And freedom there is so great that Krishna’s mother Yasoda is whipping Him! If we enquire deeply into where Yasoda is taking her stand, we will come to the «die to live» plane. Yasoda can embrace death millions of times to remove a bead of sweat from the brow of her son; she has so much affection for Krishna that she is ready to die a million times rather than find the sweat of labour on His forehead. And that consciousness is in the background of everything she does. This is why she is given so much independence as to be able to whip Him. Such is the play of the Absolute.
If we have an idea of the infinite broadness and depth of the Absolute, how can we value anything here? The Himalayas may be very big according to our standard, but from the standard of the infinite, the Himalayas are so small that they can’t even be seen. This world is all relative. We must not allow ourselves to be cowed down by any events here. We must go forward in our march towards the truth. We may fail anytime, anywhere; it does not matter. It may be our master’s will. Still, we have no other alternative than to try for His mercy, His grace.
This is our natural position. Even constitutionally, there is no possibility of living separately from Him. If, in ignorance, we sometimes think that it is possible to live separately from Him, that is only temporary insanity. To attempt to do so is only to create further disturbance, to be covered with ignorance.
While ignorant, we may be concerned for many things that have no value. But actually it is as in play: so many parties are playing — one must win, another must be defeated — but we are told that we must accept victory or defeat in the mood of a player. And everything is the play of Krishna. He is playing His lila. When we think that something is a great loss or gain, we are not seeing the lila of the Lord. Then, we are outside the divine flow; we are not in harmony with the flow of lila. Then, it appears that reality is not His lila, and we find some other reason for being, see some other objects, conceive of relative interests, and find loss and gain, victory and defeat, and so many other misconceptions. But everything is His lila, and that is nirguna, without fault. In that plane, everything is all right. Everything is perfect. Every inch of movement there is fully perfect.