dyate bhavo
nabhavo vidyate satah
ubhayor api drsto 'ntas
tv anayos tattva-darsibhih
"Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both." (Bg. 2.16) Because the soul is never created, the soul never dies. Everything that is born must die.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes's fourth innate idea is that whatever is done can never be undone.
Srila Prabhupada: Karma cannot be undone. However, it can change. In Bhagavad- gita, Krsna tells us to abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Him. If we do so, He will relieve us of all the reactions of karma. (Bg. 18.66) So in this sense it is not a fact that what is done cannot be undone.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes is thinking in the realm of the physical. After I throw a ball, that ball can never be unthrown.
Srila Prabhupada: That is a child's knowledge, not a philosopher's. Direct perception is childish. A child believes so many things by direct perception. I remember that when I first saw a train in Calcutta, I thought that within the engine there must have been horses, otherwise the train could not have run. This kind of thinking is not really philosophy. Of course, it is a part of philosophy because all philosophers are nature's children. Therefore they think in that way.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes's fifth principle is that we cannot be nonexistent as long as we are thinking.
Srila Prabhupada: We have already discussed this. Everyone thinks, and therefore everyone is a soul.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes also gives two arguments for the existence of God. First, an innate idea of an infinite being necessitates the existence of that infinite being because a finite being could not possibly create such an idea. In other words, because I can think of the infinite, the infinite must exist. The infinite must have put that thought in my head.
Srila Prabhupada: There are many ways of thinking of the infinite. The voidists think of the infinite as zero, void. Descartes may be thinking in one way, but someone else may be thinking in another.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes argues that because we can conceive of perfection, perfection must be there.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, but just because I am thinking of something does not mean that it exists. Everyone is thinking in his own way. Who will decide which way of thinking is correct? Who will judge? Therefore we ultimately have to accept the confirmation of authorities. If our thinking is confirmed by the authorities, it is all right; otherwise it cannot be accepted.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes was thinking more in terms of mathematics. If we begin counting, we can conceive of numbers stretching to infinity. So the fact that one can think of infinity necessitates the infinite.
Srila Prabhupada: But the voidists are thinking that the infinite is zero. Some mathematicians calculate that infinity means zero.
Syamasundara dasa: Secondly, God is an absolutely perfect being, and perfection necessarily implies existence. Since God's existence is the same as His essence, He must exist.
Srila Prabhupada: That is our proposition. We say that Krsna is the sum total of all wealth, knowledge, fame, power, beauty, and renunciation. Because these opulences are attractive, and Krsna has them in full, Krsna is all-attractive. All these attractive qualities must be there in Krsna in totality. That is Parasara Muni's definition of God.
Syamasundara dasa: This is similar to Descartes's contention that perfect beauty and wisdom must exist somewhere because we can conceive of the fact.
Srila Prabhupada: Isvarah paramah krsnah (Brahma-samhita 5.1). No one is richer, more famous, wiser, more beautiful, or more powerful than Krsna. Krsna is the sum total of all qualities; therefore He is complete. Because we are part and parcel of the complete, we can think of the complete. Because I am the son of my father, I can think of my father. Similarly, Krsna is the Father of all living entities, and every living entity ha