If you say that, "Why don't you . . . why do I not see Him?" Yes. Seeing is not . . . why do you stress on seeing? Why not hearing? Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching—these are our instruments for experience. That's all. Knowledge. Why you are so much, I mean to say, I mean to say, important about seeing? A devotee does not wish to see Kṛṣṇa. He simply . . . he's satisfied simply by hearing of Kṛṣṇa. As seeing is also experience, so hearing also experience. That I have explained many times. Seeing and hearing. Hearing also . . . something you cannot see, you can hear only. Just like the, when the air, wind passes very violently, you cannot see it, but you can hear. But you get the experience.
So seeing is not only experience, but hearing is also experience. When you hear the sound of the wind, "ohnnhnn-shawh-shawh," you say: "Oh, today wind is very violently blowing." You can feel, but you don't see the air. So don't stress on seeing only. There are so many senses. You hear. We can perceive the presence of God, or Kṛṣṇa, by hearing. By hearing. And He's there, present. He's there, present. He says, Kṛṣṇa says that:
- nāhaṁ tiṣṭhāmi vaikuṇṭhe
- yogināṁ vā hṛdaye ca
- yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktā
- tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada
- (Padma Purāṇa)
He says that, "I, I am not actually in My abode, Kṛṣṇaloka; neither I am in the heart of the yogīs who are meditating. But I am present in there where My pure devotees are singing. Singing." Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that. So you can feel the presence of Kṛṣṇa as we make progress in this line.
Sutradi-vyapa-matram tulasī-patra ambuki-matra upakara ca. And it is very easy also. Arcanam. Arcanam. Now, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that you have to offer something out of your love. Love means you must give something. You are taking something from Kṛṣṇa; why not give something? Is it love, simply going on taking, taking, taking, and no offering? We are taking from Kṛṣṇa so much light. We are taking from Kṛṣṇa so much air, so much water.
So many things Kṛṣṇa is supplying for our subsistence—fruits, grains. Without supplied by Kṛṣṇa, you cannot have. You cannot manufacture all these things. So you must admit that God is supplying us so many things. And why not offer something? Is it love?
Therefore offering is required. Love means you take and you give also. Suppose if you love somebody—you simply take from him, but you don't give—oh, do you think it is very good? No. It is not good. That is not love. That is exploitation. If I go on simply taking from you, and if I don't offer you anything, that is simply exploitation. So love means you must take, you must give. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte, bhuṅkte bhojayate (Upadeśāmṛta 4).
You must eat, and you must give to eat. Simply don't go on eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda, but give something to Kṛṣṇa for eating.
So that . . . it is a system in India that if somebody's invited to take prasāda, he takes something, some fruits, some sweetmeats, something, and offers to the Deity. Of course, that is distributed amongst the prasāda, but it is the system. When a, when a man goes to see a saintly person or goes to a temple, he takes some fruit, as far as he, as he can acquire. So giving and taking, eating and feeding. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca (Upadeśāmṛta 4).