So when I came to your kind country, I saw these young people are keeping long hairs. So it was immediately corroborated. Similarly, everything is described there. The dām-patye ratim eva hi: husband and wife relationship means sex. This is the age. As soon as the husband will be unable to satisfy his wife by sex, he will find out another husband and file divorce. These are stated already in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And these are happening. And a man, when he lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered grand old man. These are all stated. So why research? You consult Vedic literature, you have got all information, everything. How the world is created, how it will be annihilated, how it is being maintained, who is the Supreme in this management—everything is there. That is called Sāṅkhya philosophy. Everything is there.
Young people
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 6
All the devotees of the Lord but you are very kind to the conditioned souls and are eager to benefit others. Although you wear the dress of a devotee, you create enmity with people who are not your enemies, or you break friendship and create enmity between friends. Are you not ashamed of posing as a devotee while performing these abominable actions?
Such are the criticisms that must be borne by the servants of Nārada Muni in the disciplic succession. Through the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are trying to train young people to become devotees and return home, back to Godhead, by following rigid regulative principles, but our service is appreciated neither in India nor abroad in the Western countries where we are endeavoring to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. In India the caste brāhmaṇas have become enemies of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement because we elevate foreigners, who are supposed to be mlecchas and yavanas, to the position of brāhmaṇas. We train them in austerities and penances and recognize them as brāhmaṇas by awarding them sacred threads. Thus the caste brāhmaṇas of India are very displeased by our activities in the Western world. In the West also, the parents of the young people who join this movement have also become enemies. We have no business creating enemies, but the process is such that nondevotees will always be inimical toward us. Nevertheless, as stated in the śāstras, a devotee should be both tolerant and merciful. Devotees engaged in preaching should be prepared to be accused by ignorant persons, and yet they must be very merciful to the fallen conditioned souls. If one can execute his duty in the disciplic succession of Nārada Muni, his service will surely be recognized.
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is progressing successfully in the Western countries at the present moment because the youth in the West have reached the stage of vairāgya, or renunciation. They are practically disgusted with material pleasure from material sources, and this has resulted in a population of hippies throughout the Western countries. Now if these young people are instructed about bhakti-yoga, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the instructions will certainly be effective. As soon as Citraketu understood the philosophy of vairāgya-vidyā, the knowledge of renunciation, he could understand the process of bhakti-yoga.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
Actually we experienced this when we came to preach the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in the West. When we came to New York in 1965, we never expected that the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would be accepted in this country. Nonetheless, we invited people to our storefront to join in chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and the Lord's holy name is so attractive that simply by coming to our storefront in New York, fortunate young people became Kṛṣṇa conscious. Although this mission was started with insignificant capital, it is now going nicely. The spreading of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra in the West has become successful because the young people were not offenders. The youths who joined this movement were not very advanced as far as purity is concerned, nor were they very well educated in Vedic knowledge, but because they were not offenders, they could accept the importance of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. We are now very happy to see that this movement is advancing more and more in the Western countries. We therefore conclude that the so-called mlecchas and yavanas of the Western countries are more purified than offensive Māyāvādīs or atheistic impersonalists.
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Woman Guest: It seems that most of the devotees are young people, persons under thirty, under twenty-five. Why is this so? Why hasn't the movement spread? Is this a deliberate thing, or why do you feel it hasn't spread to parents or to older people?
Prabhupāda: Why the young people go to university?
Woman Guest: I'm sorry?
Prabhupāda: Why in the university you'll find all the students are young boys and girls? Why?
Woman Guest: That's the age of education.
Prabhupāda: That's the age of Kṛṣṇa consciousness (laughter). Old fools, they cannot change their opinion.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: No, no. Believe in God, why? Eighty percent, ninety percent, they believe in God. That cannot be avoided.
Hayagrīva: But don't the... The young people are Communists, are very enthusiastic about Communism, but as a person grows older and sees death as inevitable, don't the, don't the older people worship...?
Prabhupāda: No, even the young men, in Russia I have seen, they are after also God. They are unhappy because they are not allowed to go out of Russia. They want to see the world, but they are not allowed. Their independence is suppressed. So they are not happy.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: How many people belong to these six temples?
Prabhupāda: In each temple there are average about fifty people.
Interviewer: Fifty people.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Interviewer: Are they mostly young people? From the calls we've been getting and from the people here in the studio...
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are invariably all young boys and girls. Yes.
Journalist: In other words, you're teaching them what you feel is a practical, every day, daily method of obtaining this fulfillment of man's spirit.
Prabhupāda: Yes. How to... The love of Godhead is being taught by Bible or Old Testament and Gītā, that is all right. But you are not teaching them how to love God. I am teaching them how to love God. That is the difference. Therefore young people are attracted.
Journalist: Well that's just about it, that I wanted to know. It's a shame that this kind of thing, as I say, has turned off an awful lot of kids, a lot of very disenchanted young people because...
Prabhupāda: So please try to help us. This movement is very nice. It will help the humanity. It will help your country, the whole human society. It is a genuine movement, there is nothing bluff, nothing cheating. It is authorized. So I'll request you because...
Journalist: Authorized by whom?
Prabhupāda: Authorized from Kṛṣṇa.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Allen Ginsberg: Well, this university he chose because it's supposed to be typical of America. So if in this typical university the young people greet him by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, then he may well invite you.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) No. I came here with this idea, that in America they are in need of these things, and they are wanting something substantial. So if some is given... Of course, I am doing my bit as far as possible. But if some organized things are done like government help or people help, then this movement can be pushed further nicely. Otherwise slowly it will go on, as Kṛṣṇa desires.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That you have seen this morning. We are teaching every day the śāstra. They are not simply chanting. Their chanting is based on understanding. Therefore they are sticking.(?)
