(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada)
(sound of siren—signaling an air raid during war between India and Pakistan)
Prabhupāda: I think blackout is over.
Devotee: Shut the shutters on the doors and we'll go right...
Reporter: Sir, this is the real present ugly reality here. We are being threatened.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Reporter: This siren is a, shall I say, a very ugly reality before us.
Prabhupāda: You are already in ugly reality always, twenty-four hours. (laughter) Suppose there is no blackout. Still, if you go on the street, is there guarantee that you will go home?
Reporter: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Is that guarantee?
Reporter: No, no.
Prabhupāda: Then you are always in ugly reality. Why do you say this blackout? This is one of the feature of that ugly reality. That's all.
Reporter: Yes. At the moment I see, but has it...
Prabhupāda: Huh? (laughs) You are all... you do not realize that, that you are twenty-four hours in ugly reality. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Every step danger. Why taking this?
Reporter: I know, sir, but this is collective, national danger here. Have you anything to offer to us as a, as a...
Prabhupāda: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Our only remedy is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You take to this and you will be happy. That's all.
Reporter: We'll... yes, sir. I think somebody should go to Aga Khan, to those who are threatening us. Some, I wish...
Prabhupāda: What benefit you will derive by going to the Aga Khan?
Reporter: But, well, he'll go to the... supposing somebody is out to kill me. Lets change it, if you can't kill him...
Prabhupāda: But suppose the Aga Khan does not kill you. Will you be safe?
Reporter: No, sir. That I can see, but...
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of going to the Aga Khan? You will die today or tomorrow. That's all. If you want to save yourself, then go to Kṛṣṇa. That is our proposal. (laughter) Even if you go to the Aga Khan, he does not fight, do you mean to say that you will live forever?
Reporter: No, no, sir. I'm talking...
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of flattering the Aga Khan? Just flatter Kṛṣṇa so that you may perpetually be saved. Why don't you take that?
Reporter: I was only thinking in terms of collective security, not... I can see your point now.
Prabhupāda: You should know that you are always in danger.
Reporter: Yes, sir. We agree.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Reporter: The great Einstein said the same thing when he was actually... he said there was no question...
Prabhupāda: That is our position.
Reporter: "I could any time fall from here..."
Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa says: "I will save you." Therefore let us go to Kṛṣṇa. Why the Aga Khan?
Reporter: Changing, because he is disturbing, that's all.
Prabhupāda: Disturbing... your mind is also disturbing always.
Reporter: Yes, yes. You are...
Prabhupāda: That is always with you. Your body disease always with you. Are you not suffering from bodily pains—"Oh aaj sir dukhta hai" (Hindi: I have a headache today.) Why don't you go to the Aga Khan to cure your sir dukhta hai (Hindi: headache) (laughter). So why you do...? You are already in danger. If you... why don't you realize that point?
Reporter: That I... Yes.
Prabhupāda: Therefore...
Reporter: But we are talking of national disaster.
Prabhupāda: These are symptoms. Just like one man is diseased and he is saying, "Oh, sir dukhta hai, kar dukhta hai, aaj dhoop nahi hai (Hindi: I have a headache, hand pain, no sunlight today.). Real thing is his disease. These are symptoms. So people are trying to cure patchwork. We are giving the supreme cure. That is the difference. No patchwork. No patchwork disease cure will help you. Complete cure.
janma karma me divyam
yo janati tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti...
(BG 4.9)
Reporter: Mām eti.
Prabhupāda: That's it. That we want. No more repetition of birth and death. Mām eti. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, benefit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). If you go to Kṛṣṇa, then you don't come back again.
Reporter: Sir, I... mine was a very hypothetical question. Supposing hundred pure saintly Kṛṣṇa conscious people are meditating or discussing or just surviving together, and there comes somebody, some dushta (Hindi: Evil person), who drops a bomb, and at the end of all...
Prabhupāda: So those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are not afraid of bomb. They are not afraid of bomb.
Reporter: How to face such people? We are such, sir, we are...
Prabhupāda: Now they receive bomb, then "It is Kṛṣṇa's desire that bomb has come." A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is never afraid of anything. Bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād (SB 11.2.37). One who has conception of anything other than Kṛṣṇa, he is afraid. One who knows everything is Kṛṣṇa, why he should be afraid? If bomb is coming, he will see, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is coming." Yes. That is the vision of the devotee. So he thinks, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa wants to kill me as bomb. Oh, that's all right. I will be killed." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Reporter: We do not fight?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Reporter: We do not fight?
Prabhupāda: No, he will fight. He will fight—by the direction of Kṛṣṇa.
Reporter: By God... (indistinct) ...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. He is not... he is not afraid of fighting, but he will fight under direction of Kṛṣṇa.
Reporter: On that, sir, he has put the real question which I was fumbling to ask. So...
Prabhupāda: No. Kṛṣṇa fought. Kṛṣṇa...
Reporter: In the Kṛṣṇa conscious scheme there is also active struggle and activity?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Certainly. Niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ (BG 3.8). Instead of sitting idle, if you act badly, that is good (fighting).
Reporter: Ah. There you are, sir.
Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's advice. Kṛṣṇa does not say sit idly. Neither Arjuna was advised like that. Neither... Arjuna wanted to be nonviolent, sit idly. Kṛṣṇa never did so. Kṛṣṇa said: "Oh, you fight. You are kṣatriya. It is your duty." And in order to raise him to that fighting position, this position, He taught him Bhagavad-gītā. So don't think that Kṛṣṇa-bhaktas are idle, sitting only. No. That is mistaken idea. Kṛṣṇa-bhakta can do anything under the direction of Kṛṣṇa.
Reporter: You are not escapists.
Prabhupāda: No.
Reporter: Mahārāja, please go on here helping us. You know, we are... (indistinct)... (laughter) (Indistinct Hindi) (break)
Prabhupāda: ...told me that, "Your Vaiṣṇavism has killed India." And why? "No, Vaiṣṇava means inactive. They say simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and do nothing." Then "You have not seen a Vaiṣṇava," I told him.
Reporter: Pardon?
Prabhupāda: I told him that "You have not seen a Vaiṣṇava."
Reporter: Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: In India there are two major war, Rāma Rāvana yudha and Kurukṣetra yudha, and there the hero is a Vaiṣṇava—Arjuna and Hanumānjī.
Reporter: Hanumān?
Prabhupāda: Hanumānjī. Rāma Rāvana.
Reporter: (Hindi: He opened his chest and showed Rāmachandrā is sitting inside.) He was perfect Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: Therefore I told him that "You haven't... you have, have not seen a Vaiṣṇava."
Reporter: With your permission, may I ask one question? Do we completely... do we offer any solution for socio-economic problems that... (indistinct) ...can ...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Provided you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, everything will be solved.
Reporter: Will it come by itself, or will it come through you?
Prabhupāda: Immediately. Immediately.
Reporter: How, sir?
Prabhupāda: Huh? That you have to take it.
(Srila Prabhupada Interview with Reporters, Delhi, November 10, 1971)
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