Finding the Cure for Today’s Social Ills 195

published some of the Purdnas and parts of the Ramayana. There are
volumes in Russian of Mahabharata and also a second edition of
Mahabharata, translated in full. We have also published the full transla-
tion of Manu-smrti with Sanskrit commentaries. Interest in these publica-
tions was so great that they sold out in a week. They are now completely
out of stock. It was impossible to get them in the book market after a
month. There is great interest among reading people here in Moscow and
the U.S.S.R. toward ancient Vedic culture, and from this point of view we
published many such books.

Srila Prabhupada: Among these Puranas, the Srimad-Bhdgavatam is
called the Mahda-Purana.

Prof. Kotovsky: Maha-Purana.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. We have translated the full text—first we pre-
sent the original Sanskrit text, its transliteration, the English equivalent
for each word, then the translation, and then a purport, or explanation of
the verse. In this way, there are eighteen thousand verses in Srimad-
Bhagavatam. We are translating everything literally. You can see. Each
and every verse is being done like that for the whole Bhagavata Purana.
The opinion of the dcaryas, the great saintly sages who are the preachers
of the Bhagavata philosophy, is nigama-kalpataror galitam phalam: this is
the ripened fruit of the Vedic desire tree [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.3]. It is
accepted by all the Indian scholars, and Lord Caitanya especially
preached this Bhdgavatam. So we have the complete Bhagavatam in its
English translation. If you want to see it, I can show you.

Prof. Kotovsky: It seems to me that in the Moscow and Leningrad li-
braries we have nearly all the major texts of ancient Indian culture,
beginning from the Vedas, the original texts in Sanskrit. For instance, in
the Leningrad branch of our Institute there are six or eight editions of
Manu-smrti. This Institute was founded in Imperial Russia in Leningrad,
so in Leningrad we now have a branch of our Institute dealing mainly
with the history of Asiatic culture. You will find here an account of what
is being translated and what studies are being done on the history of In-
dian religion and also the state of Indian religion, Hinduism, in Hindu
India today.

Srila Prabhupada: Hinduism is a very complex topic.

Prof. Kotovsky: Oh, yes. [They laugh.] Really, to my understanding, it
is not a religion from the European point of view; it is a way of life—.
religion, philosophy, a way of life, whatever you want.

Srila Prabhupada: This word ‘‘Hindu”’ is not a Sanskrit word. It was
given by the Muhammadans. You know that there is a river, Indus,
