Interviewer: We're talking with Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, head of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. We'll be back in a minute. (break) KGO.
Caller: Yes, I wanted to ask the Swami if he didn't think that the teachings of Jesus Christ expressed exactly what he's saying. I'm not speaking of orthodox Christianity as such, but the essence of what Jesus said about the Father within and "If thine eye be single, thy body shall be full of light," and the beautiful phrase that he said, "Before Abraham was, I am." Has he studied anything about the teachings of Jesus?
Interviewer: Swami?
Prabhupāda: We don't disagree with the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ because he's speaking also the same thing which we are also speaking, about the science of God.
Interviewer: But she, I think she's saying, couldn't you just have taken the teachings of Jesus Christ as your religion?
Prabhupāda: But there is already adjustment...
Caller: (breaking in) No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that I believe that the Swami and many others who practice meditation and study the Gītā are really dealing with the same premise, the first cause, that Jesus spoke of.
Prabhupāda: Certainly.
Caller: Right?
Prabhupāda: Yes, certainly.
Caller: Yes, that's what I wanted to know. I think there is a comparison, not between organized religion as such, but just getting down to the bare facts of what Jesus spoke about. I think there's a similarity.
Prabhupāda: There is similarity, but one thing is, just like mathematics taught in the lower class. Two plus two equal to four is equally applicable in higher mathematics, two plus two equal to four. In higher mathematics it does not become two plus two equal to five. Similarly, the teachings of Bible or teachings of Bhagavad-gītā are the same, the same "two plus two."
Caller: Right, right...
Prabhupāda: But in the Bhagavad-gītā, it may be taken as higher mathematics. That's all.