How Krishna’s sweetness surpasses his greatness

 

So thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak today on the occasion of Inma Ashtami coming up soon. So I’ll talk about the appearance of Krishna and I’ll speak with PowerPoint to show how to discuss how the appearance of Krishna illustrates the beauty of the Krishna conception of the Divine. So that’s the beauty of the Krishna conception.

There are many, there are various traditions in the world and they all have the concept of God. Almost every tradition throughout history has been theistic. There have been very few, if any, sustainable traditions which have actually functioned based on atheism.

But even when there have been theistic traditions throughout the world, they have had their own particular conceptions of God. There’s a difference between the concept of God and the conception of God. The concept of God refers to the idea that, we move forward over here, the concept of God usually is associated with God’s greatness.

Oh, God is present everywhere and watches everyone. God is powerful and can punish even the most powerful people. And God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent.

This is the defining attributes of God and that comprises the concept of God. So all traditions talk about God’s greatness. And in fact, historically speaking, the faith in a God who keeps account of our actions or a God to whom we are accountable has been one of the greatest civilizing forces in human history.

Civilizing forces means that that’s what keeps people civilized. That people, see all of us have a lower side and a higher side. And this lower side and the higher side, if we consider, we restrain our lower side not just because of the greatness of our character.

Yes, it should be like that because we are so noble that we don’t give in to our sensual desires. We don’t give in to greed. But it is not just because of that.

There is also the fear of punishment, which is important. Now, if, say, a country, imagine if in a country all the police go on strike. Now, of course, sometimes the police may do excesses and there are protests against that.

And that’s understandable. Nobody, no department should have inordinate power or abuse their power. But imagine if all the police went on strike, then all the criminals would strike.

And there would be chaos in society. So just as there is a system of deterrence within the normal society. So similarly, there is a higher vision where there is an understanding that God is the one whom we are accountable for.

Just as we are accountable to the human law, so similarly we are accountable to the cosmic law, to the divine law. And that acts as a civilizing force. And for this civilizing force to be effective, there has to be a portrayal of God’s greatness.

Just like if the criminals or even the potential wrongdoers, they have no fear of the police. If they think we are much stronger than the police and the police won’t be able to do anything to me. Then what we would have is like the mafia, mafia ruling some part of the world or the underworld has its own dawns.

So then that becomes problematic. So not only should the police be powerful, but the police should be seen to be powerful. For the police to act as deterrent for criminals.

So similarly, all theistic traditions stress God’s greatness. And when God’s greatness is stressed, quite often that is associated with fear of God. So in the Abrahamic religions, especially in the Bible, as well as in the Quran, there is the stressing of how God is so great and fear of God is said to be the beginning of wisdom.

And that’s important. Yes, there has to be fear of God. Now here fear is not in the sense of like terror or horror or paranoia.

It is not the kind of fear that say, if we come to know that a violent sociopath is at loose in our community and we are constantly terrified, will that person suddenly break into my house? Or if we know that terrorists are there and that is a different kind of fear. That is horror, terror. But fear here refers to a healthy fear, like the kind, say, a child would have if a child is about to do some serious mischief and knows my parents may catch me.

So it’s the fear of God, which comes from knowing his greatness is centered on two things. Reverence and deterrence. It is a reverential fear.

It is a respectful fear. It is not, it’s not like a scary or paralyzing kind of fear. It’s a reverence.

So reverence and deterrence. The vision of God’s greatness needs to be centered on these two things. But either way, it’s important to have this vision to serve the purpose of civilizing humanity.

However, this vision can civilize humanity, this vision of God, but it won’t spiritualize humanity. What is the difference between civilizing and spiritualizing? Civilizing humanity means that you don’t do wrong things. Act in a civil way.

Act in a socially, don’t do antisocial activities. So civilizing is important. But beyond civilizing is spiritualizing.

Just like if a child has only a fear for his, for their father, then that’s not a very holistic or fulfilling relationship. Even the father wouldn’t want just a relationship based on fear. So that’s more like the father is treated more like a cop rather than a parent.

Now, sometimes parents also have to play the role of a cop and discipline. But that’s not the, if we ask many of your parents. Now disciplining children is not the part of parenting that you look forward to and relish.

What you relish is seeing how your child grows and how the child develops the potential and becomes the wonderful person that they can become. So similarly, neither from our perspective, the relationship with God is not very cherishable if it’s focused only on his greatness, which induces fear within us. Nor is that relationship relishable from God’s perspective.

So the bhakti tradition reveals a sweet, a conception of God that is centered on his sweetness. Now, sweetness means that here the focus is not so much on how great God is, but on how personable, how lovable, how attractive he is. And that is the vision of the Krishna conception of God.

So the way I’m differentiating, I said, there’s a difference between the concept and the conception. So concept refers to the broad idea of God. God is a powerful being.

God is omnipresent being. These are the basic attributes of God. But conception means, so when we talk about the concept of God, it is associated more with the position of God.

