​If all devotees will go to Krishna, what benefit do more dedicated devotees get?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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If all devotees of Krishna go back to Godhead, then some devotees are more dedicated and do more service and others are less dedicated and do less service. If all of them are going to go back to Godhead, then what is the need to do more service and be more dedicated? Krishna Consciousness is a process of love. It is not like a business of mutual exploitation where we want to do as less as possible for Krishna and we want to get as much out of Krishna as possible.
That is not love. So there is Krishna’s love which is expressed in his declarations. You do even little bhakti, I will deliver you.
I will take you to me. Lord Ramchandra says that if somebody chants my name only once, I will forever grant him fearlessness. That is his love for us which is being used in the declaration.
But if I say, I have chanted once now, now protect me for the rest of eternity. Now that is not our love. So love actually can be one way, but relationships cannot be one way.
For a relationship to be there, there has to be reciprocation of the other side also. So Krishna always loves us and out of his mercy, even if we do little, he will appreciate that. But if we want to love Krishna, then we have to do as much as we can in his service.
And actually speaking, the purpose of spiritual life is not just to go to the spiritual world. Because if I go to the spiritual world and if I think how much money is in my bank balance here, then what is the point of being in the spiritual world? The speciality of the spiritual world is not just in the location. The speciality of the spiritual world is in the disposition.
It is not just that you go there and you will become happy automatically. No, it is the mentality of the people there that makes them happy. The disposition is that they are absorbed in Krishna and that absorption we need to cultivate.
So Krishna is so merciful that he will open the doors of the spiritual world for even those who are practicing bhakti a little bit. But these such declarations of Krishna should inspire us. Oh, Krishna is so merciful.
Why should I love anything other than him? Let me offer myself wholeheartedly to him. So as sadhakas, the mood of love is that I want to do as much as possible for Krishna. And if I am not able to do, then still Krishna is not a fault finding God.
Krishna will still accept. So the scriptural statements have to be always seen in a proper light, which inspires us in the service of Krishna. If we use the scriptural statement to justify our lackadaisical performance of bhakti, our half-hearted performance of bhakti, then we miss out on the purpose of scripture.
The purpose of scripture is there are multiple levels of instruction by which you can all come towards Krishna. So Krishna will accept everyone, but actually to be accepted by him, in the sense that for us to experience the sweetness of his love, we have to direct our heart towards Krishna. It’s like if our heart is directed towards other things, because we are performing little bhakti, little dedication, and our heart is directed to other things, then we will not experience the ecstasy of Krishna.
The ecstasy of Krishna will be experienced only when we are absorbed in Krishna. And that’s why we should strive as much as possible to offer as much as we can to Krishna. And then we will be happy even in this world or to speak of the next.