Approaching Krsna With Love
BY: SUN STAFF
Dec 18, 2023 — CANADA (SUN) — By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Back To Godhead Vol. I, No. 54, April 1, 1973 - Part One.
When Krsna was on this earth, all the residents of Vrndavana loved Him. Indeed, they knew nothing but Krsna. They did not know whether Krsna is God or not God, nor were they disturbed by such thoughts as, "I shall love Krsna if He is God." Their attitude was one of pure love, and they thought, "He may or may not be God it doesn't matter. We love Krsna, that's all." This then is the platform of real unalloyed love. When one thinks, "If Krsna is God, I shall love Him," it should be known that this is not the platform of pure love but of conditional love.
While on earth, Krsna exhibited extraordinary powers, and the vrajavasis, the residents of Vrndavana, often thought, "Oh, Krsna is such a wonderful child. Maybe He is some demigod." They thought in this way because people were generally under the impression that the demigods were all-powerful. Within the material world the demigods are powerful, but people are not aware that Krsna is above all of them. The highest of the demigods, Brahma, gave his opinion of this matter in the verse isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah: "Krsna is the Supreme Controller, and His body is full of knowledge, bliss and eternality." Little did the residents of Vrndavana know of Krsna's power as the ultimate controller and master of all the demigods. What is noteworthy is that their love for Him was not subject to such considerations.
As the residents of Vrndavana loved Krsna unconditionally, similarly Krsna loved them unconditionally. Vraja-jana-vallabha, girivaradhari. When the inhabitants of Vrndavana stopped performing sacrifices to Lord Indra, the chief demigod of the heavens, they placed themselves in a very dangerous position. Indra became very angry and sent powerful clouds which rained over Vrndavana incessantly for seven days. The whole area began to flood, and the inhabitants became very disturbed. Although He was only seven years old, Krsna saved the inhabitants of Vrndavana by lifting Govardhana Hill and holding it up as an umbrella to shield the village. Lord Krsna thus taught the demigod Indra that his disturbances could be stopped simply by His little finger. Seeing this, Lord Indra bowed down before Krsna.
Thus Krsna also became known as Gopi-jana-vallabha which indicates that His only business is to protect the gopijana. This Krsna consciousness movement aims at teaching people how to become gopijanas, or pure lovers of Krsna. When we reach that stage of pure love of God, the Lord will save us from any danger, even if it means His lifting a hill or a mountain. Krsna did not have to practice some yoga system in order to lift Govardhana Hill. As God, He is all-powerful, even as a child. He played like a child and dealt with others like a child, but when there was need, He manifested Himself as God Almighty. That is the nature of Krsna, or God: He does not have to practice meditation or follow some system of yoga in order to become God. He is not a manufactured type of God but is God eternally.
Although He is God, He enjoys loving relationships with His devotees, and in order to satisfy His devotees, He often takes roles that appear to be Subsidiary. Krsna often likes being the child of a devotee, and thus He became the beloved child of Yasoda, Yasodanandana. Because He is God and everyone worships Him, no one chastises Him. However, Krsna enjoys being chastised by His devotee father and mother, and because Krsna takes pleasure in being chastised, the devotees also take up the role, saying, "All right, I shall become Your father and chastise You." Similarly, when Krsna wants to fight, one of His devotees becomes the demon Hiranyakasipu and fights with Him. In this way, all Krsna's activities are carried out in connection with His devotees. If we aspire to become such associates of Krsna, we must develop Krsna consciousness, awareness of Krsna. Yasoda-nandana vraja jana-ranjana. Krsna's only business is satisfying the vrajajanas, and their only business is satisfying Krsna. This is the reciprocation of love. Yamuna-tira-vanacari: Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, wanders on the banks of the Yamuna to please the gopis, the cowherd boys, the birds, the bees and the cows and calves. These are not ordinary birds, bees, cows, calves or men; they have all reached the summit of self-realization and thus, after many, many lives, have attained a position whereby they can play with Krsna. This Krsna consciousness movement can enable everyone to go to Krsnaloka and become Krsna's associate as a friend, servant, father or mother. Krsna is agreeable to take any of these positions in relation to His devotee. How He does so is all described in our book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya. To realize our relationship with Krsna, we have but to follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya and His chief associates, the six gosvamis Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Sri Jiva, Gopala, Raghunatha Dasa and Raghunatha Bhatta. These gosvamis were always engaged in chanting Hare Krsna and dancing in ecstasy. They taught that when one is merged in Krsna-kirtana, or the chanting of the holy names of Krsna, he merges into the ocean of love of Krsna. As soon as the sound of Krsna's name is vibrated, one can immediately merge into the ocean of love. That is the sign of pure devotion. Thus at kirtanas the six gosvamis would merge immediately into the ocean of love of Godhead.
