Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Just become Prahlāda Mahārāja. Just go, persecution like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Then you talk of. You are not Prahlāda Mahārāja. You are ordinary person. Your business is mām ekam śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Kṛṣṇa never said, "He Prahlāda Mahārāja, God kambha(?), so you also worship kambha(?)." Never said, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, mām ekam. That is Gītā.
Indian man (1): That's right, but Kṛṣṇa...
Prabhupāda: But Prahlāda Mahārāja never worshiped kambha(?).
Indian man (1): No, never.
Prabhupāda: But he knew that Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. So that vision is possible by Kṛṣṇa..., Prahlāda Mahārāja, not by you or me.
Indian man (1): No, that is, mean... Kṛṣṇa is everywhere.
Prabhupāda: We cannot bring Prahlāda Mahārāja in ordinary things.
Indian man (1): No, that's true. That theory is: Kṛṣṇa is everywhere.
Prabhupāda: Prahlāda Mahārāja underwent so much persecution. He was never disturbed, because he was confident that "Kṛṣṇa will give me protection. Never mind." That is another position. Mahā-bhāgavata. We are kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs. We have to worship Deity.
- arcāyām eva haraye
- pūjāṁ yaḥ śraddhayehate
- na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu
- sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ
- (SB 11.2.47)
We are in the prākṛta stage. We cannot go to the stage of Prahlāda Mahārāja.
Indian man (1): No, that is very difficult. That is very, very difficult.
Prabhupāda: Not difficult, but it requires elevation. So we should not imitate.
Indian man (1): No, I mean desires... Just like your idol worship. Idol worship is not actually fruitless or anything. It's only to imagine God in it and just to have the concentration.
Prabhupāda: No, but idol worship is... These atheists, they say "idol worship," but we do not say. The... Here is Sākṣi-Gopāla. You know the story, Sākṣi-Gopāla? Two brāhmaṇas? So he never saw that He is idol. He saw Kṛṣṇa. So he said, "Kṛṣṇa, before You this man has promised. Now he's now declining. So please come and give witness." And that is Sākṣi-Gopāla. So for a devotee, no. There is no idol.
Indian man (1): No idol. No, that idol is actually, they are planned to...
Prabhupāda: No, no, that is actually happened. The so-called idol, He went to be witness. He came from Vṛndāvana to Cuttack. So "idol worship" is they say. But devotee... Just like people are coming by thousands to see Jagannātha. Do they come to see idol? Wooden Jagannātha? They come to see real Jagannātha, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why they will spend so much money and take so much trouble and come here? The atheists may say, "How foolish they are. They are coming here to see a wooden figure, and spending so much money." That is the statement of the atheist. But a devotee comes to see "Kṛṣṇa is here." Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw—immediately fainted. So there are two visions.