July 2 1975 Denver
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it true that our advancement in devotional services… Is it influenced a lot by our past karma, how many sinful activities we have committed?
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Bhakti is not under karma. Bhakti is under your good will. If you accept to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, you can do that without being checked by anything else. Simply you have to will, “Yes, Kṛṣṇa. You are asking me. So long I did not do. From this day I do.” That will depend upon you.
Devotee (2): Not that if I was more sinful, I would make less advancement than somebody who is more pious.
Prabhupāda: Whatever you may be, simply surrender and everything is finished. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣ… [Bg. 18.66]. Even if you are sinful, Kṛṣṇa will give you release, “All right. You have surrendered. That’s all right.” That is wanted. If you reserve something and cheat Kṛṣṇa, “Now I am surrendering,” Kṛṣṇa is very intelligent. “You have still reservation. No.” [break]
Devotee (1): …it’s easier to surrender to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes, in sattva-guṇa one can see, one can understand his position. [break]
Devotee (2): Does he experience the miseries of the gross body when he’s in sattva-guṇa, in the mode of goodness? Does he experience hunger and thirst, those things like that?
Prabhupāda: Gross body means no hunger?
Devotee (2): When a person’s in sattva-guṇa, he’s not so much feeling the pain…
Prabhupāda: He is not disturbed by the rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. That is sattva-guṇa. Naṣṭa-prayeṣv abhadreṣu [SB 1.2.18]. He can be disturbed by rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, but when he is in sattva-guṇa, he is not so much disturbed. And if he increase and go to the pure sattva-guṇa, suddha-sattva, then he is no more disturbed. At that time he can understand what is God. [break] …you are strongly situated in sattva-guṇa, the other base qualities cannot disturb you. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye [SB 1.2.19]. Other guṇa means lusty desires and greediness. This thing will be finished when you are strongly situated in sattva-guṇa. Then you go advance more and more. [break] …hear about Kṛṣṇa, to chant about Kṛṣṇa, means cleansing, cleansing the dirty things of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. [break] …world is going on on rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. Very minute quantity of population are by sattva-guṇa.
Brahmānanda: Perhaps only in India will you find people in…
Prabhupāda: Yes, some. That is also deteriorating. [break] The sattva-guṇa… the Māyāvādī, they are also supposed to be in sattva-guṇa, but mixed with rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Therefore not pure.
Devotee (2): You were saying that when one is in the mode of goodness, that he is on the mental platform?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Devotee (2): Does that mean that he’s not… He’s experiencing the subtle body inside of the gross body, or what does that mean exactly?
Prabhupāda: Mental platform is mixed sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, not pure. But if you keep always Kṛṣṇa in your mind, then you are purified. The mind has no other opportunity to keep anything else. Kṛṣṇa is sitting there, then guarantee. [break] …they keep always seeing Viṣṇu form within the heart. Therefore they keep in sattva-guṇa. Similarly, if you keep Kṛṣṇa, then you are in sattva-guṇa. And when that concentration on Kṛṣṇa is not disturbed, then it is śuddha-sattva. That is spiritual platform. [break] .
Bombay Dec 4 1974 lecture
Somebody was talking that “Your Deity is just like trying to talk with me.” Prasanna-vaktra Yes. He is here to talk with you, but He is waiting whether you’re interested to talk with Him. That’s all. Kṛṣṇa says that teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prti-pūrvakam, bddhi-yogaṁ adāmi tam [Bg. 10.10]. He talks, but with whom? Teṣāṁsatata-yuktānām. One who is twenty-four hours engaged with love and faith in the service of the Lord. To whom? Just like if you want to talk with some big man, then you must have qualification. Is it possible that if you want to talkwith the big man here, immediately you like? No. You cannot talk. Youmust be fit to talkwith him. Similarly,Kṛṣṇa is ready to talk with you. He has come. He has descended in arcā-mūrti to talk with you, to be visible by you. Now you make yourself ready and fit to talk with Kṛṣṇa. Then He will exchange conversation. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. This is possible.
Lecture NY sept 18 1966
So in my childhood, when I was five or six years old, I requested my father that “Father, give me this Deity. I shall worship.” So father purchased for me little Krishna, Radha, and he gave me, and I was imitating. Whatever foodstuff I was getting, I was offering to Krishna and eating. In this way I got my life developed. And there was a temple in our neighbourhood.So I was seeing the Krishna deity. Oh, I was thinking…..I still remember. I was standing for hours together.
SB 4.28.34 . Unless one is an advanced devotee, he cannot fix his eyes on the Deity in the temple.
SB 4.30.27 Purport–The form of the Lord as worshiped in the temples is called arca-vigraha or arcāvatāra, the worshipable form, the Deity incarnation. This facility is offered to neophyte devotees so that they can see the real form of the Lord face to face and offer their respectful obeisances and sacrifices in the form of arcā.Through such facilities the neophytes gradually invoke their original Kṛṣṇaconsciousness. Deity worship in the form of temple worship is the most valuable benediction given by the Lord to beginners. All neophytes must therefore engage in the worship of the Lord by keeping the arcā-vigraha (arcāvatāra) at home or in the temple.
Sri Sri Gaura Nitai— Ki Jaya !!!
