Entering Krishna's World

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vrindavan, 5 September 2011

We say sometimes that Krishna went to Mathura, that Krishna went to Dvaraka (there is Krishna of Mathura, Mathuresh, Krishna of Dvaraka, Dvarakesh, and Krishna of Vrindavan, Vrajer Krishna), but Krishna actually never left Vrindavan. Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavan are eternal (nitya-lila), His pastimes are always going on there. He cannot leave Vrindavan Dham.

You know that Krishna is very dear to Uddhav Maharaj, and one time Krishna said to Uddhav Maharaj, "Not even Brahma, not even Siva, not even I Myself am as dear to Me as you are, Uddhav." When Krishna sent this Uddhav Maharaj to Vraja Dham, he was surprised how much love and affection gopis have for Krishna. They do not think about anything other than Krishna, they do not see anything other than Krishna. Krishna told them, "Do you want to see Me? You must close your eyes, then you will see Me." Vraja gopis laughed when they heard it, "To see You we have to close our eyes? Wherever we look we do not see anything other than Krishna! We do not want to see Krishna, but we always see only Him everywhere! We want to forget Him, we do not want Him, but we cannot not see Him!" This is the kind of relation they have, and that kind of relation, that kind of love and affection is necessary to have. Wherever you look, you cannot see anything other than Krishna—this kind of feeling should come. But how can we see this? Our mind is always in the illusory environment, and whatever pancha-indriya (five senses—chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak, that is eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) we have, it is all full of material, illusory environment.

অন্ধীভূত চক্ষু যার বিষয ধূলিতে ।
কিরূপে সে পরতত্ত্ব পাইবে দেখিতে ॥

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite
ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

How will we see anything? We have fallen into a net of illusion, and only if somebody cuts this net can we come out—if we get some mercy from Maya Devi, then she can cut the net and we can come out of the illusory environment, otherwise we cannot do it. What is necessary for that? "Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya" (Bg, 4.34): pranipatena, full surrender; pariprasna, honest enquiry (sat-jijnasa), and sevaya, service temper (seva-vrtti).

Why do we live? We are born for the service to the Lord. That is called seva vrtti (service mood). When we were in the mother's womb, we promised the Lord, "I will serve You. I promise I will see Your divine form with these eyes, I will listen to divine talks about You with these ears, I will serve You with these hands, I will do parikrama with these legs." This is what we have got this body for, but what we are doing now is all enjoyment, all self-interest. That is the difficulty.

আত্মেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-বাঞ্ছা—তারে বলি 'কাম' ।
কষ্ণেন্দ্রিয়প্রীতি-ইচ্ছা ধরে 'প্রেম' নাম ॥

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

"Kama" means material desire, self-interest. Desire to please your own mind, to please your eyes, etc. is called "atmendriya-priti," but "Krsnendriya-priti" means you serve, you please the Lord, please your Guru, this is what is called service.

We sing the kirtan,

জননী-জঠরে ছিলাম যখন,
বিষম বন্ধন-পাশে ।
একবার প্রভু, দেখা দিয়া মোরে,
বঞ্চিলে এ দীন দাসে ॥

janani-jathare, chhilama yakhana,
visama bhandana-pase
eka-bara prabhu! dekha diya more
vanchile e dina dase

"When I was in the mother's womb, I got very much austerity. One time You showed me Your form—I saw You in my mother's womb, but now I do not see You."

We stayed tied for several months in the mother's womb, and one day Krishna showed Himself to us in the mother's womb, and we prayed to Him,

"Prabhu, I do not want to sit here!"

"Do you want to come out of here? But will you see Me if I give you eyes?"

"Yes, I will," we promised.

"If I give you ears, will you hear My Hari-katha?"

"Yes, I will, I promise!"

Bhajibo boli esechhile, but bhuliya rohile avidyara bhare! "You promised Me you will worship Me, but now you forget Me!" Why? Because we have fallen into avidya, into the illusory environment. "E ghora-samsare padiya manava na paya duhkhera sesa": we are swimming and swimming in this ocean and cannot get to its shore, we only swim and swim, and sometimes we become tired and begin to sink... But! "Sadhu-sanga kari' Hari bhaje yadi": if you get good association and worship the Lord, the Guru, then "tabe anta haya klesa"—all kinds of suffering, all kinds of bad elements will be removed.

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