Syamasundara: So Heidegger has these four qualities, or characteristics. Heidegger’s understanding is that I am dying, and living with that understanding, understanding that I am existing, and having different moods.
Prabhupada: So I am existing till my death. Is it not?
Syamasundara: Yes.
Prabhupada: And when death takes place, I am finished.
Syamasundara: Well, that’s the common understanding in most…
Prabhupada: No. He is understanding that “I am existing up to the point of death. After death I am not existing.” Is it not? They are rascals.
Syamasundara: But later we find that he does believe in some kind of immortality, but he is talking about “the ‘essence’ of being there lies in its existence”, or “the sense of being” of individuals that normally, on a normal level, they believe that the body will end or it will die at a certain time, so that they act in such a way with that in mind. And he calls that, that knowledge that I will die some day, that this creates anxiety or dread in the living entity.
Prabhupada: So this is animal, animals’ philosophy, that “I shall die.” Then that very attachment, he is imperfect, that he dies. We do not agree that we will die. Actually that’s not a fact, because in my life I can understand that I have existed as a child. So the body of child is not there, but still I am existing. Similarly, when this body will be finished, I’ll exist. So I exist eternally. I shall not die. That is the philosophy.
Syamasundara: He says that the essence of the human being is in his existence. That is that there are numerous kinds of…
Prabhupada: His idea of existence is: from birth to death. Not beyond death. He did not exist before his birth, and he’ll not exist after his death. So his existence means from the point of birth up to the point of death. So that is not very good philosophy.
Syamasundara: He says that because… A human being has numerous possibilities open to choose from—different kinds of being for himself. He can choose different kinds of being for himself.
Prabhupada: Mm.
Syamasundara: The possibilities of becoming this or that are his. He can choose. He can elect what he wants to be in the future.
Prabhupada: That is also not proof. As soon as he gets a body, his thing is settled up. Just like you have got this body—white body. You cannot become black body. Or a man who has got black body, he cannot become white man. This is wrong philosophy. How you can settle up? Because he is considering the of body, he is considering the existence means the manufacture of the body from the womb of mother up to the destruction of the body. So this body, as it is made, there are different types of body. So that cannot be changed.
Syamasundara: What about if someone can choose to become a doctor or a lawyer or a physician or anything like that.
Prabhupada: That is quality; that is not the body.
Syamasundara: No. He doesn’t say body, he says that he can choose his different kinds of being, how he will be, whether he will be a lawyer or a doctor, like that. He can be good, he can be bad…
Prabhupada: First thing is that if he has no clear idea of existence, then what he can be, that will depend on the idea of existence. So as he is thinking of to become doctor or lawyer and teacher, similarly he should know that he eternally exists, then he can also make a program what he can become next time.
Syamasundara: He says that that is the essence of existence, that we can become something which we choose, of our own choosing.
Prabhupada: That means he is talking of this existence. According to him, the existence finishes after death. That is poor fund of knowledge.
Full Discussion: http://prabhupadabooks.com/classes/philosophy/syamasundara/martin_heidegger
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