Try to Satisfy Krsna
By Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita (4.8), paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya duskritam. So there are two purposes when God incarnates. He has two missions. One mission is paritranaya sadhunam, to deliver the faithful devotees, the sadhus. Sadhu means saintly person. Sadhu means devotee. Sadhu does not mean worldly honesty or dishonesty, morality or immorality. It has nothing to do with material activities. It is simply spiritual. But sometimes we define “sadhu” as a person’s material goodness or morality but actually “sadhu” means on the transcendental platform, gunan samatityaitan (BG. 14.26). Sadhu is transcendental to material qualities. So paritranaya sadhunam, paritranaya means to deliver. Yet if a sadhu is already delivered, he is on the transcendental platform, then where is the necessity to deliver him? This is the question. Therefore this word is used, vidambanam. It is bewildering. It is contradictory. It appears to be contradictory.
Transcendental position means he’s no longer under the control of the three material modes of nature; goodness, passion and ignorance. It is clearly stated in the Bhagavad Gita, sa gunan samatityaitan. The sadhu transcends the material qualities. Then where is the question of deliverance? The sadhu does not require deliverance because he is very anxious to see the Supreme Lord eye to eye as that is his inner desire. Therefore Krsna comes. Not for deliverance but to satisfy him.
Just like a devotee wants to satisfy the Lord in all respects, similarly more than that, the Lord wants to satisfy the devotee. This is the exchange of loving affairs. Just like in your own ordinary dealings. If you love somebody, you want to satisfy him or her. Similarly, she or he also wants to reciprocate. So if that reciprocation is here in this material world, how much it is greatly elevated in the spiritual world? So there is a verse, “sadhu is my heart, and I am also the sadhu’s heart.” The sadhu is always thinking of Krsna and Krsna is always thinking of his devotee.
So the appearance and disappearance of the Lord within this material world is called cikirsitam. Pastimes. It is Krsna’s pastime that he comes. When he comes, he works. The work is to give protection to the sadhu and to kill the asadhu. Yet both activities are his pastimes. He’s not envious. He cannot be envious. The killing of the demons is also his affection. Just like sometimes we punish our children. There is love. So when Krsna kills a demon, the business is not on the platform of material jealousy or enviousness.
Therefore it is mentioned in the sastras that even the demons who were killed by the Lord, received immediate salvation. The result is the same. Just like with Putana, she wanted to kill Krsna, but who can kill Krsna? That is not possible. She was killed. But what was the result? The result was that she got the position of Krsna’s mother. This is explained in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Uddhava explained to Vidura that Krsna is so kind that even the person who wanted to kill him with poison, was accepted as His mother. Such a kind God, Krsna is.
So actually Krsna has no enemy. Here it is said, na yasya kascid dayitah. Dayitah means favor. Nobody is favored. Na yasya kascid dayito ‘sti karhicid dvesyas ca. And nobody is his enemy. But who can be his enemy, who can be his friend?
Suppose we create friends. We expect some benediction or some profit from the friend and from the enemy we expect some harm. But Krsna is so perfect that nobody can do any harm to him, nor can anyone give anything to him. So where is the necessity of friend and enemy? There is no necessity. Therefore it is stated here: na yasya kascid dayito ‘sti. He doesn’t require anyone’s favor. He’s complete. I may be very poor man. I expect some friend’s favor, somebody’s favor. But that is my expectation because I am not perfect. I am not full. I am deficient in so many ways. So I am always in need. Therefore I want to create some friend, and similarly I hate the enemy. Yet Krsna being the Supreme, no one can harm him and no one can give him anything. So why do we offer Krsna so many comforts? We are dressing Krsna, we are decorating Krsna, and we are giving nice food to Krsna.
Try to understand this fact; Krsna does not require your nice dress or nice flower or nice food. Krsna does not require. But if you give him, then you become benefited. It is Krsna’s favor that he’s accepting. The example is given that just like when you decorate an actual person, the reflection of that person in the mirror also appears decorated. So we are reflections. In the Bible it is said that man is made in the image of God. So Krsna has got two hands, two legs, and one head. So man is made after God means we are reflections of the image of God. Not that we manufacture or imagine some form according to our form. That is a mistaken idea.
So if you decorate Krsna, you also become decorated. If you satisfy Krsna, then you will become satisfied. If you offer nice food to Krsna, then you will eat nice food as well. So you try to satisfy Krsna in all respects and then you’ll be satisfied in all respects.
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Hare Krishna!
PAMH!
In article you wrote !that even the demons who were killed by the Lord, received immediate salvation.” Srila Prabhupada said, that when Kalki kills demons, atheists on the end of Kali yuga they get also salvation-ther realize their spiritual identety. Do they also go to the Vaikuntha planets? What kind of rasa to they have with God?
Thanks for answer!
This article is taken from a lecture by Srila Prabhupada, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, whom you have quoted. Same person.
Prabhupada is an honorific title, which was given to him by his students.
