When Krishna is so loving, why is loving him so difficult?

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Transcript

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Thank you Krishna is so loving and we want to love Krishna, we want to devote ourselves to Krishna but still the mind is so complex, it distracts in so many ways and the whole process becomes very difficult so why is it so difficult? Yeah in general love is tested through difficulty anybody can say that I love you but then actually whether that love is just infatuation or whether that is a commitment that is tested through difficulty so now when I say love is tested through difficulty there are two things in it that love already exists but whether it exists or not we come to know when there is difficulty but the other is that when there is difficulty and one strives to love, by that the love grows also so in the process of, in our practice of bhakti essentially when we say that there are difficulties what exactly are the difficulties? Essentially the world offers us alternatives to Krishna Why don’t you try this? Why don’t you try that? The alternatives to Krishna that we can have other objects of love we can have other objects which will provide us happiness that is the fundamental driving principle of this world Once Srila Prabhupada was asked that if our purpose is to serve Krishna why is Maya so strong? Srila Prabhupada replied because your purpose is not strong because your purpose is not strong that means that whenever the mind provides any help to the world, causes any difficulties essentially what is it doing? It is offering us an alternative to Krishna that alternative can come in two ways one is pleasure Oh you just give Krishna bhakti, there is so much pleasure available over here and the other is problems What are you doing chanting Hare Krishna? You have to solve this problem, you have to solve that So both ways through temptation and through tribulation the mind internally the world externally they try to distract us from Krishna So now if we accept this if there are problems we have to do something practical to deal with them but that doesn’t mean we have to give up Krishna bhakti practicing for dealing with the problem we can remember to Krishna, pray to Krishna seek his guidance and deal with the problem also but the mind offers us alternatives and to the extent we get caught by those alternatives to that extent our bhakti stays unsteady and to the extent we refuse to get caught by the alternatives our bhakti becomes steady So why are all these alternatives there at all? That is because we ourselves have had those desires or have those desires So just like in an exam as multiple choice exam see now I was just a few months ago in Melbourne so I gave a similar class, one devotee asked over there you know he said why are there so many wrong options in the world as compared to the right option so why is it like that? So I answered that’s always the way it is in any multiple choice exam in every multiple choice exam there is only one right alternative four wrong alternatives and we could vary if success in a multiple choice exam depended on just the number of right and wrong alternatives our success percentage would only be 20% and then we could blame the teacher why are there so many wrong alternatives but in an exam the wrong multiple choice exam the wrong alternatives their purpose is not to make us go on the wrong track make us tick the wrong option but they test us so that when we tick the right option we get marks so like that in life when we face problems if we take shelter of Krishna by that we realize the reality of Krishna in life when temptations come at that time also we take shelter of Krishna then we realize that whatever pleasure might have been there in this the enrichment the fulfillment in Krishna is far greater so in that sense both of these alternatives multiple options that come they are meant to make us move closer towards Krishna and to the extent we study scripture nicely to the extent it’s like a student studies and then goes for the exam goes for exam without studying then doing the exam is like doing guess work it’s unlikely that the student will get that tick the right option regularly so like that if we do not have shastra chakshu then we will get overwhelmed so many things to do so many distractions but if we study shastra regularly then we are going into the multiple choice exam of life but we are going in with knowledge and we will be able to tick the right options and although there is difficulty with each hurdle that we cross we are moving closer to Krishna and we are moving closer towards eternal life and eternal love so the difficulties are primarily there because in our own mind there are desires for alternatives so we need to slowly reject those desires and as we reject those desires then the difficulties will become lesser and lesser in terms that difficulty will be there but we will be able to by the shastra of Krishna go beyond those difficulties tolerate those difficulties and transcend those difficulties and the difficulties that are there they are also at one level they are for our purification now when we say purification what does it mean purification essentially means that we reject the wrong alternatives the impure alternatives and we focus on the pure alternatives but for advanced devotees the difficulties that are there they are for their glorification that in spite of having so many difficulties still they chose Krishna and that becomes an inspiration for others so the difficulties are rather than seeing them as difficulties primarily we can see them as opportunities to express our love for Krishna just like in the spiritual world it is said there are kalpatarus there are desire-fulfilling trees so whatever we desire we get from those trees but till now whatever past time I have read whether in Kanto or previous Acharya’s books hardly any nowhere have I seen when Radha nani is cooking for Krishna she doesn’t just tell a kalpataru give this, give this, give this when Yashoda bhai is cooking for Krishna she doesn’t just tell the kalpataru give this, give this, give this they actually go through the effort of cooking for Krishna why is that? we know in the third Kanto also it is said there is no dust in Vaikuntha but still the goddess of Lakshmi is cleaning the palace in Vaikuntha why? because that is how she expresses her love so even in the spiritual world their love is not just an abstract emotion it is a tangibly it is a tangible expression of that love through activity and that activity often involves taking up difficulty so if we focus only on the difficulty we will think there are so many difficulties but if we see the difficulty as an opportunity to express our love for Krishna then that difficulty will rather than making us difficulty conscious it can make us Krishna conscious and through that not only will we go closer to Krishna but actually because we are remembering Krishna we will even now experience Krishna it’s like in our journey towards Krishna is how say suppose now I came from India to America and I will assume that I am coming here to meet someone I have never met that person before and then I come here to meet that person and when I come here and I meet him then I find oh this person was sitting right next to me throughout my flight but I did not know him so like that Krishna is sitting right next to us in our heart all the time but we don’t know Krishna till now so what happens as we go closer and closer then we realize this is Krishna and he is always there with me so that means what I am saying it is not that Krishna is someone whom we are going to attain in the future Krishna is someone whom we can choose right now also and if we choose him right now then choosing him, remembering him taking shelter of him can give us relief from whatever difficulties are there so the difficulties are opportunities for us to choose Krishna and love Krishna does it answer your question? thank you