Can devotees ask Krishna for a material thing such as a child?
You can devotee ask for some material thing to Krishna, just like if they are not able to have a child, can they pray to Krishna for a child? See, there is progression in devotion.
Just like when a new person comes, we don't ask them to start chanting 16 rounds per day. I will start chanting one round and then two rounds, four rounds. They gradually come to 16 rounds.
So similarly, we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees. So if we think that my connection with Krishna will only be pure, only be selfless, then we are not at that level right now. So by artificially trying to be at that level, we actually disconnect ourselves from Krishna to a large extent.
So in aspiration, we want to be pure devotees. Just like in aspiration, I want to chant 16 rounds attentively. But it is not that because I can't chant 16 rounds attentively, that means I don't chant only.
I chant whatever way I can. So we can see, basically, prayer as a process of sharing our heart with Krishna. And if something is occupying a major place in our heart, and for parents to have a child is a very major concern.
If something is occupying a major place in our heart, and if we say, I will not talk about this to Krishna, then basically we are keeping a large part of our heart away from Krishna. Then what will happen is, we will not really develop a deep connection with Krishna. So at our stage, we can say, we are not pure devotees, we are aspiring pure devotees.
We are aspiring towards pure devotion. So when something material is important for us, actually we can't so rigidly differentiate between the material and the spiritual also. For example, if I have got cough, chronic cough, and because of this I can't chant properly, then if I say, I will not pray to Krishna to remove my cough, well, you can say it is material, but material is coming in the way of the spiritual.
So praying to Krishna is fine. Similarly, in family, in Garhasta life, having children is a duty. And that's the way by having children, both the parents also grow, not just physically, but they also emotionally grow, spiritually by taking care of their children, they grow in selflessness, they grow in selfless attitude.
So it's an important part of family life. So to pray to Krishna for a child is, it is not at all wrong. See what happens is, sometimes when we glorify pure devotion so much, that in comparison to that other things are not good.
But from where we are, they are very good. Just like, now we say we are going to Goloka Vrindavan, and other Vaishnavas, they are only going to Vaikuntha. We treat Vaikuntha like it's my backyard, you know.
But Vaikuntha is a spiritual world. As compared to Goloka Vrindavan, it might be lower, but from this world's point of view, it's very very high. So like that, praying to Krishna itself is a very good thing.
As compared to purely praying to Krishna, it might be lower. But praying to Krishna is still important. And how things work is first, we connect our heart with Krishna.
So that means whatever is burdening our heart, we share with Krishna. At our stage, we can say, we can express our aspiration for pure devotion by not making our devotion conditional to the fulfillment of our desires. But if I say that I will not express my desires to Krishna at all, then it's not going to work.
Because those desires are there in my heart, and we can't wish away desires. The desires will gradually get purified. So, we have to individually work out what is it that best connects us with Krishna.
And the aspiration for pure devotion is good, but we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees. We cannot have a pure relationship with Krishna without first having a relationship with Krishna. And a relationship means that we talk what is important for us.