Hayagriva: Concerning evil, Plotinus feels that matter is evil in the sense that it imprisons the soul, but the visible cosmos…
Prabhupada: This is our conception. This Plotinus is all, all our, practically ninety percent our conception. This is the…
Hayagriva: But the visible cosmos is beautiful, and the evil does not arise from the creator.
Prabhupada: Yes. That the individual soul, being attracted by this illusory energy, he comes here for sense gratification. It is not by the desire of the Supreme One. By his personal desire. So God gives him freedom. So he begins the life from a very exalted position in this material world—sometimes like Brahma. But on account of material activities he becomes entangled, so much so that degradation from the exalted position like Lord Brahma, he comes to become a worm in the stool. Therefore we find so many species of life. The degradation and elevation is going on—sometimes elevated, sometimes degraded—and in this way they will…, individual soul is suffering. That is his suffering, material miserable condition. When he comes to understand that “This kind of degradation and elevation going on perpetually, this is my suffering,” then at that time he becomes fortunate. Then he seeks after the Supreme One, Krishna, and by the grace of Krishna he gets bona fide spiritual master. So by the mercy of both the spiritual master and Krishna, he gets the chance of being engaged in devotional service, and little effort and sincerity makes him perfect, and he goes back to home back to Godhead.
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