How can we perceive Krishna’s love amidst our and others distresses and conditionings?

Transcript

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So, how do we convince ourselves of Krishna’s love when we experience so many distresses in today’s world and so many obstacles because of our conditionings? So, then, how do we convince them about Krishna’s love or how do we convince ourselves that Krishna loves them also? Or which one? Both? Okay.
So, when people are so lost in dujan, somebody is totally drug addicted or something, then how do we, where do we see Krishna’s love in that situation? Yes. One of the three conditions of love is free will. And free will means that if somebody wants to, chooses not to love Krishna, Krishna has given them that freedom.
Love actually has no meaning without free will. If a boy comes to a girl and he kneels down and he offers her a ring, you know, I love you, please marry me. And she says no.
And he takes out a gun, marry me. That is not love. So, in love, you cannot have force in love.
There has to be free will. So, Krishna gives us free will. And free will means that we we don’t have unlimited free will, but we do have some amount of free will.
And Krishna has created this world in such a way that the use of the free will brings its consequences to it. And sometimes certain consequences may be such that the connection with Krishna may be obscured for that time. Say, for example, a soul goes into an animal body.
Krishna is present with the soul even in the animal body. But in the animal body there is not much facility to reciprocate, to grow spiritually, to to connect with Krishna. That means if the soul in the human body previously showed by the actions that I simply want to live for bodily pleasures, I don’t want to have anything spiritual, anything to do with spiritual, then the soul is given as a reciprocation of those desires and as a consequence of those desires, both, a body where they can simply enjoy bodily love.
And for the duration of the animal species’ existence, the soul cannot experience spiritual reciprocation much. Of course, if a devotee gives the soul prasadam in animal body or the devotee chants Hare Krishna and they hear the kirtan, there is some benefit over there. But there is no conscious action that they can do.
Not so much. So, sometimes the result of the way one has used one’s free will can create some consequences which temporarily obscure the possibility of spiritual growth. So, somebody who has become a drug addict, that means they acted in particular ways because of which they have now become addicted.
So, now the drug addiction is not eternal. It may be for this for a few years in this lifetime, it may be for this entire lifetime also. But this lifetime is not all of life.
It is not all of existence. Now, if, unless we can understand the length and the breadth of our existence, length means that it is not just before this life we existed, after this life also we will exist. And breadth means we are not just the body, there is a mind and there is a soul beyond that.
So, unless we understand the length and the breadth of our existence, we cannot really pursue Krishna’s love. Because from this life’s perspective, there is so much inequity, so much unfairness, so much misery and this is one of the main reasons why, although Christianity also talks a lot about God’s love, but because they don’t accept reincarnation, it becomes very problematic for them to explain in the face of the world’s misery, how does God love us? So, we understand that, yes, God does love us, but because he has given us free will, by the way we act according to our free will, sometimes we may disconnect ourselves from him significantly. But that disconnection is not forever.
And during that disconnection also, some connection with Krishna can be established through some devotees, somehow give prasad, have some spiritual music or whatever, but that disconnection is not permanent, it is there for some time and it will end. So, Krishna’s giving us free will is also an expression of his love. In the Mahabharata, we have Krishna going to Duryodhana to seek peace.
I gave once a whole class, Sunday Peace class in India, when God sins, how can God sin? God is omnipotent. But when he went as a Shanti dude, as a messenger of peace, to try to petition for peace with Duryodhana, he failed. Now, what does it mean? Is Krishna not omnipotent? Krishna is omnipotent, but his omnipotence does not mean stamping out the free will of others.
So, he had given Duryodhana free will. And he tried to appeal to Duryodhana’s intelligence to make him see sense. But when he refused to see that, then in this particular situation, then Duryodhana’s free will trumped.
I shouldn’t use the word trumped nowadays. It triumphed. So, but in this case, eventually Duryodhana had to meet his consequences of his misuse of free will.
But Krishna, he loves us, but one aspect of his love is that he uses free will. He gives us counsel by which we can use the free will properly. And by that counsel, if somebody can take that counsel, however locked they may be in illusion, they can come out of that illusion.
So, sometimes it can happen through dramatic ways. Like there is a story of Shintamani. He was completely obsessed with a prostitute.
But then at that time, he spoke, you know, if you had been so attached to Krishna, Krishna would have been so much better. Hey, what am I doing? And he was illuminated at that time also. And Krishna did not reject him.
Oh, you have lived so sinfully in the past. So, for some people, those moments of illumination may come. So, even if somebody is addicted somehow, Prabhupada said that, Prabhupada writes in the book On the Way to Krishna that if somebody cannot give up drinking, if they just think that the taste of liquor is Krishna, then one day they will become a great devotee.
By drinking, they won’t become a great devotee. By drinking, the taste of liquor is Krishna. There is some connection with Krishna that is established.
So, even if somebody is addicted, if they can think, okay, what is there in this drug that is captivating me so much? Everything attractive manifests the spark of Krishna’s splendor. So, everything attractive comes from Krishna. But everything attractive doesn’t take us to Krishna.
The taste, the attractiveness of drugs also comes from Krishna. But it is in Tamoguna. It keeps us further and further away from Krishna.
So, one may not be able to give it up, but even in that situation, if one can think, you know, this taste, where is it coming from? It is a manifestation of Krishna’s attractiveness. If that much thinking of Krishna is also there, there will be that connection. And gradually that connection will develop.
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