Why do you say in the Bible, O Father, give us our daily bread? So that you make relation with God as father.
Priest: But…
Prabhupada: But not anything, but father. As the father gives the maintenance, bread, so you go to God in that relationship, “Father, give us our daily bread.” Just like the child asks the father, “Father, give me something to eat.” So this is clear relationship father and son.
French Man: No, it’s a very complicated system, the system for all these things in the (indistinct) of this country. There are two main conceptions—the Oriental conception of the Orthodox Church and the Western…
Prabhupada: No, we are not talking of any particular church. We are just trying to understand the word relation. If you go to particular church, then another will give another church, another will give another church. But we are trying to understand the word relationship. So in the Bible it is clearly said, “O Father,” so the relation is father and son.
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: Why do you say? It is said in the Bible. Why do you say no?
Priest: You have to… I am not in relationship with any church or any dogma. This is what I have in my own experience, and I cannot speak of what others have experienced but what is my own experience.
Prabhupada: No, no, God’s relationship should be universal, not that… It may be a different relationship. Just like the relationship between husband and wife, relationship between father and son, relationship between friend and friend, relationship between master and servant, so these are relationship. We understand relationship means this. And it is particularly said in the Bible, “O Father.” That means the relationship is as between father and son. So there is…
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: You say no, but any man will understand that. You may have your own opinion, that is a different thing.
Priest: But we have to have the opinion which we experience.
Prabhupada: What is that experience? You ask, “Father, give us our daily bread,” and that is experience. God is giving everyone maintenance. That is our actual relationship. In the Vedas also it is said, nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam eko yo bahunam vidadhati kaman. That is the God. God is also a person as you are person, I am person, but He is the chief person. Nityo nityanam, the chief, the Supreme. In the dictionary it is said Supreme Being. We are all beings, and He is Supreme Being. How He is supreme? Eka, that one; God is one. Bahunam vidadhati kaman. He supplies the necessities of everyone’s life. That is very good experience, we are getting everything from God. And the Christians also pray, “Give us our daily bread.” So I don’t find any difference between the statement in the Vedas and the Bible. God is the Supreme Person, and you make relationship with Him any way—as master and servant, as friend and friend, as father and son, or as husband and wife. So somehow or other we are related with God, this way or that way. The husband also maintains the wife.
Priest: I don’t think so. I mean…
Prabhupada: No, no, that is your personal opinion. But…
Priest: Not opinion; experience.
Prabhupada: So what is that experience? Tell me what is that experience?
Priest: That God is beyond all our experience.
Prabhupada: Then what is your experience? You have no experience. If it is beyond your experience, then you have no experience.
Priest: Personally, of course, but…
Prabhupada: Then you cannot explain. You cannot, because you have no experience.
Priest: But if you know what you can’t explain…
Prabhupada: No, no, if you can’t explain means you do not know.
Priest: You don’t think an illusion (indistinct) relationship.
Prabhupada: No, no, not illusion. If you cannot explain, that means you do not know. If you know, you must explain. That is knowing, that is knowledge.
Priest: Yeah, but that knowledge is very (indistinct).
Prabhupada: Then you cannot preach. As a priest you cannot preach because you do not know, it is not within your experience.
Priest: That’s why I don’t preach.
Prabhupada: That’s all right, then… (laughter) That is another thing. But as soon as you say “beyond your experience,” that means you have no experience.
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: So you cannot explain. That is all right.
Priest: That means I have the experience…
Prabhupada: But…
Priest: …that my experience is limited…
Prabhupada: But that’s all right.
Priest: …and God is unlimited.
Prabhupada: That is all right. That I admit.
Priest: Therefore, I cannot anyhow have experience of God.
Prabhupada: No, no, no. Just like you know…
Priest: And nobody can.
Prabhupada: …you do not know me, you have no experience about me.
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: But if I say, “I am like this,” you will get experience.
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: Why no?
Priest: If I live with you for some time…
Prabhupada: Suppose if you are thinking of me, “Swamiji might have one thousand dollars,” so you can imagine, go on imagining, and that is not correct. But if I say, “No, I have got one million dollars,” then you get the experience.
Priest: No.
Prabhupada: Why no?
Priest: I will get the experience of you when we are living together.
Prabhupada: That means you cannot talk with God.
Priest: Of course not.
Prabhupada: But if anyone can talk?
Priest: Well, if it is his own experience, I have no objection.
Prabhupada: That’s all right.
Priest: But my experience is that you cannot…
Prabhupada: That’s all right. Therefore, our experience is we take experience from God. We don’t imagine. That is our process.
Priest: Yeah, that is your faith. You must have faith for that.
Prabhupada: Yes. Just like Krsna is speaking about Himself, so we are taking Bhagavad-gita as it is. So direct experience. Taking experience “I am like this.” Just like Krsna says,
aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-sa… [Bg. 10.8]
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