Understanding Krishna’s love for us

Lecture ppt

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
and we accept also God as ok so we discussed this topic of permission Krishna of love for us we often hear that Krishna is the best object for our love by loving him we will fulfil our longing for love perfectly so how is that we will try to analyse this in 5 terms today these will be the 5 main points I will discuss in this class so first point I will read out these points and then I will explain each of these points and then we will have question and answer at the end of the class so first point is loving Krishna enables our love to break free of all limitations so our love our love is what we love Krishna, Krishna loves us so both these points we will discuss that when we direct our love towards Krishna our love will break free from all limitations from all limitations that is the point from our love’s perspective whom should I choose to love because my love itself will develop more it will break free from all limitations then again we look at towards Krishna Krishna is a femininely lovable person we will discuss why he is femininely lovable among there are so many people and things which we love Krishna is supremely lovable why we discuss that and then another point is that Krishna loves all of us impartially he is impartial in offering his love to all of us and the fourth point is his love for us is unconditional in this world people are neither impartial nor unconditional people are neither impartial nor unconditional and that is what often causes lot of hard work in a school in a classroom professors may be impartial to some students and there will be always some sort of nepotism that happens in politics parents may also find they may love one child more than the other child so there is so much discrimination like that but then Krishna loves all of us impartially and unconditionally and then normally that if we want to love him Krishna uses omnipotence he engages omnipotence to help us when we try to love him when we choose to love him he helps us all the way so that is not always the case or very rarely the case when people want to love somebody that person may not be interested at all so let’s discuss these points one by one and we will discuss some past times of Krishna also along the way so first is loving Krishna enables our love to break free from all limitations so what are the limitations there are two main limitations to our love when we love someone we hesitate because that person may just reject our love so the movies all talk about romance between a boy and a girl and they also talk about heartbreaks they also talk about heartbreaks and there are always that fear a boy may go and propose to a girl and the girl will just slap him and go away that is rejected intensely or at best when the relationship develops often we find that person is not all that I imagined that person to be so it may be reciprocated inadequately that person doesn’t love us back although we love that person that person doesn’t love us back and the second point is when we love one person it often loving one person limits us we can’t love others let’s look at the first point as I was mentioning in this world love is in one sense the deepest fascination so for most in most people’s minds love and lust are actually inextricably interlinked and people can’t really differentiate between them so I’m not going here into the difference between love and lust let’s stick to what people call as love but even in that love so often it is not reciprocated and even if there is reciprocation often it’s inadequate it’s temporary and a blast from it the movies talk about happily ever after this is exactly the opposite of what Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells this word is happily ever after happily opposite to ever after is so actually it’s just not true no matter how much the heart longs for everlasting love it’s just not fulfilled in this world so actually what happens is the loving relationships in this world are temporary at best at worst they can be very hard bridge there are so many sufferings that happen and because there is a fear we can’t even offer our love but now what about Krishna Krishna is the supreme person and he is all the time and he fully reciprocates 4.11 he says that as long as you surrender to me I will reward you accordingly so actually his reward is not it’s proportionate to our surrender but proportionate doesn’t mean it is just if I offer one drop of love Krishna will offer me one drop of love if you offer him one drop of love he offers an ocean of love afterwards because he is unlimited and his love for us is also unlimited so that’s why actually when we love him he reciprocates and that’s why when we understand how wonderful Krishna is and how he understands us sometimes you may love a person but you may not be able to express that love within words or actions or you may not be able to express that love and then what happens our love gets chained in between but Krishna understands this and he is omniscient and that’s why offering a drop of love he recognises that he relishes that reciprocates by offering an ocean of love so every single drop of love that you offer Krishna his hand will cherish and return multiply and manifold by you so the hand is how this limitation, this worry that my love cannot be reciprocated the hand is removed with the direct and love of Krishna secondly, the problem is when I love one person then what happens I can’t love others, my love becomes restricted this happens in many cases that’s simply because not just because of social morality but also because of human limitations human prejudices if I develop a relationship