Śrīla Prabhupāda Speaks Out

On Seeing God

This discussion between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and a reporter took place at ISKCON's center in Melbourne, Australia.

Interviewer: Your Divine Grace, is the purpose of human life to realize God?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes—that is the only purpose.

Interviewer: Śrīla Prabhupāda, have you realized God?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: What do you think? What is your opinion?

Interviewer: I can't say.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Then if I say yes, what will you have understood? If you are not expert, then even if I say, "Yes, I am God-realized," how will you take it? If you do not know what God-realization is, then how can you ask this question, and how will you be satisfied by the answer? Therefore, you should not ask this question. It has no value—unless, of course, you are prepared to accept whatever answer I give. Are you prepared?

Interviewer: Yes.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Then it is all right. I am seeing God every moment. [Pause] But unless you are prepared to take the answer, you should not ask such questions.

Interviewer: Your Divine Grace, is meditation a means to realize God?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. Meditation is one means, but you cannot meditate now, because you do not know what God is. So how will you meditate? If you do not know what God is, upon whom will you meditate? First of all, you must know. We know God—Kṛṣṅa and Kṛṣṅa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Always think of Me." So we meditate upon Kṛṣṅa. That is perfect meditation, because meditation means to think of God. But if you do not know what God is, how can you think of Him?

Interviewer: It is written in many scriptures that God is light.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: God is everything. God is darkness, also. We say that God is that person from whom everything comes. So light comes from God, and darkness also comes from God.

Interviewer: Do you think that meditation is a way to see God inside yourself?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the description of meditation. Dhyānāvasthita tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ: by concentrating his mind, the yogi tries to see God within. So you must know what God is. Consider our ISKCON institution, for example. My disciples know what God is, so they can think of God. But if you have no idea of God, how will you think of Him?

Interviewer: This path of devotional yoga, bhakti-yoga—is this the path for the present age?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, bhakti-yoga is the real yoga. You'll find that when the yoga system is described in Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says, "The first-class yogi is he who is always thinking of Me, Kṛṣṅa, within himself." So our students are being taught to think of Kṛṣṅa always, twenty-four hours a day, without stopping. That is first-class yoga.

Interviewer: If you are to think about something, you first have to see it. Do you show your devotees Kṛṣṅa?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Certainly.

Interviewer: Then what ... well ... what is Kṛṣṅa? What does He look like?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: See—here is Kṛṣṅa.

Interviewer: But that's a painting.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, it is a painting. But suppose a painting of you were there. Could I not say, "Here is Mr. such-and-such"?

Interviewer: Yes.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Then what is the wrong there? Is your picture not yourself?

Interviewer: Yes, it is.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Similarly, this is Kṛṣṅa's painting. But the difference is that we cannot talk with your picture but we can talk with Kṛṣṅa's picture. That is the difference.

Interviewer: But still, somebody must have seen Kṛṣṅa to actually paint Him.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. When Kṛṣṅa was present on this earth, so many people saw Him. And since then, there have been so many temples of Kṛṣṅa's Deity, Kṛṣṅa's form. The same form described in the Vedic literature appeared personally, and the devotees made statues. These forms of Kṛṣṅa are being worshiped regularly. There are thousands and thousands of Kṛṣṅa temples.

Interviewer: But has anybody actually seen Kṛṣṅa?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, yes—just as your father has seen your grandfather. You may not have seen him, but your father can describe him—"My father was like this." What is the difficulty?

Devotee: He asked if anyone now has seen Kṛṣṅa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: How can one see Him now? One has to see through the paramparā, the disciplic succession. You have not seen your grandfather, so how do you know who he was?

Interviewer: Your parents tell you.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. So you have to receive knowledge about God from the authorities, from the paramparā.

Interviewer: But supposedly Kṛṣṅa is eternal, so surely He exists today.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṅa is existing. At night the sun is existing, but you have no eyes to see it. That does not mean the sun does not exist. It is your deficiency—you cannot see.

Interviewer: So we need divine sight?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: You require qualification. Kṛṣṅa is always existing, but you require the qualification to see Him. That is described in the Vedic scriptures. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti: those who are saintly persons in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṅa can see Him always, twenty-four hours a day. That is not very difficult to understand. If you love someone, you see him always. Is it not so? You need the qualification of love. Then Kṛṣṅa will be visible twenty-four hours a day and talk with you. So you have to qualify yourself to hear Kṛṣṅa, to see Kṛṣṅa. But Kṛṣṅa is always present.