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Not exist (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kīrtanānanda: Everyone is in a relationship.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There must be some relation. Without relationship one cannot exist because he is part and parcel. Just like persons in the prison house. They are not out of government. There is relationship with the government, but that is indirect. The criminals, they do not appreciate the service of the government. Government is bothered about his existence. Some extra... Instead of receiving some service from him to the state, the state has got to spend unnecessarily for him. That is a botheration. So those who are in indirect relationship with Kṛṣṇa, they are botheration. They are simply giving trouble to Kṛṣṇa, but there is relationship.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Yes, all, all circumstances, but it is the question of my appreciation, or my realization. That will depend on my purity. Otherwise this Kṛṣṇa sound and Kṛṣṇa, non-different. Therefore if we vibrate sound Kṛṣṇa, then I am immediately in contact with Kṛṣṇa, and if Kṛṣṇa is whole spirit, then immediately I become spiritualized. Just like if you touch electricity, immediately you're electrified. And the more you become electrified, more you become Kṛṣṇized. Kṛṣṇized. So when you are fully Kṛṣṇized, then you are in the Kṛṣṇa platform. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9), then fully Kṛṣṇized, no more comes back to this material existence. He remains with Kṛṣṇa. The impersonalists shall say merging. That is less intelligence. Merging does not mean losing individuality. Just like a green bird enters a green tree; it appears merging, but the bird has not lost his individuality. There is individuality. Similarly Kṛṣṇa says in the Fourth Chapter, no, Second Chapter that I, you, adyam(?), I and all these people who have assembled; it is not that they did not exist previously neither it is that they'll not exist. That means I, you, and all these persons, they were individual in the past.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: Oh, very glad to see you. Be happy and make all others happy. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. That is Vedic idea. Everyone be happy. That is the benediction. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says also the same thing, that let this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement be preached in every village, in every town of the world. People will be happy. That is His foretelling. So any missions, any high ideals, should be preached just to make everyone happy. Because in the material existence, there is no happiness. That is a fact. There cannot be any happiness. This place is not meant for happiness because in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find the Lord Himself says this is a place, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). It is a place of miseries, this material world. And aśāśvatam, and temporary. Everything is temporary. Even if you accept, "All right. Whatever miserable is there, I'll accept this," that is also, has no value. Even if you accept, nature will not allow you to accept it and remain there. Aśāśvatam. You have to leave. So Kṛṣṇa says, mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ: (BG 8.15) "If somebody comes to Me, then he hasn't got to return back to this miserable condition of life which is not only miserable but temporary." So we should understand that. Nature is so cruel. In America, President Kennedy, he was thought to be the most fortunate man, happy man, young man, was elected President, nice wife, children, honor all over the world—(snaps finger)—within a second, finished. Temporary. Now what is his condition? Where he is? If life is eternal, if living entity is eternal, where he has gone? What he is doing? Is he happy or he is distressed? Or he's born in America or China? Nobody can say. But it is a fact that as living entity, he's eternal, he's existing. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā philosophy. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body the living entity is not destroyed. He is there. That we can understand. Just like in your childhood, you had a small body. That body is no more, but you are existing. So it is natural, when this body will not exist, I will exist in another body.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: We require help from personalities like you, because it is very important movement, checking a great mistake in the modern world. Modern civilization is very risky. Risky in this sense: that the human form of life is an opportunity for self-realization, but our leaders, they are miseducating that "You are this body." A basic mistake. But I am not this body, but just like you are sitting there, if I take account of your shirt and coat only, not you as a person, then there is a great mistake. Similarly, the modern civilization, education, everything is based on this bodily concept of life. But actually we are not body. Body is my shirt and coat. Mind, intelligence and ego, that is the shirt, finer dress. And this five element body—earth, water, fire, air, ether—this is gross. Just like shirt and coat. Similarly, we are dressed, the spirit soul. The spirit soul is also a measure one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very important in this sense, that they are trying to bring people to the constitutional position. A living entity is transmigrating from one body to another, as well in our present body also, we are transmigrating. In my childhood I had a small body. That body is no longer existing, but I am existing. So there is no reason to believe that when I give up this body, I'll not exist. No. I shall exist, but in another body. So people are not interested to make the research work how the soul is working. This is ignorance. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to revive the pure consciousness of the human society so that he can know himself and act accordingly. Then his life is successful.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: Therefore their power is finished. If you become sinful, then your power will not exist. Just like Rāvaṇa became powerful. He was so powerful that he dared to take away Sītā. But he also became vanquished. That is the history.

Guest (2): Yes but people say that...

Prabhupāda: People say, that is other... You see the fact. Nobody is powerful; nobody can exist here. For the temporary, say for some years, you may be so-called powerful but it is not powerful. We are concerned with eternal life. We are not interested in the so-called power for a few days. That is not our aim.

Guest (2): Yes, but if we say that everything is destined, like the moment your body is manufactured and...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: But Hebrew... Hebrew, Indian, there are... The aims is the same—back to home, back to Godhead. The process may be different. The process may be different. Just like everyone wants some money. Without money he cannot exist. The process may be different, how he's earning money. Similarly, every religion, the aim is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Now the process may be different according to country, time, climate, men. That is another thing. But the... The same example. Either you are businessman or in service or working, craftsman, the aim is you require some money. Without money you cannot exist. This is crude example. Similarly, the aim is we are part and parcel of God. We... Unless we go back to home, back to Godhead, there cannot be any peace. That understanding is possible to develop in this human form of life, not in the animal form of life. Therefore every human being should take advantage of this human form of life and develop this idea of going back to home, back to Godhead. Either you do it through Hebrew religion or Christian religion or Hindu religion, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. If your aim is... Just like at the present moment people want money. If he gets money it doesn't matter in which way he gets the money. Money we must have.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: World is vast. So according to your karma... Just like you have got a particular type of body. You are young man, there is another young man also. Still, his body and your body is not exactly the same. His bodily feature, your bodily feature, his intelligence, your intelligence, they are all different. But a child grows to become young man, that's a fact. You are a child, another child was there. So they have got now different body. Just like you have got a different body from your childhood life. Is it not? But you know that you had a childhood body, although the body is not there. This is transmigration from one body to another. Just like a dream at night. You change this body. You accept another body. And although you're lying down on your bed, you've gone to some other place. Subtle body. Take for... This is a fact that we change our bodies so many ways, but I, the soul, I remain. So therefore, when this body will not exist I'll exist in another body. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We can experience this, and it is confirmed in the śāstra. After destruction of this body we are not disturbed. I, as living entity, I remain, I accept another body.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: There is such proposition that He should exist, He should not exist. Then there must be some authority to give such order. That is answered in Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says: mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10), "Under My superintendence, nature is working." Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21).

