Ali: Why couldn't spirits grow without taking this body? Why couldn't spirits grow in the spiritual world without taking this material body.
Prabhupāda: You can go. It is your punishment. The material body . . . if one thinks in the prison house, "How one can live without prison house?" that is his misconception. Generally, one is expected to live outside the prison. But because that person is in the prison house since a long time, he cannot think that without prison house one can live. That is misconception. He has no idea of spiritual life, therefore he's thinking like that. Real business is how to get out of the prison. But he's thinking just the opposite way that, "If I do not remain in the prison, how can I eat?" A thief is thinking that, "I'm living here very comfortably, without stealing. I'm getting food and shelter. And if I go outside, I have to steal again." So it is good life? That is due to ignorance. There is very good life without the prison house. That he does not know. He does not know that there is a spiritual world where a spirit soul can live very comfortably, meeting God every day, talking with Him, dancing with Him. That he has no idea.
Ali: How can a spirit become so ignorant?
Prabhupāda: On account of no education. Therefore we are giving education. Because they are in gross ignorance, they require education. Therefore this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, educational.
Atreya Ṛṣi: In the beginning, how does the spirit become ignorant, falls into ignorance?
Prabhupāda: He's not . . . just like in the same question, a criminal, if you say: "In the beginning, how he became criminal," is that very intelligent question? What do you think? A prisoner, criminal, is living in the prison house since a long time, and if you raise this question, "In the beginning, how he became a criminal," is that very intelligent question?
Atreya Ṛṣi: No, but not everyone is prisoner.