Krishna Janmashtami (Birthday) Satsang - 26th August 2024

Why do we feel that this kind of love is not for us? That this kind of bhakti is too crazy, it is too far out? Why do we feel that he will not allow us to lead a life which is the most auspicious? Why do we believe that we know better what our life should be like? So whether you look at the life of Mirabai or St. Teresa of Avila, both of them consider the Lord to be their husband, wedded to the Lord. Why do we feel that this cannot be our great privilege as well? To offer our heart to God himself is the highest gift we can give to ourselves. So let's truly ask ourselves: Is he not here right now? Has this Leela stopped from those days, or is this still his Leela going on? And suppose you say that 'I look within but I can't find him,' will you trust this foolish old man to tell you that it needs a little more patience and a little more courage? That his love for us is immense, but he knows how much to feed us when, and we just have to trust that.

If the Lord can now be our beloved, can be our parents, can be our best friend, can be our child, what could be missing from our lives? What can we accomplish in the world that can be a good enough replacement for this holy bond in our heart? So magnanimous is his love for us that he allows us to meet him in the way that we want, whichever way we want. Swami Ram Sukhdas said—how was it? Hanuman Prasad Poddar Ji who said that God is the only thing you can find just by turning towards him. You can attain even things of the world you cannot attain just by turning towards them, but all that is needed is for us to turn towards him, be with him, and not lose patience, not lose faith. For you know what is the best way to love the world? Not the way we usually think. The best way to love the world, our brothers and sisters in the world as well, is to love God first and let his love be reflected, be offered from our heart to everyone.

What we do instead is that we attach ourselves to things of the world and people of the world, and then whatever little time, attention, focus, love we have left, we say, 'Okay, now this is for God. I've taken out one hour for prayer,' which is not bad, it's very beautiful, you must. But you feel that that is just the leftover love that you can give to God. How about if you switch it? Give all your love to God in your heart, whichever way you want to, whichever form appeals to you, you pick. And see then whether your presence in this seeming world becomes more full of love, more full of joy and laughter. But if you were to pick between who to offer the main course to and who to give the leftovers to, let's switch it around. Let's offer God the main course and whatever is left then is his Prasad. It's got his fragrance, it's got his perfume, it's got his light. What better gift can you give even to the world than to be a bearer of his light, of his love?

So on this auspicious holy day, let's really look. If these great bhaktas and sages across all generations and in all cultures fell so deeply in love with the Lord, whichever form—whether it is Krishna, whether it is the Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita, whether it is Bal Gopal, whichever form—then is this love not available for us? Are we too scared to meet him in our heart? So isn't the story of Mahadevi Ji the story of our life in some way? That because of our fear and our social conditioning, we don't fall deeply in love with God, and then we have to long for him, maybe for lifetimes. You see, you may say that, 'But he was there in her time, he was there in her time,' but I am telling you that he is here in our time, more intimately here than ever before. In your heart he lives, and it's all a question of time.

So imagine—and I'm borrowing heavily from the Interior Castle, but I'm going to make some changes to that metaphor—so imagine that God is sitting, Lord Krishna is sitting in your house in the room called your heart. He's sitting there, but you have other rooms. You have eyes as one room, ears is one room, nose is one room, all your senses one room, your hands' actions one room, your feet moving one room. All of these are separate rooms and we all know where you want to be. You want to be in your heart. But like most mothers, at least in India, who won't sit and have dinner with you at the dining table, who just love to come from the kitchen and say, 'I'm going to finish this, I'm going to finish that, I'm going to feed you, I'll be here,' we are going from room to room trying to finish all our other so-called work while God waits for us in our heart. You see what I'm saying? He is right here. Where are we?

And if his presence is not palpable, then that needs faith, that needs trust. The only value in calling me Father, Big Brother, Ananta Ji, Guru Ji, whatever words, beautiful terms of endearment that you use, the only value of that is that you can trust this one, that he is telling you the truth about this: that he lives in your heart in the form of the Atma within you. And that Atma itself is Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Allah, Satguru. That Atma itself is it. And the Atma itself will reveal himself to you, herself to you, in all ways—as the Divine Mother, as the Divine Father, as the beloved one. But we have to stop running around all over the house and go and sit in our hearts.

