Yaśomatīnandana: (break) ...all the Māyāvādīs, transcendentalists, they also don't believe in śāstras.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yaśomatīnandana: This one man, he is a great devotee of one so-called swāmī, and he was quoting Bhagavad-gītā inside and out. And then...
Prabhupāda: He doesn't believe in.
Yaśomatīnandana: No. He doesn't believe in Kṛṣṇa. He comes to the words that "You surrender everything to Kṛṣṇa." Then he says, "Well, actually this Bhagavad-gītā is written by some man, unknown man." So I said, "What is the value of it then? Why are you quoting Bhagavad-gītā? Why are you learning it?" "It is knowledge, very nice knowledge." "So any knowledge imparted by any mundane man, what value does it have?"
Prabhupāda: Why don't you accept it? What is the use of quoting?
Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. That they will not do because they know they can make money by quoting Bhagavad-gītā. People will not accept anybody if they openly say that they don't believe in Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: That was going on. It is the first time. We are pressing: "You must take it seriously." It is the first time. Otherwise this was going on, at least for the last two hundred years.
Yaśomatīnandana: And then when we say that a devotee goes to Vaikuṇṭha, this and that, "Oh, Vaikuṇṭha and all those things are just myth, just baloney."
Prabhupāda: You are authority, you rascal. You are authority. Everything is myth, you are simply truth. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.
Harikeśa: Reality and...
Prabhupāda: Where everything is myth, then why you are truth? You are also myth. Everything is myth, so you are also myth. What is the use of talking nonsense?
Yaśomatīnandana: They believe in whatever is existing now. Whatever is existing now, or whatever they...
Prabhupāda: And what is not existing which is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). Still people say, "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am this," "I am that." It is existing.
Yaśomatīnandana: They would even believe the mundane historians more than the śāstras. The historians have very funny stories. The Aryans came from the northeast Asia or something.
Indian man (1): Central Asia.
Yaśomatīnandana: Central Asia and inhabited in India. Then the Indian civilization sprang. Everybody thinks that India was not originally inhabited. It was all inhabited by the Dravidians, and then the Dravidians were pushed into the South and then Aryans dominated them. Whatever they learn in the schools. And because they have this theory, therefore they have to date all the śāstras, after, either after Christ or just a few centuries before Christ. (break) ...bhārata, they say, it must have been a small family feud and some poet's imagination made it a big war.
Prabhupāda: "May be. May not be." (laughter) We say, "may not be."
Brahmānanda: They say the Mahābhārata was written 1400 B.C., and that date correlates with dates of the Egyptian and Greek Empire.
Prabhupāda: No, no, so many dates have been quoted there. Which is correct? That is our question. So many dates they have discussed. And which one is correct? Either everyone is correct or everyone is incorrect. This is the... There cannot be many dates; that is not possible. Date must be one. So which one is correct? Who will answer this?
Brahmānanda: Everyone has a different opinion.
Prabhupāda: That's it.
Devotee (2): Recently they had a big questioning in the... (too faint) ...newspapers what the outcome would be.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Devotee (2): And your Godbrother Swāmī Bon?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I know that. He is also one of them.
Devotee (2): He established... (too faint)
Prabhupāda: Others, they do not accept. So...
Yaśomatīnandana: Funny thing is that some of the historians, they say, "There was no war like Mahābhārata. It's all fictitious. There's nothing like Kurukṣetra." Some historians say that there is Kurukṣetra and there is evidences of war of Mahābhārata. But none of them completely agree with the scriptures. They all have their own fantastic theories, even those who say that...
Prabhupāda: So why shall I accept them?
Yaśomatīnandana: How can we prove the...
Prabhupāda: They cannot prove. Our proof is already there. They cannot prove. Why don't you take that point, that these rascals, they are contradictory to one another, so they cannot prove. Our proof is already there.
Yaśomatīnandana: That is what we should aim at. We should aim at "You cannot prove your..."
Prabhupāda: You cannot prove. You are contradictory. So why shall I accept you or he? We accept our own proof. That's all. First of all you agree amongst yourselves; then question us. You cannot agree. Why shall I believe you? One says that "He is wrong" and the other says "He is wrong." Now we say "You are both wrong. We reject you." Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Yaśomatīnandana: But how can we impress the masses that we are right, the innocent people?
Prabhupāda: They are not historians, rascals. They will believe Mahābhārata. They are not so-called historians, scientists. They still believe in the Vedic standard.
Yaśomatīnandana: People in general.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They're actually doing that. They may believe or not believe; our belief is going on all over the world. Is it not?
Yaśomatīnandana: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's all. Phalena pariciyate. Hare Kṛṣṇa. We don't make any compromise. What we believe, we are preaching that. People are accepting. So you believe or not believe; it doesn't matter for us.
Yaśomatīnandana: (break) ...just institutions, they also say "Indian mythology."
Prabhupāda: They have been taught like that.
Yaśomatīnandana: And they put out books on Mahābhārata or Rāmacandra, "Indian mythology."
Prabhupāda: But who cares for them?
Yaśomatīnandana: Ninety-nine per cent of the people are completely misled.
Prabhupāda: No, no, not ninety-nine per cent. Maybe nine percent. (break)
Dr. Patel: As a matter of fact, science is not revealing itself now. Science is also realizing that it is not the way to realize God. Science is, when you were a student at college was much different than what it is today, sir, to tell the truth. The scientists have realized that they are nothing before, before all that they observe and the director of all that action, themselves and everything.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.
Passerby: Jaya Prabhupāda.