The Perfect Devotee 53

devotees today. I have a cold, so I said I shouldn’t go in the
water. Some felt I should because it is the Ganges, and some
said I shouldn’t because I have a cold, and we were talking,
and I don’t understand. Do we get sick because of our bad
actions in the past?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Yes, that’s a fact.

BOB: But whenone.. .

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Any kind of distress we suffer is due
to our impious activities in the past. ;

BOB: But when someone is removed from karmic

influence...
SRILA PRABHUPADA: Yes?
BOB: .. . does he still get sick?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: No. Even if he gets sick, that is very
temporary. For instance, this fan is moving. If you discon-
nect the electric power, then the fan will move for a
moment. That movement is not due to the electric cur-
rent. That is force—what is it called, physically, this
force?

SYAMASUNDARA: Momentum.

SRILA PRAB! UPADA: Momentum. But as soon as it stops,
no more mov:ment. Similarly, even if a devotee who has
surrendered to Krsna is suffering from material conse-
quences, that is temporary. Therefore, a devotee does not
take any material miseries as miseries. He takes them as
Krsna’s, God’s, mercy.

BoB: A perfected soul, a devotee, a pure devotee . . .
SRILA PRABHUPADA: A perfected soul is one who engages
twenty-four hours a day in Krsna consciousness. That is
perfection. That is a transcendental position. Perfection
means to engage in one’s original consciousness. That is
