“(In a vending machine) you put in 25 cents and get out your bar of candy. You put in 25,000 Hare Krishna mantras and you get out your bhakti! No. If you don’t want, and if you don’t have the knowledge and you don’t have the desire, and if Krishna doesn’t give His mercy, then there is nothing that can change it, nothing that can force it. Of course the Lord can change His mind any moment and He is the most merciful. Nonetheless, it is not something that is mechanical.”

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami
5th March 1982
Boston, USA