At the age of 16, when I was searching for deeper knowledge about God. Having developed as a youth in the Anglican Church, I was very keen about Christianity. I was very curious about Jesus Christ and when I entered the teen age, I wanted more. So, I started reading wide, I delved into Islam and other religions and when I encountered the Bhagavad-Gita, which is the basic Bible of Hare Krishna, there I found some profound knowledge about God. Not only that he is great, but also how great; not only that he is merciful but how merciful. What are the different aspects of God? We usually have a generalised and basic concept about God: supreme, all-powerful, all merciful, all pervasive and the likes. But there is little knowledge as to his personality, his traits, his character, his person. Does he have a form? Is he formless? So, this is the relationship that exists in the spiritual kingdom. This knowledge is available in this ancient book, which is the most voluminous of the Vedic scriptures, which by the way are the oldest known literatures of the world. This book describes in detail the personality of God, the kingdom of God, what people do there, what it looks like, what is the nature of plants; and the five types of relationships with God. So, I fell for it.

Yes; and we should broaden that question thus: is there any relationship between these books and other authentic religious literatures on our planet? The answer is yes; and you can see here our comparative study with Islam and other Christian literatures, a comparative study of Christianity and our literature and I think we can summarise this. Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad-Gita: "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious principles and a predominant rise of religion, at that time, I descend" and he descends or he sends his prophets or sons. So, the difference in different religions is not the quality but the quantity. All religions in the world are qualitatively the same, meaning that it's the same God we worship, but in quality they are different, in terms of how much is being revealed about that God. When you are a fisherman for example, or you are not particularly scholarly in nature, God delivers a scripture that would suit your understanding. When 5,000 years ago, Lord Krishna spoke these books to the sages in India, these people were scholars, writers and philosophers; so, he gave everything and that is why we have a Bible that is not just one volume; we have a Bible that is almost 35 volumes. That is the difference among the various religions in quantity and not in quality.

I would like to rephrase that question. Instead of what difference, I would say what similarity, because the world has been divided based on non-existence differences. A husband and wife have multiple differences between them, but somehow they get on and they have children and grow to old age. Religion is as much 80 per cent in common and yet we are divided; we enter into violent exchanges all in the name of God. The similarities in religion are as follows: we all have the same mode of worship; I'm not talking about religions like paganism; I'm talking about religions that tend to worship the one and only supreme God and there is one principal way of worshipping him and this is stated in the Bible and it says "Call upon the name of the Lord and thou shall be saved;" and another Bible statement says, "Praise the Lord with drums and cymbals." If you enter our temples, you would see two instruments, the mudanga drum and the karalata cymbal and those are the only two things you see in our temple that are identical. Prophet Mohammed spoke about the 91 names of Allah; so the mode of worship is identical but one thing you would notice is that the Hare Krishna people are famous for our street chanting; they know us all over the world. In Paris, in New York, we all go over the streets and we chant and a lot of Christians look at us and say its weird but in early Christianity, they have what they called coralline. The word 'Christmas' comes from the word coralline. They go into the streets and proclaim the name of God with drums and cymbals; that's early Christianity. But these days people are too shy to do that. Also, early Christianity did not wear suits and ties. Jesus Christ wore robes, and early Christians wore robes, just as Hare Krishnas' wear robes; the same with Islam too. Also, the early Christians pray with beads, which has been sustained by the Catholics of today. The Muslims pray with their beads also. There is also a particular hairstyle for Hare Krishna that everybody knows, which is called the 'Tonsure' in the 14th century. History has it that the Christian priests also had their hair shaven like that as a sign of dedication to God and that is the same definition that Hare Krishna gives. So, when we think very well about it, there are little differences, but many similarities. The differences that we have are, for example, that of languages (Arabic, Greek and other languages of our own). Certain cultural differences must be there, mode of dressing and few other things would be there, but in terms of requirement or visa to go to the kingdom of God, it's the same technique.

It's the knowledge.

