Syamasundara: Today we are discussing one German philosopher named Edmund Husserl, and he started a school of philosophy known as phenomenology. The definition of phenomenology is “a descriptive analysis of inner experience or subjective processes, or the intuitive study of essences.”
So the idea behind this philosophy is that to find out the essences of things, to describe the data of our consciousness without any bias or prejudice or…, ignoring all theories and scientific facts, everything, but simply looking at a thing or a phenomenon and trying to understand what it is by analyzing our inward or intuitive knowledge of things.
Prabhupada: That is Krishna consciousness—real consciousness. Just like at the present moment I am thinking “Indian”; you are thinking “American.” But if you introspect, you are American or I am Indian, so if you go on researching, you’ll come to conclusion that, “I am Krishna’s.” That is real platform, when one understands that “I am part and parcel of Krishna.”
Syamasundara: Their method begins with the things themselves, they say “to the things themselves,” or in other words, they begin from phenomenon.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Syamasundara: To reject all theories, scientific experiments, all these things.
Prabhupada: When you study the phenomenon—the body—this is phenomenon, that “I am this body or not?” Then you come to the conclusion that “I am not body. I am the soul. Then what for I am soul, I ?” Then you will get from Krishna, “I am part and parcel of Krishna.”
Syamasundara: They say that the phenomenon…
Prabhupada: Just like one can analyze in this way: I am sitting on this comfortable, I mean, seat, cushion. Why I am sitting here? Because it is giving comfort to my body. Then I come to the study of body: Why I am maintaining this body? Because I am the soul, I am living in this body.
Then ultimately I love my self, my soul. I love this seat because it gives shelter to my body. I love this body because it gives shelter to my soul. I love this soul because it is part and parcel of Krishna. Therefore ultimately I love Krishna. Is it not? That is pure consciousness. Full Discussion
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