The eternal soul must transcend bodily consciousness through God's acceptance and surrender, solving life's insoluble problems.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Interview — May 16, 1971, Sydney 710516IV-SYDNEY [28:12 Minutes] Interview_710516IV-SYDNEY Prabhupāda: ...we... [laughs] And just to see my disciples here, center. They have got a center here. So for them I visit my centers all over the world.
So for that purpose I have come, as well as to let you know more about our philosophy, if you are interested. Interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit about it, please? Prabhupāda: The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to give the human society a chance for solving all the problems of their life. In the present context of civilization they are interested in the bodily comforts. Whatever scientific advancement you are making, just to give more comfort to the body. Unfortunately, none of us is the body. We are spirit soul.
We are changing different bodies, as you can see in our presence there are so many living entities, and this body can be changed to any one of them. Today I am in human body, tomorrow I may be in the body of a dog. So this cycle of changing body is going on. The modern science has no knowledge about these things.
They are simply identifying with the body. So according to Vedic civilization, anyone who is identifying with the body is not a human being; he is an ass. yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13] Go means cow and kharaḥ means ass. Such a person is either a cow or an ass who is identifying this body as self. This body is a bag of bones and flesh, blood and urine. So I am not this body.
I am within this body. But people are identifying with this body. So this is the grossest type of ignorance, and we are trying to dissipate this ignorance and bring people to real consciousness, real identity. And that is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Interviewer: Now you mentioned some particular problems, [indistinct] people with, and then you spoke of a general problem of the body as opposed to the spiritual. Prabhupāda: Well, when the particular problem is the repeated..., change of body, there is no science or university. Everyone wants to lead the medical science.
It is time to give greatest relief from disease, but they cannot stop disease or death. That is the problem. Although the problem is there, they are trying to solve, but they have no means. Here is the means. Interviewer: You mean, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness can solve… Prabhupāda: Yes.
That is the means. There are prominent problems: birth, death, old age and disease. There is no science which has solved these problems. Nobody wants to die, but death is there.