Are there different levels of seeing Krishna?

Answer Podcast

So how is Prahlad Maharaj seeing Krishna? Yes, he is seeing Vishnu he is seeing him directly because for him his heart is filled with Krishna and he says Krishna maya jagat everywhere he sees Krishna in this pillar there is Krishna is there Vishnu in this pillar? Yes, he is there so it is not just a conceptual understanding that he has Vishnu is there, he is actually able to see him so that is a very high level of manifestation now we cannot prematurely think of it like that we have to function at our level so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also said stavar jangam na dekhi, na dekhi dharamodhi sarvatra hoy inja ishtra devas purthi that wherever he saw, he did not see objects he saw manifestations of Krishna wherever he would see a river, he would think this is Yamuna wherever he would see a forest, he would think this is Vrindavan wherever he would see a hill, he would think this is Govardhan but this is because his consciousness is permeated with Krishna, he is able to see Krishna everywhere things connect with Krishna everywhere so even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was he seeing Krishna directly everywhere, not necessarily sometimes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would be talking with someone and suddenly the devotee would say he has disappeared where has he gone, is he running far away running like a man and they go there, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu swoons and he comes back I saw Krishna behind this tree playing a flute and he was calling me and I ran to him but he disappeared so even for him although he is always thinking of Krishna sometimes when he sees Krishna directly sometimes he is just absorbed in thoughts of Krishna so Krishna Consciousness is not a monolithic thing Krishna Consciousness does not have to have only one form, it is not necessary also that thinking about Krishna in his personal form is necessarily higher than seeing Krishna in nature it can be higher but the important thing is not how we are seeing Krishna the important thing is how we are serving Krishna so Prabhupada he could have been in Vrindavan and he could have been just chanting Radhe Radhe Ksham Ksham and he could have been absorbed in pure thoughts about Krishna as pastimes in Vrindavan Prabhupada left Vrindavan and travelled all over the world and he had to interact with so many things in this world he had to interact with people who were completely materialistic when Prabhupada met the devotees their only regulative principle was to break all the regulative principles he had to interact with people like that somehow he had to see the spark of interest for Krishna in that in those people and span that spark so the important thing is not so much that we visualize Krishna’s personal tribhanga form if we can that’s fine but the important thing is how are we serving Krishna and whichever vision is most suited for serving Krishna that is what we adopt so if our service is to cook for Krishna then we see the kitchen as a manifested Radharani’s kitchen we see ourselves as servants of Radharani and we try to see Krishna in the precision with which we cook if my service is to write for Krishna then I see Krishna in the way I can use words to glorify Krishna to beautify Krishna just as say this is the Pujari on the altar may decorate the deities with beautiful flowers so a devotee writer tries to use words in a way a Pujari on his flowers to try to speak Krishna’s glories using the precise words that reveal his glory in a most beautiful artistic appealing way so we focus not so much on seeing Krishna in his personal form directly we focus on seeing Krishna in a way that enhances our service to Krishna