Prabhupāda: If it was possible to keep them by medicine, then no rich men would have died. You have got sufficient means to pay for medicine, and he would have kept his relatives, son alive. Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha nārtasya cāgadam udanvati majjato nauḥ. Prahlāda Mahārāja has said. It is not possible.
Rāmeśvara: They are very hopeful that modern medicine can keep them...
Prabhupāda: They are hopeful of everything. That is their foolishness. Hope against hope, that's all. The hope will never be fulfilled, still... Therefore they are called pramatta. Pramatta means mad, crazy. Their hopefulness means that is a proof that crazy, mad.
Bali-mardana: Some of the rich men, they buy a cabinet that their body is put into, and they hope that they will wake up in a thousand years.
Prabhupāda: Yes, hope there must be, otherwise how they are foolish? This is called..., what is called? Bakāṇḍo nyāya. Baka, the duck, and aṇḍa, the testicle. So the bull, he has a testicle hanging, and the baka is thinking it is a fish. (laughter) So he's going, he's... (laughter). This is called bakāṇḍo nyāya.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have seen it.
Prabhupāda: Everyone knows, this is a common thing in India. You'll see, the baka is going on. He's hoping, "This fish will drop and..." (laughter) Therefore they are baka. Bokā means rascal, bokā means rascal. In India we say any fool, bokā or baka.
Bali-mardana: Baka is a duck?
Prabhupāda: Means that the duck is a fool. Bakāṇḍo nyāya. Very appropriate, this bakāṇḍo nyāya. Logic of duck and testicle.
Rāmeśvara: You say they are ghostly haunted.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Rāmeśvara: Ghostly haunted.
Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone, the materialistic man means ghostly haunted. He's talking so many nonsense. The whole grade, philosophy, science and everything, all ghostly talking, that's all. There is no reality. Just like the new science you said, what is that?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Huh?
Prabhupāda: That new medical science?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Biomedical ethics.
Prabhupāda: A big name.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, it's a nice name. They started with theology also now, in the speculative branch of philosophy.
Prabhupāda: So in spite of these big, big names and research and everything, man will die. This is bakāṇḍo nyāya. He's thinking it will drop. It will never be possible, but they're thinking that by these big, big names we shall find out the way that man will not die. This is bakāṇḍo nyāya. Hope against hope. So by that method they want to live? No.
Bali-mardana: No. They want to decide when to turn off the machine that is keeping the heart beating, because sometimes the brain stops functioning. The person..., the body is still alive, but there's no consciousness.
Prabhupāda: The coma.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Also they cut out the hearts when they do these heart transplants. They've been accused of taking out the heart of a living person.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The doctors have been accused of taking out the hearts of living persons.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So how to use it? What they'll use?
Rāmeśvara: Sometimes if a man is in critical condition he will donate his bodily organs, so they will kill him just to take out his heart so that they can use it for transplanting.
Bali-mardana: When his brain stops, even though the heart is beating, they take it out.
Prabhupāda: So? (pause) That is the question put by Sanātana Gosvāmī. Ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. "I want to live, but what is that force that does not allow me to live?" This is the question, this is the question. They are trying to find out so many laws, so many, what is the purpose? They want to live, but there is a force that will not allow you to live. That is the human question. When this question arises, then he is human being; otherwise he's a dog. Dog never inquires.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He has no control over it.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He has no control over it.
Prabhupāda: Neither he can understand, he has no intelligence.