Dr. Weir: Only to an observer. If there's no observer there, there's no difference between light and dark.
Prabhupāda: No, this is the actual position. Just like this is sun, but this side is light, this side is darkness. So light and darkness, two opposite elements. But it is due to the same cause. Absence of light is darkness. And presence of light is light.
Dr. Weir: Or I say there are some things that have those dichotomies and others don't.
Prabhupāda: So actually the cause is one. But in different position, one side is light, one side is darkness. Therefore the cause cannot be different. The cause is one. But under different position it appears, "This is light." "This is darkness." So bad, which you consider bad, that is also caused by the Supreme Cause. In the Supreme there is no good or bad. Everything is absolute. Just like the sun is always light, but, in relationship with sun, the planet, one side is dark, one side is light. So black means that is also caused by the light, absence of light, that is black, dark.
Dr. Weir: With respect, it's not caused by the light. It's the absence of light.
Prabhupāda: Absence, that I'm saying. It is also indirectly, the cause is the light.
Dr. Weir: No, because your illustration you gave of the light of the sun falling on one side and making that light, on the other side dark. But you can also have a body which is in the complete absence of any light anyway so there won't be any differentiation.
Prabhupāda: No. There is light. The light is now visible. Light is there. Just like we say that our relationship with God is there. One is conscious. Another is unconscious. Otherwise God consciousness is there. Therefore any process that awakens that consciousness, that is perfect process. The consciousness is there. That is stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, an authorized book. Nitya siddha kṛṣṇa bhakti.... This God consciousness is not something artificial. The God consciousness is there. Just like these European boys and girls, they're now devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Not that artificially we have imposed this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness was there, by under certain process of treatment that has been awakened.
Dr. Weir: That's why I think it's better to accept that as it is rather than make analogies which are dangerous.
Prabhupāda: I may make analogy or not analogy but the thing is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there but it is covered. As soon as its covering is taken away, it is uncovered, the original position comes out.
Śyāmasundara: I believe he made one observation which is rather in the British tradition, I believe, where he said that if there was no observer then there would be no such thing as light and darkness.
Dr. Weir: Yes, light and dark are subjective reactions. Really, the scientists would say there are wave lengths of a certain type in one part of the universe and in the other they're absent. But, until you have an observer you can't notice that.