with one person then every relationship requires time every relationship requires energy and then if I love one person then I can’t love another person sometimes you see sometimes people think in the past the kings had cowhides and they must have had so much enjoyment because they had so many cowhides but practically every story in the Bhagavatam you see with cowhides, there is a big quarrel in between the cowhides look, can you imagine family members only living together and it’s one thing to be envious of another person but can you imagine envy going to such an extent that a cowhide killing a small baby of another wife how much must have been animosity or you can see one cowhide plotting to have the son of another cowhide inside and so what happens over there is that the love becomes limited so as soon as Dashrath actually Kaushalya was the eldest queen and she wasn’t like main queen but Kaikeyi was very attractive and after he married Kaikeyi Kaikeyi was actually little younger also so he was spending a lot of time with her and then Kaushalya accepted gracefully but then when Ram was to become the king Kaikeyi felt that actually if Ram becomes the king with Kaushalya as son then Kaushalya will become the mother of the king and then my position will be lost and because of that what happened that she succumbed to the machinations of Manthara and then the whole tragedy happened so when now Dashrath had known that he was just a human being he was just a man and he fell in love with Kaikeyi that was ok that was a small weakness but the thing is the reaction that came was so terrible similarly the same happened with Chitraketu he won by giving a child he actually gives him more affection but he neglected others so what happens when we love one person our capacity to be or love can be limited we can’t love others and then that also creates even in a normal case of life it happens that the mother cuddles and grows up the child and the child gets married actually the mother wants the child to get married but after the son gets married then one of the most painful realisations for the mother is that I am no longer the most important woman in my son’s life he values someone else’s opinions more than mine and I mean it’s just the way nature grows up so by nature our love is limited and that’s why it cannot we feel that if I love someone then I am not able to love someone else that’s why better let me stay with you we may not even think of these reasons but these are subconscious checks to our love which keep our love constant now you may say won’t that happen if I love Krishna also if I chant Hare Krishna I don’t get time to spend with my family members I don’t get time to spend with people isn’t loving Krishna also limiting my capacity to love it may seem that way at a material level but if you understand Krishna is not just another person like so many other people Krishna is actually the supreme person he is the source of everyone and when he is the source of everyone when we love him through him our love goes to everyone and more importantly when we love Krishna through us our love goes to others through us his love goes to others two different things here I mean I try to love someone here then I can’t love someone else my love becomes limited but when I love Krishna then Krishna is the pivot of all existence he is the lover of everyone in all existence and when we love him through him our love goes to others actually speaking when we learn to love Krishna then we become more sensitive, more tolerant, more humble more kind and overall we become more like that’s simply in terms of the improvement of qualities but apart from that also what happens when we love Krishna Krishna loves us and Krishna uses us as his instrument to express love to his other children and that’s why in exalted devotees one spiritual master may have thousands of disciples but so many disciples actually feel valued and cherished by the spiritual master they could inspire so many people not just his love that he is giving he is giving Krishna’s love so that is how when we love Krishna our love breaks free of limitations the restriction first restriction is it may not be reciprocated second restriction is that it may get limited to one and go away from the other that’s how Prabhupada would say that when he talks about sectarian we have so many sectarian divisions I am Indian I am fair, I am tall I am man and in all the divisions it also includes I am a Hindu, I am a student, I am a Christian all these are meant to help us love God but sometimes there may also be restrictions to our love so all such that’s why the Bhagavad Gita is so dramatic when people may say it’s a Hindu book yes at that one level Hindus accept it as a holy book Bhagavad Gita does not use the word Hindu and more importantly Bhagavad Gita does not contain all the Dharma what it means is the Dharma are various systems which are meant to gradually help us develop our love for Krishna but subordinate all the Dharmas to the Dharma of love mahekam sharanam vraja so in this way our love breaks free of all limitations when we learn to love Krishna now let’s move forward and look at Krishna’s love so let me after looking at how our love breaks free of limitations now let’s move the focus to Krishna and now let’s focus on Krishna’s love we’ll come to Krishna’s love later let’s focus on Krishna’s lovability lovability means why is Krishna so lovable he is eminently lovable now of course one thing we know is that he has all six opulences we all know that so I’m not going to go into that too much over here now what does it mean when we say Krishna has six opulences it means that whatever we find attractive in this world all that is attractive in this