Lively Q's and A's by Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada spoke at length on the basis of Vedic authority.
After the lecture, the audience showed its
appreciation by enthusiastic applause. A lively question-and-answer period
ensued.

A young, slightly-built Catholic priest in black vest and white collar stood
up. "The first question that I would like to ask Your Grace is: 'Are you
enjoying your stay in Melbourne?'"

"Yes," Prabhupada answered with a grin, "I enjoy everywhere."

There was more applause and laughter from the audience who seemed to be
hanging on every word. The priest attempted to begin a second question, but
Prabhupada had not finished answering the first one.

"I must explain why I enjoy everywhere. Because I think that every country
belongs to Krsna, and I am servant of Krsna, therefore every country is my
country."

The priest continued. "I have two more questions, Your Grace, and then I'll
shoot through. Your Divine Grace, Dr. Radhakrishnan, in his writings, says
-- in his interpretation of the Brahma-sutra -- that 'God cannot be reduced
to a thought concept by a process of mantra'. This is my first question, and
my second question is"

Prabhupada cut him off. "Yes, but Radhakrishnan is a mundane scholar. He is
not a realised person. He does not know anything." The audience laughed and
applauded Prabhupada's boldness. "So this person is not authorised because
he is one of us, he has imperfect senses, cheating propensity, so how he can
give the right knowledge? He does not know anything about Krsna, but he is
writing his commentary on Bhagavad-gita. This is cheating. I am telling you
how it is. In the ninth chapter of his commentary, when Krsna says: 'man
mana bhava mad-bhakta,' he says that it is not to Krsna, but to the inner
soul which is within Krsna that we should surrender. So what can I say? He
is such a fool. He does not know Krsna, and he is trying to explain Krsna.
That is his defect. He does not know that Krsna is Absolute. There is no
difference between Krsna's body and Krsna's inside. But he's thinking Krsna
is an ordinary man. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam.

"Because Krsna is coming as a human being, he's accepting Krsna as a human
being, but if Krsna was an ordinary human being, such uncommon things he
could not perform. There are so many wonderful things, it is not possible to
be performed by an ordinary man, so why you should quote Radhakrishnan?
There are so many acaryas, those who are stalwart, like Ramanuja,
Sankaracarya, they know such things. What does Radhakrishnan know? He does
not know." The audience responded with more enthusiastic laughter.

The priest was not done. "Last question, Your Divine Grace. Are you going to
say anything while you are in Australia regarding the muffles that are being
put on your movement here and your activities around the city with the
council? I think this is a marvellous opportunity to say something while you
are here. Or have you already communicated with the authorities of the city
regarding the arrests, the bashings, the publicity in the city regarding
your followers?"

Prabhupada gave a wry smile. "Well, it is very good that they are not
crucifying us." The audience broke into full extended applause and laughter.
"These classes of men are always trying to defame the God-conscious men. You
know this, you know very well. Lord Jesus Christ, he was simply distributing
knowledge of God and he was crucified. But we do not care for these things, we do not
care. We can go on with our business."


- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu