“Big, big Professors, they say: Oh, after this Body, everything is finished.”

Brahmananda: The future is very bad because of their military burden. Atomic bombs. This is what the scientists have created. They’re thinking a bright future, but actually the future is…

Prabhupada: Very dark.

Brahmananda: …seems very dark.

Prabhupada: Yes. Idle brain is a devil’s workshop. If they’re not directed, then think like devil. We are thinking rightly because we are taking direction from Krishna, the most perfect. Therefore our thinking has meaning. And what is the value of their thinking? It has no value. Now we are thinking… Just like, take the first instruction, that within this body there is the proprietor of the body. You can go on thinking: “Then am I this body?” So you can think on your finger. “I am this finger?” The answer from the within will come: “No, you are not finger. It is your finger. It is your finger. You are not finger.” If I am finger, then if I cut my finger, why shall I not die? If I am finger? Therefore it is my finger. Just like I’ll never think that I am this stick. It is my stick. That is thinking. If I wrongly think that I am this body, then your whole thinking process is wrong and they are thinking like that, that we are this body.

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijyadhih yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij janesvabhijnesu sa eva gokarah [SB 10.84.13]

So such kind of thinking is done by the asses and cows, yasyatma-buddhih. One who is thinking: “I am this body,” he’s no better than the animal, ass or cow. They’re all thinking like that: “I am this body.” They’re asses. And the whole world is suffering by thinking like that. “I am American, I am Indian, I am Russian, I am this, I am that.” That’s all. We must know how to think. Then our thinking will produce some good result. If I do not know how to think, then what is the use of my thinking? A mad man is also thinking: “I am the emperor.” Does it mean that he’s emperor? Sometimes, I have seen, a madman falls flat on the street. “Nobody can check me.” So motor driver, they become little cautious, he’s a rascal, madman. So madman’s thinking, what is the value of madman’s thinking? They’re all mad. Pisaci paile jana mati chana hana. They’re a ghostly haunted person. As he’s mad, similarly those who are entrapped by this material energy, they’re all madmen. If I think that, “I am this coat, I am this shirt, I am this cloth,” am I not mad? The body’s just like shirt and coat. Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya [Bg. 2.22]

Svarupa Damodara: Thinking is a natural process.

Prabhupada: Yes. You have got mind. Therefore you must think. But that thinking… Why there is psychology science? What do you think? Why do you go to school, college to learn psychology? To learn how to think. How thinking process is going on. There is education required, how to think correctly. The child is sent to school just for teaching him how to think correctly. Otherwise, what is the use of sending him to school? He can think at home. Why they are sent to school? To learn how to think. This is thinking, when you question that: “I want to become happy. Why I am not happy?” This is thinking. Everyone wants to become happy, but nature’s process is to obstruct his happiness. So one should think: “Why this is position? I want to live. Why, by laws of nature, I am put to death? I must die? This is against my wish, against my desire.” This is thinking. So how to get out of it? This is real thinking. I don’t want something, but something is forced upon me, and why it is so? When this “Why?” question will come to me, that is real thinking. Where is that thinking? These rascals, where is that thinking? How to check death, how to check disease, how to check old age. Where is that thinking? Where is that scientist? Who is making research how to stop death, who is making research how to stop disease? You can manufacture medicine for the disease, but you cannot check happening of disease. That is not possible. Why it is? That is thinking. I want something, but it is being obstructed by nature. Why it is so? This “Why?” question must have come. Then his thinking is proper. That is Kena-upanisad, Kena.

Svarupa Damodara: Kena.

Prabhupada: Kena upanisad. This “why?”, simply so many “why’s”. After making so much research and invention, after all, the scientist’s going to die like cats and dogs. Then what is the use of his thinking? The cats and dogs also will die, and Professor Einstein will also die. So where is the difference? Real unhappiness, neither the scientist can check, neither the cat and dog can check. So where is the use of your thinking foolishly? And they do not believe that there is life after death. Neither they do believe that there is life after death. Although practically we are seeing, after child’s life, there is youth’s life, after youth’s life, there is elderly life, after elderly life, old life… So this we are seeing. Still we do not believe, that after this body, there is life again. Natural sequence. Big, big professors, they say: “Oh, after this body, everything is finished.” And they’re planning all happiness on this basis. Harer nama harer nama… [Adi 17.21]. (pause)