Prabhupada 0043 - Bhagavad-gītā is the Basic Principle
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Sydney, February 16, 1973
Prabhupāda:
- (mayy āsakta-manaḥ pārtha)
- yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ
- asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ
- yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu
- (BG 7.1)
This is a verse from Bhagavad-gītā, how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. The Bhagavad-gītā, most of you have heard about the name of this book. It is very widely read book of knowledge throughout the whole world. Practically in every country there are many editions of Bhagavad-gītā. So the Bhagavad-gītā is the basic principle of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. What we are spreading as Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is only Bhagavad-gītā. It is not that we have manufactured anything. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness is existing since the creation, but at least for the last five thousand years, when Kṛṣṇa was present on this planet, He personally instructed Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and the instruction is left behind Him, this is Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately, this Bhagavad-gītā has been misused in so many ways by the so-called scholars and swamis. The impersonalist class, or atheist class of men, they have interpreted Bhagavad-gītā in their own way. When I was in America in 1966, one American lady asked me to recommend an English edition of Bhagavad-gītā so that she could read it. But honestly I could not recommend any one of them, on account of their whimsical explanation. That gave me impetus to write Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. And this present edition, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, is now published by Macmillan Company, the biggest publisher in the world. And we are doing very nice. We published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in 1968, in small edition. It was selling like anything. The trades manager of Macmillan Company reported that our books are selling more and more; others are reducing. Then recently, in this 1972, we have published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, complete edition. And Macmillan Company published fifty thousand copies in others, but it was finished in three months and they are arranging for second edition.