Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 02.01.2018 evening, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Friday)

So, what do you like in Krishna? Anandini, what is your preference?

Anandini: For me Krishna is the all-attractive one and He is leading me in the company of devotees and Gurudev.

Swami Tirtha: Very nice. Maybe somebody has more opinions?

Pavitra: It’s difficult to answer this question, but when you gave the question my first though was that although He is Self-sufficient, He likes to have company and this is our chance.

Swami Tirtha: Very good point. Maybe finally one more idea from you, Tejasvini?

Tejasvini: This playfulness of Krishna; He can come so close to us that He can make us forget that He is God.

Swami Tirtha: Yes. The greatness of God or the opulence, the all-mighty features – all those who are religious, they appreciate and worship. But there is such a big distance! To meet the all-mighty God – you start to tremble a little bit. But when He is ready to give up – what more – to forget about His divine position, that’s a real hidden secret. How is it that God, who knows everything and is perfect in every sense, starts to be forgetful?! All right, sometimes we forget about ourselves. We know that feeling, right? But if He also does that, how come? Maybe He is not Supreme? Maybe His perfection is only partial. Have you heard about partial perfection? What is that? Either perfection or partial; it must be complete. So, if we accept that Krishna is complete in any and every sense, then His forgetfulness must be a very special divine feature. When He is ready to forget about His opulence, when He is ready to give up His divine position, His awesome and reverential mood. When He comes close, He can enjoy His divine position anytime, but when He wants to come closer, then the story starts to become interesting,

So, for us this is especially interesting – when He shows Himself like one of us. He comes so close, just like a human being. Of course, always preserving His divine nature. And not only nature, but His divine identity, or divine divinity. Sometimes He shows it – by lifting a hill or something. Then the villagers will explain it like: “Ah, I was wrong, I didn’t see it properly.” This provides a very intimate taste for close association with divinity in a very natural way. This is what we worship in Krishna – the human aspect. When He acts as a human, when He comes as a human.

All right, but then what do we appreciate in the human being? His bodily form? Or do we appreciate in a human being his intellect, or his whatever other features? No, what we really appreciate, what we worship in a human being is his divine touch, his spiritual face.

This is what we like in God – that He is ready to come as a human. And this is what we appreciate in a human – that he has a divine spark inside. His spiritual side – this is what we really appreciate and worship. And this is like a meeting point. Bhakti is the point of meeting. Krishna comes closer to that invitation that devotees present. The devotees are running towards Krishna and Krishna is running towards the devotees. The all-mighty God and the surrendered devotee is an invincible partnership.

Please, cherish these attractions that you have towards Krishna. We should start our journey and we should reach our destination – both.

(to be continued)