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He also says that the species are not created independently. They say it is descended from, one after another.

Prabhupāda: So, if there is no question of independence, then how, abruptly, he can begin from a certain species? You must explain wherefrom this species came into existence. Harer nāma harer nāma...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There are so many books on Darwin's theory. Goes... In the library, if one goes there are hundreds of volumes of books on Darwin's theory.

Prabhupāda: They have accepted or protested?

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām. The only special significance of human being is that he has got special intelligence to understand what is Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So therefore his first duty is to know the Absolute Truth. Not waste time for eating, sleeping, mating. The modern material civilization is wasting time, so-called advancement of material comforts. Simply wasting time. Nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ (SB 2.1.3). They are wasting time at night either by sleeping or by sexual intercourse. Divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. And during daytime, simply: "Where is money? Where is money? Where is money?" And as soon as they get money, they spend it for kuṭumba-bharaṇa, for maintaining the family. This is their business. The sum total of modern civilization. And if they can purchase a nice car, that is the success of their life. Kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. Not only for himself, for his wife, for his children, if he has got three cars. Just like our Mukunda Mahārāja is doing. He's earning one thousand dollars and spending in car. That is his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Rascal boy is so much captivated with the rascal girl. He's thinking that he's happy. He's spoiling his life. (pause) Divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā (SB 2.1.3). Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati (SB 2.1.4). Dehāpatya. Deha means body. Apatya means children. Dehāpatya-kalatra. Kalatra means wife. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣu. He thinks: "They are my soldiers. I'll fight with nature, struggle for existence. And they'll save me." Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api. Although he knows that they'll not exist, still he's so mad, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanam, he knows I'll not exist, the soldiers will not be able to help me. paśyann api na paśyati, he sees and still he does not see.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no comparison. It is practical. Suppose you have been in the darkness for millions of years and when you come to the light you think that "Oh, from darkness the light has come." Light, when it becomes dimmed, that is darkness. Not that (from) darkness, light has come.

Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: Darkness cannot exist without light.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Or in the light there is no darkness. When the light is dimmed that is darkness. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dimmed, that is material.

Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: It's very wet. (referring to the ground)

Prabhupāda: Yes. After awaken, when one becomes tired he comes to sleep. Or the life, when it is somehow or other disturbed, sleepless comes. When at night we sleep and get up in the morning, it is not that from sleeping condition this life condition has come. I slept some reason or I was in life condition, but I slept, again I am coming to life. That is their philosophy. Just like a child, baby comes from the womb of the mother. From the day he comes out of the womb, if he thinks, "Now, from this day my life has begun." That is not the fact. He's eternal, but he was constructing his body within the womb of the mother, therefore he was unconscious. Now, as soon as the body is finished, he comes out and again comes to consciousness.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is the first lesson. You do not understand? You are a child, now you're a grown up boy. Where is your childhood? Where is that body? Ha? The dead body does not exist but you are existing. That means you're eternal. Body has changed, but you have not changed. Circumstances have changed, but you have not changed. This is the proof of (indistinct). What do you want more? You may remember that I did yesterday these things, today I remember yesterday's activities, but your body of yesterday is not this body. Do you admit or not? As a scientist, the body has changed already. He cannot say that 1973, twelfth May yesterday. He cannot say. It is already changed. But you remember everything of yesterday. That is eternity. The body has changed, but you remember everything. Therefore you are eternal, body's not eternal. This is the proof. Simple proof, even a child can understand. But they'll not understand. That is the difficulty.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They want some more.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But you cannot observe, your rascal eyes are so imperfect, you cannot observe so many things. That does not mean science. Why don't you admit your imperfectional senses? You first of all admit the imperfectional senses. You cannot see. You cannot experience. That, does it mean that is science? So many dogs they cannot understand what is the law of nature. Does it mean that nature does not exist? Why do you think your sense are perfect? First of all, admit that you're the most imperfect.

Karandhara: They'll admit that, but they say the way of becoming perfect is through objective information and experience.

Prabhupāda: No. Way of becoming perfect is different. You cannot become perfect by your imperfect thinking. How you can become perfect?

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So dehāntara-prāptiḥ they do not understand. And it is very easy, that "I am, dehāntaram, I am changing my body. I was a baby, I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man. So I have changed so many bodies. But I remember, I was a child. I remember. I was a boy. I remember. Therefore I am existing. My body has changed." Simple truth. Similarly, when this body will be changed, I will exist. Where is the difficulty to understand? But this plain thing they cannot understand. And they are passing as educated, philosopher, scientist. This plain truth, they cannot understand. The brain is so dull. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). "As I have changed so many bodies..." I exist. I remember, I had this body. So I may forget. Suppose in my babyhood, what was the feature of my body, I do not know. But there was. My mother knows. He can, she can explain, "My dear child, you were like this, you were like this." So forgetfulness is also not that I did not exist. I may not remember my last birth. That does not mean I did not exist. So forgetfulness is my nature. I cannot remember even what I was doing exactly this time yesterday. If somebody asks me. I can generally speak, that "I was sitting." But actually, what I was doing, I'll have to remember. So the forgetfulness is our nature. Because I have forgotten... Death means forgetting. Just like in dream.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: But that body is no longer there; your childhood body, that is not existing. Now you are existing in a different body. So you were existing, that's a fact. Because you remember. But that body's not existing. Similarly, when this body will not exist, you'll exist. This is natural conclusion. Your, that childhood body is no longer existing. Your youthhood body is no longer existing. That's a fact. And it is also a fact that you had such and such body. Therefore you, as the soul, you are permanent, even changing so many types of bodies. Similarly, the conclusion should be when you give up this body, you'll be in another body.

