One must be religious. Without being religious, he cannot be satisfied. Therefore there is confusion, dissatisfaction all over the world because . . . because people have become irreligious. If you want to keep . . . in Calcutta there was, in the American Consulate Office, I was invited. There, they have got a department: "Indo-American Cultural Society." Perhaps you know.
Ambassador: I heard about it.
Prabhupāda: I was invited there to speak: "East and West." So I explained that so far we are concerned, we have no such thing as East and West. But still, there is difference between East and West that in the Eastern countries, especially in India, even in the remotest part of the village, a cultivator, poor cultivator, he'll understand God consciousness very easily. And so far in the West . . . I talked with Professor Kotovsky. Perhaps you know.
Ambassador: Yes. In Oriental Institute.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He said: "Swāmījī, after this body's finished, everything is finished." You see? Such a big professor. He . . .
Ambassador: That is Marxist materialism.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Ambassador: It is Marxist materialism, I think.
Prabhupāda: But Marxist materialism, does it mean that a congregation of some fools and rascals?
Ambassador: I . . . (indistinct) . . . true.
Prabhupāda: Does it mean they write that some congregation of fools and rascals? Such a big professor, he does not know; he cannot understand even that there is life after death, he has to accept another body, as we are accepting different bodies. I was a child. You were a child. Then I became a boy. That is different body. Different consciousness also. A child, three-four years, he talks in a different way. A boy, ten-twelve years, he talks in a different way, and a young man, educated young man, he talks in a different way. So with the change of the body, the consciousness is changing. Is it not?
Ambassador: Yes, this is true.
Prabhupāda: Children, small children, they're just like animal. The cats and dogs, just they are playing, they're also playing like that. But he, he does not belong to that category, because when he'll get . . . he'll get another body, in which he'll be intelligent. Another body, he'll be highly educated. Another body, he'll be doctorate. The cats and dogs, they'll have to wait to get that body. So with the body, we are changing our consciousness. So different body, different consciousness. Similarly, why not after death a different body, different consciousness, if you make progress? Yes. This is progress, you see. So that is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.