"Everything Is One" Is Nonsense

Dr.Singh: You said this mist of material nature is temporary.

But why should we bother to disentangle ourselves from something transitory? Srila Prabhupada: Why do you put coverings on your body? You may walk naked.

The weather will clear in a few hours.

Why do you cover yourself? Dr.Singh: The danger is now.

Srila Prabhupada: Whenever it may be, why do you take this step of covering your body? Dr.Singh: To avoid discomfort.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Otherwise you would be uncomfortable.

Not to bother to dress is the Mayavada theory: "Everything will come automatically, so why bother? Everything is one." That is a nonsensical theory.

The Mayavada philosophy is that God is one and that every thing and every living being is equal to God.

We have no quarrel with the chemists if they begin from life, but unfortunately they say that everything begins from darkness--dead matter.

That is what we object to.

We say, "Begin from life," and they say, "No, begin from matter--darkness." The reason they are in darkness is simple: if one goes from darkness to light, he thinks that darkness is the beginning.

Suppose you have been in darkness all your life, and now you suddenly come into the light.

You will think, "Oh, light has come from darkness." Actually, darkness occurs when light becomes dim.

Darkness does not produce light.

Dr.Singh: Then darkness is dependent on light? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Or in other words, in the light there is no darkness.

When the light is dim-then we experience darkness.

Similarly, when our spiritual consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, is dim, our consciousness is material.

In the morning we awaken, and at the end of the day we become tired and go to sleep.

When life is somehow or other interrupted, we sleep.

We sleep at night, and when we get up in the morning we understand that our wakefulness, or "life," has not come into existence from the sleepy condition.

I was alive even while I slept, and on awakening I am still alive.

This should be clearly understood.

A baby comes from the womb of his mother.

He thinks that his life has begun from the day he comes out of the womb.

But that is not a fact.

Actually, he is eternal.

He constructed his material body within the womb of his mother while he was unconscious, and as soon as his bodily features were sufficiently developed, he came out of the womb and again to consciousness.

Dr.Singh: And he again falls asleep at death.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

That is described in Bhagavad-gita (8.19): bhuta-gramah sa evayam bhutva bhutva praliyate ratry-agame 'vasah partha prabhavaty ahar-agame "Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active, and again night falls, O Partha, and they are helplessly dissolved."