Spiritual Communism
During his visit to the Soviet Union, Šrila Prabhupāda talks with Professor Grigoriy Kotovsky, head of the India Department at the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences: “Whether you surrender to monarchy, aristocracy, or dictatorship, you have to surrender; that is a fact. Without surrender there is no life. It is not possible. So we are educating people to surrender to the Supreme, wherefrom you get all protection. . . . Any other surrender you have to change by revolution. But when you come to Krșna, then it is sufficient. You are satisfied.”
Šrila Prabhupāda:  The other day I was reading the paper,  Moscow News . There was a Communist congress, and the President declared, “We are ready to take others’ experience to improve.” So I think the Vedic concept of socialism or communism will much improve the idea of communism. For example, in a socialistic state the idea is that no one should starve; everyone must have his food. Similarly, in the Vedic concept of  grhastha  [householder] life it is recommended that a householder see that even a lizard or a snake living in his house should not starve. Even these lower creatures should be given food, and certainly all humans should. It is recommended that the  grhastha , before taking his lunch, stand on the road and declare, “If anyone is still hungry, please come! Food is ready!” If there is no response, then the proprietor of the household takes his lunch. Modern society takes the people as the whole or proprietor of a certain state, but the Vedic conception is  iśāvāsyam idam sarvam —everything is owned by  iśa , the supreme controller.  Tena tyaktena bhuñjūthāḥ —you may enjoy what is allotted to you by Him.  Mā grdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam : but do not encroach upon others’ property. This is the  Īśopaniṣad — Veda . The same idea is explained in the different  Purāṇas . There are many good concepts in the Vedic literature about communism. So I thought that these ideas should be distributed to your most thoughtful men. Therefore I was anxious to speak.
Prof. Kotovsky:  It is interesting that here in our country there is now great interest in the history of old, old thought. From this point of view, our Institute translated into Russian and published many literary monuments of great Indian culture. You will be interested to discover that we
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