Prabhupāda: So, everyone has got a particular type of duty. That is called dharma. So why execute... (break) ...our occupational duty? One can become perfect. It doesn’t matter whether he is a businessman, or whether he is a lawyer, whether he is an engineer, whether he is a priest, or anything else. By executing his occupational duty he can become the perfect. How?
How it is possible? One has to see, whether by his professional duty, he is satisfying Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). That is the test. It doesn't matter whether you are businessman or lawyer, but if you test your occupation by satisfying the Supreme Lord, that is your perfection.
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based on this principle. We do not request anyone to become a sannyāsī or give up home and go to Himalaya and practice haṭha-yoga. No. Our principle is that in whatever condition you are, you remain there. That is the instruction of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam while talking with Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya. That verse is: jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva (SB 10.14.3). One should not try to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by speculative mental exercise. This process should be given up. One should be humble and meek. That is also the demand of Bhagavad-gītā.
- sarva-dharmān parityajya
- mām ekaṁśaraṇaṁ vraja
- (BG 18.66)
So, in absolute humbleness one should try to hear from the realized soul, san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām namanta eva (SB 10.14.3). In that position, although the Lord is unconquerable, He becomes conquered by the devotee.
So we are recommending, we are preaching all over the world, this philosophy that you do not require to change your position. Even if you require to remain as a Christian or as a Muhammadan or a Hindu or a Jewish or Buddhist, it doesn't matter. Please try to see whether by your activities God is satisfied.
That is the injunction in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also,
- sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
- yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
- (SB 1.2.6)
That is first-class religion, by which one is elevated to the platform of loving transcendental service to the Transcendence, Adhokṣaja: without any cause, ahaitukī apratihatā, and without being hampered. In that way one can be peaceful. Otherwise there is no possibility of peace.