Guest (4): Mahārāja, the educational system of this country has so much deteriorated. I have been studying. I see young people of different colleges, boys and girls taking to LSD even in this city and doing to all sorts of nonsense. What is the best...?
Prabhupāda: That I was explaining. As soon as there is indulgence in illicit sex life, all bad qualification will come. That I was explaining.
Guest (4): And Mahārāja, what are your impressions of the youth of this country?
Prabhupāda: I have no estimation of this country or that country. I know everywhere, because spiritual education is lacking, everywhere the boys and girls are fallen.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dhanañjaya: Actually, you see, it's the younger Indian families also. They're English. They're not Indian. They're more English than Indian. Their children, they don't speak Hindi, and they're playing just like Western children. So they're, when they see us, when we, when devotees go there, to the communities, they're so eager to take the books 'cause they can read them and they can relate with, with Kṛṣṇa consciousness somehow. Because they go every Sunday to their meetings there, and they hear the priest, and it's all boring. It's for the older, for the old. It's sentimental. That's all. So the older people, they're coming, and they're listening to the readings of the Rāmāyaṇa and so many other things. And the young people, they know, "Oh, these, these European people and American people, they must be doing something genuine. Otherwise why are they sacrificing so much?"
Prabhupāda: So how to attract the Indian younger people?
Dhanañjaya: But then again, they're influenced...
Śyāmasundara: They've asked us in that Hindu Center to teach classes.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That you... Actually one is guided by Jesus Christ, he'll get liberation, certainly. But it is very hard to find out a man who is actually being guided by Jesus Christ.
Bob Cohen: What I think about is the Jesus freaks, the..., these people that, young people that have joined this Jesus movement, and they read the Bible very often, and they try to...
Prabhupāda: But to read the Bible, but violate the Bible injunction, injunction. How they can kill if they are following the Bible?
Bob Cohen: I asked one. They said..., he said he claimed that Jesus was also eating meat in the Bible. But I don't know.
Prabhupāda: But that's all right. He, he may eat anything. He's powerful. But he has ordered, "Thou shalt not kill." You must stop killing. He is powerful. He can eat the whole world. You cannot compare with Jesus Christ. You cannot imitate Jesus Christ. You shall have to abide by his order. That is your position.
Devotee (1): Yes. They said when you meet him, he can show you light. He's giving direct understanding of God in this way, this light. When I tried to ask them to understand some Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they simply refused to listen. They had no desire to hear about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They said, "What your spiritual master has to offer? What can you offer except just some scriptures?" They had no respect for the śāstra. So many young people are following this.
Jayatīrtha: Everyone wants instant realization.
Prabhupāda: Outlaws will say like that. "What education you have got? You have simply studied some lawbook." Outlaws will say like that. They will simply sell some book, "Now we are better that you. Without studying we have written."
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
David Lawrence: One other point, and again a practical point really, this one. This is about the nature of the book. I suggested early on that I hoped that I might get the cooperation of somebody like George Harrison. What would you think about this? Do you think, with your knowledge of the young mind, particularly the young western mind, that this might be a good means through to the young people...?
Prabhupāda: It is not the question of western mind, eastern mind. Any sincere student will take to.
David Lawrence: No, I was thinking in terms of the western mind with its culture, more than of philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Western mind... I, I do not find any difference between western mind and eastern mind. Because so many western mind is changed. Yes. So there was no difficulty. Two, two plus two equal to four is to be understood by the western mind and the eastern mind. You cannot say, because you are western mind, you'll say, "No, two plus two equal to five." You cannot say that.
Malcolm: If he would then, when he is a grown person, recapture or re-feel the link to his reason for being, he must go back in his experience or thought to the point at which he cried to feel again the feeling of being lost. Now, the Western youth seem to have been forced to accept their position, and the position that they have accepted gives them no freedom to go back and find the point at which they felt the experience of the thing they had lost. So in their minds they would say, "There is something missing. There is no God. But there is a God. Yet I must find him with my mind." And then they know through the search that it is only going back through their own years of experience to the point at which they had lost that they will find it. But for the Westerner it clashes with his total Western heritage, the thing imposed him upon by his senses which is that he may not isolate himself from his community in order to go back. And the young people cannot move because this point holds them.
Prabhupāda: No. The young people, they are moving. They are coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no check. Because they are western boys, there is no check. Just like they're all Europeans, Americans. So how they are coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? It doesn't matter whether Western, Eastern. Natural propensity is the same, either in the East or in the West. So it doesn't matter. That is not impediment. Anywhere, the science is... Just like your physical science. It is as good as in the West as in the East. For the East, there cannot be a different physical science. The same science can be taught in the East and the West.
Revatīnandana: Hmh. So if, if the translators and the knowledge are adequate, then why is it, as Mrs. Christie just pointed out that so many young people are interested instead in false religious experience of LSD?
Jesuit Priest: Well, I wouldn't know. Because, I would say, because there's some kind of inadequacy in their lives. There's something missing, and that, the thing which is missing, is what we in the Catholic Church call the life of grace, the supernatural. Somehow, something's gone wrong somewhere. And so, they, lots of the young people today...
Prabhupāda: That, that I was trying to explain, that nobody can understand God and God's conception, being sinful.
Jesuit Priest: There's a vacuum created, and so they'd rather take it up in...
Mother: It's very extraordinary, though, that every boy that I have spoken to here...
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam... (BG 7.28).
Mother: But I say quite a lot of your young people have come to you since they took drugs. I've spoken to... Even your president admitted that he'd taken drugs.
Prabhupāda: There is no restriction for anyone. God is open for everyone.
Mother: But you said... Michael, I said, "Most of the people that I have spoken to." I didn't say "most of the people here." I said, "most of the people..." One person I'd spoken to hadn't, but I can truthfully say that only one hadn't, out of the ones I've spoken to. They have come here... You are... You seem to be able to help the people that have taken drugs so that...
