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Has the movement involved itself in social philosophy?

Expressions researched:
"Has the movement involved itself in social philosophy"

Lectures

General Lectures

Yes. We are spreading the best moral principle, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Yogeśvara: We have the Moscow Talks book here, your conversation with Professor Kotovsky.

Guru-gaurāṅga: You may see that in this presentation book we have a center in Māyāpur, in Navadvīpa, in West Bengal. We are distributing Kṛṣṇa-prasāda. There is no problem.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In all our centers, we distribute prasādam. Anyone who may come, "Take prasādam."

Guest (4) (Indian man): Has the movement involved itself in social philosophy, then? Because sometimes I'm sure you, if you propagate your good will, the moral path...

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are spreading the best moral principle, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Guest (4): But don't you come... (sound of jet drowns out) ...who don't like you? Does it not mean a bit of problem?

Prabhupāda: We are getting a better response from the Western countries than in India. In India, we see that the leaders, they do not like it. They are now opening beef shop, wine shop, and we are preaching "No intoxication, no meat-eating." So actually, we are not very favorable to their propaganda. (laughs) They don't like us, the leaders. Now there are big, big signboards. In Juhu we have got a center, and the government has opened beef shop, very big. And wine shop, you'll find everywhere. And we are preaching, "No intoxication, no meat-eating." So how they'll like us? That is the difficulty. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." But still, we are struggling.

Guru-gaurāṅga: The value of this movement is that if we can prove on a small level, on a model level, that it works, then any scientific man... This is the empirical method. If it works on a small level, it shall work on a large level.

Guest (5) (Indian man): Yeah, like what?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Well, for example, Isaac Newton discovered gravity. That discovery was a universal discovery. It was an axiom. If it works here, it will work anywhere.

Guest (5): No. That I understand. But I mean in regard to your own work, can you give an example of something having worked that..., whatever you mean by work?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Yes. Cultivating the land, for example. We have communities. New Vrindaban, in West Virginia; California. We are establishing in France. We can absorb as many people as wish to come, and we can feed them all, and we still have surplus in foodstuffs.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Virginia, it has proved very successful. We are getting eighty pounds of milk daily. And from that milk...

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Eight hundred.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eight hundred. Yes. Eight hundred, I am sorry. So that milk product is sufficient for give them nutritious food. We are preparing ghee. Just like in India, they utilize milk so nicely. And vegetables we are growing. They are making sweetmeats, sandeṣa, rasagullā. There is enough milk product. And ghee, luci, purī. They are satisfied. So that is the basic principle.

Guest (5): This is just an example of a successful corporative enterprise which is... But would you speak something new which has not been tried before?

Prabhupāda: No. The new thing is that they do not go outside for bread. That is the new thing. Here, at the present moment, in every big, big city, they are coming from hundred miles to the office. Now there was railway strike in Bombay. I was there at that time. Oh, people are suffering so much. You see? From five o'clock in the morning, they are standing in queue for catching one... Not bus, it is truck. The buses on strike. So people are so much in difficulty. And if one train or two train was running, so many people smashed the... They were on the top of the train. So the problem is why one should be induced to go hundred miles off from his home for earning his livelihood? This is a very bad civilization. One must have his food locally. That is good civilization.

Guest (5): Yeah. What do these people do for a living? Only grow food?

Prabhupāda: No. Grow food for eating, and then they read all these books. They become spiritually advanced. That's all. Deity worship.

Guest (5): And did you need money?

Prabhupāda: Well, we get money. We sell these books also. If they require money, there is money also. But we live very simple life. Whatever little necessity of money is there, that we can gather by selling these books. Even in Indian parliament, the question was raised, "Wherefrom this ISKCON movement gets their money?" Some Communist member raised this question. And the home member replied, "They get money by selling literature." That's a fact.

Page Title:Has the movement involved itself in social philosophy?
Compiler:Mangalavati, Rishab
Created:07 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1