Devotee: Without separate endeavor, a pure devotee is automatically expert in everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Politics, economics.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Sociology.

Prabhupāda: Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). If you know Kṛṣṇa, then you understand everything. That is the Vedic injunction. Yasmin vijñāte. If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa... In Bhagavad-gītā, it is also said that "There will be no more anything to understand." In the Ninth Chapter? What is that verse? Can anyone say?

Devotee: The Fifteenth Chapter.

Prabhupāda: Avaśiṣyate. Jñātavyam avaśiṣyate. You cannot...?

Devotee (2): Yaj jñātvā...

Prabhupāda: ...cannot recite, the whole verse?

Devotee (2): Yaj jñātvā neha bhūyo 'nyaj.

Prabhupāda: That is the second line. First line?

Devotee (2): Sa evaṁ guhyatamaṁ vakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ.

Prabhupāda: Vakṣyāmy... Yes, that is the verse. Yaj jñātvā anyaj jñātavyam na avaśiṣyate (BG 7.2). Kṛṣṇa consciousness is such a great science that if one becomes expert, then he knows everything.

Devotee (3): So Prabhupāda, is there something we should do to prepare ourselves for this disaster?

Prabhupāda: What?

Devotee (3): This coming war.

Prabhupāda: You should simply prepare for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (3) That's all?

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Devotee (4): Prabhupāda, people sometimes argue that "God placed us in this world..."

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (4): People argue that God has placed us in this world, and that He's left us in darkness, so therefore He's played a trick on us. What is our argument against this?

Prabhupāda: You have come to this world of darkness, and Kṛṣṇa is trying to raise you again to the light. That is the fact. You have willingly come to this nonsense place. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He comes Himself and tries to again get you out, deliver from this nonsense thing. This is real position.

Devotee (5): They say that "God has put us here, but He's given us intelligence, so we're to figure it out ourselves."

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee (5): That "God has put us here, and He's given us intelligence, so we're to figure it out ourselves."

Prabhupāda: So therefore you take intelligence from God, you rascal. Why do you keep yourself in darkness?

Devotee (5): Well, they say that "God has given us the intelligence to figure it out on our own."

Prabhupāda: That is intelligence—you surrender. You are surrendering to māyā, to your wife, to your dog, to your family, to your house, to your nation. Why not God? You rascal. You are surrendering to so many other things. Why not to God?

Devotee (6): Just like you told that Russian professor that he is surrendering to Lenin, but we are surrendering to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (6): But everyone has to surrender.

Prabhupāda: Surrender, this...That is the only way. You cannot become independent. You have to surrender. Who is a man who has not surrendered? At least he finds out a dog and surrenders to him. (laughter) In your country there are so many people living with the dog. So surrender is the only business of you. Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109). (break)

Devotee (7): Śrīla Prabhupāda, someone asked a question the other day about the atom which I couldn't give the answer to. His question is that if we say that within the atom the living entity, the jīva, is present, and life symptoms means six symptoms of birth, growth...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Their life symptoms has not yet come. But there is.

Devotee: Potential.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (7): His question was... It was sort of a dual question. At what time, or what...? Just like at the time of disintegration of this body, the living entity leaves this body and the body disintegrates, so does the atomic body also disintegrate when the living entity leaves it and moves to a higher body?

Prabhupāda: Atomic body? Atomic body means material body. Unless you are free from this material body, the atomic body will go on with you. That means unless you are mukta, the atomic body will go on. Mind, intelligence, ego—they are also atomic, finer atomic body.

Devotee (7): But within each atom the living entity is present?

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is present; therefore living entity is present.

Devotee (7): So the living entity is present within the atom just as I am present within this body. When I leave this body, my body breaks apart.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you leave this body, enter another body.

Devotee (7): Right.

Prabhupāda: By nature's law.

Devotee (7): And when I leave this body, the body breaks apart.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee (7): When I leave this body, the body dis...

Prabhupāda: The body is already atomic combination.

Devotee (7): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So it remains atomic combination. You leave the body.

Devotee (7): Yes. It remains...

Prabhupāda: You leave the house. That does not mean the house is finished.

Devotee (7): Right, I can understand that.

Devotee (3) He's asking that if the soul leaves the atomic particle, then does the particle break apart. Isn't it?

Prabhupāda: No, no. You have not left atomic particle.

Devotee (7): No, but you, you're... I think you were saying that within the atom there's also a living entity. So when that living entity leaves the atomic particle, does the particle break apart? Or doesn't it? I mean what...?

Prabhupāda: Just try to understand. From the śāstra, you understand that aṇḍāntara-stham: "God lives within the atom."

Devotee (7): Yes.

Prabhupāda: And when the God is there, living entity's also there. This... This much you try to understand. Because God and living entity, they remain together, as two friends. God is trying to save this fallen friend. That is the information from Upaniṣad. So when God is there, the living entity is also there.

Devotee (6): So Paramātmā and jīvātmā are always together.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (7): Can we say that the living entity is present within the atom by consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? No. Consciousness will gradually develop according to the bodily situation.

