“Regarding your question: ‘What does it mean, we are all originally Krsna conscious entities? We are always with Krsna. Where is Krsna not present? So how can you say that we were before? You are always with Krsna and when we forget this fact we are far, far away from Him. In the Isopanisad it is clearly stated that: tad dire tad vantike. ‘He is very far away, but He is very near as well.’ (Isopanisad, Mantra Five). So this forgetfulness is our fall-down. It can take place at any moment, and we can counteract this forgetfulness immediately by rising to the platform of Krsna consciousness.”

(SPL to Upendra, 13th July, 1970)


“We are all originally situated on the platform of Krsna consciousnessin our eternal personal relationship of love of Krsna. But due to forgetfulness we become familiar with the material world or maya. As soon as one chants the Hare Krsna mantra with sincerity and without offense (you know there are ten kinds of offense to the holy name which we are to avoid very, very carefully) his original Krsna consciousness is immediately revived. Krsna consciousness means to be always remembering Krsna in some way or other, just like we are immediately thinking of Krsna when we chant His Name, Krsna, and we are always thinking how we can do something nice to please Krsna with some service or other, or we are reading literature about Krsna or speaking about Krsna. In this way we are always remembering Krsna and that is our natural conscious state. So naturally everything about Krsna is originally known to us all and as soon as we begin to associate with the devotees of the Lord and chant His holy name, this memory gradually becomes stronger as we remember our constitutional position of always serving Krsna in different ways. The first step, as you have noted is that the dirty things which are clouding our spiritual senses must be cleansed by the sankirtana process. So Krsna consciousness is a purifying process. If you follow the regulations of our Society very strictly you will quickly become completely purified and this achieve the highest perfection of life, Krsna consciousness or love of God.”


(SPL to Sriman Stan, 17th November, 1970)