Prabhupāda: One thing is that nobody can understand God if he is sinful. But Kṛṣṇa says, God says that, "You surrender unto Me. I shall help you how to get rid of the resultant action of your sinful life." So to approach God, either you become sinless by your own efforts or you simply surrender unto God, and He will help you to become sinless. Whichever you like. He is giving full freedom.
He is asking that you surrender. He is not forcing. God can force you—He is all-powerful—but He doesn't interfere with your independence. Because we are part and parcel of God—God is fully independent—so we have got also little particle of independence. As soon as we misuse that independence, disobey the words of God, we become sinful.
Guest (4): When one becomes sinless, would he then experience the indwelling of God?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly. That is the platform of understanding God.
Guest (5): And this indwelling of God urges one to go out into the world and other people in love, a love which not only seeks to . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). If you are serious to understand God, then God will help you also. He is within you. He'll help you. Yes.
Guest (6): Swāmī, in the Christian history, one of the people that many of us look up to was a man called Francis of Assisi, and he talks about knowing God, and he rates it up with experiences such as on the occasion on which he embraced the leper.
And he says: "If this, we turn to our fellow man with an attitude like this, then we are not reaching God, or God consciousness." And this is in line with one of the central teachings of the Christian scriptures, which is that if any man says he loves God and does not love his neighbor, then that man is a liar.
Prabhupāda: No. If actually one loves God, he must love everybody. That is the sign.