Prabhupāda: Our Bon Mahārāja, once I was eating in his festival and . . . he's a bara-sahīb. So he has given fork and knife. (laughs) So I did not know, I do not remember even which way I took fork. So Bon Mahārāja began to criticize, "You are going to foreign country, you do not know which hand you have to take this fork and knife." So I told him, "I am not going to learn all these things. I am going to teach them something else, to forget it. (laughter) You went to learn all these things. But I am not going to learn anything."
Harikeśa: What did he say to that? (laughter)
Prabhupāda: It was our . . .
Hari-śauri: He's following the line of Vivekananda.
Prabhupāda: Just see how rascal they are. My Guru Mahārāja every step condemned this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda. He said frankly that if there are any impediments for our movement, that is this Gandhi and Vivekananda. He said frankly. Hodgepodge. Gandhi's also hodgepodge. He was a politician, and in politics he mixed some spiritual ideas, hodgepodge. And this Vivekananda was also politician. His name was recorded in the government as "Sannyāsī politician." Because after returning from America, he began to preach to make the poor man rich, and these weak, fatty, and so on, exercise. So the government took it that he's, under the dress of a sannyāsī, he's preaching social and political upliftment. So his name was recorded as "Sannyāsī politician." And his name was also recorded "political saint," Gandhi. After all, the British government, they were very intelligent. They could understand what is what. Otherwise, how they were managing this big empire? Very intelligent, there is no doubt about it. And actually they were intelligent. When they were managing, we were happy, actually. Nobody can deny it. Although they were exploiting. But nobody could understand. Everyone was feeling happy. And as soon as they left, everyone is unhappy. That distinction I can give evidence. I can, from my personal experience. Things were very, very nice. Calcutta, oh, it was so nice city. Now it is hell. It is same Calcutta. Why it is now hell? Eden Garden, that was a nice garden. So . . . everywhere hell, only hell. Calcutta was considered the nicest city in India, better than Bombay, but it has become now hell. The streets, especially those quarters in our temple.
Hari-śauri: I think Calcutta was voted the second dirtiest city in the world.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Ācchā? Just see. And it was next to London. People used to say: "In the British Empire, first London, second Calcutta." And now it is . . .?
Hari-śauri: Second dirtiest city.
Prabhupāda: And who is the first?
Harikeśa: Karachi.
Hari-śauri: Karachi. (laughs)