1. Srila Prabhupada and his disciples don’t follow American ways of life

    Jaya-gopala: I thought I heard it said that you are in this world without being a part of it. You are in the world without being a part of it, being a part of it, like the lotus flower which floats on the water.

    Prabhupada: Yes, that is the way of understanding. Just like I am in America. It is very easy to understand. I am not adopting any ways of life as the Americans do. So I am not in America. Not only myself, all my disciples who are following me, they are also not Americans. They're different from American behavior, American ways of life. In that sense I'm not in America. I am in Vrndavana because wherever I go in my apartment or in my temple I live with Krsna and Krsna consciousness. I don't accept any consciousness of America. And I teach my disciples also to take to that consciousness. So one who takes to that consciousness, he is also not in America, not in this world.

    From Srila Prabhupada's lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.46-62 — Los Angeles, December 16, 1968