Gaṇeśa: Just like the child, Śrīla Prabhupāda, who was trying to find the sound within the drum, the material scientists, they are trying to find out the cause and effect of the material world. Is that not intelligence?
Prabhupāda: Yes, but they have not reached the ultimate goal.
Paramahaṁsa: But they are trying.
Prabhupāda: They are trying. That is admitted. But they are concluding that there is no operator. That is their foolishness, because they have failed to find out. They have to go further, further, and see, "Yes, there is operator." That is the final part of the intelligence. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān mām (BG 7.19). So after many, many births of sincere inquiry, when he is actually intelligent, he will see, "Oh, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). Here is Vāsudeva. He is everything." That is stated. He'll enquire, go on enquiring, life after life. And then he'll come to understand vāsudevaḥ-sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. You did not read this verse?
Gaṇeśa: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: They will come. After much trouble, much enquiry, they will come to the same conclusion, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). But they'll waste time. That's all. When we say, "Here is operator," they will not take. But they'll waste time, and life after life laboring, one day they will come.
Jayadharma: Does that mean that everybody is ultimately on the way back home, back to Godhead?
Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone is enquiring, but according to his intelligence, perfection, he is making progress. Everyone. Everyone, because he is meant for that purpose. He has forgotten Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure. He is finding . . . trying to find out pleasure other than Kṛṣṇa; therefore he is being baffled. Unless he comes to Kṛṣṇa there is no pleasure. That he does not know.
Paramahaṁsa: We have a saying in the West that "Curiosity killed the cat."