Prabhupāda: But that is not God. Just like gold. Gold is everywhere gold. Because it is in Christian country, you cannot say: "It is Christian gold." And because it is in Muslim country, you cannot say: "It is Muslim gold." Gold is the world standard of money. The same gold, dispatched from America, can be accepted in India, dispatched from India, it can be accepted in Palestine, because it is gold. Everyone who knows what is gold, he'll accept it. So God should be like that. And therefore in the name Kṛṣṇa, "all-attractive." When there is gold, either you be Christian, Muslim, Hindu—"Oh, here is a lump of gold. Can I possess it?" That is attraction. So as gold is all-attractive, similarly, God must be all-attractive. And that word is used as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. One who knows gold, he'll be attracted. Doesn't matter whether he's Hindu or Muslim, Christian, poor, rich man, black, white. It doesn't matter. Here is gold, and everyone . . . just like in your country there was gold rush. Eh? In California? From all different parts of the world they came. So gold is gold for everyone. So now one should try to understand or check what is gold. That is required.
Prajāpati: These men, Śrīla Prabhupāda, are very, very puffed up. They think that even such discussions of who God is and what God is, that . . . they feel they're way past that, and that's for lower class men to discuss.
Acyutānanda: Why do we give anything to them?
Pañcadraviḍa: But when you came to France, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you spoke at the Theology Club. About four years ago you came for a conference. They arranged a big meeting at the Theology Society in France. It's a worldwide society. And one thing I was . . . one thing I was considering: they must be interested because the Christians say that there is soul, and they say that there is God, so then wouldn't our question be, "What is the relationship of the soul to God?" They admit there is a soul. Every human being, they say, has a soul.
Prabhupāda: No. That, that is also beginning of understanding. But first, preliminary understanding should be that God is one. There cannot be Christian God. There cannot be Hindu God. There cannot be Muslim God. That is not complete idea of God. That is imperfect. Just like in Vedic literature, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti (SB 1.2.11): three phases of understanding of the Absolute. First, beginning, is Brahman, then further advanced, Paramātmā; then, final advancement, Bhagavān. Similarly, the final realization of God is the Supreme Person. And then we should seek who is that person. That is real theology.