Prabhupāda: We say approaching Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute. We have got Kṛṣṇa's form, we have Kṛṣṇa's name, we have personal address, His pastime. Just like you know me, I know you, means I have got form, you have got form, I know your qualities, you know my qualities; therefore we know each other. But if the approach is void, then how the approach is the same? There must be something tangible; then the approach is the same.
Guest: Well, I know your philosophy, cause I was very intimately involved with it, but I still believe that if, uh, your uh, you may have a different style, and you may call it Kṛṣṇa consciousness or you may call it nirvāṇa, but I think that ultimately it's, uh...
Prabhupāda: I can, I can explain Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but you cannot explain nirvāṇa. That is the difficulty. I can explain my position but you cannot explain your position.
Guest: How is it that I cannot explain my position?
Prabhupāda: Then explain what do you mean by nirvāṇa.
Guest: Well it's the ultimate state of consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Where is nirvāṇa when you do not know the meaning of nirvāṇa? Nirvāṇa means finished.
Guest: Uh, yes. I think that...
Prabhupāda: Nirvāṇa means everything finished, void.
Guest: Etymologically it means "no wind."
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Guest: "No wind."
Prabhupāda: No wind?
Guest: The root of the word, I believe, means "no wind." There's no wind.
Prabhupāda: No. You can derive many meanings, but nirvāṇa means, just like flame is there, extinguished, finished.
Guest: That's not the way I understand nirvāṇa.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Guest: That's not the way I understand nirvāṇa.
Prabhupāda: But this is the meaning, dictionary meaning, nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means there is flame and you extinguish. This is nirvāṇa.
Devotee: You want some more vegetables and purīs?
Prabhupāda: Give him. More, more.
Guest: Not more.
Devotee: Yes.
Guest: If it is an extinguishing, it's only an extinguishing of desire.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Guest: If there's an extinguishing...
Prabhupāda: If desire is extinguished, then what you are?
Guest: But it's not extinguishing of desire; it's transforming of desire. Like this is one...
Prabhupāda: That is not extinguishing.
Guest: Right. But in the sense it is, uh, the uh, flame of, uh...
Prabhupāda: That we say. You don't extinguish desire but we purify desire. That is our... But that is not the void, nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means finished.
Guest: Well, the way, uh, the way it's interpreted, you know, by the people that practice it, is that, uh, you don't extinguish your desires either but they're transformed into the Buddha principles. They say this is the meaning of Mahayana Buddhism, is that you, uh, learn to identify the desire passions with the Buddha principles, and so they become transformed so that...
Prabhupāda: Transformed to what?
Guest: Well, for instance lust is supposed to be transformed into compassion, and the other uh, the other passion desires are transformed to something else.
Prabhupāda: Then it is not nirvāṇa. It is real condition. Then that is our principle. That is not nirvāṇa.