But the higher world of Vrndavan is a most diplomatic position. Even Mahadev and Brahma are both bewildered in understanding it. Baffled by Krishna, Brahma surrendered to Him and confessed, «How could I know that the highest truth was a cowherd boy with a rod under His armpit and a morsel of food in His hand, searching for His friends?» Brahma said: «I have some intimacy with my father Narayan; whenever any difficulty appears, I approach Him to get some instruction and then act accordingly. But I have never come in connection with any supreme power like this. A cowherd boy taking His food in one hand and a rod in the other, going off in search of His friends — He is the highest? It is inconceivable. But now I see that You are far above my father Narayan. Vaikuntha is a fair and lawful field we know. But we have never experienced such Pastimes of tactful and obscure diplomacy. That this sort of thing is going on in the highest quarter, we should not be blamed for being unaware of that. It is wonderful and hidden, obscure. And yet there is a plane where so much wealth and sweetness are unknown to us.» Thomas Gray once wrote:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
— Elegy in a Country Churchyard
How peculiar it is to find that the master of everything is a thief. Everything is in His possession, and yet He comes as a thief. Everyone belongs to Him, but He plays the part of a debauchee. Krishna’s Pastimes are all wonderful. Everything belongs to Him, yet He behaves like a thief, like one of us. That is a peculiar plane and a peculiar type of Pastime.
There, all are equal, and some may even be superior. The father and mother of the Absolute may be chastising Him, and the Lord may be weeping. Here is bhakti. Where is bhakti? What is the symptom of pure devotion? Where the highest authority is submissive to the servant — that is devotion. Aham bhakta-paradhino: the highest has been forcibly taken down to serve the devotee. Devotion has such a peculiar position and power. Krtva Harim prema-bhajam: the last acquisition of devotion is that which can control the Supreme Lord and forcibly take Him to the devotee as a friendly servant. The master surrenders to the servant.
The Infinite is at the disposal of the finite. Can we conceive of this? Not only that, but it is done stealthily in various diplomatic ways. So, in Krishna consciousness, the finite achieves the suprememost unthinkable position when the Infinite comes to serve him. Such a glorious and unthinkable position appears impossible. Yet this impossibility can be effected by devotion, raga, love. Love’s power is unthinkable. Although it is impossible, the Infinite is defeated by the finite. What is that unthinkable position? It can only be attained through love.
And how adorable and precious and valuable love is! To acquire a drop of that divine love, no sacrifice is sufficient. So, we are encouraged to «die to live». And in that sense, wholesale death is adorable. To achieve such divine love is the impossible of the impossible, but Mahaprabhu came to give us that. How magnanimous He is! He Himself took the position of a canvasser begging from door to door, «Enlist your name. I have come to recruit everyone for that highest quarter where the Infinite will be a slave to the finite. Take a drop of that valuable thing.» It is the impossible of the impossible, the inconceivable of the inconceivable.
So, give up your wild-goose-chasing habit and collect and concentrate all your might to progress in this line, to try to go to the temple of love divine.
In Srimad Bhagavatam (10.47.61), Uddhava says:
asam aho charana-renu-jusam aham syam
vrndavane kim api gulma-latausadhinam
ya dustyajam sva-janam arya-pathan cha hitva
bhejur mukunda-padavim srutibhir vimrgyam
«The gopis of Vrndavan gave up their husbands, children, and families who are very difficult to renounce and sacrificed even their religious principles to take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, which are sought after even by the Vedas themselves. Oh! Grant me the fortune to take birth as a blade of grass in Vrndavan, so that I may take the dust of the lotus feet of those great souls upon my head.»
Risk enhances the mood of love. It is a necessary part of the highest form of love: to risk so-called worldly achievement. The quest of divine love must be undertaken even at the risk of so much so-called purity of this world. That commands the highest position. Still, it should be very carefully taken. It should follow the line of humility shown by Newton, who was considered by scientists of his day to know everything. He said, «I know nothing.» That is the way of proper realisation: as much as one is in the midst of genuine purity, so much he thinks that «I am impure.» That is the nature of infinite measurement. Because the charm is so infinite, it cannot but be estimated in that way.
The more they achieve, the more they thirst, the more earnestness is found within them. This is the characteristic of realisation of the Infinite. As much as one progresses, so much he thinks himself helpless in going further for measurement. No part of the infinite comes into the plane of measurement.
mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim
yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam
We cannot understand the Infinite; we don’t find ourselves qualified to give any expression about that, so we become dumb, thinking, «What shall I say?» But He makes us speak, He makes us open our mouths. Otherwise, the reader, the knower, becomes dumb. A bona fide searching person is struck dumb with Krishna’s ways. He cannot give any expression to that. But the power from on high comes down to make him give some statement. In that way, the truth from that part comes here. He begins to speak, to give vent to his feelings, being pressed by the higher plane, that higher entity. He has no power of his own to walk, but the Lord’s wonderful power can help him cross mountains. This is the nature of the grace of the Almighty, of the Absolute: by His power, everything can move and live. Yato va imani bhutani jayante, yena jatani jivanti, yat prayanty abhisamvisanti: «He is the cause of production, sustenance, and again withdrawal. Evolution, dissolution, and sustenance in the middle. He is the prime, universal cause.»
We are quarreling in a foreign land for fictitious gain. But Krishna is engaged in a loving search for His long lost servants. He wants to save them and take them all home. Only by the grace of that Absolute is it possible. A wave is coming from there to take us home, to where everything finally enters. Everything which is created disappears into the subtle existence at the wholesale dissolution of this world. But again with a new evolution they come out. And some enter into the permanent lila and do not come back into this world of exploitation and renunciation.