Reporter (2): But if a painter was to paint a picture of me or of Allen or of anybody, first they'd take the subject, and the subject would be a living person, and then they would paint the picture, and the picture would be in . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes. Subject is there, that "Kṛṣṇa's color is bluish. Kṛṣṇa has got in His hand a flute. Kṛṣṇa has got a peacock feather on His head. Kṛṣṇa stands little curving." Tri-bhaṅga-lalitam. Tri-bhaṅga means in three ways He is curved. You see? Tri-bhaṅga. Three, three times He is curved. Śyāmaṁ tri-bhaṅga-lalitaṁ niyata-prakāśam (Bs. 5.31). These are the description of the Vedas. Just like my students, they have painted so many pictures, so I have given simply the hints that "This picture should be like this." So they take note and make the picture, and people very much appreciate our picture. So you can paint pictures by taking hints from the authority. That is going on. So if you are intelligent, you can make almost like that.
Reporter (2): But still, somebody must have seen Kṛṣṇa . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reporter (2): . . . to actually paint Him.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Seen Kṛṣṇa. Just like Kṛṣṇa, when He was present on this earth, so many people saw Him. And since then, there are so many temples of Kṛṣṇa's Deity, Kṛṣṇa's form. The same thing as it is stated in the Vedic literature, they saw also personally, and they made statues, and they are being worshiped regularly. There are thousands of thousands of temples of Kṛṣṇa. They are worshiped.
Reporter (2): But has anybody actually seen Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reporter (2): Today?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like your grandfather has seen your father, or your father has seen your grandfather. You may not have seen, but your father can describe about your grandfather, "My father was like this, like this, like this." What is the difficulty?
Satsvarūpa: He asked if anyone now has seen Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: How now one can see? He has to see through the paramparā, succession. You have not seen your great-grandfather. How do you know that you are? How do you know?
Reporter (2): That my great-grandfather . . .
Prabhupāda: Great-grandfather or his father, you have not seen. How do you believe?
Reporter (2): By your parents telling you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore you have to receive the knowledge from the authorities, paramparā.
Reporter (2): But Kṛṣṇa is . . . supposedly, Kṛṣṇa is eternal or, that is, indestructible. So surely He must be existing today.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is existing. Just like at night the sun is existing, but you have no eyes to see him. That does not mean sun does not exist. It is your deficiency. You cannot see.
Reporter (2): So we need divine sight.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you require qualification. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always existing. You require the qualification. That is described in the . . . premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38): "Those who are saintly person and in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing twenty-four hours Kṛṣṇa." That is not very difficult to understand. If you love somebody, you are seeing him or her always. Is it not?
Reporter (2): That's so.
Prabhupāda: That's it. It requires the qualification of love. Then Kṛṣṇa will be visible twenty-four hours. He'll talk with you. These things are described. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam (BG 10.10). That means talks. "I give him intelligence." That means unless He talks, how He can give intelligence, "You do this"? So you have to qualify yourself to hear Kṛṣṇa, to see Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa is always present.