Jyotirmayī (translator): So I'd like to introduce you to these gentlemen and these ladies. He is... He's called Pere Canivez. Pere Canivez, here, and he is the Secretary of the Bishops of France, and he would like to come and discuss with you. Here is the Pere Fransad. He's a Christian priest also who, that I knew and so by his help Pere Canivez came. And he'd like to come with this lady who's come, Madame Siaude. She's living in India usually.
Prabhupāda: Oh, you live in India?
Madame Siaude: Yeah, in the French part of, far eastern state, in Pondicherry.
Prabhupāda: Pondicherry?
Madame Siaude: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh, Aurobindo's place.
Madame Siaude: Yes, I have been there a long time.
Jyotirmayī: And she was studying with M. Laconde, this gentleman who came yesterday. She's very much studying Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya...
Prabhupāda: Hm. Vaiṣṇava philosophy.
Jyotirmayī: Vaiṣṇava philosophy. And we'd like to invite also M. Misraki. He's a compositor of music, but he also wrote book on life after death and many different things. So he was interested to come also. So they all came together.
Prabhupāda: So they are all nice gentlemen and ladies. It is...
Jyotirmayī: And very interesting too, that the first question, one of the first questions that Pere Fransad asked me, was: "Do you believe in love of God, and that God is a person? Some people say that God is not a person, and we say God is a person."
Bhagavān: So you can translate in French so that they can understand.
Prabhupāda: At least Christians cannot believe in impersonal God.
Jyotirmayī: What?
Prabhupāda: Christians, they cannot say that God is impersonal. (French) Because, because Christ is son of God. So the son is person. How the Father can be imperson? And in the Bible it is said, "There was word in the beginning." That is God's word. So if one has a word, then He's a person. Word comes from the tongue and mouth. As soon as there is word, background is tongue and mouth. And then... The Christians pray in the church, "Oh, God, give us our daily bread." So God has got ear so that He will hear and supply. But His personality, His word, His hearing, they're all transcendental, nonmaterial. (French)
Jyotirmayī: So he says he agrees on this point. As you say, God is... We have a personal relationship with God.
Prabhupāda: Yes, God is person. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Absolute Truth is realized from three angles of vision, Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Bhagavān is person, and Paramātmā, all-pervading, localized, and Brahman, impersonal. Just like the sunshine is impersonal the sun globe, localized, and the sun-god person. (break)
Jyotirmayī: He says he's accepting some of the things you are saying, but he's doesn't think that he's obliged to accept everything.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes. Everything is emanation from God. That is our Vedānta-sūtra. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Whatever things are there... In the Bible, also there is... "Everything comes from Him, what is made." Yesterday, we were reading? Yes. So whatever is created, that is made out of God. And the Vedic injunction is sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: "Everything is Brahman, the Supreme Brahman." So the impersonal feature is an expansion of God's energy. Just like the sunshine is expansion of the energy of sun, so the sunshine is resting on the bodily rays of the sun-god. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said, brahmaṇaḥ ahaṁ pratiṣṭhā. The resting place of the impersonal Brahman is God, Kṛṣṇa. Find out this verse, brahmaṇaḥ ahaṁ pratiṣṭhā.
Nitāi: Brahmaṇaḥ aham...
- brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham
- amṛtasyāvyayasya ca
- śaśvatasya ca dharmasya
- sukhasyaikāntikasya ca
"I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal."
Prabhupāda: Purport.
Nitāi: "The constitution of Brahman..."
Prabhupāda: Oh, oh. You have to explain.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: I'll get another.
Bhagavān: In the meantime, we can translate from here.