world is present in Krishna all is attractive so for example when I’m coming to that see if in this world we find that we are attracted to different kinds of people now Krishna talks in the 10th chapter vibhuti yoga vibhuti yoga is what that how things in this world attract us they get their attractive potential from Krishna so for example among mountains the tallest mountains among immovable objects among the water bodies in the ocean these because of their bigness or otherwise their specialness they attract our attention and attraction so Krishna says they get their attractive potency from me that means instead of whatever attraction we are experiencing towards the objects in this world they are manifesting only a spark of Krishna and the spark can attract us so much so much you know people are ready to live down their lives just because they love some fan some big cricket or some sports star you know that person doesn’t perform well simply shut oceans of tears you know now in Pune we built a temple a temple worth 30 crores now Maharashtrian cricketer he retired and they decided to make a temple for him a museum of all his cricketing exploits outplayed against batting angels and that museum is 50 crores now what are they doing is this basically misdirecting the same kind of image the point is that if a spark can attract so much love then how much will the whole attract that’s what is the point so Krishna is immediately attractive because he is the possessor of six opulences that means whatever we find attractive in anyone all that and more is present in Krishna so we have a choice between infinite longings or longing for the infinite choice between infinite longings, why infinite longings because when we love some object in this world actually that object will satisfy us for some time and then that object will let us go because nothing in this world will satisfy us so even if somebody is the god of cricket what happens the god goes out of form and then people don’t know what to do and then the same god, they want the god to retire quickly and then the god retires they say oh god has retired, what is going to happen to cricket now so what happens so in this world when we direct our longing towards the sparks, see there is darkness so spark will use an illumination but the spark cannot use enough illumination to properly illuminate the whole room or illuminate the way but still it is complete darkness, spark will still attract but then one spark gives an illumination in some way and then it dies out and you have to look for another spark and this process just goes on and on and on that’s why when we direct our love towards the things of this world there is infinite longings long for this and long for that and long for that and it just goes the longing just goes for a long, long, long time this goes on till we learn to long for the infinite when we direct our longing towards Krishna, then our longing becomes satisfied yad yad vibhuti mat sattvam shri madhur chittam eravam tattva devavah gacchattvam kumate jyonshya sambhavam so in 10.41 Krishna says that all all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from what is called the past mind so our process is not the rejection of the beauty of this world somebody is a great cricketer now we just don’t at one level we say all cricket is maya and all this is nonsense that is one way of looking at it but even within that if somebody is a great cricketer, the person has some skills sometimes some extraordinary talent the person has so if we are attracted to a talent we understand it this talent, where does it come from? it comes from Krishna’s heart so Krishna is in this sense the evidently lovable object now going further, not only is Krishna lovable in terms of possessing all opulences Krishna is also lovable in terms that of the fact that he is extremely loving in fact he is so loving that he loves loves so much that he renounces his godhood to Rakeshra he renounces his godhood how can some what do you mean by Krishna renounces his godhood actually in the Abrahamic religious traditions there is the conception of god as a very great and powerful being and often the conception of god is a wise old man with a long beard sitting on a cloud throwing down hundred bolts to the sinful to cast them to hell forever so this sort of conception is there and when people with this conception are god is sitting on a huge throne somewhere up in the sky and then these people go to India and then in India they saw where these pictures of Krishna putting his hand in a butter pot and his mouth is what is this this is god this is god what is he doing stealing butter this just became intellectually shocking they couldn’t digest the idea how can this small child be god why does he have to steal he has to steal butter of all things western people they can’t understand Indians fascination with cows they have made a statement there is a phrase used in English called Holy Cow Holy Cow means that means something that is an irrational object of reverence this is the Holy Cow so for example they say that some scientists they say that Newtonian physics is the Holy Cow of physics that means what Newtonian physics is outdated now we have to use radiative physics or we have to use quantum physics but then because Newton was so much respected so they consider Newtonian physics so they say that Holy Cow they just don’t understand it why do Indians respect it so much but that’s because Krishna loves cows Krishna loves cows similarly they can’t understand why Indians are fascinated with butter what is so special about butter so actually God is a father to all the Indians but Krishna is a very special revelation of God this is a little philosophical concept