Lord Brockway: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Find out this.

Car Conversation after meeting with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: And that is their foolishness. That is their foolishness. Why does not exist? What is the proof of existence of the soul in the body? What is the proof? First of all, you have to understand that. Suppose I am a human being, so...

Yogeśvara: (to driver) You know where to go?

Prabhupāda: I am a human being. You accept that I have got soul. By what symptoms you accept that I have got soul? First of all you have to ascertain that. What is the symptom that we agree that I am human being. I have got, I am a soul. By what characteristic, analytical study, you accept that I have got soul, and the dog has not got soul? What are the different characteristics? First of all, we have to enumerate that thing. If we find in the characteristics, then we can say there is no soul. But if we see that both the animal and the human being have the same characteristics of living condition, then how you can say the animal has not soul?

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore the gentleman the other day was asking, "How is that you say electricity?" Oh you were not present that time? Because we have translated there is no need of sun, there is no need of moon, there is no need of electricity in the spiritual world. So when he heard the word electricity, he became astonished.

Śyāmasundara: He thought the word did not exist at the time?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: Yes, I must admit I was amazed at that reference, reading that yesterday.

Prabhupāda: That frog philosophy is going on. Dr. Frog. He's simply calculating the well, that's all. How there can be Atlantic Ocean? That is frog philosophy. You know frog philosophy? Yes?

David Lawrence: Yes.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Ambassador: I'm afraid I'm a very democratic person. If people, if they sincerely believe that they cannot exist without meat, they should be permitted, and once that is granted...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Ambassador: ...you have to organize slaughterhouses.

Prabhupāda: Then, then that is the, our misfortune that we have lost our Indian culture.

Ambassador: Because...

Prabhupāda: Indian culture.

Ambassador: Your Grace, what you want is really a sort of complete...

Prabhupāda: No, I don't want.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Bali Mardana: Does that mean it is not possible to conceive of something that does not exist somewhere?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the real fact.

Karandhara: Some of them say that Brahman creates illusion to forget that he is Brahman. They say that Brahman, the one, creates illusion to forget that he's Brahman. That's his līlā.

Prabhupāda: It is līlā. Then you have to accept that Brahman is a person.

Karandhara: Well, they say there is only one person. There's no varieties of persons.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But you have to accept the origin, the person. That is our philosophy. Then you accept our philosophy.

Karandhara: Then they say, "Well it's not exactly a person, it's inconceivable."

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, that śraddhā has to be increased.

Umāpati: How it is increased?

Prabhupāda: The beginning of śraddhā means firm conviction.

Umāpati: How is it śraddhā does not exist in one person, and it does exist...

Prabhupāda: No, śraddhā is there. It has to be awakened.

Umāpati: Śraddhā is in every person then.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore I say it is covered. It is covered. That covering has to be taken away. That is called bhajana (indistinct). That is called culture.

Umāpati: Upāsanā.

Prabhupāda: Upāsanā, bhajana, sādhana, culture, whatever you say. He has to awaken that śraddhā, more and more.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, you can see, but you have no eyes to see. Suppose there are so many richest person. We have not seen, but they must be admitted. Just like in your country, Rockefeller. So it does not mean—one has not heard about Rockefeller—therefore it does not exist.

Karandhara: But Rockefeller is constantly having to prove and assert his power.

Prabhupāda: No, prove to you, prove to me, but there are many who does not know. So that does not mean the Rockefeller is not existing. Your limited sense cannot approach. Therefore you cannot say that the thing is not existing. That is another rascaldom.

Karandhara: Well, on the other hand, they say what you can't say you...

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: :...one philosopher atheist by the name Bertrand Russell, he tries to prove that God does not exist by saying that people who say God exists, say that God is, everything has a cause and that the first cause is God, and Bertrand Russell says, "Well, if everything has a cause, then God also must have a cause. So that, there must be no God."

Prabhupāda: If God has cause, then he is not God. That is the difference between God and everything. Everything has got cause, but God has not cause. Therefore he is God. That, the rascal, he does not know. He equalizes God and everything on the same level. Then what is the meaning of God? If He hasn't got the extraordinary qualification, then how he is God? He is everything. He does not know. Why there is distinction between God and everything? Because God is not caused by everything, but everything is caused by God. That is the difference. (break) ...is equal to God, then everything is God. That is going on, Māyāvāda philosophy. (break)

Umāpati: I just know when I close my eyes, it's dark.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Rūpānuga: They say that "Life as we know it here does not exist." Human life.

Prabhupāda: No, how you can say so? The condition is the same. Every planet is made of earth, water, air, fire, the five elements. So if under these condition there are living entities in this planet, why not in that condition living entities in other planets? That is their ignorance. That is their bluff. The different condition of the planets is that some planet is fiery, some planet is gaseous, some planet is watery. That may be, but after all, they are made of these five elements. And each element, we find there is living entity. So it may be mixture or pure, there must be living entities. And in Bhagavad-gītā it is said sarva-ga. Even in the fire there is living entities. And why not? If living entities can stay in water, why not in fire?

Rūpānuga: On the sun planet.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are also living entities. They are very glowing, fiery. Therefore the whole sun planet is glowing.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That means you have no... You cannot see so many things. Does it mean that it does not exist? What is the value of your eyes? That I already explained. You cannot see. Now it is a misty. You cannot see anything. Does it mean your eyes are perfect. How you can see? Your eyes are not perfect. What you cannot see, you have to hear. Suppose in a distant place I cannot see. "What is that light?" I say. But if somebody knows, "Oh, that light is from..., there is a skyscraper building like this, and the light is coming." So I know what I cannot see, I can hear. Therefore what you do not see, next life, you have to hear from authority. That is stated in the Bhāgavata, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "As you have changed so many times in this life, this body, similarly, after death, you will change your body." That is authority. You have to hear. Anything you do not, cannot perceive, you cannot experiment with your senses, you have to hear from another person who knows. That is the process. Why you think your eyes are so perfect that you can see anything?

