Love for Krsna

‘Love for Krsna!’ is a quotidian factor. It is something which I read and hear about all the time in my world of Spirituality. ‘Love’ is a universal language of expression to convey one’s heart’s deepest and inner-most feelings for another being. ‘Love’ for God is a rarity and seldom expressed by material-minded people, everyone in this world looks up to God as a wish-fulfilling tree. I haven’t so far come across anybody in this material world who goes to God to seek Him alone and express their love for Him. Instead I find that they go with an endless bucket list of wants and desires, keen to have them fulfilled.

From the day I met my KrsnaGuru, I began to learn about what it is to be in Love with Krsna. How should one seek the Lord alone, instead of material worldly wants and desires? To be in ‘Love’ with Krsna is not something that a human-being can ever develop. One needs to have Krsna’s grace to even first come on the path of Spiritual. The pure thought of loving Krsna can come only to a few chosen ones who are from the Lord’s domain and these few form His innermost circle.

Krsna is the personification of ‘Love’. ‘Love’ here refers to His Unconditional and Selfless love, be it for his devotees or his enemies. There are no conditions and expectations of any form or kind from the other being. Love is to Give without any discrimination, attachment and motivation. What does all this mean here? Let me now explain this in detail. In the material world when an individual says he is in love with his girlfriend or wife, it is always transactional. Everything in that relationship is based on give and take. For example, if your boyfriend or husband forgets your birthday and does not buy you a present or wish you, you are going to be extremely upset with him and the same love you felt earlier will vanish. This might result in a bitter exchange of unpleasant words which may potentially lead into you breaking off the relationship. The love which the individual felt for his girlfriend or wife doesn’t seem to exist any longer. All because one’s desires and expectations were not fulfilled.

In this material world every relationship is based on mutual benefit and fulfillment of each one’s wants and desires. There is no True Love in this world, since all relationships are based on transactions and how it is favorable for that individual. Whereas, the Love for Krsna is Eternal. It grows by the minute. When I love Krsna, I cannot have any expectations, wants or desires. I must Love the Lord Unconditionally and Selflessly and I cannot put conditions on the Lord for me to Love Him. If I have even an iota of expectation and lay down conditions or if I express several dos and don’ts, then my love for Krsna is nothing but materialistic.

It has taken me seven years to unravel the profound knowledge of what it is to be in love with Krsna and how to love like Him. Every day, my understanding of this Knowledge continues to develop. This Knowledge is like an endless Ocean and with every passing day, I go further into its depths, learning through its beauty and profundity the vastness of His Love. This Love, like a deep sea dive, can only be experienced and can never be described. There are three kinds of Love as quoted from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The first kind is an ordinary love in which the lover seeks his/her own happiness; he/she doesn’t care whether the other person is happy or not. In the second kind, which is a compromise, both of them seek each other’s happiness which is a noble kind of love. But the third kind is the highest of the three. The lover in the third context says to his beloved that She is happy in his happiness. ‘Be happy yourself, whatever may happen to me’. Radha had this highest love. She was happy in Krsna’s happiness. The Gopis too had attained this exalted state.

Now although there are only three kinds of love described in the Shastras, there is a fourth kind of Love. This is Krsna’s Love for his beloveds and every other being in this universe. How does Krsna Love? Why is Krsna’s Love Supreme among others? Firstly, Krsna is the Love Incarnate. He loves everyone Selflessly. He has no expectations or wants of any sort from anybody. Krsna only gives as he is ‘full of Himself’. He wants to give the best to everyone in his world. He does things for each one as per their desire and performs this action in the best possible manner, allowing you to derive a complete experience from that event or activity.

Let me explain this with an example. Radha’s only craving was Krsna and she always wanted Him only to herself. In order to fulfill this desire of Radha’s, Krsna would sit on the bank of Yamuna river and wait for hours together, every single day, until she came along. There were days when she would not come at all, yet Krsna would never miss going to the Yamuna river to meet his beloved. When Krsna left Vrindavan to go to Mathura, the entire world only saw the pain of Radha, of the Gopis and the residents of Vraja but no one ever noticed or tried to find out what is Krsna going through. Everyone thought that it is Radha who suffered the pain of separation but not once did anyone think or even care to understand Krsna’s pain. Although Krsna’s new abode was Mathura, he never failed in his duty to Radha. He would painstakingly go to Vrindavan every day to see her but she, oblivious to the extent of Krsna’s Love, never sought Him out again on the banks of the river Yamuna.

Similarly, just the way I suffer the pangs of separation for my Krsna, he suffers thousand times more than me. The only difference is that I express my pain explicitly but my Krsna will never ever express what he goes through. If you take your own life and reflect upon it, you will understand that whatever Krsna does for you is not because he enjoys doing those actions. He does it simply because he wants you to be happy. His happiness lies in giving you the highest form of enjoyment by doing whatever you wished and aspired for.

Krsna is a desireless being. He is the paragon of masculine beauty; a perfect celibate and a personification of the highest goodness in this Universe. He is the quintessence of grandeur, glory, valor, compassion, and benevolence. He is far beyond what I have just described here. He is the ultimate goal to be achieved. Krsna can never be measured as He is a limitless Ocean, the ‘Athanga Sagar’. He is unfathomable, indescribable and inscrutable. He is beyond all Ken and Understanding. He is the embodiment of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss alone. It is next to impossible for mortal beings to even cross the first kind of love. Know that Love equals to give and not to take. Krsna only gives Selflessly and Unconditionally.

Krsna, my heartfelt prayers unto you. Please bestow upon this humble maid-servant of yours the strength and courage to attain Unconditional and Pure Love for Thy Lotus Feet so that she may serve Thee Selflessly in this human life. May she remain in this Bliss with her Krsna for all eternity.