Finding the Cure for Today’s Social Ills 223

Therefore, we speak of Krsna consciousness. In the Bhagavad-gita it is
stated that consciousness is all-pervading. You may have consciousness,
and I may have consciousness, but there is another consciousness, which
is all-pervading. My consciousness is limited to my body, and your con-
sciousness is limited to yours, but there is another consciousness, that is
within you, me, and everyone. That is Krsna consciousness.

Actually everything in the world is relative. That is a scientific fact. Our
bodies, lives, intelligence, and everything else are all relative. To us an
ant may seem to have a very short life, but for the ant his life is about a
hundred years in duration. That hundred yearsyis relative to the body.
Similarly, Brahma, who lives fantastically long from our point of view,
only lives a hundred years from his point of view. This is relativity.
Karandhara dasa: Then the relativity is based upon our individual
situation.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Therefore it is said that what is food for one is
poison for another. People are thinking that because they cannot survive
on the moon, no other living entities can. Everyone thinks of things in a
relative way, in his own terms. This is the meaning of ‘‘frog philosophy.”’
The frog is always thinking of things in relation to his well. He has no
power to conceive of the Atlantic Ocean because his well is his only ex-
perience. God is great, but we are thinking of God’s greatness in our own
terms, in terms of relative greatness. Some insects are born at night; they
grow at night, have their children at night, and die at night. They never
see the sun; therefore they conclude that there is no such thing as day. If
you asked the insect about the morning, he would say, ‘‘There cannot be
any morning.”’ Similarly, when people hear of Brahma’s long duration of
life from the scriptures, they do not believe it. They say, ‘‘How can any-
one live for such a long time?”’ In the Bhagavad-gitd [8.17] Krsna states:

sahasra-yuga-paryantam
ahar yad brahmano viduh
ratrim yuga-sahasrantam
te ‘ho-ratra-vido janah

‘*By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of
Brahma’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.””

Thus Brahma, by these calculations, lives for so many millions and
trillions of years. We cannot believe this, although evidence is given in
the scriptures. In other words, we conclude that Krsna talks nonsen-
sically while we speak as authorities. Even great scholars say that these