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Because his eyes have no value without hearing from the authority. These are the general psychology. He has got eyes. Let him be educated at home. Why he is sent to school? Let him see everything. How these rascals say like that, I am surprised. "I cannot see in my eyes." You cannot see in your eyes what was the length and breadth of your body in the mother's womb. But does it mean that you did not exist in the mother's womb? You cannot see who is your father. How do you believe that this is my father? Is that depending on your eyes? Then what is the value of your eyes? Why these rascals say that "I do not see." These things prove that they are rascals.

Girirāja: Most of the things in their theories they also have not seen.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, it has no value.

Prajāpati: The whole western...

Prabhupāda: Manorathena asati dhāvato bahiḥ. By mental speculation, you will remain on this asati, in this temporary field. Asat means "which will not exist." Anything in this material world, you take, that will not exist. Anywhere man can say. The skyscraper building is constructed, but everyone knows that it will not exist. Some day it will fall down. Everyone knows. It will never exist. That is explained by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, that "If you think that by combination of matter, life has come, so life was not there before the combination. And this combination will dismantle. So life, there will be no more life. So why these three period you are lamenting? There is life." Because according to this theory—"The combination of matter makes life"—so before combination there was no life, and the combination dismantled, there is no life. So beginning and end no life. Why you are lamenting in the middle? Very good reasoning. Just see. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says, māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43).

Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If they do not take seriously to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then this prosperity will not exist.

Bhava-bhūti: It is already degrading.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: No, but really these people are, I mean, in their heart superior than others.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Because their method of working is more honest in a way. If they get money then we get jealous of them because...

Prabhupāda: No, they, they are feeling nationally. They are feeling nationally. Yes.

Dr. Patel: Even though it is a nation of hodge-podge people from Europe, but still they are...

Prabhupāda: So therefore they have said United Nations.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Certainly. Certainly. Certainly.

Indian man (1): Have you seen?

Prabhupāda: And you have not seen so many things. Does it mean that does not exist? You are researching. You have not seen. As a scientist...

Indian man (1): I have heard lots of ghost stories, but...

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is not stories. We are hearing from Bhāgavata. It is authority. We are not hearing the stories of a third-class man. We are hearing from Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva...

Indian man (1): But you see, up till now, in my long life of eighty years...

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, you have not so many experiences. That does not mean these things does not exist. Your experience is not all in all. Don't think like that. So these are existing actually. That is the defect, that you do not accept the authorities. That is the defect. Here Vyāsadeva is describing, who is called Vedavyāsa, full of all knowledge, and Bhāgavata is a mature experience. We are hearing from him. Why you should not believe? I may not have experience. This ghost means the living entity is subtle life without any material body. That is ghost. When one is very sinful, he does not get the material body. He lives in the subtle body: mind, intelligence and ego. That is ghostly life. And they display. Because they have no body, one cannot see, but they display so many mischiefs. That is ghostly life. (break) Seeing or not seeing doesn't matter. Therefore it is enjoined in the Vedānta-sūtra, śāstra cakṣuṣā.

Indian man (1): But it should be proved.

Prabhupāda: It is true because it is spoken by Vyāsadeva. How you say it is false? You cannot say that. That is blasphemy.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That these children, they are seeing that "This thing will not exist. It has no value." But they are still busy, (laughs) still busy. Similarly, everyone knows that "Whatever we are constructing, it will be finished," but still, they are busy. They are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Girirāja: "Now he has come back to enliven his relatives. After observing such..."

Prabhupāda: So our policy is that if you want to construct, if you have got the tendency, so you construct for Kṛṣṇa. That will be service. Construct a temple for Kṛṣṇa. So that service will be taken into account. Similarly, when we use this motorcar or aeroplane, so in the same purpose... Now they have done this, let it be engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious service. So one who has manufactured it, he will be benefited, and others will be benefited.

Girirāja: "After observing such wonderful happenings, Nanda Mahārāja began to think of the words of Vasudeva again and again." (break)

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: With gun or without, gun, you will die. The fascist will die and the other party also will die. Gun or without gun, he cannot exist. But our fight is to stop death. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Our fight is for this purpose, no more death. This is real fight. Your, what is your fight? You may save yourself for two years or three years or ten years, but you have to die. You have no such program not to die. But here is a program, no more death.

Yogeśvara: They have one program. They are freezing bodies.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is another nonsense.

Yogeśvara: Then they will defrost them in fifty or one hundred years.

Prabhupāda: All future programs.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Another matter.

Robert Gouiran: Another state of matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Robert Gouiran: It is a state of matter which does not exist in our universe, in our solar system.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. But it is another material conception. And our anti-matter is... This is described. It cannot be cut, it cannot be dried up, it cannot be moistened, it cannot be... So many things. Which is possible in any material thing.

Robert Gouiran: That's the definition of energy.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Robert Gouiran: Yes. It's not because some American hospital are not healer that healing does not exist.

Prabhupāda: No, no, they're trying, everyone is trying to heal, American or Englishman or European, it doesn't matter. Everyone is trying but there is no healing. That is our point.

Guru-gaurāṅga: He's saying that there is a value to temporary healing.

Prabhupāda: That's a... Temporary value, we also give but we say there is no healing.

Yogeśvara: Ah, yes, healing in the sense that it will never happen again.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: It is in his mind, that he thinks that he is healed. Just like if you have a disease and then you have terrible disease that produces headache and so you take aspirin to relieve the headache, but still the disease is there. So he thinks, "I am O.K. now."

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct) consider what kind of life I'm going to get. (indistinct) They have made their own rascal philosophy that there is no life after death. Although they're experiencing that I am changing my body in this duration of life. I know that I have a child's body, child's body. That body's finished. Still I'm existing. So why I shall not exist after this body's finished? Where is the logic? Where is the... The simple logic they cannot understand. So dull brain. And they're advanced in civilization, big, big professor, big, big Indologist, this logic. The simple reason they cannot understand. What did they say? You have talked to many men about this logic?

Guru-gaurāṅga: About life after death?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: So the fact that evolution is existing, it's a fact. But it does not exist independent of the fact that Kṛṣṇa created it and He established it. It's not something that developed independently.

Prabhupāda: What is that? I do not follow.

Bhagavān: When Brahmā creates the different species, they're not created one at a time. They're... All over the universe, there's different species which he creates?

