View source for It's difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question, "How can God speak to some man?"

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{{terms|"How can God speak to some man"|"It's difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question"}}
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{{compiler|MadhuGopaldas|Rishab}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1976]]
[[Category:Questions On... God]]
[[Category:Questions From... Journalists, Reporters, Writers]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="InterviewwithNewsdayNewspaperJuly141976NewYork_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="212" link="Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York" link_text="Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York">
<div class="heading">That is, anything, that, the radio message is coming, a foolish man cannot understand how it is coming. He'll think "How it is that, speaking?" So any foolish man will be astonished how things are happening. That is foolishness. But God says, find out this verse... Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te... teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam... God is situated in everyone's heart. As soon as He sees that "Here is a qualified person," then He gives him instruction.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York|Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Rāmeśvara: Do you have any questions about our festival coming up this Sunday? You know we're marching down Fifth Avenue.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Are you going to march?</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: He asks if you are going to participate in the Ratha-yātrā Parade.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: This is the parade that it's based on.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: This is a photograph of what takes place in India every year. It's a traditional festival in India, we are bringing it to New York. We've got our permits and everything.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: We have already got in San Francisco, in Chicago...</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: In Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: In London.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: London.</p>
<p>Sudāmā: Melbourne.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Melbourne.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Paris we're beginning also.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: This year?</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Yes.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: First year Paris.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: This is our festivals that we've begun in the West based on the one on the front there.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: You can take that book.</p>
<p>Interviewer: You are participating in it, are you not?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Somewhere when I have opportunity I participate, otherwise they do it.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: In other words, Prabhupāda doesn't attend every festival all over the world.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Will you attend the one here in New York?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, I go.</p>
<p>Interviewer: How do you choose, you are responsible for the organization.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Are you the one who chooses who runs each center, who is responsible in each temple.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Our program is to open centers in every village, every town, to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness.</p>
<p>Interviewer: And you choose the leaders, or Kṛṣṇa does and tells you, how does that work?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Yes. And you in turn choose others?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh yes. That is our succession.</p>
<p>Interviewer: On what basis?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Basis, on the order of Kṛṣṇa. Originally the order is from Kṛṣṇa.</p>
<p>Interviewer: How does that come?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Comes by disciplic succession. Just like Kṛṣṇa said this knowledge to Arjuna and Arjuna said to others and it is open. Everyone can take it, there is no secrecy. We have to accept only, that's all.</p>
<p>Interviewer: I missed that, I'm sorry.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The order is already there, it is open, open secret. There is no secrecy. Anyone can take it.</p>
<p>Interviewer: All right. But in terms of specific, say, choosing, specific things, specific details.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, in all details, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, there is all details in this book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: So he's asking what's a man's qualification to be chosen.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: In other words Prabhupāda will decide who should be leader if he's qualified and there's a process for making him qualified and there's a process for testing to see if he is qualified. So in that way it all comes from Kṛṣṇa.</p>
<p>Interviewer: You chose, for example, these fellows here to run the publishing house and be responsible for the east coast.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, like that. He's in charge of publication, he's in charge something else, he's charge, like that.</p>
<p>Interviewer: On what basis, though, can you tell me some of the things that...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Basis, just to see whether he's qualified, that's all. Just like ordinarily one manager is appointed by the superior authority on the merit, on his qualification. That's all.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Okay, is it a mediated choice or is it a direct communication from Kṛṣṇa, that's my question.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: He's asking whether we claim that God speaks to us directly.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, God speaks to you when you are qualified. You cannot expect God as order supplier. When he sees that you are qualified, he will speak to you.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: The spiritual master is the representative of God to the disciple because he is in direct contact with God.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: My spiritual master appointed me that "You do this." Similarly I shall appoint somebody else, this is the way.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: It's difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question, "How can God speak to some man?"</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is, anything, that, the radio message is coming, a foolish man cannot understand how it is coming. He'll think "How it is that, speaking?" So any foolish man will be astonished how things are happening. That is foolishness. But God says, find out this verse...</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Four three? Sa evāyaṁ mayā te 'dya ([[Vanisource:BG 4.3 (1972)|BG 4.3]])?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Huh? No no. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām ([[Vanisource:BG 10.10 (1972)|BG 10.10]]).</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Ah, teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam ([[Vanisource:BG 10.10 (1972)|BG 10.10]]).</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: "To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give them the understanding by which they can come to Me."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: God is situated in everyone's heart. As soon as He sees that "Here is a qualified person," then He gives him instruction.</p>
<p>Interviewer: But in the same way that Kṛṣṇa says He'll provide for your needs you still must work to achieve whatever Kṛṣṇa is giving you.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. You work for Kṛṣṇa. You have to work to get your necessities.</p>
<p>Interviewer: In the same way I'm curious with respect to the way Kṛṣṇa communicates with you, whether it's in a similar kind of way that He gives you your necessities.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple does Kṛṣṇa tell you that this person should be in charge.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Or do you by judging him say this person is qualified.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, because a devotee always consults Kṛṣṇa and He gives order.</p>
<p>Interviewer: It's a more direct communication.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. And He gives order.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Kṛṣṇa. So if I have some...</p>
<p>Interviewer: And your philosophy is that your daily necessities come from Kṛṣṇa as well.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Kṛṣṇa has told me.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily, Kṛṣṇa will tell directly. A devotee always consults Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa tells him, "Do like this." Not figuratively.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Everything. Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Kṛṣṇa.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: But that applies to a very greatly elevated soul, that is not an ordinary person.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is, therefore the minor devotees, they consult the spiritual master. That is our process. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **.</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: I see, I was trying to explain the minor devotees.</p>
<p>Interviewer: No, I was talking about...</p>
<p>Rāmeśvara: You're talking about the topmost level.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Yes.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: He's getting right to the source.(laughter) Right to the top.</p>
<p>Interviewer: That will do it for me, I thank you, kindly.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: Jaya.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Give him prasādam.</p>
<p>Bali-mardana: We were going to take care of him.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: ...prasādam.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Thank you for your coming. Take this flower. (end)</p>
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