to understand in the western traditions people conceive of God Aristotle conceived of God before Christ so what happens if you read the Bible there is not much philosophy in the Bible the Bible is basically historical stories of the Old Testament and Jesus’ parable is the New Testament not much philosophy so when the Christian evangelists in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th centuries they came from the Middle East they went towards Europe evangelising Europe they realised that we actually don’t have much philosophy and that’s why they saw where is the philosophy available it is in the Greek tradition and then they tried to synthesise Biblical theology and Greek philosophy and there are two primary Christian evangelists who did this so in the 3rd, 4th centuries they sent Augustine who tried to integrate Biblical theology with the teachings of Plato so in the Greek tradition Socrates was considered a very great philosopher but he did not write anything so whatever we know about Socrates is true Plato because Plato wrote it down and he systematised and he extended things also so Augustine integrated Plato’s philosophy with Biblical theology and later on after the 1st millennia 11th, 12th, 13th century Thomas Aquinas was another great Christian theologian and he went back again to the Greek philosophy at that time during the Byzantine Empire another Greek philosopher Aristotle his writings were discovered and then Aquinas combined Aristotle’s ideas so these are the two main strands of philosophy in Christianity see the Bible is not philosophical but that does not mean Christianity is not philosophical Christianity has its philosophy which is integration of Bible with pre-Biblical Greek theology so anyway what I am making this point is that Aristotle had the idea of God as an unmoved mover unmoved mover what does that mean? that means that his idea is God is the perfect being and if he is the perfect being then he doesn’t have to do anything because in this world if we do something because something is missing in our world or something is missing in the outer world either I have to say something right and that’s why I do something because I have some desire or I have to do something because I see something wrong which I want to correct so his idea is if God is perfect then he would not have any desires and if he would not have any desires then he would not do anything and now the idea of God became like a frozen perfection frozen perfection means what? if an artist is making a painting at that time when you are making a painting there is a stage by which the art evolves and then as you add more lines add a few dabs over here add a few paints over there it becomes richer and richer and it’s like a curve which goes to a peak and then starts coming down at a particular point you add one dab it becomes perfect but if you put some more dabs over there then the perfection gets lost so for an artwork to be perfect it’s just that level of dabs you have to come and stop so a painting in order to be perfect has to be frozen so the idea was that God has to be a frozen perfection so God changes in any way when his perfection is lost so then with this conception God may be analytically perfect but such a frozen conception of God is not particularly lovable it’s not a particularly lovable conception God has no desires God doesn’t do anything so the bhakti literature offers an alternative conception of perfection the perfection of God is not analytical perfection it is an aesthetic perfection what do we mean by analytical and aesthetic see if I look at a flower, a beautiful rose flower now a rose flower its beauty can trigger emotions within us, aesthetic emotions within us, but if I approach a rose flower with an analytical perspective, analytical perspective means in the eye of a botanist and I see oh there is an Andrusian here there is a Danishian here, there are carpels over here and then I start analysing the whole structure now what happens, in the analysis the aesthetics get lost is point clear when I go into analysis the aesthetic appearance is dim because I am just analysing I go into the functional aspects so the analytical view and the aesthetic view are two different things and this concept of analytic is not important it has its importance but for but for in the analytical way of understanding emotions are an obstacle isn’t it I get emotional, oh this rose is so beautiful and then I remember long 25 years ago some girl who I gave a rose flower like that and unfortunately she left me and she went away to some other man and tears are came in my eyes and I don’t even see the rose ever again so what happens, then when I am trying to do analysis, emotions come in the way but actually if I want to do aesthetic study then emotions are the way if I look at a rose and I don’t feel anything at all then I don’t have any I can’t get any aesthetic appearance in front of me so this is essentially the difference between a Jnanamal and a Bhaktimal in Jnanamal emotions come in the way and therefore give up emotions eradicate emotions and then you will come to reality Bhaktimal says actually what we need is not eradication of emotions we need elevation of emotions elevate our emotions from material things to Krishna and when we approach Krishna we have to approach him not so much the analytical perspective now we are doing analysis but our analysis is for the purpose of elevation we want to direct our perception so the Bhakti traditions offer us a different conception of the perfection of God they say God is a loving and lovable person and that’s the perfection of love is not that everything is frozen for all time to come, sometimes people who love each other they click