Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that if we serve Kṛṣṇa we will enjoy, and if we serve māyā then we suffer. How can we get over our desire to serve māyā and enjoy separately from Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Pradyumna: Says in the material world when we try to enjoy, we suffer. When we try to enjoy we suffer? Then how will we get over our desire? And when we serve Kṛṣṇa, we become happy. But how will we get over our desire to serve māyā? The attachment is strong.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Pradyumna: He says how will we get over the desire to serve māyā, to try to enjoy ourselves in this material world?
Prabhupāda: Serve Kṛṣṇa.
Pradyumna: It says here that yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ (BG 6.22). One obtaining this actual service of Kṛṣṇa, when one tastes the service of Kṛṣṇa, then he sees any other gain, he does not consider anything else. "Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain." So when you actually taste the service of Kṛṣṇa, then you won't consider anything else to be worthy of your effort. But when we do think something else to be worthy of our effort then it means that we haven't . . . we're not really becoming advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We're not developing. We should try to develop to that point. We have to develop. Prabhupāda says this is the test of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that you will not want to depart from Kṛṣṇa consciousness to enjoy himself in material nature. And when one still wants to do that, that means he hasn't advanced to that point of stability in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Dṛḍha-vrata, who's completely fixed in his service. Avasthitiḥ. Yatra sthito na calati. When one is situated there, he doesn't depart from there, he doesn't want to go out from there. So we have to reach that point.
Devotee (3): So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if at this platform we are not yet . . . we are still desiring to depart from Kṛṣṇa's service and enjoy, then we are not . . . we have not yet tasted devotional service, what is it that we have tasted that is keeping us temporarily connected to Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: That is the Vedic injunction: You keep yourself connected with Kṛṣṇa, then you will develop the taste. Just like a jaundice patient does not taste sugar as sweet, but if he continues to take sugar candy, then he will have the real taste for sugar candy—sweet, not bitter. So he has to continue to eat sugar candy continually. Śravaṇam, kīrtanam. Then he'll have the taste.
Kulādri: But the patient must be intelligent to keep . . . Even though he does not want . . .
Prabhupāda: Patient is always rascal, fool. You cannot expect him to be intelligent. He must agree to the physician's direction. That is intelligence. He must know that he's diseased, he must follow the instruction of the physician. That much will help him. Unless one is rascal, he does not fall sick. As soon as you violate the hygienic principles, you become sick. All commit sinful activities on account of ignorance. So therefore the best advancement of civilization is not to open hospitals, but to give them a lesson that they may not fall sick and go to hospital. That is real . . . But they do not know. They keep the mass of people in ignorance, they fall sick and they come to hospital, and number of hospitals increase—they think it is advancement. This is their idea.