Prabhupāda: So actually one who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa regularly, he hasn't got to do anything. Actually it is the position. He doesn't require to read any book.
Yoko Ono: Yes. Then why do you say that it's all right and all that? I mean is it a compromise, or what?
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Yoko Ono: I mean the fact that we are doing songwriting and all that. It's a waste of time, isn't it? Without Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: No, not waste of time. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was chanting, simply. Even He was criticized by great sannyāsīs that, "You have taken sannyāsa. You do not read Vedānta. You are simply chanting and dancing." He was criticized. But the thing is, when Caitanya Mahāprabhu met such stalwart scholars, He was not lagging behind.
Similarly, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is sufficient. There is no doubt about it. But if somebody wants to understand this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra through philosophy, through study, through Vedānta, we are not lacking. We have got books. It is not that Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is insufficient, therefore we are recommending books. No. Not like that. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is sufficient. But . . .
Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He was chanting, but when there was a Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, when there was a Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, oh, He was ready to argue with him with Vedānta. So we should not be dumb. If somebody comes to argue with Vedānta philosophy, then we must be prepared. When we are preaching, there will be so many people, different types of people will come. Otherwise Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is sufficient. Sufficient. It does not require any education, any reading, anything. Simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and you get the highest perfection. That's a fact.
Śyāmasundara: You were saying earlier that we can also supplement our Kṛṣṇa consciousness while we're working, hammering the nails.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: So chanting along with devotional service, performing our duties while concentrating on Kṛṣṇa, is also part of the process, isn't it?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Anything, any way. The whole idea is manāḥ kṛṣṇe niveṣayet (SB 7.1.32). Mind should be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. That is the process. Either you go through philosophy or through arguments or through chanting. Any way. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ (BG 6.47). Of all kinds of yogīs. In the . . . you might have read it. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ. I think Maharshi has translated this Bhagavad-gītā? And in the Sixth Chapter . . .? You have read it?
George Harrison: Oh, his translation of Gītā?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee: Sixth Chapters, he's asking.
George Harrison: Yes. I haven't read all of it. Part of it.
Prabhupāda: So in the Sixth Chapter, last verse, you'll find yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatena . . .
(aside) You have got our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is here? No? How is that, you don't keep Bhagavad-gītā?
You'll find it is clearly stated that all yogīs, the one yogī whose mind is fixed up in Kṛṣṇa, he is first-class yogī. Yoginam api sarveṣāṁ. Sarveṣāṁ, "of all yogīs." There are different kinds of yogīs. So yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gata: "One whose mind is fixed up in Me," or Kṛṣṇa, āntarātmanā, "within the heart," śraddhāvān, "and is devotee," and bhajate, "and serves Me, oh," sa me yuktatamo mataḥ, "he is the first-class yogī." Tama. Tama means most, supermost. Yuktatamo: yogī, better yogī and the supermost yogī.
John Lennon: Whose is that little purple paperback Gītā that we all have? A light grey purple?
Devotee: That's the one.
John Lennon: Oh, that's the one? I've got that in the office. There's another one by that guy, that Spanish guy? . . . (indistinct)
Śyāmasundara: One thing that Prabhupāda was explaining, I think, that didn't quite get cleared up was how do we discern which translation of the Gītā is most authoritative. Well, he answered when he said that Kṛṣṇa is the authority. So we have to take it in a channel from Kṛṣṇa, and there are only four lines of disciplic succession that come from Kṛṣṇa. And of these, only one is existing now. Or is it two?
Yoko Ono: What do you mean by "channel"? Is it through hereditary or what?
Śyāmasundara: Lines of disciplic succession. Yes, it's hereditary. Swāmījī's spiritual master . . .
Prabhupāda: Just like channel you'll understand very easily. You send some money order to your friend. So from which channel he'll receive? He'll receive through the post office, not through any other channel. So if the postal peon delivers it, you are confident, "Yes, the money has come." So why you give the importance to the postal peon? Because he's representative of the post office. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the original authority.
So the Kṛṣṇa's representative is the authority. And who is Kṛṣṇa's representative? Who is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So therefore the devotee of Kṛṣṇa is authority, at least of Bhagavad-gītā. So you have to receive through the devotee of Kṛṣṇa about Bhagavad-gītā. One who does not know about anything about Kṛṣṇa, how he can preach Bhagavad-gītā? This is common sense.