Faith in Krsna (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"faith in Guru and Krishna" |"faith in Krishna" |"faith in Spiritual Master and Krsna" |"faith in Vasudeva, Lord Krsna" |"faith in and devotion to Krsna" |"faith in guru and Krsna" |"faith in krishna" |"faith in krsna" |"faith in lord krsna" |"faith in the scripture and Krsna" |"faith in the statement of Krsna" |"faith in the words of Krsna"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Reporter: My (indistinct), sir, that without existence, without faith, there can not be (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: No, no. That I say: faith is the beginning. Faith is the beginning.

Reporter: Because I take the word of my father, of my mother, that he is my father...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: ...I cannot prove it. Nobody can prove it that he is my father.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Therefore that is the beginning of knowledge. That is the beginning, adau śraddhā. That is stated in the śāstra: adau śraddhā, faith. Then if you have got śraddhā, then ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Suppose if you are, if you are very much anxious, you have got faith to understand Kṛṣṇa, then next step is to associate with persons who know Kṛṣṇa. Just like you are doing some business, so you have to enter into some association, businessmen, to understand the business from them. Similarly, if you have faith in Kṛṣṇa, then you have to understand Him through the association of devotees. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgau (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Atha bhajana-kriyā. Then as soon as you have... Just as these boys, they came to me. After association they wanted to be initiated: "Swami, please initiate." That is called bhajana-kriyā. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ atha bhajana kriyā. And if you are performing bhajana kriyā nicely, then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, then all misgivings will go away.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: A person who has got unflinching faith in these two personalities-guru and Kṛṣṇa—then the facility will be that all the revealed scriptures will be manifest automatically, even though he is not, not very learned. The purport of the whole knowledge will be revealed from within, because Kṛṣṇa is within, and the spiritual master is without, so both of them will help. Our students are going so many places—in the schools, colleges, universities. They're surprised how they're speaking so nicely, because they have got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. They are not so learned. They have not gone to the college and learned so many things as the materialistic students do, but on this account: bhakti-yogena manasi. Vyāsadeva also did like that. He became so great because he has accepted bhakti-yoga by the order of his spiritual master, Nārada. Before that, he wrote so many books, Purāṇas and others. He was not satisfied. When Nārada said that "You cannot be satisfied by describing so many material things. You try to describe the glories of the Lord..." So after his instruction, bhakti-yogena, by practicing bhakti-yogena, manasī, unto the mind, praṇihite, mind became settled up; intelligence, right intelligence came, and everything became amala. Amala means without any material contamination. Then he saw apaśyat puruṣaṁ pūrṇaṁ. He saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead and also māyā. Both things he saw.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Five thousand, five thousand priests, they are suffering from alcoholism. (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus here in India we see that the sādhus are taking gañjā.

Prabhupāda: Gañjā, yes. Not sādhus, rogues. Sādhu's description is there—bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu. Api cet sudurācāro. Even one is found that his habits are not to the standard, but if he has unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and engaged in His service, then he is sādhu. These sādhus with long hairs and gañjā smoking, they have no idea what is the ultimate goal. And those who come from Western countries, naturally they find out these are the sādhus and they imitate. Hippies, they do like that, imitation. They do not know what is the philosophy, what is religion, what is sādhu.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 1.5.11 -- January 19, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu speaking āpani ācari prabhu jīvere śikhāya, He behaves Himself perfectly and then teaches how to become a devotee. He is mad after Kṛṣṇa, He is falling down in the sea. You see? So that is wanted. And the Bhāgavata also says, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir (SB 1.2.6), how one has increased his devotion and love for Kṛṣṇa, that is the test of it. Not these formalities. Another place Kṛṣṇa says, api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Even sudurācāraḥ, even not well behaved but unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30), he is sādhu. Don't consider about his misbehaviors. That is not consideration. That will be corrected. Because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, gradually those things, those defects will be corrected. kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, he will become very soon a great religious soul because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa. So in the beginning if there is some defect, we should not consider that. We have to see how much his love for Kṛṣṇa has increased, that is the test. Not the formalities. That is the test, how much he has sacrificed for Kṛṣṇa, how much he is prepared to sacrifice for Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: Now here is Śyāmasundara. His father is very, very rich man, young man. He is always canvassing him that—he is only son—that "You come, do business. You take millions of dollars, whatever you like." He is not going. There are many like that. They cannot give up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you know our Jagatāriṇī, wife of Bhūrijana, she was a theatrical girl and earning millions of dollars, but she has given up everything. You have seen his wife, you all, Bhūrijana's wife? She is a nice girl, educated, qualified. But she is satisfied. I asked her to go and marry Bhūrijana. She never saw her (him). She never saw her (him), what kind of husband she is going to accept. But simply on my word, she came, and she came from Los Angeles to Japan and got married. Similarly I am asking one girl. She is a French girl, Mandākinī. So I am asking her to go to Russia and marry one boy. She has never seen. So they obey in such a way. The Western boys and girls, they want to see and behave before marrying. But they are so obedient that without any consideration... Because marriage or no marriage, that is not their consideration. The only consideration is how to please Kṛṣṇa and his representative. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya-pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Bhakti-latā-bīja. Bhakti is just like a creeper, and the seed of that creeper can be obtained by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa. That is Vedic injunction.

