Prabhupāda: Any kind of distress we suffer, it is due to our impious activities in the past.
Bob: But when one is removed from karmic influence...
Prabhupāda: Yes?
Bob: ...does he still get sick?
Prabhupāda: No. Even if he gets sick, that is very temporary. Just like this fan is moving. If you disconnect with the electric power, then the fan will move for a moment. That movement is not due to the electric current. That is force. What is called physically, this...
Śyāmasundara: Momentum.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Śyāmasundara: Momentum.
Prabhupāda: Momentum. But as soon as he stops, no more movement. Similarly, a devotee who has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, even he's found that he's suffering from material consequences, that is temporary. Therefore a devotee does not take any material miseries as misery. He takes as Kṛṣṇa's, God's, mercy.
Bob: But what about a perfected soul, a devotee, a pure devotee?
Prabhupāda: Perfected soul means twenty-four hours engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is perfection. Transcendental position. Perfection means to be engaged in his original consciousness. That is perfection. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Anyone who comes to Me, that is the..." Saṁsiddhiḥ labhate param. Saṁsiddhi. Perfection, complete perfection. Saṁsiddhi. Siddhi and saṁsiddhi. Siddhi is perfection. That is Brahman realization. And saṁsiddhi means devotion, after Brahman realization.
Bob: Could you just say that last thing again please?
Prabhupāda: Saṁsiddhi.
Bob: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Sam means complete.
Bob: Yes.
Prabhupāda: And siddhi means perfection. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that one who goes back to home, back to Godhead, he has attained the complete perfection. So perfection means when one realizes that he's not this body, he's spirit soul. Brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). That is called Brahman realization. That is perfection. And saṁsiddhi means after Brahman realization, when one is engaged in devotional service. Therefore, one who is already engaged in devotional service, it is to be understood that Brahman realization is there. Therefore it is called saṁsiddhi.
Bob: I, I, I ask you this very humbly, but do you feel diseases and sickness?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Bob: Do you personally feel disease and sickness?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bob: Is this a result of your past karma?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Bob: This is a result of your past karma?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bob: So one in this material world never escapes his karma completely?
Prabhupāda: Yes, escapes. No more karma. For a devotee, no more karma reaction.