SB 4.9.7 Devotion activates our awareness of Krishna’s latent presence within everything – even our hearts

Transcript

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Bhagavatam 4.9.7 So, My dear Lord, You are one Bhagavan. You are the One Supreme Being.
But You have manifested Yourself through Your multifarious energy, the Atma-Shakta. Maya-Akhyaya. So, that Shakti which He is talking about now is Maya.
Gunaya-Mahadadya-Shesha. The various attributes of Maya are being described. Gunaya is made of the Moons.
Before that is Guru. Guru is greatly powerful. Mahadadya, it comprises of Mahat-Tattva and the Moons.
So, Ashisham, it actually is so vast that from the material perspective it appears unlimited. Srishtva-Anubhishya-Purusha-Tad-Asad-Kuneshu. So, You create.
Anubhishya, after entering, as a Supersoul, You enter into this material creation which is manifested through the material energy and there You manifest Asad-Kuneshu, the temporary qualities. Na-Na-Iva-Da-Ru-Shu-Vibhava-Subhad-Vibhasi. That means, different qualities are manifested just as through pieces of wood fire is manifested.
So, Guru Maharaj is saying that yes, the previous verse He said the Lord has entered into me and You are alive in my senses. That is extraordinary. But it is also extraordinary that You are actually present everywhere.
You are present in everything and it is because of Your presence that everything is existing and things are alive and active. And He gives example of all pervasions of the Lord. But that example, although it is common, it has a different tilt over here.
The standard example is just as fire is hidden within the wood. Normally, we can take example to say that fire is there within a wood and it comes in contact with some other fiery object when that fire manifests. Otherwise, it stays hidden.
Here, Prahlad Maharaj is using the fire within wood example to say that the wooden logs may be of different shapes and colors and things like that. So, although they may be different, but there is the fire within all of them. So, He is saying, my dear Lord, things may appear in various forms in this world, but whatever be the form in which they appear, inherently, they are actually supremely pregnant with your presence.
Just as fire is always present within wood, irrespective of what kind of wood it is. Similarly, however things may appear in this world, you are always present in all those things. And it is your presence that is to be accessed.
So, if there is electric power somewhere available, then all that needs to be done is just turn on the switch. Once the, there may be switches of different kinds, some may be push buttons, some may be move up and down, some may be remote controlled. But ultimately, the important point is that the switch is connected to the electric circuit board and then the power comes off when you activate the switch.
So, similarly, in this world, different living beings may be in different forms and some people may appear to be more Krishna conscious, some people may be appear to less, some people may not at all Krishna conscious, some people may be appear to be anti-Krishna conscious. But in all of them, the Lord is present and in all of them, the awareness of the presence of the Lord, their Krishna consciousness can be activated. So, that is the vision.
And the most important application of this vision is to ourselves. Within our heart also the Lord is present and we can all activate our awareness of his presence through the consistent practice of devotional service. Sometimes when we chant, we may feel our heart to be spiritually dead.
We feel as if there is nothing that we want to do, that nothing happens when we chant. But if we still keep chanting steadily, we will find miraculously that our consciousness does move higher and upward and we start relishing Krishna consciousness far more than what we have ever relished. And that’s how we make spiritual advancement.
Steady, step by step. Because the Lord is present everywhere, if just we were to become aware of his presence and we have the capacity to be aware of his presence, we just have to activate that capacity by the cultivation of devotion.