It's coming to me that a few days ago it occurred to me that there's a bhajan of lamentation where we are pleading with Krishna, saying, where we are pleading with the Lord saying, 'Why have you forgotten me? Do you remember me at all?' But you know what we are actually lamenting? We are saying like that, we are saying like that, we are complaining, we are throwing the tantrum that 'You have forgotten me,' but actually lamenting the fact that we forgot him. And I'm telling you that although he lives in your heart, but if you're too busy with your eyes, he will reveal himself to you even there, but to point you back home, not so that you can live there. Whatever you are busy with, he will show his signs to you there if there is that mustard seed worth of faith. But we have to turn. We cannot wait for that to happen to turn. If our true heartfelt endeavor is to be with him, is to love him with all our heart, and if you are finding that difficult, then he will help us every step of the way.

There is nobody who said, 'I tried with all my heart,' or even half my heart—there's nobody who can say, 'I tried even a little bit, but God just left me. He did not help me, he did not guide me, he did not bring me to himself.' But why do we forget him? What is so great about what this world can offer? What is so great about what this world can offer? What is the relationship that you want in the world that God cannot give you? Why do we go running from place to place, knocking every door but the door within? So which lifetime is this one going to be? Is this going to be the Mahadevi Ji lifetime, which is also glorious—you get what I'm saying—or is it going to be the Mirabai lifetime? Which lifetime is this going to be? Are you going to shy away from him because the world told you so? How can we not take him to be our everything, the Lord of our life that he actually already is? But can we not recognize that truth for ourselves in this life and try to emulate the lives of these beautiful sages? Whose life is this going to be? Suppose this was the moment you had to decide.

There is another common misunderstanding I feel, at least maybe I'm the one misunderstanding, but the way I see it at least is this: that especially with our love for Krishna, we feel that it's just fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. You see, because he's so naughty, he's full of fun. And it is true that once you come to him, his joy is beyond compare. But remember that to come to him is a lot of serious work. If you look at Mirabai's life, you feel like she had a lot of fun in a way, you see, because the love for God is so much fun, it's just joyful in his expression. But not the way of fun that we make it to be in the world. See, it's all that kind of fun where God is forgotten very easily. There's a deeper place in which from our love for him, from our joy that comes in our heart, then the outer expression becomes like that. But most of us, we short-circuit that whole part. We just want the joy of it instead of the serious work that it is. Why am I calling it serious work? Nobody wants to come to a satsang and hear about serious work. It is serious work to transcend yourself. To love God deeply, you have to get over yourself. You have to remember him constantly.

God is forgotten very easily. There's a deeper place in which, from our love for him, from our joy that comes in our heart, then the outer expression becomes like that. But most of us, we short-circuit that whole part. We just want the joy of it instead of the serious work that it is. Why am I calling it serious work? Nobody wants to come to a satsang and hear about serious work. It is serious work to transcend yourself. To love God deeply, you have to get over yourself. You have to remember him constantly. You have to turn towards your heart, turn away from 'my' constantly, you see. So this Prasad, this joy, happiness—let that be after your duty. Don't rush for the Prasad too soon. For now, just long for him, love him deeply as much as you can in your heart. He will help you every step of the way. You literally have to cut off your head and offer it to him as an offering, and even that won't do because our physical head is not worth that much to give. Give everything that you take to be yours. What do you take to be yours? Everything that you take to be yours, offer it to God. Make it his alone, huh? Don't make it his and constantly be checking on it. That's what we do. 'I give God my heart, now see what's happening, now see what's happening.' And if that complaining or tantruming comes, then give that also to him. But carefully, don't let your prayer life become an exhibition of your pride. Make your prayer life your real true humility, and then you'll see the magic.

So, Sudama was one of his best friends growing up. And I mean, I may be very wrong about these stories because I'm not at all qualified to share them, so feel free to correct me. But Sudama was one of his best friends growing up, and then Lord Krishna, in his worldly form, became a huge king—the King of Dwarka. And Sudama Ji was in deep poverty. There were many times where he and his wife didn't have food to eat, but his love for Krishna remained very strong and intact. So his wife one time cajoled him and said, 'Why don't you go and meet him? Maybe he can help you.' And Sudama felt a bit uncomfortable. He said, 'But he's such a big king. Will he even remember me? I am nobody. And how will I go meet him? What do I have to offer anyway?'

So, for whatever reason, he got convinced and he went. And it's such a beautiful story that as soon as the Lord found out that his friend, his Saka, had come, he rushed to the gate and washed his feet and welcomed him as if he is the new king of the land. The friend who felt such deep love for him in the heart but felt like, 'Why will Krishna look at me? I have nothing to offer him.' What do we have to give to God? We all feel that somewhere. So remember that by taking one step towards him, he will rush towards us. But we need that humility of Sudama. We need the love of Mira, or at least our attempt to emulate that to the point of 1%, even much less than that, that we can try. That's all that is needed—that innocence, that love, that humility.