photos and they keep sweet memories after some time that is the only sweet thing that remains in the relationship everything else becomes bitter but anyway the point is people have the idea of sweet memories so the idea is that now they want to freeze those memories but what is frozen is not everything, in that moment our love is there so what makes the moment memorable is the presence of love so the perfection is that everything else stops so that love can go on everything else stops so that love can go on so Godavarana is such a place where everything else stops so that just the love between Krishna and his youth can go on if I go one step higher it is what everything else doesn’t just stop so that the love of Krishna and his youth can go on everything else contributes to the love of Krishna so in a movie when they have they want to show some love between the hero and the heroine at that time what do they show they don’t show suddenly some crowded street with a bus going by and a truck hall going they show some nice scenic forest with some greenery and maybe some rains falling and some peacocks dancing and some nightingale chirping that’s a romantic setting so why because the setting can either contribute or detract from the love so the Vedic understanding of the perfection of love is that everything contributes to the reciprocation of love and now when the devotees love Krishna which is a perfect setting and Krishna loves the devotees there is one thing that inhibits the reciprocation of love and that is the awareness of God’s love this is God, he is the greatest person he is all about you that just awareness of love and reverence cheats the love and that’s why what God does is he conceals his love why? so that love can go on unimpeded so Krishna is the father of all living beings but he becomes a child why? so that love can go unimpeded that’s the meaning of he loves love so much that he renounces his Godhood so that so as to relish love devotees can love him and then he can love his devotees back so आईश्वर शितील प्रेम नाई क्रिष्णे विद्धी Jeta Janmabal said that so actually if there is Aishwar there is an opulence and that makes Shikhi that makes the love a little bit dull and Krishna doesn’t enjoy that kind of love so that is the kind of love which is in Vaikuntha there is a pure love in Goloka so this is Krishna and now that’s how all these pastimes are there so now when Krishna has become a small baby that is for what he is a small child and so that those people who want to love in a parental love you know we can oh this is just a small sweet loving little child I can love him whole heartedly the mother wants to love a child and she wants to take the child in her lap now the child is you know 2-3 times bigger than her how can she take him in her lap so then that love is difficult so Krishna becomes a small so like that he conceals his God but not only that all this is very fine but Krishna is loving his devotees in the spiritual world what about I am lost here I am suffering here does Krishna care for me actually he has believed in the devotees in the spiritual world he has their love but he considers our love for him invaluable irreplaceable and indispensable invaluable means it’s a very great pleasure for him he wants it and he wants it desperately in fact you know in Ramacharya and his commentary it was a very beautiful explanation of the Bhagavad Gita 7.17 7.17 says Krishna in 7.16 talks about the 4 kinds of people who surrender to him Chitravidha, Vijanatema, Janasukrti Arjuna, Artha, Vijnasa, Radhartha, Gyaniricha, Bharata, Arishabha When he said, the folk and the people, the next verse he says in 1.17, उदारः सर्वेनिवैते ज्ञानित्वात्मेवसेन्मत्मतं आस्तितस्युत्तात्माहावेवातं तमांकते उदारः सर्वेनिवैते They’re all very large hearted. Now, what is the word उदार्णार्, नामं पैदार्णार्, पादार्णार्, mean? उदार्णार्? Charity.
Charity. Why is Krishna calling these people as उदार्णार्? First of all, they are not even beautiful. They have come because of some material misery.
They have come towards Krishna. Isn’t it? So, when they have come towards Krishna because of some material problem, why is he calling them उदार्णार्? He says, Krishna controls everything in all of existence. Except one.
And that is our heart. Our heart. He controls everything except our heart.
Except our love. And he is hungry for love. And he feels that if a soul starts loving him, even if it is for a material motive, he feels, oh, this soul is loving me.
I am so grateful to this soul. You are so charitable that you are offering your love to me. उदार्णार् सर्वरिये So, Krishna considers his love invaluable, precious for us.
It is precious for him. When we offer our love, he says, oh, you are so charitable. Invaluable and irreplaceable.
Sometimes, if somebody has a 10-15 pen, you lose one pen, it doesn’t matter. You don’t even care for it. So, Krishna has a love of billions and billions of souls.
But, if one soul moves away, he misses that soul. Because it is irreplaceable. Okay, I can’t replace it, but I don’t need it also.
I can’t get a new one, but I don’t need it. Not like that also. Indispensable.
I can’t live without it. That’s why Krishna numbers people. We will discuss that later.
More in detail. But the point is, Krishna has a love of invaluable, irreplaceable and indispensable. And that is why he comes all the way to the spiritual world in the material world.
To interact with family. And you know, this is a vision that does justice to God’s love for us. And this is actually what the Abrahamic religions don’t do.
They are also, in one sense, God’s revelations. But when they say that, you know, this is the only way to God. We shall go back to the Father only through me and through no one else.