Only by the vehicle of raganuga-bhakti can one attain Vraja prema. And, according to Jiva Goswami, only those killed by Krsna himself attain liberation. This is one of the avatari’s distinguishing qualities. But those killed by him do not attain Vraja prema. They generally attain sayujya or sarupya mukti, while some exceptions are there.
Thank you for your answer. If I properly understand sāyujya-mukti means to merge into the existence of the Supreme. Is this impersonal Brahman or something else? And sārūpya-mukti means to acquire exactly the bodily feature of Narayana, four hands.Does this mean that they (jive who attain sarupya mukti) live in Vaikuntha planets?
Thanks for your answer again!
Yes, sayujya means absorption in the Brahman feature of the Godhead. And sarupya speaks of attaining Vaikuntha.
I have one more question. Is it possible that some jivas stay in material world for ever (for eternal)or all jivas sooner or later came to spiritual world on Vaikuntha planets?
Thanks again.
There are an infinite number of jivas in the world. Don’t think about it.
Hare Krishna. Dandavat.
Dear Maharaj, you wrote in your Gita commentary to 4.8
“Vishvanath Cakravarti points out that Krishna’s apparent punishment of the unrighteous is in fact an act of mercy because the final result of this punishment is liberation. However, it is worth mentioning that the specific type of liberation (sayujya-mukti) attained by the unrighteous through Krishna’s chastisement is undesirable for the devotees.”
And
“The unrighteous who are killed by Krishna experience not only the death of their gross material body, but the demise of their subtle body as well. The subtle body carries the soul from one gross body to another. The subtle body consisting of a state of mind is the basis of the gross body one acquires in the next life. When the subtle body of the unrighteous person is destroyed, that person’s attitude toward Krishna immediately changes, for his opposition to Krishna was a product of his subtle body—his unrighteous disposition. On the demise of the subtle body, his hostility toward Krishna is transformed into love for Krishna. Thus at the moment of death he sees Krishna as the greatest object of affection. His liberation is not directly a result of being killed by Krishna, but rather a result of his newfound love for him. This is the opinion of Baladeva Vidyabhusan voiced in his Govinda Bhasya commentary on Vedanta-sutra.”
How is it that some killed demons attain sayujya mukti as you mentioned in connection with Vishvanath and some attain “newfound love for Krishna” (by this perhaps you meant sarupya mukti or some exceptions (as in the case of Putana) you were mentioning above to Suzana?). And where in Govinda bhasya is this, commentary to which verse? Thank you.
There are any number of factors that will determine this. For example, if Krsna slays a demon in his Vraja-lila one can expect the possibility of extraordinary results, such as in the cases of Putana and Aghasura. In the Dvaraka lila, Paundraka desired a four armed form. But most demos in the lila have sayujya mukti as their idea of what it means to be liberated. Among jnana-misra practitioners, some desire sayujya while others do not and thus may attain up to santa rasa. Every case is individual.
I am sorry but I do not have my copy of Govinda-bhasya to look up the reference you ask for.
Thank for the answer. Oh pity, I was particularly interested in this explanation of Baladev Vidyabhusan to have evidence, because similar understanding once came to me after praying to Krishna to help me answer one question that was put to me. One person challenged me that how can I say God is all-good if he orders killing of sinners (like in Old Testament) or himself kills them (like killing demons who fight against Krishna). By the grace of Krishna I came to an understanding that Krishna is not cruel, because his punishment is for the good of the sinner, to help him improve. When out of envy sinner does harm to others or when demon fights against Krishna, then Krishna responds to his fighting and eventually kills him, but not out of cruelty but out of compassion to rectify him. Because when the sinner or the demon is killed by God/Krishna he feels in his atma that it was not out of malice but out of compassion and he now gets completely new picture of Krishna then he had before under the influence of lust and envy and that Krishna is actually not his enemy or “bad guy” but is actually merciful because by killing him (his gross and subtle body) he relieved him from material existence and sinful reactions and this then inspires love for Him which is eternally good for him. So God is not cruel but all-good, all-merciful, because even those who are against Him and are due to their own bad actions against Him eventually killed by Him which relieves them from sinful reactions and inspires love for Him seeing Him now in a proper light.
The only evidence I had for this was my practical experience when one pure devotee chastised me for my selfish action related to his service. When he was rebuking me I felt in my heart relief from my burdening selfish tendencies like he is cutting them with knife and I became more and more blissful and felt that he is doing this out of actual love for me and this increased my affection for him.
If you later find reference please convey and I will also try to get it from some others.
By the help of another devotee I got it. In Govinda bhasya to Vedanta 3.3.53.
Kusakratha das’s version is :
“The sages say that they who are killed by the Lord see the Lord at the moment of their death and in this way they also become liberated. This occurs because the splendor of the Lord’s cakra or other weapon destroys their subtle material body (of mind, intelligence, and false ego). It should be understood that by seeing the Lord these persons attain love for Him. To say otherwise would contradict many statements of the scriptures.”
And this devotee’s version is :
“I’m not so sure of this ‘attained love for Him’
priyatvadina tad drsteh
Seeing him made them dear to him”