he birds. Because Krsna is God, He can understand everyone's language. That is a qualification described in the Nectar of Devotion as vavaduka. When a human being can understand many languages, he is called a linguist. Another name for Krsna is vavaduka, which indicates that He can understand everyone's language, even the languages of the birds and bees. That is the potency of God.
Syamasundara dasa: Descartes considers five basic ideas to be inherent within every man, ideas which every man knows without having to verify. One is that God is innate to us as our own soul.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, this is because we are part and parcel of God. For instance, in the material world, everyone knows that he has a father. This is common knowledge.
Syamasundara dasa: Secondly, it is impossible for something to originate out of nothing; every effect must have a cause, and therefore there is a cause of everything.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, we have discussed this. That ultimate cause is Krsna. We do not accept the Mayavadi philosophy because they philosophize in a negative way to try to make the ultimate truth zero.
Syamasundara dasa: Thirdly, it is impossible for a thing to exist and not exist at the same time.
Srila Prabhupada: Who protests this? Who says that something can exist and not exist simultaneously? Who is he trying to refute?
Syamasundara dasa: He is not refuting anyone. He says that this is an innate idea that we know for certain without having to verify.
Srila Prabhupada: This body is a temporary manifestation, and this soul is always existing. Eventually, this body will not exist, but the owner of the body is eternal and existing eternally. If something is a temporary manifestation, we can say that it is simultaneously existing and not existing. On the material platform, everything is existing and not existing because it is temporary. For instance, we are existing in this room right now, but at the next moment we may not be existing. The whole cosmic manifestation is like that. As stated in Bhagavad-gita:
nasato vidyate 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 