Prabhupāda: Brahmā is created first. So he does not belong to the species. Immediately, he's a demigod. So where is the question of evolution?

Bhagavān: Yeah. So you understand? Brahmā is created first. So it's not that we started from one-celled animals and worked up to Brahmā.

Satsvarūpa: But on a particular planet is it like that?

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is existing. Just like at night the sun is existing, but you have no eyes to see him. That does not mean sun does not exist. It is your deficiency. You cannot see.

Guest (2): So we need divine sight.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you require qualification. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always existing. You require the qualification. That is described in the... Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti: (Bs. 5.38) "Those who are saintly persons and in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing twenty-four hours Kṛṣṇa." That is not very difficult to understand. If you love somebody, you are seeing him or her always. Is it not?

Guest (2): That's so.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is person, how can I serve him? I cannot serve the air or the sky. I must serve a person. Love does not exist in the sky or in the air. It must be a person. Man or woman, it doesn't matter. Otherwise where there is love? Whom to love?

Yoga student: The Sufis find love in these figures... For example, the Sufi Ib'n Araby(?), through of the face of a beautiful woman...

Prabhupāda: Through the face of beautiful woman?

Yoga student: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So there the materialists also find.

Yoga student: That is the material aspect, absolutely.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is person, how can I serve him? I cannot serve the air or the sky. I must serve a person. Love does not exist in the sky or in the air. There must be a person, man or woman, it doesn't matter. Otherwise, where there is love? Whom to love?

Guest: The Sufis find love in these figures. For example, the Sufis in (indistinct) through the face of a beautiful woman.

Prabhupāda: Face of beautiful woman, then the materialists also find.

Guest: It's a material aspect, actually.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, Islam religion, (indistinct) reject it (indistinct). As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore, we are strict not to conceive material form. That is Vedic conception. Apāni-pādo javano grahitā. "He has no legs, no hands." This is denying the form. Next he says, Vedas says, javana grahitā. "He can accept whatever you offer to Him." That means He has, God has, no material form, but He has form, otherwise how He can accept it? How I can understand by love?

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Ātmā's nature. One question should be understood, thoroughly. You have asked what is the nature of ātmā. The ātmā's nature is that he is eternal. He never dies. Never takes birth. He is already existing. Just like, you were a child, you were a baby. The body is no longer existing. Your childhood body is no longer existing, but you know that you were a child. You remember your childhood days. Therefore, you are different from the body. The body is passed away, but you remember that you had a body like that. Therefore you exist. You know that you'll become an old man. So this body will not exist. Another body you will get, old age body. Therefore you will exist; the body will change. Now try to understand this fact first of all, and if you cannot understand, ask questions.

Kim: The ātman, there is one to a person, or there is only one ātman?

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So that we have to tolerate. Therefore it is called titikṣā. Śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣā ārjavam. Ārjavam means simple life, simplicity, that "If I can live in this way, why shall I acquire so many things for artificial life?" That is called ārjavam. Śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣā ārjavam, then jñānam. Jñānam means knowledge that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul. My..." Actually that is the fact. This body is not important. The living force within the body is important. As soon as the living force goes out of the body, what is this value? You may be a great geographer or scientist or Professor Einstein or whatever. As soon as the living force is gone, you are useless, this body is useless. You have to throw it. That is jñānam, that "I am taking so much care of this material body, which will not exist, which I shall, become... 'Dust thou art; dust thou beist.' Again it will mix up with these dirty things. I am taking so much care of this body. What about that living force, which is important?"

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Guest (1): It becomes a belief rather than a logic now, then, for when we think about the God. You were saying everybody has father, so why God, in exception, He hasn't got a father?

Prabhupāda: Therefore He is God, that He can exist without father. But you cannot exist without father. That is the difference between you and God.

Guest (2): Is God in the form of male or female or anything?

Prabhupāda: He is male. Otherwise how He can beget? Female cannot beget without man's contact. The prakṛti, the nature, is female, and God is male. Find out this verse,

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
(BG 14.4)

Paramahaṁsa:

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
(BG 14.4)

"It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father."

Prabhupāda: So material nature is the mother, and God is the father.

Car Conversation from Airport -- July 3, 1975, Chicago:

Brahmānanda: Equally, He says. Sama tītāni. He knows the past, the present and the future.

Prabhupāda: And He says in another place, "It is not that we were not existing in the past, and neither it is that we shall not exist in the future." So this is past, present, future. Tri-kāla-jñā. So we are not going to the temple?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: They are separate identity.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But it looks like, though, in the material body the one cannot exist without another. They look like interdependent.

Prabhupāda: That may be, but still, they are individuals.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: When the jīva in the heart dies, then all the other cells in the body also have to die.

Prabhupāda: No.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: No, they don't. But when the body decays, doesn't everything...

Prabhupāda: No. Dead body so many germs come out.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: How it comes?

Room Conversation with the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: We are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā. So the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā is the teaching of transmigration of the soul. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So that is our first concern, dehāntara-prāptiḥ. This body will not exist, and we have to accept another body. Kṛṣṇa says, dehāntara-prāptiḥ, "another body." Now, there are 8,400,000 different types of body. Which body I am going to accept, there is no education. So I am kept in darkness. So what is the value of my education?

Professor: You mean your future?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I do not know what is my future. Then what is my education?

Professor: Yes. Yes. Of course, that is one standpoint, isn't it?

Morning Walk -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathenāsato dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Nondevotees, they are simply pulled on by the mental speculation: "This will be very nice. This will be very nice." Mano rathena on the chariot of mind... Asataḥ, material. Asat means material, "that will not exist." They will be busy in such things. Real, eternal necessity, they'll not be interested. They do not know. "Now, this beautiful city, it is my city, my country. Everything all right." But he has no knowledge that "After fifty years, when I shall die, where will be my city next?" That he does not know. For the time being, I shall be able to live here for twenty-five years or fifty years. That's all right. And next time, where I am going... A commonsense affair.

Cyavana: That's a third-class mentality, to be satisfied with that city...,

Morning Walk -- November 4, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is the question of body. That is a fact. But he is attached with this body. So the body will not exist. That he cannot see. He has got spiritual business. That he is neglecting. Everyone at the present moment, all over the world, ask, "Are you engaged with your bodily activities or spiritual activities?" "What is the nonsense spirit? We are all body, this body, so long we have got." Even the big Professor Kotovsky, he said, "Swamiji, everything ends after the body. Why do you bother?"

