The great philosopher Uddhava

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 21 November 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Evening Talk)

One maybe, or may not be, a great philosopher like Uddhava. Uddhava was a great devotee from Dwarka and Uddhava was a disciple of Brihaspati who is the spiritual master of the demigods. Uddhava was very, very learned and he was also a great, loving devotee of Krsna but he had a bit of slant towards learning, so he was always philosophizing. Krnsa sent him to Vrndavan and then he realized that he is not a devotee at all. When Uddhava saw Mother Yasoda, when he saw the gopis, he realized. He tried to preach them, “Do you know that Krsna is the Supreme Lord?” 

I mean (laughing), they couldn’t even hear it, “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Krsna is all pervading.”

“All pervading? No! He’s gone to Mathura! We’re suffering, we’re suffering like anything. Krsna left Vrndavan, you know, he left Vrndavan and you’re telling us that he’s all pervading? When is he coming back? Please, you know, after you’ve finished with all that, that Krsna’s all pervading, do you have any news of Krsna? Tell us something about Krsna. How is he doing? Is he sometimes thinking of this mother?”

Like this, they did not care about jnana (knowledge); they couldn’t care less but Uddhava had a bit of that interest in the opulence of Krsna. So it is interesting. In the beginning, philosophy is very important because it keeps us on the path. Otherwise we go here, we go there, we go everywhere. In this way,

When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard. Only Krsna and that stage we want.