But when you talk about the conception, that’s associated more with the depiction. What kind of persons? So the prime minister or there is in India there is a prime minister, in America there is a president. So that is a president or prime minister is the position.

And the every person or any person who is in that position will have certain powers. But in the history of any country, although every head of state will gain some power just by that position, but that doesn’t mean every head of state will be equally liked. Some people have a very charismatic personality.

Some people may have charismatic personality. Others may have charismatic personality, but they might be very divisive. So they might polarize.

They attract some people, but they alienate some people. So just as there is the position of the prime minister and there is a person who is occupying that position. So in most religious traditions, if we focus the spotlight, the spotlight, when talking about God or discussing God is in the position of God.

It is not so much on the person who is occupying that position. Now, in the case of a prime minister or a president, the position is fixed and the person occupying it keeps changing. It’s not like that.

In the case of God, the God is eternally supreme. And it’s not that the person occupying the position changes. The person is the same.

But what the bhakti tradition does is it shows who is the person occupying this position. And sometimes the focus goes so much on the person that the position itself may be forgotten. Not forgotten in the sense that it is not known, but that is not what is highlighted.

So sometimes nowadays this may be done even as a PR exercise where some head of state, their human aspect to show how they have a normal, what do they do in their normal life, what kind of relationships they have with their family, with their friends, or how that person is separate from their post. And if that person separate from their post is also kind, gentle, helpful, courteous, and they have some virtues, that makes them even more attractive. So similarly, in the bhakti tradition, the focus, especially, say, for example, the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is not so much on the position of God as on the person occupying that position.

In fact, in many ways, the previous cantos, they focus on the position of God. So, for example, in the Virata Rupa, this is described in the second canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, then how great God is, that is conveyed through stressing that is depicted and thereby the position of God is stressed. And it’s important.

Without stressing the position of God, we cannot move forward in a constructive way in our lives. So like that, the Bhagavatam does that repeatedly. So beyond that, there is the person occupying that position and that is depicted to be Krishna.

So now here, one problem that may often come up is that, so the way we are discussing it over here is that, how is, so there is the vision of the person in the position, then when we get that vision, sometimes that can seem a little confusing. So one question or one thing that stumps people from other religions when they hear about the Krishna conception of God is that he seems limited. He seems limited, especially Krishna as a child seems inconceivable.

What’s going on here? But the fact is that Krishna, he, although he’s unlimited, he’s not stuck with his unlimitedness. It’s not like, suppose somebody is seven foot person, they look very impressed. Oh, you’re seven feet tall.

But then if they have to go through a normal door and then they have to bend down, otherwise their head will strike against the top of the door, the top wall above the door. So they are stuck with their unlimitedness. But Krishna is not stuck with his unlimitedness.

Now he is unlimited. When he wants, he can manifest an unlimited form. And when he wants, he can manifest a limited seeming form.

And the idea is both of these he does based on what serves his purpose. So God’s inconceivability is that how can an unlimited seeming person manifest in a limited seeming form? How does that work at all? That works because he’s unlimited and he’s not, he’s not stuck with his unlimitedness. So, sorry.

So we see the Virata Rupa over here that he’s unlimited, but still he can manifest in unlimited seeming form and still stay unlimited. So there are three things over here. We say God, by his defining attribute, in the concept of God, he’s unlimited.

Just like, say, sometimes there might be a very, say, the constable or the police commissioner or the head of police. They might look very fierce and very grave and very strong when they are in office. And that’s for the purpose of deterrence.

They want the people who are under them to take them seriously. But when that same person comes home, they might just be an embodiment of sweetness and have a big smile on their face. And especially when they are dealing with a child, they might play and make weird faces.

And what happens by that? It’s appealing in a different way. So God is similarly unlimited. Then he becomes, he can manifest in a limited form.

But even while he’s manifesting a limited form, at any moment, he can manifest his unlimitedness also. So Krishna had become a charioteer for Arjuna. And as a charioteer, he was in a very limited position.

In fact, we could say that there are hundreds of warriors on both sides in terms of position were at a superior position to him. There were hundreds of warriors on chariots. And in the natural hierarchy of things, the chariot warrior is in a higher position than the charioteer.

So externally speaking, Krishna had taken a position that was subordinate not just to Arjuna, but to all the chariot warriors. And yet, although Krishna was just in one place in the universe, universe itself is such a big thing, Krishna was in one place on a chariot. That was on one place on the earth, which is just in one place within the universe.

So although Krishna was within the universe, universe was within him. And that’s what he revealed to Arjuna when he revealed the Vishwaroop. So although Krishna is inside the universe, the universe is still inside Krishna.

And that is Krishna’s unlimitedness. So when we have to appreciate Krishna or God holistically, there are two distinct aspects to it. Understanding God’s greatness brings submission and understanding God’s sweetness brings affection.

And when submission and affection both come together, then there is a deep devotion. The devotion that emerges thereby is profound, it is sublime, it is enriching. When there is devotion that is based only on appreciating God’s greatness, then that is too much filled with fear.

And when there is a focus only on the affection, then what happens? Then there is not again a holistic understanding because one may take God cheaply. One may. So if we consider from the perspectives of world religions, if there is too much focus on God’s greatness, then we have quite often the Abrahamic religions and their conception of God which focuses on fear.

Now, of course, in Christianity, what happened is that Jesus talked about a God of love and how God is loving and God is forgiving. And that contrasted significantly with the vision of God as given in the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is called the Hebrew Bible.

That is the sacred book of the Jews. And the New Testament, most of which is the Gospels, the most important part of it is the Gospels, which is about the life of Jesus. And then there are the epistles of Paul, which is one of the prominent prophets of Jesus gave instructions to his followers.

He wrote letters and they became the epistles. So that’s there in the New Testament. So what happened was, because there was no, Jesus talked about a God who was loving, but that did not gel very well with the conception of God, with the description of God that was given in the Old Testament.

And that was one factor. And apart from that, these are the factors because of which effectively Christians made Jesus into God. And then talk about how Jesus was very loving and forgiving.

And then they have that idea that God is filled with love. But then what has happened? They made Jesus into God. Although it is very clear, Jesus says that I am not the father.

I have been sent by the father. So there also in order to develop affection, there had to be like a loving depiction. And that loving depiction, they made, they focus on Jesus because there was no loving depiction of God, Christ itself.

But in the Bhakti tradition, there is a different description of God as a person who is very attractive. So if there is only excessive focus on God’s greatness, then that doesn’t, that leads to a fear-based relationship. But if there is a preliminary focus on God’s sweetness, without duly appreciating God’s greatness, then we have the sahajiyaic kind of approach to God.

Wherein people tend to approach God in a way that is, that is cheap. So let me explain this. So what do you mean by approaching God in a way that is cheap? So basically within the, I earlier talked about how the idea of God, to whom we are accountable, is one of the greatest civilizing forces in human history.

So people need to be civilized and they need to be spiritualized. So what happens is, by understanding God’s greatness or focus on God’s greatness, may civilize people. But there is not much inspiration to spiritualize them.

However, if there is preliminary focus on God’s sweetness, then people claim that they are spiritualizing themselves without actually civilizing themselves. What do you mean by civilizing themselves? That means they don’t become basically cultured, moral, responsible. So the deterrence aspect is overshadowed.

And this happened in a very unfortunate way within our tradition. What happened was that, see the Vedic tradition is very big. And sometimes we say that Prabhupada has given us the Vedic teachings.

And actually that’s not the most accurate way of describing things. Actually Prabhupada through his books has not exactly given us the Vedic teachings. He has given us the best of the Vedic teachings.

The Vedic teachings incorporate people from those who are in the mode of goodness, who are very ready to be spiritual, down to the people who are in the mode of ignorance, who are quite materialistic. And that’s why there are some forms of worship where even people drink, like worshippers of some deities, they take Bhang and then they think they are worshipping. Or sometimes some images, some animals are offered in sacrifice and meat is eaten.

But because the Vedic form, Vedic forms of worship include everyone. And everybody from their level can move upward. But the problem comes up when the sense of progression is lost.

And somebody who is at a lower level and they can follow some worship and move to a higher level. But if they start thinking that they are already at a higher level, then it becomes a big problem. So what happened was that there is the Tantra tradition in India.

What is the Tantra tradition? Tantra tradition has the idea that we can approach spirit through matter. We can approach spirit through matter. That is called Tantra tradition.

The Vedanta tradition is separate matter and spirit. And that’s what the Bhagavad Gita, for example, the second chapter does. This is the body.

This is the soul. Understand the contrast between the two. So now in Deity worship, for example, in the Bhakti tradition, we are approaching the spirit through matter.

We are approaching the Divine through the manifestation of the Divine in a material element. So the Deity is made of matter, but Deity is not matter because the Divine is manifested through the Deity. So that is an example of Tantra.

This is normally considered to be auspicious Tantra. But in auspicious Tantra, so why it’s called auspicious Tantra? Because generally whenever we worship the Deity, it’s surrounded with very holistic, clean, uplifting atmosphere and activities. So most people, even if they are criminals, even if they are wrongdoers, if they go to a temple, they will first clean themselves, they will bathe themselves, they will try to be pure at least in the vicinity of the temple, in the temple, in the presence of the Deity.

But in that there is inauspicious Tantra where people do wrong activities, people do activities that are not really spiritually uplifting and they claim that they are, that is going to take them closer to God. So there is one deviant idea of Tantra, that is that, so in modern times when there was this idea that when Prabhupada came to America, that people take drugs and they thought that by taking drugs, we are going towards spirituality. So what was happening over here? You may say, what is this strange idea? How can drugs take you closer to spirituality? But the idea that they had is that, okay, we have some normal awareness and this normal awareness is limited.