Dr. Patel: I think Einstein was also saying the same thing. Einstein, Professor Einstein.

Prabhupāda: I do not know, but I talked with this gentleman privately. He said... He was a big man in Russia. He said, "Swamiji, after the end of the body everything is finished."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He said, veda na maniyā bauddha haila nāstika. Vedāśraya bauddha-vāda nāstika ke adhika. We accept atheist, one who does not believe in the Vedas. Therefore we have rejected the Buddha philosophy. They could not exist in India. But those who are preaching atheism through Vedas, impersonal, they are more dangerous.

Dr. Patel: That impersonal preaching is not atheism.

Indian man: For example?

Prabhupāda: Anyone impersonalist—"God has no form." There are so many rascals. So he has got form to speak against God, and God has no form. This is going on all over the world. He speaks against the God, that "God is not a person." So he is person, and God is not person. Just see their foolishness. He is made by God, and he is a person, and who made him, he is not a person. This is foolishness.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it's not very easy for us to give good argument with these bogus...

Harikeśa: We can't even keep up with their theories.

Hṛdayānanda: The main argument among the philosophers, the atheistic philosophers, is that "God could not exist because if God existed, if God were good, then why would we be suffering? God would stop our suffering."

Prabhupāda: Because you are criminal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. If your father's good...

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, it is criminal. That is... You say that there are so many persons in the state. Not all of them are suffering in the prisonhouse. Only the criminals. So that is the proof that you are a criminal.

Hṛdayānanda: God could have... God could have created me in such a way that I would never have fallen down.

Prabhupāda: He has created, but He has given you independence.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: This is a philosophical example which is... This is the most common example they give, that if a tree falls in the forest but there is no man there, there is no one there to hear it, then actually it has never happened. Unless someone perceives it, then it does not exist. So they feel that when they discover something, at that time it begins to exist by their becoming conscious of it.

Prabhupāda: What is that explanation?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So if you're sleeping and I kill you and you weren't conscious that I was killing you, then you're still alive?

Prabhupāda: You are not killed. Then it comes as a... You can go to the court: "It is not killed."

Hṛdayānanda: They will say that... No, I will say. I will take the part of the rascal.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Because the time was taken, extension. Then, in 1967, in July, I thought, "Now the health is broken." I was very sick after heartstroke. So I thought "Now I shall not exist. So let me go to Vṛndāvana and die there." So I came back in July 1967. So this Brahmānanda and others, they were crying when I got on the boat. Hm? The heart was so weak...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You went back to India by boat?

Prabhupāda: No, by plane. I think...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: From San Francisco.

Prabhupāda: Hm. At that time, I got some money. Five thousand was given by Jayānanda. He gave me five thousand, and Brahmānanda also gave me. So I spent some money for acquiring some... I had about six thousand. So then I purchased ticket coming back with Kīrtanānanda. In this way, came back to India.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So, "My dear father," not "father," "the best of the asuras," asurya-vārya, the chief asura, "in my opinion," tat sādhu manye, "I think, so far I have studied," tat sādhu manye, "I think that is very nice, very honest profession of occupation for persons who are always full of anxieties." In the material world everyone is full of anxiety. That's a fact. Even in your country, the President Nixon, he was full of anxiety while he was in office, and now, out of his office, he's also full of anxiety. So just see. This is the best man in your country, president, the foremost man. So if he is full of anxiety, the others naturally... Everyone. So what is the cause of the anxiety? Asad-grahāt. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahāt. Asat means that does not exist, "not eternal," it is just opposite. Eternal is called sat, om tat sat, and asat means just the opposite. So here in this material world everything is asat. Even this body is asat; it will not exist. And what to speak of other things with reference to the body. Everything is asat. Anything material is asat; it will not stay, either these trees or this land or this world or this country or this, anything, asat. So asad-grahāt, on account of accepting things which are asat, not permanent, they are always full of anxiety.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Sanātana means eternal. So na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The identification of the living entity is already described, that it does not perish after annihilation of this body. That is sanātana. So that is meant for everyone. Not that the Hindus, after giving up this body, exist, and the Muslim or Christian does not exist. Everyone exists. Everyone is eternal, so sanātana-dharma is meant for everyone.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is there anyone actually outside of sanātana-dharma then?

Prabhupāda: If he thinks. Otherwise nobody is outside. If you think that you are not... There are so many rascals, they think that with the body everything is finished. But he may think so, but that is not fact. Similarly, if one thinks that "I am not sanātana-dharmi, I am Christian." You may think like that, but actually you are sanatanist. But if you think otherwise, you can think. Who can check it? When Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), the soul does not annihilate after the destruction of the body, is it meant for the Hindus? Everyone. Everyone is a living entity, everyone is a soul, and he's eternal. And eternal means sanātana.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
sarve vayam ataḥ param

Translation, "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings, nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means in the past we existed, at present we are existing, and in future we shall continue to exist, individually. And that is our experience. I existed in the past as a child. So I existed as a person. I existed as a young man, so I existed as a person. I am an old man now, now I am existing as a person. Naturally, the conclusion is when I shall change this body, I shall remain as a person. How we can change this conclusion? I am continuing to exist as a person. I am still existing as a person. And here is the authority, He says in the future also you remain a person. So there is time factor, past, present and future, and in all these time factors I live as a person. Not only I, but also Kṛṣṇa. He says "I also remain as person. You Arjuna, you also person, I am also person, and all these soldiers and kings who have assembled, they are also persons." So our personality continues, past, present and future.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: They say that matter can neither be destroyed nor created. It exists eternally. But there is no need for a creator.

Prabhupāda: Why your body does not exist?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It does exist, but in a different form.

Prabhupāda: No, at least this body does not exist. This body was not in existence, it was created, and at the present you see, and in the past this body will not remain there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the energy will be there.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That energy is eternal.

Prabhupāda: That is there.

Meeting with Italian Printer -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: How you'll realize? Unless you learn ABCD, how you can realize truth?