And perhaps the most difficult, at least here what was the most difficult, was the accepting of God's will above every other human standard that we can make, whether it is ethics, morality, right or wrong, good or bad. He has showed us that we are too tiny to understand how the world works, what is right and wrong, what is good and bad. And throughout his life, he showed us that God knows best. And our intellect, our worldly ideas—at least mine did—had a lot of resistance and questioning about how could he have done that and how could he have done this, presuming that I knew even a little bit about what he could see. If things had gone another way, then what would happen to this world? And what was needed for all of us, his children, at that point is exactly what he did.

So, much like the story of Abraham and Isaac, where to accept his will as the only true standard of Dharma is a deep understanding, because if you know the human intellect, you know what it could have done. So if you had told Arjuna, 'No, you cannot fight, you have to be compassionate towards all living beings and you become a sadhu,' you would have glorified that story also as the next Buddha or the previous Buddha, isn't it? Now he said okay, now he told us to do our duty, and that is the teaching. So in our tiny attempts to make sense out of everything, we frame it according to what we want. But why is that? On the battlefield where he told Arjuna to fight, what is the highest learning there for me is not what he told him to do, but the fact that as Arjuna was a friend of God, as friends of God, as devotees of God, as bhaktas of God, our job is to follow his will more than anything else.

And many times, because we have such a limited view, it will not make sense to us. And yet, do not go our own way, but to wait and to be guided by him. And if we are in doubt, then to wait even more, because he does not say that 'I will just guide you once,' because he knows our doubting mind. So to have patience and to just wait with him for it to get clearer and clearer in our heart, and that being the way to live, is a very important learning from Lord Krishna's human play. If it needed just rationality and sensibility, then we don't need his presence to guide us. If it is all rational, then we don't need faith. So I suffered from this pride where I thought that I can judge Lord Krishna about what is right and what is wrong, foolish child that I was and am. We must not fall for these traps. Learn from the mistakes of this one so that you don't repeat them yourself.

Like Job, we cannot understand, you see, why God does what he does. I took this example and I'm learning a lot from having Aslan in our life and house. So I was sharing with one child that no matter how much we try and explain to Aslan why he's getting that injection, that shot, he will not understand. You see, he does not have the capacity to understand. He just has to come to a place—hopefully one day he will—that he trusts us enough to say, 'If my parents are doing this, then it must be for my good.' Hopefully that much he'll be able to understand one day. What is the message in that for us? That we are too tiny. Our intellect, our mind, our worldly aspect at least, is too tiny to really fathom the play of God, the play of Brahman in itself.

The development of trust, the development of faith, is what is needed in our life, not an understanding of 'Why does he do this?' and 'Why did he do that?' 'Why does he not do this?' because we can waste our entire life in this. And most of us, like only humans have this tendency, hopefully that we have the potential to resent on the basis of our limited understanding for our entire life. We can hold on to a resentment even against God because we think that we know better. Can you imagine how it would be if Aslan started hating us because of the injection for the rest of his life, just because he could not understand that it is for his own good, for his own health? But humans have that possibility.

So how deep is our faith in God? How deeply do we trust him? And that is when our love transforms into devotion, servitude. I think Swami Chinmayananda, one very nice Swami Ji, shared the story that in the world at least, we may love but we may not trust. We may love our children a lot, but we may not buy their story when they say, 'I've done it, it's all fine, I've studied well,' you see. We may not trust them. Or there may be others that we may trust but we may not love, like people at work. You may feel like they're good colleagues, you may say, 'Ah yes, yes, if you're saying it, it must be fine,' but you may not love them. But with God, you have to love and have full trust. Full love and full trust, that is devotion. Even in our lives with our partners, we may love them a lot but we may not trust them. We may not trust that they will follow through or keep up on their promises. We may not trust them. But with God, we can fully trust. He is the most faithful, that he makes himself available to me. What other sign of faith do I need?

So can this be the day today that all of us commit to handing over our life and our full heart to God alone? Can it be? Yes. Now allow his love to take over our lives, and I promise you that that love that will flow through you as his instrument and will come to you as his devotee, as his beloved, is unmatched in this world. So can we make this Sri Krishna Janmashtami eternal? And of course, like I said, love him in the way that you want. Love him as Ram, love him as Krishna, love him as Jesus, love him as Allah, love him as Satguru in any way that form of expression, that form of love, whether it's friendship, whether it is love, whether it is being a child of God or it is being a parent of God.

