Inevitable (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"inevitability" |"inevitable" |"inevitably"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.2-3 -- London, July 9, 1973:

But no. Duty is duty. After all, everyone will die; nobody will exist. So nobody should be afraid of death. This is Vedic civilization. Death is inevitable. "As sure as death." Who can avoid death? So being afraid of death, we should not deviate from our duties, real duty. That is Vedic civilization. So Duryodhana wanted to point out "That this boy, your disciple, he... It is fixed up that he's meant for killing you, and he has arranged nicely military phalanx just to defeat you. And he has learned this art from you."

Lecture on BG 2.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 7, 1972:

Indian (2): ...the Pāṇḍavas. So if we do our work so perfect, we can't do it. Otherwise, we... So I am an imperfect devotee. But the question, you see, I was wondering ... all the worldly duties sincerely and honestly to our capacity pride is necessary or inevitable. "Oh, I'm a brāhmaṇa. I'm worshiping God." But pride is necessary that we must do in our own hand. I cannot.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If your life is so made that in every step you are feeling presence of Kṛṣṇa, then it is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the first-class yoga, as it is confirmed by Kṛṣṇa:

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ

mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ

sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

(BG 6.47)

Just like these boys, they are being trained up to think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Just like we have constructed this pandal. Our business is to preach Kṛṣṇa. So the energy employed for constructing this temple, that is also Kṛṣṇa, that energy. Somebody is doing... Anything... Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate.

Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

And another class of men he says brāhmaṇa, brāhmaṇas. So he classifies, etad viditvāsmāt ya praiti sa brāhmaṇaḥ. This self-realization process... We shall die. It is sure. Every one of us, we'll die. But we should not die like cats and dogs. That is the difference. We may die. We must die. Nobody can escape death, but before death we must know what is self and self-realization. They are brāhmaṇas. Those who are trying to understand what he is, what is his relation with God and how he should live, they are called brāhmaṇas. And those who are living like cats and dogs, simply eating, sleeping, mating and dying, so they are dying like cats and dogs. So death is inevitable. That is also advised by Prahlāda Mahārāja in his instruction to his class fellows. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). "My dear friends, from this beginning of life... We are now five years old. From this life we should try to understand bhāgavata-dharma." Bhāgavata-dharma means to understand our relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is called bhāgavata-dharma. Mānuṣam adhruvam. Tad apy adhruvam. Although the life is temporary, but it is very suitable for self-realization. So therefore one should begin this process from childhood. Just like modern education system, if children are given some playthings, engineering... I've seen in your country especially. He's given railway line and so many things.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975:

Not only death, even in lifetime... Just like we are old man. Who wants to become old man? Everyone wants to remain youthful. This is undesirable. This is suffering, actually suffering, because we are old man. We suffering so many diseases, so many inconveniences. If I am not helped by three, four men, then I cannot move even. So this is suffering. Old age is suffering. And diseased condition. Apart from death and old age, the diseased condition. Suppose you are suffering from some disease, some fever. So this is inevitable. You cannot avoid disease, you cannot avoid old age, you cannot avoid death, and you cannot avoid birth. So suffering... The whole material world is full of suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). And even if you make it... Suppose at any place you are living it is not very comfortable, but if you are assured that you will not die, you will not be diseased, you will not become old, you will not take birth again—if there is no death, there is no question of birth—so even if you are assured of...it is called? Immunity from these sufferings, still, there are many other sufferings.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Well, everyone dies. Death is inevitable. Nobody can avoid death. "As sure as death". And therefore, I have already explained that we have to take information from the Vedas. Just like this body. It is said in the Vedas, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Karmaṇā, why we have got different bodies, different mentality? Every one of us sitting here, we are not of the same mentality, not of the same body. So, why the different bodies are there if there is not a superior endowment? Why different bodies? Can you answer this? Unless there is some superior endowment that "You accept this body, you take this body," you have to accept. You cannot deny it. Because in the Vedas we understand, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to, after death you have accept another body. But what kind of body you are going to accept, that you do not know. But there is superior judgement that "You have done such-and-such karma, you accept this body." How can you deny it? Just like in the court the judge is giving different judgement, "Yes, you have to receive this one lakh of rupees from this person. I give you decree." And another person is given order, "You go to jail for six months." The judge is the same. But why one is going by his word six months imprisonment and another is given one lakh of rupees decree?

