Prabhupāda attended a more formal ecumenical meeting, a religious conference. About fifty people, including Prabhupāda and a group of his devotees, attended. A panel, representing various religions, honored Prabhupāda as the main speaker as well as a member of the panel. Prabhupāda lectured. After the lecture, a Catholic priest asked how Prabhupāda could be so sure of his statements about God.
“Why not?” Prabhupāda said. “What is the difficulty? I have consciousness. There is God. Now I have forgotten Him. I have to revive my consciousness of God. What is difficult in knowing that much?” The questioners were not his submissive young disciples, and this was not Prabhupāda relaxed and sitting back on a pillow in his room. He was alert, logical, and very sociable. But some of the panel were not satisfied with his presentation. The moderator took up their cause.
Moderator: “Are you saying that you are perfect?”
Prabhupāda: “I am imperfect – that’s all right. But I know what is perfection.”
Moderator: “But I cannot see that.”
Prabhupāda’s disciples laughed at this, and Prabhupāda turned to reprimand them: “Don’t laugh.” Then returning to his debate with the moderator: “Therefore, you are here. You have to go to London. If you have purchased a ticket for London and if you have gotten to the airplane, so even if you have not gone to London, you are sure that you are going to London.”
Moderator: “Yes, I can be sure. I understand that. I have no doubt about that. But how can your security – ”
Prabhupāda: “No, no. If I have understood that my destination is London, I feel secure that I am going to London. Then that is my happiness.”
Moderator: “So you are completely happy.”
Prabhupāda: “Yes, because I know that if I go to London I will be happy. And I am going there.”
Moderator: “But you’re not in London yet.”
Prabhupāda: “That’s all right!” Prabhupāda raised his voice confidently. “I have already told you that when you purchase a ticket and you understand that you are surely going to London – that is happiness.”
Moderator: “But then there is no question.”
Prabhupāda: “Hmm? But what is this? If my destination is London, why then question? There is no need of question.”
Moderator: “Well, then why a conference with men of other religions?” The other panel members listened intently as the moderator pursued a line of argument many of them empathized with. They wanted to see Prabhupāda defeated.
Prabhupāda: “That conference is used to consult together that London is the destination.”
Moderator: “But then you know the destination.”
Prabhupāda: “Right.”
Moderator: “The idea that you have behind your mind is to tell other people where the destination is.”
Prabhupāda: “Yes.”
Moderator: “Not to search for it with them.”
Prabhupāda: “No, I don’t say search. I have already searched out.”
Moderator: “Yeah. So then I feel myself that this is not a conference.”
Prabhupāda: “Hmm? Then if I have got some good news to tell you, it is not conference?” Prabhupāda’s disciples burst into laughter despite themselves. This time Prabhupāda did not check them. He was too busy, too alert with the debate, as several persons started talking at once.
Panel member: “As far as you are concerned, it may be London. As far as I am concerned, it may be Paris or Hawaii.”
Prabhupāda: “No, then we have to consider where is real happiness, whether it is in Hawaii or in Paris or – ”
Moderator: “You! But if you are not willing to concede” – the moderator could not help becoming accusative in his tone – “that it is not London, and if I say I am not going to that place – ”
Prabhupāda: “That is going on, that is going on. There are innumerable planets, and in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said: yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ. So if you think that London is not good for you, Paris is good for you, then it is good for you.”
Another panel member (with a German accent): “Well, therefore, conference is all useless.”
Prabhupāda: “No. If you don’t agree, if you do not understand what is the highest goal, then conference is useless. If you keep yourself to the understanding where you are, then there is no need of conference.” Several persons, some on the panel and some even in the audience, began to speak at once in protest of Prabhupāda’s remarks.
Prabhupāda: “That is conference – I want to convince you that London is the real place of happiness.”
Moderator: “But I think that I know better than you.”
Prabhupāda: “You may think, but you have to be convinced that your thinking is wrong.”
Moderator: “Or maybe I can convince you that your thinking is wrong.”
Prabhupāda: “That’s all right. Therefore, conference is required.” Prabhupāda began to laugh. Finally everyone laughed, and the tension that had been building to animosity relaxed. But the formal order of the conference had been lost, and now everyone began to speak at once.
Moderator: “Excuse me, Swamiji, but the time is running out … ”
Prabhupāda: “Yes.”
Moderator: “And I would like to thank you very much for coming.”
Prabhupāda: “Now you are convinced that conference is required?”
Moderator: “Yes.”
Prabhupāda: “You have to convince me, and I will have to convince you.”
Moderator: “And I think that’s true. These confrontations, these listenings, lead to further understanding.”
The program ended, and the crowd began dispersing, talking among themselves, moving out into the summer evening. The moderator, still intellectually piqued by Prabhupāda’s brand of ecumenicity, approached Prabhupāda amid the crowd moving toward the exit.
“The question is,” the young minister pursued, “where should we go, if you believe that you must go to London, yet I believe very strongly I must go to India, and I am convinced that, at least for me, India is wonderful?”
Prabhupāda: “No. If you are convinced that going to India is good for you, so similarly you must accept that going to London is also nice.”
Minister: “Yes. But so may you also be convinced that India is better than London.”
Prabhupāda: “Yes, if you can convince me.”
Minister: “But if you believe that you cannot be convinced … ”
Prabhupāda: “No. You can convince if we are reasonable.”
Minister: “But then we have to search together to become complete.”
Prabhupāda: “No, my version is complete.”
Minister: “Then I cannot convince you of anything.”
Prabhupāda: “No. Why not? You have got reason, I have got reason. You have to show me that there are favorable conditions in Paris or India … ”
Minister: “But how can I convince you, because you say that you cannot – ”
Prabhupāda: “No, no, no, no. Convince means you have to convince me with your reasoning power of presentation.”
Source: Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta Ch. 59