Bhaktijana:
“Could they ever misuse it?”
Prabhupada:
“Yes, they can misuse it also. That power is there. Yes?”
Devotee:
“Well, I believe you once said that once a conditioned soul becomes perfected and gets out of the material world and he goes to Krishnaloka, there’s no possibility of falling back.”
Prabhupada:
“No! There is possibility, but he does not come. Just like after putting your hand in the fire, you never put it again if you are really intelligent. So those who are going back to Godhead, they become intelligent. Why going back to Godhead? Just like we are in renounced order of life. So we have renounced our family life after thinking something. Now, if somebody comes, “Swamiji, you take thousand millions of dollars and marry again and become a family man,” I’ll never become, because I have got my bad experience. I’ll never become. So if one is intelligent enough, if he has got actually the bitter taste of this material world, he’ll never agree. He’ll never agree. But those who have not advanced to such knowledge, oh, they think,
‘Oh, this material enjoyment is very nice. Let me taste it and let me do business in my sannyasi life, and stealthily and privately, let me enjoy.’
These things are going on. That means they have no taste. They come to hospital-making or this philanthropy. This comes again. Sthanad bhrastad patanty adhah. Ye ‘nye aravindaksa vimukta-maninah. ‘Those fools who are thinking that ‘Simply by thinking myself, ‘I am God, I am Brahman, I have become liberated.’; but ye ‘nye ‘ravindaksa vimukta-maninas tvayy asta-bhavat Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.32,
[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord’s lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmä and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure.
They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.”
‘but there is no knowledge about You, Krishna,’ aruhya kåcchrena param padam, ‘they, after performing so much austerity and penances, they rise up to the highest position, Brahman realization, but,’ patanty adhah, ‘they fall down.’ We have got so many instances. They take sannyasa. They say that brahma satyam jagan mithya: “This world is false. Brahman is truth.” But after some days, they come to politics, they come to sociology, they come to hospital, they come to this and that. That’s all. Finished. Brahman finished. They must fall down because they have no shelter in Krishna. Just like the sputnik goes very high, clap, hear clap. Uh, come down again. Where you’ll go? Yes. Simply for the time being clapping, that’s all. (laughs) But the fools, they are so nonsense, they are satisfied with that temporary clapping. That’s all.”
Bhaktijana:
“Has my soul ever been liberated?”
Prabhupada:
“That you know. I do not know.”
Bhaktijana:
“If I was once liberated…”
Prabhupada:
“You are liberated. You are liberated. Simply just a cloud has covered you. Drive away the cloud. There is no question that you were ever. You are ever-liberated. That, the sky is always spiritual, but it is sometimes overcrowded with cloud, this maya. This is called maya. Actually, you are not conditioned. You are thinking. Just like in the dream you are thinking that tiger is eating you. You were never eaten by tiger. There is no tiger. So we have to get out of this dream. Don’t you sometimes dream that tiger is eating you? Is there any tiger? You are simply thinking. So if you keep in Krishna consciousness, that nonsense thinking will go away. Therefore we have to keep ourself always in Krishna—thinking so that this dream will never come. If you are always awakened, then dream never comes. So keep yourself always awakened by Krishna consciousness. All right. Distribute prasadam.”