Śyāmasundara: So there is always some substance which forms the contents of the idea.
Prabhupāda: Yes, idea means there is substance but I have not seen it. That is idea.
Śyāmasundara: His idea is that the spirit, the spirit is the one who both has ideas and puts them into practice.
Prabhupāda: We say spirit has got everything. Why this or that? Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything is coming from. Why this or that? There is no such discrimination.
Śyāmasundara: What about a notion or a concept? How does that come into being if it has never existed before?
Prabhupāda: Notion, notion is the same thing like that. You have got, you have seen gold and you have seen mountain so you can build a golden mountain. Although you have never seen what is golden mountain.
Kīrtanānanda: But if I have that idea of a golden mountain, that means that in the spiritual world that must exist?
Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. Spiritual world means everything existing. Unless there is substance in the spiritual world there cannot be anything even(?). Because it is said, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything is (indistinct).
Kīrtanānanda: But I can form an idea that is not in the spiritual world. Am I understanding you?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Pradyumna: We're a reflection, just like (indistinct) there's no dogs in Vaikuṇṭha, but there's dogs here, the dog's mentality is here.
Prabhupāda: No, therefore it is called temporary. Dog is a spirit soul. The spirit soul is there. That's a fact.
Śyāmasundara: There's a, for instance in mathematics, advanced mathematics has to do with sets of formulas, equations, symbols which have no place in reality. They have no substance. They're merely ideas on paper or in my brain. What about these kind of ideas. They are, how to say, like the square root of minus one.
Prabhupāda: Ad infinitum, ad infinitum, like that.
Śyāmasundara: Like the square root of minus one. There is no substantial reference for that idea but there is an equation: the square root of minus one.
Prabhupāda: The ultimate understanding, if we have accept this formula janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), so everything is emanating from the substance, so without having a place of that idea in the substance, you cannot have... That is another thing (indistinct). Because you are also a product of that something. So whatever you are thinking, that must be there, in the original.
Śyāmasundara: Suppose I have an idea, tomorrow I want to go to Pittsburgh. So then I actualize my idea, tomorrow if I go to the airplane, airport, get a ticket...
Prabhupāda: But you have heard that Pittsburgh, there is a place, a substance, you may not have seen. So you are preparing to go to Pittsburgh means Pittsburgh is a fact. Not idea. You are not going to idea Pittsburgh, you are going to actual Pittsburgh. That you have known, therefore you are (indistinct). You might have not seen. Just like I came to New York. I never saw it. I got an idea, "It may be like this." But I was coming to actual fact.
Kīrtanānanda: Now I see your point.