And if we drink, if we become intoxicated, then we are no longer limited to the normal awareness. And we can see something beyond the normal. Yes, we can see something beyond the normal, but that is not supranormal.

That is mostly delusional. That is delusional. Delusional means just like if a person takes a lot of alcohol, it’s not that they start seeing God by that.

They start basically, maybe sometimes they go into a world where they imagine they themselves are God. I can do anything that I want. And that’s why driving under influence is considered such a serious crime.

Because again, what happens? Alcohol is infamous for removing the normal restraints that are there on our behavior. The normal restraints, we are afraid of the consequences of our actions. The consequences could be that if I drive too fast, I might run into some people.

I might kill someone. I might kill myself. But alcohol, it removes those restraints.

It makes it makes people wild and reckless. So, you know, it sometimes in homes, there are some devotees who work on right now, I’m in Govardhan eco village. And here the devotees are in social development also projects.

So they’re talking about sometimes in families, there are domestic violence. So now it’s a complex issue. But what is found is most often domestic violence happens under the influence of intoxication.

Sometimes some people are sadistic and they delight in violence, but that’s that’s not so common. So what happens is people drink and they lose their normal restraint. So now in a perverse sense, people think that some people used to think that when our normal restraints are removed, then we will perceive something higher.

Now they’re perceiving something delusional, not something spiritual, unfortunately. So similarly, just as some people thought where drugs will grow spiritually. So some people imagined that through sensual indulgence, we will go spiritually.

And the Shakta tradition, they had the idea that now this is this is as I said, this is a deviant idea. This is not a scriptural idea, but this is a deviant idea that when a man and a woman unite, then it is Shiva and Shakti who are uniting and they are enjoying through us. So what happened? You remember earlier I said that there is the civilizing aspect and the spiritualizing aspect.

But if the civilizing aspect is deterred, then what happens is in the name of spiritualizing, people start doing activities that are non-civilized. So indiscriminate kind of indulgence started happening. And unfortunately, this was adopted or you could say this was misappropriated, misapplied in the bhakti tradition.

And then people, some people who claim to be Krishna devotees, they started imitating Krishna’s Rastila with the gopis. And they started claiming that actually when they would do that kind of imitation, they said that actually Krishna and Radha are entering into us and they are enjoying through us. So we are actually, we are not being immoral.

It is we are becoming vehicles for Krishna and Radha to enjoy through us. Now the divine couple do not need our decaying, dying, stinking bodies for their sacred pastimes. So this was a very distorted imagination.

And this has happened because there is not a clear understanding of God’s greatness. So therefore, even when we are approaching Krishna, there has to be a balance in understanding Krishna’s greatness and Krishna’s sweetness both combined together. So I’ll conclude with one pastime which depicts how Krishna’s greatness and sweetness are manifest in a very endearing way for those who have the eyes to see.

So this is the pastime of Krishna’s appearance, Krishna’s birth. Normally we don’t use the word birth because Krishna is eternally existing. He just manifests.

So if you look at the setting of Krishna’s pastime, what’s happening? It is quite dramatic and traumatic. Dramatic. Because so much has happened before that a prophecy has come that Devaki’s 8th son will be our 8th child, Ashtamgarbha.

Vishwanath Chakraborty says and Jaya Goswami also emphasizes that the word used there is gender neutral. That this Ashtamgarbha, the 8th child or 8th pregnancy you could say. So now it is presumed that if somebody is going to kill a warrior as powerful as Kamsa, then that person will be a child.

So then Kamsa out of brutality started killing or killed the first 6 children of Devaki. And the 7th child through an apparent miscarriage and transference was taken to Rohini’s womb and he was born as Balarao. And so Krishna’s parents were in a prison at that time.

Sometimes the question is raised that if Kamsa was so afraid, why should that Devaki’s 8th child would kill him? Then why did he just not simply keep Devaki and Krishna separate? Devaki and Vasudev separate. Then there would be no child. So the thing was that Kamsa didn’t just want to want to protect his life.

Kamsa wanted to protect his reputation and not just protect his reputation, boost his reputation. He was on a power trip. The power trip means that some people just think that I am so great and in trying to prove their greatness they do all kinds of crazy things.

So he wanted to defy the gods. Now in war he had already defeated all the gods and they would live in fear of him. But he wanted to defy the gods by defying their prophecy.

So his idea was, okay, you said the 8th child will kill me. Let that 8th child be born and instead of he killing me, I will kill him. So it was out of his defiance.

Some people gain their reputation by doing good things. Like say if there is a, if there is a honorable law officer in great danger, they go and persecute, they go and arrest some criminals who are very, who are very terrorizing people and who are not so easy to apprehend. Then they are lauded as a great hero.

But somebody, some person who is a criminal, they might get their reputation by defying all odds. So they sometimes may come into a police station and defy the police and go away from there. And the police can’t catch them.