You look at the parents of all the incarnations, you will see that they were big devotees of the child that they gave birth to, whether it is Vasudeva or Yashoda or all the mothers of Ram Ji—Kaushalya, Sumitra, Kaikeyi—or Krishna's sister, okay? Or whether it is Mother Mary, see Joseph, see Vasudeva Ji, Dasharatha Ji. In their love for God, they became his big disciples, big devotees. I don't know if you can say disciples, but devotees at least. So you choose the form in which you want to love God. Which way does God appeal to you? Because God realizes very well that he is too vast for us to fathom. So whichever way we approach him, he accepts that. You may say that 'I want to love him as pure presence.' Okay, love him as pure presence. You may say, 'I want to love him as Nirguna itself.' Okay, try. I don't know how you will do that, but you can try. Nothing stops you. Your attempt to love is what is important.

But never make the mistake of thinking that your way is better, and definitely never make the mistake of believing that your way is the best, that we know any better as to how to love God than our brothers or sisters. The pride can come in very deeply in this. Imagine if all the religious movements in this world, they did not have any animosity or hatred towards any other religious movement because actually there's no reason to. There's no reason even to say that there are different religions. We should all say that all these religions are one religion with different ways, different methods. Like even in every religion, there are so many pathways to God. We should just look at that which we call religion as pathways to God. So much animosity and so much trouble in the world is caused, and so many wars have been fought and so many brothers and sisters have been killed for needless, stupid reasons, just because my pathway to God looks a bit different than yours. Who is to say which one is the best?

And we do this in everything, and that is the contrast between living a life which is full of love for God versus a love for 'me.' Because that 'me' is so unstable. It wants validation, approval, constantly being told that it is right. It is a hellish life that we create for ourselves. Let all that dissolve in your love for God.

Father, can you love God in the form of the Guru?

Thank you. Yes, you can. But the biggest expression of love for the Guru is to try and meet their instruction, follow what they are pointing to, because they will point you to the love for God. But no Guru—and I'm nobody to advise any Guru—but no Guru should fall into the trap of taking the devotee's devotion personally or making it about themselves, because then we fall into the Ravana trap. Only God is the giver of life. Only God can bless our heart with the Atma, with the Holy Spirit. No sage, no matter how great, can bring life into this world or take life away from this world. And that is why the sages recognize their full unity and recognize their continuing distinction, and that is why all sages are great servants of God.

As far as this man is concerned, please don't—it is not at all worth printing a photo of or doing any of that stuff. Just follow whatever little bit as an elder brother I'm telling you, just follow the little bit that you can. That's my limited role in front of the magnificence of the holy presence. This outer expression doesn't at all, doesn't at all fit any standards of Gurudom or any fancy thing like that. She will sing some bhajan, although I said that not for fun.

All sages are great servants of God. As far as this man is concerned, please don't—it is not at all worth printing a photo of or doing any of that stuff. Just follow whatever little bit, as an elder brother, I'm telling you. Just follow the little bit that you can. That's my limited role in front of the magnificence of the Holy presence. This outer expression doesn't at all, doesn't at all fit any standards of Gurudom or any fancy thing like that. She will sing some bhajan, although I said that—not fun, fun and serious work. You can sing some bhajans in full love and devotion and fun. Feeling good enough now to sing?

I was listening to a podcast actually, so he was explaining very beautifully about the Narasimha Avatar. I have not read much about Narasimha; of course, we have heard about Prahlada and the story, but not much about the importance of the Narasimha Avatar. So in that podcast, he was saying that Narasimha Avatar is the only one of the ten Avatars who came just for one devotee, that too a child. All other Avatars had a wider purpose like Dharma Samsthapana, or you know, Krishna, Ram, even Matsya, Kurma—everybody had a wider purpose to save the Earth or save mankind. But only for Narasimha Avatar, he came only for one devotee, that too a small young child.

And one more peculiarity and beauty of Narasimha Avatar is, at the same time, he had to please a devotee as well as destroy a devotee. In the sense, devotee in the sense Hiranyakashipu was also constantly thinking about Vishnu. So in a way, he is also a devotee. In whichever emotion you think, you end up being a devotee finally. Ravana and Kamsa are also like that. Yeah. So he was saying that in Ram Avatar, to please Shabri, he came at a different time; to kill Ravana, he chose a different time. It was not done together. Krishna Avatar also, killing Kamsa was at a different time; being with Yashoda was a different time. He chose different times. But Narasimha was so, like, abruptly he had to come. So it could just be called as, what is that, Prahlada Ranjana. So he had to Ranjana, means please his devotee, that too a young child, and destroy a demonic devotee also. So it's a very peculiar Avatar.

