Krishna Reveals Himself To Those Who Love Him


Krsna reveals himself to those who love Him.  Sometimes it is the unspoilt love of a child which contains the highest wisdom unseen to the gross materialists.

We all experience economic pressures.  Maintaining life in the twenty-first century includes many necessities which centuries before were completely unimaginable.  Even in our attempts to live simply and render service to our holy Dhama, there are necessities which one would rather not struggle without.

There is a little confession and a story that I have been asked to share with all of You.  Having racked my brain with plans and schemes to become economically independent, Krsna has smashed my attempts one after another.  Upon complete desperation, I did that thing which every good Krsna devotee knows not to do. We know that Krsna is the controller of the demigods and we should go to him directly…but with patience running thin, I began to worship the demigods.  We were driving our car through the snowy New Vrindaban roads and in the despair of poverty I said to my daughters, who are accustomed to my crazed schemes, “We are going to pray to Goddess Laxmi.”   All the way to Moundsville, they very cooperatively, chanted with Me, “Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi…”  In town I bravely pulled out a plastic credit card to buy those giant snow tires that would help ensure the twice daily meeting of our beloved cowherd with his awaiting milk herd.

Upon returning home from town my father called and volunteered to take care of our immediate economic crisis.  Feeling a genuine appreciation for my father’s love and trust, I was also overcome with immense amazement.  Later that night, as our family went down the road to meet the awaiting milk herd, my amazement increased.

Having fallen a little behind in the cleaning, the milk parlor which is home to six full grown cows, one continually growing ox, Rama, and Manjari (the baby), was overflowing with dung.  A full grown cow usually produces about fifty pounds of manure per day.  Compare the difficulty of keeping clean diapers on your little one, to keeping up with eight giant dependents with four stomachs each.

As the children, wrapped in snow gear from head to toe, enjoyed playing in the barn, Caitanya and I began the milking and cleaning.  Shovel after shovel full of dung is really quite good exercise.  Being deeply immersed, literally, in the bliss of shoveling, my six year old daughter walked over and looked at me with a proud smile on her face.  “Mom”, she said, “We don’t have to worship Goddess Laxmi anymore.  The cows are our wealth.  When the demigods took shelter in the body of the cow, there was no room for Laxmi.  But she is here in the dung.  We have everything we need.”

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As far as I know Goddess Lakshmi is not a demigod/goddess..She is an direct expansion of Srimati Radharani and the consort of Lord Vishnu…I do not think you should be so hard on yourself for praying to Her..in the NOD it is stated that Vaisnavas should worship Lord Ganapati (Ganesha) to remove obstacles on the path of devotion. I have found in my life that poverty for most devotees has been an obstacle in their lives. They struggle to meet the basic necessities then become bitter to the philosophy and Sri Krishna. I have experienced throughout my life as a devotee that the demigods were given such a bad rap that devotees feel guilty about even mentioning their names..I think we should remember that they are far superior devotees of Lord Vishnu than we are. To ask for their help to connect us more to the Lord I feel is not out of boundaries..I know devotees feel guilty for asking for material gains but we end up asking someone such as Indian donors, parents, grandparents, etc. I think we need to feel less guilty about material gains and as Sudama brahman realized, see them as a source of liberation rather than degradation.

I agree fully with Rama Lila. It is only forbidden if we worship the demigods forgetting that Shri Radha Krishna are supreme. If we worship them with Krishna prasadam, and in prayer after offering our praise first to God and Guru, then there is no trouble. Even Haribhaktivilasa encourages worship of the Demigods in a Krishna Concious mood. As Rama Lila says, the demigods are far superior devotees of Shri Yugala Kishora than we are; so seeking their blessings for Krishna Conciousness as well as the material stability to do so is not wrong. Especially when worshipping Lakshmi Devi, an emanation of Shri Radharani, who is perpetually engaged in serving the lotus feet of Bhagavan Vishnu, there is no problem – especially when we remember who she herself is serving 🙂 Radhe Shyaam!

Why do we have to be so negatively hardliner like Muslims or Evanglist?

Nice article. I do not think it is being “hardliner.” It is being enlightened by Srila Prabhupada’s instructions.

Krishna clearly says in Gita that worship of demigods for temporary fruits (like money) is not the way to approach Him. “Yanti deva-vratan devan…” It is for less intelligent, “alpa medhasam”. It is “avidhi purvakam”, a “wrong way” to worship. We should remember and understand these teachings of Gita and Prabhupada.

Yes, Laksmi is an expansion of Radha, so worship Laksmi-Narayan, Radha-Krishna, Hare Krishna, together. Not that you worship Laksmi without Narayan, because she gives more money that way (?) Taking Sita away from Ram is business of Ravana.

We want pure bhakti, not money. If we go for Krishna bhakti, we will find we have the money we really need, but if we go for money, we may forget that the real treasure and goal of life is Krishna prema, which is very rare. Remember Sanatan Goswami and the touchstone. (He kept it with the garbage). Whatever money you get, without Narayan, will be flickering, fickle, not of lasting value. Another name for Laksmi is “cancala”. However, she remains always faithful on the chest of Vishnu, Madhava, Krishna. She is not faithful to anyone else.

The Goswamis may have written of worshiping Ganesha to remove obstacles in devotional service, but Srila Prabhupada said we should pray to Six Goswamis to remove those obstacles and not Ganesha. We do not have to feel anything is lacking if we only worship Krishna. Wherever there is Krishna and Arjuna there is opulence, morality, power and victory.

Seeking bhogaisvarya, foolish people are deviated from their determination to become pure devotees and go back to Radha-Krishna, Laksmi-Narayana. Of course we love and revere demigods as great devotees of Krishna and never envy them, but we are on the path of pure goodness, Narayana parayana. All demigods and ancestors will be most satisfied if we chant Hare Krishna and study Prabhupada’s books and please Krishna by pure devotion, not by inventing some method of worship not recommended by Prabhupada. Water the root of the tree and the leaves will be nourished.