I received this gift of a figurine on the first day of Kartik, the sacred month we are presently observing. Since I’m mostly confined to my recovery room it has been a welcome gift. I look at it many times during the day and remember the lilas (sacred stories) connected to it.
The figurine is of baby Krishna and His mother, Yasoda. If we are all ready to accept God as a person then it means there are other persons around him. He has parents, aunts, uncles, friends, lovers, community – interacting with Him at different times and in different places. All this in the timeless realm of eternity where nothing ends yet everything is new, changing, and full of variety. Hard to fathom but fathom we must if we are to begin a serious relationship with God…as a person.
In this story, Krishna is in trouble. In a fit of anger over his mother’s lack of attention he broke pots of fresh butter, fed his friends and the monkeys too. It was quite a mess and Yasoda was furious. He ran when he saw her coming but she caught him and decided to keep him close to her, and out of trouble, by binding him to a large grinding mortar.
Sometimes we may think our children are little gods and we are afraid to control them. Here, Krishna actually is God and he is afraid of his mother. This is what bhakti-yoga is all about – understanding God beyond awe and reverence. Understanding God as a person in loving relationships with others who forget he is God and love him for who he is. That is the mood of the innermost part of the spiritual world – Vrindavan. That’s where we will find Krishna.
In our search for Krishna we must learn this Vrindavan mood. It is where love reigns supreme. We all know how love makes us feel in this world. It trumps everything. So too for Krishna. When we can start to feel our love for Krishna we will experience another kind of love – something way bigger and brighter than anything of this world. That’s the kind of love bhakti is.
This bhakti is within all of us. When we make an ardent search we can find it. And when we do we will touch a reservoir of love so unlimited, have a relationship with Krishna so extraordinary, that our lives will never be the same. We will find our true and complete self. Such is the power of bhakti. Such is the power of love.
I’ll leave you with an invitation to read more about Mother Yasoda and Krishna in Krishna Book http://vedabase.com/en/kb/9.
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