Journalist: Is there in India a licensing body by the state for people to preach or to . . . how in the heck would you say it here?
Prabhupāda: It was not there, because in India there are so many churches, and they're supposed to be very saintly person. So simply to become a disciple of a saintly person is sufficient certificate. Just like in your country, marriage requires certificate.
In India, still, there is no certificate. The boys and girls, they are seated, and before the relatives and priest and elderly person, they are offered. I am doing that. There is no certificate. But still their connection is lifelong. What certificate will do?
That ceremony is so nice, the wife takes "My husband for life" and the husband takes wife, "She is my companion for life." They cannot separate. There is no history in India that there was a certificate issued. No. But still, their connection is so nice, that lifelong. N
ow, they are being Westernized, especially I am very sorry to say that lately our so-called Westernized leaders, they are introducing this Hindu code bill, this marriage certificate, this and that. But formerly they weren't existing.
Journalist: Is there much divorce in India?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The modern, so-called advanced boys and girls, they are now after divorce.
Journalist: But before that . . .
Prabhupāda: But before that, even there was misunderstanding between husband and wife, quarrel, there was no question of divorce. Take for my life, practical. I was a householder. Now I have given up. So practically I did not agree with my wife, but there was no dream of divorcing. You see? Neither she dreamt, neither I dreamt. This was unknown. Now they are being introduced.
Journalist: Yeah. Western culture.
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.
Journalist: Do you have much of a following in India it'self?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not my personal, but my other Godbrothers, this cult is very good.
Journalist: How many . . . how many . . .
Prabhupāda: Oh, millions. We have got, this Vaiṣṇava philosophy, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, millions and millions. Almost all. Eighty percent. You ask any Indian, and he'll talk so many things about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He may not be my disciple, but there are many saintly person like me, they are doing this business.
Journalist: Did you get formal training with a . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes, I was initiated by my Guru Mahārāja. His . . . here is that, my spiritual master's photo.
Journalist: Oh, I see.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So when your country wanted a certificate for making me permanent resident, so I got a certificate from my Godbrothers that I am initiated. That's all. But otherwise, in our country, there is no necessity of certificate.
Journalist: In other words, there's nothing like going to a seminary in India, where you go to a seminary or a monastery and take a course for four years . . .
Prabhupāda: No, this is monastery. Yes, there is a monastery. We have got institution, Gauḍīya Math Institution. They have got hundreds of branches. Yes.
Journalist: You go for a prescribed course of study?
Prabhupāda: Yes, prescribed course of study, these two, three books, that's all. Anyone can read—Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You'll learn everything. You haven't got to learn so many huge volumes of books.
Because Bhagavad-gītā is such nice book, if you can understand one line, you advance hundred years. You see? So, I mean to say, meaningful and so solid. Therefore we have published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Let your people read it, let them question, and try to understand what is this movement.
Journalist: Macmillan is publishing this one.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Macmillan is publishing.
Journalist: Now, when you . . . do you go to this institute for a certain period of time?
Prabhupāda: There is no fixed period. No. But, say, for me, I was trained . . . my father was of this line . . .
Journalist: Oh, your father . . .
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. My father trained me from childhood. Yes. And then I met my spiritual master in 1922, and I was initiated in 19 . . . On the whole there was a background, because as I told you, eighty, ninety percent people are Kṛṣṇa conscious by family-wise. You see?
So we were trained up from the beginning of our life. Officially, of course, I accepted my spiritual master in 1933. Since then, I had some background, and since I met, I developed this idea. Yes.
Journalist: I see, I see. So you have been, in a sense, spreading this word since 1933 on your own.
Prabhupāda: No. I'm spreading as missionary since nineteen hundred . . . practically since '59.
Journalist: Fifty-nine. I see. What did you do from the time . . .
Prabhupāda: I was a householder. I was doing business in medicine. Formerly, I was manager in a big chemical firm. But I was cultivating this knowledge although I was householder. I was publishing this Back to Godhead . . .
Journalist: So you were publishing that . . .
Prabhupāda: In India.
Journalist: Oh, I see.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I started in 1947, under the order of my spiritual master. So whatever I was earning, I was spending. Yes. I was not getting any return, but I was distributing. So I was doing this business since a long time. But actually, after giving up all connection with my family, I'm doing this work since 1959.
Journalist: Do you have children?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. I have got grown-up boys.
Journalist: You just left them?
Prabhupāda: Yes. I have got my wife, my grandchildren, everyone, but I have no connection with them. They are doing their own way. My wife is entrusted to the elderly boys. Yes.
Journalist: Well, is that a . . .? I mean, I find that sort of difficult to assimilate, to give up your family and just sort of say: "See you later."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, that is the Vedic regulation. Everyone should give up family connection at a certain age, after the age of fifty. One should not remain in family life. That is Vedic culture. Not that up to death one is in family-wise. No. That is not good.