Prabhupāda: That is my duty.
Yogeśvara: There are so many young people who, when we try to preach to them Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we explain that it means to accept the position of service, service position, they reject it because they have no experience of service that is satisfying.
Prabhupāda: Hm? They have rejected so many things. Why not your proposal? Just like the hippies. They have rejected so many things. Why shall he accept your proposal? Why you think that your proposal is so nice, he'll accept immediately?
Yogeśvara: That doesn't mean we don't preach to them.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Yogeśvara: That doesn't mean we don't preach...
Prabhupāda: You preach. You just purify them. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Let him hear. Then he'll accept. Then he will gradually come. Yes. He's now in diseased condition. The best thing is to chant. By hearing the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, he'll be gradually purified, cleansed, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). You must polish him. Just like this is unclean. Polish it and you'll see the reflection. Our process is paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. (break) ...śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi... (SB 1.2.17).
Reporter (1): Is Kṛṣṇa consciousness genuine?
Prabhupāda: Then we are simply wasting our time, do you think? By preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, do you think we are wasting our time? We are so fools? Why do you ask this nonsense question, "genuine"? Unless it is genuine, why we are working so hard?
Reporter (1): Why is it so popular among young people?
Prabhupāda: Because they have got knowledge. Young people are receptive. Young people, education is given during youth time, not in old age. Old men cannot take any education. Whatever he has learned, he'll take another period of fifty years to forget that. Therefore sometimes it is called "old fools." But young men, they are receptive, they have got brain. When they understand that "Here is something," they understand.
Reporter (2): But why, why 1966? I mean what was there, what was there, special about the Sixties?
Prabhupāda: And before that, this thing was not administered.
Reporter (2): I mean the mood of the time might have been right then. I mean was there something about that age that made it especially attractive to the young people?
Prabhupāda: Young people, even Young boys, they also take. So generally teenagers, they to...Teenagers, they take it very nicely.
Reporter (2): Why was that? I mean what was there, was there something special about the 1960's that made it more likely that people would go for...?
Prabhupāda: But before that, this movement was not there in the western countries.
Reporter (3): Yes. What, what... And can I ask one last question?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reporter (3): What do you think of young people who follow the Divine Light Movement.
Haṁsadūta: Guru Maharaji.
Reporter (3): And...
Prabhupāda: That is a bogus.
Reporter (3): It's bogus.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (chuckles)
Reporter (3): What about... How do you know? Have you met him?
Prabhupāda: He says that he's God.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (2): (break) ...cultured under, say, very comfortable circumstances. This has a relation to constant inquiries from public, specially young men, at the entrance of our mandira, our, this building, these days. I was sort of doing, helping them for entrance and exit. In that course, many young people specially they asked, "How could people living in so much comfortable circumstances could hear and ask for bhakti."
Prabhupāda: Then does it mean that those who are...?
Guest (2): I, knew... Yes... Yes...?
Prabhupāda: Those who are in uncomfortable situation, they are big bhaktas? (laughter) Can you show me that because they're in uncomfortable situation, they have become big bhakta?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Those who are less educated, not very much expert in preaching, they must be acting as kṣatriya or vaiśya, or as śūdra.
Hṛdayānanda: And sometimes...
Prabhupāda: :Not he's śūdra. Always remember that. But he has to act to fulfill the, fill up the gap. Proxy.
Hṛdayānanda: So we should encourage people, young people, young students to come to our college.
Prabhupāda: They'll automatically come if you are ideal. Because they are being forced to poverty. So when there is a question of poverty, they'll come.
Haihaya: Here in Italy the majority of people is communism. The majority of young people is communism.
Prabhupāda: What ism you manufacture it doesn't matter. We have to see whether you are understanding the value of life. Our point is that. We don't mind whether you are communist, capitalist, this ist, that ist, that... We want to see whether you are utilizing your human intelligence for right purpose. We don't condemn anyone. If the communists, they are also making the same plan as the capitalist, then what is the use of this communism? The same thing. It may be useful for the temporary purpose, for the rascals, but it is the same quality.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Many of the young people now, they look to the Bible for instruction, but they don't like to go to church at all. They feel that the church is hypocritical.
Prabhupāda: Hypocritical, simply hypocritical. All these priests and cardinals and popes, they're all hypocritical. Getting high, highly salaried, high salaries, and drinking wine. And in America there is a hospital, five thousand drunkard priests are admitted there to cure their drinking habit. That was published in a paper. And they're sanctioning man to man marriage. That was published in that, what is that? Watch?
Satsvarūpa: Watchtower?
Prabhupāda: Watchtower. Yes.
Prabhupāda: This is going on. All rascals have creative philosophy.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: When I hear in the United States there's a saying, a slogan, amongst the young people: "Do your own thing." And also in India now when I go there they say, "So many men, so many minds."
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is Vivekananda. Yata mata tata patha. That means everyone can become authority. This is their philosophy.
Satsvarūpa: And this they praised as good.
Prabhupāda: Ha?
Prabhupāda: Now, this is our proposal, that why you should kill cow? Cow may be protected to take milk, and use this milk for so many nice preparations. Then, so far meat-eating is concerned, so every cow will die. It is a fact. So you wait a few days only. There will be so many dead cows. So you take all the dead cows and eat. So where is the bad proposal? If you say that "You are restraining us from meat-eating," no, we don't restrain you. We simply request you that "Don't kill. When the cow is dead, you eat it."
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, in the western countries now, the young people, when their parents grow old, they generally send them away to old age homes. So if they have no compassion even towards their own parents, that they would send them away, then how can we educate them to protect the cow which is just like mother if they're even willing to practically kill their parents?
