Indian man: Is that merger itself not ānanda?
Prabhupāda: No ānanda. It is eternity, but no ānanda. So eternally how you can remain without ānanda? So you have to come back again. Because here there is something ānanda although it is temporary. So unless you go to God and dance with Him, you'll have to back, come. So impersonalists, they cannot reconcile how God can be personal. Because you have got very bad experience of personal here, they think God is also a similar person. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). He thinks God is also a human being like me. Avajānanti. Mūḍhāḥ. They are mūḍhas. They are not intelligent.
Indian man: But what is the stage at which it is ātmā gets merged with Paramātmā? If ātmā would get merged with Paramātmā then...
Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. You cannot merge. You simply imagine. Merging means you merge in the spiritual atmosphere, but without ānanda you cannot stay there. Therefore you have to come back again to this material world. Suppose you are advocate and you are given some place without any practice. How long you will you remain there? If I say, "Please remain here happily without any practice." How long you'll remain? We want some activities. That is our nature, for ānanda. But here we are trying to get that ānanda, but that is temporary. That is not satisfying us. Therefore being disgusted we want to stop it and merge. But there is also temporary. Unless you go back to home back to Godhead, there is no complete life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and shows by His spiritual activities. He's playing with the boys, He's dancing with the girls, He's killing the demons, and so many activities. This is ānanda. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). They are all spiritual. You have read our Kṛṣṇa Book? Yes. There is everything. So as far as possible we are trying to give people the real knowledge from the śāstra. Now it is up to them to accept or take advantage of it.
Indian man: And practice.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man: Will Swamiji discourse this evening?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man: You are doing greatest service to the humanity throughout the world.
Prabhupāda: At least, I am trying. But it is very difficult. We have to spoil hundreds of gallons blood before one comes to the point. It is very simple thing. Only our leaders of the society, they are sleeping. They are misguided themselves and misguiding others. That is the difficulty.