Guest: How are you to know that this act or that act is good or bad?

Prabhupāda: You do not know what is good or bad?

Guest: We do not know because (indistinct) somebody right or somebody (indistinct). We do not know what were our past karmas.

Prabhupāda: Well, everyone dies. Death is inevitable. Nobody can avoid death. "As sure as death". And therefore, I have already explained that we have to take information from the Vedas. Just like this body. It is said in the Vedas, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (S.B.3:31:1). Karmaṇā, why we have got different bodies, different mentality? Every one of us sitting here, we are not of the same mentality, not of the same body. So, why the different bodies are there if there is not a superior endowment? Why different bodies? Can you answer this? Unless there is some superior endowment that "You accept this body, you take this body," you have to accept. You cannot deny it. Because in the Vedas we understand, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (B.G.2:13). You have to, after death you have accept another body. But what kind of body you are going to accept, that you do not know. But there is superior judgement that "You have done such-and-such karma, you accept this body." How can you deny it? Just like in the court the judge is giving different judgement, "Yes, you have to receive this one lakh of rupees from this person. I give you decree." And another person is given order, "You go to jail for six months." The judge is the same. But why one is going by his word six months imprisonment and another is given one lakh of rupees decree? The superior judgement is there and the karma is there. Therefore because we are getting so many different types of bodies, each body is different from the another body. Unless there is superior judgement that one has to accept this body, another has to accept that body. And that judgement is given by karma and that is stated in the Vedas, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (S.B.3:31:1). By one's karma and by superior judgement, one has to get another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (B.G.2:13). So where is the wrong in this? There is superior judgement and there are different types of body, that is a fact. So how, you cannot deny.

(Lecture on srimad Bhagavatam------Hyderabad).

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): How can we know what is good and what is bad? How can we define them?

Prabhupāda: When you come to the good, you will understand what is good. When you come to the bad, you understand what is bad.

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He does not understand.

Prabhupāda: Suppose now there are a class of thief and class of honest men. So if you associate with the thieves, you will learn how to steal. But you understand also that "People hate us." The thieves, the thief class, they know that the people hate, the police arrest, the police put them... They also know that. But because they are habituated, they cannot give it up.

(Room conversation-------Caracas).

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): Yes. How do we make ourselves bad?

Prabhupāda: Therefore the Bible is there: "You become good like this." If you don't do, then you become bad. The Bible says that "Thou shall not kill." If you don't kill, then you are good. If you kill, you are bad.

(Room conversation-------Caracas).