Prabhupāda: So there is no question of protecting. We shall protect. Simply we ask them that "Don't purchase meat from the slaughterhouse. We shall supply you the cow after his death." Where is the wrong?
Prabhupāda: That I was discussing from Bhāgavatam, how people will degrade in this age. And this is due to lack of God consciousness. (French)
Yogeśvara: He says your lecture yesterday evening was very objectionable to many of the young people who made so much disruption. They found many of the things you were discussing...
Prabhupāda: Because the young people gradually degrading. They do not acknowledge authority. (French)
Yogeśvara: Yes. When they saw how much we were speaking authoritative, they rejected it. They reacted.
Prabhupāda: So that is their degradation, due to degradation. They cannot accept any authority. And knowledge cannot advance without authority. (French) But one thing I may say that the disobedience to the authority has begun from their fathers.
Prabhupāda: Because they are on the spiritual platform, they forget the material designation.
Reverend Powell: They're mostly young people, aren't they, or are they, you have all ages?
Prabhupāda: Yes, young, young people, they have got brain, (Reverend Powell laughs) receptive.
Reverend Powell: Yes, yes, rightly. And I might also inquire... I take it that you feel... Forgive me if I'm not using the right expression, but the caste system is written into the law of Godhead.
Prabhupāda: No, no. No, we have no caste system.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (5): Just like Kṛṣṇa says. What the big men do, the common men follow.
Prabhupāda: He gave me first money for publishing Kṛṣṇa book, $19,000. He is a good boy. He is a good boy, and he has got good regard for me.
Devotee (3): He just recently went on a concert tour around the country, and he was having the young people chant Kṛṣṇa's names in the concert. And because of the concert tour, many, many, many books were distributed, unlimited.
Prabhupāda: Oh, his song, "Kṛṣṇa..." I have forgotten that. That record?
Devotee (1): And wherever he would go the devotees would be there with prasāda and literatures, distributing profusely. Very successful. Sometimes it seems that Kṛṣṇa is arranging these concerts simply so young people can come together so we can be there to reach many, many thousands at one time.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive.
Tripurāri: But we have no attraction for Kṛṣṇa. You are attracting us to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: (laughing) Actually Kṛṣṇa is attracting. One, what is called, touchstone, no? Magnetic stone?
Tripurāri: Yes, magnet.
Prabhupāda: So background, magnetic stone, one iron, and then another iron, another iron. It is all attracted.
Prabhupāda: This is our mission.
Jesuit: And it's good that, I think, we are coming more to understand that. And I think you see a lot of young people who really are longing for some form of contemplation and prayer. That is why you get followers.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, these boys they are coming from your Christian group, Jewish group, but they are taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One priest in Boston, he issued one pamphlet that "These boys are our boys, and before this movement, they didn't care to come to the church. And now they are mad after God. How is it? The same boys." So indirectly he accepted this process as easier to understand God. And actually it is easier. What do they do? They don't go to the forest, or meditate, or make any very austere, what is called, penances. They simply chant in the morning and dance in ecstasy and then eat sumptuously. That's all. And now they have given up everything. Now, you bribe them, "You eat meat." They will never eat.
Prabhupāda: No, what changing? They are preparing for war again. Where is changing? A slight provocation, there may be war.
Guest 1: Yes, but people are changing now. You're getting the young people who for the first time in years are becoming aware and are getting interested in things outside their own town, their own individual state or whatever it is they have. You have people, the young people now are getting interested in things like poverty, they're interested in Bangladesh and so on. This is good. But you nonetheless have a very large proportion of the people who have got that idea of, "I'm all right, and I'll look after mine without taking the overall picture into account." And I think that so long as you have different concepts, different beliefs, it's going to be very hard to get into what you're talking about.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is to be united first, that... First thing is that everyone should be convinced or understand clearly that everything belongs to God. But they have no conception of God even. That is the difficulty. The whole human society at the present moment, majority, they are Godless, especially the Communists. They don't acknowledge. The scientist, the philosopher, the scholars—all Godless. Scientists' special business is how to defy God. They say, "Science is everything. We can do everything by science." There is no need of God. Huh?
Dharmādhyakṣa: They did that to get insurance money?
Prabhupāda: (break) ...they are becoming disappointed in science, philosophy, amusement. That is good sign. (break)
Dharmādhyakṣa: ...we go to colleges, the young people that are working on Ph.D.'s, they are very... (laughs) They say, "We're doing all this research but you can't prove a thing." I ask them, "Well, this experiment, you know, what will it prove?" He says, "Well, it indicates this, it indicates that, but really doesn't prove anything."
Prabhupāda: (laughs) It proves only that he's a fool.
Prabhupāda: So catalogues being distributed.
Satsvarūpa: Yes. They're taking them. Then they take them back and check them off. And the librarians are saying, as soon as they see our booth, they say, "Any books on India and yoga and meditation, there's a great demand for them. Many young people want to read about."
Prabhupāda: But we have got the largest number of books.
Satsvarūpa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: No other yoga system.
Prabhupāda: So, Jagadīśa, you give whatever... You take his... Give him some fork.
Mayor: I had some cake over at the temple on Emerson Street, so I'm being well-fed this morning. (break)
Viṣṇujana: ...park areas where a lot of young people go for their summertime. And we'll be putting on our program right there in the park. We'll be chanting with our simple instruments. We'll want to serve some simple vegetarian, like a drink and some fruit, and discuss this philosophy amongst young people. We find that very successful all over the colleges in the country. And we think that around the Great Lakes here it will be very successful.
Prabhupāda: Now, we want this house just to keep them for sometimes with our association. That is temporary, for one hour or two hours, but I wish they should come and live with us for some time. Then it will be effective, more effective. That is... Therefore I wanted a house like this.
Mayor: Well, I think I probably should be getting on. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me this morning.