What is most unique about the Vedic teachings is the revelation of knowledge, which is presented in these very scriptures. I will like to explain that the Vedic knowledge is encyclopedic because the knowledge is presented in practically its absolute degree, because we understand that knowledge is one but the difference is only in terms of degree. So, within the Vedic scriptures, you find spiritual knowledge, which is presented in the highest possible degree for the human beings. The most evolved spiritualist were those who were the priest and teachers; the masters who spoke the Vedic scriptures. They presented the absolute truth to the best possible degree. Even Jesus Christ said, "I have many things to tell you, but you are not ready." He candidly confessed because his audience were not qualified to a decree of understanding such knowledge because there are certain qualification for understanding spiritual knowledge. One of them is austerity. One must have performed certain austerities before he would become receptive enough to understand a deeper aspect to the things of God, so the same great mystics and sages that spoke the Vedic knowledge they had evolved to the highest spiritual state. For example, the king while seeking that knowledge, spent seven days without eating, drinking or sleeping and these prophets throughout their lives, did not know such things as telling lies, or eating of meat and so on. They were pure vegetarians and they lived their life based on total righteousness. So that's the qualification for receiving such deep transcendental knowledge. Even in our Hare Krishna movement, there are certain regiments that we follow. For example, we are vegetarians; we don't eat fish or meat or eggs because we believe that to understand a deeper knowledge, one must live a very righteous life. He must be totally non-violent even towards animals and other creatures because we believe that even the spirit of God lives in other creatures and no one can really understand God to his deep spiritual knowledge if he has not learnt to love his other creatures. So, through vegetarianism, we are able to understand to that deeper exoteric level that God lives in all creatures and that all creatures are spiritual entities not just with human beings but actually all living entities are spiritual sparks. The spirit dwells in all of them. Which is an eternal unlimited and ever expanding transcendental abode beyond the material universes and in our universe we say that there are nine planets, but the Vedic scriptures enumerate more than nine planets and say that we are claiming nine because those nine exist within our own dimension. Within three dimensions, the Vedic scriptures say that there are 24 dimensions many of which we cannot perceive with our own eyes. For example, cats and dogs; they can perceive many things. Sometimes, a cat would mew or a dog would bark because they see so many things that we cannot see. This is well known in the area of psychology. The Vedic scriptures say that there are 24 dimensions and that there are various types that exist within the various planets, all our nine planets are accounted for, but all the other planets are also accounted for, both visible and non-visible, by us. It goes very deeply into the residents of the abodes, the living entities of the abodes. In other words, for example, in the lower planets, what kind of beings live there? What is their way of life? Where are the angels? All these things are in the diagrammatic form and then you come to our planets; the Vedic scriptures cover all topics from the religion, philosophy to psychology, and so on. It goes much beyond that.

That's an interesting question. I am going to answer the question first by saying that the person that brought Hare Krishna to the Western world, was once asked what his opinion was on Jesus Christ and he said Jesus Christ is our Guru and now you are asking me for my personal opinion and I consider that interesting. I would say that I take part in Christian activities and I believe in Christ to the extent that I take part in Christian activities. I go to church with my mother. I am actually a patron to a church in Lagos and I have a Bible that I read. As a matter of fact, I have three bibles including the New African Bible. So, I think that Jesus Christ still continues to play a part in our lives. The important thing to understand here is that there tends to be an extremism in humans no matter what organisation, religious, non-religious, educational etc. There's always a tendency towards taking oneself to being exclusive. If you go to the University of Lagos, you'll hear them chanting that they're the one and only university; the same happens at the Obafemi Awolowo University. Even some churches would tell you that if you do not go to their church, you are not guaranteed heaven. So, there is this tendency and we want to break it; we want to say that it all depends on the individual practice and how the devotee applies himself to the instructions of God, follow those instructions and then call upon the name of God as a loving child. Your success depends on that.

I would take that question a little deeper. Krishna's consciousness is closer to early Christianity than some churches are. For example, we preach reincarnation, but we found that at the fifth council of Constantinople in the 15th century, bishops gathered and looked at what they needed to expunge from the Bible and one of the things they expunged was the teaching on reincarnation. Early Christianity is very close to Hare Krishna. We wear robes; they wore robes; we pray with beads; they prayed with beads; we shave our hear and leave the middle; they have something similar called the 'Tonsure.' Our mode of prayer is the public chanting of the names of God in the streets; they used to sing carols. When you compare Hare Krishna with early Christianity, there's no problem; but if you compare Hare Krishna to modern Christianity you start seeing some differences.