Brian Singer: Sometimes my understanding of the Kṛṣṇa teachings in the book is to reach a stage or a state in your person where there is no disappointment or no very happy...
Prabhupāda: No. If you follow Kṛṣṇa's instruction, you'll always be happy. And if you create your own plans, then you'll be unhappy. This is the whole instruction. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You give up your own plans, nonsense plan. You take My plan. You'll be happy." This is the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gītā. You take Kṛṣṇa's plan and you'll be happy.
Brian Singer: And you avoid disappointment.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There will be no disappointment. And as, if you make your plan, it will be baffled and you'll be disappointed. That is going on.
Brian Singer: But sometimes in the past, I have noticed from very bad disappointment that I have learnt very much.
Prabhupāda: Well, you were lucky. You are sometimes not disappointed. But generally you are disappointed. So we are teaching that "You take Kṛṣṇa's plan. You'll be happy. Don't make your own plan. You'll never be happy." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Brian Singer: Is Kṛṣṇa cons..., the Kṛṣṇa movement, is it still growing?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Devotee (2): Is the Kṛṣṇa movement still growing?
Prabhupāda: What do you think?
Brian Singer: In numbers. Yeah. I think yes, but I don't know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It must grow. If it is good, there must be customer. And if it is bad—it is cheating—there may be some customer for some time, then it will be finished. That is the test of reality and false thing. You can cheat persons with false things for some time, but if your commodity is right, the customer will increase. That's a fact. The more people will appreciate, "Oh, here is nice commodity. Purchase it..."
Brian Singer: Do many people follow Kṛṣṇa consciousness by reading books in this method?
Prabhupāda: No, not only reading books. By practicing, by understanding. Then it comes right.
Brian Singer: But what proportion of those people, of all the people...
Prabhupāda: You.... You cannot expect any good thing to be taken up by mass of people. That is not possible. In university, when matriculation candidates, there are so many. Then B.A. candidates, so many. And when you come to the M.A., Ph.D., a very few number.
Doug Warvick: Why is that?
Prabhupāda: You cannot expect that everyone should be M.A., Ph.D. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that. It is not meant for ordinary persons. Those who are very intelligent, they can understand it. Ordinary men, they cannot understand even that he's not this body. What he will understand about Kṛṣṇa? Therefore the beginning understanding is that "I am not this body." When you are firmly convinced about this science that you are not this body, then Kṛṣṇa consciousness beginning.
Brian Singer: And it's not necessary to live a temple life.
Prabhupāda: No, temple life is a.... Just like if you go to school.... Without school you can be educated. It is not that we..., unless you go to school you can be educated. But if you go to school you get greater facilities. And that is the way. Just like in our country Rabindranath Tagore, he never went to school. You have heard the name of Rabindranath Tagore?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Rabindranath Tagore.
Prabhupāda: Tagore.