Mrs. Sahani: Takes very long.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Very easy, provided you want to do it.
Mrs. Sahani: But takes long time to surrender to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: No long time, I say a moment. Kṛṣṇa says sarva dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). You do it. You can do it in a moment, but you'll not do it. That is the difficulty.
Mrs. Sahani: Yes, we are doing that.
Prabhupāda: You can do it immediately, but unfortunately you'll not do it. What can be done? There is a story, I may narrate it. One poor man was begging on the street, and Lord Śiva and Pārvatī was passing as ordinary man. So Pārvatī requested Lord Śiva that this poor man, he's asking, he's begging, so requested him, "Why don't you give him something?" And Lord Śiva replied, "Even if I give, he'll not be able to enjoy it. He's so unfortunate." "Oh, that we shall see. Why don't you give?" So Lord Śiva, in a watermelon, gave him, say, one thousand dollars. "You take this watermelon." So he thanked him, and after that he thought "What I shall do with this watermelon?" So another man came, "Sir, if you take this watermelon and give me one anna." So he gave one anna and he took it. Because he had no good fortune to take that money within the watermelon. Our fortune is like that. Kṛṣṇa is giving us the final benefit, but we are not taking care of. This is our misfortune.
Mr. Sahani: It is knowledge, that we don't have the knowledge, or enlightenment that in that watermelon there is something which is worth, or it is only that we don't want to do it, or we don't want to take the trouble?
Prabhupāda: That chance is there. You can take the watermelon and cut it, but before that doing if you give it to somebody else, that is your misfortune.
Mr. Sahani: No, fortune is something which we say...
Prabhupāda: No, I am talking of misfortune. That the perfect knowledge is being distributed by Kṛṣṇa, but we are so misfortunate we do not take it. That is my fault. Kṛṣṇa...
Mr. Sahani: Misfortune is again, is not in the hands of human being.
Prabhupāda: No, misfortune is your creation. Fortune... Man is the architect of his own fortune. So you can create your fortune and misfortune. That is the world, going on, so many people, they are working, somebody is creating fortune, somebody is creating misfortune. So anyway, when Kṛṣṇa directly is giving you the knowledge, perfect knowledge, why don't you take it? Is it not misfortune?
Mr. Sahani: Well, that probably is ignorance.