yasya deve parā bhaktir

yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ

prakāśante mahātmanaḥ

(ŚU 6.23)

The Vedic knowledge, Vedic knowledge, becomes revealed to a person who has got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and guru. This is the system.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda, can you say something about the training for a brāhmaṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are satyaṁ śamaḥ damaḥ. He must be truthful, he must control the senses, control the mind... śamo damaḥ,... He must be tolerant. He should not be agitated in trifle matters. Satyaṁ śamo damaḥ śaucam. He must be always clean. Three times he must take bath at least. All the clothing, all, everything is clean. This is brahminical training. And then he must know all what is what, knowledge, and practical application, and firm faith in Kṛṣṇa. This is brāhmaṇa.

Hṛdayānanda: So what kind of practical work could we engage them in?

Prabhupāda: They'll be teaching. They'll be all teachers.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here... The first thing is one must have rigid, staunch faith in Kṛṣṇa. That is the qualification. Other things may be little devīation. It doesn't matter. The first thing is whether he is sticking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then he is sādhu.

Dr. Patel: Ananya-bhāk.

Prabhupāda: Ananya-bhāk, yes. He has no other business.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Dice, yes. If the dice falls on the face of the serpent, immediately it comes down. We have to come to the tail.

Śrutakīrti: Back to the start.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is like that. Goloka nadha(?). One is trying to go to back to home, back to Godhead. A little discrepancy... Mahārāja Bhārata? Yes, he became deer. Therefore we should be very careful. That is the instruction. Even Mahārāja Bhārata, he fell down. So therefore how much careful we should be. These are the instructions to become careful. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31), always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. That will save you. That Kṛṣṇa chanting and hearing, that will keep us safe. Example is given: just like a polluted woman is doing all household work, but she is always thinking when she will meet with her paramour at night. This example is... Similarly, we may be engaged in different material activities, but if we keep our faith in Kṛṣṇa, then it will save us. It is possible. Just like the example: the woman is engaged in household affairs very diligently, but she is always thinking when she will meet her paramour.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Those thirty characteristics of a sādhu that are depicted in the, in Bhāgavata....

Prabhupāda: That is not possible in one day.

Dr. Patel: Thirty cannot come, but a few should come.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Few that... They are... Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate (SB 5.18.12). If they have got unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa and guru, that is all qualification.

Dr. Patel: That is a fact.

Prabhupāda: That is all qualification. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcan sarvair guṇaiḥ. All these qualities are already there.

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...you have to go to Kṛṣṇa not directly: yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. You have to go through the devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: (Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: That is ādau śraddhā. If you have got faith in Kṛṣṇa, then next stage is tato sādhu-saṇgaḥ. And who is sādhu? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). So if you want to see Kṛṣṇa, you have to see first of all His devotee. Māṁ bhaktyā pūjā bhudhikaḥ. This is also.... "If you worship My devotee, that is better worship than worshiping Me directly." Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). He doesn't say by Kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, he says guru-krpā, first. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja.

Dr. Patel: Gurur brahma, gurur viṣṇuḥ, they say that.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Kavirāja Gosvāmī has explained very nicely. This is viśvāsa. Śraddhā śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya. Explain, Acyutānanda, this. Explain this.

śraddhā śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya

kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya

Acyutānanda: If you have firm faith in Kṛṣṇa and surrender unto Him, then all other activities and responsibilities are fulfilled by serving Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Acyutānanda: Dāya mama gelā; tuwā...

