Buddhist Monk (1): I was here in 1952, and somewhere in '60 as well. I have been travelling eighteen years in nearly a hundred countries and trying to give a little good will. Of course, I am just one man, and within the capacity of one person, and this boy joined me in New Zealand about one and a half years ago. A few bridges have been made. Every religion that is not lived, according to us, fails the purpose of religion because religion should be a way of living. And if we live that, there'll be less duḥkha and more śānti, more peace. There is an awakening in almost all these parts. I was even in the east European countries, from Sofia right up to Moscow. Even there, I carried all the books, the Bible and the Bhagavad-gītā, Buddhist books. At the frontier, they opened the books. I had all these books with me. Rāmāyaṇa, Vedas, something from Egypt, Kung-fu-tsu, Lao-tse. They opened. They looked. They put them back. Not one question was asked. And that very police officer who was passing my passport, I saw him in the restaurant. He called me. Because I had an old photograph which I had taken when I first started travelling. That's twenty years I didn't take it seriously. So he said, "This is not you." First, you know, before I met him in the restaurant, I said, "Technically you may be right because we are changing every moment. So it's not myself." (sighs) But after some time he passed my passport, and then I went to the restaurant where I saw him. He said, he called me, he said, "Formerly I was an officer, and now you are my friend. What do you eat?" (Prabhupāda chuckles) Well, he asked the waitress to "Come bring him a very fine meal, the best you can offer in the restaurant." I said, "That's very kind." Then he said, "I'll bring you meat and all that (indistinct)." I said, "Please keep me out of it. I am a pure vegetarian." "What do you eat?" I said, "All vegetables. If you have rice, it's good." "Oh, bring him a vodka!"
Prabhupāda: Vodka? What...?
