Gita 10.41 See the attractiveness of the attractive not as Maya but as sparks of Krishna

Of Krishna's glory. Thank you.

Gita 10.41 Krishna speaks here he has concluded the list of his vibhutis not concluded in the sense of having exhausted them but concluded an indicative list that the list is only indicative not descriptive he has mentioned not exhaustive he has mentioned in the previous text as an example I am describing these to you O Krishna O Arjuna so now usually an example is for something so what is the principle Arjuna had asked Krishna please tell me about how I can remember you in this world my dear lord how can I remember you in this world in what mood can I remember you so Krishna has given specific examples of his opulences and after giving those specific examples of his opulences he concludes by giving this principle if we would like to know what exactly is an opulence what do we mean what does Krishna mean when he talks about his opulences so that we can understand here when Krishna talks about his opulences and what he essentially states here is that wherever you see any opulence wherever you see anything outstanding wherever you see anything attention catching which is very beautiful which is very splendorous not at all beautiful opulent and glorious creations spring from but a spark of my splendor a spark of my splendor Krishna has given a list that is drawn primarily from the culture where he was present at that time but that is not a mandatory thing that we have to stick only to that list wherever we see anything opulent so for example among cricketers Krishna if we see a particular cricketer to be outstanding among movie actors we see a particular actor to be very attractive now quite often say movies and sports are seen as as mundane activities which are non-spiritual and which can often involve anti-spiritual anti-devotional indulgences they create a mood of an enjoying mentality which can take us away from Krishna but the fact is that these are powerful cultural influences in today's culture and millions of people are attracted to movies to sports and we may at one level simply dismiss this these are foolish people but that level, that kind of vision is an incomplete vision because the movie stars or the sports stars when they attract people they have something because of which if they are movie stars they are outstanding dancers some acting skills they have if they are cricketers they have outstanding batting or bowling abilities this outstanding characteristics which make them attractive in people's eyes where do those attractive features come from they the sports stars or movie stars they say I practice batting or dancing for so long that's why I am able to dance, that's all fine but it was that ultimately there may be millions of batsmen there may be thousands or thousands of people who aspire to be Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli but not everyone becomes like that, very few become like that so it's not just practice, they may also practice very hard along with practice there has to be basic talent and then there has to be whole circumstances which work out right, what is called as the factor of luck which is ultimately which is ultimately God's grace manifesting as manifesting through certain situations which appear destined so whatever it is they have got those outstanding features not just by their own effort there are constellation of factors which also include prominently factors beyond their control and there is how we understand that their qualities are not there, their qualities alone qualities ultimately come from Krishna and here of course the point is we are not going into philosophical analysis of how their qualities come from Krishna but just having some understanding of that can help us appreciate that we understand that their attractiveness is coming from a spark of Krishna's attractiveness they are able to attract so many people because Krishna is all attractive and a spark of Krishna's attractiveness is manifesting in them there are people who have a mystique especially with respect to religious or political leaders it's called charisma certain leaders have a charisma by which they are able to attract so many people, hundreds, thousands of people are attracted to them because of the charisma that they possess and this charisma is something which enables people to move steadily to move others steadily, move means not just physically move but to emotionally move people can be moved physically simply by a push or a pull but to move people emotionally to touch their hearts and to get them to feel inspired from within to do some things that is extraordinary and charismatic people can move others now of course charisma can be used in negative ways so there can be people who use their charisma for moving people in wrong directions with wrong kind of emotions but that is not the point the point here is even such people who have, who may through their actions have done wrong things and who have led people on wrong paths but still their attractiveness because of which so many people got attracted to them their attractiveness is a manifestation of Krishna's opulence Krishna's supreme opulence it is because all attractive Krishna is present in their hearts, it is because all attractive Krishna is chosen to manifest a spark of his opulence through them that they are able to have such attraction and we as sadhakas who want to go closer towards Krishna we can see that if just a spark of Krishna's opulence can attract so many people so much then how much more will be the attraction of the pure devotees towards Krishna and how much will be the taste that we will be able to relish when we also move to progress towards that kind of advanced devotion by such contemplation and appreciation of Krishna's infinite glories and by seeing Krishna even in the extraordinary things of this world we can appreciate how we can remember him even while interacting in this world so when we see something attractive here we might just say this is Maya, I don't want to get attracted to it and that is one level of God consciousness, at least we are discriminating between what is Krishna and what is Maya but within Maya, now we don't have to look at Maya to see Krishna within Maya but we can intellectually analyze and appreciate we don't have to visually perceive so for example say when famous music star is coming and millions of people are going to the stadium to watch that star perform, it's not that we have to go there to to see that atmosphere and to see the star no, we may just hear about it and we may see something on TV or we may read something in the news and when we hear about that extraordinary level of attraction that star is able to exude and attract people, we don't have to see it visually but we can analyze and appreciate it intellectually as the attractiveness of a spark of Krishna's supreme all attractiveness and thereby we can think that okay these people get some rasa, some pleasure in being attracted to infinitesimal part of Krishna that how much more attractiveness is there in Krishna and how much more, infinitely more pleasure and fulfillment is there in attraction and absorption in Krishna and with this meditation we can become more inspired in our devotion to Krishna by seeing the devotion like adulation that Krishna's fragmental manifestations that Krishna's spark has manifested through the temporary people of this world attracts by that we can actually intensify our devotion towards Krishna with the aspiration of relishing the full sun of which.