Hṛdayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that you were not so much impressed by the saintly persons that were coming.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hṛdayānanda: Why was that?
Prabhupāda: Not all of them were real Vaiṣṇava. That was my discrimination from the beginning of my life. I never liked these bogus swamis and yogis. I never liked. But my father had no discrimination. "Never mind whatever he is. He is a saintly person. Receive him." He was giving fortnightly... There was one Māyāvādī sannyāsī in Kālīghāṭa. So first of all the father was sannyāsī. Then his son was sannyāsī. So we had very good relationship with him. I also used to... Because father was going... So he would carry gāñjā for him—in those days gāñjā was very cheap—so much gāñjā and so much butter. Whenever he would visit, he'd give some red cloth, gāñjā, and butter.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your father would give him gāñjā?
Prabhupāda: That, to sannyāsī.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why?
Prabhupāda: Well, he was smoking gāñjā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But why did he supply him?
Prabhupāda: He did not discriminate that this is bad. He smokes, and he had some regard for him. "All right, take gāñjā." (laughter)
Hṛdayānanda: So Kṛṣṇa is also like that if we...
Prabhupāda: He was offering him something, "Whatever he likes." That was his theory.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Friendly.
Prabhupāda: Yes. "It doesn't matter." He did not know the gāñjā smoking was bad for sādhu. That is impression in India. We criticize, but in India, in every sādhu samāj they smoke gāñjā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Still?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Not high class. These bogus swamis and yogis. They...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that Mr. Das, the lawyer who came here?
Prabhupāda: Ah.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I used to visit him, and he had one sādhu who used to come who was his guru, and he would also smoke gāñjā.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Gāñjā smoking is not taken as bad in India, by the sādhus, not ordinary men.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. He told me, Mr. Das, that it increased his meditation and ecstasy.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, gāñjā smoking by the sādhus, sannyāsīs, is not taken very bad serious. The hippies learned from them. Allen Ginsberg introduced... "Yes. Gāñjā smoking is very good by the saintly person."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think your Guru Mahārāja spoke strongly against such persons.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. And from him we learned that intoxication, any kind of intoxication, is bad.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also was...
Prabhupāda: He was also not very serious, but Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was very serious, and we learned from him. No, it is śāstrīya. No intoxication is good.