Prabhupāda: And I also thank you for your kindly coming here, taking...
Mayor: It's an honor to meet you.
Prof. Olivier: Apart from anything else, our Indian, our Hindu community here in South Africa seems to be very loose from any fixed idea of what constitutes Hinduism.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prof. Olivier: And especially the young people, they are therefore living in a complete vacuum. For various reasons they do not want to accept...and I come back to the word religion again because this is what they have about, or see around them. They cannot identify themselves with the Christian religion. They cannot identify themselves with the Islamic religion. They are largely ignorant.
Prabhupāda: So they should be shown the right path.
Prof. Olivier: They should be.
Prabhupāda: This is the right path, original, authentic.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Conscription.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, conscription. But the Indians are not drafted. There's no army for them. So we're hoping that in Durban, where you first preached at the City Hall, the young people there, if we can get them sufficiently enthused, that they'll also join, and then we'll be able to have a very big movement amongst Indian community as well. We won't lose any devotees like that from the draft.
Prabhupāda: I think our students who are going to be ministers, they are excused from draft.
Carol Jarvis: You have now thousands and thousands of devotees all around the world.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Carol Jarvis: A lot of them are very young people coming into the movement. Do you think they really understand what they're going into when they join the Kṛṣṇa movement?
Prabhupāda: So if, if.... At least they understand something about it. Otherwise how they are sticking to this movement? They are intelligent boys. They are coming from respectable family, educated. Why they should go after me unless they have got something? That you can ask them. There are so many. All of them are young men.
Guest: Is it true that there are more young people now in the world that are giving more serious thought to what life is really all about?
Prabhupāda: Yes, they should. Because they are being educated, they are experiencing the faults of their fathers and grandfathers.
Guest: And they're able to tell that?
Prabhupāda: So we are telling this is the aim. You take. And therefore more response from the younger section. All our devotees, they are just like my grandchildren. Their fathers may be like my children. But they are responsive.
Prabhupāda: Simply by the position: "I am Cardinal," "I am Pope," "I am priest," "I am that." How long it will go on?
Hari-śauri: It's not going on very much longer anyway, there's so many, it's falling apart. There's so many branches, just the fact that there's so many divisions now of Christianity, that this man was speaking about this charismatic movement. Now this is the young people. They're feeling a need for God, so they're trying to express it through another concocted form of Christianity. But that will also be a failure.
Prabhupāda: Let us try honestly, that's all.
Hari-śauri: As long as we can preach very purely, then the effect will be there.
Prabhupāda: So by this time, we shall be in Toronto tomorrow.
Prabhupāda: We have got many places. Los Angeles we purchased one church, a very big church. That church was vacant, nobody was coming. They tried so much to invite men, but nobody was coming. But after we have purchased, the church is the same, and the inhabitants are residents of Los Angeles, but it is always packed up.
Kern: I think there are many good signs, however—your own movement. And we have..., I noticed you use the beads. We have a priest, Father Peyton, who gathers thousands to recite the rosary. Mostly young people. There are other movements that gather young people, which require a discipline. And perhaps since we think more in terms of the individual rather than the group, and the individual's decision, we possibly have forgotten that group discipline is very important. Therefore the attraction of your own movement and many others like that.... Within the Roman Catholics, there is now a very hopeful sign of mostly young people who are in what is called the charismatic movement, seeking to learn more of the Holy Spirit, seeking to change their lives for the better-however, at the same time, staying involved in the world. And it could be said that they seek to carry on the redemptive work of Jesus that he wishes done in the world, since he would be the key to our, to our advancement in the world. Our advancement, I say, and I'm not speaking of myself as a young man. But I think many young people in this charismatic movement, this is within Protestants and Catholics and others, I would say. There's a great emphasis among Jewish young people in the schools, to the development of the Jewish religion.
Prabhupāda: What is the difference? Can you explain? Young..., I have been several times inquired that why young people coming in this movement? What is the reason?
Kern: I have four young alcoholics I'd like to send over.
Prabhupāda: No, these boys and girls are not imported from India, recruited. They are recruited here. I came alone. They are all recruited. I have got so many centers all over the world. They are simply recruited.
Scheverman: Your asceticism, your way of life, your training program, having its Eastern origins, has a great appeal, I think, for many young people.
Prabhupāda: It is not Eastern, Western. It is the life. Just like to become peaceful, is it Eastern or Western? Peaceful is peaceful. Why do you bring Eastern?
Devotee (1): I think she was asking also why there are so many young people, why so many young are attracted.
Prabhupāda: Young, they are receptive, and another side is that in the Western countries, your younger generation, they have seen that their father and grandfather are not happy. Is it not a fact? So they are trying to find out something where they will find happiness. As such, they go to so many swamis and yogis who come from India. But there also they are frustrated. But here they are finding the real substance. That you can ask any one of them, they will explain how they have come.
Prof. O'Connell: Do you find, Swamiji, that the mood of the young people in North America is the same now as it was in '65, or has it changed?
Prabhupāda: That you can see.
Prof. O'Connell: Are they still willing to join in the same way?
Prabhupāda: Yes, many young boys are joining daily.
Interviewer: Now, that leads up to another question I wanted to ask you, do you think that the, one of the attractions of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the rather exotic, Hindu, unusual customs in the West. I mean these customs are unusual in the West and they have a sort of exotic appeal, a fascination for young people.
Prabhupāda: No, no, that ignorance is there both in Western and Eastern. It is the ignorance of the human society.
Interviewer: But do you think it's unusual, the fact that it's an Eastern, mysterious Eastern religion has an appeal to American young people.
Prabhupāda: Why do you bring Eastern religion Western religion? It is a science. Two plus two is equally important both in the East and the West.
Prabhupāda: They like it?
Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. Many young people are very attracted.
Prabhupāda: Yes, when real thing will be presented, it will act.