Devotee (8): How does the jīva get out of the atom and take a gross body?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (8): How will that jīva...

Prabhupāda: Body is combination of atoms. How he gets out of the atom? Body is nothing but combination of many atoms. Everything material is combination of many atoms. That's all.

Devotee (8): The jīvas inside the atom, are they like impersonalists who are in the Brahman?

Prabhupāda: That you consider. He has not developed his consciousness. Practically, it is like dead.

Devotee (7): Actually, if there was a war, a large-scale war, I think that our farming projects...

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (7): I think that the various farm projects that we have would be very good because, as you said, the cities would be bombed, but the farms would not be disturbed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The farm project... Even some hundreds of years, it was so nice. Even there was war, they would not attack the farmers. Rather, they would ask, "Where the other party has gone?" So they will say: "Oh, we have seen some soldiers going this way." That's all. They were not affected. That was the principle. Farmers were not attacked, just like at the present moment, the law is the civilians are not attacked. The military target is attacked. That is the law. But they do all nonsense. Even at the present moment civilians are not attacked. Just like Kurukṣetra Battle. It was taken far away from the civilian inhabitation.

Devotee (3): Some field.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is civilization. "Why these innocent civilians should be killed? Let us fight, military to military. That's all." That is honest fighting. We have to settle some things by fighting. So fighting may be, I mean to say, limited within the fighters, not with the civilians.

Devotee (7): In modern warfare it's...

Prabhupāda: Why not? Yes. But they, they are so rascals, they throw bomb anywhere.

Devotee (7): Especially atom bombs.

Prabhupāda: But one thing is that because civilians are also responsible for declaring war, because the parliament is the representation of the people...

Devotee (4): Karma.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, now the war is between people to people, nation to nation. They support with men and money. So therefore they are also killed by nature's law. (break)

Devotee (8): Prabhupāda, in the Ādi-līlā you wrote that the Communist movement is greater than the capitalist movement because there are more śūdras than vaiśyas, so that in a war between Communism and capitalism, the Communists would win.

Prabhupāda: Naturally. They are in greater number.

Devotee (8): But these modern wars are fought with missiles and bombs more than armies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Formerly, also, there were brahmāstra, fire, firearms, brahmāstra... (break) ...problems that we are facing, they were also in the past under different name, different forms. (break)

Devotee (9): ...Communists win, that will not stop our preaching?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (9): They do not like to hear of God.

Devotee (8): You wrote that if the Communists are victorious, they would destroy whatever is left of the culture.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Victory for the Communists means the whole human culture is lost.

Devotee (10): Does it mean that they will also attack the Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have already begun. They are not passing our temple in Bombay.

Devotee (9): If after the war the preaching will be still good, that means the Communists will not be victorious.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (9): The Americans will win?

Prabhupāda: Honest people will take to religious way of life. The Communists becoming victorious means they are also ruined. (break) ...too much danger, you all come and sit down here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Devotees: Jaya. Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Devotee: Then men will be eager to come join our India project.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (8): We can go to Africa also. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Oh, anywhere we can go, so many places, yes.

Devotee (11): Hong Kong also.

Prabhupāda: Hong Kong? (laughter)

Devotee (10): Means then some devotees has to stay in Europe or in America. So....

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything you stay. We have got place like this.

Devotee (4): Our farms are very nice because economically when everything is in chaos, we can still provide food for our men.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (6): And milk and butter.

Devotee (10): Milk and butter.

Devotee (2): In America, prabhu. (break)

Devotee (10): ...that if there is a war between Russia and America, there would be a nuclear war, and they would pollute the whole atmosphere with radioactive particles, which would kill everyone.
Prabhupāda: It is already polluted.

Devotee (8): They say that this radioactive fallout...

Prabhupāda: The whole material world is polluted. Who will live here? (laughter) A little, say, twenty years before, dying. After all, you have to die, twenty years after or twenty years before. So it is already polluted. That is humbugism. They will die at the end, but still they are trying to live. (kīrtana in background growing progressively louder as Prabhupāda approaches temple)

Devotee (9): Like they're creating their own...

Prabhupāda: This is the difference between man of knowledge and without knowledge. A man of knowledge will think, "After all, I have to die. So what is the difficulty, dying a few days more or before?" That is knowledge. And those who are not in knowledge, they are afraid of death. Best business is, before the death comes let us finish our Kṛṣṇa consciousness perfectly. That is wanted. Death will come. You cannot avoid it.

Devotee (7): They say that this radioactive fallout will pollute the air, so that no crops can be grown.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. You shall die without food. Because after all, the death. In Bengal, it is called: more bhera ghalne: "The most misfortunate thing is death." That will come. Therefore the best intelligence is how to avoid death.

Devotee (4): Become immortal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real intelligence, not to be bothered by these trifle temporary things that "I am dying twenty years before. If the situation was better, I would have lived more twenty years." What is this mentality?

Devotee: Back to Godhead.

Devotee (4): Yes, we can go back to Godhead.

(Prabhupāda enters temple; loud kīrtana)

(Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk, April 4, 1975, Mayapur)
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The Best Intelligence Is How to Avoid Death