750214 - Conversation Q&A - Mexico

Conversations by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Conversation

750214QA-MEXICO CITY - February 14, 1975 - 13:51 Minutes

(translated into Spanish throughout)

Prabhupāda: Actually, spiritual consciousness keeps the body fit. Just like in the body the spirit soul is there and the consciousness is also there, maybe polluted, but as soon as the spirit soul gives up this body, the body immediately begins to decompose. So the decomposition of the body is checked by the spiritual presence. So if you become advanced in spiritual consciousness there is no question of suffering from bodily disease. (break)

Woman devotee: (translating) . . .along with the spirit soul can be realized?

Prabhupāda: Yes, by your present position, you can simply take the information that the dimension of the spirit soul is one ten-thousandth part of the tip of your hair. Very small particle, that is spirit soul. The dimension is given. You have got your hair. You can just imagine only; you cannot measure. And you divide the top of your hair into ten thousand parts, and that one part is the measurement of the spirit soul. That small particle is so powerful. Just imagine what is spiritual power. It is less than the atom. Therefore it is described in the Vedic lit. . . aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.20): "The spirit is greater than the greatest and the smaller than the smallest."

Woman devotee: (translating) He wants to know exactly what is the form of the body. If spirit soul is nonmaterial, what is the form?

Prabhupāda: There is form. Just like this body is compared with the dress. Now, just like in your present material form you have got hand, therefore your coat has got hand. If you have got. . . You have got leg; therefore your pant has got leg. Therefore it is to be assumed that the spirit soul has got form, and it has developed into hands, legs, heads, everything. It is not formless; it has got form. But with our material eyes at the present, gross eyes, we cannot find it; therefore we say it has no form.

Woman devotee: (translating) Is Jesus in the paramparā?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He says, "There is God. I am son of God." That is paramparā. Yes. Unfortunately nobody cares to follow Jesus Christ. That I must say. Jesus Christ says, "Thou shall not kill," and Christians are very expert to kill. (laughter) They take pride in bullfighting. This is the position. So it is very difficult to find out a real Christian.

Hṛdayānanda: (explaining a question asked) He wants to ask something which is not about you.(?)

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Woman devotee: (translating question) If the circumstances don't allow it—I can't live in the temple, can't live in the āśrama, but I can still see the devotees—what else can I do to advance spiritually?

Prabhupāda: You follow the temple procedure. You can remain anywhere, it doesn't matter. What is temple? They are following some rules and regulation. (break) If you are eating something and if you get a better thing, you'll give it up. So when one takes to bhakti means he understands the inferior quality of karma. So you take the superior quality activities and you forget inferior quality. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). This is the Vedic version. When one finds out superior engagement, he gives up inferior engagement.

Hṛdayānanda: (translating question) He asked about heart transplants, where does the soul go in heart transplant, when they change the heart from one body to another body. He's asking about that.

Prabhupāda: Heart changing?

Hanumān: No. Now they're doing this heart transplantation. They're taking the heart of one person. . .

Prabhupāda: The soul changes from this heart to that heart. That's all. Just like you are running your car. It stops. Then you change, this car to that car. That's all. (laughter) This is it. It is very common thing.

Hṛdayānanda: (translating question) If by purifying ourselves we feel our relationship that we have with the Supreme Personality of Godhead?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the center of purification.

Hanumān: Prabhupāda, I would like to know, if there is no birth in the spiritual world, how do we re-enter the spiritual world?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Birth means first of all you take your birth where Kṛṣṇa is now present. Kṛṣṇa is present in one of the universes. There are innumerable universes. So you take your birth in the next universe, or where Kṛṣṇa is now. Then you become trained up. And when you are trained up, then you personally go to Vaikuṇṭha. No birth.

Hṛdayānanda: Any more questions and answers?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. What is that?

Hṛdayānanda: More questions and answers?

Prabhupāda: If you like, I can go on. (break)

Hṛdayānanda: (translating question) If there's another way to go to God. If there is another way.

Prabhupāda: No. (laughter) Because it is stated in Bhagavad-gītā,

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti

yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ

tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā

viśate tad-anantaram

(BG 18.55)

Find out this. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. (Nitāi chants verse)

Hṛdayānanda: (reads Spanish translation)

Prabhupāda: Nobody is allowed to enter kingdom of God without becoming bhakta. And there is no difficulty of becoming bhakta because the. . . to become bhakta means four principles. One thing is to always think of Kṛṣṇa. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. That is bhakta. Simply by thinking of Kṛṣṇa. . . That is Hare Kṛṣṇa. When you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you think of Kṛṣṇa. You become bhakta immediately. Then, after becoming man-manā bhava, mad-yājī: "You worship Me," māṁ namaskuru, "and offer obeisances." It is very simple thing. If you think of Kṛṣṇa and if you offer little obeisances and if you worship Him, these three things will make you bhakta and you'll go back to home, back to Godhead. We are teaching this thing: chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, offer obeisances unto Deity and worship. Finish all business. So why they should go to the jñāna path? It requires so much knowledge and so much grammatical, so much nose pressing, so many things. You avoid all these things. Simply do these three things and you become bhakta. Why don't you take the easiest process and go back to home, back to Godhead?

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! (end)