Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda produces one book a month still.
Prabhupāda: Now . . . I am talking to you as a CID official. Now, here is my Dictaphone.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is how Prabhupāda dictates.
Prabhupāda: I . . . (clicks Dictaphone switch) It is not working. (Prabhupāda plays back section of Bhāgavatam dictation he has made) This is a Sanskrit verse. Putra-somaka. So the whole night I write books, and then this is typed. In the daytime they are typing. And then it is composed, and then it is made into book, and we take so much trouble to sell it, as you have heard the selling of, and we collect money and they send money, ten lakhs of rupees, in India, and I construct the temple, . . . (indistinct) . . . so is that my fault?
CID Chief: No, no, no. The man who would say it is in the fault. Either he is mad or it would be mistake.
Prabhupāda: In this old age—eighty-one years I am—I am working day and night just to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and . . .
CID Chief: This is absolutely a service to God and humanity. Whatever tenet you have . . . whatever comes out of your mouth, word, becomes a religious . . .
Devotee: Amṛta, nectar.
CID Chief: . . . out of which you write books, out of the product . . . from the proceeds of that book, you constructed a . . . (indistinct) . . . it is wholeheartedly towards the God. Whole life is devoted to God.
Prabhupāda: And for these books, as author, if I would have taken royalty, my daily income would have been one lakh, fifty thousand. I don't take a single farthing. Whatever two cāpāṭis they give, that's all.
CID Chief: Then if that had been the objective, goal, so much of this . . . (indistinct) . . . not would have come in reality . . . (indistinct) . . . money-making.
Prabhupāda: I have no appetite also. (laughs) I do not eat too much. Whatever, one or two cāpāṭis, they give, I take. That's all. This is my royalty.
CID Chief: But any . . . can I ask you in . . . any . . . how this cognoscenti policy agency, they react to this in America? Do they have any . . .
Prabhupāda: There also . . . here, here people are suspecting that I am getting money from CIA, and they are also suspecting that I am cheating people and getting money.
CID Chief: Yeah, but do they have any prohibition over these religious discourses, kīrtana on the roads . . .?
Prabhupāda: No, not . . . prohibition has yet come. But individual cases, they have been instituted, and we are fighting by spending so much money to defend.
CID Chief: Yeah, but I read in some paper that somewhere they had this county courts, that ruling that people are disturbed by the kīrtanas and this for twenty-four hours and . . .
Prabhupāda: No. We have got judgment. (aside) You read those judgment, judges? We have got counter judgments also.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Now this is from Philadelphia, Judge Alfred Longo, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia decree was typical and included the following points: "Kṛṣṇa consciousness is recognized as an authentic religion. To broadcast the glories of God to all people, members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society can perform saṅkīrtana, a missionary activity including chanting, dancing, and playing cymbals and drums, the dissemination of the word of God through preaching and reading aloud from religious literature, the distribution of religious literature, sanctified food and flowers to the public, and the solicitation and acceptance of contribution. In performing saṅkīrtana devotees can go wherever people gather: streets, libraries and other public places." So we also had decisions . . . eventually we win almost all cases.