(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada and disciples on a morning walk)
Devotee: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are knowing that we are so sinful and we're so rascals, but having the opportunity of association of pure devotee and Kṛṣṇa, that's also mercy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, yes.
Devotee: Because we can see that we are..., our hearts are not clean, and we are constantly thinking of māyā...
Prabhupāda: Education, education.
Devotee: This is mercy. This is greatest mercy.
Prabhupāda: Just like you are being educated. Not that cent percent mark you are getting, but because you are trying to be educated, so that is also good. That is also good.
Devotee(2): Therefore the association is most important.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, very important, so that if I commit some mistake, I'll regret: "Oh, my other associate, he is not coming to act in that..." That chance he'll get.
Devotee: So we pay a little attention to Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa gives us a lot of attention.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Devotee: That is mercy.
Prabhupāda: If you give... If you go forward, Kṛṣṇa, one step, He comes forward ten steps.
Devotee: He runs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is His mercy.
Devotee: That is mercy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee(3): I just read on one of the pages of that Bhāgavatam where you said in a purport that Kṛṣṇa desires that we go back home a lot more strongly than we desire to go back home.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Therefore He comes. He is very anxious to take back His sons, back to home, back... Just like father. If he sees, "My son is suffering there, leaving home," he tries to get him back.
Devotee: Unfortunately, we don't even desire.
Prabhupāda: And therefore you are madness.
Devotee: But the materialists will say...
Devotee(4): Therefore you have come.
Devotee: ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if God is..., if He is actually wanting us to go back, then why is He causing suffering?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Devotee: If He wants us to come to back home to Godhead...
Prabhupāda: But, you rascal, you are suffering. He says, "Come back." You don't go.
Devotee: Because He has given you freedom, and this is...
Prabhupāda: He says, "My dear boy, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)." But you don't do. You must suffer. It is your creation, suffering. You must suffer.
Devotee: They say, "If He is all-loving, why is He...?"
Prabhupāda: Loving, but... You are... I love you. I say that "Do this." If you don't do it, then...?
Devotee: It's reciprocal.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You must suffer.
Devotee(5): So the suffering is His mercy also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Suffering means he'll be purified. Suffering is the process of purification.
Devotee: And part of His laws. It's within His laws.
Prabhupāda: You have infected some disease. You suffer. Then the enviousness of Kṛṣṇa will go away by suffering.
Devotee(4): So the pure devotee is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
(Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk, March 25, 1976, Delhi)
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