Prabhupāda: Plan is... The whole plan is that living entities, they're part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Somehow or other they wanted to enjoy this material world so Kṛṣṇa has given them chance (indistinct). Just like children, some small children, they want to play with something but the father guides so that they may not meet(?), fall down, so many things. "No, no, don't do this. You can play like this." So Kṛṣṇa says, sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭho, I am sitting in everyone's heart, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15), I am giving him intelligence, forgetfulness, everything. So he wanted to play, "All right, give to him the chance to play." But the whole plan is that "Let him play, and again come back." That is Vedic knowledge, that he wants to play, "All right, you play." But when he's fatigued by this nonsense play, he says, "Give up this. Come to me," sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the plan.
Śyāmasundara: So the world is a school house or a school ground where we become educated...
Prabhupāda: Yes, a playground, it is called field. It is called field. Kṣetrajñā. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate (BG 13.2). Idaṁ śarīram, this body is field, a small field. You wanted to play, "Alright take this field and work." That is going on. You are exhausted with this field, Kṛṣṇa gives another field, "Alright, take this." He gives another field, in this way changing different fields, fields of action, that's all. This body is field of action.
Śyāmasundara: It's not aimless, there's a gradual evolution...
Prabhupāda:. No, there is aim, that Kṛṣṇa is giving knowledge also. The Vedas are there, Kṛṣṇa is coming, giving knowledge, that this kind of playing will not help you, therefore I, His request, you give up all this playing, come to Me. This is the point.
Śyāmasundara: So Hegel has a method for relating all phenomenal objects to this whole, or to the ...
Prabhupāda: Hegel's method will not do because he has no idea. Hegel's method will not help.
Śyāmasundara: His method is called the dialectic.
Prabhupāda: Dialectic means speculation.
Śyāmasundara: Well, just like...
Prabhupāda: Logic, dialectic, this and that, this and that. What is the meaning of dialectic?
Śyāmasundara: Well, just like he divides it into three parts, the triad...
Prabhupāda: Well, let him do that, but dialectic, what does it mean?
Śyāmasundara: It means the synthesis of two opposing elements, like if you have...
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, I understand.
Śyāmasundara: ...the thesis, the antithesis and the synthesis.
Prabhupāda: Mm. That is means argument. You say something, I say something, and then you come to conclusion.
Śyāmasundara: Reconciliation.
Prabhupāda: That's it. Conclusion is there, what is called? Premises, premises, (indistinct) are called premises. Man is mortal. Mr. John is a man, therefore John is mortal.
Śyāmasundara: No, but that's the Aristotelian process, he rejects Aristotle's process.
Prabhupāda: He may reject Aristotle's process, that is..., the real thing is like that, that by your scanty reason, you come to this conclusion, in that (indistinct).
Śyāmasundara: His process would be more like: man is immortal. The antithesis is that man is not immortal. So then the synthesis would be the combination, the resolution of those two.
Prabhupāda: What is that synthesis?
Śyāmasundara: The synthesis would be perhaps that man's body is mortal and he's immortal.
Prabhupāda: Perhaps. There is no certainty.
Śyāmasundara: Man's body is mortal and he's immortal.
Prabhupāda: What is this conclusion?
Śyāmasundara: I'm only using it as an example. You said that... You gave a proposal that man is immortal, that John is a man, therefore John is immortal. That's Aristotelian logic, Aristotle's logic.
Prabhupāda: That means his business is to defeat Aristotle's philosophy.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. He says that that kind of reasoning is static, that it...
Prabhupāda: That means he... All right, there are two processes. One is inductive and one is deductive. This is deductive process.
Śyāmasundara: It's a syllogism.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: It deals with the "isness" of something.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And there is another process, inductive. Now let us see whether man is mortal or immortal. So go and study. So there are two processes. We say in our Sanskrit language, avaroha panthā, āroha panthā, knowledge coming from up, and knowledge for trying to go up. Ascending process and descending process. So we say that descending process is perfect.
Śyāmasundara: Actually the example you brought out is very good because he says the essential dialectic of all is just this: there is a thesis of being, and an antithesis of nothing. So that, you said man is immortal, that is...
Prabhupāda: Being.
Śyāmasundara: That is being. So the antithesis of that is that man is mortal, or nothing; so how to reconcile those two is...
Prabhupāda: The reconcile is the body is nothing and the spirit is something. This is synthesis. This is our proposal. The body is nothing, false, but I am real. But those who have no knowledge, they are taking one side. But we are taking two sides: this body is there, this is false, but it is temporary. Although I say I'm not this body, if somebody knocks me I feel pain. So this is temporary. Mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Due to this body, I am feeling pains and pleasures. So the Buddha philosophy is you make this body nil, then there is no pains and pleasures. But that is imperfect. Because I am there, I will accept another body. So that, death does not mean liberation. Death does not mean liberation. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir. You have to accept another body. Liberation means when you are no more in this material world, you go back to spiritual world, that is liberation.