If Krishna is reciprocal, why does Shikshashtakam call for loving Krishna even if he neglects us?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we say Krishna is reciprocal, but then in the last verse of Shiksha-Akshara we said that Krishna, whether you embrace me or whether you leave me open hearted, still I will keep loving you. So actually, Krishna is simultaneously predictable and predictable. In a relationship, if the other person is totally predictable, if I speak this, they will say this.
If I do this, they will say that. If I act like this, they will do like that. Then if they are totally predictable, then what happens? It’s like dealing with a machine.
I press this button, this is going to happen. I swear, this is going to happen. There is not much life in the relationship.
But on the other hand, if the person is entirely unpredictable, you know, I say this and I have no idea what they are going to say. Then the relationship becomes like living on a landmine. So, for a relationship to be exciting and fulfilling, there has to be a blend of predictability and unpredictability.
The basic foundation of predictability is there, but within that there is something unpredictable. Oh, we learned something new about the person. Oh, you think like this, you act like that, so then that relationship stays alive.
So in the relationship with Krishna, the predictable aspect is that anyone who approaches Krishna, Krishna always reciprocates, Krishna always remembers, Krishna always rewards. The unpredictable aspect is how he rewards. That will vary from person to person.
They say that sometimes in life when we pray to God, God answers our prayers, but he answers it very different from what we expect. We may go and shake an apple tree and a mango may fall down. If we are expecting an apple to fall down, we may not even notice the mango, but if we are open, mango is better than an apple, it’s wonderful.
So like that, we may pray to Krishna and Krishna responds, but Krishna responds his own way. Quite often what happens when we pray to Krishna, our vision is that actually, Krishna, I am not able to do this, but you have the power to do this. So let’s form a partnership.
My intelligence and your power. So I have this plan how to solve the problem, let’s come together. But it doesn’t work like that.
If we have faith in Krishna’s power, then that’s faith in Krishna. But that is actually half faith in Krishna. Krishna is not just omnipotent, Krishna is also omniscient.
So we have faith not only in Krishna’s power, but also in Krishna’s intelligence. That means Krishna can reciprocate in ways that we may not understand. But he is more intelligent than us and he knows what is good for us better than what we know also.
So in the case of Jaitanya Mahaprabhu praying that whether you embrace me or whether you leave me broken hearted, still I’ll stay devoted to you. This is expressing his love. He’s saying that Krishna, whatever you do, whether you act predictably, whether you act unpredictably, still I will keep loving you.
I am committed to my relationship with you. Now, on the other hand, when Krishna reciprocates, how does Krishna reciprocate? In the case of the Gopis, you know, Krishna can reciprocate by manifesting himself before them and they feel great love for him. And when Krishna doesn’t manifest before them, at that time their love increases even more because they just feel so much absorbed in remembrance of Krishna.
Now it is said that separation does to love what wind does to fire. Separation does to love what wind does to fire. You know, there’s a blazing forest fire and wind comes.
At that time, the wind causes the fire to become bigger and bigger and bigger. So like that, when a devotee is separated from Krishna, that separation causes the love to increase more and more and more. And that’s how the Gopis’ love for Krishna increased even more.
They became more intensely devoted to Krishna, more intensely lost in the remembrance of Krishna when they were separated from him. So even in being separated from them, Krishna was showing his love for them because he was intensifying their remembrance of him. Now, of course, when I said separation does to love what wind does to fire, there’s another side to it also.
If there’s a small candle and a wind comes, the candle will get extinguished. So our love for Krishna is not like a forest fire. It is like a candle.
If we think I’ll become separated from devotees, then my appreciation for devotees and Krishna will increase. No, our bhakti will go away if we become separated from devotees. But the point is that Krishna reciprocates always and Krishna will always reciprocate but not in our terms.
So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is when he’s saying that you are always my prananath, that means he’s saying, Krishna, whether you reciprocate in terms that I’ll understand or in terms that I don’t understand, still I will stay devoted to you.