Chanting the holy names of Krishna offers accessible spiritual awakening for modern seekers in this age.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Radio Interview — March 12, 1968, San Francisco 680312IV-SAN FRANCISCO [43:25 Minutes] Interviewer: Move a little closer to that microphone, if you will? You are the head of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Prabhupāda: Yes. Interviewer: Is this a church? Prabhupāda: It is not exactly a church, but it is an institution for understanding the science of God. Interviewer: Could you tell people how you are dressed today, what's the significance of your clothes? Prabhupāda: About the significance of our institution? Interviewer: No, about the way your clothes, the way you're dressed today. Uh, the robes. Prabhupāda: Oh, the robe? Yes, I am a sannyāsī.
The sannyāsī is the highest status of human social division. According to Vedic culture there are four division of human society: brahmacārī, student life; then householder, gṛhastha; and then vānaprastha, retired life; and then sannyāsa life, means preaching transcendental knowledge to the society from door to door. So this dress... In Vedic culture, there are different dresses for different persons. So this saffron-colored dress means that he is admitted without any introduction anywhere, because he's understood to be a man of transcendental knowledge.
And the householders receive them and take knowledge from them. That is the system of Vedic culture. Interviewer: You also have a garland of flowers around your neck. Prabhupāda: That is offered by the disciples as a matter of respect to the spiritual master. It is not necessary that a sannyāsī have a garland like this, but if it is offered with respect, he does not refuse. Interviewer: Now, one more thing. You have some paint or color down your forehead and your nose, and on all your followers who are here in the studio. Prabhupāda: Yes.
These marks are a temple of Kṛṣṇa. We mark these different twelve parts of the body. The idea is that we are being protected by God from all sides. Interviewer: One other thing. I went to shake hands with everybody, and I found that all your right hands were wrapped.
What is the significance of that? Prabhupāda: Yes. That wrapping... It is not exactly wrapped. It is a bag for our beads.
We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. So the beads are supposed to be sacred, and therefore we keep it in a bag so that it may not touch the dust or any other impurities. So it is not wrapping; it is covering of the sacred beads. Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to...
"The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swāmī Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderers. He had wandered across the sea upon the order issued to him by his guru, who told him he should prepare to go to America to teach the principles taught in the Bhagavad-gītā and to translate the sixty volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam into English." Now, are you a guru?