Nandarāṇī: If someone accepts his dependence on God, then what is the second step? In preaching, so someone has accepted, "Yes, we are dependent on God," but actually they have no knowledge who God is.

Prabhupāda: Give them knowledge from Bhagavad-gītā. If you accept dependence on God, then you take instruction from God, how you'll be happy. Just like a child. The child knows he's fully dependent on parents. So he's fully obeying the orders of the parents, then he's happy, naturally. The father, mother, knows how to take care of the child and they're happy. And by nature they're dependent on father and mother. So they are happy. Mother says, "My dear child, sit down." He will sit down. By nature.

(Evening darshan---------Tehran).

Guest (3): Prabhupāda, if the essence of religion is to know God, how does He reveal Himself to you?

Prabhupāda: He is revealing. Read Bhagavad-gītā. You understand Him. He is explaining Himself. What you want more? Suppose if you want to know something about Me and I explain to you, "I am like this," then where is your difficulty? Where is your difficulty? You can conjecture that, "Swamiji may be like this, may be like that," and if I say, "All right, sit down. I shall explain what I am." Then where is the difficulty?

(Lecture on Bhagavad-Gita---------Johannesburg).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His question is that if we accept that the senses, the body and the mind are not perfect, they're limited, then with what means are we to perceive God?

Prabhupāda: You perceive according to the instruction of Gītā. Just like a child. He does not know how to use the senses. He is going to touch fire or something dangerous, to catch a snake. It is the duty of the father: "No, my dear child, don't do that. It is dangerous." You have to follow him. If you become "self"—"I am self alone"—then bother yourself. Our Vedic injunction is not "self." Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to reform yourself, you must go to a proper guru. Samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham, not "I am self. All right."

(Room conversation--------Hrishikesh).

Guest (5): If we assume that the Vedic scriptures are the, well, the realizations of realized souls and that these come from God, we have to work with the assumption that these literatures are actually telling us about God. And if we have to read the literatures and experience these truths, it is not necessarily truth as such, but maybe the condition that we have been rendered to by listening to.(?)

Prabhupāda: In the Vedic literature the father, the teacher, the king, they are advised to look upon them as God. This is for the common person. But when he is advanced, then he goes above, that there is God above father, above king, above teacher. So according to the stages, there are different literatures in the Vedic knowledge. Sometimes demigods are also accepted. So they have also got power, but... Controller, they are also controller, but the ultimate controller is fixed up—īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). "The supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." That is the verdict of the Vedas. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: (B.G.7:7) "There is no more superior controller or person than Me." So that is Absolute. Everywhere you will find. Suppose if you accept me God, but I am controlled by somebody else. So I am not absolute God. But if you can find out somebody—he is not only controller, but he is not controlled by anyone—then he is absolute. That is Kṛṣṇa. Yes. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam---------Johannesburg).