Simplicity and sincere service, not intellectual complexity, are the hallmarks of genuine spiritual advancement.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: They are appreciating in foreign countries also. Otherwise why these European, American boys would join? They are not fools and rascals. They understand that "Here is the genuine movement." Indian man: Then, Prabhupāda, let us take leave, and I'd like to prostrate at your feet if you will permit me. Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Indian man: And you bless us to have the same consciousness. Prabhupāda: Please come here, take care of the center. Indian man: We belong to a hundred miles from this place. Prabhupāda: Oh, hundred miles? [break] Brahmānanda: ...here to Allahabad, I was coming from Bombay on the train. I was riding with some respectable people. They saw this button, and they said, "Oh, you are the disciple of Prabhupāda?" And I said, "Yes." And they were very appreciative of your work.
And then I had one Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Eighth Canto, the story of Gajendra. And one man, he wanted to see the book. And he started reading it. And he kept the book throughout the whole journey, and he read the whole book, and he loved it.
He said, "Your guru has written very nicely. Very simply, very directly, and everything is there." He wouldn't give me back the book until he finished it. Prabhupāda: [laughs] So our book-selling appreciated all over the world. Brahmānanda: Yes. And this is an Indian, he's a Hindu, so he knows Vedic culture, but still he liked your books very much. He said, "I've never read something like this." Prabhupāda: Our presentation is simplified.
That is the beauty. Brahmānanda: Yes. That's what he appreciated. Prabhupāda: Yes. We do not make the things cumbersome. Rāmeśvara: So that no one understands. Prabhupāda: [chuckles] Vyāghra mane śārdūla. One student asked teacher, "What is the meaning of vyāghra?" He said "Śārdūla." I...
Vyāghra is already a difficult word, and he presented another difficult word. Nanda-kumāra: They don't actually know anything, so they have to speak with so much... Prabhupāda: All rascals. Therefore I call them as. My Guru Mahārāja used to say, bokāloka. Bokāloka.
So I was thinking, "Why he's..." Even Rabindranath Tagore, he's a bokāloka. So I was thinking that "Everyone is bokā?" Now I can understand that everyone is a a bokā, mūḍha. So enthusiastically do everything. You are the beginner of this movement, one of the pioneers.