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- Hyderabad, April 23, 1974:

These are the statements of śāstra, that the human society, just to make it real human society, not cats' and dogs' society, there must be varṇāśrama. That is dharma. In the material stage, when we have to take care of this body, there must be this varṇāśrama. That is systematic human society. If there is no varṇāśrama-dharma, then it is cats' and dogs' society. In the cats' and dogs' society there is no varṇāśrama-dharma. That... They do not require it; neither they can understand it. So if the human society becomes varṇāśrama-less, without varṇāśrama-dharma, then it is cats' and dogs' society. Then subjected to the so many miserable condition of material nature. That is inevitable.

Lecture on SB 2.1.4 -- Delhi, November 7, 1973:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv

ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api

teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ

paśyann api na paśyati

(SB 2.1.4)

Translation: "Persons devoid of ātma-tattva do not inquire into the problems of life, being too attached to the fallible soldiers like the body, children and wife, etc. Although sufficiently experienced, still, they do not see their inevitable destruction."

Prabhupāda: Yes. The same word is being continued, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2), "Those who are blind about ātma-tattva, the spiritual science, the knowledge of spirit soul." So these persons, those who are blind, those who are accepting this body as the self like cats and dogs, their description is given here again that deha... They are bodily, beginning from bodily cons... "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." Deha and then apatya, children, and kalatra, wife. First of all, one deha, one body. Just like this child. His only one conception, "Yes, I am everything, this body." Gradually, when one grows, becomes youthful, there is sex desire. Therefore finding out the opposite sex, kalatra, wife, or girlfriend or boyfriend. So kalatra ādi, making the center kalatra, then ātma-sainyeṣu, we increase our attraction to this material world.

Lecture on SB 2.3.1-4 -- Los Angeles, May 24, 1972:

In the Bhagavad-gītā, as well as in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, such less intelligent persons have been described as devoid of all good sense. Śukadeva Gosvāmī said that out of the 8,400,000 species of living entities, the human form of life is rare and valuable, and out of those rare human beings those who are conscious of the material problems are rarer still, and the still more rare persons are those who are conscious of the value of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which contains the messages of the Lord and His pure devotees. Death is inevitable for everyone, intelligent or foolish. But Parīkṣit Mahārāja has been addressed by the Gosvāmī as the manīṣī, or the man of highly developed mind, because at the time of death he left all material enjoyment and completely surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Lord by hearing His messages from the right person, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. But aspirations for material enjoyment by endeavoring persons are condemned. Such aspirations are something like the intoxication of the degraded human society. Intelligent persons should try to avoid these aspirations and seek instead the permanent life by returning home, back to Godhead.

Lecture on SB 3.25.28 -- Bombay, November 28, 1974:

If we actually are very serious to get out of the clutches of māyā, the repetition of birth, old age, and disease, and get back our original spiritual life, eternal life, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), there is, that is our real identification. We do not die after the annihilation of this body, but you are so dull by the influence of māyā, we think that death is inevitable. No, why death is inevitable? Death can be avoided, birth can be avoided, disease can be avoided, but you do not know, you have become so dull. We do not know how to overcome. We are busy temporary inconveniences. The whole world is struggling, some temporary. The real business is ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛtti, everyone is trying to minimize the miserable condition, but they are busy for temporary miserable condition. But the Vedic knowledge is how to mitigate the topmost miserable condition. That topmost miserable condition is the repetition of birth, death, and old age. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, anu-darśanam (BG 13.9). We should not be very much afflicted with these temporary things. We must have the sense how to solve the ultimate miserable condition of life. That, tad-vijñānārtham, in order to know that science sa gurum evābhigacchet.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

The Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was the finance minister in the government of Nawab Hussain Shah. So he is our guru in the disciplic succession. He inquired this question from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that "I have come to You to ask that people call me, I am very learned man." Grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita, tāi satya māni. "By this ordinary relationship, they call me, I am very learned man. But I am such a learned man that I do not know what I am..., why I am suffering." This is intelligence. So we should know how to... Ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛttiḥ. Everyone is suffering. Temporary, superficially, one may think that he is very happy, or I may think that "He is happy; I am not happy," but nobody is happy in this material world, because the four things is inevitable for everyone, the prime minister or the man in the street, everyone: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). And there is so much trouble in the matter of birth and death and old age and disease. We are forgetting. That is called tīvraṁ bhayam.

Lecture on SB 6.1.42 -- Los Angeles, June 8, 1976:

This tri-sandhya, early in the morning, midday and in the evening. So every sandhya is witness. Sandhya, ahani, day and night together, whole day, twenty-four hours, ahani. Ahany ahani lokā gacchanti yama-mandiram. This ahani. Every day hundreds and thousands of living entities are dying. Śeṣaḥ sthitam icchanti kim aścaryam ataḥ param. Still, one who is not dead, he is thinking, "I'll not die. I'll remain." This is the wonderful thing, most wonderful thing. Everyone should be prepared for death. Death is inevitable. So diśaḥ, and ten directions: north, south, east, west, the four corners, eight, and up and down. They are ten directions. Where you'll go? Everywhere there is witness. You cannot escape. Kaṁ kuḥ svayam. What is kaṁ kuḥ?

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, July 25, 1975:

Nitai: "O inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha, you are all sinless, but those within this material world, they are all karmīs acting piously or impiously. Both kinds of activities are possible for them because they are contaminated by the three modes of nature and must act accordingly. One who has accepted a material body cannot remain inactive, and it is inevitable for one acting under the modes of nature to be sinful. Therefore all the living entities within this material world are punishable."

Prabhupāda:

sambhavanti hi bhadrāṇi

viparītāni cānaghāḥ

kāriṇāṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sti

dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt

(SB 6.1.44)

So dehavān we have explained several times. Deha means the body, and vān means one who possesses. Asty arthe vatup. This vat-pratyāya is affixed when there is the meaning of possessing. Therefore Bhagavān. Bhāga means opulence, and vān means one who possesses. That is Bhagavān. So same thing, in the same process: dehavān. So dehavān, every one of us, dehavān. The dog is also dehavān; he has got body. I am also dehavān, every one of us.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, June 10, 1976:

Pradyumna: Translation: "O inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha, you are sinless, but those within this material world are all karmīs, whether acting piously or impiously. Both kinds of action are possible for them because they are contaminated by the three modes of nature and must act accordingly. One who has accepted a material body cannot be inactive, and sinful action is inevitable for one acting under the modes of material nature. Therefore all the living entities within this material world are punishable."

Prabhupāda:

sambhavanti hi bhadrāṇi

viparītāni cānaghāḥ

kāriṇāṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sti

dehavān na hy akarma-kṛt

(SB 6.1.44)

This material world is karma-kṛt—you have to do something. Kṛṣṇa has explained that "Without acting, you cannot even maintain your body and soul together." Śarīra-yātrāpi te na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ. If you become idle, then you cannot even maintain your body. That is the difference between civilized man and uncivilized man or developed country... (aside:) Stop that. Developed country and undeveloped country. Just like America. This land was inhabited by the Red Indians. They could not do anything, but the Europeans, when they migrated, they made it so beautiful country. So karma-kṛt, one has to work. This material world is so made. Tṛtīyā karma-saṅgā anyā śaktir īṣyate.