Actually, they have been injustice to God’s love. They are restricting Him. Mahabharata Madadana says that there are as many incarnations as there are waves in the ocean.
Now, how many waves are there in the ocean? Unlimited. There are unlimited incarnations in the ocean. Why? Because His love for us is unlimited.
Because His love for us is unlimited, it happens again and again and again and again. And He tries to attract us back. That’s how we understand that He is so lovable in terms of, first of all, having six opulences.
Being the reservoir of everything that attracts us. And being so loving that He gives up His Godhood. Normally, everybody wants to be considered great and powerful and respected by others.
He says, I don’t want respect, I only want love. And if respect comes in the way of love, I conceal my respect so that there can be affection. So, He gives up His Godhood so that love can reign supreme.
And not only that, it’s not only those who love Him. But even those who don’t love Him, He loves them also. So, when we understand a person is so loving, naturally we feel inspired to love.
Because Krishna is eminently lovable. Then, Krishna loves all of us impartially. This is something we have carefully understood.
What do we mean by Krishna’s impartiality? Actually, this is a question that comes up in the 7th Canto, 1st Chapter. What is asked by Parikshit Maharaj is, Krishna kills the demons and He takes care of the devotees. So, how is He impartial? So, Krishna also points to this in 9.29 in the Bhagavad Gita.
समोहं सर्वभूतेशु नमे इद्वेश्योंस्ति नप्याः जिवजन्ति तुम्ह भत्याः वही ते तेशु जात्याः So, this actually talks about two distinct points. First thing He says is, samoham, unequalled love. And that’s what He reinforces in the 2nd line.
Normally, when scholars study the Gita, they want to refer to the Gita specifically. So, 9.29, 1st line is called a 9.29b. 2nd line is 9.29b. समोहं सर्वभूतेशु is 9.29a. नमे इद्वेश्योंस्ति नप्याः is 9.29b. ये भजन्ति तुम्ह भत्याः is c. And मैं ते तेशु जात्याः is d. So, 9.29a and 9.29b refer to the impartiality of Krishna. I love everyone.
I am not partial to anyone. But immediately there seems to be some change in that. In c.i.t. he is saying ये भजन्ति तुम्ह भत्याः Those who love me, मैं ते तेशु जात्याः He doesn’t say I love them, he says I am in them and they are in me.
This is actually a very intimate expression of love. I am in them. We do love each other.
It’s almost like a romantic declaration of love. I am in them, they are in me. So, मैं ते तेशु जात्याः So, what is Krishna saying over here? Is he partial or is he not partial? He is saying I am equal, but he is saying I especially love my devotees also.
So, you have to understand when we talk about Krishna as a person this impartiality impartiality is not neutrality. Neutrality is a stone like neutrality. If I look at this mic and I say this mic is transmitting my speech so nicely.
But this mic is creating so much dissonance. So, I am arguing. But the mic is dead, the mic card doesn’t work.
Isn’t it? That is the dead stone like neutrality. Now, when there is stone like neutrality in principle it may seem good but in person actually it will put out. How do you develop a relationship with a person which is stone like neutral? Suppose there is some speaker on this nice path and after that you go and have a relationship very nicely.
This is not the stone like neutrality. Isn’t it? How do you develop a relationship with a person? So, you know Krishna’s neutrality or Krishna’s impartiality is not the neutrality of a stone. If there is neutrality like that then there is no love possible.
Krishna’s impartiality is reciprocity. If you take one step towards me I will take steps towards you. Not just one, I will take a thousand steps towards you.
But he is a reciprocal person. And reciprocity is what makes love possible. I said reciprocity that makes his personality emotionally tangible and emulates love.
You can’t love a person who is stone like neutral. You take some steps towards loving and that person loves you back. That’s how relationships develop.
So, is Krishna partial to his devotees? Yes. He takes special care of his devotees. He does love his devotees.
But then, he is not secretive about his partiality. In this world, say, there is a big politician and he gives some job to his relatives. Don’t tell anyone.
Why? Because everybody will come here and demand favours from him. So, when people are partial what happens is they want to conceal it so that they are not exposed as being double standards or something like that. But what Krishna does is he says I am partial to my devotees but then he declares his partiality openly and he opens the department of devotion for everyone.
