Surrender is so powerful that it can even capture the Absolute. We are aspiring for that kind of potency. And whoever possesses that — they are all-in-all; they are our masters. For our highest interest, we must look towards the direction in which that power is intensified. We shall try to look wherever we find surrender in a thick, condensed stage. Our aim should be directed towards that. We are beggars of that. We are not beggars for anything which can be found in this mundane world: na dhanam na janam na sundarim, not wealth, followers, or the enjoyment of women, but eliminating everything else, our aim should be directed towards one thing — that most intensified condition of divine service to the Lord of love.
We should try to convert everything in such a way that it can go to that unknown quarter beyond the jurisdiction of our sense experience or mental acquisition, like a rocket sent towards deep space. Srimad Bhagavatam, which draws the essence from all of the revealed scriptures, says that divine love is the most desirable and original thing. We must not allow ourselves to run here and there searching for base fulfilment. We must forcibly concentrate our attention on divine love. Divine love is the highest thing for us; it is the highest in creation, the highest in eternity.
And to take our stand in the negative position is the strategy of remaining in the relativity of the highest quarter of service to Krishna. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur once composed a verse expressing the proper attitude, «Pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange matala sadhu-jana visaya-range: the path of divine love is worshipable to us and should be held overhead as our highest aspiration.»
He ordered that a cottage be built for him in Govardhan and said, «I shall live there. I am not fit to live in Radha Kunda. So, I shall live in a lower position, but my Gurus — Gaura Kisor Das Babaji, Bhakti Vinod Thakur, and others — are fit to serve there. So, I shall go and serve them there in Radha Kunda and then return to a little lower position, in Govardhan. There I shall stay.» That is the proper tactic to maintain a subjective position in the subjective world.
Otherwise, if we think that we are in the highest quarter, that higher reality will vanish from us. Only from a little lower position shall we view that higher plane with respect. But whenever we think that we have attained that higher position, that we are there — we are nowhere. That is the nature of the higher world. So, we must maintain a respectable distance. If we try to look directly, we lose, but if we try to look at that plane through a screen or from a hidden place, then we may see. It is most peculiar. If we want to come in direct contact with things of a higher order, then they vanish from our experience. If you can’t come in direct connection with some thing, you may find out about it by espionage — it is something like espionage. If you try to know it directly, it is impossible. Only from behind a screen can we have a glimpse.
In that way, we can experience the highest ontological truth. As if by chance ontological truth comes to us, He accepts us suddenly, and we can find Him. He is absolute, He is an autocrat, He is independent; whenever He comes by His own whim to give His connection to us, we can have it. It is never within my clutches. He is not an object to come directly within my control. He is always above.
By this system we can come to the highest realisation. In the highest order of lila of Radha-Govinda, Krishna asks Radharani to do something, and She refuses, saying «No, I won’t do that.» And yet this has been accepted as the highest mood of the negative side. To deny Krishna whatever He may want is called vamya-bhava. And Radharani is full of that nature. But that enhances the eagerness, the earnestness of Krishna. The whole system is a crooked one. And yet this is the way recommended for the poorest to come in contact with the highest. It is a wonderful device. The direct transaction, the clear face-to-face transaction, is absent there. Everything is like stealing. Everything there is a stealthy performance. In the highest area, in the area of autocracy, it is wholly black marketeering. And for that reason it is known as aprakrta — just similar to the lowest conception of things. In our present living condition, we can’t tolerate autocracy. It is considered the lowest thing. But autocracy is there in the highest world. So, it is known as aprakrta: the highest quarter of the transcendental world which can harmonise everything.
The beauty of that plane is that even what is considered to be of the lowest type here is all harmonised there. The harmonious strength is so great there that what is undesirable, nasty, and bad here is harmonised in such a way that it gets the highest position there. Krishna’s peculiar position is such that the lowest has been proven to be the highest by His magical touch. Because He is there, no blot is a blot; it is pure. Krishna consciousness is the touch of Krishna, the beauty of the highest order. Just as the touchstone will not only convert silver into gold, but it will also transform even iron, lead, or any lower thing into gold; the touchstone of Krishna is so powerful that the lowest type of everything within our conception receives the highest position by His magical touch.
Raghunath Das Goswami says that if you are unable to accept this as truth, then you will be thrown down into Vaikuntha: «Go live there, where general law rules, where there are fair dealings. Go down to the land of fair dealings, simple dealings, where you can calculate and go on living very nicely.»