Prabhupāda: Mind is there in the soul, but the mind is now polluted by material contamination. Just like a madman: he has got his mind, but his mind is contaminated. Therefore he requires treatment by psychiatrist. You cannot say the madman has no mind. He has got mind, but it is contaminated. You have to make treatment. So mind is there. Everything is there in the soul. And now the mind, contaminated by the matter, it is perverted. The same example—a madman has got mind, but it is useless. He is simply acting in madness. The same madman, when properly treated, he will act like a sane man. So mind is there always, in the pure soul or in the material body. Everything is spiritual. The soul is spiritual; the mind is spiritual; the intelligence is spiritual. But it is now contaminated. So you have to make treatment. When it is purified, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then mind is controlled, intelligence properly acting, and soul is in his proper position. Therefore those who are under treatment, they must be strict observation—he may not do something wrong so that treatment may be hampered.
Jayatīrtha: Philosophers generally try to use their mind to speculate about the nature of the soul. But with the mind they can never understand . . .
Prabhupāda: Just like the madman is speculating. He is thinking, "I am president. Bās, finished." He is lying down on the street, "Oh, I am completely independent. Why shall I go on the footpath?"
Dr. Mize: When the soul was in the spiritual sky, it also had a mind and an intelligence like here?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes. Unless he has got mind, how he misuses intelligence?
Dr. Mize: But he misused that intelligence in his freedom, his independence.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Mind is there also. That is spiritual mind. Everything is spiritual. There is nothing material. Body spiritual, mind spiritual, intelligence spiritual, he is spiritual, the land spiritual, water spiritual—everything is spiritual. That is spiritual world. Here in the material world, except the spirit soul, everything is material. And he is encumbered with this material atmosphere by twenty-seven stratas, layers: the five elements, gross elements; then ten senses; and then three guṇas . . . in this way there are twenty-seven layers he is within, and he has to be taken out. That is called liberation. Just like if you are covered with twenty-seven layers of dirty things, so it is very difficult position. But there is process to clear the garbage and take him out. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, to take the soul out of the covering of twenty-seven layers of material atmosphere. That śloka is naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu: "almost cleansed." Abhadra, abhadra means dirty things. So this clearing process going on. When it is almost cleansed the man feels, "Oh . . ." At that process: nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18), constantly being engaged in the service of Bhāgavata, grantha-bhāgavata and the person bhāgavata. Then it will be cleansed. And then, when he comes out, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), "Oh, I am now free." Na śocati na. . . no more lamentation, no more greediness. Everything finished. Then he begins his real business as part and parcel of God. That is perfection.