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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
sitting in one place and I am sitting in a different place, this difference does not affect our actual existence. We are both human beings. The conceptions of “Irishman,” “Englishman,” “Protestant,” “Catholic,” and so on are but different dresses. One has to become free from these designations. When one is thus free, he becomes purified.
sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa- sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.12]
When you have purified your senses and engaged those purified senses in the service of the master of the senses, Kṛṣṇa, you have perfected your life. That is nonduality, and that is absolute.
Mr. O’Grady:  But the system insists that you think yourself American or Indian or African or whatever.
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Yes. Materialistic society means duality.
Mr. O’Grady:  But that is unavoidable. How can you avoid material existence?
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  That is possible in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The lotus lives in the water but never touches the water.
Mr. O’Grady:  I don’t think you can explain situations in one area with metaphors from another. How can you argue political problems in terms of vague spiritual concepts? Their nature is completely different.
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  Sometimes a variety of examples helps us to understand or appreciate the problem better. In the vase there is a variety of flowers, and that variety helps us better appreciate the idea of flowers. From any point of view, Kṛṣṇa can resolve all problems. Why just the problems of Irishmen or Englishmen? All problems. That is called unity in diversity. Our students come from different backgrounds, but because they are all in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are unified.
Mr. O’Grady:  Very good. Yes, I accept that. I would like to know, though, that when you say “Kṛṣṇa consciousness,” is there any difference between that and Christ consciousness?
Śrīla Prabhupāda:  No, there is no difference. Christ came to preach the message of God. If you actually become Christ conscious, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Mr. O’Grady:  And does becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious or God conscious mean becoming self-conscious? That is, conscious of who we really are?