman who is chaste, she is very much glorified.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: A chaste woman is very much glorified in Vedic culture.
Interviewer: I'm particularly interested in the educational system that you are setting up. Do you think . . .
Bali-mardana: You mean for children?
Rāmeśvara: She's referring now to the system that we have for our children, gurukula. So what's the question?
Interviewer: My question is because they are receiving this education, physical and spiritual education so that they will be free of corruption and sin, they might still, even with this education, they still might not be intelligent, what you consider intelligent people. How, you know . . . is it more likely that they will be what you would term intelligent, having been educated in this system?
Prabhupāda: No, there are different types of education. Just like in the material world, there is education for medical man, there is education for engineer, there is education for so many other departments. Similarly, there is education how to make one man spiritual. So we are going to give education how to become spiritually advanced. That is our purpose.
Rāmeśvara: Spiritually advanced, that is our purpose. Now her question was whether all the people that go to our gurukula will become spiritually advanced.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly. That is gurukula education.
Rāmeśvara: Even though some are born with more intelligence and some are born with less intelligence.
Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. Average intelligence will do.
Interviewer: Well, then conceivably it seems that almost the great majority of society would adhere to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Rāmeśvara: So then, since it doesn't matter whether less intelligent, small intelligent, if they go to gurukula, they can become spiritually advanced.
Prabhupāda: Yes, because spiritually everyone is free from material bondage. So materially we find one is more intelligent, one is less intelligent, but spiritually everyone can be equally intelligent.
Rāmeśvara: So what about the common man? If he accepts the gurukula system, he can also be spiritually advanced?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Anyone, anyone.
Rāmeśvara: See, Prabhupāda's point in the beginning was whether they will accept it or not. But once they accept it, once they get trained, then they will automatically be advanced. His point in the beginning was that whether they'll accept it or not. That requires intelligence.
Bali-mardana: He has to undergo a type of conditioning.
Rāmeśvara: Or training.
Lady guest: I think he was defining his definition of intelligence in the spiritual realm as opposed to material intelligence.
Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda said intelligence means you accept the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or you accept to be trained to be spiritually advanced.
Lady guest: It's an hypothesis. It's like an hypothesis.
Interviewer: Don't you find the whole Kṛṣṇa movement more successful in an age and era when there is such laxity of moral standards and spiritual leadership and direction?
Prabhupāda: No, at any stage of life, if one accepts the principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can make advance.
Rāmeśvara: She asked: "Is it more favorable for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness if there is some material problems, social problems? If there is a lack of God consciousness, then people become frustrated. Is that a more favorable situation for Kṛṣṇa consciousness to take root?"
Prabhupāda: Yes, if we arrange social, political and everything favorable to spiritual understanding, then it becomes easier.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda is saying the opposite than what you hypothesized. That if everything is arranged socially, politically, everything, in a God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious manner, then it is easier to accept the principles of God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Just like . . . these are all discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā, what kind of social arrangement should be. That . . . it is called varṇāśrama-dharma. A brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha—so these are different groups, and if they are favorably trained up, then spiritual understanding becomes very easy.