Prabhupāda: Yes. It is ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). If you are serious to understand God, then God will help you also. He is within you. He'll help you. Yes.
Guest (6): Swāmī, in the Christian history, one of the people that many of us look up to was a man called Francis of Assisi, and he talks about knowing God, and he rates it up with experiences such as on the occasion on which he embraced the leper.
And he says: "If this, we turn to our fellow man with an attitude like this, then we are not reaching God, or God consciousness." And this is in line with one of the central teachings of the Christian scriptures, which is that if any man says he loves God and does not love his neighbor, then that man is a liar.
Prabhupāda: No. If actually one loves God, he must love everybody. That is the sign. That is the sign. Just like my heart is now thirsty. I am quenching with drinking water and putting here. So as soon as put this water here, immediately the energy distributed all over the body. So a God conscious person cannot be neglectful or envious to anyone. That is the test. This is test. Sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12).
All good qualities. So this is a good quality, to love your neighbor, to give them service. So if actually one person is God conscious, he must be sympathetic with the troubles of his neighbor, or anyone, not only human being; animals also. They are also living entities. A God conscious person has no discrimination between human being and animal or trees or plants, because they are also living entities.
Guest (7): Swāmījī, an old . . . (indistinct) . . . has been wandering around. He's called Fred Robinson. He's been forecasting doom to happen very shortly for the human race and says that it is far too hopeless to try and grab for the spiritual plane until one goes back to the land, back to simple living, and where one just makes one's task to supply food for the children, the new children of the new age. And then yoga and the spiritual disciplines will flow much easier. What would you say to that?
Prabhupāda: Yes. We are also distributing food. (devotees laugh) Yes. In our Māyāpur daily we are distributing food to two thousand, three thousand. So that is one of our program: chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and distributing prasādam. We are distributing . . . when I started this movement, I was cooking myself and distributing prasādam. But we do not discriminate that "He is needy." Everyone is needy.
So actually, everyone is in need of spiritual understanding. So by distributing food, the spiritual food, simply by eating he will be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if he does not do anything. But actually, we are inviting persons to come, sit down, chant with us Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and take prasādam and go home. That's all. This is our program. So prasādam is already included. And there is the question of needy men. So we invite any needy man to come and join with us, and we shall feed him. That's all. We invite anyone.
But they do not like to come to us to chant. That is the difficulty. "Oh, we'll have to go there and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." So they are afraid. So what can I do? We invite everyone, "Please come here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, dance with us, and when you are hungry, take some food. We are prepared to give you." So our program is very easy. And actually, these boys and girls, they were not advised in the beginning to become my initiated student. I simply invited, "You please come." I was chanting in the Tompkinson Park in New York, and many of them were coming. So I invited them, "Please come with me. Take some prasādam." So they used to take that.
In this way, gradually, they developed Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and after some time they proposed, "Swāmījī, make me your disciple, initiation." So I said that, "You have to follow the rules and regulation." They agreed, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. If you are prepared, then I accept you." They are prepared. They have given up. I accept them. That's all. Yes?
Guest (8): Swāmījī, something you said that I didn't understand was the connection between the necessity for obedience to the state and necessity for their obedience to God. To take an example that occurs to many young man in this country, and I suppose in America, the question of military service arises, where the state demands their absolute obedience, and many young people feels this clashes with their obedience to God. How do you advise people to resolve this sort of conflict?
Śyāmasundara: (explaining) About the draft. If one has to obey the state and go to war, how is that the same as obeying God?
Prabhupāda: Well, God consciousness does not prohibit war, but it must be for the right cause. Just like in Bhagavad-gītā we see that the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā was given to Arjuna in the battlefield. And in the beginning, Arjuna did not like to fight. He was a good . . . good man, religious man, devotee. Naturally he was not inclined to fight with his relatives, kinsmen.
He said: "Kṛṣṇa, the opposite side, they are all my brothers and nephews and fathers and grandfather. So there is no use of fighting like this, to kill them and take the . . . let . . . let them enjoy." That was his conclusion. But Kṛṣṇa induced them, induced Arjuna, "No. This is the right cause. You must fight."
So similarly, war is not always bad. Nothing is bad, nothing is good, unless it is used for God. That's it. Our philosophy is everything is good. God is all-good. So if He advises to fight, that is also good. But we shall depend on the discretion of God. If God wants us to fight, then we shall fight.
If God wants us to stop fight, then we shall not fight. Because we are surrendered to God, so whatever God orders, we have to do it. That's all. We don't say: "This is good, this is bad." Whatever God says, that is good. What God does not say, prohibit, that is bad. This is our conclusion.