The God who conceals his divinity so that love can reign supreme (Janmashtami Meditation)

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors. Hare Krishna Krishna is the God who conceals his Godhood so that love can reign supreme on the occasion of Janmashtami let us contemplate on the speciality indeed the uniqueness of the conception of Krishna as God the word God invokes many different images in different people’s minds some people think of him as a cosmic ruler seated on a fulgent throne in the high sky others envision him as a ageless sage with a long beard and a beatific smile some others conceive of him as a all pervasive light of indescribable intensity whatever be the different ways in which people conceive God surely they won’t conceive him as a bluish black complexioned peacock feather wearing flute playing sixteen year old lad or would they in fact millions and millions and millions of people in India and now increasingly in various parts of the world hold indeed such a person to be God that person is Krishna Krishna as God is a youth who delights in the pastoral paradise of Vrindavan and he is a dramatically different conception of God from the conceptions that have been held by most people in the western world now what exactly is this conception of God which has attracted so many people and the idea of God as a lad would normally not merit serious attention of people that’s what we would think but it has merited serious attention not just of millions of people among the masses but even scores of some of the most brilliant brains some of the deepest thinkers in the Vedantic Hindu tradition have adored Krishna as God why is that? to understand the beauty of the conception of Krishna as God let’s contrast it with conventional notions of God and his perfection often God has been conceived as perfect being, yes of course he is perfect because he is supreme he is all power, he is omniscient omnipotent, omnipresent so he is perfect, now what is the nature of the perfection of God sometimes that has been thought of like a frozen perfection, suppose an artist is making a painting and while making the painting the painting becomes more and more richer and it comes to its zenith and at that point the artist puts one dab more and the painting becomes perfect, now if one dab less and the painting is less than perfect, one dab more and the painting is again lost its perfection so the perfection of the painting is frozen it is at that stage alone that the painting is perfect not one stroke less, not one stroke more now God is the perfect being now normally we do something or the other because we either need something or we have some desires for something need something or we want something now either needing or wanting both are stages of imperfection, if we were perfect the conception goes that if God were perfect then God would not need or want anything and because actions are motivated by needing or wanting then God would not do any actions, so God would be like a frozen perfection now if God were like that then certainly there might be from a particular analytical perspective such a conception of God being considered perfect but from the perspective of appeal aesthetic appeal for the heart such a conception would have no appeal because after all how can we love someone who doesn’t do anything at all, who has no desires nothing at all except just existence so the devotional Vedantic tradition reveals a different dimension of God’s perfection a dimension in which God’s perfection is not passive but active and dynamic here God is not a judge or a sage he does does other roles but God in his highest abode is a lover and in fact he is the perfect lover and his abode is the perfect setting for love now normally when two lovers love each other the whole world stops for them and they become lost in each other that losing oneself in another in one’s beloved is the is considered a zenith of love in fact even higher than that would be if not just everything else stops but everything else contributes to the love so if two people are absorbed in each other and at that time the atmosphere also becomes romantic there is gentle breeze slight rains and birds are chirping in the background there is a beautiful garden then that adds to the sweetness of the love so when God is the perfect being and his perfection is the perfection of the perfect lover and that’s why in his highest abode there he has a setting that is perfect for love and in the highest abode which is the pastoral paradise of Vrindavan Krishna rejoices in pure eternal love and everything and everyone over there contribute to the reciprocation of love so God is the father of everyone but God lets some people accept the role some of his lovers, some of his devotees accept the role of his father, his mother, his friend so that he can reciprocate love and although God has his devotees playing all these roles still they cannot love him purely without inhibition as long as they think of him as God and that’s why to remove this last inhibition to the smooth flow of love Krishna conceals his Godhood and that abode where Krishna conceals his Godhood is Vrindavan so here Krishna just acts as a simple coward supremely attractive but still a simple coward not even the king of cowards he is the prince of the cowards is one among them and still unique among them and there he becomes the heartthrob of everyone in Vrindavan by being so endearingly attractive not as God the Vrajivasis don’t know him as God they know him as just the most endearing member in their community and Krishna conceals his Godhood so that they can love him in that way and in this way in this abode of Vrindavan it is love that reigns supreme God subordinates his supremacy so that love can reign supreme and it is this special conception of God where his bluish black complexion, where his peacock feather, where his flute where his youthfulness all these contribute to the intensification of that love and it is that Lord who loves love so much that the Lord puts aside his own supremacy and lets love reign supreme, it is that Lord who descends to this world on the occasion of Janmashtami and by his mercy love can reign supreme in our heart too and when love for him and love for everyone’s relationship with him reigns supreme in our heart then we attain life’s highest fulfillment and we can share that fulfillment with others thus bringing light and love to a dark and gloomy world Thank you.