Sharanagati

Krishna is not a sectarian God. Krishna is Jagannath, Lord of the whole Universe. And it does mean that He is worshiped all over the Universe. Krishna is not an Indian God. He is not some kind of oriental cult. And He is not only worshiped over the Earth, but He is the Lord of the Universe. That means: the Lord of you, and the Lord of me.

I would like to mention you a story about a holy place in Italy. Some eight hundred years ago there lived Franchesko di Asizi. He was a real bhakta! He had universal vision, general vision. And he was such a great yogi, that he could understand the voice of the animals. You know, by practicing yoga and ahimsa, an aura of goodness and positivity will emanate from you. Even wild animals will not hurt you or attack you and they reciprocate in a friendly manner. Franchesko was such a great yogi, that he could preach to the animals. Sometimes I am thinking to follow his example – in such a sense that when people are not ready to listen, it is better to talk to the animals. Maybe they understand better. So, he was preaching to the birds – he was famous for this.

I had the opportunity to visit one of his places. Once a big landlord wanted to donate him a “small” piece of land – it was a big hill. Of course, he did not want to accept: “What am I to do with this?!” But after much time of encouraging, he agreed: “All right, I will go and visit the place.” And as they were climbing the hill, all of a sudden many thousands and millions of birds were flying up and chirping. So he took it as a divine sign: “Yes, I should accept.” Now there is a simple, but nice church and monastery there. But at that time they had only one cave, nothing else. And the same cave, where he was sleeping at that time, is still preserved. The stones inside that cave are very sharp, accept one, serving as a bed for him – big like this! And seemed to be very soft. Even the stones were serving the great saint like this. It is very divine atmosphere there, you can feel the presence of this person. And all the visitors are also very serene. For example, I saw one young man visiting – he was chanting japa. He was sitting first in this little cave, studying from the books, praying very deeply, and then outside he was just walking up and down with his mala. This was real pilgrimage for this person.

Franchesko was such a great saint, that all the stigmas of Christ were manifest on his body. There is a little chapel on the place, where he received the stigmas. There is a big corridor: one place is the monastery, second place is the cave, and on the walls there are deep pictures of events of his life… And in the other end of the corridor there is this little chapel. When I entered there, I was touched very much, because on the altar there was an inscription: “God is mine!… But belongs to everybody else.”

I can fully agree with this message. God is mine; God is yours; God belongs to everyone. So, we worship that concept of God – the universal conception of the Supreme Lord. We do not worship a sectarian God or sectarian conception of God. We should worship God Supreme.

God is mine, and yours also. Krishna is mine; and yours.