Or they go and destroy the police station itself. Then there will be some criminals who stay away from the police. But the criminals are on a power trip.

They may say I’ll go and burn the police station. And then just see how powerful I am. So they want to get a reputation that way.

So Kamsa wanted to get a reputation like that. And what did he do for that purpose? He said let this child be born and I will kill him at that time. So Krishna, he appeared in a setting that was filled with drama and trauma.

Normally, if a child is born, then there’s so much care that is required to ensure the child is born safely. Nowadays, to prevent infant mortality, which at least a few hundred years ago was very high, especially during delivery. Now there are so many support systems available.

There are so many people are taken to the hospital and there are so much medical staff available. Even in traditional societies where say there is no hospitalization, but at least there is a midwife available. But in the case of Krishna and at that time, you know, it was all alone.

Kamsa wanted to, Kamsa was quite brutal in that way. And so Devaki had to go through this repeatedly one after another after another. And then finally, when Krishna appeared, it was stunning that Krishna, he appeared in a fully, he appeared not like any ordinary child.

And Vasudev and Devaki, they were so stunned on seeing Krishna because Krishna had hair. And if you look at the prayers to Krishna that were offered in the 10th Canto, so first the Garbha Stuti is the section of prayer, third chapter, which is describing the prayers offered by the Devatas. So first, second, third chapter describe the background of Krishna’s appearance and Krishna’s appearance.

So in the Garbha Stuti, the Devatas are offering prayers and there they are fully aware of Krishna’s position. Now when Devaki sees Krishna after Krishna appears from her womb into the world, at that time there is this remarkable shifting between appreciating Krishna’s greatness and relishing his sweetness. So Krishna appears in a transcendental form.

He appears with fully growing hair and then he manifests a Vishnu Murthi. And there are four arms and at one level Devaki is thrilled. Oh, this is the divine.

This is the Supreme Lord Vishnu who has manifested here. But she starts thinking, how could he have manifested from my womb? And is this really Vishnu? The human nature works in such a way that everything in nature is designed for a particular purpose. So especially in human society, the human babies, we could say, are the embodiment of helpless dependence.

Almost all living beings who give rise to their progeny, there is a certain amount of care that may be required. But human progeny require the greatest care. Sometimes in some species, the eggs are just hatched and the birds grow on their own.

The fish, it is said, they just meditate on their offspring and the offspring just learn to grow on their own. So then there is practically no care required. But in terms of the long term, how long care is required, the human babies require the maximum care.

And the reason for that is that creates a sense of dependence and responsibility. When we see somebody so dependent, this infant baby can’t do anything without me. Then that creates dependence.

And in some ways, the dependence actually strengthens the bond that creates a sense of responsibility. So similarly, although Krishna has manifested his forearm form, but still Devaki is thinking that Krishna has manifested here in my home. It’s not her home, but it’s where she’s staying currently.

And she’s manifested through my womb. He is manifested through my womb. So I have a duty to protect.

And she thinks, oh Krishna, how can I protect you? Now, if you look like a forearm child, then Kamsa will know that you are extraordinary. And somehow because of her motherly affection, she doesn’t think that if my child is looking extraordinary, maybe he is extraordinary. Maybe he will kill Kamsa.

She thinks I’m a mother. I have to somehow protect my child. And she prays to Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, please, please, you know, I manifest an ordinary form so that I’ll be able to hide you.

And Krishna very sweetly and cordially reciprocates. And then he unmanifests his Vishnu form and becomes a small, helpless, but still eminently lovable baby. And then what happens thereafter? Krishna informs Vasudeva.

So now dad, you know, take me across the river to across the Yamuna to Vrindavan. And here normally it is the parent that instructs the child. But here the child instructs the parent.

It is normally the parent who empowers the child. That means if there is a bully who is threatening the child and the parent, the father comes and stands next to the child and the bully cools down. But in this case, it is Krishna who empowers Vasudeva.

Vasudeva has been in that prison cell for such a long time. And Kamsa has kept, Kamsa knows it is his life that is at stake. Just like if there is a very important, very dangerous criminal or like that in a jail, then they have special security.

So the guards which Kamsa has appointed over there to guard Vasudeva and Devaki, they are among the best guards of Kamsa. But while normally slipping away from those guards would have been impossible. What Krishna does is, Krishna by his mystical potency, he just puts all of them asleep.

So they fall asleep and not only they fall asleep, somehow the locks of the door open and Vasudeva is able to slip away from there. So Krishna is in a tiny form. He is carried in a basket.

Many of you may have seen that image of Vasudeva carrying Krishna on his head. He is in a basket. But at the same time, he is so helpless, but he is arranging everything.

And this Vasudeva carrying Krishna on his head. This is a beautiful metaphor. You can with this image, I will end this class that for all of us, we often have services.

