Not that by your endeavor you can understand Krsna, but your endeavor in the loving service, that will make you qualified. Krsna will reveal

Expressions researched:
"Not that by your endeavor you can understand Kṛṣṇa, but your endeavor in the loving service, that will make you qualified. Kṛṣṇa will reveal"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

The first service is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and hear repeatedly and take prasāda. These are two business of the tongue. So you'll realize. Very simple method. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam... Kṛṣṇa will reveal, not that by your endeavor you can understand Kṛṣṇa, but your endeavor in the loving service, that will make you qualified. Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious to take you back home, back to Godhead. But we are stubborn. We do not wish. So He's always finding out the opportunity how you can be taken back home, back to Godhead.

Lecture on SB 1.8.21 -- New York, April 13, 1973:

One who cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, they are cripple-minded. They are not broad-minded. If one becomes broad-minded, then, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, he can understand Kṛṣṇa.

Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). The process is sevonmukha, service. Service, beginning with the tongue, vāsudeva realization is possible. The service, the first service is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23). Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and hear repeatedly, and take prasāda. These are the two businesses of the tongue. So you'll realize. Very simple method. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam . . . Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Not that by your endeavor you can understand Kṛṣṇa, but your endeavor in the loving service, that will make you qualified. Kṛṣṇa will reveal. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious to take you back home, back to Godhead. But we are stubborn. We do not wish. So He's always finding out the opportunity how you can be taken back home, back to Godhead.

Just like affectionate father. Rascal son left his father, loitering in the street and have no shelter, no food, suffering so much. The father is more anxious to take the boy home. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the supreme father. All these living entities within this material world, they're exactly like the misled child of a big, rich man, loitering in the street. Therefore the greatest benefit to the human society is to give him Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Greatest . . . you cannot give any benefit; any kind of material profit will not satisfy the living entity. If he's given this Kṛṣṇa consciousness . . . just like the same process: A bewildered boy is loitering in the street. If he's reminded, "My dear boy, why you are suffering so much? You are son of such-and-such very rich man. Your father has got so much property. Why you are loitering in the street?" And if he comes to his consciousness: "Yes, I am the son of such-and-such big man. Why shall I loiter in the street?" he goes back home. Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6).

Therefore this is the best service, to inform him that, "You are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. You are son of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is opulent, six kinds of opulence. Why you are troubling, why you are rotting in this material world?" This is the greatest service, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But māyā is very strong. Still, it is the duty of every kṛṣṇa-bhakta to try to enlighten everyone to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Just like Kuntīdevī is pointing out. First of all she said, alakṣyaṁ sarva-bhūtānām antar bahir avasthi . . . (SB 1.8.18). Although Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, is without and within, still, to the rascals and fools, He is invisible. Therefore she is pointing out, "Here is the Lord, kṛṣṇāya vāsudevāya (SB 1.8.21)." He is the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He's very much pleased to become the son of Devakī. Devakī-nandanāya. Devakī-nandana is mentioned in Atharva-Veda also. Kṛṣṇa comes as Devakī-nandana, and His foster father is Nanda-gopa, Nanda Mahārāja.

So Kṛṣṇa likes to be related with His devotee as father and mother. Here in this material world, we try to make our relationship with the Supreme as father, but Kṛṣṇa wants to become the son. Therefore nanda-gopāya. He takes pleasure to become a devotee's son. Ordinary men, they want God as father, but that is not very pleasing to Kṛṣṇa. Father means . . . to become father means always botheration, "Give me this, give me this, give me this, give me this." You see? Of course, Kṛṣṇa has got immense potencies to supply. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He can supply everyone as much he wants. He's supplying food to the elephant. He's supplying food to the ant. Why not to the human being?

But these rascals, they do not know. They're working day and night like ass to find out bread. And if he goes to church, there also, "Give me bread." They are only bread problem. That's all. Although the living entity is the son of the richest opulent person, but he has created his bread problem. This is called ignorance. He thinks that, "If I do not solve my bread problem, if I do not drive my trucks day and night . . . whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. whoosh. Such a nonsense civilization. You see? Bread problem. Where is bread problem? Kṛṣṇa can supply. If He can supply food to the elephant in Africa . . . there are millions and millions of African elephants, you know, and they are supplied food.