Hope Against Hope

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2004)

Rupa Goswami’s prayer:

“I have no love for Krishna! Nor the causes for developing love for Krishna. Mainly hearing and chanting in the process of bhakti yoga, in which one is always thinking of Krishna, and fixing His Lotus Feet in the heart is also lacking in me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious words are concerned, I don’t see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. Above all, I’m not even born of a nice family. Therefore I must simply pray to you – Gopijana-vallabha.

Krishna the maintainer and the beloved of the gopis. I simply wish and hope that someway or other I maybe able to approach Your Lotus Feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life!” (N.O.D.ch18)

“The purport is that under this heading of ‘asa-bandha’, one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he will be able to approach the Lotus Feet of the Supreme Lord.” (N.O.D.ch18)

Hope against hope – so this ‘asa-bandha’ is very important, and we live on this ‘asa-bandha’……and our whole movement is based on this ‘asa-bandha’. We are not very good in this ‘asa-bandha’ (in the one sense) because we are not very good in the sādhana-bhakti. We don’t do a very good job!