Krishna consciousness is divine culture that purifies the soul through transcendental sound and transforms human beings into divine persons.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Interviewer: …India, the headquarters in the United States and the world is now Los Angeles, California. His Divine Grace comes to us, a svāmī from Calcutta in India, and the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, as it is known in this country, and I understand in one hundred other places in the non-Communist world at this point, is a movement to cleanse the soul and make life on earth, as our guest would tell us, a more peaceful way of living. These people believe in reincarnation and many other philosophies, and as many of our listeners will know, it is also a very controversial movement. We will start for fourteen, fifteen minutes, and take it from there.
I will hold the microphone back and forth. Jim, please. Now since I am not capable of pronouncing your Kṛṣṇa name, I want you to…, I will introduce you as Your Divine Grace, and what I said here, that is for the producer. Words to that effect.
And then I will ask you to give me your name as the head of this movement. Was there anyone before you that was in the Kṛṣṇa movement? Do you…, are you succeeding someone? Prabhupāda: Yes, there is a disciplic succession. Interviewer: Pardon? Prabhupāda: Disciplic succession. Interviewer: No, but before you? Prabhupāda: Yes, before me, my spiritual master was preaching. Interviewer: Oh, all right, I will ask you that.
Your spiritual master was this name? Okay. Prabhupāda: My spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. Interviewer: And was he also from Calcutta? Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Interviewer: I see, okay. Syamasundara: The disciplic succession means that it goes back for thousands of years, passed down from master to disciple. Interviewer: How long would you say that the movement has been in existence for? Syamasundara: Five thousand years. Interviewer: Hm! Prabhupāda: From Kṛṣṇa. Interviewer: Kṛṣṇa? Prabhupāda: Yes, when He spoke Bhagavad-gītā. Interviewer: All right. I’ll try to be very careful, and we will do it. When I start. Prabhupāda: [coughs] Interviewer: For more than five thousand years in this world of ours there has been a movement emanating from India known as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
We have come to speak with His Divine Grace, the man that is the disciple, a descendant of many that preceded him in the Kṛṣṇa movement. He comes to us from Calcutta. In North America in Los Angeles is now the world headquarters for the Kṛṣṇa movement. Hare Kṛṣṇa, as many of our listeners know, is somewhat of a controversial form of belief or religion or philosophy, because on the streets of America and many other the cities of the world, they give their chant, and they speak to the passer-by, trying to convince and tell them about what they are chanting about, what they believe in, and their philosophy.
So His Divine Grace will be our guest for the next few minutes as we chat with him here at this location and will tell us as much as he can about his beliefs and philosophy. Your Divine Grace, you come to us from Calcutta, and at this point in time you are on your way back to your home city, and having visited many cities in America and your world headquarters in Los Angeles, California. I thought if you will, please tell our listeners throughout this country, this USA, about yourself, and I would like first perhaps to start with the question: help me with your name, in the Kṛṣṇa movement. Prabhupāda: Bhaktivedanta Swami. Interviewer: And of course, that means the…, your name, but of course you are a svāmī, which is a counterpart to the highest form of disciple there could be. Prabhupāda: Yes, svāmī means the master of senses. Generally people, they are servant of senses.
So when one becomes svāmī, it means he is master of the senses. Interviewer: Now as the head of the Kṛṣṇa movement here on earth at this time, we understand that you follow many others—as we said at the outset, this is thousands of years old, emanating in India. So you are then, for all practical purposes, one in many directing this… Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, I am one of them. From Kṛṣṇa there are many disciples’ branches. Just as the original tree, and then there are branches, there are twigs, leaves, flowers.