What does it take to turn a living entity toward Krishna? It requires divine grace. Divine grace is distributed by Krishna’s devotees. To distribute this divine grace, the devotees preach. In this way, they try to help others turn to Krishna in the heart, knowing that as soon as they make that turn, Krishna will inspire them with remembrance of Himself. If we can awaken the conditioned souls from their spiritual sleep so that they turn to Krishna, then Krishna will help them come to Him. How will he help them? He will bring him to the lotus feet of guru.
(SB 4.23.12, Kishinyov, June 1996)