Prabhupāda: God created the soul and the matter also. Has he discussed anything?
Hayagrīva: No.
Prabhupāda: God created everything. God created soul and the matter.
Hayagrīva: The individual soul.
Prabhupāda: Ah.
Hayagrīva: Well, then, how is the individual soul eternal if it has a beginning?
Prabhupāda: No, we say there is no beginning. As God has no beginning, soul has no beginning.
Hayagrīva: No beginning, yes.
Prabhupāda: Na jāyate na mriyate vā. That is the distinction between matter and soul.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They counter that if God is all-powerful, He can do anything. So why not He can create a soul and that soul can then be eternal from that point?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The Christian may argue that God is all-powerful, so God has created the soul, and from that point the soul is eternal.
Prabhupāda: Soul is eternal, we admit.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But only from that point, not in the past.
Prabhupāda: Not in the past?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, because according to Biblical philosophy you only have one lifetime in this world.
Prabhupāda: Then who goes to heaven?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Persons who adopt the principles.
Prabhupāda: And if one life, then who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Very few go to heaven.
Prabhupāda: Anyone, if he goes to hell or heaven, then why do you say "one life"? Then another life. Otherwise what is the meaning of going to heaven or hell?
Hari-śauri: No. They get one chance to good or bad, and then finish.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Hari-śauri: They get one chance. Do good or bad. Then you either go to heaven or to hell. But you don't get another chance.
Prabhupāda: But if he goes heaven means there is another life. How do you say "one life"? This is defective philosophy.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But this is what God has said in the Bible; therefore we must accept.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is what God has said in the Bible; therefore we must accept.
Prabhupāda: God, if He says something unreasonable, how it can be accepted? You say, "one life." Then who goes to the next life? That is defective. Why do you not talk back?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...cannot explain why some people are born in a more pious setting and some people are born in a more impious setting.
Prabhupāda: Because they do not know the karma. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). According to one's activities, pious or impious, he gets the next birth. That is quite reasonable. But they do not believe in karma. When I was student in Scottish Churches College, so we had to attend class, half an hour, Bible. So the Dr. Urquhart, he did.... The argument was: "So if karma is there and I am suffering for my karma, who is the witness?" But because they do not know that the witness is God.