Prabhupāda: Consciousness is the symptom of ātmā. Because the ātmā is within your body, therefore your consciousness is there. Now, because the ātmā is within the body, if I pinch or if you pinch my body, I feel pains and pleasure. As soon as the ātmā will not be there, it will be cut with a chopper, there is no protest. So that ātmā is present within this body, that is understood by the presence of consciousness. Just like we are in this room, but this light is the reflection of the sunshine. We understand there is sun in the sky. The light and heat we are feeling, that means the sun is in the sky. Similarly, our consciousness and knowledge, etcetera, are there, that means that the ātmā is there. The same ātmā, when it will go out of this body, there will be no more consciousness, no more knowledge, no more feelings of pains and pleasure.
Kim Cornish: Can one say what qualities the ātman has?
Prabhupāda: That I have already explained: eternity, knowledge and blissfulness.
Kim Cornish: And does Hindu philosophy say anything about . . .
Prabhupāda: Don't take of Hindu philosophy; talk of philosophy.
Kim Cornish: Philosophy. How the ātman came into being?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Kim Cornish: How did the ātman come into being?
Prabhupāda: Ātmā is not coming into being; it is already there. But at the present moment it is accepting a different types of body. Just like your this dress is available in the market. And you are also there, so you purchase the dress and put on. Similarly, the different types of bodies are already there. You, according to your desire, accept one type of body, and you appear in that body. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body, and you have to accept one of them, according to desire, according to your work. You are working. Everyone is working. Now, according to the work and association, he is creating his body. Just like if you infect some type of disease, then you'll have to accept that disease. So we are working in different way—we are individuals—and according to that work we are creating our next body. If you are working in a godly way, then you'll get your body next as god, and if you are working in a dogly way, then you'll get your body as dog. So by nature's way, evolution, we come through 800,000,000's of forms of life, then nature gives us a chance to accept this human form of body. In this body, our consciousness being advanced, if we try, we can understand what is the problem of life, why we have accepted birth, death, old age and disease, how to get out of it, how to revive our original nature of body and again become eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. This is the chance of the human body. Therefore you are a philosopher because you are in the human body, but a dog cannot be a philosopher. He may be a very big dog, can bark very loudly—he has got very good strength, can create good disturbance—but he cannot understand philosophy. That is not possible. But a human being can understand. Therefore he should be given chance to understand the philosophy of life. And that is Vedas.
Kim Cornish: That is?
Prabhupāda: Vedas.
Amogha: Vedas.
Kim Cornish: Oh, Vedas, yes.
Prabhupāda: The Vedas are there for understanding by the human society. And if he lives like a cat and dog, then he's spoiling his life. We should take advantage of the Vedic knowledge and make our life successful. This is real philosophy.