Elusive Krsna by Kadamba Kanana Swami

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151)

Life after life, we are travelling through this material universe. Sometimes we reside in higher planetary systems and sometimes we reside here, in the middle planetary systems. Krsna is said to be neutral. This is very interesting because elsewhere in the Gita it says, mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram hetunanena kaunteya jagad viparivartate (Bhagavad-gita 9.10), that everything in this universe is going on under Krsna’s control. This is a fact because we are dealing with the energies of Krsna but Krsna is also neutral. Why is it so? Because all Krsna’s desires are directed to spirit and not to matter. Therefore, Krsna’s desires are aimed at the spiritual world, are aimed at the living beings who are also spirit. Krsna has no desire for this material world. In fact, the material world was the desire of the living being who wanted to be independent from Krsna then Krsna provided.

Srinivasa Acarya describes kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī (Prayers to the Six Goswamis). He says that the six goswamis are always engaged in Krsna utkirtan, not just Krsna kirtan. Krsna utkirtan means loud kirtan, loudly chanting the holy names of the Lord, loudly glorifying the Lord. Krsna utkirtan and gāna-nartana-parau, they are chanting and nartana, they are dancing also.Premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī, they are fully absorbed in the ocean of transcendental love. So this ocean of transcendental love exists between Krsna and his devotees. It exists between Krsna and the devotees in the spiritual world and it also exists between Krsna and the devotees in the material world. Loving exchange – as the devotee makes offerings to Krsna, Krsna also makes offerings to the devotee.

But offerings to Krsna cannot be cheap. One should not have a business mentality. In India, in Vrindavan, there are money changers. At the money changers, for one rupee, you can get a hundred one paisacoins. Now, in India, for a long time, one paisa coins are no longer in circulation. They do not use them anymore, no shop will take a one paisa coins but the money changers have all the one paisa coins. People buy one paisa coins and put them in donation boxes or they put them on the altar. Temples have all the one paisa coins and the only thing the temples can do is sell them to the money changers. What can I say!? So we had kilos and kilos and kilos of one paisa coins in Vrindavan. Anyway, it is going on and we pray, ‘Jaya jagadisha hare, ham ko ek lakh chaahe,’ for this one paisa, we want hundred thousand, one lakh of rupees! So that is business.

Krsna acts neutral in the material world. Krsna is not really neutral. In another sense, he not neutral at all. Krsna has a very strong desire that every living being returns to the spiritual world and that every living being returns to the eternal pastimes. BUT as long as the living beings remain preoccupied with their material activities, Krsna remains neutral. He is witnessing – anumanta. He is overseeing – upadrasta. Yes, some enjoyment will come and some frustration will come. He knows, he is tri-kala-jnana, he knows past, present and future. He knows there is more to come. He knows you already went through so much. But is it enough? Is it enough to come to the point where you say, “Krsna, I am yours”? Prahlad was young but he said, “Krsna, I am yours.” Bhismadev was old and Bhismadev said, “Krsna, I am yours.” But in all cases, Krsna did not immediately give up that neutrality which he reserves for the conditioned souls. Oh, no. He wanted to see genuine offerings, genuine devotion first.

Narada was only five years old when his mother died of a snake bite. Somehow or other, he had served some great guests at home – great saintly personalities, Bhaktivedantas, great devotees who were fully knowledgeable of the Vedic conclusions. With the permission of these sages, he had taken their remnants. Then the sages had given him instructions; they had told him how to meditate actually. After the sages left, Narada remained alone with his mother. Then early one morning, as his mother went out to milk the cow, she got bitten by a snake and died. Although the boy was shocked and obviously affected by the death of his mother because of the transcendental instruction of the sages, he remembered, “The Supreme Lord is my shelter.”

Therefore, he went to the forest and sat down under a tree and meditated on the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord at first did not respond. Narada was meditating and meditating and meditating but there was no sign from the Lord. Did the Lord even exist? Was he really there? How could he know that it was not all imagination? All that meditation and yet no sign.

Then, suddenly, the boy saw the Lord very clear in the eye of the mind. It was so clear as if he was really there. Next moment, he opened his eyes and he saw that the Lord was there. Then the Lord disappeared. That was too much for a five-year-old, “How can you disappear? I have done all this and now you were here and now you are disappearing.” He became angry. So then the Lord returned and the Lord said, “You have meditated but you are not yet completely qualified, not yet completely pure. Therefore, in this life, you will not see me anymore but if you continue your practices, then at the end of your life, then you will again see me and you will attain a spiritual body…” So in this way, the Lord returned to neutrality. Again, even with his devotee, he was maintaining this neutrality which he normally reserves for the materialist. Why so? To test us… Are we really serious? We are chanting but we you really want it? Or is it just rock n roll? Are we ready to give our life? Onepaisa is not enough. Krsna is not that cheap!

Source:https://www.kksblog.com/2016/09/elusive-krsna/

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