Prabhupāda: Yes, that if you admit, then you will get knowledge. But that is not the position. You are falsely proud that you are very advanced in knowledge.
Guest (1): No, Swāmījī, no. . .
Prabhupāda: Then you are qualified.
Guest (1): Even for a small experiment, I don't pretend that we know anything, whatever it is.
Prabhupāda: Actually that is the position. Therefore our business is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa demands that: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Then Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence how to become perfect.
- teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
- bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
- dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. . .
- (BG 10.10)
This is the process. You take instruction from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect. Don't be proud of your paltry knowledge. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that Kṛṣṇa is perfect, and take knowledge from Him, you'll be perfect. That is our propaganda.
Guest (1): That we believe in.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We are not perfect. We can speculate only, and that is not perfection. "Maybe," "perhaps," like that. No definite knowledge. The definite knowledge you can get from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect. Therefore all the ācāryas accept Kṛṣṇa. We have to follow the ācāryas, ācāryopāsanam. So in India all these ācāryas—Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya—they accept Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Absolute. Why you should not? Are you more than these ācāryas? Then? That is the defect of modern education: they manufacture education although they're imperfect. They have no the common sense that "I am imperfect. How I am manufacturing education and becoming teacher?" My becoming teacher is cheating, because I have no perfect knowledge. Knowledge means it must be perfect, not "maybe," "perhaps." This is not knowledge. Definite knowledge.
Guest (1): But to bring some message of truth to the people all over the world which are. . .
Prabhupāda: Yes, the message is there, Kṛṣṇa's message.
Guest (1): Four billion, we need some people who will say, "I am the teachers."
Prabhupāda: No, that we are teaching, that you take Kṛṣṇa as the authority. Don't go to the rascals. All problems will be solved. But they are going to the rascals instead of going to Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Guest (3): You mean, Swāmījī, then, that all scientific efforts, whatever they are, that are made, should be stopped altogether?
Prabhupāda: No, not stopped. Just like you have got ordinary car and you purchase a Rolls-Royce car. The business is the same. It is simply an artistic improvement. In the ordinary car there is much jerking, and the Rolls-Royce car there is no jerking. That will not benefit you. After all, it is car. You can use it for going here to there, there to here, that's all. Therefore our Vedic civilization, they are not very much eager to manufacture a motorcar; they are satisfied with the bullock cart. Because after all, you have to go from this place to that place. And there was no need of big, big roads, three thousand miles long, for driving the car. You see? The bullock cart was sufficient, here to there, a few miles. But they were interested to cultivate spiritual knowledge. That is Indian civilization. Vyāsadeva was living in a cottage, and just see his literature. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita was prime minister of India, and he was living in a cottage, drawing no salary, and he has given his politics and moral lesson, so sublime. So here at the present moment, the motorcar civilization, he's anxious how to get a Rolls-Royce motorcar, that's all. That is his business.