Prabhupāda: The material variety is the perverted reflection of the spiritual variety. As it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, Fifteenth Chapter: ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākham (BG 15.1). This tree, this material world compared with a aśvattha vṛkṣa. The root is up, upstairs, upwards, and the branches and leaves are down, downwards. Why? Because it is reflection, chāyā, or māyā. The real tree is in the Vaikuṇṭha planet or in the spiritual world. It is only simply a reflection. Just like a tree standing on the bank of reservoir of water, on the bank of a lake or a river, you'll see the tree is reflected downwards.
So this description in the Fifteenth Chapter, of this material world, downwards . . . Ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākha means this is only a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. The real tree is in the spiritual world. The other day . . . who was asking about this question? Some of our . . .? Ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākha? Who was asking me? Eh? Oh. Gopāla. He's not here. All right.
So adhah-śākha ūrdhva-mūlam. This means this material . . . all the varieties, here is also representation of śānta rasa, dāsya rasa, sākhya rasa, mādhurya rasa, vātsalya rasa. Here is also the reflection. We see, just like we are sitting on this ground underneath the tree. This is the . . . the earth is serving us in śānta rasa. Similarly, we have got our servants. That is dāsya rasa. We have got our friends. That is sākhya rasa. We have got our parents. That is vātsalya rasa. And we have got our lovers also. That is mādhurya rasa. But it is only reflection.
It is compared with the mirage. Just like the desert, there is reflection of water. Actually there is no water. Similarly, all this perverted reflection of śānta rasa, dāsya rasa, sākhya rasa, this is just like mirage. It is simply a reflection. It has no actual fact. Here nobody's friend, nobody's servant, nobody's parent, nobody's lover. It is simply a bondage of some self-interest. The servant is not actually serving the master; it is serving the money which the master gives him. As soon as the payment will be stopped, there will be no more service.
Therefore it is a perverted reflection of that service attitude in the Vaikuṇṭha planet. And similarly we have seen there is . . . there was high-court cases between mother and the sons, and they spent lots of money. Still they could not come into conclusion. The motherly affection, the paternal affection, just simply a shadow. It appears to be true, because the truth is elsewhere. Just like in the desert it appears there is a great, vast mass of water, but actually there is no water. But that does not mean there is no water. The impression of water is there because there is actually water somewhere.
Similarly, we are trying to taste the five rasas in this material world. Because actually these rasas are there in the spiritual world. This is only reflection. Ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākham (BG 15.1). And because in the spiritual world it is a fact, we are taking these false things as fact, these temporary things as fact. Actually it is not fact.
Go on.
Pradyumna: "There are many instances, especially in India, where these Māyāvādī sannyāsīs descend to the material platform again. But a person who is fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness will never return to any sort of material platform. However alluring and attracting they may be, he always knows that no material welfare activities can be compared with the spiritual activity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness."
"The mystic perfections achieved by actually successful yogīs are eight in number. Aṇimā-siddhi refers to the power by which one can become so small that he can enter into a stone. Modern scientific improvements also enable us to enter into stone because they provide for excavating so many subways, penetrating the hills, etc. So aṇimā-siddhi, the mystic perfection of trying to enter into stone, has also been achieved by material science. Similarly, all of the yoga siddhis, or perfections, are material arts."
Prabhupāda: Yoga siddhis, they are simply material arts. Just like one example is given, that aṇimā siddhi, aṇimā siddhi means to enter into the stone. So we see in the Western countries they are boring big, big hills and entering in the stone. So that aṇimā siddhi is being possible . . . is made possible by modern scientific researches. So all the siddhis—aṣṭa siddhi, aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, prākāmya, īśitā, vaśitā—these all siddhis are material; they are not spiritual. But people do not know what is spiritual perfection. They become amazed by seeing some magic by these yogic arts. They're simply material arts.
Go on.
Pradyumna: "For example, in one yoga siddhi there is development of the power to become so light that one can float in the air or on water. That is also being performed by modern scientists. They are flying in air, they are floating on the surface of the water, and they are traveling under the water. After comparing all these mystic yoga siddhis to materialistic perfections, it is found that the materialistic scientists try for the same perfections. So actually there is no difference between mystic perfection and materialistic perfection."
"A German scholar once said that the so-called yoga perfections have already been achieved by the modern scientists, and so he was not concerned with them. He intelligently went to India to learn how he could understand his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord by means of bhakti-yoga, devotional service."
Prabhupāda: So therefore, bhakti-yoga is the greatest science. Other things, the yogic perfections, can be achieved by the materialist scientist. So that is not very great art. The greatest art to learn is how to learn bhakti-yoga and understand Kṛṣṇa.