Krishna is universal yet personal – Janmasthami meditation 3

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. When he said that, he describes Krishna’s personal reciprocation with his various devotees. Kalavenu Rava Vashu Gopavadhu, Kalavenu Rava, with the sound of his music, Vashu Gopavadhu, he conquers the hearts of the gopis.
And how many gopis are there? Shatakoti Vritath, there are hundreds and thousands of gopis. And when one Krishna is calling them, Krishna’s beauty is like Smara Koti Samad. His beauty is like crores of cupids.
Shatakoti Vritath, Smara Koti Samad. And then sometimes there’s a big crowd, people get just lost in the numbers. But Krishna is such a God that Prati Vallavi Kabhi Mata Sukhadath.
With every single gopi, he reciprocates personally and he grants her happiness. Sukhadath. Sukhadath.
He grants her happiness. Therefore, Vasudeva Sutan Na Param Kalaye. I know no Lord other than this wonderful son of Vasudeva.
So actually, Krishna is the Lord of the whole universe. He is the greatest of all great people. At the same time, he is also, he also has the capacity to individually relate with everyone.
And this usually, there is a, for most people, there is a conflict between universality and individuality. That means, say if a person is giving a talk, then if they want to talk to a large audience, they have to deal with the universal theme. But then if that same person is going to talk with one individual, they may often talk in a different way because the individual way of addressing and the universal way of addressing are often different.
In individuals, one may go more into specifics. In universal addressing, one may focus more on general principles. So broadly speaking, the universal and the individual don’t always go together.
Because the stress, the mode of address, they are very different. And more importantly, the problem is because we are all limited individuals. We cannot juggle too many balls at the same time.
Sometimes there is a game where people try to toss many balls. And then before the second or third ball comes, the first ball is to be picked up again and pushed up. Second ball.
So we can, like that, people try to juggle a lot of balls. But we can juggle only a finite number of balls. Whereas Krishna, he is the supreme being.
And because being the supreme being, he can juggle simultaneously an unlimited number of balls. And that means he can simultaneously reciprocate with an unlimited number of devotees. He is not limited in his capacity to reciprocate.
And of course, when Krishna comes in this world, even the supreme Purusha, Supreme Lord also, when he descends to this world, there is the Maryada. Maryada means when Krishna leaves Vrindavan to go to Mathura and then to Dwarka, then he is no longer there in Vrindavan. So in that sense, even when the unlimited descends to this world, he does not always manifest his unlimitedness.
He may act like a limited being where if he has to go to one place, then he has to leave other places or he has to go to a second place, he has to leave the first place. Now, this limitedness is a part of his Leela. And that limitedness does not still affect his unlimitedness.
That means, actually, if we love someone and that person goes away from us, then still that person’s memories may stay in our heart. And we may say in that sense, by remembering that person, we can still be in the presence of that person. That is true.
But at the same time, that person is actually not there. That person is somewhere else. Now, this is how it is with people, with ordinary people.
But with Krishna, it is not like that. When Krishna leaves Vrindavan to go to Mathura, at that time, he still lives in Vrindavan. And Krishna can manifest in multiple ways at different times.
Krishna may not be in a visible form in Vrindavan for the Brajwasis to see. But sometimes some people may see Krishna and still their heart may be caught in other things and they don’t feel the presence of Krishna in their hearts. This is what happened when Duryodhana saw Krishna.
His heart was caught in grabbing the property of the Kuru kingdom. And thus when Krishna came, he did not see Krishna as God. He saw Krishna simply as a person who would play an important role in the power struggle that was going on.
So Krishna’s presence in the heart is more important than Krishna’s presence externally. And when we talk about Krishna’s presence in the heart, that is different from merely recollection. When we relate with someone and we love someone and we remember that person, we may feel that person’s presence, but that is simply a recollection.
That person is not actually present. Whereas in the case of Krishna, it is not just recollection. It is manifestation.
Krishna manifests in the hearts of his devotees. And so it is not just that they are recollecting someone who is not there, but rather Krishna is manifesting in their hearts. And this is beautifully demonstrated in the Gopal Champu.
When Yashodamayi, she feels great separation from Krishna after Krishna goes from Vrindavan to Mathura. And then when the Yadus tell him that you have to stay on over here because you have to protect us from the other enemies who are still there. So at that time, Krishna sends a message through Nanda Maharaj for Yashoda.
And actually he lists in that message all the various, the many food items that Yashodamayi had cooked for him during his absence. Yashodamayi, when Krishna was away from Vrindavan, Krishna had told that I’ll soon come back. So every day she would cook for Krishna and she would hope that Krishna will come back.
And Krishna told Nanda Maharaj, tell Yashodamayi that actually it’s not just that she’s remembering me. I am there. I know what food she is making and I’m accepting that food.
I’m delighting in taking that food. So when Nanda Maharaj heard this, he was very moved. And when he went back and told Yashoda that this was the food that you cooked on this day, this was the food that you cooked on this day, this was the food that you cooked on this day.
She was astonished to hear this, that actually Krishna was not just far away. Krishna was there with her also in the heart. So this way, and it is said that Prati Vallabhi Ka Bhimata Sukhadat, that Krishna reciprocated with every single Gopi and he granted her happiness.
Now, this is a whole elaborate pastime, that different Gopis were able to at different times come out of their houses. Some of them were not able to come out at all. Some of them were able to come out, but then they were a drag bag inside.
Some of them came half the way, but they could not reach the full distance. So although all the Gopis were not equally successful in reaching Krishna, and some of them were with Krishna for more time than others, but still Krishna, just the recollection of Krishna led to the manifestation of Krishna in their hearts. And thus they experienced the sublime ecstasy of being with Krishna, even when they were not with Krishna all the time.
And in this way, Krishna reciprocates with everyone. So when we are practicing Bhakti in this world, we also may want to serve Krishna in different ways. And sometimes the opportunities for specific services may be limited.
Not everybody can become a leading preacher. Not everybody can become a leading singer. Not everybody can become a leading manager.
So because this world is limited, so the opportunities for service or specific services may be limited. But the opportunity for connecting with Krishna is not limited. The opportunity for Krishna, connecting with Krishna depends on only one thing.
And that is our desire for connecting with him. So if we have the desire to connect with him, then he manifests within the heart and he enables us to experience his presence. And thus Krishna is there to give joy to everyone, Sukhdaat.
He is ready to give, is available to grant the sublime fulfillment of devotion to everyone. And thus he is, at the SM Entiment it is described over here, that I do not desire any Lord other than such a wonderful Lord. So when we meditate that Krishna is universal, at the same time he is individual.
He reciprocates with everyone in the world and yet he reciprocates with each one individually. By remembering this, we can actually go beyond the sense of reverence that is created by understanding Krishna’s greatness to the sense of intimate affection that is kindled by understanding Krishna’s personal and intimate nature. Thank you.
Jai Krishna.