Pushya Abhishek – The festival of sensory spirituality demonstrates the beauty of Krishna and the glory of bhakti

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. On the occasion of Pushya Abhishek, let’s contemplate what is the significance of this pastime.
Abhishek means bedin. Pushpa means flowers. Sri Krishna Abhishek means the bathing of Krishna with flowers.
The Vedic philosophy explains that everything comes from the Lord and the purpose and perfection of everything of this world is to be used in the service and the glorification of the Lord. So, flowers are considered to be very beautiful. And normally we offer flowers to the people who want to please, who we want to express our affection to.
And flowers are an integral part of the expression of affection and romance at the material level. And that is actually restored a reflection of the expression of pure love at the spiritual level. So, Krishna was, Prabhupada explains, like a toy in the hands of the gopis.
And the gopis would not only decorate him with flowers, but they would even bathe him with flowers. And that bathing of Krishna with flowers is celebrated as Pushpa Abhishek. Now, the significance of Pushpa Abhishek is that we want to offer whatever is most beautiful in this world, whatever is most treasured, whatever is most attractive to Krishna for his pleasure.
And when this is offered in this way to Krishna for his pleasure, it purified, glorifies him. It reveals to the world how attractive and how endearing Krishna and Krishna Bhakti is. Krishna’s beauty eternally exists at the transcendental level.
But we and people at the material level cannot perceive it immediately. But when Krishna is beautified and glorified in ways that are materially comprehensible and accessible, then that transcendental beauty of Krishna also becomes relishable at the material level or for people who are at the material level of consciousness also. So, when the deity is beautifully decorated with flowers, when the deity is beautifully bathed with flowers, it becomes a very soothing, enlivening, enchanting sight to behold.
And that Abhishek attracts our heart towards Krishna. And then after that, the flower petals which have been used to bathe Krishna become the remnants, the prasad of Krishna. Just like Charanamrut is bathed at the lotus feet of Krishna.
Similarly, these flowers are bathed in the sacred form of Krishna, the form of the deity. And they become sacred and they become prasad. And they can be used, they can be accepted gratefully, they can be honored.
And the way of honoring these flowers can vary according to the time, place, circumstance. When we get Charanamrut, we reverentially drink it. That is the way we honor Charanamrut.
When we get a garland of the prasad of the Lord, we put it around our neck and then we smell it and we cherish it that way. When we get these flowers, we cast it on each other playfully. And that is also a way of celebration.
That is also a way of being jubilant, of recognizing the transcendence of the mercy of Krishna, which can come in various ways. So although sometimes the flowers may fall on the ground and may trample on them, but then when Krishna comes in the form of food, we chew on him. That is not considered in any way wrong because the point is Krishna comes in different ways and whichever way he comes, we reciprocate with him essentially in a mood of devotion and with the appropriate mode of expression.
So it becomes a very joyful festival when the prasad remnants of Krishna in the form of flowers devotees accept them and cast them on each other in a mood of love and mutual affection in remembrance of Krishna. So the bhakti is often called as sensory spirituality. Sensory because this is a form of spirituality does not require us to reject the senses, but it engages the senses in connecting with the spiritual reality.
And because we are at the sensory level of consciousness, so it becomes easy for us to access spirituality through sensory activities. And by these activities, we get sensory experience of transcendence and thereby advance easily and joyfully towards Krishna. So the festival of Pushpavishek not only demonstrates the beauty of Krishna, but also demonstrates the accessibility of bhakti and the glory of bhakti in making spiritual bliss accessible and relishable for everyone.
So we can pray on the occasion of Pushpavishek that just as we are offering flowers on this day to Krishna, that we also learn to offer as a matter of habit and as a matter of affection of our heart, all the good things that we have, instead of using them for our enjoyment, we develop the higher taste of engaging them in Krishna’s service and deriving higher happiness thereof. In this way, our heart will be offered to Krishna. That will also become a flower offering at the lotus feet of Krishna and that will be the supreme Pushpavishek, which will drown us in the nectar of Prema for all time to come.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.