Existence means

Expressions researched:
"existence means"

Philosophy Discussions

Your existence means you are trying to be perfect. You are making progress from one state to another.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Guidance is (indistinct), then where is different thought? What is that? If the guidance is one, then thought must be on the same relation as different thought.

Śyāmasundara: But he makes this statement that "The difference between God and man can be discerned in that God does not think; He creates. God does not exist; He is eternal. Man thinks..."

Prabhupāda: But He's eternal, He does not exist? What is this? What is that nonsense? He's eternal, He does not exist.

Śyāmasundara: He's thinking that the word "existence" as meaning something that becomes something else-developing, growing, that is existence. And in that sense God is eternal because He does not become anything else, He's always...

Prabhupāda: Then He's perfect. Your existence means you are trying to be perfect. You are making progress from one state to another.

Śyāmasundara: Becoming something else.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So their existence means to..., the process of becoming perfect. Is it?

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Whereas God is already perfect.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. So He does not in the same way exist, but He...

Prabhupāda: So if that is his philosophy, then why not take the direction from God, Bhagavad-gītā? Why you are making experiments from this platform to that platform? Why you are wasting time in that way? If he agrees that God is eternal, existing, perfect, then why don't you take direct from God, or God's representative? Why you are making experiment?

So his existence means from the point of birth up to the point of death. So that is not very good philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the essence of the human being is in his existence. That is that there are numerous kinds of...

Prabhupāda: His idea of existence is: from birth to death. Not beyond death. He did not exist before his birth, and he'll not exist after his death. So his existence means from the point of birth up to the point of death. So that is not very good philosophy.

Śyāmasundara: He says that because... A human being has numerous possibilities open to choose from-different kinds of being for himself. He can choose different kinds of being for himself.

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Śyāmasundara: The possibilities of becoming this or that are his. He can choose. He can elect what he wants to be in the future.

Prabhupāda: That is also not proof. As soon as he gets a body, his thing is settled up. Just like you have got this body—white body. You cannot become black body. Or a man who has got black body, he cannot become white man. This is wrong philosophy. How you can settle up? Because he is considering the of body, he is considering the existence means the manufacture of the body from the womb of mother up to the destruction of the body. So this body, as it is made, there are different types of body. So that cannot be changed.

Śyāmasundara: What about if someone can choose to become a doctor or a lawyer or a physician or anything like that.

Prabhupāda: That is quality; that is not the body.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

My existence means everything—my skin, my hair, my nails, my legs, my hands, everything.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, he is saying that evolving from the smaller units. So they are claiming that there was no human beings at the beginning, so the smaller living entities...

Prabhupāda: But they are claiming that there is no life. That is their defect. Therefore they cannot think how there can be human being. But if you begin from life, supreme life, Viṣṇu, from another life, Brahmā came, then there is no problem. Everything is all right. Because they think that life comes from matter, so millions and millions of years ago there was simply matter. Life was not visible. That is their theory. We don't say that. We say both are the energies, God's energies, life and matter. The life is superior energy; the matter is inferior energy. That is the difference. Both of them are existing. Same thing, example: This nail and this part existing always. This is superior part, this is inferior.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are existing simultaneously or living entity creates.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without nails how can I exist? Without skin, how can I exist? My existence means everything—my skin, my hair, my nails, my legs, my hands, everything.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So one is dependent on the other? Or the spirit is independent of matter?

Prabhupāda: The spirit is independent. Just like I am existing. That is life. And there are other limbs of the body. I can live even without limbs of my body, but I cannot live without life. If I have no hands, no legs, still I live. So therefore I am not dependent on hands and legs. My hands and legs are dependent on me.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

They are struggling for existence. Existence means finding out how to come to the original consciousness, and that is struggle.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: That is the position of the conditioned soul. They are struggling for existence. Existence means finding out how to come to the original consciousness, and that is struggle. Kṛṣṇa means "love," so everyone is struggling hard how to be in the platform of love. So many institution-philanthropy, international and the United Nation—the only attempt: how to love each other. But they are struggling. They have not attained the platform, simply struggling. There have been so many attempts to unite. The vivid example is the United Nation. Formerly that was League of Nation. And people are manufacturing ideas, philanthropism and altruism, Communism, communityism, this ism, that ism. The only thing is, they are trying to come to the platform of love. But they are manufacturing their own way. The Kṛṣṇa solves, that "Not in this way. Simply make Me center, and the whole thing will be done." But that they will not do. They will do in their own way, concocting some idea. And your idea will clash with me; my idea will clash with you. So same struggle continues, that's all. The Communist will not agree with the others, or capitalists, and capitalists will not agree with the Communists. But they are struggling to come to that point, the platform of love.