It could be our services we are doing to our temple, we are doing services for Krishna. We are also serving our community, serving our family in a mood of devotion. But whatever it is that we are doing, Krishna sometimes gives us an opportunity to feel that without us this service will not happen.

Like Vasudeva is thinking, if I don’t get Krishna across, Kamsa will kill him. So Vasudeva is straining to his fullest capacity and is completely focused and actually concerned, deeply concerned. At the same time, although Vasudeva is feeling that I have to do this.

At the same time, it is Krishna who is doing so much for him. It is Krishna who is facilitating his service. So similarly, for us, like I said earlier that a baby often brings out a sense of responsibility in a parent because the parent feels the baby is helpless without me, dependent on me.

So sometimes, although we are all dependent on Krishna, Krishna creates a situation where it appears as if he is dependent on us, not he directly, but his services. So we may feel that if I don’t do this, then who is going to cook for the festival? Who is going to dress the deities? Who is going to make garlands for the deities? Who is going to arrange the festival? And so for all of us, when we have some service and when we have faced difficulties in doing that service, then that is we are being given the privilege of being like Vasudeva, carrying Krishna on our head. It is challenging, but we have to endeavor to meet those challenges.

But we need to know that whatever challenges we are facing, it is Krishna who is empowering us to face those challenges. We do our best and Krishna will do the rest. And in that way, we will be just as Vasudeva was successful in the mission to take Krishna to safety.

So similarly, whatever service we have to do by Krishna’s grace, we will be in due course successful. Sometimes immediately, sometimes after some time. Sometimes we may go through despair and panic as happened to Vasudeva when the baby slipped from the basket and fell into the river.

And the river was filled with huge waves and Vasudeva was devastated. Have I lost everything? The same child for whom so many of we sacrificed for so long, is he gone? Is he drowned? Is it my mistake? Through all that churning of the heart, his devotion was becoming greater and greater. So similarly, when we are trying to serve Krishna, now especially with the pandemic coming up, pandemic around us, this Janmashtami is going to be like no other Janmashtami that we have experienced.

If at all we go to the temple, it’s going to be very limited. Sometimes I may not be able to go to a temple. So it might seem so many things are so many things are unpredictable.

But everything that happens in our life is it brings challenges to us. But if we face those challenges in a way that is devotional, then we will all grow spiritually. We’ll all grow spiritually.

So for all of us, Janmashtami provides us an opportunity. Whatever services we are doing, we can follow in the footsteps of Vasudeva. The service we are doing is as precious as Vasudeva carrying that basket on his head.

For all of us, we treasure our service like that. It may not seem that important. But for Krishna, every service is important.

And Krishna can do extraordinary things even through ordinary instrument like us. In the world, when people often ask, why is there so much problem in the world? Why is God not answering my prayers? Why is not God manifesting a change? The irony in the world is everyone wants a change, but no one wants to change. Everyone wants a change, but they want the change to happen automatically.

It’s just a miraculous thing. But no one wants to change. But just as Vasudeva took responsibility on his own to make sure that the mission of Krishna was done, the instruction of Krishna was fulfilled, we all have the opportunity to take that responsibility.

Rather than wanting a change, we can pray to Krishna that Krishna manifests in our heart and he help us become the change. And that way we all can play our part in civilizing and spiritualizing humanity. That is the purpose for which Krishna descends to this world.

And that is the purpose we all can cooperate in fulfilling by inviting Krishna’s presence in our heart on the occasion of Janmashtami. So I’ll summarize. I spoke today on the Krishna conception of the divine.

I spoke about how the fear of a God to whom we are accountable has been one of the biggest civilizing forces in human history. So understanding God’s greatness, what it does is it civilizes us. Just like fear of the police keeps people from doing crime.

However, if the focus is too much on the fear of God, this fear is meant to two purposes, reverence and deterrence. But that fear may not lead to a very rich and intimate relationship. So the Bhakti tradition focuses on the sweetness of God.

So there is the concept of God which talks about omnipotence, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence. That’s like the position of God. But who is the person occupying that position? That is not revealed in most traditions of the world.

The Bhakti tradition reveals that. And that reveals him to be Krishna, extremely loving and lovable person. And the Bhakti tradition reveals Krishna not just as omnipotent but often as a, like in this past time, as a vulnerable child.

And then I talked about if there is too much focus on God’s, on fear of God, then there is a very formal relationship with God, not a very personal relationship. But if there is premature focus on the sweetness of God, then we have the tantra deviation. Wherein people start thinking that when they imitated Radha Krishna’s last nila, they think that it is Radha Krishna who is enjoying through them.

So that is, so we need to avoid both. So there is a proper understanding of God’s greatness and his sweetness. So I, we concluded by telling the past time of Krishna’s appearance and how it was in a setting of great drama and trauma.

And Krishna, because babies invoke a sense of dependence. So although Devaki saw Krishna in a four handed form, she thought that what if Krishna will be killed by Kamsa? And so she saw his greatness, but because the maternal affection she focused on his sweetness, she thought I have to protect. And then I concluded by that Vasudev carrying Krishna on his head.

