Prabhupāda: Oṁ is the concentrated name of God.
Guest (5): Can one say oṁ instead of "Kṛṣṇa" and gain the same benefit?
Prabhupāda: Yes. But why instead of Kṛṣṇa? If one Kṛṣṇa is the same, why not Kṛṣṇa? Why stick to oṁ? Oṁ . . . Oṁ is formless, but Kṛṣṇa has got beautiful form, enjoying. And we are addicted to beautiful form. Why something (chuckling) which is not beautiful? Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, akṣarāṇām akāro 'smi (BG 10.33): "Amongst the alphabets I am oṁkāra."
So Kṛṣṇa says that "I am oṁkāra." So in one sense oṁkāra and Kṛṣṇa the same. But I can see Kṛṣṇa very beautiful and so many things, but I do not see in oṁkāra that thing. Therefore my preference should be to Kṛṣṇa. Why shall I stick to oṁ?
Guest (5): Thank you, Swāmī.
Prabhupāda: Yes?
Guest (6): Swāmījī, how . . . what kind of a capacity is knowledge?
Prabhupāda: Capacity of knowledge?
Guest (6): Yes. Is that determined by the previous body of the soul?
Prabhupāda: No. You can earn the capacity in this life also. You forget whatever was in your previous life. It doesn't matter. The śāstra is there and the spiritual master is there. The saintly persons are there. If you try to understand from right sources, then your knowledge is there. It is not that because in previous life you had been something, therefore you cannot understand. It is not like that. You, as human being, you have got the capacity to understand.
Just like I am explaining that "Do you like death? Do you like birth? Do you like disease? Do you like old age?" Everybody will say: "No, I don't like." Then the next point is that if you want to avoid it, if there is any process, do you like it? Certainly you'll say: "Yes. I like it." So this is commonsense affair. It doesn't require any great achievement or pre-education. These are commonsense things.
Guest (4): What I . . . I want to ask the Swāmī if the sacred cow was a symbol symbolizing compassion for all living creatures.
Prabhupāda: Not only cow. Any animal, they should be object of our compassion. If we want to eat something and live, so if you have got sufficient foodstuff in other kingdom . . . we have got vegetables, we have got grains, we have got milk. So many things. Fruit, flower. So many things. Just like we are living on these things. We don't feel any inconvenience. And they are . . .
According to medical science also, they are very rich in vitamins, food value. So why should we kill? Especially if we are human being, the cow is supplying us milk, the most important foodstuff. So instead of giving protection to the cow, if we kill, do you think that is very sensible thing? No. I am supplying something very nice, and if you kill me, is that very good gratitude?
So at least in human life, these senses should be there. Cow protection is recommended in the Vedic literature because it is giving the most valuable foodstuff, milk. Apart from other sentiments, it is supplying, and in exchange of nothing. She simply eats some grasses from the ground. That's all. You don't have to provide cows with foodstuff. The things which you refuse, you take the grains and you supply the skin.
You take the fruit pulp, you supply the skin. You take the, I mean to say, from paddy. You take the rice. You supply the straw, and she delivers you a very nice foodstuff. And I have discussed all these point in my Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that human economic problem can be solved simply by having some land and some cows. That's all.
Guest (4): Cows would increase and multiply.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Every living entity will multiply. That is another thing. I mean to say from cow you get milk. From milk you get butter and so many milk products. And from the field you get sufficient grains and fruits. So your economic question is solved immediately.
If you have got some land, the land is . . . immense land is still lying vacant all over the world. Yes. But they have diverted their energy in a different way. That is the miscalculation of the present civilization. They have forgotten that the aim of human life is to advance oneself in spiritual realization.
So time should be saved as much as possible, and that time should be utilized for spiritual realization. But we have encumbered our civilization such a way that we have lost all simple living thing. We have manufactured in so many ways encumbered ways of life. Therefore we have neglected spiritual life.
And because we have neglected spiritual life, there is no peace. If you want really peaceful life, then you have to make your material necessities simplified and engage your time for spiritual cultivation. Then you will have peace. And that is the best type of civilization. Plain living, high thinking.