Bhubaneswar Conversations

I wound up my post-doctoral responsibilities in Emory University and came to Calcutta, India in February 1977. Prabhupada was then at Kumbha-mela in Allahabad [Prayaga] and I wanted to go and see him. But because of the rush it was not possible to get a ticket. Later however, I was told that Prabhupada is in Bhubaneswar and I flew to meet him there. At that time he had come to lay the foundation for the Bhubaneswar temple and I stayed with him for about a week. Everyday there was discussion in the morning walk, and Prabhupada said that he wanted to make me GBC for science preaching. He said that the scientists were seeing only the gross situation and therefore they think that when the gross body is finished, life is finished. According to the Vedic conception, however, there is the subtle body which causes the transmigration of the soul.

"…That you have to convince. This subtle situation can carry the soul to the spiritual world. As there is spirit and matter, two things, apara and para that is, we can perceive, and we get it from Krsna's statement, apara, para. So a via media between this para and apara are this subtle situation. So if the subtle situation is spiritualized, then we are, the soul is transferred to the spiritual world. This you have to prove, or you have to write in scientific knowledge. They are seeing simply the gross situation, but the soul is being carried by the subtle situation, and therefore they are thinking, "This gross situation, body, is finished-everything is finished." That's not the fact. Tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg 2.13]." [Room Conversations-Extra, Bhuvaneshwar, 2 February, 1977]