{A missionary, preaching to miners:]

“Jesus Christ is son of God. If you don’t worship him, you will go to hell.” So they enquired, “What is that hell?”

“It is very dark and moist and so on, so on…”

They did not reply, because they are working in the mine. So this is the position.

People are kept in so much darkness, they do not know what is hell, what is heaven, what is God, what is misery. They do not mind. They are accustomed to all these things.

There is another story like that, a Bengali story. One man said, “Oh, you are drinking, you will go to hell.” So he explained what is hell: “It is a miserable life.” “Oh, my father also drinks.” “Oh, he will also go to hell.” “And my mother also drinks.” “Oh, she will also go.” In this way whole, the family. “Then where it is hell? It is heaven. Because the father is there, mother is there, brother is there. Everyone, we are going… So where is hell?” This is the… “Even in hell, if we are all there, then where it is hell? It is heaven.”

Srila Prabhupada — May 13, 1975, Perth