Prabhupāda: About this book. About this booklet?
Śyāmasundara: Yes. Also he's reading Kṛṣṇa Book right now, George. He's in the fourth chapter, just starting to . . .
David Lawrence: So it looks as if it's, erm . . . as regards a publishing date, they've asked for a manuscript at the end of September, and as you'll probably have gone back, well certainly to India then . . .
Prabhupāda: So we have to see the manuscript.
David Lawrence: That's it. I want to let you see the manuscript . . .
Prabhupāda: Śyāmasundara?
David Lawrence: . . . before the time. So at least somebody can vet it, you see.
Prabhupāda: We are speaking of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The message is from the spiritual world. It is not of this material world. Therefore sometimes people may misunderstand. So we have to explain it nicely. Just like they cannot even understand what is the soul. A minute particle of spirit, it is . . . but they do not understand, big, big scientist, big, big philosopher. But the entire subject matter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not of this material world. All, it is of spiritual world, but they have no information of the spirit and the spiritual world. Therefore, sometimes they find it very difficult to understand.
David Lawrence: One of the very important enclosures which we mentioned when I came up last, for the teachers' pack this was, not for the actual booklet, was a series of questions, what we would call sticky ones in the West, but I'm sure you'll deal with them with very great ease. I've tried to produce what I thought would be objections to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not as such to theism, but more to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
And if I could . . . Mukunda has got them, in fact—there's about eight or nine—and if you could be pleased to perhaps answer them on tape, and I can have them transposed. We're going to produce this in the teachers' pack, six or seven sheets of cyclostyled notes for the teachers, so they'll be able to meet the objections, perhaps, of their students. You know, some of the intelligent students may make points which clearly can be met.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
David Lawrence: But we can meet them, in a sense, before they're even asked.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
David Lawrence: That makes it even more impressive.
Prabhupāda: In which point the students may possibly object?
David Lawrence: Well, I've mentioned a few points on which . . . you know, obviously, I've studied a bit more deeply than the average student, because of the university and all this sort of business, which gives a particular form of knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
David Lawrence: Let me think of one . . . yes, one that I asked, which I know Mukunda has already answered for me, but we need it in the teachers' pack, of course, is the fact of the dating of the Vedas. You know, people like some of the archaeologists such as A. L. Basham and Mortimer Wheeler maintain that the Harrapa dig, so to speak, in the Indus Valley and Mahenjo-Daro and all those towns, show the dating of the Vedas in fact to be a great deal later, you know, and therefore to take away—some people would say this—to deprive the Vedas of a certain amount of authority because they no longer, according to these men, would appear to be the most ancient religious scriptures in the world. And that, that sort of question, you know, which . . .
Prabhupāda: Veda means not religion; Veda means knowledge. So if you can trace out the history of knowledge, then you can trace out what is the date of Veda. Can you trace out? When . . .? Which is the date when knowledge began? Can you trace out?
David Lawrence: I wouldn't think they could.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
David Lawrence: I wouldn't think they could.
Prabhupāda: So how you can trace out the history of Vedas? Vedas means knowledge. Vedas means knowledge. So first of all find out from which date knowledge began. Then you find out the date of the Vedas.
David Lawrence: Yes, it seemed to me . . . I tried to read, certainly, A. L. Basham on this, and . . .
Prabhupāda: Those who know Sanskrit, they know what is the meaning of Veda. Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda-vid jñāne. Jñāna means knowledge. That means . . . the history of Veda means from the date of creation of this material world. Now find out the date of creation of the material world. Approximately, (laughs) nobody can give what is the date of.
We can, we cannot . . . date of Brahmā, he got the, first of all, the Vedic knowledge. Now, one day of Brahmā you cannot calculate. One day of Brahmā. And the . . . when Brahmā's night is there, there is devastation up to some extent. So again in the daytime of Brahmā, that creation takes place. There are two kinds of devastation. One devastation is at the night of Brahmā, and one final devastation is the whole cosmic manifestation finished. So these teeny people, they are after the dates of Vedas, and that is ludicrous, that is . . . (laughs)
David Lawrence: Yes. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Just like there are many microbes, they grow in the evening and die just in the day beginning. So whole night is their span of life. So our life is like that. What history you can write? Therefore, we receive Vedic knowledge from the authorities.