Guest (2) (Indian woman): Would it matter if I worship any other? Would it matter whether I worship Kṛṣṇa or Śiva or Christ or Buddha? Would it matter? As long as... (break)
Prabhupāda: If you worship Śiva, you'll get Śiva. If you worship Kṛṣṇa, you'll get Kṛṣṇa. Why do you expect Kṛṣṇa by worshiping Śiva? What is your idea?
Guest (2): My idea is, would it matter, I mean, if instead of...
Prabhupāda: If you… Suppose if you purchase ticket for India, you'll go to India. How you can go to hell?
Guest (2): This is not the point.
Prabhupāda: This is the point. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25).
Guest (2): But my point is...
Prabhupāda: Your point you understand. Why you don't understand? This is the description of the Bhagavad-gītā. If you worship demigods like Śiva and others, you will go there. And if you worship Kṛṣṇa, you'll go to Kṛṣṇa. What is the difficulty to understand?
Guest (2): Do you mean that Śiva is demigod?
Prabhupāda: Yes, why not?
Guest (2): Because according to the philosophy...
Prabhupāda: What is that philosophy?
Guest (2): That Kṛṣṇa (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: What is the sense that…
Guest (2): Kṛṣṇa says that it doesn't matter the way you worship Him. All means has the same goal, leads to the same goal. "You can take the different paths, but you will come to Me eventually." Then why you are saying that Śiva is...
Prabhupāda: Well, same goal, you just try to understand. Same goal... Suppose you have to go to the forty-second or one hundredth story. Now, you are stepping one after another. The goal is there, the forty-second story, but you cannot claim, after going a few steps, you say that "I have come to the forty-second story." The path is one. That's all right. But you have to reach the ultimate goal. You do not know what is the ultimate goal. You simply say all paths reach to this goal, but you do not know what is goal.
Guest (2): Because what I meant... I would like to know... Suppose... This is the point that we want to recommend. We are like drones(?), and we could go to Gokula in any way, in any other way.
Prabhupāda: No. That is not explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and that is your wrong interpretation. Any way, no. The same way you have to go. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ (BG 4.11): "Everyone is trying to come to Me," but someone has come a few steps, another has come to another few steps, another step. Ultimately... That was... I explained it. You have to reach that Vāsudeva. That comes to the..., or that is possible after many, many births. It is clearly said, "After many, many births," bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), "one comes to this point." Another verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). Anya-devatāḥ. Those who are bewildered by lust, material lust, they go to worship other demigods. So these things are there. How can you deny it?
Guest (2): I'm sorry, I couldn't agree with you that Śiva is a demigod. I couldn't believe it.
Prabhupāda: That is stated in everywhere. You have to learn it.
Guest (3) (Indian man): (indistinct) ...consciousness, then what is that other Kṛṣṇa? Or, other than Kṛṣṇa, what (indistinct) And wherefrom (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Yes. I quite follow you. Everywhere is sunshine, but still, the sun's situation is a particular place.
Guest (3) (Indian man): (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: The sunshine is everywhere, but still, the sun planet is situated at a particular localized place.
Guest (3): It is manifested locally. It is not localized. It is manifested locally.
Prabhupāda: But do you distinguish between sunshine and the sun planet? Or you say because the sunshine has come within your room, therefore sun planet has come within your room? Do you think like that?
Guest (3): It is a conception of the mind.
Prabhupāda: Why mind? It is a fact. Why do you say "mind"? Can you say that "Oh, because the sunshine has come within my room, the sun planet has come"? Everyone will say you are a fool. It is not mind. It is a fact. The sunshine is light, and the sun globe is light. So light is there, both, but still, there is difference between sunshine and the sun globe.
Guest (3): Is that the difference?
That difference. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's energy everywhere. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.
- mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
- jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
- mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
- nāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ
- (BG 9.4)
"Although everything is resting on Me, still I am not there."