Hamsadutta Swami has done something. I say Hamsadutta because he is the only one who ever used his brains to do something. Now whomever started big book distribution?
Whoever did that, they used their brains.
Was it Tamal Krishna?
Maybe it was some little devotee you never even heard about, who just went out and did it and then Tamal Krishna stole the idea, which seems more like the truth because I just never saw that the majority of the authorities in ISKCON, as inventive or innovative. They were not.
(Note from Editor: Big book distribution was invented and started at the Los Angele Temple by Karandhar Dasa, GBC and one of two BBT Trustees, and Rameswara Bramachari. Later on a group of ISKCON authorities headed by Tamal Krishna Goswami wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada and accused Karandhar Dasa of devious book distribution methods. Karandhar then had to go to India to defend himself to Srila Prabhupada. After explaining to Srila Prabhupada the real facts; Srila Prabhupada approved of Karandhar big book distribution methods. Then all temples in ISKCON copied what Karandhar and Rameswara invented.)
But Hamsadutta stepped out and did things that were not approved by anybody, and they turned out to be successful. That is why I like him. You got to use your brains and intelligence. You cannot just be like a parrot or some kind of blind follower of Srila Prabhupada.
You have to really use your intelligence and come up with these innovative things. However, devotees in general, do not do that.
Every one of these programs, in ISKCON, were instructed to them, letter to letter, by Srila Prabhupada; instructions on exactly how to do it. Moreover, the people who are now big devotees, are people who had the faith that
Prabhupada was right and did it; that is all. It is a great thing that they have that kind of faith.
But as far as intelligence; it was not their intelligence; it was Srila Prabhupada’s intelligence. The devotees happened to have enough intelligence to follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions; that is all.
Neither was it my intelligence. I mean it was my intelligence to think of working with black people separately. All right I proposed it. But as soon as I proposed it Prabhupada wrote to me and explained what to do; everything.
What did he write?
He said do not preach to black people; it is a complete waste of time and they will never understand the philosophy. This really blew my mind, because ….
Yeah, this is new dialogue, I would like to go into it.
I said to myself, “what?” Because all I did all day was talk to these maniacs. They would ask questions all day. But I realized something was wrong and then when Srila Prabhupada said do not talk to them I said,
“Oh, that is what is wrong.”
Because the large majority of black people are in the modes of ignorance, they are mostly crazy. People in the modes of ignorance are addicted to insanity. They are addicted to intoxication, and they are insane. One of the laws of the mode of ignorance is that you will go mad. And most black people are mad. They are mostly mad people. So when I talk to mad people, I liked it. Because maybe I am also mad. We are influenced by the mode of ignorance. I loved it. I mean I was tripping out all day talking to these maniacs. But it was actually sense gratification. I mean I was not breaking any principles, but I was having a good time.