How can we redirect our attraction from Krishna’s sparks to Krishna the whole?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, how can we when we are attracted to the sparks and we want to focus on the whole, how can we avoid getting distracted by the sparks and how can we redirect ourselves to the whole? Within the sparks also, there are different manifestations. You know, Srila Prabhupada said in one lecture that even the taste of wine is Krishna. So, and he says in a lecture that if somebody is alcoholic and they can’t give up alcohol, let them drink alcohol, but let them think that this taste of alcohol is Krishna.
By thinking like this, one day they will become a great devotee. It is not by drinking alcohol they will become a great devotee. It is by thinking about Krishna.
This taste, what is it that is so irresistibly attractive in this? This is Krishna. So, now it is very difficult to become attracted to the whole directly. But we can say that there are different sparks which have different effects on us.
So, for example, say if I like if I like language and I like very cleverly insightfully worded constructions. Now, there might be an atheist who might be a brilliant linguist. An atheist can present atheism in a brilliant way.
There might be some material planner, material visionary for creating a social revolution society. They might be brilliant. There might be some scientist, some philosopher who might be brilliant linguistically.
There might be a devotee who is brilliant linguistically. Now, all these all these people who are good at words, they are manifesting Krishna’s they are manifesting a spark of Krishna’s brilliance. But, say, the atheists, if I get attracted to the atheists’ brilliance, if I get attracted to that spark, then I will go completely away from Krishna.
That we could say in Tamoguna. If I get attracted to a materialist spark that is in the Rojoguna, in the mode of passion, I will stay at a materialistic level of consciousness. This is what we need to do.
This is what we need to do. If I get attracted to a philosopher’s linguistic brilliance, not a devotional philosopher, just a philosopher, I might just delight in knowledge. But if I get attracted to a devotee’s linguistic brilliance, that devotee is also manifesting a spark of Krishna’s splendor only.
It is a spark. But this spark is taking me towards the whole. The other sparks are keeping me away from the whole or they are taking me further away from the whole.
That’s why when we are practicing bhakti, we have to also, in principle, we are trying to redirect our love from the spark to the whole. In practice, we also need to connect with those sparks that inspire us to connect with the whole. So if I like to sing, I could hear some romantic mundane songs that will make me forget Krishna.
If I like to sing and I hear some devotee who sings very beautifully Krishna’s Kiran’s, that will attract me towards Krishna. So we need to find out those sparks which take us towards the whole and connect with them. We cannot just connect with Krishna alone.
We can’t redirect our love from this world in one moment to Krishna. In this world itself, love has to be redirected also. We need some connections in this world.
But those connections need to be of the form which take us closer to Krishna. So we seek the sparks that take us towards Krishna, not the sparks that take us away from Him. Does that answer your question?