How can we reciprocate with the many people who have helped us?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And regarding the second question of, you know, if many people have done a lot of things for us, how can we reciprocate with them? Yes, broadly speaking, we have to understand that we have two kinds of relationships. We have horizontal relationship with others in this world, and we have a vertical relationship with Krishna, with God. And both these relationships are important.
Now, a mother, you know, when a child is born, she feeds her breast milk to the child. It’s a very intimate way of expressing love. At the same time, if you think a little more deeply, it’s not that the mother does anything special to manufacture the breast milk at that time.
The same God who sent the child into her womb also sent milk in her breast for that child. So, whatever, whoever is doing for us, it is ultimately God doing for us through them. So, the mother is giving the breast milk, but it is Krishna who is giving the breast milk to the child, to the mother.
There is a famous prayer. My dear Lord, you are my mother, you are my father, you are my friend, you are my brother, you are my wealth, you are my knowledge, you are my everything, O Lord. Now, what does this mean? This does not mean that the mother and the father themselves are God.
No, it means that God is acting through all these people. So, at one level, if somebody has done something for them, we should try to reciprocate according to our capacity. Now, when we are young, we are just building our career, we may not have much capacity to reciprocate.
But as we grow, if we are aware of those debts, we can reciprocate. At a deeper level, if we develop our vertical relationship with Krishna, then actually speaking, we are watering the root of the tree. So, all living beings are like leaves and flowers and fruits on the tree of life.
And Krishna is the root. So, when we become devoted to Krishna, whatever bhakti we perform, those credits don’t come to us alone. They go to all those whom we are connected with, our loved ones.
And thus, they are also benefited. And not only indirectly benefited through our practice of bhakti, but actually, when we practice bhakti, we also become more mature, more calm, more focused, less self-centered. And then, we can also act in ways which are more beneficial for others.
So, even if we presently don’t have the capacity to reciprocate with others, recognizing that we are having multiple relationships and developing our vertical relationship with Krishna can help us to become more and more a person who is more capable of reciprocating with others more effectively in future. Does that answer your question?