Translator: He's saying that we believe in the spiritual truth, but does that mean that our material truth does not exist?

Prabhupāda: It is conditional. Just like your body exists for a certain days only. But it is not eternal. But you, soul, you are eternal.

Translator: For the truth, since each one finds the truth in himself, does that mean that the truth is different for each person? Each person has his truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he's truth, he's soul, but he thinks as untruth, he thinks he's body.

Translator: He says that the truth is one, but as individuals we all realize that truth at different levels.

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Here is the first thing, that brahma-bhūtaḥ, Brahman realization. Then prasannātmā. He is no more under the material tribulation or anxiety. We are in anxiety on account of our material conception of life. Prahlāda Mahārāja said sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because we have accepted this asat body, material body, which will not exist, and we are concentrating our attention only on this body, therefore we are always anxious. Asad-grahāt. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt. On account of asat. So this is going on all over the world. Simply anxiety. They have created United Nations, but where is the United Nation? The people go there with anxiety, that's all. And come back again with anxiety. Because their asad-grahāt remains. The Indian is thinking, "I am Indian, this body." And the American is thinking, "I am American," and the Pakistani is thinking, "I am Pakistani." So asad-graha is there. So how the anxiety will go away? But they do not know this.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They are mad, working day and night. Pramatta. And acting just adverse to his interest. So Ṛṣabhadeva says this is not good. You should know that he has already got a body for which he is suffering. Pritar yantra.(?) And again he is creating another body. By his karma he is creating another body. So as soon as you get a material body you'll have to suffer. Either you become a king or a dog. Because you have got this material body you have to suffer. Pritar yantra. So asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). This body will not exist. But still so long you'll exist in this body you'll suffer. But they have no brain how to solve this, although there is solution. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). So paropakāra. So as you have become our life member, try to broadcast the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā. That is the meaning of membership. Everything is there. We have got so many books. At least, thoroughly study Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Yes. Understand the philosophy of life. Apply in own life and try to spread among friends. In your bar library you talk so many things. Why not talk about this? Yes. (laughter) Paropakāra. That is paropakāra. Everyone is in darkness. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know the goal of life. Simply by some false hope they are accepting this material thing, material life, as everything. Durāśayā bahir-artha-māninaḥ. External energy.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, this world is full of cheaters. We have to live with them. Sate sattvaṁ samācaret. You also have to become better cheater. That is wanted. Otherwise, you cannot exist.

Akṣayānanda: But we have to cheat for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Do everything for Kṛṣṇa, that is all right, but this world, if you become simple and the whole world is full of cheaters, then you suffer.

Akṣayānanda: You lose everything.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you have to know and protect yourself from the cheaters. So sometimes we have to become a bigger cheater. This is the world. Vañcaka-vañcī. Whole world is going on, my Guru Mahārāja used to say that one is cheater, another is cheated.

Hari-śauri: There's a saying in English... What is it? Set a thief to catch a thief. The purport is that you have to think like a thief, then you can catch him, you can know what he's doing.

Prabhupāda: Set a fish?

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna:

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
sarve vayam ataḥ param

"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings, nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa has personally said to Arjuna that in the past he was person.

Pradyumna: So "Kṛṣṇa, in person"?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Yes. Kṛṣṇa, as a person, says to Arjuna that both of them existed in the past as person, and they'll continue to remain person in the future.

Pradyumna: Both of them existed in the past as person and both of them shall continue to...

Prabhupāda: Remain as person in the future. So without knowing all this knowledge, a mūḍha accepts the incarnation of God as coming from imperson. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Under this heading you have proved yourself to become a mūḍha. And how a mūḍha or an ass can become the incarnation of God? Then? Read that Blitz paper, one after another.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Yes, this is the editor's. "In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa intervenes to save humanity from evil forces. The Purāṇas personify earth, the mother, as groaning under a similar burden to supplicate God for relief." Then heading, "Solution and cure to world's ills. To Baba's devotees, the avatāra has similarly come to provide both the solution and the cure to a world living in terror of a nuclear holocaust. The false dichotomies created by Western thought between God and man, puruṣa and deva, simply do not exist in the Indian scriptures, which prescribe..."

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Pradyumna: "The dichotomies."

Prabhupāda: Dichot...? What is that?

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Dichotomy means some kind of distinction, to make a distinction. He said the dichotomies created by Western thought between God and man, puruṣa and deva. Differences or analysis of differences. "Simply do not exist in the Indian scriptures..."

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Pradyumna: "Which prescribe the assimilation of God in man and man in God as the basis of religion."

Prabhupāda: This is another rascaldom. God is always distinct from man.

Pradyumna: Sai Baba also quotes later, He is also directly saying, also later.

Prabhupāda: What he says?