Prabhupāda: Tuwā o pada baraṇe(?) This is required.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: Nobody could possibly believe that the scientists would cheat them. They think they are very intelligent, honest men.

Prabhupāda: No, we have got our faith—in Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, they have got their faith—in scientists.

Hari-śauri: That article in the last BTG.... Sadāputa, he said, "So what it boils down to is they are putting their faith in chance, and we are putting our faith in God."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is statement of the scientists. Ādau śraddhā: in everything, faith is the beginning. Ādau śraddhā. Without faith you cannot make any progress. (break) ...reporter, in 1970, he saw me. I told, "This is all simply childish." He remembers that. Is it not?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They have no vision of expanding, except maybe their...

Prabhupāda: They make this money-making machine. They do not know the money will automatically come you are sincere. You haven't got to make it a machine. Money Kṛṣṇa will send. But they have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. They have faith in their own ability. "Yes, we shall earn money in this way, by showing the Deity." They don't recognize Kṛṣṇa's everything. They think "By high-court judgement, if we capture this place, then money will come."

Hari-śauri: Practically speaking, they're finished. They're on their last legs.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, other svāmīs and yogis they are finding that this Bhaktivedanta Svami alone is preaching all over the... "We, combined, we could not do anything."

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Devotee (2): I was reading the other day that they are doing some experiments on Mars. They have twenty-two different theories about this one idea. Just this one little idea, twenty-two different theories.

Prabhupāda: Theory means they are not certain.

Devotee (2): The misfortunate thing is that people in general have faith in the scientists.

Prabhupāda: So you have to create people to have faith in Kṛṣṇa. If people are going by faith, so you have to create this faith that Kṛṣṇa (indistinct). They can create, you can create. And they criticize our destiny theory, believing in the destiny. They criticize it. So why they'll depend on chance theory? What is the difference, destiny and chance?

Devotee (2): Destiny means there is controller.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: For ascertaining real gold, the acid test one has to pass to become real gold.

Nava-yauvana: (break) ...this test depends on one's faith in Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Faith in Kṛṣṇa? What do you mean by faith?

Hari-śauri: If you want to pass the test, he says, does that depend on one's faith?

Prabhupāda: What does that faith mean?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Conviction.

Prabhupāda: What is that conviction? Describe it.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That Kṛṣṇa is the controller.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is controller. You may have faith or no faith, that doesn't matter.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Interviewer (4): So is it correct from what that any culture...

Prabhupāda: It is correct because Kṛṣṇa says. Kṛṣṇa is infallible. We are not manufacturing anything, so it is correct because Kṛṣṇa says. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7), He is the supreme authority. But we have no faith in Kṛṣṇa, therefore we manufacture something other than Kṛṣṇa. That is our misfortune.

Interviewer (4): You mean to say that any system that doesn't subscribe to this movement has no future at all?

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). "This science of Bhagavad-gītā, I spoke to the sun-god millions of years ago." By the calculation it is forty millions of years ago. Now who will believe that, that Kṛṣṇa spoke this Bhagavad-gītā forty millions of years ago to the sun-god? Hm? Who will believe that? They'll say mythology. So where is the faith in Bhagavad-gītā and faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa? Understanding Hamlet without Hamlet. (distortion) You cannot make your interpretation that whatever is written there, I take instead of..., I take... (coughing) That is not the way of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. Then from the very beginning you'll spoil it. Then what is the meaning of preaching Bhagavad-gītā? If you do not accept the direction of the author, then what right you have got to say that you have understood Bhagavad-gītā?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (6): Viśvāsa first, faith strong.

Prabhupāda: No, where is faith if we do not execute tapasya? Where is faith? Viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya. That is viśvāsa, the same thing. This is viśvāsa: "Kṛṣṇa said this; I shall do." This is viśvāsa. And if you do not do anything, what Kṛṣṇa says, where is viśvāsa? There is no viśvāsa. Kṛṣṇa says, satataṁ kīrtayanto mām: (BG 9.14) "Anyone who is chanting Me, Hare Kṛṣṇa..." So Kṛṣṇa says; I must do it. That is viśvāsa. If you do not do that, where is viśvāsa? What do you mean by viśvāsa? Viśvāsa means sudṛḍha niścaya. "Yes, Kṛṣṇa has said. I shall do." That is viśvāsa. If you have no faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa, where is your viśvāsa? What do you mean by viśvāsa? Hm?

