Oct 4 1975 Mauritius
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, if Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of pleasure, then what does He need us for? If Kṛṣṇa is all blissful, then what... We're so, it seems, incapable of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. He is so magnanimous. What does He need us for?
Prabhupāda: He does not ask for Himself. For you. If you come to Kṛṣṇa and enjoy with Him, that is your good. He is self-sufficient. He doesn't require.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes, Prabhupāda, when they see your Bhagavad-gītā, they say, "Oh, it is too big for me to read." They don't know that the purport.... They've never read.
Prabhupāda: Therefore I say that bring them, let them chant and dance and take prasādam. That, everyone will hear, agree.
Harikeśa: One who does that, he is preaching? One who arranges for chanting and dancing and taking prasādam, that is as good as preaching?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Śravaṇam, kīrtanam, arcanam—anything.
Harikeśa: These festival programs are very important.
Prabhupāda: (pause) You have to spend or waste gallons of blood before you can convert a person to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is so difficult task.
Cyavana: You have to spend?
Prabhupāda: Gallons of blood, waste.
Cyavana: In what way?
Prabhupāda: By talking with him, with the rascal and foolish. You tax your brain and spoil your energy, blood.
Harikeśa: Spend so much food.
Cyavana: So we should do that.
Prabhupāda: Unless you are not a preacher. You should be prepared. Yes. They cuts, sacrifices life, what to speak of wasting blood. Wasting life. This is preacher. Then he is recognized by Kṛṣṇa: "He has done so much for Me."
...One, if he is gṛha-vrata, he goes to guru or not guru-he'll never be reformed. Gṛha-vratānām: one who has taken this vow that this home is everything, gṛha-vrata. Vrata means taken vow: "It is my only duty." Matir na kṛṣṇe. He cannot place his mind unto Kṛṣṇa, matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā, either by good advice of guru or personal, svataḥ, na mithaḥ, nor by meeting, sat-saṅga, so-called sat-saṅga, because the real disease is gṛha-vrata.
Jan 8 1977 Bombay
Dr. Patel: Sat-saṅga is continuously coming in contact with such gurus like you or, I mean, reading that śāstras, also is a sat-saṅga.
Prabhupāda: But reading... By reading, you cannot understand. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. That is also vidhilīn: "In order to understand that science, he must go to guru."
Dr. Patel: But, sir, instead of reading no books of knowledge, if you read Bhāgavata or Bhagavad-gītā, it is a sort of a sat-saṅga, and that develops. Someday he'll go to a guru. He'll find out.
Prabhupāda: No, no, if he reads Bhāgavata, he is not ordinary man.
Dr. Patel: He is on the way up.
Prabhupāda: If he reads Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, he is not ordinary man.
Dr. Patel: He's a sat-saṅgi.
Prabhupāda: Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-samvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ [SB 3.25.25]. Rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ. Unless you discuss Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā, with sat-saṅga, devotees, it does not become relishable. Therefore he's not attached. Tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavaḥ. In another verse.... Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo pragṛṇīta karhicit [SB 1.5.10]. He may read one literature very decoratively written, very interesting, but there is no discussion about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yad vacaḥ citra-padam, very decorative. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo pragṛṇīta karhicit: [SB 1.5.10] "But there is no glorification of the Lord." Tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham: "Such kind of literature is enjoyable by such persons who are like crows."
Some Conclusions--In the above conversations Srila Prabhupada tells us that one who arranges for programs to hear and chant and take Krsna Prasadam is good preaching. And for those of us who have taken a vow that our Grha is everything, then "he cannot place his mind on Krsna". And if you just want to read but not with devotees, then the hearing or reading cannot become relishable.
Hare Krsna
Damaghosa das