Krishna is in everything & everything is in Krishna-how can we understand this practically?

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

How do we understand at a personal level rather than technical level that Krishna is in everything and everything is in Krishna? See, when we look at spirituality, there are broadly two aspects. There are the concepts and it’s important to understand the concepts. But then, we are not just interested here in learning concepts.

It’s more that we want to make connections. Ultimately, the connection is between our heart and Krishna. But connections are also that we want to connect our life with Krishna, we want to connect our talents with Krishna, we want to connect our family members with Krishna.

So bhakti is not just about learning concepts, but it’s also making connections. So Arjuna had an actual interest in archery and he used that archery to serve Krishna. So from that perspective, when we say everything, that everything is in Krishna.

So everything is in Krishna. Now what does this mean? One way to understand is that whatever happens, is within Krishna’s plan. Everything is in Krishna.

It’s not just abstract. Krishna has a universal form and everything is contained in it. And Krishna is not just a museum exhibit.

You see how I contain everything. That’s not the point. Everything is, whatever happens is within Krishna’s plan.

That doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen. Bad things can happen in life. But even through those bad things, Krishna is acting.

So for me, I got this sense at a vague level from my mother when I was growing up. And then when I read Shastra, it got much more clearer. Many of you know that I need crutches for walking.

So when I was one, my mother, visiting a small town in Maharashtra, my mother took me to a local clinic to get the polio vaccine. The polio vaccines are one of the most reliable vaccines. Polio is almost eliminated in the world, eradicated.

But in this small town, there used to be power outages over there. And the previous night they had a power outage. And because of that, the fridge in which the vaccine had been kept had got heated up.

And neither the attendant nor the physician noticed that. So because of the extra heat, the germs in the vaccine had multiplied. And when that vaccine was given to me, instead of preventing polio, it ended up causing polio.

So now I don’t remember any of it. I was just about one. I was just learning to take my first steps and I fell down.

And I couldn’t walk normally thereafter. But my first memory of this was, I was about two and a half or three. And a distant relative had come to our home.

And she was consoling my mother saying, Oh, it’s so sad your son got polio. And I remember my mother’s voice, calm, clear, confident. She said, whatever he lacks physically, God will provide him intellectually.

Now, I don’t know why she said that. Whether she observed some intellectual ability in me. It was not an observation, it was a hope, a prayer, a blessing, whatever.

But somehow that stayed with me. Not the God part, the intellectually part first. And as I grew up, I did notice that I was quite good at studying.

I could remember things quickly, I could articulate things well. So overall, I developed in that intellectual side. And so in that sense, everything is within Krishna.

Whatever happens, Krishna has some plan. So no event can happen in our life which is outside the plan of Krishna. That of course does not mean that we should keep letting bad things happen.

But if bad things do happen, despite best efforts, that does not mean that anyone’s life is necessarily ruined. Krishna can act even through those situations. So everything is in Krishna.

And then Krishna is in everything. Now what does that mean? That’s the other part. Krishna is in everything.

One way to understand this is the potency of everything comes from Krishna. So if you consider cricket, that all players, they all want to play well, they want to be in form, they want to score. But sometimes these players go out of form.

Nobody wants to go out of form, isn’t it? So anybody who has any special talent, if they are a little bit introspective, little bit self-aware, they do realize that it’s almost as if something beyond me is acting through me. It is my talent and yet it is not my talent. Any creative person, somebody could be a musician, somebody could be an author.

One day you write very well, the next day you just don’t get any ideas. So there is something beyond us, which is acting through us. So Krishna is in everything means, one way of understanding it is I have intellectual ability.

So when I try to write, some days what I write, it’s brilliant. Most days what I write is okay. Some days I write and I feel I should never write again.

What am I doing over here? So but that’s just like we, our ability is not just our ability. Krishna says, I am ability in human beings. So the potency of everything comes from Krishna.

Hence Krishna is in everything. So there is a well-known prayer. It says that you are the mother, you are the father, you are the sibling, you are the friend, you are the wealth, you are the wisdom, you, oh my lord, are everything.

What does this mean? That actually, now when a mother offers her milk to a newborn baby, that is the mother’s love. These are the most selfless and intimate acts of love. At the same time, is it only the mother’s love? The mother does not do anything special to manufacture milk in her breast.

The same God who sent a child into the world through the womb of that mother also sends milk in her breast for that baby. So the potency of everything comes from Krishna. So everything is within Krishna’s plan and the potency for doing everything ultimately comes from Krishna.

That’s one way to understand. Thank you very much.