Lecture on SB 6.1.52 -- Detroit, August 5, 1975:

That is our position. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). We entangle ourself in a different activities and create another result, and according to the result... Because it is infection... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. We are getting different types of body. Why? The cause, kāraṇaṁ, guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). In ignorance... Just like we are infecting different types of disease—we have to suffer—similarly, we, under ignorance we are infecting the modes of material nature and different types of bodies. Today I am Indian or American, and tomorrow I may be a cat, a dog. That these people, they do not know. Ajñaḥ. These rascals, they do not know. At least one should know that "I am going to die." That's a fact, inevitable. You may be very intelligent, but Kṛṣṇa says, "You don't like Me. All right, I shall come to you as death. Then you will understand. And at that time I shall take away whatever you have accumulated." Mṛtyu aham. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "I come as death and take away everything, whatever you have earned or collected in this life." Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Sarva-hara: "I will take. I will take all: your bank balance, your skyscraper building, your nice family.

Lecture on SB 7.6.5 -- Vrndavana, December 7, 1975:

Cāṇakya Paṇḍita also says, āyuṣaḥ kṣaṇa eko 'pi na labhyaḥ svarṇa-koṭibhiḥ: "You cannot get back even one moment of your life by paying millions of dollars. So if you waste your time..." The Kṛṣṇa conscious people, they should not be lazy. They should always remember that death is already there. Let me finish my business properly so that after death I may not be a cat and dog. At least I may get... There is no... My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "Why should you wait for another life? Finish Kṛṣṇa consciousness business in this life." In this life. Why you should set aside the business for another life? No. Tūrṇaṁ yateta anumṛtya pateta yāvat. This is the instruction of... Before the next death you should prepare yourself for death. Death is inevitable. You cannot avoid death. But before the next death comes, if you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your life is successful. Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). What is Kṛṣṇa? Try to understand Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa, why He appears, why He disappears, what is His nature, who is He. So many things are to be known. Kṛṣṇa is God. He is not an ordinary thing. He has got unlimited qualities, unlimited function. And if we simply understand that kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam... (SB 1.3.28). Without going into the details, if we accept simply this fact, that "Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, and everything is the exhibition of His different energies," vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19),

Lecture on SB 7.6.7 -- Vrndavana, December 9, 1975:

So fifty years out of one hundred years, fifty years wasted by sleeping. And then balance fifty years, twenty years in childhood and youthhood, sporting, playing; another twenty years in old age... Jarayā grasta. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). These are inevitable. As birth is inevitable, death is inevitable, similarly, old age is inevitable. So in this way our time is wasted because we do not know how valuable this human form of life is. There is no such education. They think human life is as cheap as dog's life, but factually it is not. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). One gets this human form of life, 8,400,000 species of life, especially advanced life, the Aryan civilization... Aryan means advanced, advanced in spiritual knowledge. The materialists, they claim Aryan only from the bodily conception, but that is not the fact. Anyone who is advanced in spiritual life, they are called Aryans. Anārya-juṣṭam. Arjuna was chastised by Kṛṣṇa that "You are talking like non-Aryan." Anārya-juṣṭam. So non-Aryan and Aryan, what is the difference? The Aryan civilization means this varṇāśrama-dharma, four varṇas, four āśramas. And non-Aryan means there is no division. Everyone is one or equal. That is advocated now at the present moment. In India also, they think of casteless society, no caste.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Mayapur, March 1, 1977:

You'll find they keep a cloth like this so that the small insects may not enter the mouth. But these are artificial. You cannot check. In the air there are so many living entities. In the water there are so many living entities. We drink water. You cannot check it. It is not possible. But if you keep yourself fixed up in devotional service, then you are not bound.

Yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If your life is dedicated for yajña, for serving Kṛṣṇa, then the inevitable sinful activities which we commit without any knowledge, we are not responsible. Manye mithe kṛtaṁ pāpaṁ puṇyaya eva kalpate (?). So our life should be dedicated simply for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then we are safe. Otherwise we must be entangled with so many reaction of our activities and bound up in the repetition of birth and death. Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3).