Yaśomatīnandana: Many people frankly admit that they had a very vague idea of religion. It is not so...
Prabhupāda: Not many, all of them. They do not know what is religion. Therefore there are so many rascal religionists. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). All cheating type of religions kicked out from here. This is beginning.
Devotee (1): Actually, we've been speaking the last few days and these problems can be solved.
Prabhupāda: No, it is Kṛṣṇa's service. Everyone is offering voluntary service. So not that anybody's paid and if he cannot, dismiss or... Yes. This bureaucracy is not... Train him. Train him. If he does not know, train him. But things must be done very nicely by cooperation. That is wanted. Everyone should remember that we are serving Kṛṣṇa, and everyone should remember, "The other person is serving Kṛṣṇa. And because he is serving Kṛṣṇa, he is not my servant; he is my master." That should be always in view. Therefore we address, prabhu: "You are my master." We never address, "You are my servant." We are trained up to say my brother, that "prabhu," "such and such prabhu." Prabhu means master. Nobody think himself that he is master. He should always think that everyone is his master because he's serving the master. This is our philosophy. So in this way... Now you have got good arrangement and they're all intelligent persons, young persons.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rāmeśvara: But very often they will say, "It is not a question of religion that we are concerned with. It is a question of brainwashing and mind control. Your chanting so many hours a day, it's hypnotizing."
Prabhupāda: So, what is to you? That is my business. Why do you bother yourself?
Rāmeśvara: "But you are imposing it on so many young people."
Prabhupāda: We must impose. You impose they will not chant. That is your business. We must impose. That is my business. If you have power, you stop them.
Rāmeśvara: "But you're not giving them a chance to think when they chant so many hours."
Prabhupāda: Why shall I give you chance? You are thieves. You are coming to kidnap. Why shall I give you chance? You say to them, as we are saying, that "You chant." They are chanting. You make brainwash. You ask them, "Don't chant." That is your business. But that you cannot do.
Gurukṛpa: Roads like this. Just in Melbourne and Sydney, nice roads. I think I saw better roads in India. I was very surprised.
Prabhupāda: Thing is they do not know engineering. They have no business. (break)
Satsvarūpa: The modern young person thinks, "I don't want someone to tell me the truth. I don't want someone to pick out who my husband or wife is. I want to be free to experiment and find out for myself. Then I'll know."
Prabhupāda: But where is your freedom?
Satsvarūpa: That I don't have someone to tell me what to do. I will learn by my own experience.
Prabhupāda: Then why do you go to school? Huh?
Satsvarūpa: Well, nowadays school also, they don't think that the professor is like their guru.
Prabhupāda: After all, the parents send the children to school to learn. Why not freedom?
Prabhupāda: No. He has no answer on this spiritual matter. He'll ask me some political... We have no function in politics.
Mr. Koshi: No, there was a few other questions regarding the Society.
Prabhupāda: The fundamental principle is that we are teaching about the owner of the body.
Mr. Koshi: Yeah, but what we are in the outside world... I am not in the Society. What I see outside is totally... You see, when I see a group of young people like these boys here dancing in the street, it is something jarring to my eyes. I am not used to it. What is the necessity for the chant and the...
Prabhupāda: That is going on. One man's food, another man's poison.
Mr. Koshi: No, no, there is a purpose behind it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Purpose... That is the way. That is the way.
Prabhupāda: Last time, when I was there, so many young persons, they were giving me, "Thanks, Prabhupāda." They were feeling some enlightenment. Do you remember?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Out of their own accord, they were giving, "Thanks, Prabhupāda. Thanks, Prabhupāda." They were not my disciples.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, with great feeling they were serving.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
The business of the Brahmins is to teach people spiritual education. Fighting is means for the Ksatriyas. Therefore, we must find out some means for protecting our students in future to save them from this unnecessary botheration. You should consult a suitable lawyer in connection with this matter, and do the needful. We can submit a copy of the remark made by a judge of a court here, in relation to the imprisonment of one of our students, Upendra das, in which the man said, "Be lenient with this boy, as he belongs to an established religious organization, which is doing much to combat against drug-addiction, and to promote the general health and welfare of the young people." (These are not the exact words, but we are presently awaiting a certified letter from the judge saying in essence, this statement.) And as minister of the association, I can give certificate that all my students are ecclesiastical. They are neither fighting men, nor mercantile people, so they cannot be called for fighting for unnecessary waste of time and valuable energy.
I hope you are all well, and just continue and try to make the temple there very successful. There are many young people searching after the real path of spiritual realization, and you simply have to make it readily available to them.
1969 Correspondence
There is immense potency for our movement in London, and I wish that at least four or five centers may be started in England of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Perhaps you have heard that in Tokyo already there is encouraging news from Sudama about the people there responding nicely, and similarly, two new centers have been started in Laguna Beach and Colorado. So it is all Krishna's Grace that the young people of the Western world are gradually responding to our preaching work. I hope this meets you in very good health.
1970 Correspondence
Western culture is monotheistic, but they are being misled by the impersonal Indian speculation. The young people of the West are frustrated because they are not dilligently taught about monotheism. They are not satisfied with this process of teaching and understanding. This Krishna Consciousness Movement is a boon to them because they are being really trained to understand Western Monotheism under authoritative Vedic system. We do not simply theoretically discuss, but we learn by the prescribed method of Vedic regulations.
I am glad to learn that your Sunday Prasadam love feast has grown to fifty persons attending and participating in our Krishna Consciousness Program, and also you are holding successful Kirtana in the high schools. These young people are our future in Krishna Consciousness so try your best to convince them of the importance of this movement.
