Prabhupāda: Yes. At the present moment, the world situation is not very good. And it will deteriorate more and more if they do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness. When I speak "Kṛṣṇa," that means God.
David Wynne: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: What is your idea of God?
David Wynne: Everything.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
David Wynne: It seems... I, I mean I, I don't know. I've thought of it, of course, many times as every intelligent person has, but it's, my idea of God is on the consciousness of the whole world, of all that we could possibly envisage, its consciousness is, that's God, and we're the little bits of it. But would you tell me...?
Prabhupāda: Complete in everything. That is the conception of God. Complete in power, complete in knowledge, complete in beauty, complete in opulence... Everything complete. That is the conception of God. Everything complete. There is no scarcity. Everything complete, unlimited. So what is your idea of this material creation? Material means so much land, so much water, so much air, so much fire. So who created these things?
David Wynne: Well, God created it, and it seems to be the aspect of God that we are attached to.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
David Wynne: (laughs) But I'd rather you told me, sir.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Śyāmasundara: This material world is like an aspect of God that we are attached to, but the God behind we don't know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our foolishness, that we do not know that behind this material cosmic manifestation, there is God. That information we get from Bhagavad-gītā. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). That means this cosmic manifestation is creation of God. The vast water is created by God. The vast land is created by God. Everything is created by God. Do you believe that?
David Wynne: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. So if everything is created by God, then, when you create something, is it your property or God's property?
David Wynne: Oh, God's.
Prabhupāda: That's it.
David Wynne: Yes. But it feels like it when one creates it. One's surprised and didn't know what it was going to be like and cannot claim it.
Prabhupāda: No. God supplies the ingredients. That just like you are working on stone. So who has supplied the stone?
David Wynne: Yes, this I can understand because it's...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you are working on the stone with your intelligence, but who has supplied you the intelligence? You are working with your hand, but who has supplied you the hand? In this way, if we consider that everything belongs to God; therefore the result must be given to God. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
David Wynne: Sometimes one gets in the way. Sometimes one, when one's own wishes intrude, one can spoil what's being made by trying to put one's own ideas at the wrong time. But at other times, even with somebody who's as bad at it as me, the, something else does come through, doesn't it? The, the, what should be there if one senses and stands back and lets it come.
Prabhupāda: What is that? Sometimes it is not successful?
Śyāmasundara: When we try artificially to impose our idea on something, say, a sculpture, sometimes we make a mistake and it comes out not good.
Prabhupāda: That mistake you are responsible.
David Wynne: Yeah. Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Because at the present moment, as I told you, we are acting according to our whims. So if there is mistake, I am responsible.