Artificial heart and this real heart the same thing—it is material. Where is the difference? There is no difference.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: What about these..., the artificial hearts that they are making?
Prabhupāda: Artificial heart and this real heart the same thing—it is material. Where is the difference? There is no difference.
Dr. Sharma: Just like they are trying to produce babies in the test-tube. They are never going to be successful. But they can keep on trying. I recently went to Houston, and there I have read that they cannot keep somebody alive even more than five, six hours. So far away from such a thing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about this heart transplant?
Dr. Sharma: Well, the heart transplants actually have been given up everywhere except one place, that's in Stanford Medical Center. And they are doing it because they are the one who initially started it, so they are emotionally stable about it. But actually I have gone and seen there, and they do it... The people are, you know, the recipient patient is very unhappy after the heart transplant. He's very restless, and he has nightmares and he is extremely unhappy.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Has Dr. Barnard of South Africa stopped it now?
Dr. Sharma: Well, he has stopped after doing nine, but Stanford people, they have done about almost over a hundred, and they can keep somebody alive another six months or a year or at the most two years. But the man, the man's existence is very miserable. He has to take so many drugs, and he is bloated like a balloon, and he cannot even do the simple duties like taking walks or going to bathroom. He has to be very careful. If he just slips, it will develop the fracture of his ventricle, and that's all. It is very, very unnatural, and I don't think they can solve this problem at all. It is just man's struggle (for) life.(?) And I know they are saying they will do only in people with proper insurance because the hospital bill is $70,000 for a heart transplant.
Prabhupāda: All rascals, they...
Dr. Sharma: This is a perfect example of what Prabhupāda is saying, because this is not justified on any account-moral, ethical, medical...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or financial.
Dr. Sharma: Or financial. They only waste their time, and this is, you know, an example of how stubborn man can be, especially the scientists. The real transplant that was done was done by the Lord Śiva when he did transplant of the head of Lord Gaṇeśa. That was the only successful transplant I know of.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we will come back about four or five hours. (speaks to Dr. Sharma about setting up preaching engagements)
Dr. Sharma: (replying to Svarūpa Dāmodara) ...to some of the basic scientists. Some of them have a spiritual background, you know. Just they probably are waiting to meet a person like your background or Mādhava's background. Normally it has come out like this. People talk half-heartedly here, and they don't pursue it, they don't have the conviction to pursue it in this country. Very quickly give up. If I get this idea, then next morning I forget about it, and then whatever... I don't even, you know, I am afraid to talk about it. So you have very boldly come out with this, and so many centuries of tradition is there to back you up. So I think you should pursue it with all your enthusiasm, and with Prabhupāda's blessing you will really go a long way, as I say about it.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Only by Prabhupāda's blessings.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you can... Śrīla Prabhupāda, you wanted to ask Dr. Sharma about altitude?
Prabhupāda: Seven thousand feet high altitude, it is good for a person to go there?
Dr. Sharma: I think it will be better if you go with an oxygen cylinder and by helicopter, not by the routine journey. Not by, you know..., gradual. Because suddenly you can get air hunger, you know, when you...
Prabhupāda: It is risky.
