Prabhupada: Krishna says, anyone gives Me patram puspam phalam toyam...Patram means leaf. Puspam means flower. Phalam means fruit. And toyam means water. So if anyone gives with faith and love to Krishna patram puspam phalam toyam, He eats and drinks. And if Krishna eats and drinks our offering, then our life is successful.
Prabhupada, New York, December 16, 1966: […] So one of the members of the Arya-samajis, they do not favor the temple worship. So he asked me, “Swamiji, do you think God eats?” I said, “Yes.” “Then how do you think?” “Because God says, ‘I eat.’ ”
Here Krishna says, asnami. So God says, “I eat.” Who are you that He does not eat? I replied him like that. Who are you? You say that God does not eat, but here God says, “I eat.”
So whom shall I believe, a loafer like you, or Krishna? (laughter) I am a third person, and you are also a third person, and Krishna is recognized the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Whom shall I believe? I accept that I am the fool number one, but whom shall I accept, you or Krishna? You said that… What you are? What is your position? You are an ordinary man. So you say that God does not eat, but God says, “I eat.” Why shall I not believe?
So this is the question of faith. This is the question of faith. And without faith, you cannot reach the kingdom of God. Your experimental knowledge, your so-called defective reasons and arguments and philosophy, that will not be applicable in the transcendental field. You have to believe. You are believing in every sphere of your life.
When you purchase a ticket for transferring yourself in the aeroplane, if you go on arguing, “Sir, I am purchasing ticket. Whether this aeroplane will reach? Whether it will not, I mean to say, crash on the way?” If you go on arguing, there is no question of, I mean to say, getting on the aeroplane. You have to believe that “Aeroplane will take me to the other side.” You are doing that. There is no argument.
So similarly, you have to believe. We must have faith. And we see that many faithful, great acaryas and devotees of the Lord, they achieved success by this faith. Why shall I not follow them?
Therefore the Vedic literature says that you have to follow the footprints of great acaryas. Acarya means great devotees who come to teach the people in general about God consciousness or Krishna consciousness. He is called acarya.
He behaves in his life how? To think of Krishna and he teaches his students about that. He is called acarya. Acinoti sastrani. He knows the purport of the scriptures, and he behaves in his life and he teaches his student in that way. He is called acarya.
So we have to… In the Bhagavad-gita in the Thirteenth Chapter you have read it that acaryopasanam. Acaryopasanam. You have to approach an acarya.
That is the way of learning transcendental knowledge in all Vedic scriptures. Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet: [MU 1.2.12] “If you want to learn that transcendental science, then you have to approach the bona fide spiritual master.” Tad-vijnanartham. Tat means transcendental; vijnana means science. If you want to learn. So the Vedic literature teaches us to accept the authorized bona fide spiritual master acarya.
Krishna is the head of all acaryas. He is the principal acarya. From Krsna, Brahma learned this Vedic literature. From Brahma, Narada learned this Vedic literature. From Narada, Vyasadeva; from Vyasadeva, Madhvacarya. From Madhvacarya, so many. In this way the parampara system, the acarya system, is coming down.
So we have to believe that. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. You have to follow the footprints of acarya. Not only in the… Everywhere, the footprints of acaryas are followed. Just like in your country you are following the footprints of Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, that is the way.
Or any acarya. Because the acarya, they come here to teach us about Krishna consciousness or God consciousness. That is their business. They have no other business. That is bona fide acarya. If somebody claims that “I am God,” then he is fool number one. At once reject him. One who teaches about the message of God, he is acarya. Full Lecture
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