Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is it? Hell, you were speaking something of hell?
Devotee: Eternal hell.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Devotee: Eternal hell?
Prabhupāda: Eternal hell. Huh? What is that?
Devotee: Everlasting hell.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It means that, so far as I remember, Prabhupāda, in the Bible it says that at the time of judgment...
Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Judgment, the judgment.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a judgment...
Nara-Nārāyaṇa: You rise from the grave in the time you are judged.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, all of the souls then rise for judgment, and accordingly they either go to heaven or to hell.
Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Or into an intermediate stage, where they can gradually go up to heaven. Limbo, I think.
Lady devotee (2): The ultimate desire of a Christian is to be with Jesus, is to go to be with him. That is their ultimate desire. Not necessarily to be with the Father, but to be with Jesus.
Gurudas: What do they do with him?
Lady devotee (2): By leading the Christian life.
Gurudas: I mean when they go to him, what do they do?
Lady devotee (2): [indistinct]
Gurudas: See, the idea is that you could not remember perfectly 'cause the taste is gone, the līlā is death mostly. But it isn't death; the basics are there, but they're teaching death. And so any intelligent person says, "I want to go to Jesus," but then what do I do? If it is everlasting hell, then heaven must be also everlasting, but what do we do? And if it's void, then it will not keep the people interested; therefore people are leaving religion.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is very good reason. There is no hope; better go to hell. [laughter] At least there is something. Never mind. Yes, hopelessness is not good.
Type: Conversation
Date: Dec. 12, 1971
Location: Delhi
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