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: People are so misled. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We have to change this body. There is no preparation. "As sure as death." Death will take place, and you have to accept another body. Who understands this philosophy? Nobody. They are so dull-headed. This body finished, everything finished. All big, big leaders, scholars, they say. One gentleman, his name is... He was Rabindranath Tagore's brother, artist. So in a meeting he was saying, "We are so fool. Thinking of next life, next life, we are spoiling this life." He said like that long, long ago when we were children, young men, about eighteen years, twenty years. So I remember distinctly, he is saying in the meeting that "Simply thinking of next life, we are spoiling this life." He said. That was his explanation. So at that time we were young boys: "Yes, why we should think of, so much of next life?" Of course, I was not very much convinced, but naturally... I think his name Aurobindo Tagore, like that. Rabindranath Tagore. He is good artist. Artist means latest fashion, like this, like that, like that. He was considered to be latest artist. And his view is that. I talked with Professor Kotofsky. He said, "Swamiji, after finishing this body everything is finished." Communist. This is the cent per cent idea. The so-called scientists, they are thinking, by chemical evolution the body has come in existence. These things are discussed in Bhagavad-gītā. By accident, if it is a combination of chemicals, that means the bodily existence was not before. It has come in by accident, combination. "So why, Arjuna, you are lamenting for the body which was not in existence? And it will not exist after.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means he could not get any spiritual idea. Asad grahāt. Material existence means accepting something which will not exist, asat. Asato mā sad gamaya. The Vedic instruction is: "Do not remain in this material world, and make your progress..." Asato mā sad gamaya. But people are so accustomed to materialistic way of life that they are reluctant. That is māyā, very strong. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very, very difficult. Māyā tries to punish every conditioned soul, and as soon as there is some attempt to get out of the clutches of māyā, she becomes still strong: "Where you shall go my dear son? You remain with me." Yaḥ devī sarva-bhūteṣu nidra-rūpiṇa sam...(?) In the Caṇḍī, yaḥ devī, he is situated, keeping the conditioned souls in dream. He is simply dreaming, "I'll be happy in this way; I'll be happy in that way." And that is mental concoction. He'll never be happy. Kṛṣṇa said moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ, āsurīṁ bhāvam āśri... (BG 9.12). Because he has not recognized the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all his hopes and endeavors will be baffled. So even a person like Mahatma Gandhi, he became baffled.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Soul. Spiritual body is now covered with the material body. So anything material, that will not exist. So body is finished; then he has to find new body. Just like the dress is old; it is finished, you take another dress. And when you haven't got to take dress, or this material body, and you remain in your spiritual body, that is called mukti. That can be achieved only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). If you practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness then it is possible; otherwise not. Tyaktvā deham. Everyone has to give up because this body will be old, and one has to give it up. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9), he doesn't accept any more material body. Then? What does he...? He's finished? No, he's not finished. Mām eti. He becomes eligible to go back home back to Godhead, and there he dances with Kṛṣṇa. That is real mukti. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. Anyathā rūpam. Now this rūpa is not spiritual, it is material. And mukti means when he gives up this material body and no more accepts any material body, he is transferred to the spiritual world to play with Kṛṣṇa, to dance with Kṛṣṇa, to talk with Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Yogi Amrit Desai: Right. Just taking care of the body doesn't take you anywhere. That's the lowest.

Prabhupāda: You may take care as carefully as possible, but it will not exist.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Right. No matter how much you take care of it.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Then?

Jagadīśa: Asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ...

Prabhupāda: Asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu: completely detached from family life, anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ, not to associate with so-called society, family, community.

Yogi Amrit Desai: All detachment from everyone.

Prabhupāda: This is all material. Asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu. Then?

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So they did not.

Gargamuni: Well, they were quite shocked to find that the whole thing is a bluff. The propaganda about this Auroville just does not exist. They only have a few houses, and it's simply a few hippies who live there.

Hari-śauri: They make it out to be such a big project.

Gargamuni: They said our Māyāpura project is more advanced.

Rāmeśvara: This is the only movement now. All these other attempts have completely failed, at least in America. All the Indian teachers that have come to America are being exposed.

Prabhupāda: But they say Transcendental Meditation is going...

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ādi-keśava: So when someone becomes angry, that anger is frustration due to the fact that he experiences so many frustrations in the material world, and therefore he calls it void. He says, "Rather than experience the difficulty inherent in the temporality of the material world," instead he calls it void and says that it does not exist. Because it is causing so much distress because he cannot become satisfied in material existence, then he says...

Prabhupāda: Whether it has got any value? Whether such statement has any value?

Harikeśa: Whether such statement has any value?

Ādi-keśava: To say that it has no existence, that it is all void.

Prabhupāda: One, you... Talk on this point. Just like a small animal, rabbit. When he's attacked, he closes the eyes. He thinks, "There is nothing." Now he is devoured. So it is like that. He cannot adjust things, and "That is zero, bas." But that's not the fact. Hm? Simply by closing your eyes you want to avoid danger? Discuss on this.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Who is that? Show me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, today we said—an elephant can also be killed.

Prabhupāda: Everything is killed. "Fittest." Nobody is fittest in this world. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api (SB 2.1.4). Everyone is asat. He'll not exist. That is statement of the... Bhāgavata never said, "Here is a person or animal, fittest." That is not Bhāgavata. Teṣāṁ nidhanaṁ pramattaḥ paśyann api na paśyati. The rascal is so mad that everything will be finished, and he is talking of "fittest." All theory, no practical. Unnecessarily spent millions and millions of dollars, that "We have gone to moon." Why? Why this bogus propaganda? What is the value? And they take pride. Now we are drawing picture how many miles away. It is impossible to find out. And why they make this bogus propaganda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's totally impossible they went to the moon.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhagavān: That Dr. Kapoor got up after Svarūpa Dāmodara's speech today and he said that actually it was very nice that Svarūpa Dāmodara had organized this program, but actually it was not necessary, because the whole problem can be solved very easily when we understand there is no such thing as matter. He was preaching the philosophy that this material world is false. He was getting up there and saying that actually this table does not exist. (laughs) Nothing actually exists. He said the table is made of molecules, and the molecules are invisible. Therefore the table is also invisible.

Abhirāma: What was the scientists' reaction to that?

Bhagavān: He just spoke right before the thing closed. Svarūpa Dāmodara tried to point out how there is a difference between matter and spirit in that one can definitely see the difference between a living body and a dead body. But he didn't actually go in too much detail to defeat his arguments. But I was very surprised that he would come up with such a Māyāvādī statement, that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā philosophy. There are not so many scientists there today, maybe twenty. (kīrtana) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...let me pass. (pause)

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: To you all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Shall we call Girirāja? The conveyance was sent to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, here in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: You had to take care. But if by Kṛṣṇa's desire I do not exist during Bombay opening ceremony, then the ceremony should be very gorgeously performed, and everyone should be given sumptuous prasādam, whoever comes. Of course, the opening ceremony should be performed as early as possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is Girirāja now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja?

Prabhupāda: You repeat what I have sa...

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja?

Prabhupāda: You repeat what I have sa...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said that if he does not exist till the Bombay opening, then it should be performed very gorgeously, and everyone should be fed sumptuous prasādam, and it should be celebrated as early as possible.

Prabhupāda: And one thing... Just now I am forgetting. And don't try to make preparation in the temple. Order the foodstuff from confectioner. Have good stock and distribute.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All of the prasādam, or just sweets?

Prabhupāda: Sweets. There are many nice sweet supplier in Bombay. Order them... (break) How do you like this idea?

Page Title:Not exist (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:30 of Sep, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=70, Let=0
No. of Quotes:70