(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada)
Indian man: Is it that a man becomes a man after the death?
Prabhupāda: No guarantee.
Indian man: He may go to an animal.
Prabhupāda: Species. He may become a dog, and he may become a demigod also, according to his karma. Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. Api. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni (BG 9.25). So according to his karma, he gets the next body. There is no guarantee that he'll get human body. Therefore it is very risky civilization at the modern time. They do not know what is the goal of life. Simply like cats and dogs they are eating, sleeping, having sex life and dying. That's all. They do not know. Very risky life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum. This is the statement of the śāstra. "These rascals, they do not know that what is the goal of life, to understand Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). In the external energy of Kṛṣṇa, this bhūmir āpo... Bhinnā prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā. Bhinnā. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Bahir artha means this external, separated energy, material en... They are trying to become happy by adjustment of this bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4). They are implicated with this bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ, external. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. So they are andha, blind. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. And they are leading other blind men. That's all.
Indian man: The Westerns are more unsure than the Easterns, or...?
Prabhupāda: No, Eastern are more at the present moment. This is the world. Material world is andha, all blind. There is no question of "Eastern" or "Western." This is our manufacture, that Eastern is better than the Western. Just like stool. Stool, upside, little dry, and the downside, it is moist. If you say, "This side is better than the downside," (laughter) it is after all stool. So what is better side or...? (laughter) We don't make such things as "Eastern" and "Western." We test whether he's Kṛṣṇa conscious. That's all.
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Nairobi, October 31, 1975)
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