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The air was chilled as Srila Prabhupada and his disciples alighted from the cars parked on the perimeter road of the Botanic Gardens. The pathway was lined with massive Moreton Bay fig trees, their roots bulging out of the sidewalk. Entering the gardens, the warmly-dressed group passed cabbage palms and tall bamboos that creaked and scratched in the breeze. A song thrush piped its exquisite melody from a nearby bush; an occasional willie-wagtail flitted and perched for a few moments, its long, white-fanned tail swaying restlessly.

The conversation on the walk was as brisk as the weather. Madhudvisa wanted clarification on a point that Srila Prabhupada had made in the previous night's class:

"Srila Prabhupada, you said that if one wanted to be a medical man he could purchase and read all the medical books, but he could not become a doctor on the strength of that reading. You said that he would have to study medical science under a qualified teacher. So in the case of your books, is it possible to become a devotee just by reading them, without your personal association?"

Prabhupada immediately pinpointed the misunderstanding: "I never said that you have to study personally from the author, that he has to be personally present there. Rather one who knows the subject matter, one who understands the author's purpose, you can hear from him. Just like we are explaining Bhagavad-gita As It Is, not that one has to learn directly from Krsna, but rather from one who has understood Krsna. That is the parampara system."

Later during the walk, Madhudvisa asked if the Puranic calculation of 8,400,000 species of life was for the whole universe, or just this planet.

"No," Prabhupada replied. "All of them are there."

"On this planet?"

"Yes."

Madhudvisa expressed a doubt. "But the demigods, the higher human species -- we cannot see them here."

Prabhupada again exposed the faulty argument. "Why do you believe in your seeing power? That is the defect of you Westerners. Suppose if Narada or some demigod comes, will you see? Prahlada was seeing his Lord everywhere, but Hiranyakasipu could not see -- 'Let me see, where is your God?' Just like in our childhood we were thinking that in the gramophone box there was a man: 'How these records are being played? -- There must be a man inside singing!' And in the electric fan, I was thinking that there is some ghost."

Dayasara, a newly initiated young man, had brought along a copy of Srimad-Bhagavatam on the walk, hoping to ask a specific question. As the party briefly stopped near a lawn filled with sprawling oaks, he got his chance.

"Srila Prabhupada, in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam it's mentioned that: 'Without discrimination, both the demigods and the demons worshipped the Lord as devotees in the Lord's personal abode.' I was wondering if you could explain how it's possible that demons could worship the Lord."

As the devotees clustered closer, Prabhupada smiled. "Yes, when the demons are promoted to the Vaikuntha, they also become devotees. Just like you are all now Vaisnava. Why don't you compare with yourself?"

Srila Prabhupada laughed along with the devotees. "The others are seeing 'How these mlecchas and yavanas can become Vaisnavas?' They are seeing like that. Therefore they object. In Vrndavana they protest: 'How can these Europeans worship the Deity?' The point is that when one becomes qualified, he is no longer a demon. What to speak of demons -- even in my younger days as a grhastha, big, big sannyasi disciples of my guru maharaja were saying, 'How this grhastha is doing? He never lived with us'."

Towards the end of the bracing walk, Madhudvisa presented an argument that he had recently heard. "Some people say that the chanting of Hare Krsna is material because it's a sound coming from the mouth. Would it be possible to run scientific tests to prove a distinction between the chanting and, say, the sound of a car horn?"

Prabhupada answered that it would not be possible, because in our "diseased condition" the sound would appear the same. He gave the example of a man with jaundice tasting a rasagulla as bitter. "Not to speak of disease," Prabhupada said, "even if he has no appetite, still he will not appreciate." Spiritual life, Prabhupada continued, meant curing the material disease, and then, when purified, relishing the spiritual taste.

Another devotee asked, "So Srila Prabhupada, does that mean that when you become fully purified, you will also see the sound of an automobile horn as transcendental?" Prabhupada stopped and pointed to the microphone that Srutakirti held before him.

"Yes, this microphone is transcendental because it is being used for Krsna's purpose." He gestured towards a flowering acanthus with its sprawling green, shiny leaves. "This flower, when you use it for sense gratification, it is material. The same flower, when offered to Krsna, is spiritual. The same flower, but by different use, it becomes material or spiritual. If this park is given to us, we can immediately make it Vaikuntha, otherwise it is not. Actually, there is no material existence. All these material elements are Krsna's energy. Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita: bhinna, separated. Separated means as soon as you separate Krsna from anything, that is material. So our business is to educate people that 'Everything is Krsna. You try to understand'."

On leaving the park to return to the car, the party walked past a big old tree with a warning sign attached. Srila Prabhupada asked Srutakirti what was written there.

"It says that this tree is dangerous in high winds; that it will break."

Prabhupada grinned. "Oh. And this path is not dangerous? Everything is dangerous in the material world. Padam padam yad vipadam: In every step there is danger. That is material life."

The car headed back to the temple. Prabhupada spoke in the back seat with Srutakirti, as the sun shone brightly through the autumnal elm trees. "Civilisation is becoming hellish. Just like the priest was saying, 'Oh, sex is very nice. Why you stop?' Just see, he is a priest. Why the priests are ordered not to marry? There must be some benefit, otherwise why have they recommended?"

Srutakirti suggested that originally all priests knew the benefits of celibacy, but that the knowledge had been lost through the years.

"That means they are gliding down towards hell. That's all. Now they are coming to the platform of homosex. That is their spiritual advancement."


- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu