Prabhupāda: The same process. The mother gives the perfect knowledge, and the son receives the knowledge. So the knowledge received from the mother by the son is perfect. The son may not be perfect, but because he has received the knowledge from the mother, which is perfect, therefore he is perfect.
Mr. Wadell: In what respect do you consider yourself different from God?
Prabhupāda: Do you think I am also equal with God?
Mr. Wadell: If you . . . what I want to know is what you feel your relationship to God is.
Prabhupāda: My relationship is just like father and the son. The son is not different from the father; at the same time, he is different from the father.
Mr. Wadell: Yes . . .
Prabhupāda: The same relationship. We are all sons of God. Therefore, simultaneously, we are one and different. As son, the ingredient, the same. But He is father, we are son; we are different. This is called the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda. Bheda means different, and abheda means one. So simultaneously one and different.
Mr. Wadell: May I ask you another question, which is, I have a mortal father . . .
Prabhupāda: Hmm? Mortal?
Mr. Wadell: Mortal father, a man, who you know, my parents, father and mother. Do you think that my father is in any way different in his parentage of me from God in His parentage of me?
Prabhupāda: No, everyone. Not only your father, your grandfather, your, or grandson—the same relationship: simultaneously one and different. Because we are spirit soul and God is the Supreme Soul. All the souls have come, emanated from Him. He is the Supreme Soul, and Paramātmā. The exact word used in the Vedic language, Paramātmā, Parabrahma, Parameśvara. This word param. Param means supreme.
Mr. Wadell: I accept that without any trouble. There's no . . .
Prabhupāda: The difference is God . . . in the Vedas it is stated that God is just like a person like you and me. Just like we are person, we are talking face to face, similarly, God is also a person. But . . . we are also persons. But what is the difference between the two classes of persons?
Mr. Wadell: Exactly.
Prabhupāda: Yes, the difference is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God is the maintainer, the supplier of all necessities of the so many persons. That is God.
Mr. Wadell: Yes, I accept that.
Prabhupāda: This is the difference. We are maintained, and He is maintainer. That is the difference. Otherwise, God is also person, I am also person. One is maintainer, and others, the plural number, they are maintained. In the Christian religion also, the same idea is: "God, give us our daily bread," maintenance. So that is the difference. He is the bread supplier, and we are bread eater. That's all.
Mr. Wadell: He doesn't supply His bread to everybody, unless . . .
Prabhupāda: Everybody. Yes, everybody. Beginning . . .
Mr. Wadell: People die, do they not?
Prabhupāda: Die, that is another thing. People die even if he has got many things to eat, still he dies. Can you check it? That does not depend on eating. There are many men, they are dying, although they are . . .
Mr. Wadell: I am taking you too literally. Let us forget about that point. It's not worthwhile.
Prabhupāda: No, no, because you say: "They are dying, God is not supplying," that is a mistaken idea. God is supplying. God is supplying. He is dying natural death. It is not that because there is want of supply, therefore he is dying. That is a mistaken idea. Death is not dependent on supply of food. There are so many other causes.
Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I agree about that, but you cannot . . . we have a phrase in our . . .
Prabhupāda: And death is inevitable. Even if you have sufficient to eat, you cannot avoid death. So death is inevitable. That is the problem of material life. Birth, death, old age and disease. So you cannot avoid it, so long you are materially existing. This can be avoided when you are spiritually elevated. That is our movement.
Mr. Wadell: Yes, you cannot live without . . . you do not, as we say, live by bread alone. And in that sense—it may be the sense in which you wish me to take—the sense, what you are saying, that God supplies bread, because bread could be both bread for the spirit, or soul . . .
Prabhupāda: No, bread is material. Bread is material. To maintain your material body, you require material bread. But spiritual body does not depend on material bread.