Professor Durckheim: There is one difficulty in the Western part of the world which might not be so great in the Eastern part. If . . . I realize in Japan, when they talk about father and mother, especially also mother, it was all something to be loved, to be grateful, to submit. In our countries now, the father is generally the one who does not understand anymore his son, and the son has to get rid of his body father in order to be able to realize himself. So very often the main obstacle in our youth is the image of mother and father, because they have never understood their children. So the word father for many people in the Western part of the world . . .
Prabhupāda: Misunderstood.
Professor Durckheim: Is a misunder . . . is something not very agreeable. It's all the authority like this, the not understanding, the not loving, the authority. You see? There are so many fathers who say in their family, "I don't know what you are talking about freedom. In my house everybody can do what I like." So they are very much under this spell today. So I just say this because it's very funny also in this trend of development of religion of today. I have to very much . . .
Prabhupāda: It is not religion; it is fact. It is not . . . religion is sometimes explained as sentiment, but this is fact, that father and son . . . without father there is no existence of son, and without son there is no meaning of father. This is science. This is not religion. Yes. This is science. As soon as you speak of father means he must have a son. Or more son. And as soon as a son, he must have a father. So this is a question of "must," not sentiment.
Professor Durckheim: It is one of the great phrases of the Gospel of St. John which the church forgot, that Christ always says: "I am the son of God, and you are my brother. You are sons of God just as I am."
Prabhupāda: Yes. But they do not agree now. Just see. Everyone is son. Now we say that . . . the Christians, so-called Christians, are so ignorant, as soon as you say: "Everyone is son," they rebel, "No. Christ is the only son." And you say that Christ said that, "I am the son, and you are also sons." This is the fact. Kṛṣṇa says that, "All living entities are My sons." That is the fact. He is the supreme father. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ. (aside) Read that śloka.
Satsvarūpa:
- 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: Just see.
Professor Durckheim: Wonderful.
Prabhupāda: Material nature is the mother. Material nature gives the body. But the soul is part and parcel of God. A soul is given, impregnated, in the material nature, and they come out in so many species of life. How easily it is explained. So self-realization we explain that samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, equality to all living entities. But because they have no spiritual knowledge, they think that humanitarian work means to give all facilities to the human being, not to the animals. We are talking of nationalism. "National" means anyone who has taken birth in that land. That is the definition of national. But they are taking care of the human being who has taken birth in that land, but poor animals, they are being slaughtered. This is their nationalism. So all . . . everything is going wrong account of wrong conception of life. And that wrong conception of life is that, "I am this body." But when we understand that, "I am not this body, I am the active principle within this body," then this misconception will go out. That is the beginning of spiritual realization, or self-realization.