Devotion is above all. Saranagati, surrender, is the highest property of everyone. Surrender to Him, and He may graciously make His Name known to us, and we will be able to know Him.
In the Upanisads it is said, «Yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyah: whoever He chooses to make Himself known to can know Him.» Otherwise, no one can know Him against His will. He has reserved all the right of not being exposed to the senses of anyone and everyone. He is so high, He can do that. If He does not wish to make Himself known, no one can know Him — whenever He wishes to make Himself known to someone, one can know Him. This is His position.
On the order of his Gurudev Devarsi Narad, Vedavyas gave the scripture Srimad Bhagavatam as the conclusion of his teachings. After giving the Vedas, Upanisads, Puranas, Mahabharata, Bhagavad-gita, and other texts, Vedavyas gave his last gift in the world of scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam. And the message of the Bhagavatam is that beauty — not knowledge or justice — is above all. Mercy is above justice. Affection, love, beauty, charm, harmony — these are above all, and this absolute conception of the ultimate reality is in the Krishna conception.
Beauty is above knowledge and power. Knowledge is above power, and above knowledge is beauty, charm, love. That is the supreme. Srimad Bhagavatam has declared, «Krsnas tu Bhagavan Svayam: the Krishna conception of Godhead is the most original conception of the Absolute.» This is the prime declaration of the Bhagavatam: the Lord, as Beauty, is above all. And below Him is awe, reverence, power, and the like.
Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev pointed out, «Go to the beautiful — Reality the Beautiful; He is your highest attainment. Hanker neither for power nor knowledge; hanker for service of the Beautiful, and thereby you will be taken in and given entrance into the land of the Beautiful.» This is the highest realisation. Don’t waste your energy by engaging yourself in any other pursuits, but go straight — jnana-sunya-bhakti. By the help of sadhu-sanga*, take the Name of the Lord, and try to march straight onwards to the Krishna conception of Godhead. Krishna consciousness is our highest achievement, and this is given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recommended, «Don’t waste your energy for anything else. Use your energy for the Krishna conception of Godhead.»
So we try to make our progress in this line, and at the same time we also ask our friends to try to embrace this life. The fulfilment of life for every particle of existence of this world can be found here.
March towards universal good. Wherever and whoever you are, it does not matter. Take your course towards Krishna consciousness. This is the highest fulfilment of life for everyone. You are only to turn your face towards Him and march, and the Sweet Absolute, Sri Krishna, will welcome you. This is the campaign of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas.
Srila Rupa Goswami described Krishna in a scientific way as the Akhila-rasamrta-murti. Our hearts are hankering for satisfaction and happiness of different types, but He is the emporium of all such rasas, flavours of ecstasy. All types of rasas are in Krishna, and He is the personification of them all, so everyone can find his corresponding place in Him alone, and nowhere else. He is Krishna, the Akhila-rasamrta-murti. All our necessary satisfaction is personified in Him. So only He can say, «Give up everything and come to Me, and you won’t have to repent. You will find your highest satisfaction.» No one else has ever said such a thing in any place. Only Krishna has said this, and Mahaprabhu pointed it out, «Go directly to that side and don’t go any other way. March straight towards the Krishna conception — that is your home.»
It is easy; it is difficult. Easy because it is our inborn tendency. It is home. But now, we are far from home. It is home, my own, so there is hope that I may reach there one day. It is my home and I won’t find satisfaction anywhere else, so I must go there, but I am far away from that home comfort. There is the difficulty — I have lost that land.
Simplicity is the first qualification. If you are really simple, sincere, then automatically you cannot but come under the divine feet of Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev. It is so plain and so non-artificial. Love is a plain truth that should attract everyone. Even more than general love, divine love will attract all normal persons; it cannot but be. It is only necessary to be simple and unprejudiced. The antithesis is the only thing drawing us back from God, otherwise it will be found to be the plane of universal love. And ‘universe’ does not mean to a particular part of the universe, but the whole. Love is coming from the Absolute.
«Is there such a fool in the midst of the mortality in this world who will not worship He who even the immortal worship? It is a great wonder that there can be such a person who will avoid such worship just to undergo all the mortal sufferings.»
Achintya-bhedabheda. Everything is His will, and it is the greatest adventure to search for Krishna, to search for the root of the whole infinite. One needs sufficient courage and preparedness to face the risk. To go to discover the North Pole or the highest peak of the Himalayas involves risk and mandates courage. How much courage is necessary to find out the absolute cause of the Whole? Internal courage — spiritual courage — is necessary. We are to have our soul’s courage and the confidence of deep faith. We are to understand the noble character of the faith within us. Without electricity we cannot connect with the moon or the other planets. Our hands and eyes cannot contact them. It is faith that can connect us with the things farthest from us. All other methods fail. Faith is substantial, it is not part of an illusion of the mind. The whole mind is a concocted thing: it is a source of forgery. Faith is not to be found there. Faith is a function of the soul.
We cannot even see what is within our own body without the help of some apparatus. Through faith, sraddha, the soul can approach and see the higher world.
By faith we can approach the highest, noblest thing, not by our hand or the help of any mundane elements.