162 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
Srila Prabhupada: If drugs could help God realization, then drugs would
be more powerful than God. How can we accept that? Drugs are chemical
substances, which are material. How can something material help one
realize God, who is all-spiritual? It is impossible. What one experiences
from taking drugs is simply a kind of intoxication or hallucination; it is
not God realization.
Mr. Faill: Do do think the great mystics down through the ages have ac-
tually seen the spiritual spark you mentioned earlier?
Srila Prabhupada: What do you mean by ‘“‘mystic’’?
Mr. Faill: It’s just a name given to people who have had an experience of
another level of reality. .
Srila Prabhupada: We don’t use the word ‘“‘mystic.”’ Our reality is God
realization, which occurs when we come to the spiritual platform. As long
as we have a bodily concept of life, our understanding is sense gratifica-
tion because the body is made of senses. When we progress from the
; bodily platform and we see the mind as the center of sense activity, we
take the mind as the final stage of realization. That is the mental plat-
form. From the mental platform we may come to the intellectual plat-
form, and from the intellectual platform we can rise to the transcendental :
platform. Finally we can rise above even the transcendental platform and i
come to the mature, spiritual platform. These are the stages of God
realization. However, in this age, because people are so fallen, the sdstras
[scriptures] give the special recommendation that people come directly
to the spiritual platform by chanting the holy names of God: Hare Krsna,
Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare. If we cultivate this practice on the spiritual platform,
then immediately we can realize our spiritual identity. Then the process :
of God realization becomes successful very quickly:
Mr. Faill: Today a lot of people are saying that we must look inward for
the truth rather than outward into the world of the senses.
Srila Prabhupada: Looking inward means knowing that you are a spirit
soul. Unless you understand that you are not the body but a soul, there is
no question of looking inward.
First we have to study, ‘‘Am I this body, or am I something within this
body?”’ Unfortunately, this subject is not taught in any school, college,
or university. Everyone is thinking, ‘‘I am this body.’’ For example, in
this country people everywhere are thinking, ‘‘I am South African, they
are Indian, they are Greek,”’ and so on. Actually, everyone in the whole
world is in the bodily conception of life. Krsna consciousness starts when
one is above this bodily conception. ,
