Prabhupāda: . . . Kali-yuga, everything should be managed by society. In Bhāgavata also. Yes.
Hayagrīva: Oh, democracy. In Kali-yuga, democracy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Society. Body.
Hayagrīva: This is not best. This is not best. You mention that in the books, that this is not very good.
Prabhupāda: This is not very good in this sense . . . but at that time one man was so advanced, his order was perfect. Actually these kings like Mahārāja Parīkṣit and others, they were consulting learned brahmins, not that they were actually autocrat. No. They used to consult how the government should be conducted.
Kīrtanānanda: They had a council of brāhmins.
Prabhupāda: Yes, council of brahmins. Yes. The brahmins, they are not politicians, but they would give from śāstra direction, "You are a king. You do like this."
Kīrtanānanda: There were instances when the king wouldn't follow the brāhmiṇs, so they were thrown out, weren't they?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There were such instances also. Just like Prthu Mahārāja. His father was dethroned. I think same thing was in England also, the knights. If they liked, they dethroned the king.
Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly the knights. They were more . . .
Prabhupāda: Noblemen. Yes. The knights are different?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. Knights were fighting men.
Satyabhāmā: They're warriors. Knights were like kṣatriya.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh. And noblemen?
Kīrtanānanda: They were the lords. They were . . .
Satyabhāmā: There were no brāhmins, though. (laughs)
Śyāma: There were bishops.
Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly brāhmins. They were proprietors of large tracts of land, and they were responsible for giving protection to a certain number of people under them.
Prabhupāda: Aristocrats. The same system the Britishers introduced in India also. They were called zamindari. (break) That is sannyāsī's business.