Devotee: Is it true or not true that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta said that failure is the pillar of success and if it is true, what success . . . (indistinct) . . .?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know exactly if Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda has used this saying . . .
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Failure is the pillar of success. But generally speaking, to paraphrase it, it means that we should learn from our mistakes.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. That is success. If we learn our failure and try to rectify it, that is . . . (indistinct)
Devotee (3): I asked Prabhupāda the other day, because Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: "Forget the past, it sleeps and never the future dream at all. Live with times that are of thee, and progress thee shall call." So I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it possible to forget the past? Śrīla Prabhupāda said: "No, that would not be possible, but we can think like this, that 'I have done so many foolish things,' and rectify it. Not that we should remain fools. Then what would be the value of our experience? Just like a child, he can put his finger in the fan and it hurts. So then he learns not to do it again. But if he's so dull-headed that again and again he puts his finger in the fan . . . basically our experience from the material world should be duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). That the material world is simply a place of misery. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhī-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). That we should perceive the miseries of birth and death, disease and old age. That should be our experience in the material world.