Is our affection for Krishna to be cultivated as between wife-husband or spontaneous as between child-parent?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, in a relationship between a man and a woman, the attraction has to be cultivated after the initial infatuation phase, but in a mother-child relationship, the attraction is natural. So, isn’t our relationship with Krishna that of a child and a mother? And why don’t we have natural attraction towards them? Why do we have to go through tests and persevere through them? Yes, our relationship with Krishna is actually not not simply reducible to any relationship in this world. It is like a parent relationship, but it is also there are many flavors to the relationship.
Now, there is that famous verse which says, I tell you, Lord, you are my mother, you are my father, you are my brother, you are my friend, you are my wealth, you are my learning, you are my everything. So, there are different relationships in this world with which we can compare to get a sense of our relationship with Krishna. In fact, all relationships in this world, they reflect to some extent the relationship with Krishna.
Krishna’s relationship, our relationship with Krishna is much deeper. So, in different contexts, different metaphors may be used to illustrate different aspects of our relationship with Krishna. Now, with respect to the cultivation aspect as contrasted with the spontaneous aspect, yes, it is Krishna is our parent and we are his children.
The difference is that we are like rebellious children. We are like children who do not think of ourselves as children. We think that I already know everything, that we, most of the time when people come to God, they want to have a partnership with God.
And the terms of the partnership is, God, you know, I have this problem and this is the solution to this problem. And you please make the solution work. So, that means, the terms of the partnership with God are my intelligence, your power.
So, I have already solved the problem, you have to implement it. So, my intelligence and your power, it doesn’t work like that. So, we don’t have that childlike faith in Krishna because we think that we know a lot.
So, we are not in that mood of a child. Although conceptually we may accept that, yes, Krishna is God, is our father, but practically we don’t have that conception. So, then that conception has to be developed.
So, with respect to a mother and a child, in this very life, we see that the child, the mother cares for the child, first inside her own body and then with her own body’s milk and then afterwards also so much intimacy. Child also sees that, mother, I need my mother. So, that practical expression and experience of that love is there, whereas that is not there for us with Krishna.
Krishna is invisible and he is invisible by intention because this world is meant for people who want to be without God, who want to enjoy without God. So, we have to, that’s why cultivate the relationship with Krishna. And as we practice bhakti, that childlike faith in Krishna will also come over a period of time.
So, we see Shrila Prabhupada at one level, like a very powerful Acharya, smashing misconceptions of people, firmly speaking the message of the absolute truth. But that same Shrila Prabhupada, if we see in the Markine Bhagavad Dharma, the poem which he composed on the ship Jaladuta when he was going to America, what is he saying? Krishna, you make my words understandable to them. But you have the capacity to make my words understandable to them.
He says, Prabhupada, this is completely depending on Krishna. So, Prabhupada says that, my dear Lord, if you have brought me here to dance, just make me dance, make me dance. Just like a puppet is made to dance, you make me dance, oh Lord.
So, there is just complete childlike dependence on Krishna. Krishna, you do whatever you want with me. So, there is that aspect also.
When we become purified, we feel the dependence on Krishna. But when we are functioning in a particular role, we act responsibly according to that role. Now, the purpose why we have to cultivate, why we have to go through tests is just to, just to show Krishna what is it that we want.
The, I was in Melbourne last year, and there one devotee asked a question after the class, you know, is it? We say that we have to give up the bad option and choose the good option in this world. The good thing is bhakti ultimately. But why is it that there are so many bad options? And then the good option is so, good option is so few.
So, I explained that is how it is always in any multiple choice exam. Out of, out of five options, four are the wrong options. And one option is the right option.
Now, if the choice were simply based on, the correct choice is simply a matter of probability. Then we could say the teacher has rigged the odds against the student, because the probability of getting the right answer is only 20%. And 20% is not passing marks.
But then the correct choice is not a matter of probability. The correct choice is a matter of education. The teacher has taught, the student is expected to have studied.
And after the student has studied, then the student chooses, then the student is actually demonstrating what one has studied. So, at one level, when we are presented with multiple choices in life, sometimes we feel that actually, oh, I have to give up this, I have to give up that, I have to give up that, it is so difficult. Yes, it is difficult.
But we grow in our bhakti, just as when a student doesn’t select a wrong option, student selects the right option. And they both go together. So, we grow in our bhakti, not just by directly selecting Krishna, we grow in bhakti also by rejecting the world’s distractions.
So, these are all for a devotee, one sees it, and devotees see this, see the difficulties that we face, we see them as opportunities to express our devotion to Krishna. And in that way, we can go closer to him through whatever we are doing in life. And by showing, the more we show Krishna that we want to choose him, the closer we go to him.
And ultimately, we go to him entirely. So, here, to summarize, you know, our relationship with Krishna cannot be equated with any one relationship in this world. And for explaining different facets of that relationship, different metaphors are used.
And to demonstrate the point that we are like the children of Krishna, but we don’t feel like childlike. We already think we know, and we feel that even if I want God, I want God to do my things. So, the process of bhakti or the process of purification in this world means that we use our grown-up intelligence.
It is not that we can go back, a grown-up person cannot become a child. So, rather what we use our grown-up intelligence to make the right choice. So, the tests that we face in this world are like multiple choice exams, which are meant to help us show our devotion to Krishna.
And just as every right choice means the student gets marks and goes towards passing, towards promotion. So, like that, every time we choose Krishna, we are moving closer to him. We are moving towards attaining him.
Does that answer your question? Thank you.