Wonderful Kṛṣṅa

If God is inconceivable, as the scriptures state, can we really know anything about Him?

by Satsvarūpa Dāsa Goswami

Śrī Īśopaniṣad states that Kṛṣṅa is simultaneously very far away and very close. The Vedic scriptures encourage us: The best way to know Kṛṣṅa and bring Him closer is to hear about Him.

As we open any book about Kṛṣṅa, we’ll immediately feel the richness of the clear and scientific knowledge it contains. We’ll also come to understand that Kṛṣṅa is by nature inconceivable to finite beings. Although some world religions extend that to mean that Kṛṣṅa is by essence completely inconceivable (not only far away), we cannot agree. Yes, He is ultimately inconceivable, but His name, fame, and form can be known just as we know any person face-to-face. Anyone who wants to be God conscious has to understand this point.

Here’s an example of a statement that ties these two concepts together. It’s from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.12.38), in connection with Lord Kṛṣṅa's killing and liberating the demon Aghāsura, who in the form of a gigantic snake had swallowed Kṛṣṅa and His friends.

Kṛṣṅa is the cause of all causes. The causes and effects of the material world, both higher and lower, are all created by the Supreme Lord, the original controller. When Kṛṣṅa appeared as the son of Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā, He did so by His causeless mercy. Consequently, for Him to exhibit His unlimited opulence was not at all wonderful. Indeed, he showed such great mercy that even Aghāsura, the most sinful miscreant, was elevated to being one of His associates and achieving sārūpya-mukti [having the same form as the Lord], which is actually impossible for materially contaminated persons to attain.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments:

Kṛṣṅa is the cause of all causes. He is the creator of cause and effect, and He is the supreme controller. Nothing is impossible for Him. Therefore that He enabled even a living being like Aghāsura to attain the salvation of sārūpya-mukti is not at all wonderful for Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa took pleasure in entering the mouth of Aghāsura in a sporting spirit, along with His associates. Therefore, when Aghāsura, by that sporting association, as maintained in the spiritual world, was purified of all contamination, he attained sārūpya-mukti and vimukti by the grace of Kṛṣṅa. For Kṛṣṅa this was not at all wonderful.

“Not at all wonderful” is Śrīla Prabhupāda's way of saying we shouldn’t be surprised or doubtful when we hear of Kṛṣṅa's power and opulence. Kṛṣṅa killed demons. Kṛṣṅa lifted Govardhana Hill. Kṛṣṅa married 16,108 wives. None of these acts is at all wonderful, because Kṛṣṅa did them effortlessly. Kṛṣṅa is the source of cause and effect, yet He appears as a child. Does that sound incredible, unbelievable? Well, Kṛṣṅa has infinite greatness. Nothing is impossible for Him.

But we are wonderstruck. Śrīla Prabhupāda named one chapter of his book Kṛṣṅa “Wonderful Kṛṣṅa.” Wonderful is a tasty word if it’s not used superficially; it refers to something filled with joy, a superlative experience.

In the scriptures the devotees express their appreciation of “wonderful Kṛṣṅa” according to their relationship with Him. Queen Kuntī prays that although Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme Truth, in His childhood form He becomes subordinate to Mother Yaśodā. Although fear personified is afraid of Kṛṣṅa, He runs in fear from His mother, who threatens Him with a stick. Kuntī says that when she thinks of Kṛṣṅa running fearfully, His black mascara smeared by His tears, she becomes amazed. What fortune Yaśodā has to be Kṛṣṅa's mother and to subordinate the supreme controller!

The ācāryas, the great spiritual masters of the past, have pointed out another aspect of Kṛṣṅa's inconceivable power, beyond even that of His expansions and avatāras: He performed amazing feats as a small child. When Kṛṣṅa killed Pūtanā, He was only a few months old. He was seven when He lifted Govardhana Hill with the pinkie of His left hand. In other incarnations, He assumed large forms to do a large task. To kill Hiraṅyakaśipu He appeared in a huge form as a half man, half lion. Although He begged three steps of land from Bali Mahārāja in the form of a dwarf brāhmaṅa, He assumed a huge form to reclaim the universe with those steps. Kṛṣṅa performed equally difficult tasks, yet He performed them in His beautiful Vṛndāvana form as a cowherd boy. That in itself is wonderful.

