Room Conversation
with Bernard Manischewitz
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
July 13, 1975, Philadelphia

Prabhupada: If you want to sit in chair, you can sit.

Brahmananda: Here, I’ll get you a chair.

Devotee: Prabhupada can sit here.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you very much. This is fine. This is fine. I have here a check for the life membership.

Brahmananda: Oh, yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: I’ll cash it.

Brahmananda: Mr. Manischewitz is becoming life member.

Prabhupada: Ohh. Thank you very much. So give him books.

Brahmananda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: This is fine, thank you very much.

Prabhupada: Now you can… I saw you before?

Bernard Manischewitz: Twice before. Once in Chicago and once in New York.

Prabhupada: How are you now?

Bernard Manischewitz: I’m fine, thank you.

Prabhupada: She’s your daughter?

Bernard Manischewitz: My daughter. My son-in-law. My sleeping grandson. (laughter)

Prabhupada: So make him active like you.

Bernard Manischewitz: I have a question. May I ask? Is it sometimes possible that a person is reborn in the same body (indistinct, Prabhupada coughs).

Prabhupada: Same body? What is that?

Brahmananda: Is a person reborn in the same body?

Prabhupada: Yes, you are reborn every moment. You were like this child sometime. Is this body the same? You think your body is the same when you were a child like that, lying down on the lap of you mother? Is the same body?

Bernard Manischewitz: No, my body is different from a child’s body.

Prabhupada: Yes. So different body means you are changing body every moment, imperceptibly. That is the medical science.

Bernard Manischewitz: Can it sometimes be perceptibly? Can a person…?

Prabhupada: Perceptibly we can understand that the body is being changed so long you are within this body. Because if the person, the soul, is not in the body, the body does not change. Body changes so long the soul is there. And as soon as the soul goes out of the body, there is no more change. Is it not perceptible?

Bernard Manischewitz: If the soul goes out of the body…

Prabhupada: There is no more change. It remains the same. Same status. Why? That means so long the soul is there, changes take place.

Bernard Manischewitz: I see. Thank you very much. I understand.

Prabhupada: Yes, every intelligent man will understand this very simple thing, that so long as the body…, the soul is within the body, the body is changing. And as soon as this body… Just like you are old man, I am old man, the body is no more possible to be changed; somehow or other then I’ll have to accept another body. That is called transmigration. The modern so-called scientists, philosophers, they do not understand this plain truth, and they are passing on as big scientists, big philosopher, misleading public.

Devotee (2): This is for my wife. She’s getting second initiation.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you.

Prabhupada: So give him some prasada.

Brahmananda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you, yes, I have. (gives Srila Prabhupada gift of a fruit basket)

Prabhupada: Thank you very much. So many fruits.

Pratyatosa: Yes, it’s all fruits.

Prabhupada: Good father, good daughter.

Bernard Manischewitz, Pratyatosa and Urmila: Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Pratyatosa: Srila Prabhupada, can I ask you a question? My son likes pictures of Krsna. Is it all right to give him pictures to play with, or is that too offensive? They could be covered with plastic or something?

Prabhupada: Not offensive, but it should not be disrespectful. That, he cannot do that. He has no sense now. So better just show him and keep it. Not have it. (devotees pay obeisances) (end)