Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the lake came?
Devotee (2): Well, actually they say that that's not so important.
Prabhupāda: So your word is also not important. "That is not important. His word is important." Do you see the point? Whatever he'll say, that is important. So anyone can say something that is very important.
Devotee (3): That is to say that to understand the universe may be difficult. So therefore then they try to explain...
Prabhupāda: If you can stop, don't talk. "Why you are talking like nonsense?" If it is difficult, accept it; don't talk. Take difficult things and talk nonsense.
Devotee (3): Because they all have a yearning to want to know these things. They all have a yearning to want to know these things about the mystery of the universe.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But you know from the proper person. As you are very much eager to teach us, similarly, you learn; you can teach. Why do you talk nonsense without learning? You are scientist. You have to teach me. But from which scientist you have learned? So anyone can say something nonsense and become a teacher? Not teacher, but cheater.
Devotee (3): They have many persons that they accept as authorities.
Prabhupāda: Ha?
Devotee (3): They have many persons that they accept as authorities.
Prabhupāda: They have many fools? Maybe like you?
Devotee (3): (laughs) Yes, I admit, I am the biggest fool. But they accept some people—just like Isaac Newton. They accept him as a great authority.
Devotee (4): Perhaps it's a speculation—I'm not certain. But in the Bhagavad-gītā it describes that lust is also sometimes like a fire. Practically one experiences that the heat in the body, the lusty desires increases heat within the body. So is there any correlation between fire within the body and the mode of passion?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Passion is there. Just like fire, if you fan it, it blazes more. Similarly, with passion, the fire is more powerful.
Devotee (4): Then the passion is like the fuel.
Prabhupāda: Lust is sometimes described as fire, kāmāgni. Heart burns, the lusty desire burns.
Devotee (4): What about tamo-guṇa? Does tamo-guṇa have a relationship with the body?
Prabhupāda: Tamo-guṇa is laziness. It is ass. Neither fire. Ignorance. Civilized man, they're working, making some material arrangement nice. That is mode of passion. But the uncivilized, he doesn't want to work. Just like this Hawaii was under the Hawaiians' control, they could not do anything. Ignorant, lazy. Tamo-guṇa, darkness, is no work, no reason. Simply like animals, sex-life. And rajo-guṇa, there is activity to create material facilities. And sattva-guṇa, "Why you are working? What is the aim of my life?" That is sattva-guṇa.
Devotee (3): So it's better to be in the mode of passion than the mode of ignorance?
Prabhupāda: Eh? No. We have to come to the mode of goodness. That is wanted. Neither passion nor ignorance. But passion is better than ignorance. That is comparative. But best quality in this material world is goodness. When knowledge is sufficient. And beyond that, śuddha-sattva. Here in this material world even goodness is disturbed sometimes by passion and ignorance. But the platform where no more disturbance by all these three qualities, that is śuddha-sattva. That is spiritual. Devotees are expected to remain on that platform, śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. Then they will not be disturbed by these three qualities.
Devotee (4): In the mode of ignorance, if he wishes to come to the platform of the mode of goodness, does he have to pass through the mode of passion to get to the mode of goodness? Or can you go directly from the mode of ignorance to the mode of goodness?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You can instantly go to the platform of pure goodness. (end)