Śyāmasundara: Yeah. Mr. Goyal is a self-appointed guru.
Prabhupāda: Oh! He, he wants to become a guru?
Śyāmasundara: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then it is.
Śyāmasundara: They have ambitions, to be guru.
Dhanañjaya: And all these meetings, all these meetings I’ve been to, they’re all saying, “We must remain Hindu. We must not forget our culture. We may be in England, but we are Hindus.’’ Like this. “India, she is our real mother, not this England. India, she is our real mother. We must be thinking of India, and to become always thinking of Hindus.”
Śyāmasundara: How to, how to get rupees out of India.
Prabhupāda: So therefore it is very difficult to get their cooperation. They’re mentality is, they don’t want to understand this Kṛṣṇa philosophy. They want to remain Hindu. Hindu means hodgepodge, that’s all. Hindu means hodgepodge.
Dhanañjaya: And at the same time…
Prabhupāda: Hindu means Śaṅkara philosophy.
Śyāmasundara: Śaṅkara.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that God has no form, and you can imagine any form and worship for your material benefit. This is at the present moment. And we said that we are not Hindus. Hindu is a Muhammadan title, given.
Dhanañjaya: Muhammadan? [laughing]
Śyāmasundara: That startles you. You didn’t know that?
Dhanañjaya: No! [laughing]
Prabhupāda: Hindu, there is no such word in the Vedic literature. You won’t find this word in Bhāgavata, or Bhagavad-gītā. The Muhammadans outside India, they used to call the sindhus, sindhu. There is a river, Sindhu river. From Sindhu to Hindu. They cannot speak “s,” they call “ha.” In this way it is a hodgepodge word, but it has come that Vedic followers as “hindus,” but this word is not found in any authorized scripture, no.
Our, our system, culture is varṇāśrama-dharma. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ, varṇa [Bg. 4.13]. Varṇa means four sections: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. That is real Vedic culture. That Vedic culture can be all over the world. Why in India? We are trying for that, to get the Vedic culture, which is acceptable by everyone. It is meant for everyone.
Śyāmasundara: So actually Śaṅkara introduced this five gods…
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: …system.
Prabhupāda: Śaṅkara had no universal idea, but still the Śaṅkarites, they won’t accept outside brāhmaṇa caste. They won’t allow sannyāsa unless he’s a caste brāhmaṇa. It is still going on. That is their strict principle. Now it is dwindling—that is a different thing. But we Vaiṣṇavas, we, according to Bhagavad-gītā, whatever one may be, if he takes shelter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness he’s eligible to go back to home, back to Kṛṣṇa.
māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya
ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyās tathāśūdrās
te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim
[Bg. 9.32
pe: Conversation
Date: Aug. 7, 1971
Location: London
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