Prajāpati: Śrīla Prabhupāda, why has it taken so long for a pure devotee to come to the West? Has the West been so sinful that no pure devotee has come before Your Divine Grace?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Don't be sorry. At that time you were so sinful that you could not receive a pure devotee.

(Morning walk------Los Angeles).

Indian man: But how ātmā... Suppose I am doing some sins? So how ātmā can be controlling. Suffering...

Prabhupāda: You are doing sin, you have to control.

Kīrtanānanda: What does the Lord mean in Bhagavad-gītā when He says that only the modes of material nature act...

Prabhupāda: You are committing sinful life, so you have to rectify yourself.

(Morning walk------Bombay).

Prof. Wolfe: That is why nobody wants to change anything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Prof. Wolfe: No real reform.

Prabhupāda: No.

Prof. Wolfe: Because they all want to go on cheating.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You see? That is the qualification of conditioned soul: To become a cheater, and to become cheated. This is the condition. To become a cheater is one of the conditions of material life. The four defects: He must commit mistake, he must be illusioned, and he must cheat, and his senses are imperfect. These are the four qualifications of the materialistic person.

(Morning walk------Los Angeles).

Rādhāvallabha: The different varieties of suffering within the animal species are due to the different varieties of sinful activities in the human life?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they, then they automatically come. Just as your term of imprisonment, by day's gone, it is finished, again you are free. Similarly, by natural development from dogs or cockroaches or from this or that, there is a process of development. You come to the human form of body. Then again you decide whether you go down or you go back to home, back to Godhead. That is your choice. If you want to go down, go again. Otherwise, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (B.G.4:9), come here. So make your choice.

Rāmeśvara: So the living entity who is in the lower body like insects or plants...

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will come automatically to the human form of body, by promotion.

Rāmeśvara: And he passes through all the species?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: So he has no desire to fly, but still he passes through bird species.

Prabhupāda: No, just like child is taken care of. Child does not know what he is doing, but the father, mother, taking care of.

Hari-śauri: He's taken through stages.

(Morning walk------Los Angeles).