So these boys, when I started my class, 26 Second Avenue, some of these students were coming, and then I started my kīrtana at the Tompkinson Square Park, sitting on the ground, floor. These boys and the girls were coming. That was the first publicity, made in the New York Times, about my kīrtana, and gradually it developed. Next branch was opened at San Francisco, then at Montreal, then at Boston, Buffalo. In this way now we have sixty-five branches all over the world, and each branch there are maximum two hundred devotees like these, and minimum twenty-five devotees at least.
And each branch . . . at Los Angeles we are spending $20,000 per month, which is in Indian exchange two lakhs of rupees. Similarly, we are spending $10,000 in New York. In this way we have to spend seven lakhs of rupees per month for maintaining all these men, and we have got big, big publication like this.
When I went to the Western country I wrote only three volumes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the temple of our Shri Kṛṣṇa Sharma. He gave me shelter there, and I was publishing these books, and actually Lalaji also contributed something for my publication. So in this way I went there with three books. Now we have got over three dozen books, all beautifully published. We have given enough literature to understand Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa can be understood by the grace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu very easily, simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Simply by chanting. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam (CC Antya 20.12). But if you want to understand Kṛṣṇa through philosophy and science, we have got three dozen books. So we can convince you both ways. If you are illiterate, if you have no knowledge, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and you will get your life back.
And if you think that you want to understand through science and philosophy, we have got three dozen books. Anyway, you come. That is our appeal. Don't take this movement very, I mean to say, neglectfully. It is very serious movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and it is the duty of all Indians, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted:
- bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
There is a great need for this movement. We want hundreds and thousands of preachers to go outside India and preach this cult. And there are customers ready. Wherever we are opening our branches, it appears as if they are awaiting our arrival. Immediately they take up. So there is very great opportunity.
You cannot compete with the Western countries by your technology, however you may make some sewing machine or cycle or Ambassador car. They are hundred years ahead. You cannot make any competition by machine. If you can give them anything and glorify your country, then this is this movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then they will admit that you have something.
Wherever I go, they inquire, "Oh, India is poverty-stricken. Oh, you have come from that part." India is advertised as poverty. Yes, in comparison to Western country it is simply poverty-stricken. We have not enough food, nor enough, I mean to say, house, and above all you have no milk. India, the land where we hear from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that, that the . . . by the cows' milk in Vṛndāvana there was muddy ground. And in that India now there is powdered milk.
So my request is that young men, as young men from America, Europe, Canada . . . now I am coming via Africa. I was in Nairobi, Mombasa. And the black men, they are also dancing. And they are asking the Indian people there, "Why did you not give us this sublime message so long?" Because there are many Indians in Nairobi and Mombasa. Unfortunately, our svāmīs go there, make some collection, and preach that, "I am God, you are God. Why you are searching God? Gods are loitering in the street," and "Make this gymnastic and you will become God in six months." These things are going on. But nobody was interested.