It’s a sacrifice that requires great courage and sacrifice facing danger. But at the same time, it was Krishna who was making all the arrangements. Although Krishna seemed to be like a helpless baby in the womb, baby in the basket.

It was he who put the guards to sleep. It was he who opened the doors. It was he who guided him through the stormy rains and the stormy Ganga, Yamuna.

Similarly, when we have some difficult service to do, Krishna may create a sense that without me the service won’t happen. Now that needs to create a stronger sense of responsibility within us. And each one of us, if we take up responsibility for Krishna’s service, then whatever our service, small or big it may be, then Krishna will manifest in our heart and in our life.

So everyone wants a change, but no one wants to change. And we can change that by inviting Krishna into our hearts in the occasion of Janmashtami and inviting him to civilize and spiritualize us so that we all can become his instruments of compassion in offering some relief to the people around us through sharing spirituality with them. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or do we have time for questions? Yes, Prabhu. You can take some questions.

No problem. Hare Krishna. Madhupati Prabhu.

Dandavat. Hare Krishna. Madhupati Prabhu.

Dandavat. If you have any questions, devotees can unmute and ask questions. Hare Krishna Prabhu.

Dandavat Kriyanam. I bow to Krishna Prabhu. Hare Krishna.

Dandavat. Hello Prabhuji. Thank you for the wonderful class.

In fact, I was hearing Radhnath Maharaj’s class, a little old class, and he was also talking about Devaki’s fear towards protecting Krishna. But my question is, you said that we should also have that mood of, I have to serve Krishna. I mean, this is my service to Krishna.

It is dependent on me. We have to have that mood that Vasudeva had. But there is a difference between pure devotee such as Vasudeva having that mood and our emotion, right? Our emotion is always imbued with false ego, right? That without me this cannot happen like that.

Thank you. Okay. So without me this cannot happen if we feel, isn’t that at our level only because of false ego? See, Bhakti is so inclusive that we can even use our ego in the service of Krishna.

Listen, Bhakti can use the intelligence, Bhakti can use the mind, Bhakti can even use the ego in the service of Krishna. So that’s the first point. Now, having said that, there are times when in the process of Bhakti, when we feel that a situation is created where we feel that we are indispensable.

I’m needed to do this. Without this, it will not happen. And I’m not saying that we should feel like that, but Krishna sometimes creates situations like that.

And that may give, when that feeling comes up, that should increase our commitment, our responsibility, a sense of commitment and responsibility. But we all will quite often sooner or later face other situations also. When we realize that, you know, how utterly we could say dispensable we are.

Things go on without us. Things go on, whatever service it is there. If we don’t do it, well, in some cases it may happen that it doesn’t happen.

But quite often, if it’s an important service, it happens. Somebody else does it. And maybe they may not do the exact same service in the exact same way.

They may do it in a slightly different way. So especially this is one advantage of going to big festivals. Say if you go for a festival like Jagannath Rathyatra.

Now, of course, because of social distancing, the festival didn’t happen the way it traditionally happens. But there if you see millions of people are there. Now, we might be in our own temple and we might be a senior devotee in that temple.

And as soon as we enter, everybody offers us respect. And you may think, oh, I’m so important. But we go in a place where there are thousands, there are millions of people and they’re completely there because they are there for Jagannath.

So there we realize that we are insignificant. So in that sense, in Bhakti, there is this, there is both aspects. Just like with respect to God, there is understanding God’s greatness and understanding God’s sweetness.

So similarly, in Bhakti, there is on one side understanding our insignificance, understanding that I am dispensable. That no, if I don’t do it, there’s a beautiful letter of Srila Prabhupada where one of his leading disciples, who was leading at that time, he somehow left the Krishna consciousness movement. And Prabhupada writes in that letter, he said that, I heard this distressing news about you.

He had apparently broken a regulative principle and then he had just left. So Prabhupada did not say that, how could you have done such a horrible activity? Prabhupada writes in a very personal way. He says, I heard this distressing news about you.

And generally, if something bad has been done by someone, there are different ways in which it can be spoken. And that often requires expertise. See, nowadays, for example, suicide has become, it’s not seen as a sign of weakness as it is seen as a sign of, you know, how unbearable situations have become in a person’s life when they had to take the step.

Now, what is the reality? We don’t know. But the point is that sometimes, nowadays, he didn’t commit suicide. He died by suicide.

That’s the mainstream usage now. So XYZ died by suicide. That means that the attempt is made to shift the culpability away from that person.

So similarly, Prabhupada’s letter is not blaming this devotee. See, I heard this distressing news about you and I am feeling so forlorn. Forlorn is actually a very poetic kind of English word.

Prabhupada studied English in a Scottish church college. He studied many of the British poets also. And they use forlorn especially when somebody who is very dear is taken away.