In the same chapter, 9.21 here what he is saying that I love my devotees. But just after that, two verses later, 9.32 Krishna says that everyone can love. Krishna says that even those who are no more the women, the shudras, the vaishyas even they take shelter of me they will attain the supreme destination.
So, I will just take a small detour over here before coming back to the topic of love. This verse illustrates a very important principle in scriptural hermeneutics. Hermeneutics, if you remember, yesterday I mentioned is the art of interpreting or understanding scripture, hermeneutics.
So, we should not equate what is present in scripture with what is the teaching of scripture. I will repeat. We should not equate what is present in scripture with what is the teaching of scripture.
So, for example, this verse says, let me give you a drastic example first, then I will come back. For example now, in the Ramayana, we should kill all the cows. Now, this statement is present in the Ramayana.
But is that the teaching of Ramayana? Obviously not. This is very easy to understand because the demon is swinging over here. So, that is easy to understand that what is in scripture is not necessarily the teaching of scripture.
But similarly, scripture may also refer to something circumstantial that is present at that time and that is not the emphasis of the scripture. So, for example, some people say, Oh, the Bhagavad Gita is about sexism. It says women are sinful.
They say yes. Now, is it against women? Now, you see, what is the stress of this verse? The stress of the verse is not that women are not evil. The stress of this verse is what? That even those who may be called Bapayodayas, Trioshas, Shudras, they can also be elevated by God.
So, Krishna is referring to a prevailing conception at that time. Yes, some people are considered low birth. But that doesn’t matter.
So, what is Krishna doing over here? He is just offering a nominal tip of the hat to a prevailing cultural conception. But he is saying, as soon as he offers a tip of hat, then he uses directly transcendental message. Which says, all these definitions, all these definitions don’t matter.
Even they can be elevated by God. So, Bhakti actually transcends these limitations which may be induced by birth or gender or caste or things like that. So, anyway, the point which I was making over here is, Krishna is partial to his devotees.
But, he declares his partiality openly and then he opens the doors of devotion to everyone. It’s like a king in the kingdom says, anybody who lives in this part of the kingdom, he will not have to pay any taxes. In fact, I will give a free salary to that person.
But Krishna, why are you partial to that person? You come and stay over there, you will also get it. He is a writer of Vyasa-Vedas. You come there, you will get it.
So, that’s why Krishna is impartially partial. What does that mean? He is partial to his devotees, but he impartially opens the doors of devotion to everyone. Whoever wants, they can become devotees.
And in this way, he is impartially partial. And, what this means is that he actually loves all of us impartially. Now, next point is Krishna’s love for us is unconditional.
Now, impartial means, more love for one and less love for another. That is one thing. Unconditionality means, what is my condition? Does that determine Krishna’s love? Now, when you say yes, Krishna loves everyone, it’s conditional, isn’t it? He says, surrender to me.
He is asking for something. How can you say it’s unconditional? There is a subtle point we have to understand. First, we have to understand the difference between the objective facts of Krishna’s love and our subjective experience of his love.
So, what does this mean? Suppose, I am in a dark cellar. The sun is still giving light. That is an objective fact.
But my subjective experience is that I am not able to see the light. Why am I not able to see? Because I am in a dark place. So, objectively, Krishna always loves us.
He always loves all of us. Normally, we hear about Krishna to be Bhaktavatsara. But Lord Maharaj, in one of his prayers, he says, Krishna, he called Narasimha Deva as Krupana Vatsala.
You are not his Bhaktavatsara. You are Krupana Vatsala. Krupana Vatsala means you love even the Krupanas.
Krupanas are misers. They hold their love and don’t give it to Krishna. They just leave it.
He loves them also. So, in that sense, from the fact point of view, Krishna’s love is unconditional. He loves all of us.
But you may say, what is the use? If I can’t experience Krishna’s love, whether the love is there or not, how different will it make to me? I am not getting the light of the sun. It is practically the same as there being no sun. So, it’s conditional in one sense.
Because I have to come out of the shell. Isn’t it? Or let’s take another example. The sun is always giving light, but if my eyes are closed, I can’t feel the sun’s light.
So, now, to understand how Krishna’s love is unconditional, let’s look more closely at the word condition. The word condition can have two meanings. One is, as it’s read over here, it can refer to a demand that needs to be met for something to be valid.
Sometimes say, you may have a job. And you get a job. And then you tell, your job is conditional to your passing your graduation exam.