Gurukula-lecture
HH Bhaktividya Purna Maharaja lecturing in Bhaktivedanta Academy, Mayapur

Prabhu: Sometimes devotees like to say a lot about how Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī said, ‘Feed them meat if you have to, whatever it takes to get them to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.’

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Yeah, and so who is doing it?

Prabhu: So what would Kṛṣṇa…

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Who is doing it? Who is doing it?? Name me the person who just quoted that point! Are they doing it? Are they going out there, risking everything to make sure that every karmī they meet is taking up Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Or they are just saying that, so they can sit at their house and follow the program however they like?

Prabhu: Well, they are serving tea and chocolate and quoting that.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Serving tea and chocolate?

Prabhu: In the restaurant, yeah.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Okay, but are they preaching to those people?

Prabhu: Yeah.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: They are actually preaching?

Prabhu: Giving them prasādam and kīrtana and…

HH BVPS Mahārāja: And? And?

Prabhu: Prabhupāda’s books.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: And do they ever tell them about Kṛṣṇa and stuff like that? Do the people know it’s Kṛṣṇa prasāda that they are eating?

Prabhu: Not exactly.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Yeah, so then how is that preaching?

Prabhu: Well, it says ‘Krishna Cafe’ on the board.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: I’ve see in Kolkata ‘Krishna Bidis.’ You know what I am saying? So it means… That’s nice. But are they dressed as devotees?

Prabhu: No.

HH BVPS Mahārāja: Yeah. So then how will they know it has anything to do with Hare Kṛṣṇa? That is taking a point that we don’t care what it is, if that’s what it takes to make them comfortable to sit down and listen to philosophy, that’s what we’ll do. But they are selling tea and chocolate so that people come to their restaurant, so that they make money. Because if there was no tea and chocolate they wouldn’t get as much clientèle. It’s business, it’s got nothing to do with Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.

Because if they are quoting him – serve meat! But you know what your sādhana would have to be to burn off that karma? You’d have to have damned good sādhana because you are involved in serving meat. So therefore you’d better be doing some really crack sādhana! And you’d better be sure that those people are becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, otherwise, what’s the use?

He wasn’t doing it for business. He was giving it. If he was arranging, if he fed meat and all that to the British karmīs, he was paying for it himself, it wasn’t a restaurant. They were invited over for spiritual discussions, but that’s what he fed them so that they would be comfortable in the environment and be happy to sit around. Because there was no such concept in the British culture as vegetarian. But he did not do that for Indians because they know what vegetarian is. Nowadays, everybody knows what vegetarian is, you don’t have to do that. Those days aren’t there. You can get vegetarian stuff in Russia now and the East block, but in those times when they were talking about preaching there, there was only basically alcohol and meat there. Do you understand? But now it’s available, you can get anything anywhere. So there is no need. So you have to know the purpose, just the rule is for carrying the purpose. But if we just catch the rule and don’t understand the context that the Ācāryas are discussing, we miss everything.

(From Lecture on Bṛhad Manu Śikṣā #7, Bhaktivedānta Academy, Śrīdhāma Māyāpura)

Lecture audio, this passage starting 47:30

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