And I’m feeling so forlorn. And Prabhupada said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wants this mission to spread all over the world. And I felt that you were one of the assistants that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had sent to me.

And then Prabhupada continues and towards the end he says, But I’m confident that Lord Chaitanya will send me the right people to carry his mission all over the world. If not you, then someone else. So if not you, then someone else.

So in this letter itself at one level, Prabhupada is creating that sense of intimacy and almost, you know, I thought you were the assistant and I’m feeling so distressed, so forlorn, I’m feeling alone, I’m feeling abandoned. So Prabhupada is almost acting as if, you know, that I need you. But at the same time, he concludes by saying I don’t need you.

Not that I’m rejecting you, but my mission is not going to stop because you are not there. So in bhakti, there are times when we need to feel insignificant, that cultivates humility for us. But at the same time, in bhakti, we need energy, we need enthusiasm.

And enthusiasm, one way it comes is when we feel that we can do something of significance. In fact, the greater the significance of what we are doing, the greater is our energy. Suppose there’s a Janmashtami festival and somebody invites us, please come to this temple.

Okay, I may or may not come. But suppose if you’re inviting some VIP to come and we tell them that, you know, we want you to do the first abhishek. Oh, I’ll come.

Because what happens, they feel I’m doing something of significance. Now, again, you could say it’s out of ego. But in bhakti, Krishna wants us to, from Krishna’s perspective, every service is significant for him.

As we know, in the past time of building the bridge, Ram considered the squirrel’s attempt to carry some small dust particles to help in building the bridge also as significant as the vanaras carrying big boulders. So why is that stressed? There’s that aspect also, that don’t devalue any service. So now we may say, yes, my service is significant, but I’m not significant.

Okay, you can put it that way. But if Krishna is choosing somebody to do a significant service, doesn’t that mean that that person also has some significance? So we need to definitely be afraid of arrogance and becoming egoistic. But there has to be a balance where the sense of if so, the sense of insignificance starts de-energizing us and preventing us from doing our service properly, then we need to, we need to minimize that.

We can’t, nothing should be allowed to interfere with our service. So sometimes the sense of how great I am can interfere with our service. But sometimes the sense of how small I am can interfere with our service.

Say, if suppose we are asked to give a class and then if we think I’m a great speaker and everybody should be there to attend the class and then we see very few people are there. We may feel I’m not going to give this class. So then my sense of how great I am is coming in the way of my service.

But sometimes if I start thinking I am told to give a class, but then I know I’m so fallen, I can’t speak, this philosophy is so great, I can’t. But you are told to do the service. So don’t let your sense of insignificance come in the way of the service.

So our primary connection with Krishna is through service. And sometimes Krishna may ask us to do a service of great significance. And from Krishna’s perspective, so every service is significant.

In the world’s eyes, some services may be more significant than others. But the important thing is that we shouldn’t let either a sense of I am great, I am so great, or I am so small either come in the way of our service to Krishna. So if Krishna creates situations where we feel needed for a service, we should understand that this is just Krishna giving me an impetus to do this service seriously.

Does it answer your question? Yes, Prabhuji. Thank you very much. A lot of inspiring and touching points.

Thank you, Prabhuji. I’ll hear again. Hare Krishna.

So shall we stop here? Yeah, I had a quick point. Please, please let me ask. I know you mentioned about Vasudeva carrying Krishna on his head.

There’s another reference where it says he carried Krishna at his chest. And I don’t know where we can find the exact reference of where he carried it. Okay.

Yeah, that’s a good point. Did Krishna carry Vasudeva? Was Vasudeva carry Krishna around his chest, near the chest level or the head level? Well, Vishwanath Chaturthi Describes this that what happened was just like a normal child, normal parent. And how do you carry a child? Sometimes we put the child on our arms and carry him.

That’s one way of carrying the child. Sometimes we put the child on the head. So when Vasudeva was carrying the basket containing Krishna, yes, it was initially around his chest.

However, as they entered into the Yamuna and the Yamuna’s water started rising. So then he became alarmed and then he put the basket on his head. And that’s why, you know, if the basket had been around near his chest, he would immediately have noticed that Krishna has fallen.

But because the basket was on his head, so he didn’t immediately realize it. It was that, you know, a small baby is also very light. The basket is not very heavy, but the baby was very light.

And that’s why with all the rain and the thunder and the waves around, he didn’t realize that, oh, this basket is suddenly seeming empty. But by the time he realized, he didn’t know when had Krishna fallen. Was it just a few moments ago or was it some more time ago? And that’s why he became panicky.

So, yes, he was on the chest initially, but especially when Krishna fell. At that time, he was on his head. Oh, okay.

So both parts are true. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Prabhu.

Hare Krishna. Happy Janmashtami to you. Happy Janmashtami to all of you also.

Thank you, Prabhu. Thank you very, very much for coming. Thank you for the opportunity, sir.

Thank you.