Spiritual leadership demands unwavering commitment to Krishna consciousness, never diluted for worldly acceptance.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was an underlying question of whether the magazine... Brahmānanda Mahārāja had mentioned that your original idea was that this magazine was meant for the devotees to write in to the magazine, and the spiritual master would read the articles and thus see how the devotees were making advancement, and the magazine was for the devotees to read each other's articles. Generally, now the one..., the kind of the present-day idea behind the magazine is that it is for the common man outside. It is not so much for the devotee as much as for the karmīs.
And therefore... Prabhupāda: No, what is the purpose? To distribute to the karmīs? Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The purpose is to somehow connect the karmīs and give them a favorable opinion of our Society, a general idea and favorable opinion of our movement. But the criticism on the part of some of the senior devotees now is that in doing this they have compromised our philosophy and our position. Brahmānanda: Instead of quoting from some śāstra, they quote from a mundane book. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All the books.
Prabhupāda: So who has done this? You are asking me? Brahmānanda: Rāmeśvara Swami's in charge. Hari-śauri: Another example's like that they put a recipe for halavā in the magazine, two-page spread in color. Prabhupāda: So the Rāmeśvara should not be in charge. The Satsvarūpa should be in charge. Satsvarūpa: I'm very eager to take it over again. Prabhupāda: Immediately do. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was going to be our proposal. We went through the magazine, Satsvarūpa Mahārāja, Brahmānanda Mahārāja and myself, on the underlying points, and as Hari-śauri was pointing out, just like in the old days sometimes they would give a recipe and it would end with the showing of how to offer obeisances for offering the prasādam.
But here that is completely neglected, that part. It simply says, "At the end of cooking, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and it will make the food taste better." There's no understanding that the food is then supposed to be offered to Kṛṣṇa, for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure. That whole idea is deleted. Everything is very much simplified, with the idea of making it sell more. Prabhupāda: No, this should be properly done immediately.
Who is the editor? Brahmānanda: They have appointed Śrī Govinda. Prabhupāda: Who is Śrī Govinda? Tripurāri: He was the temple president in Chicago for several years. Now he is in Los Angeles with his family, and he's living there, the chief editor. Prabhupāda: He has no experience of this...
Brahmānanda: We had always understood that the editor should be a senior man... Prabhupāda: Yes. Brahmānanda: ...who is spiritually strong. Śrī Govinda is not spiritually strong, and he is not a senior man. Prabhupāda: So best thing will be Satsvarūpa now shall edit. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's some serious discrepancies. One thing is that after your name at the beginning they have written founder-director instead of founder-ācārya. Prabhupāda: They are making mine?[?] Satsvarūpa: Because the American public would not be able to accept that. Then later in the issue... Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says, "His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami, founder and director of the..." Brahmānanda: No "Prabhupāda"? Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder and director of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement." Prabhupāda: Of course, ācārya means director. That is another...