Guest (6): Bhagavān's servant.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavān is your servant. Whatever you like, you can do, and He'll serve you. You'll not serve Him. He will serve you. Is that viśvāsa? "Whatever nonsense I do, Kṛṣṇa will support." Is that viśvāsa? Viśvāsa means "What Kṛṣṇa says, I shall do." That is viśvāsa. That has been impressed at the modern age, that "Whatever I do, Kṛṣṇa will accept it." Is it not? Do you mean viśvāsa means this, that "Whatever nonsense you do, Kṛṣṇa will accept"? Do you mean viśvāsa means this? Then what is viśvāsa? Explain. "Whatever Kṛṣṇa says, I will do," that is viśvāsa. Or "Whatever nonsense I do, Kṛṣṇa will favor"? Which one viśvāsa? What do you mean...? Huh?

Guest (6): There is one pervading Supreme Soul.

Prabhupāda: What is that pervading? What do you mean by that? Plain explain. What do you mean by viśvāsa? Explain.

Guest (6): Faith in God.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Bāla-kṛṣṇa told me that we have doctor, medical doctor, M.B.V. He's from Russia. He is going to join us.

Girirāja: Yeah, Dr. Sharma. He lives on Hare Kṛṣṇa Land. He's an Indian who took his degree in Alaska and he has two sister-in-laws also who took their doctor's degree in Moscow, and they have great faith in Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Make them come, make them come. Treat them nicely. Give them good place. In this way increase the number of workers. Then people will, "Oh... They are not religious sentiments. They have got books, they have got scientists, they have got doctors." Is it not? And we can challenge them. "Come on, what is our education, let us test. We are prepared to talk with you like scientists." So you are all here now and... Organize in Bombay. Bombay, the center of Bhaktivedanta Institute.

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), and one who has got faith in these words—"Yes, if I surrender to Kṛṣṇa, all success will follow..."—this is faith. So faith is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). So if we have got faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa—they are very openly spoken—then our life becomes successful. But we have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. They take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). If you say that "You have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. Then you are a mūḍha," he becomes angry. But I don't say; Kṛṣṇa says. We are simply repeating the words of Kṛṣṇa. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). So if we say, people become angry. And we don't say anything. We simply repeat. That is our business. We are not learned scholars. But our mission is to repeat the words of Kṛṣṇa. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's order. He says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa: (CC Madhya 7.128) "You become guru." "Now, how shall I become guru? I am neither learned nor Vedantist, neither sannyāsī. How can I become guru?" "No, no, you have no difficulty. You, on My order, become guru simply..." Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Bas. "You become guru. Whomever you meet, you simply try to convince him what Kṛṣṇa has spoken. Then you become guru." So we request everyone the same thing. And become guru. It is very urgently necessary. I... People are becoming godless, atheist, nonbelievers, and they are suffering. So every village, every home, every neighborhood, they require guru. But who will be guru? One who repeats the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. Yāre dekha tāre kaha. It is very easy. So people are accepting all over the world the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. These books we are selling. Daily our collection is five to six lakhs of rupees.

Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: As the age is fallen, the most magnanimous incarnation is Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and He is giving directly Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa-prema. You take it. Why don't you take it? It is not seldom. You do not like to take it. That is the disease. And that is aśraddadhāna. There is no śraddhā. Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣāḥ, mām aprāpya (BG 9.3). How you can get Kṛṣṇa? There is no śraddhā. Therefore they must suffer in the cycle of birth and death. Nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra. So you voluntarily accept this cycle of birth; you don't accept Kṛṣṇa. Then who can help you? If you have decided to cut your own throat, how can I help you? You'll do it. Whenever you'll get opportunity, you'll cut your throat. How much I can give you protection? That is going on. They have no faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa. They'll manufacture ideas. It is not "seldom." It is my dog's obstinacy that is checking. We cannot give up. Kṛṣṇa has..., sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). That you cannot do. You want to keep in the same position, and at the same time, you want to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. In this Hrishikesh, tīrtha-kṣetra, everyone comes to get some spiritual enlightenment, but who is talking of Kṛṣṇa? Am I right? And there is Gītā-bhavan, Gītā this, Gītā that. What is that "Gītā"? Gītā commentation. Nobody's interested. They don't like to hear even about Kṛṣṇa. This is the position. So mat-para is not seldom. (laughs) The followers are seldom. But Kṛṣṇa says, mat-para. "If you want to practice this yoga..." Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogam... This is yoga. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). This is real yoga. So nobody's interested.