Prabhupāda: Śyāmasundara is transcribing your talks with me in Māyāpur.
Bob Cohen: I received your very kind letter about a week ago.
Prabhupāda: Now, you are very intelligent boy. You can try to understand this philosophy. It is very important. And try to preach. For sense gratification people are wasting so much time, but they do not..., they're not responsible what is going to happen next life. But there is next life. Foolish people, they are ignorant, but there is next life, and this life is preparation for next life. That they do not know. The modern education, universities, they're completely in darkness about this simple knowledge. We are changing body every moment—that's a medical science—and after changing this body, we'll have to accept another body. How we are going to accept that body, what kind of body, this can be also known. Just like one is being educated, when he passes his examination, one can understand that he's going to be engineer or a medical practitioner. Similarly, in this life you can prepare yourself to become something next life.
Bhakti-devī dāsī: Can we decide what we want to be in our next life?
Prabhupāda: Yes, you can decide. Just like we have decided next life we are going to Kṛṣṇa. This is our decision: back to home, back to Godhead. Just like you become educated, after decision that you are going to be engineer, you are going to be medical practitioner, and in that objective you prepare yourself, educate yourself. Similarly, you can decide what you are going to do next life. If you don't decide, then material nature will decide. Just like a boy who is not nicely educated, without any future objective, the government will decide. If he's a criminal, then government will decide, "Go to jail," and if he's nicely educated, the government will decide, "You take this job." So everything is like that. We have got our future life, and if we don't prepare what is that future life, then we are like animals. The animals, they do not know.
Bhakti-devī dāsī: Well how can I know if I wasn't Kṛṣṇa conscious in my last life...
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bhakti-devī dāsī: If I... How can I know if I wasn't Kṛṣṇa conscious in my last life?
Prabhupāda: Therefore you are given the chance to become Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Bhakti-devī dāsī: Could I have been in my last life?
Prabhupāda: You may not be. It doesn't matter. But you can become, take advantage of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: She's asking if it was possible in her last life she was a Kṛṣṇa's devotee, in her last life, and come back again? If you're a Kṛṣṇa's devotee coming back again. In your last...
Prabhupāda: When one is perfectly Kṛṣṇa's devotee, he may not come, but if there is little deficiency, then there is possibility of coming back. But even though there is deficiency, he comes back to nice family, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sañjāyate (BG 6.41). (aside:) What is this? Human intelligence can decide for future. That is human intelligence. The animal cannot decide. We have got that discriminating power developed, "I shall do this, I will be benefited. If I do this, I shall not be benefited." This is there in human life. So we have to use it properly. We should know what is our goal of life and decide in that way. That is human intelligence. What is that?
Bali-mardana: This is a photograph we've received of your Guru Mahārāja.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Bali-mardana: Yadubara, I think he has sent many from the family collection of Lalitā Prasāda. The painters...
Prabhupāda: So keep it and frame it, and keep it in my room.