Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.35
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Vṛndāvana, August 16, 1974
So first of all we must know what is bhagavat, or Hari, then we may try to satisfy Him. Unfortunately, we do not know what is God. Where is the question of satisfying Him? This is the... At the present moment, vague idea, what is God; practically no idea. What is their God? "God is good." They... Sometimes they say, "God is great," but what is that God, how great He is, how He is good, nobody knows. So where is the question of hari-toṣaṇam? If I do not know... Somebody says that "You go and satisfy Mr. such and such, Mr. John." So I do not know who is Mr. John, where does he live, what does he do, then how can I satisfy him? This is the position.
So hari-toṣaṇam or bhagavat-paritoṣaṇam can be possible when we actually know what is God. Otherwise there is no question. So, so far we are concerned, Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees, we know who is God. Therefore this business is possible by us, not by others. We know what is God. We have no vague idea. We know who is God, where does He live, what does He do, His name, address, His father's name—everything we know. Therefore we can satisfy. We are competent to satisfy because we know exactly who is God. That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]. How do you know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Yes, by history, by authority, by His action, everything complete. We know historical, from historical point of view, Kṛṣṇa is there in the Mahābhārata. Mahābhārata means "The history of great India." Mahā means great. So greater India. Greater India, this is history. Itihāsa. Itihāsa means history. So there is Kṛṣṇa, in the itihāsa, in the history. In the Vedas also, there is name of Kṛṣṇa. In the Yajur Veda, there is name of Kṛṣṇa and His father's name, Vasudeva. Everything is there. And besides that, Kṛṣṇa appeared as He is five thousand years ago and He acted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So where is the difficulty to understand Kṛṣṇa?