When we think of Kṛṣṅa's opulence, we see the paradoxes. He is the master, yet He’s subordinate to His devotees. He’s inconceivable, yet He allows us to know Him. In the Third Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the great devotee Uddhava expresses bewilderment at Kṛṣṅa's being unborn yet apparently being born, at Kṛṣṅa's being fearless yet leaving Vṛndāvana out of fear of Kaṁsa. The contradictions are bewildering, and Uddhava’s separation from such a wonderful Kṛṣṅa also bewilders him. And of course, the nondevotees are bewildered because they cannot accept Kṛṣṅa with His apparent paradoxes. Their mundane morality can never accommodate the inconceivable opulence of Kṛṣṅa.

Kṛṣṅa's Most Attractive Feature

Kṛṣṅa is wonderful, amazing—inconceivably so—but we have not touched on the most mysterious and inconceivable of all His qualities: His ability to express love. He is powerful, He is wise, He is strong and famous, but His inclination to love all living beings, and His expression of that love in a variety of ways, is His most attractive feature. And even more attractive than that is His special love for His devotees. Therefore, a devotee, while recognizing Kṛṣṅa's mastership over his or her life, does not ever forget this greatest glory of Kṛṣṅa's love.

I recently heard Śrīla Prabhupāda on tape speaking about suffering. A devotee asked Prabhupāda how we should understand that even though we are devotees, we still have to suffer. Prabhupāda took a strong position. He said it was not our right to question that we have to suffer. And we should never think that we would love Kṛṣṅa more if we didn’t suffer. Nor does Kṛṣṅa have to explain to us why we are suffering. A devotee sees Kṛṣṅa unquestionably as master. In the mood of a devotee, Lord Caitanya prays, “Whether You make me broken-hearted or You handle me roughly in Your embrace, You are always my worshipful Lord, birth after birth.” A devotee never doubts Kṛṣṅa's loving intention toward him.

I was raised in a nominally Catholic family. We never discussed faith or the reality of God, never broached doubts. As soon as I entered the larger world of college and was exposed to doubts, I had no answers. I remember one teacher saying, “How can there be God if there is so much suffering in the world?” This is a classic theological puzzle: If God is all-good and all-powerful, why are we suffering? How can He be all-loving if His creatures are feeling pain?

A devotee is not bewildered by these apparent contradictions. We may not understand His purposes, but we are never bewildered by them. A devotee has ultimate trust in Kṛṣṅa's most wonderful quality.

Therefore, don’t ask Kṛṣṅa for sense gratification, and don’t bargain with Kṛṣṅa for something less than love of God. While we acknowledge that Kṛṣṅa is far away from us, we also feel His closeness and our ability to address Him, just as a child will go to the father to have his desires fulfilled. On the higher stages of Kṛṣṅa consciousness, devotees may very well express their own desires, but their desires are always for Kṛṣṅa's pleasure. Devotees also express a variety of moods, some submissive and some contrary. Kṛṣṅa enjoys them all.

We can’t imitate those types of expressions, and if we try, we may end up asking for something not in our ultimate interest. Kṛṣṅa, as the kind father, will provide the “toy.” In the end we may find ourselves telling Kṛṣṅa we didn’t want what we received, and Kṛṣṅa saying, “Well, you asked for it, so now you play with it until it breaks.” How sad when we go to Kṛṣṅa for such things. And how sad that it may take thousands of years of action and reaction to live out the gift He gave us.

The Gopīs’ Example

How pleased Kṛṣṅa must be when He sees a pure devotee who cares only for Him. Śrīla Prabhupāda was ecstatic to hear that the gopīs, Kṛṣṅa's cowherd girlfriends, never asked Kṛṣṅa for anything. Prabhupāda offered their behavior as an example of real bhakti. Usually, in a conjugal relationship men and women want something from each other. Women usually want security, and even Kṛṣṅa's queens in Dvārakā had that. But the gopīs had nothing. They never asked for anything. They went to the forest in the middle of the night at the risk of losing their families and reputations, and Kṛṣṅa did not provide them with any guarantee or indemnity. Therefore, they are considered the highest devotees; they wanted only to give Kṛṣṅa happiness, to please wonderful Kṛṣṅa.

After Kṛṣṅa lifted Govardhana Hill, the cowherd men were bewildered. Who is this wonderful boy? Nanda Mahārāja repeated what the priest Gargamuni had told him at Kṛṣṅa's name-giving ceremony. Kṛṣṅa is nārāyaṅa-sama, “equal to Nārāyaṅa, or God,” Gargamuni had said. Although the cowherd men understood, they didn’t abandon their parental affection for Kṛṣṅa. Rather, they said, “Just let us always live in the protection of wonderful Kṛṣṅa.”

Satsvarupa Dāsa Goswami, one of Śrīla Prabhupāda's first disciples, is a former editor of Back to Godhead and the author of many books on Kṛṣṅa consciousness, including a six-volume biography of Śrīla Prabhupāda.