Bhagavatam-daily 32 – 11.07.22 – The father loves the path by which the lost child returns home

Thank you bahu padas tatha padaham bahuvya santipurah srishtas tasam me paurushi priyam ek dvi tri chatus, this is simple Sanskrit one two three four pado so different living beings can be taxonomically classified in different ways so one way is through external morphological characteristics in terms of visible appearances there is of course a deeper level classification that is done in the padma puran this is often quoted by Vaishnavacharyas not just Vaishnavacharyas all Vedic Vedic traditional teachers that there are 8.4 million species and these species are classified according to consciousness but here other kind of classification is given those living beings depending on the kind of how many feet they have tatha padaha so some living beings move without any they either drag themselves by their scales on their skin like the reptiles or just float about swimming about or whatever so there are different ways in which different living entities move and accordingly they have the different kinds of legs or different number of legs including no legs are required also so here Krishna is saying bhavya santi actually all of these have been created by me and this is an interesting statement because often the idea that the various living beings are created by god is for the non-believers just an article of faith whereas for the theistic minded for the believers, for the devotees they are self-evident truth but here the point being made is being made by a person who is the supreme lord is repeating the teachings of the great sages so generally giving instruction to others is not the way we directly touch their hearts people have to feel that we are concerned about them and when they see that we are concerned that we are their well-wishers then they open their heart to receive whatever wisdom we may have given so here Krishna is instructing Uddhava and through Uddhava of course instructing all human beings and Krishna is demonstrating over here that although at one level he is the creator of all living beings not the creator of their souls the souls are eternal but he is the creator of all the biological forms which the soul occupies but among all such forms it is the form of it is human form that he says is made it is dear to me why? at one level it could be said that it is because of Krishna’s partiality but we know that same verse which talks about Krishna taking some advantage of Krishna showing how the advantages of bhakti are available to everyone he says that in 9.29 he says that actually I am equal to everyone but still I am equal to all I don’t envy anyone nor am I partial to anyone but those who worship me with devotion they live in me and I live in them so we have such a intimate bond of love and it is this intimate bond of love that we want to revive and human form offers the opportunity to revive that so Krishna is reminding Uddhava and through Uddhava all human beings that they have already been given a very special and precious gift the human form with its developed consciousness and by saying that this form is dear to Krishna that does not make Krishna partial that simply makes him reciprocal so as a jailor will in one sense let the sentence come upon everyone but if a particular prisoner is very well in the jail then the jailor will be encouraged to either minimize or to exempt the crime and to release the arrested person so actually similarly Krishna is saying that if somebody becomes a devotee then I save them from the misery of eternal existence and but but that sort of protection from sin and its reactions is reciprocal to our surrender to him that’s why it’s first part says give up all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me so ultimately Krishna hungers for the love of every soul for Krishna every soul is irreplaceable and in one sense indispensable Krishna wants the love of every single soul and in loving him we get the highest fulfillment but to get that love we have to redirect our love from this world to him and herein Krishna expresses that I like the human form because it is in this human form that the soul gets the opportunity to rise above to break free from the consciousness of the animals to come to human consciousness and to rise upwards beyond human consciousness is divine consciousness spiritual consciousness so Krishna when he reveals his all attractiveness he conquers the heart for living beings but then the living beings have to express their desire to be attracted to the lord and the way they express their desire is by surrendering to him by using the human faculty with its very special power for spiritual enquiry so this tells when a father has lost a child and then the lost child comes back home and not only the father embraces the child but also the father is delighted and wants to commemorate the road along with the child came back home because that is the nature of love so similarly for Krishna the human form is the means by which the soul will come back home the soul’s consciousness is capable of rising to love of god in the human form of life so that’s why Krishna is saying the human form is also dear to me or rather the human form is the most dear to me so Krishna actually takes care of all other biological forms also by giving everyone the opportunity to survive it is Krishna who provides for the eating, sleeping, mating, defending of all living beings including humans but because human form is the way by which the lost soul comes back to him so naturally Krishna says it is this form that is most dear to me so what is valued by Krishna we should also value and use this valuable thing to get the supremely valuable thing of eternal life with Krishna and of eternal love for Krishna