If we make some terrible mistakes, does Krishna still care for us in the same way as before, or is his love for us conditional or unconditional?

Yes, Prabhuji, so we often hear that Krishna has unconditional love for us no matter what, but if we commit some mistakes that are even beyond what we would have expected from ourselves, does Krishna’s opinion of us change or does it still remain unconditional love and how do we understand that? Okay, so is Krishna’s love for us, is it unconditional? Well, again, all the answers to the questions are yes and no. So, why? Because, see, at one level, love itself, you can say love should be unconditional, but love itself is a condition, you know, it’s a condition, it’s a state of heart, isn’t it? So, now when you use the word condition, when you put it this way, the word condition, it can mean two different things. It can refer to terms.

Like somebody tells them, we have a warranty on this product, but conditions apply. They’re like terms. But condition can also refer to a state.

You know, what is the health, what is the condition of the patient now? So, what is the state? So, love, you could say, are there conditions in love? But the thing is, love is also itself a condition. So, it’s because love is a condition of the heart and that condition of the heart has to be cultivated. So, basically, now we are talking something differently.

We’re talking about does Krishna love us always? Yes, Krishna loves us always. There’s no doubt about it. So, in that sense, whatever we do, Krishna is not going to abandon us.

अपिचेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमाः सर्वं घ्यान प्लवेनेव वृजिनम् संतरिश्यसि Everyone, no matter how many wrongs they have done, they are still loved by Krishna and they will be elevated and liberated by Krishna eventually. So, one advantage of we being, of our finiteness, of the fact that we are finite beings, is that, that we as finite beings can never do anything that will stop the infinite’s infinite love for us. So, the finite can never stop the infinite’s infinite love.

So, we don’t have the power to do anything that will make Krishna stop loving us. At the same time, love, from Krishna’s perspective, he will always keep loving us. But love also requires a condition of our heart.

Krishna loving us is one thing, but we experiencing Krishna’s love is another thing. So, the sun always gives light to everyone, but if I close my eyes, I cannot see that light. So, is the sun still giving light? Yes.

So, Krishna always loves us, but our actions change the condition of our heart. And that’s when we stop being able to experience Krishna’s love. So, Krishna still cares for us always, but it’s just that we don’t experience his care, or we experience his care less and less.

So, another way to put this is that if Krishna is here, then around Krishna there are circles of love. So, everybody is in one such circle, but these circles keep becoming bigger and bigger. So, for example, the Gopis of Vrindavan are in the innermost circle.

Then the Vrajavasis in Chandralaya are in another circle. Then we could say all spiritual world residents are in another circle. Then we could say pure devotees, even in this world, are in another circle.

Then we can say all devotees are in another circle. And then we can keep going forward. We’ll have Krishna says, So, all living beings, even the most sinful of sinful people, they are all in one of the circles of Krishna’s love.

So, in that sense, Krishna’s love is unconditional. But it is for us to decide if we are here, whether we want to move towards Krishna or away from Krishna. We will never go out of one of the circles of Krishna’s love.

But if we go to an inner circle, we will relish his love more. And the reality of his existence, his love, all that will become more and more evident for us. Thank you.