Humanity's material problems stem from forgetting God; solving this primary problem dissolves all secondary difficulties.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy [Second Conversation] — July 27, 1973, London 730727R1-LONDON [45:58 Minutes] Conv_730727R1-LONDON Sir Alistair Hardy: [reading from notes] "...answer in Christian terms, but no doubt the same idea could be put into the language of other faiths. It is to bring about the kingdom of God on earth: 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.' " Prabhupāda: Yes. Sir Alistair Hardy: Question six: "How does one achieve that goal?" "By seeking guidance, help, strength, and the power to accomplish one’s humble path towards its achievement. By seeking it through prayer, through content, and the power we call God." Your question seven: "How can Christianity and Kṛṣṇa consciousness cooperate for the general benefit of the British people?" Now here I find this difficult to answer.
I say, "I cannot pretend to be able to answer this, for I have no deep knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. On the other hand, I must say that I do not believe that Christianity even in co-operation with Kṛṣṇa consciousness can more particularly benefit the British people than people of other nationalities." I wouldn't like to confine God’s power to the British people; I would say to the whole peoples of the world. Now your last question, I’m afraid I haven’t had time to get typed. It’s written...
Prabhupāda: That’s all right. That’s all right. Sir Alistair Hardy: …it’s written on your copy, but not on... Prabhupāda: No, I can read it. Sir Alistair Hardy: I’ve got a pencil copy here. Prabhupāda: I can read it. Sir Alistair Hardy: You can read it, can you? Yes. Prabhupāda: I read it. Sir Alistair Hardy: Can you read it?
Yes. Shall I read it out for the others to hear? Should I read it out? I’ll read it out.
The eighth question… I was getting this typed… Prabhupāda: That’s all right. Sir Alistair Hardy: I wrote this. I had it rough... "How is God realized? And what are the different features?" My answer is: "He is realized in the world through the divinely inspired actions of man.
The different features are, to mention only some, acts of courage; acts of love, compassion and sacrifice; acts of creation in art, literature, music and science; and on the more personal side, the sense of the numinous experienced in sacred places and situations; the joyous wonder of natural beauty, and, on rare occasions, for those who are so favored, the ecstasy of mystical experience." Well, those are short answers to your questions in all humility, and I’ve thought over them. You see, I have got a scientific training. I’m not so concerned as you are, perhaps, with the great utterances of the past, because I feel God is living today as much as He was in the past, and while the great words of the great prophets in our own religion, and of Jesus—also to mention the importance of St. Paul and the others—to my mind they are no more important than the manifestations of the will of God and the power of God, the voice of God, the experience of God working now, today. I think we have got to show the world that we aren’t just living with a religion that is founded simply on the utterances of the past, but what is a living religion that can alter the world and that can be as vital in any country of the world.
I want to see something like science. Science, as I have said, is not just confined to one country; it has a universal application. Prabhupāda: Yes. Sir Alistair Hardy: But I believe a religion that can embrace... Prabhupāda: That is real religion. Sir Alistair Hardy: ...the Kṛṣṇa, Christianity, possibly parts of Buddhism and so on, can be brought together to show mankind that here is a living force in the world quite as powerful as the force of atomic energy in science. Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Sir Alistair Hardy: That is what I'm trying to do. I’m trying to collect experience that will, I hope, at any rate, begin to convince the intellectual world that here is something that is really vitally important in man’s make-up. Something, as I say, as important biologically as sex.