The six gosvamis were not only dear to the other devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu but to the nondevotees as well. A pure devotee's position is that he has no enemy because he is not envious. A pure devotee is always open to everyone, and he does not discriminate that this person can be allowed to chant Hare Krsna and that person should not be allowed. On the material platform, which is a platform of dualism, there are differences between high and low, man and woman, and this or that, but on the spiritual platform there are no such distinctions. The pure devotee, seeing everything with an equal mind, is therefore nonenvious. Because he is nonenvious, he is worshipable. Indeed, it may even be said that a person is worshipable simply if he is nonenvious, for it is only possible to be nonenvious on the spiritual platform. This is also the verdict of Bhagavad-gita:
vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah
ihaiva tair jitah sargo
yesam samye sthitam manah
nirdosam hi samam brahma
tasmad brahmani te sthitah
"The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater (outcaste). Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are already situated in Brahman." (Bg. 5.18-19)
Such a position can be obtained by one who has acquired the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Upon obtaining His mercy, a person can deliver suffering humanity from material contamination. Because the six gosvamis were such devotees, we offer our respectful obeisances unto them with the mantra: vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau. The six gosvamis were expert in scrutinizingly studying all the scriptures with the aim to establish real religion in the world. They left many books to guide us, the most famous of which is Sri Rupa Gosvami's Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (The Nectar of Devotion), which gives the neophyte devotee initial direction. The gosvamis always worked very hard, day and night, and their business was simply writing books, chanting and dancing. Indeed, they were practically released from the bodily necessities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending themselves out of fear. There was no question of mating at all, nor was there any question of fearing or defending, for they were totally absorbed in Krsna. At most they used to sleep one and a half hours daily, and they ate practically nothing. Whenever they felt hungry, they would simply go to a householder's home and beg one or two pieces of bread.
The mission of such saintly persons is but to make suffering humanity happy by elevating everyone to spiritual consciousness. In the material world, everyone is trying to exploit one another-one nation is trying to exploit another nation, one society is trying to exploit another, one businessman is trying to exploit another, etc. This is called the struggle for existence, and out of it the people who are struggling have invented a law called "might is right," but we can actually see that even the most powerful must struggle, just as in the current world situation. There is a great struggle going on between Russia, America and China. Because of such struggle, everyone is suffering. Indeed, the very struggle for existence means suffering. The pure devotees of Krsna, however, are not interested in exploiting others but in helping people become happy, and therefore they are worshiped on all planets. Canakya Pandit even said that a rich man and a learned man cannot be compared because a rich man may be honored in his own country or on his own planet, but a learned man, a devotee of God, is honored wherever he goes.
Nor for a devotee is there a distinction between heaven and hell, because Krsna is with him in both places. Where there is Krsna, there is no question of hell; every place is Vaikuntha. Haridasa Thakura, for instance, didn't enter Jagannatha Temple at Puri because he was born in a Mohammedan family, and the Hindus opposed the Mohammedans entering the temple. Haridasa Thakura did not let this disturb him, however. He thought, "Oh, why should I go and disturb them? I shall chant here." Consequently Lord Caitanya, who is Lord Jagannatha Himself, came daily to see Haridasa. This is the power of a pure devotee: He doesn't have to go to Jagannatha; Jagannatha comes to him. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to go see Haridasa Thakura daily when the Lord was going to bathe in the sea. The Lord would enter Haridasa's cottage and ask, "Haridasa, what are you doing?" and Haridasa would reply, "Please come in, my Lord." This then is the actual position of a devotee. Therefore Krsna says that worship of His devotee is even more valuable than worship of Himself. The devotee is actually able to deliver Krsna, for he knows the science of Krsna consciousness, the science of hearing Krsna's words, eating Krsnaprasadam and enjoying Krsna. The impersonalists and voidists may preach dry philosophical treatises on aham brahmasmi "I am spirit" but ultimately who will be attracted? What is the difference between someone who thinks, "I am a stone," and someone who thinks, "I am void?" Why should we become stone, wood or void? Our actual position should be in reciprocating loving affairs with Krsna.
The spark for love of Krsna is struck by the spiritual master, the pure devotee. As for myself, my spiritual master, His Divine Grace Om Visnupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada, ordered me to take up the responsibility of spreading Krsna consciousness in the Western world. His Divine Grace had a great desire to preach Lord Caitanya's message in the West, and my success is both his grace and pleasure. When I first met my spiritual master, I was a very young man in India, a nationalist, engaged in a very responsible office. But although I did not want to go; one of my friends, who is still living in Calcutta, forcibly took me to His Divine Grace. I was reluctant to see him because in our home our father used to receive many sannyasis, and I was not very satisfied with their dealings. I thought that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja might be a similar man, and if he were, what business would I have in seeing him? But my friend took me forcibly. "Why not see him?" he asked. I finally relented and went with him, and I profited.
On my first visit, His Divine Grace said that it was necessary for educated boys like me to go to foreign countries and preach the gospel of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I replied that India was a foreign dominated nation and that no one would hear our message. Actually at the time foreigners considered Indians to be very insignificant because in the face of so many independent nations India was still dependent, being dominated by Britain. At the time there was one Bengali poet who actually lamented that even uncivilized nations like China and Japan were independent, whereas India was dependent on the British. His Divine Grace convinced me that dependence and independence are simply temporary conditions, and he pointed out that because we are concerned with the eternal benefit of humanity, we should take up this challenge of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This meeting with His Divine Grace, my Guru Maharaja, took place in 1922, half a century ago.
(To be continued…)
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