So in Bhagavata, it is said that if you want Lord to appear before your help immediately, call Narasimha, because he will not take time. He will just come there. Because otherwise, Ram and Krishna might take some time. That's what—I don't know—they have to come in a womb, they have to take birth, they will ask for time. Jokingly he was saying, but Narasimha will just come there; he will not buy time. And at the same time, he can be pleasing to you as well as a destroyer. I found it very beautiful. He was talking about Kamsa also because in the Krishna Avatar, when Devaki was sent to prison by Kamsa and he heard about the Akashvani saying the eighth child of Devaki will kill him, he thought, 'Okay, in the eighth child we have time.' So he was not finicky or obsessed about it; he just sent them to prison and he was relaxing.

So God was so compassionate that he wanted Kamsa to constantly think about him, at least in a fearful way. So out of his compassion, he sent Narada to provoke Kamsa that it could be any child, it need not—you don't have to wait for the eighth child. Be prepared, you know, any child can cause you—be extra careful. So Kamsa got provoked and he became obsessed and he became so fearful of Krishna that in a way he was constantly thinking about Krishna. So that is called as Bhaya Yoga. In fear, you are constantly thinking about the Lord. So at least through that, he let him attain Mukti. So God is so compassionate that even he thinks about a devoted person like Kamsa or Ravana and gives him Mukti. That is the Vishnu Avatar.

So Prahlada talks about nine ways of devotion. I don't remember everything, but one is Shravana—you keep hearing about God, God stories, Leelas, and then you attain salvation. Parikshit is supposed to be like that. And then what is the second one? That I forgot the order, sorry. Shravana, then japa, Pranam... that surrender. I can read that better. Yeah, I'll read it. So Prahlada gave Navadha Bhakti, the nine ways to offer devotion to God. First is Shravana, hearing about God. Then it's Kirtana, chanting his name and glory. Then Smarana, remembering him. Then Pada-sevana, serving his lotus feet. Then Archana, worshiping him as per the scriptures. Then Vandana, which is prostrating before him. Dasya, being a servant. Sakhya, befriending him. And then final is Atma Nivedan, offering oneself to him.

So this Atma Nivedan is supposed to be done by King Mahabali. We celebrate Onam around him only. So he was an Asura king of Kerala, but he was a devotee of Vishnu. Though he was an Asura king, he was a devotee of Vishnu and he was a very kind and generous king. As a king, he was as a parent to his Praja; he was very generous and kind. Somebody like Karna, he would give anything that you ask. But he had a subtle pride that he is the giver, you know, he can give anything. So Vishnu loves him dearly, but he wanted to get rid of this ego in him. So he came as the Vamana Avatar. So Vamana is a small Brahman boy, around ten years of age. So he came once to Mahabali's court palace for Dana, for asking for Dana. And then Mahabali asks him, 'What do you want?' He says, 'I want three feet of soil.' And that is such a small boy that his foot will be so small. Yeah, it's not the square feet, it's the foot. So steps, three steps he wanted.

Then Mahabali said, 'Are you sure you just want this? Because you've come to my court, you could have asked for better things.' But he said, 'I want only these three feet of soil.' Then he said, 'Okay, go ahead and take it.' And then he keeps the first foot, and then by the time he grows so gigantic, so big, that the one foot covers the entire Earth. And then by then, Mahabali realizes that he is not an ordinary child, he has to be Vishnu. And then the second foot he keeps on the entire Akash, the entire rest of the universe, and there is no space for keeping his third foot. Then Mahabali looks—I mean, Ram looks at Mahabali and asks him, 'Where should I keep it?' Then he says, 'Keep it on my head,' because he really understood why he has come. And he bows down. So he keeps his foot on Mahabali's head and he pushes him down to Patal. And then Vishnu gives him a boon. He asks him, 'Do you want anything?' And then Mahabali tells him that, 'I would like to meet my Praja, my people, once in a year.' So that's when we celebrate Onam. This is one example of Atma Nivedan, like surrendering at all levels, completely surrendering.

A nice one. Everyone knows this one. You can put the lights on. Okay, let's sing this one. You know why we laugh? You know why we are laughing? Receiver, receiver. You can't hear. Gopala, power today. Gopala, pati. Opera, opera. You heard that? The mic can keep. I am so... come in, come in, come in. Just give her the mic.

One more? You want to sing one more? The very famous Kabir singers from Pakistan. See, after listening to this, can people really say there are religions and separations and boundaries?