Dormant Krishna consciousness awakens through sincere practice of prescribed devotional methods under authorized spiritual guidance.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
The Nectar of Devotion — November 13, 1972, Vṛndāvana 721113ND-VRNDAVAN [45:06 Minutes] NOD_721113ND-VRNDAVAN Pradyumna: Uh Page... Uh [indistinct]. "Practice means employing our senses in some particular type of work. Therefore devotional service in practice means utilizing our different sensory organs in service to Kṛṣṇa.
Some of the senses are meant for acquiring knowledge, and some are meant for executing the conclusions of our thinking, feeling and willing. So practice means employing both the mind and the senses in practical devotional service. "This practice is not for developing something artificial. For example, a child learns or practices to walk. This walking is not unnatural.
The walking capacity is there originally in the child, and simply by a little practice, he walks very nicely. Similarly, devotional service to the Supreme Lord is the natural instinct of every living entity. Even the uncivilized men like the aborigines offer their respectful obeisances to something wonderful exhibited by nature's law, and they appreciate that behind some wonderful exhibition or action there is something supreme. "So this consciousness, though lying dormant in those who are materially contaminated, is found in every living entity. And, when purified, this is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Prabhupāda: So even in the minds of the jungle people, there is obedience to the Supreme.
As soon as there is some thunderbolt strike, so they offer obeisances. As soon as they see a big sea, ocean, they offer obeisances. Offering obeisances to the great, that is natural. That is the gradual appreciation of the potency or energy of the Supreme Lord.
Because whatever we see, whatever there is, they're nothing but different manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Lord. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ. We can appreciate the potencies, the energies of the Supreme Lord, anywhere. As I explained yesterday, the potency is there in the seed. As Kṛṣṇa says, bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg. 7.10].
A big banyan tree is concentrated within a small seed, smaller than the mustard seed. There is the potency of a very big tree. There is a story, it is very instructive story, that Nārada Muni was passing to go to Vaikuṇṭha, and on the way one very learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, met him, and he inquired from Narada Muni where he was going. Nārada Muni said that "I am going to see Nārāyaṇa, my Lord." So the brāhmaṇa asked him, "Oh, you are going to meet Nārāyaṇa. Will you kindly inquire for me when my..., when I shall be liberated," Nārada Muni said, "Yes, I shall inquire." Similarly, on the way, he met one cobbler.
He also inquired Nārada Muni where he was going, and he said, will you kindly inquire from Lord Nārāyaṇa when he would be liberated? So when Nārada Muni met Nārāyaṇa, so he inquired—because he's saintly person; he promised—that "Such-and-such brāhmaṇa inquired like this, and the..., and a cobbler also inquired like this." So Nārāyaṇa said, "The..., this cobbler will be liberated in this life, and that brāhmaṇa will take some time, some many births." So Nārada Muni became astonished that he, he was a learned scholar and brāhmaṇa, and he would take so much time, and the cobbler would be liberated in this life? "Oh, what is the reason, Sir?" So Nārāyaṇa gave him one needle, and He requested him that "When they inquire what Nārāyaṇa was doing, you can say that Nārāyaṇa was pulling one elephant through the hole of the needle, this side and that side," in this way. So when he came back, the brāhmaṇa said, "Sir, you are... I offer my respectful obeisances unto you and Nārāyaṇa.