Paramahaṁsa: Well, all these things are relative anyway. So whether I am a dog or human being, it doesn't really make much difference, because I'm still existing.
Prabhupāda: Still, you don't want to become a dog when you are a human being.
Paramahaṁsa: But when I'm a dog I wouldn't want to become a human being either.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this means happiness in ignorance. That is ass. He's bearing two tons of load, and if he is thinking, "I am happy," it is nice. Therefore they are called ass—accepting distress as happiness. Therefore they are called ass. That is the difference between ass and human being.
Amogha: I saw some asses in the university yesterday. (laughs) Asses and monkeys. One professor was working so hard he was almost crying, because he had so many exams to mark. Very big burden on his mind.
Paramahaṁsa: Isn't it, then, if one is happy, then that's all that counts? Because happiness is also relative. So if I am a monkey. . .
Prabhupāda: No. There is absolute happiness. You do not know that. You are meant for that, because you are living being. But on account of your ass quality you do not like to understand. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti (BG 7.25).
Amogha: My parents used to tell me that nothing can be absolutely true, because everything is really finer shades of gray.
Prabhupāda: He has no idea what is absolute truth. He is in darkness. He does not know there is absolute world. This is the relative world.
Amogha: They think that people who say there is absolute truth have not observed the other thoughts of other people, so they haven't seen everything.
Prabhupāda: What is that other thought? We know everyone's thought. You know everyone's thought.
Amogha: In the university newspaper I was reading, all their discussion is about things like homosexuality is all right or not all right.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? They discussing?
Amogha: Yes. Big. . . In the newspaper articles in the university. The homosexuals are campaigning for equal rights. And there is a big debate whether homosexuals are good or bad. All over the world there are homosexuals. And also they are arguing over Palestine and Israel. And sometimes, recently in Melbourne, there was fighting between people who support Israel and Palestine. All these arguments they have in the newspapers.