How can we dovetail attraction to fiction in bhakti?

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Actually identify with say some characters in a movie or a novel. And it’s a very deep longing. We feel excited, thrilled by that.
So how can we do this in bhakti and where does it come from? Is it a part of our nature? Yes. Definitely. Again the attraction to the supernatural is natural.
There are atheists who believe in all sorts of unscientific stuff. And those same atheists delight in watching science fiction movies or cartoons which depict all sorts of unscientific stuff. Science may offer a particular framework for experiencing certain things.
But it doesn’t satisfy the human heart. So we long for something deeper. And at a philosophical level it is the heart longing for Krishna.
Krishna, he is beyond all laws. He is a supreme supernatural actor. And Krishna’s pastimes demonstrate him doing many extraordinary things also.
So when he does these extraordinary things, they actually, that is where our heart is originally attracted. But presently our heart is directed to so many things elsewhere. As we say that if people see Narasimha they say, what is this? Half man, half lion.
What a queer thing. And those same people who deride half man, half lion, they adore a half man and a half spider. Or a half man and a half bat.
So there is the same tendency which is directed towards God which gets misdirected elsewhere. So now in Bhakti, at one level when we hear Krishna’s pastimes it is stimulating. At another level there is also, there is a lecture of Shri Prabhupada where he talks about using imagination in Bhakti Yoga.
So what he says is, a devotee envisions that there is a throne in my heart. And that Krishna is situated on that throne. And Prabhupada says this is not imagination.
This is reality. Now what do you mean? Is there really a throne in my heart? And is Krishna actually situated on that throne? So what Shri Prabhupada means is that just as we have this propensity for imagining things and that’s again a very deep propensity. So that can also be dovetailed in Bhakti.
So the whole concept of Manas Puja is there in Bhakti. That is essentially using our imagination. I would like to cook and offer something delicious to Krishna.
But I don’t have the resources to cook. So let me imagine in my mind that I am looking for Krishna. So imagination can be dovetailed in various ways.
So for example, there are many devotees write, devotees paint. Now every single detail of a painting, it’s not given in scripture. So there, when that painting is depicted, it is, there is the imagination of the painter which builds on the details that are given in the painting.
Similarly, when devotees write plays. So there are many plays which are written by the, there is a book called Natak Chandrika written by the Goswamis. And there they talk about what are the rules for, what are the guidelines for writing plays in Bhakti.
And they say that there can be three kinds of characters. There are historical characters, there are imaginary or non-historical characters and there are mixed characters. Mixed means historical and non-historical.
So for example, Tamal Krishna Maharaj wrote a book about Prabhupada Antya Leela, how Prabhupada departed from the world. And there he uses Natak Chandrika’s rules. So he says that there are some characters, there is Prabhupada and there is disciples who were there with him in the last days.
But then there is Bhakti Devi also, there is Vrinda Devi also. And they are also discussing, okay now this is happening. This is how the emotions in the devotee’s heart are being churned.
So now somebody may ask, how do you know Bhakti Devi was there and she spoke this? When we use, in these plays, we use our imagination in the service of Krishna, we don’t make any claim about the truth or otherwise of the play. But the important thing is the bhag, the emotion that is evoked. So as of now, the Bhakti tradition is, at least within Krishna consciousness, is 40-50 years old.
So this scope of dovetailing the imagination in Bhakti Yoga, that has not yet developed much. So as that develops, then we could have devotees writing devotional fiction. So again I think, Tamal Krishna Maharaj wrote a book called, what was that? The Science of Yoga, the story of Lee Kong Shi.
So there he talked about some Chinese person who comes to America and then meets devotees and becomes a devotee. Several devotees told me that, Chinese devotees, they actually went to Chinese, Krishna sent us, we want to meet this Lee Kong Shi. And then they told us a fiction character.
They were disappointed actually. But by that time, through that fiction character, they had become attracted to Krishna’s message. So in the Christian tradition, they have used this devotional fiction quite a bit.
So C.S. Lewis, he wrote the series called, the Books of Narnia series. So there he, while writing, C.S. Lewis was also a very prominent theologian. So he said that, there can be religious literature, which are directly spiritual.
And the mainstream culture today is entirely materialistic. So the Christian community, he said, should create literature which is harmonious, which is not necessarily directly spiritual, but it is harmonious with the overall values of Christianity. Similarly, bhakti authors also need to create, over time, that kind of literature.
So, by which we can, we can dote that propensity to identify with something exciting, someone exciting. I know one devotee, he is writing a fiction of, on the basis of the Mahabharata. So his theme is that, he is taking time travel and in India, Karna is considered to be a very controversial character.
Against whom there is a lot of injustice done. That’s how it’s perceived. So this devotee wants to analyze that.
So he is envisioning a setting, where there is a time travel and two young men, one who likes Karna, the other who likes Arjuna. Both of them are time machine, go back 5000 years. And they watch the Mahabharata.
And each event they happen and they discuss. Is this right? Was this wrong? Was this right? Was this wrong? So, there are various ways in which, so I would say, firstly, our longing for imagination, that comes from our soul’s longing for Krishna. Krishna does all kinds of supernatural things.
That’s why we long for something more than just the ordinary way of, something exciting, something uplifting. And that can be dovetailed in bhakti directly by, through Manas Puja, where we envision doing devotional activities for Krishna. But that can also be dovetailed in culture and art, through painting, through literature.
And through using overall the imagination in a way that is harmonious with the process of bhakti. Does it address your question? Like to comment something? I have a question.