Festival Lectures

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 16, 1968:

At this particular time in the world it is very much necessary that all people hear about Kṛṣṇa and that they should become attracted to chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa, to hearing about Kṛṣṇa's wonderful pastimes. So that by this exquisite attraction for Kṛṣṇa they might forget their lower desires, which are now leading everybody to a hellish condition of life in which it seems inevitable there are going to be wars and pestilences and starvation, diseases, all kinds of social injustice. All these things are unavoidable so long as the world at large does not understand who owns everything, who owns the land, who owns the money, who owns the food. So long as they don't understand that Kṛṣṇa is the owner and enjoyer of everything, so long as they don't understand that it is the highest enjoyment for the living soul to serve Kṛṣṇa, it is the perfect harmony in this condition to serve Kṛṣṇa, so long there will be fighting due to ignorance and deluded cross purposes.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968:

Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). There are four classes of men created by God: cātur-varṇyaṁ. How they are divided? How the classification is made? Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: by classification of quality and work. Not by birth. In India, of course, this classification of guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ was originally planned from the Vedic age. But later on, a class of men, without any qualification, without any practical work, they claimed that "I belong to such and such class." Therefore India's falldown was inevitable. So Bhagavad-gītā says, "Not like that." Bhagavad-gītā says that these classes of men, cātur-varṇyaṁ—the brahminical class, the kṣatriya class, the vaiśya class, and the śūdra class—is everywhere. Not only in India, but also throughout the whole universe, in every country, in every nation, in every society, there must be some people who have brahminical tendency. Just like from your country, we have picked up some boys and girls who are inclined to adopt this way of life. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is simply picking up where there are brahminical class of boys, girls, men. Not that we are taking account, "Oh, who is your father? Is your father a brāhmaṇa?" No. We don't take account. His father may be anything; it doesn't matter.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: He says that there is no such thing as a cause-and-effect relationship. Just like, for example, we associate friction with heat, but he says that it's a mistake to assume that friction causes heat or possesses any power which must inevitably produce heat. He says that it is a mere repetition of two incidents, so that the effect habitually attends the cause, but it is not necessarily a consequence of it. So the fact that I rub my hands together and there is heat produced, I am used to assuming that the friction causes heat, but he says that it is not necessarily so. Whenever there is friction, there is heat, but that is only because they are associated with each other, not that one causes the other.

Prabhupāda: Then how are they associated?

Śyāmasundara: That one habitually attends the other, but not necessarily as a consequence of it.

Prabhupāda: But who made this law? As soon as they associate, immediately after friction there is heat. So there is a systematic law. The association may be accidental, but as soon as there is friction between the two associates, the law is there must be heat. So there is systematic law. Either you rub the hands, or I rub the hands, the law is that heat must be there, either in your hands or in my hands. That is law.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: He says that the natural existence often proves itself to be basically unhappy. "With such relations between religion and happiness, it is perhaps not surprising that men come to regard the happiness which a religious belief affords as a proof of its truth. If a creed makes a man feel happy he almost inevitably adopts it. Such a belief ought to be true; therefore it is true. Such, rightly or wrongly, is one of the immediate inferences of the religious logic used by ordinary men."

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you are actually in clear conception of God, and if you have decided to obey God and love Him, that is happiness. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, ahaituky apratihatā (SB 1.2.6). This process of acting in obedience to the order of God, as we are doing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... We have no other business than to obey the orders of God. God says that you preach this confidential philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness everywhere. So because we are trying to love God, we have got some affection and love for God; therefore we are so much eager to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise, "It is Kṛṣṇa's business. Why should we bother about Him?" No. Because we love Kṛṣṇa, and He is happy that His message is being spread, that is our happiness also, that we are trying to serve God, tacitly, without any doubt. So we also feel happy, and God says that He will be very happy if you do this. So this is reciprocation. This is religion. Religion is no sentiment. Actual realization of God, actual carrying out or executing the orders of God, then God is happy, we are happy, and our progress of life is secure.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: He sees two basic types of religions. One he calls sort of a naive optimism that says "Hurrah for the universe. God's in His heaven, all is right with the world." He calls this "the sky-blue optimistic gospel." And another type of religion, which he calls pessimistic in the sense that these religions recognize the inevitable futility of materialistic life, and they offer deliverance, or mukti, from the fourfold miseries of material existence. He says, "Man must die to an unreal life before he can be born into the real life." So he felt that the comple test religions take a pessimistic view of life on this..., life in this world, materialistic life.

