Prabhupada 0112 - A Thing is Judged by the Result
Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville
Interviewer: You came, sir, to this country in 1965, as I said, on instructions or orders given you by your spiritual master. By the way, who was your spiritual master.
Prabhupāda: My spiritual master was Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda.
Interviewer: Now in this line of succession that we were talking about earlier, this disciplic line of succession which goes way back, all the way back to Kṛṣṇa Himself, right, was your spiritual master the previous one before you?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The disciplic succession is coming from Kṛṣṇa since 5,000 years.
Interviewer: Is your spiritual master still alive?
Prabhupāda: No. He has passed away in 1936.
Interviewer: So you are at this particular time then the head in the world of this movement? Would that be correct?
Prabhupāda: I have got many other Godbrothers, but I was particularly ordered to do this from the very beginning. So I am trying to please my spiritual master. That's all.
Interviewer: Now you were sent to this country, to the United States of America. This is your territory. Is that correct?
Prabhupāda: Hm. No. My territory, what he said, that "You go and speak this philosophy to the English knowing public."
Interviewer: To the English speaking world.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And especially the Western world. Yes. He told me like that.
Interviewer: When you came, sir, to this country about 15, 16 years ago and started...
Prabhupāda: No, no, not 15, 16 years.
Interviewer: Five, six years ago. I beg your pardon. To this part of the world, you did not come to a part of the world where religion was lacking as such, you know. In the United States of America we have many religions, and I think people in this country like to believe, in great majority, that they are religious people, people who believe in God, who devote themselves to some form of religious expression. And I wonder what your thinking was. What do you think that you could add to the already living religious expression in this country by coming here and adding your own philosophy to it?
Prabhupāda: Yes. When I first came to your country I was guest of an Indian friend at Butler.
Interviewer: In Pennsylvania.
Prabhupāda: Pennsylvania. Yes. So although it was a small county, I was very much engladdened there were so many churches.
Interviewer: So many churches. Yes. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So many churches. And I spoke in many of the churches there. My host arranged for that. So it was not with that purpose, that I came here to defeat some religious process. That was not my purpose. Our mission is, Lord Caitanya's mission is, to teach everyone how to love God, that's all.
Interviewer: But in what way, sir, may I ask, in what way did you think, and do you think right now, that the teaching of the love of God which you are doing, is different and perhaps better than the teachings of the love of God which already were being conducted in this country and have been conducted in the Western world for centuries?
Prabhupāda: That is fact. Because we are following the footsteps of Lord Caitanya. He is considered... He's accepted by us—according to the authority of Vedic literature—He is personally Kṛṣṇa.
Interviewer: Which Lord is that?
Prabhupāda: Lord Caitanya.
Interviewer: Oh yes. He is the one who came back five hundred years ago to India?
Prabhupāda: Yes. So he is Kṛṣṇa Himself, and He is teaching how to love Kṛṣṇa. Therfore His process is most authorized. Just like you are the expert in this establishment. If somebody is doing something, if you personally teach him, "Do like this," that is very authorized. So God consciousness, God Himself is teaching. Just like in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is God. He is speaking about Himself. And at last He says, "Just surrender unto Me. I take charge of you." But people misunderstand. So Lord Caitanya—Kṛṣṇa again came as Lord Caitanya to teach people how to surrender. And because we are following the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, the method is so sublime that even foreigners who never knew Kṛṣṇa, they are surrendering. The method is so potent. So that was my purpose. We don't say that "This religion is better than this religion," or, "My process is better." We want to see by the result. In the Sanskrit there is a word, phalena paricīyate. A thing is judged by the result.
Interviewer: A thing is just...?
Prabhupāda: By the result.
Interviewer: Oh yes.
Prabhupāda: You can say, I can say my method is very nice. You can say your method is very nice, but we have to judge by the result. That is... Bhāgavata says that that process of religion is very good following which one becomes a lover of God.