(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 19 January 2014, Durban, South Africa, Lecture)
Lord Krsna is our eternal companion. Anywhere and everywhere, Krsna is always with us! It is said that in many ways Krsna is with us. Krsna is present in the material world as the paramatma. Dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā, (Śvetāśvatara Upanishad 4.6). There are two birds seated on branches of a tree – one of those birds is the living being and the other bird is the Supreme Lord in the form of paramatma who is there along with the living being and never, ever leaves him for a moment.
In many ways Krsna is there, after all not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate (Bhagavad-gita 9.10) For everything in this universe, know that I am the cause of this and that everything is going on by my will alone. So in this way, Krsna is also with us because no matter what happens to us, we can see that it is Krsna’s plan. Nothing is going on by chance or by good luck, by bad luck or tough luck, “Oh boy, why is this happening to me?” No, Krsna is there.Then the next step may be to say, “Krsna, why are you doing this to me?” But that is not very humble. That is an attitude where we think, “I got it all figured out. I am supposed to be happy here (in this material world) and Krsna who is in control of everything, is not cooperating!” This attitude is not one of worshiping at all. It is an attitude where we are demanding – who is the Lord and who is whose servant? Then we treat Krsna as our order supplier and we are demanding from Krsna.
But who said that the material world was meant for happiness anyway. The material world has only one purpose – for us to learn, for us to simply learn and grow. It has no other purpose at all and if you want another purpose out of it, it does not work. All that you get from life is that you learn a lesson and grow. That is what grey hairs are all about…
Krsna is making arrangements to elevate us; that is his purpose. His purpose is to lift up all living beings. Somehow or other, we have gone down in selfishness; we have gone down in a mood of exploitation. Oh yes, everyone is exploiting someone else – that is the name of the game. The living being is trying to exploit the entire universe; that is our preoccupation.
Krsna’s purpose is indeed to make us humble, to bring us to the point of man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yaji mam namaskuru (Bhagavad-gita 9.34), where we bow down. One has to bow down; bowing down means to give up our pride. It is said that a tree that is laden with fruits will naturally bow down, so in the same way, a person who has all good qualities will naturally bow down! But one who does not have good qualities stands erect in pride, “Don’t you know who I am!? Don’t you know my greatness and my glories? Just see all my good qualities!” But, in the material world everyone will encounter someone who is greater than himself and that is very frustrating for a proud man… shattered dreams and that dreaming is what material life is about!
2 Comments
We must learn,grow and be prepared for the final exam
Hare Krsna,
That is a lovely post. It is true we should all be servants of God and not Dog as Srila Prabhupada states in his lectures. It is not possible to be servants of both. Therefore material energy is not to be played with (since this can be very dangerous game to play) but to utilise it for Krsna’s service, because afterall we are representing Srila Prabhupada’s movement.
Your servant
harsarani dd