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Hrdayananda: What is the difference between God and ourselves and what
is the relationship?

Prabhupada: God is great; we are small. Otherwise, we the same. God is
also living entity; you are also living entity. God is eternal; you
are also eternal. God is full of bliss; you are also full of bliss. So
quality, there is no difference. Only difference in quantity. Just
like a drop of sea water. It is salty. So this means in the drop there
is salt. But the quantity of the salt in the drop is not equal to the
quantity of the salt in the vast water. And there is another example.
Just like the big fire and the sparks of the fire. The spark of the
fire, when it falls on your cloth, a pointlike space it can burn. But
the big fire can burn the whole building. So the quality of God is in
every one of us. We may take as a small god, that's all. But the power
is different. God can create a planet like the sun, which is floating
in the air, and you can create a small airplane floating in the air.
God can create a mosquito which has got the same construction like the
aeroplane, but you cannot do it. That is the difference between God
and you. You can create; He can create. But His creation and your
creation is not equal. What is the relation between big and small? The
big is the master, and the small is the servant, that's all. If
somebody is big, big merchant, big factory owner, you go to serve him.
So that relation is very clear, that the master..., the big is the
master, and the small is the servant. Therefore our business is to
serve God.

Hrdayananda: [break] (translating) How many births do we have?

Prabhupada: Births? There is no counting. Because unless you come to
spiritual knowledge, the birth and death will continue. Yes?

Hrdayananda: (translating) Do we have to liberate ourselves from karma
in order to achieve Krsna?

Prabhupada: Yes. The karma is the binding. So long our mind is karma
conscious, then we have to take another body. Therefore bhakti is
defined, anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam
[Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]. Karma. People are very much
enthusiastic to be engaged in karma, fruitive activities, and some of
them are very eager to speculative knowledge. That is called jnana.
Therefore bhakti is jnana-karmady-anavrtam [Cc. Madhya 19.167]. It
must be uncovered by the speculative knowledge and fruitive
activities. By karma, you are bound up to accept birth and death; by
jnana, you can be liberated for the time being, but you again fall
down; but by bhakti, you are firmly fixed up in your spiritual
platform. [break]

Bhagavad Gita 2.16 :: 1975 Srila Prabhupada Lecture - Mexico