Colin Cross: I would say much the same as yours, from what I've seen in your writings—that there's an underlying truth behind all religion. Would you agree with that?
Prabhupāda: Religion, as it is explained in the dictionary, "Accepting a supreme controller." Is it not?
Colin Cross: Hmm.
Prabhupāda: So do the people accept a supreme controller? Do they accept? There are so many system of religions, but do they actually know who is the supreme controller? That is my question. What do you think? Just like this is British government, and we know that the Queen is the supreme controller. Similarly, of all creation, cosmic manifestation, there is a supreme controller. And who is that supreme controller? Do they know it? That is my question.
Colin Cross: I mean, what is your attitude towards Christianity?
Prabhupāda: Don't come to Christianity. I'm talking on religion, the science of religion. The religion . . . when we speak of religion, there is no question of Christianity or Muslim or Hindu. Just like when they speak of gold, gold is gold everywhere. Gold cannot be Muslim gold or Hindu gold or Christian gold. First try . . . we are concerned with gold, not the country where the gold is produced. That is not very important thing. Whether it is gold, that is our business.
Colin Cross: I mean, would you count Jesus Christ as gold?
Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? He's speaking about the supreme controller, God, so why should we not? Anyone who is speaking about God . . . (break)
Colin Cross: You don't accept it as mere sentiment.
Prabhupāda: No. Religion without science or philosophy is sentiment. And philosophy without religion is mental speculation. So they must be combined together. So far the controller is concerned, this is scientific understanding. Just like the father . . . we consider . . . why we? Everyone. Either he is Christian or Muhammadan or Hindu, the conception of God is generally accepted as the supreme father.
Colin Cross: I mean, it is a fact.
Prabhupāda: It is fact.
Colin Cross: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Because, just like anything, creation means the mother, the father and the children. That is our practical experience. Without mother, we are nowhere. We are given birth by the mother. So the material nature is the mother. From the material nature, material elements, everything is coming. From the water the fishes are coming, from the land the grass, the worms, and then human being, they are coming. From the air also living entities are coming. So therefore material nature is the mother, and we have come out of the material nature, therefore we are children. Then there must be father, because without father, simply mother cannot give birth. This is science. You cannot deny the existence of God simply by a false argument. This is real argument. The mother is there, material nature, and we are children there. There must be father.
Colin Cross: In England, the Christian Church in recent years or recent decades has been doing very badly and losing support. Your teaching could perhaps provide a substitute for the more traditional type of Christian teaching.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is science. Therefore I say religion without scientific idea, that is sentiment. It has no value. This is basic principle of religion, that the mother is there, the children are there—there must be father. If you say: "I do not see what is God," it doesn't matter. Sometimes the child after birth does not see his father. But that does not mean that he has no father, because without father there is no possibility of his existence.