I am glad to learn that Toronto center has got such good prospect for success. If we are simply a little sincere in the matter of spreading this movement, Lord Krishna has already guaranteed our success. It is good that there is a large population of young people in Toronto as it is the younger generation which is most appreciative of our Krsna Consciousness movement. So do your best to preach our philosophy to them that they can be inclined to join with us in spreading Lord Chaitanaya's Samkirtan.
I am very pleased to learn how things are going on very well in Washington center and that you are nicely celebrating the various Advent days of our great Acaryas. But I am especially glad to know of your very successful work amongst the students. This is very encouraging to me. I know that the young people of your country are all eager to take up this Krsna Consciousness movement, simply we must sincerely present our program to them in such a nice way by chanting Hare Krsna, dancing, speaking something about our philosophy, advertising and selling our literatures, and distributing Prasadam.
I have already acknowledged that the "Govindam" record is very nice, and I am sure it will be appreciated. Devananda also has liked it and says that the sound will be very attractive to the young people especially.
Regarding your second question how to convince the young persons who are thinking that Meher Baba is an avatara. it is very difficult to deal with these misguided people. If you meet sincere people you may inform them that we are concerned with Krsna Who is historically 5,000 years old. So any other party who comes from India or any part of the world cannot claim such long history as far back as 5,000 years. There are sometimes manufactured avatara. in the history of the Vedic literature, but we don't accept them. We take the oldest one which is genuine—that is Krsna consciousness.
It is my desire that every American boy and girl receive a Krsna Conscious education, so your program in the Buffalo area schools is very encouraging to me. Young people especially are eager to receive our philosophy and this must be presented very palatably, jut as you have induced your young son, Ekendra, to become first-class devotee. Now you must make hundreds of devotees like him.
1971 Correspondence
So if we have facility to give them the right knowledge of how to make an end to suffering condition of life, then we shall be performing the highest type of welfare work. So you can try on this point to convince rich businessmen, educators, politicians, etc. to help us push forward this gurukula system for guiding their young children on the right path to becoming sober, upright citizens. You can inform them that if they give me proper facilities that I can save all the young people of your country from the worst danger. People are always willing to give anything for educational purpose. They think that if their children get the right knowledge then they will become very successful in life, and that is their concern, so they sacrifice everything for good educational cause.
1972 Correspondence
Your songs and poems are very much liked by me. Syamasundara. informs me your proposal for travelling party for roving all over England and Wales, just like Kirtanananda is doing in America. I think this is a good proposal, and you may compose many such nice songs for attracting the young people from villages and towns. I very much approve of such travelling SKP program. And if you are able to infiltrate into schools and colleges for introducing Krishna Consciousness and selling our books, that is also very nice. In this way, keep yourself always 24 hours engaged in Krishna service, and very quickly you will advance to the highest platform of life. Somehow or other, Krishna has sent me sincere souls like yourself and others to assist me, therefore there has been a little progress. Thank you very much for helping me to spread Lord Caitanya's movement.
I am so much engladdened by his report. Just see how you all are giving all of your time and energy and attention to serving Krishna and how this simple formula is having such effect of creating topmost yogis and saintly young persons. You are the flowers of your nation, the devotees of the Lord, and so you go on in this way and always remember Krishna by remembering that you are His devotee and servant, and that this position is the most exalted of all and never to be thought of as inferior or less than even the most so-called elevated materialistic person. When we think of superior person, we think he is superior because he knows something more than I, superiority means more knowledge. Krishna knows everything, and He claims that if anyone knows Him, then he also knows everything. So knowledge means to know only that Krishna is the Proprietor of everything, that Krishna is the Friend of everyone, and that Krishna is the Enjoyer of everything.
In every college and university all over the world, there are so many different courses available to help the student become more entangled in the material world and to forget his real occupation. But none of them offer any instruction on the nature of the spirit soul and his relation with the Supreme Soul. So our program at these colleges is so important, because we are giving all these young people an opportunity to develop real knowledge and make their lives successful. I am so pleased to know that all of you are very enthusiastic for pushing on this program. Always keep this enthusiasm, and increase it more and more, and Krishna will give you all help and guidance.
I especially have great hopes for our Australia yatra. I notice when I was there so many young people without any spiritual direction. So your mission is to attract them somehow or other to our philosophy of Krishna Consciousness. Make the covers of the book very much attractive so that automatically they will read the knowledge inside. The covers are like the mind and the senses, and the contents of the book are the soul. So sometimes in order to attract people to find out what is the soul we have to decorate the mind and the senses and make the presentation of Krishna consciousness very palatable to them. So in this way cooperate very nicely with your all good god-brothers there in Australia to deliver all of these fallen souls, especially the young people, back to Home, back to Godhead.
Now by the grace of Krishna I have many thousands of disciples, young American and European boys and girls. Many of them have come to me bewildered, rebellious, and addicted to all sorts of sinful activities. Like so many of the young people today, they were lost and confused. Now they are all leading a disciplined and regulated life. They follow strict principles of spiritual life, with no desire for intoxication of any kind, or illicit sex life. They are always engaged in meaningful work, serving God and their fellow man. They have become the flower of your country and all over the world they are being treated with the highest respect.
We may approach our government leaders with our simple formula and show to them by the practical result that we are accomplishing the reform work that they are trying to do by spending millions of dollars but not very successfully. We, on the other hand, are rescuing the most fallen members of society among the young people and giving them new life of spiritual or highly desirable qualities, such as honesty, cleanliness, truthfulness, morality, like that. Now you approach the government leaders and convince them in this way, and that will be the greatest achievement. They have got so much money for spending for human welfare activities, and practically we are demonstrating that they have given us foodstuffs in India and we are distributing them daily to not less than 500 men, and if they would give us more we could also increase more and more.
