Śyāmasundara: In all of our Western history they never once referred to the Indian civilization.
Prabhupāda: Because they will be defeated. Because they will be defeated. They never recognize. That was British policy. Britishers wanted to... That is the cause of degradation of Indian culture. They manufactured such a... Even Dr. Radhakrishnan is a victim of that policy. They wanted to impress upon the Indians that before the arrival of the Britishers we were almost uncivilized: "We have made you civilized." And these rascal leaders, they accepted. That was their policy. Because they are very intelligent people. Lord Macauley (said): "If you keep them as they are, you will never be able to rule over them." And later on also, when Gandhi started that "Noncooperate with these rascals, they will go away. They are by force getting our cooperation and killing us." So noncooperate. Therefore he established the noncooperation movement. And Sir (indistinct), one of the greatest diplomats, statesmen of India, he said that "This is a very dangerous movement. Try to cut down this movement. Otherwise, if one percent of the Indian people noncooperate, it will not be possible for us to rule over this country." So in order to get our cooperation they are simply impressing that before the arrival of the Britishers, Indians were uncivilized. So many books they published. One American prostitute wrote Mother India.
Devotee: I saw that book
Prabhupāda: Yes, simply blaspheming Indian temples, culture, priest, like that. Gandhi remarked on that book, "Drain Inspector's Report." And he has simply picked up the bad side. Sometimes these priests in the temple, they make some bad behavior with woman; she has picked up this, not the better side.
Śyāmasundara: Practically, until now, no one except you has brought Indian culture out.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: No one has known before that they had high culture.
Prabhupāda: No. Because regular propaganda. And all the swamis and yogis, they also rascals, they brought some yoga system, exercises, like that.
Śyāmasundara: No philosophy...
Prabhupāda: No philosophy, no culture. As we are touching now everything: sociology, politics, religion, culture, philosophy, everything, completely. Just like we are discussing now this Pṛthu Mahārāja's kingdom, how nice it is.
Śyāmasundara: Today when we were looking at the Sanskrit ślokas, I suddenly realized that this very strict form of śloka made it easy to memorize for the people.
Prabhupāda: Yes, oh yes.
Śyāmasundara: Therefore they were always...
Prabhupāda: Yes. That Sanskrit śloka is so made that if you repeatedly chant five, six times, it will be memorized. And once it is memorized, you will never forget it.
Śyāmasundara: Then you can pass it down and you don't have to write it.
Prabhupāda: No. That requires only memory. That was the system, śruti. Once hears from the spiritual master, it is memorized for good. The memory was so sharp, and the memory was prepared by this brahmācārya.
Śyāmasundara: And the grammatical rules are so arranged to make it easy to memorize-natural rhythm.
Prabhupāda: Natural, quite natural, natural rhythm. It's not artificial.
Śyāmasundara: Whereas our Western poems are all so many different lines, lengths, rhythms, you can't remember them.
Prabhupāda: There is no standard. There is Trayita Darpana(?), there is a book, you can... So many words, the first pronunciation five, second pronunciation seven, like that. There's different kinds of (indistinct), sandhi.
Śyāmasundara: So it's meant for hearing and memorizing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You can sing also very nicely, sing also, like songs, with tamboura. It is very nice. (sings:) Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa, like that, it is very nice. In every temple there should be, one man should play on tamboura and chant. It requires nice pronunciation, and with the sound of tamboura it will be (indistinct). People are coming, offering darśana, and the singing is going on. That is the system in Indian temples. It immediately vibrates.
Śyāmasundara: Do you suppose that the British supported Darwin so that that would also help their political ambitions, by introducing...
Prabhupāda: Yes. These British wanted that all the big men born in their nation—all big scientists, all big philosophers, all big politicians—they are God's selected persons; therefore they must rule over the world. That was their program.
Śyāmasundara: And by putting out this book, The Origin of Species, they at once did away with God to be able to... After that Nietzsche, another philosopher who said, "God is dead," he made that statement first, right after Darwin's book came out: "God is dead."
Prabhupāda: So we have to fight against all these nonsense philosophers.
Śyāmasundara: That boy Svarūpa Dāmodara is going to move into the temple for a few days, and each day we will discuss a different scientific topic. Tomorrow genetics, and something else.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He is a scientist. He will talk technical words.
Śyāmasundara: He is going to bring all of his books. And I also studied science for many years, so if I refresh, and if all of the students become armed with these arguments, they can defeat any scientist.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh yes.
Śyāmasundara: Normally they are unable to answer scientists. It is difficult to answer scientists for some devotees, because they have such strong arguments.
Prabhupāda: This point should be stressed, that he is dealing with dead bones, and we are dealing with living brains.
Śyāmasundara: Just like Bhagavad-gītā is so perfectly written, so perfectly conceived.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And also there is Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, everything, everything; every, Purāṇas.
Śyāmasundara: No barbarian could have ever conceived...
Prabhupāda: They have presented all these books as—what is called—allegory.
Śyāmasundara: Fiction, allegory.
Prabhupāda: Story. And the so-called swamis, they have also accepted like this. Therefore you can interpret in your own way. If it is a fact, how you can interpret it? But we are presenting as it is, fact. That is our business.