“Father’s Property is meant for the Son’s Enjoyment”

Good qualities means we are part and parcel of God, so God is good, so we are also good. Otherwise how can I be part and parcel of God? If God is gold, then I am gold. So why I become iron? I am not iron, but I am covered with dirty things. I look like iron. This is the position. Actually I am not iron; I am gold, because I am part and parcel of God. If God is good, then I am good. So because I am covered by the material dirty things, I look like not gold. So this is the test. As soon as you become God conscious, your original all good qualities will manifest automatically.

yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-guna mano-rathenasati dhavato bahih [SB 5.18.12]

That “One who has got unflinching faith, devotion to the Lord,” yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana, “without any motive, then all the good qualities of God will manifest in him very soon.”

ksipram bhavati dharmatma sasvac-chantim nigacchati kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati

api cet su-duracaro bhajate mam ananya-bhak sadhur eva sa mantavyah… [Bg. 9.30]

These things are there. The devotional service is so nice. If you simply take to devotional service, then all good qualities will come. You don’t have to educate him, to send some reformatory school or this or that. That will be explained. In devotional service, Krsna consciousness is so nice. If you simply take to Krsna consciousness, then all your good qualities come out.  Because originally you are good. You have become bad on account of the material association. Therefore devotion means to be purified. This is a purificatory process from material contamination. Sarvopadhi vinirmuktam tat paratvena nirmalam [Cc. Madhya 19.170] If you think… Vimarsanam. If we think little soberly, that “I am thinking I am American or Indian. Am I American or Indian? This is upadhi, designation. By accident or somehow or other, I have got this body in America. Therefore I am American. But next time I may not take the American body. I may take another, Chinese body or something else.” So one has to understand that “I am neither American, neither Chinese, nor Indian, nor white, nor black.” Aham brahmasmi: “I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God.” That is knowledge. We have to come to that. That is brahma-bhutah.

brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param [Bg. 18.54]

So this Krsna consciousness movement is to purify the designation. And so long we are in the darkness of this designation, that “I am this,” “I am that,” “I am this,” “I am that,” that is ignorance. Suppose a thief—he is thinking that “If I do not steal, I cannot exist. I’ll die. So I cannot stop stealing. I must go on.” So this is ignorance. But if he thinks over that “The cats and dogs and the birds and beasts, they are very nicely eating. They are not stealing anyone’s… Whatever he gets by the grace of God, he is happy,” this is knowledge. Vimarsanam. Vimarsanam. Isavasyam idam sarvam. Everything God’s property. And we are all part and parcel, sons of God, so the property is for us. It is not for others. Just like father’s property is meant for the son’s enjoyment. That’s a fact. So “If other sons, without any labor, without any endeavor, they can get their food, why I am stealing?” This is knowledge. This is knowledge. “Why I shall steal? There is enough food.” But because I haven’t got this knowledge that “God is the proprietor. I am His part and parcel, son. So if He has provided food for the elephant, who eats at a time forty kilos, he can eat, and I eat only, say, half a pound, I cannot eat?” This is knowledge. “Why shall I steal? I shall depend on God.” This is knowledge. So this is Krsna consciousness. I am part and parcel of Krsna. I am God’s part… Why shall I starve? There are so many… Out of 8,400,000 forms of life, eight million forms of life are less than the human being. Human being, only 400,000. Out of that, civilized men very few. Out of that, Americans are very few, Indians are very few. So “If so many, 8,300,000 forms of life, they can get without stealing, why shall I steal?” This is knowledge. Prayascitta vimarsanam. As soon as he becomes in quite perfect knowledge, then whole problem solved.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.11
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Honolulu, May 12, 1976