Bhagavatam-daily 235 – 11.11.41 – By giving our dearmost things to Krishna, we make Krishna our dearmost thing

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Thank you Shrimad bhagavatam 11.11.41 shreemad bhagavatam 11.11.41 in this world whatever is ishtama, ishta is dear ishtama is most dear, whatever is most dear to us and that is most dear to a person atipriyam so Tantan Nivedayan Mahiyam that one should offer to me Nivedayan should make offering to me and what will happen Tat Anantyaya Kalpate by this one will attain immortality so in the previous series of verses Krishna has talked about various specific activities that one should do as a part of cultivating bhakti and now he gives a universal principle the principle he states is that we need to learn to appreciate the significance of the supreme lord’s relationship with us we want him to become the lord of our heart and to make him the lord of our heart we need to give him a prominent central place in our heart and the only way we will give that place is by focusing on by dwelling on the supreme lord’s supreme mercy that means by remembering that he is making himself accessible to us and we need to reciprocate with him so there are rules and regulations that we follow we make time for hearing about him and all these are important activities but the underlying principle is we want to offer our heart to Krishna and right now our heart is filled with many other things so one important and indispensable step towards offering our heart to Krishna is to offer him what is in our heart that means our heart is filled with certain attachments certain things so we offer those attachments to Krishna by by offering the corresponding objects to him so for example the reason for giving charity is not just that we Krishna’s movement also needs to run and that needs Lakshmi or that Lakshmi belongs to Krishna and that Lakshmi should be offered to him yes that is all true but the important thing is also that we have a very deep attachment to money so money occupies a prominent place in our heart and when money occupies that place at that time Krishna cannot get a place in the heart so for Krishna to get a place in our heart what is needed is the is the offering what is in our heart to to the one whom we want in our heart that means we want Krishna in our heart but what is in our heart is money so we offer what is in our heart to the one whom we want in our heart that is Krishna and thus by giving that which already has a place in our heart to Krishna we give Krishna a place in our heart we if money is important when money is important for us and then if we give money for something or someone then we think because money is important we think often of that that particular way in which we have spend our money so if we give money to some relative then or some acquaintance we think is this person trustworthy will this person return and basically you know that that interaction with money is taking our connection with that person to a deeper level sometimes of course this can lead to conflicts especially when people give debts and the debtor does not return the money on time or doesn’t return that at all or whatever but even those associate complexities indicate that the relationship has in some way gone to a level which is more involved than the earlier level which might have been just casual nominal friendship similarly when we give money that which is in our heart to Krishna then naturally our thoughts go towards Krishna more who is this Krishna why am I giving Lakshmi to him what is my relationship with him and then we are such questions the answers to them when we seek in the philosophy we are more forcefully reminded that actually Krishna is my lord he is the person whom I want to love he is the person whom I want to make the foremost foremost center of my whole being and for that I am reorienting my whole life and this increased reinforced reminder of the primacy of Krishna’s position in our life helps us stabilize and intensify our bhakti practices and by those bhakti practices the presence of Krishna in our heart becomes invoked more further this is from one angle that by giving that which is dear to us to someone gradually Krishna becomes dear to us the other way is that when we give something dear to someone then that person also recognizes and appreciates what a sacrifice this person has done and Krishna certainly is very sensitive Krishna’s eyes never blink the unblinking eyes he notes and appreciates whatever we offer for him so by sacrificing for him something that is very dear to us we show Krishna our desire to move onwards in our spiritual journey towards him that means we please Krishna because Krishna says this devotee is serious about bhakti just like sometimes if we pass by a beggar we might just give some money to that beggar or some food and that is good it’s a noble charitable thing to do at the same time usually we don’t give the beggar the best that we have we usually give something that is a remnant some last change that might be there or some food that is anyway left over from a meal we give that sort of things to beggars but if we have just purchased a new jewel or a new watch we won’t if we give that to someone then that giving or if we cook food and after cooking it it’s not the leftovers but the first servings the best quality food we offer to someone that gesture itself indicates that person is important for us, very important for us so similarly the gesture of giving that which is dear to us to Krishna conveys in a very forceful and undeniable way that we consider Krishna important and Krishna is pleased by this demonstration through action of our prioritization of him and he also reciprocates by revealing himself more and by thus attracting our heart more and more and by thus when we give that which is dear to us to Krishna he becomes dear to us both because our thoughts on him become more and also because he is pleased by our seriousness expressed through our giving the dear object and thereby he also reciprocates by revealing his all attractiveness more and thus inspiring greater devotion to