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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
talk, you should give us the facility to chant the holy name of God and distribute  prasāda . Then there will be a tremendous change in the population. I came alone from India, and now I have many followers. What did I do? I asked them to sit down and chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and afterward I distributed a little  prasāda . If this is done on a mass scale, the entire society will become very pleasing. This is a fact.
Lieutenant Mozee:  Would you want to start the program in an area of affluence or an area of poverty?
Śrila Prabhupāda:  We do not draw such distinctions. Any place easily available to all kinds of men would be very suitable to hold  saṅkīrtana . There is no restriction that only the poor men need the benefit but the rich do not. Everyone needs to be purified. Do you think criminality exists only in the poorer section of society?
Lieutenant Mozee:  No. But I meant to ask whether there would be more of a beneficial influence—more of a strengthening of the community—if the program were held in a poorer area rather than an affluent area.
Śrila Prabhupāda:  Our treatment is for the spiritually diseased person. When a person is afflicted with a disease, there are no distinctions between a poor man and a rich man. They are both admitted to the same hospital. Just as the hospital should be in a place where both the poor man and the rich man can easily come, the location of the  saṅkīrtana  facility should be easily accessible to all. Since everyone is materially infected, everyone should be able to take advantage.
The difficulty is that the rich man thinks he's perfectly healthy, although he's the most diseased of all. But as a policeman, you well know that there's criminality among rich men and poor men alike. So our chanting process is for everyone because it cleanses the heart, regardless of the man's opulence or poverty. The only way to permanently change the criminal habit is to change the heart of the criminal. As you well know, many thieves are arrested numerous times and put into jail. Although they know that if they commit theft they will go to jail, still they are forced to steal because of their unclean hearts. Therefore without cleansing the heart of the criminal, you cannot stop crime simply by more stringent law enforcement. The thief and the murderer already know the law, yet they still commit violent crimes due to their unclean hearts. So our process is to cleanse the heart. Then all the troubles of this material world will be solved.
Lieutenant Mozee:  That's a very difficult task, sir.
Śrila Prabhupāda:  It is not difficult. Simply invite everyone: "Come, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance, and take sumptuous  prasāda ." What is the