Prabhupāda: Yes, unless one is pessimistic of this material world, he is animal. A man knows what are the sufferings of this material world: ādhyātmic, ādhibautic, ādhidaivic. There are so many suffering pertaining to the mind, to the mind, sufferings offered by other living beings, and sufferings imposed forcibly by the laws of nature. So the world is full of suffering, but under the spell of māyā, illusion, we accept this suffering condition as progress. But ultimately whatever we do, the death is there. All the resultant action of our activities, they are taken away and we are put to death. So under these circumstances there is no happiness within this material world. I have fully arranged for my happiness, and any moment, just after arrangement, we are kicked out; we have to accept death. So where is happiness here? The intelligent man is always pessimistic, that "First of all let us become secure," that we are trying to adjust this material position to become happy. But who is going to allow us to become happy here? This is pessimistic view.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Hari-śauri: But actually it's a fect that in Russia there aren't many people who still believe in God.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Believe in God, why? Eighty percent, ninety percent, they believe in God. That cannot be avoided.

Hayagrīva: But don't the... The young people are Communists, are very enthusiastic about Communism, but as a person grows older and sees death as inevitable, don't the, don't the older people worship...?

Prabhupāda: No, even the young men, in Russia I have seen, they are after also God. They are unhappy because they are not allowed to go out of Russia. They want to see the world, but they are not allowed. Their independence is suppressed. So they are not happy.

Hayagrīva: That's the end of...

Prabhupāda: Hm. (end)

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Those who have got hands, they eat the animals without hands, only four legs, and the four-legged animals eats the animals which cannot move—that means plants and vegetables. Similarly, the weak is the food for the strong. In this way there is natural law that one living entity is food for another living entity. But our philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy, is not based on this platform, that plant life is not sensitive and animal life is more sensitive or human life is more sensitive. We take all of them as life, either human being or animal or plants or fish, it doesn't matter. That is inevitable. Either you eat animal or vegetable, you eat some living entity. That is inevitable. You cannot avoid. Now it it the question of selection. That, of course, is there. But apart from this vegetarian or nonvegetarian diet, we are concerned with Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Kṛṣṇa, whatever..., our philosophy is whatever Kṛṣṇa eats, we take the remnants of His foodstuff. So Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "You give Me food, and prepared from patraṁ phalaṁ toyam, vegetation." So if by killing vegetable or plant there is any sin, that, that is Kṛṣṇa's. We simply eat after His eating. This is our philosophy. We are not after vegetarian diet or nonvegetarian diet. Whatever Kṛṣṇa eats, we take the remnants of food.

Hayagrīva: So that's the conclusion of Augustine. (end)

Philosophy Discussion on Samuel Alexander:

Hayagrīva: Now in this book Space, Time and Deity, on page 380, Alexander writes... Alexander takes the Aristotelian view of God in saying, "There is no reciprocal action from God, for though we speak as we inevitably must in human terms of God's response to us, there is no direct experience of that response except through our own feeling that devotion to God, or worship, carries with it its own satisfaction."

Prabhupāda: That is his imperfectness. God is omnipotent. He comes before Kṛṣṇa, er, Arjuna, and He speaks Bhagavad-gītā. So because he has no advanced knowledge, he cannot understand how God, omnipotent, all-powerful, can come and speak with His devotee. That is his poor fund of knowledge.

Hayagrīva: Yes, that...

Prabhupāda: If God is omnipotent, why He cannot come and talk with His devotee? Then where is the omnipotency? These rascals cannot understand.

Hayagrīva: That was...

Prabhupāda: There is no meaning of omnipotency if God cannot come and talk with His devotee.