Deciding for the Future 89
you have not prepared your life, so accidentally, at the time
of death, your mentality will create another body, and
nature will supply it.

BARBARA: And chanting —what does chanting do?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: That you can ask these boys [the
devotees]. They will explain.

BoB: If Krsna controls everything, how does Krsna control
a nondevotee?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: By madyd. Just as the government con-
trols everything. A kingdom is controlled by the king’s
departments.

BOB: And how does Krsna control a devotee?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Just as you control your beloved. For
example, if you have a beloved child, you control him for
his benefit. If he is going to touch fire, you will immediately
tell him, “No, no, my dear child. Don’t touch it’? So a
Krsna conscious person? a devotee, is never misled, because
Krsna is always guiding him, whereas those who are not
Krsna conscious are in the charge of maya, and maya will do
the needful, as you have seen.

BOB: Is it preset, when we’re born, the time that we'll die?
SRILA PRABHUPADA: What?

BOB: Is the time that I’m going to die, and others are going
to die, preset before we are born? When I’m born, do I have
a certain given life span?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Yes.

A DEVOTEE: And he cannot change that?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: No, he cannot change it, but Krsna
can change it.

DEVOTEE: If he commits suicide, is that also preset?

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Not preset. That you can do because
you have a little independence. It is not natural to commit
