Krsna’s sweetness

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 10 July 2013, Serbian Summer Camp, Fruska Gouranga, Seminar Part 2)

I remember, one year I was with Sacinandana Maharaj and a whole group of devotees on a boat, sailing in Danish waters. Maharaj gave this seminar about Krsna’s sweetness. It was all about Krsna being so sweet, looks so sweet… and this sweet and that sweet… and at one point, it just got too sweet for me.

Having a bad character and being not sweet myself, when things get too sweet, I cannot handle the sweetness. So, I spoke after Maharaj and I said, “Well, I very much appreciate the presentation of Sacinandana Maharaj but I have one little question. Why is it that in the Middle ages, one third of the world population died of the Black plague? Why is that just a decade ago, in three days, five million people were killed in Rwanda? In one night in Bangladesh, five hundred thousand people drowned? Where is your sweet Krsna in the middle of all that? Is that sweet also?“

So I asked him, how is Krsna so sweet? I remember that he rolled-up the sleeves of his sweater and he even loosened his scarf. He was getting serious and philosophically explained how even this is sweet, bitter sweet! Because ultimately, the sweetness of Krsna means that Krsna will leave no stone unturned. Krsna is not a passive Lord who is just seated on a throne, accepting our offerings – another golden plate with beautiful fruits, “Bless, bless…” No. That is not Krsna. Krsna is the one who, out of his sweetness, is destroying our material life. As death he destroys everything. He acts as a destroyer – very sweet. Simply because Krsna cannot wait.

This point, that I have just reached now, is a very difficult theological point in our philosophy. Because we are the living beings who said to Krsna, “No, I want to go to the material world.” Even when Krsna wanted us to stay in spiritual world we said, “No, thank you. I want to try it, to see what it is like to be the Lord and master, to be an enjoyer.”

And here we are, trying hard but why is it that Krsna’s put sand in the sweet rice? It is not fair! Why did he put suffering in the material energy, just when we are enjoying. Why did he not give us independence to enjoy when we wanted to? Why did he have to create suffering in the material world, active suffering?

Passive suffering means the suffering of missing Krsna. That is alright; that is logical since we have left the spiritual world – so some suffering, some home sickness. But why is there active suffering if Krsna is sweet? If he is not cruel? Why does someone gets squashed under a car? I have seen it, so much suffering; I have seen with my own eyes. Wars – some people here are from Sarajevo and they can tell you stories about the dead bodies in the street. So how about that, is that sweet? Why this extra suffering? Why…

That is Krsna’s sweetness. It shows how deep Krsna’s love is. He cannot tolerate it. Krsna is like a parent who has a rebellious son that says, “It is my life! I’ll do what I want and I’m leaving home,” and he goes in the wrong direction, with the wrong friends. The parents say, “Yes, we let you free to do whatever you want,” but meanwhile, they are making all kinds of plans how to spoil his so called freedom so that he would learn a lesson and come back home soon because they are suffering.

So, actually, it shows that Krsna is suffering. It is not we who are suffering. No, it is Krsna who is suffering. Here, the Lord, who is the complete enjoyer, feels incomplete. When there is still one living being in the material world, even although there is an ocean of transcendental nectar which is eternally increasing, it is still incomplete.