Lecture

Misplaced Love Must Return To Krishna

📅 March 16, 1968 📍 San Francisco ⏱ 10 min
Misplaced love for temporary things must be redirected to Krishna for life's true perfection and fulfillment.
Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca

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] Prabhupāda: The soul is the production of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore ultimately, He is our dearmost friend. We are trying to love somebody. That somebody is a perverted reflection of Kṛṣṇa.

Actually... Just like the child. The child is searching after the mother's breast, and it is crying. If somebody takes the child, he's not satisfied.

Because he cannot express that "I want my mother." Similarly, we are hankering after loving Kṛṣṇa in a perverted way. But because we have no information of Kṛṣṇa, we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, therefore we are loving this body, that body. Ultimately, I am loving a cat or dog or something else. The love is there, but we have misplaced the love.

As soon as we replace our love to Kṛṣṇa, then our perfection of love is manifested and our perfection of life is also achieved. Lord Caitanya preached this philosophy that premā pum-artho mahān. Prema, prema means love. His philosophy, Lord Caitanya's philosophy, is ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayaḥ [Srinatha Cakravarti, Caitanya-manjusa of his commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam]. [The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, is to be worshiped along with His transcendental abode, Vṛndāvana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopīs of Vṛndāvaṇa. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the spotless authority on everything, and pure love of God is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regard, are the opinion of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.] Vrajeśa-tanayaḥ means Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa appeared as the son of the king of Vraja, Vṛndāvana. Therefore... And tanaya means son.

So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His propagation, His teaching, the substance of His teaching is that Kṛṣṇa is the most worshipable object. Ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma vṛndāvanam. And as He is worshipable, similarly His place, the Vṛndāvana, where He appeared, that is also worshipable. ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma vṛndāvanam ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇā yā kalpitā. [Caitanya-manjusa] And the method of worship, the best method of worship of Kṛṣṇa, was exhibited by the gopīs. Now what were the worshipable method of the gopīs?

They were not very learned scholars or Vedāntists, or theosophists or mental speculators. None. They were ordinary village girls. And that also, not coming of a very high royal family or brāhmaṇa family. They were cowherdsmen.

So their fathers were not very rich, but they had several cows, that's all. So the gopīs' method of Kṛṣṇa worship was that they could not forget Kṛṣṇa even for a moment. That was their qualification. There are many verses about the mental situation of the gopīs. I shall just try to explain you about their mentality, how they are loving Kṛṣṇa.

Krishna ConsciousnessBhaktiDevotional ServicePrayerDetachment
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