750713 - Conversation C - Philadelphia

Conversations by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Conversation

750713R3-PHILADELPHIA - July 13, 1975 - 06:18 Minutes

(Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz father of Urmilā dāsī)

Prabhupāda: If you want to sit in chair, you can sit.

Brahmānanda: Here, I'll get you a chair.

Devotee: Prabhupāda can sit here.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you very much. This is fine. This is fine. I have here a check for the Life Membership.

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: I'll cash it.

Brahmānanda: Mr. Manischewitz is becoming Life Member.

Prabhupāda: Ohh. Thank you very much. So give him books.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: This is fine, thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Now you can . . . I saw you before?

Bernard Manischewitz: Twice before. Once in Chicago and once in New York.

Prabhupāda: How are you now?

Bernard Manischewitz: I'm fine, thank you.

Prabhupāda: She's your daughter?

Bernard Manischewitz: My daughter. My son-in-law. My sleeping grandson. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: So make him active like you.

Bernard Manischewitz: I have a question. May I ask? Is it sometimes possible that a person is reborn in the same body?

Prabhupāda: Same body? What is that?

Brahmānanda: Is a person reborn in the same body?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are reborn every moment. You were like this child sometime. Is this body the same? Do you think your body is the same when you were a child like that, lying down on the lap of you mother? Is the same body?

Bernard Manischewitz: No, my body is different from a child's body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So different body means you are changing body every moment, imperceptibly. That is the medical science.

Bernard Manischewitz: Can it sometimes be perceptibly? Can a person . . .?

Prabhupāda: Perceptibly we can understand that the body is being changed so long you are within this body. Because if the person, the soul, is not in the body, the body does not change. Body changes so long the soul is there. And as soon as the soul goes out of the body, there is no more change. Is it not perceptible?

Bernard Manischewitz: If the soul goes out of the body . . .

Prabhupāda: There is no more change. It remains the same. Same status. Why? That means so long the soul is there, changes take place.

Bernard Manischewitz: I see. Thank you very much. I understand.

Prabhupāda: Yes, every intelligent man will understand this very simple thing, that so long as the body . . . the soul is within the body, the body is changing. And as soon as this body . . . just like you are old man, I am old man, the body is no more possible to be changed; somehow or other then I'll have to accept another body. That is called transmigration. The modern so-called scientists, philosophers, they do not understand this plain truth, and they are passing on as big scientists, big philosopher, misleading public.

Devotee (2): This is for my wife. She's going to get second initiation.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: So give him some prasāda.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you, yes, I have. (gives Śrīla Prabhupāda gift of a fruit basket)

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. So many fruits here.

Pratyatoṣa: Yes, it's all fruits.

Prabhupāda: Good father, good daughter.

Bernard Manischewitz, Pratyatoṣa and Urmilā: Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Pratyatoṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, can I ask you a question? My son likes pictures of Kṛṣṇa. Is it all right to give him pictures to play with, or is that too offensive? They could be covered with plastic or something?

Prabhupāda: Not offensive, but it should not be disrespectful. That, he cannot do that. He has no sense now. So better just show him and keep it. Not have it.

Pratyatoṣa: Not let him have it. Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees pay obeisances) (end)