We worship Lord Siva as a Vaisnava, but as a demigod we reject him. But to speak the truth, these personalities are not bona fide because who is caring for them? This so-called resurgence of feeling for Christ by the young people is due to our Krishna Consciousness movement. They are seeing that the foreigners are here, there is some national feeling and they think why not our Christ? Whatever they are doing we do not approve. But that does not mean that they should stop their work, this factionalism will go on. But one can see by the results. It is better not to talk with these people. Better let them remain as Christians and Buddhists, we do not want to convert them. You tell them that if you stick to Christ you will come out all right. It is better to avoid these comparative studies.
I am so very much pleased to hear about your successfully preaching widely in the youth clubs and halls and colleges, this is my dream coming true. I wanted that many sannyasis would travel widely in the Western countries and preach to the young people, especially in the schools and colleges, and spread our Krsna philosophy in these places. Now Krsna has given you all facilities for this work, and I can understand that you are very intelligent boy and you have got good enthusiasm, so I am taking encouragement from your progress. One thing is, now you have got many many books and we require to raise huge sum for purchasing our new place in London, s my senior disciple and experienced man you should take lead in supervising the distribution of books widely all over Great Britain. You say that the sankirtana party in London requires more push, so you do the needful for organizing them and enthusing them to sell books and literatures more and more.
But this kind of householder life of "grihameda" consciousness does not apply to our marriages in Krishna Consciousness Movement. No. Because the sex-urge is so strong in young persons, and because they are used to mixing freely with one another, I encourage my students to get themselves married. But our point is not that hard knot as above described. It is simply a relationship of mutually helping each other, man and wife, to make advancement in spiritual life, nothing more. We are not after home, money, fame, like that. But that does not mean that he shall not support her nicely, no. It is the duty of husband to protect wife in every way from the onslaught of material nature, and he must act always as her spiritual guide by being perfect example of devotee. Women are not so quick to learn, and they are weak by nature, so they should be protected in this way.
There are so many intelligent boys and girls in Delhi, that I have marked, and I think there is more potential there than other places in India, so if you and Yamuna go to Delhi from time to time to help Tejiyas with the preaching work, especially preaching to the student class of young persons, that will be nice. If there is shortage of men, we must recruit some men, first-class men, to help us do the work. If that is attempted sincerely, this preaching work, Krishna will provide men to help us. Krishna does not like to see His men suffer or become frustrated and depressed on His behalf, no. If we remain always faithful to Him, working very hard despite all difficulties, very quickly you will meet Krishna face-to-face, you may know it for certain.
1973 Correspondence
Yes, your appointment as the new president of the Miami Temple is completely approved by me, now take advantage and preach among all the young people there and recruit some good men. For some time now I have been thinking to have a nice place in Florida and now it looks like you are trying for it.
Their new names are: Bhojadeva das, Taraka dasi and Mukhara dasi respectively. Now it will please me very much if you all can work together nicely and recruit many more young people to join our movement, it is their only future hope.
Your high school classes are very nice. Take care of the young people for a future Krsna conscious generation. The worship of Lord Jagannatha must go on nicely and cleanly. Regarding your Sankirtana, yes, if anyone chants, tries to follow the rules and regulations, and reads our books, he'll be successful in his life.
1974 Correspondence
Regarding the techniques for book distribution, it is all right if the devotees dress like the young people they are selling the books to. The main thing is that the innocent are given the books and the chance to become Krsna Conscious by reading them. You have to see that our book distributers are also reading my books and following all the regulative principles, then it is all right selling in public in that way.
1975 Correspondence
I am very glad to hear that everything is going on nicely, especially your developing your new 250-acre farm. Yes, if you can get the government to support our project, that would be big triumph for us. They are spending millions and millions of dollars trying to keep the young people from turning into hippies, drug-addicted, and we are actually doing it. So why they should not give us some support?
Please follow my order in this regard. Africa is huge field, so you have plenty of opportunities for traveling and preaching. This will keep you enthusiastic. So do not neglect it. Of course if the young people there are interested, then you should stay there to instruct them. Then if you can collect and send money to Nairobi, that is very good. In this way their debts can be paid. I am also glad to see that you are taking seriously the Life Member program. So many Life Members they are complaining they are not receiving books or they are not being treated nicely. So if you can rectify this situation, that would be very good.
1976 Correspondence
If the young people become very serious, if you find it is detrimental to have them wear dhoti and shave head, that is not necessary. Simply introduce the chanting and prasadam distribution and gradually they will be elevated to being Vaisnava. A Vaisnava is aloof from all material conditions of life, so even under such circumstances a Vaisnava will not feel inconvenienced. Kirtiraja should be returning to preach in Eastern Europe so you can work together to introduce Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement in this part of the world.
I have received one letter from our Ambarisa das. He is presently in Boston living at the following address: Alfred Ford, 124 Chandler St. #5, Boston, Mass. 02116, U.S.A. He is very eager to open another restaurant there in Boston. Boston is a very good city for there are many, many young people and a Hare Krishna Restaurant where we serve delicious Prasadam will be appreciated there. So there is some disagreement that you are having there in Hawaii so better that you immediately go to Boston and work with Ambarisa das to open another successful restaurant.
1977 Correspondence
Actually, the Indians will be glad to donate if they see you are converting Chinese to their religion. They will provide immense funds for this purpose, because they have got interest for improving Indian and Chinese relations for their business. So preach widely and enthusiasically to Chinese population, especially to the young people, and they may not respond quickly, but they are very sober-minded, when they decide to join us that will be fixed decision. So in this way go on and make some Chinese devotees, then they will manage things and spread further to other places in China. After all, a large portion of the earth's population is Chinese origin, so why should we neglect them? If you can turn only one or two men to be devotees, they can do the rest themselves.
| Page Title: | Young people |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene, Mayapur |
| Created: | 12 of Sep, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=2, CC=1, OB=0, Lec=3, Con=47, Let=31 |
| No. of Quotes: | 84 |