Sharanagati

Question: It would be interesting if you elaborate more on personal relationships. Because as far as I can understand, behind all the qualities that God has, the inner content is His heart. And if we try to embody God’s love, how will our personal relationships in the world  develop?

Tirtha Maharaj: You enquire about the heart of Krishna! There is a book about it; there everything is very nicely and fully described – what are the qualities of the heart of Krishna. But because you are asking about our personal life and practice, from this book I will quote the main message. And this main message is do not commit aparadha. Aparadha means offence towards a devotee, towards somebody, who sincerely tries to worship God from the heart. Because such a pure devotee is always living in the heart of Krishna. So if you blame, or hurt, or neglect such a devotee, then you neglect the heart of Krishna. So do not commit aparadha.

            Aparadha also means inattentive service. We were discussing about sin. Sinful activities concern the body. But aparadha concerns the soul. There is a big difference. Much more reaction is there for aparadha than for a simple sin. But it is very difficult if we have to warn somebody not to hate, or not to deeply criticize, or not to have bad feelings against somebody. In a positive way we could say: love the devotees. Because then Krishna will love this very much, will appreciate this. And if you serve the devotees, then you can capture Krishna Himself. Why? Because Krishna is not able to serve the devotees. Usually people worship God because He is omnipotent. But our Krishna is not omnipotent. He cannot serve His devotees, because they are not ready to accept any service from Him. This is a kind of shortcoming of Krishna. He is full of willingness to serve, but nobody is willing to accept! What can He do? This is such a trouble for Krishna! Again, He is not omnipotent, and He is not omniscient, He does not know what to do. But He wants to understand the feeling and the heart of a devotee! The heart of Krishna wants to understand the heart of the devotee! And the devotee is always searching for the heart of Krishna! So they are both running after each other. It is an unlimited run, no end! One is running after the other, the other is running after the one. Therefore we should examine the heart of a vaishnava. Because Krishna is not only collecting taxes from the gopis at the difficult points; but He has some hiding places also. And His main hiding place is the depths of the hearts.