Sharanagati

The fact that the Lord resides in the hearts of all beings is repeated few times in “Bhagavad-gita”. “I am living in the hearts of all beings; from Me memory, forgetfulness and knowledge comes; I am the knower of the Vedanta and the creator of the Veda.” So, through this living in the heartKrishna exercises His power of omniscience. That means – no secrets under the eye of God! However we want to hide – we try to find a place outside where to hide, or we try to find a place inside where to hide something – no way! He is there and He is conscious of whatever desire, whatever happiness or shortcoming we have. From the eyes of God nothing is hidden; anyway nothing is hidden – whatever we do, He knows everything. Therefore it is best to surrender unto Him. If we show all our cards, we do not want to hide anything, we show all our heart, we have no reservation, again we come to dedication. Anyway He knows, better we tell it openly.Krishna knows everything through Paramatma.

Still, the gopis do have some secrets. And the divine omniscience is very agitated if we want to hide something from Him. If something is open, He is not coming; but if something is hidden, He wants to see – “What is there? What you try to hide from me?” And I tell you, compared to the gopis, material guys are not real hiders. There is no way to hide anything here; but there the gopis try to hide their secrets. I think you all feel the heavy burden of this question. We can say that Krishna is also hiding; it is not only the gopis, who are hiding. He is also a good hider. But you know, a thief knows everything about stealth. So, if Krishna is hiding, then He knows where the secrets are hidden. And the gopis – although they are, so to say, simple village girls – they have some very sweet and painful secrets. This invitesKrishna to discover the secrets.

We can say that Krishnais not all-knowing in Vrindavana. He has some defects; for example, He does not understand what kind of feelings the devotees have towards Him. He does not understand why the gopis are so much enamored with Him. Therefore He is searching these secrets. Do not forget, we started with the search, search for the secrets. But then Krishna is also ready to keep the secrets. He is able to invite His servants, able to extract the secrets, but He is ready to keep it for Himself. But the wise men say that there is one feature of the Supreme, who cannot keep secrets. Do not forget, when Krishna is together with His entourage, with the gopis, they dance in circle and they show their backs to the outside, they face the inner core of this lotus dance. That means – they keep the secrets inside. What is the secret in the rasa-dance, the divine circular dance? This is the Divine Couple in the middle.

Krishnahides the secrets; extracts, but keeps them for Himself. Yet Mahaprabhu is unable to keep secrets. His movement is also a dance, but that is a straightforward dance, open dance, that everybody can join.

So,Krishnacannot exercise His power of all-knowledge in Vrindavana. Therefore He has to move out of Vrindavana. And sometimes therefore He comes to the planet Earth – to perceive the feelings of the devotees. To understand the secrets for Himself and to distribute them.

And what about the divine omnipotence? Is Krishnaomnipotent in Goloka Vrindavana? Practically when the gopals are together, they feel that they have to protect this small Krishna, because He is the smallest, He is the youngest and He is the weakest. Sometimes they tell Him: “Wait, I will do. You are so small, you are so weak, I will protect you.” All right, it is easy to accept weakness in a friendship. But what about love affairs? In a friendship you do not lose if you show your weakness. But if in a real loving exchange you show your weakness – then you are weak! And we can see that the gopis only search for Krishna; but Krishna is running after the gopis. This is the big difference.

Krishna in Vrindavana is neither omnipotent, because He has lost His power due to Radhika’s, Lalita’s and Vishakha’s intrigue; and He has lost also His omniscience because He does not really know the secrets, gopis are hiding their real secrets from Him. Then what can He do? He says: “I have no place here! I cannot be the boss, I cannot be the omniscient, the omnipotent God here. Better I take a humble position.”

Yamuna: I have a question about the jealousy of the gopis. Because we know as in rasa-lila dance that they are supporting the dance between Radha andKrishna, their love affair…

Tirtha Maharaj: Transcendental love affair.

Yamuna: … but at the same time they personally have direct feelings towardsKrishna. And they personally have direct feelings towards Radhika. So how do they manage this being in love with the beloved of your girlfriend?

Tirtha Maharaj: Actually this is not the same. Radhika is dancing with Svayam-Bhagavan Krishna and the gopis are dancing with multiplied expansions. You can check in “Chaitanya Charitamrita”; all the different Vaibhava-Prakasha, Vaibhava-Vilasa, Prabhava-Prakasha, Prabhava-Vilasa expansions are explained and there you will find the answer to your question.

Yamuna: So, no place for jealousy, transcendental jealousy?

Tirtha Maharaj: There is a place, even between the different rasas there is a kind of jealousy, because everybody wants to posses Krishna. They want to have His company in their group, in their rasa, in their mood. It also shows that possessive love is higher than selfless love. At the same time, Krishna is able to create harmony even between the opposing rasas. Therefore we, on the planet earth, if we have some opposition,Krishna is the clue, the key to resolve that opposition and unite devotees.