All of them, as they surrender unto me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows my path, o son of Prtha.
In this human form of life, which is so truly valuable and rarely achieved, durlabh manava janama lobiya samsare, after evolving through countless millenniums perhaps countless creations, through various species of life, when we attain this valuable birth, we are given this benediction to purify our hearts and revive our pure consciousness and return to our natural condition of pure love and pure devotion and attain spiritual world. Everyone is given a chance. Krsna explains in this verse that according to how you approach me that is how I reveal myself. And factual wherever we look, we are seeing krsna’s energy and whatever we do is how we are reciprocating with krsna, knowingly or unknowingly. Krsna says in the Geeta that all the wonderful and al the beautiful things of this world are but a spark of my supreme splendor. Less intelligent people are attracted to glittering manifestations of krsna’s supreme opulence in this world, but they do not recognize what is the source of that beauty, what is the source of that attractive power. Therefore they endlessly chase after phenomenal pleasures. But one who is intelligent, one who has divine wisdom knows that behind everything is the supreme personality of godhead, the all attractive, the all beautiful, the all merciful and all the phenomenal manifestations within this creation that we perceive we cant but want to experience them in relation with krsna for the pleasure of krsna we want to simply see the beauty of this world connected to the source of all beauty, krsna, that is the perfection of yoga. Yoga means to reunite, to reconnect all of this energy around us to its all attractive and all beautiful source krsna. The wealth of this world is the manifestation of the goddess of fortune, laxmi. All money, all fame, prestige, all beautiful homes, all beautiful gardens and natural settings and all knowledge, intelligence, all of this type of good fortune, we try to strive so hard to achieve in this world. They are all manifestations of the mercy of the goddess of fortune, laxmi. As you know she has only one position eternally at the lotus feet of Narayana, serving his lotus feet with great devotion. If we try to take the wealth and opulence away from the lotus feet of Narayana, same laxmi becomes Durga. Not to be blessing us with raised beautiful palms, but to be stabbing us with the trident of three fold miseries of material existence. But when that same source of bondage that we have to the object of senses, when we learn the art of yoga, bhakti, how to offer them in the service of the lotus feet of narayana, then through everything of this world, the manifestations of the blessings of laxmi Devi or shri Radha Rani will be upon us, this is the goal of life. We find in the pastimes of shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was just a young child, he was just beginning to walk, to play, and He was called upon by the name Nimai. He was not a pundit as yet. When He was a child, we find how Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi they were born im Brahman families and they were very very highly respected but as far as monetary position they were not very wealthy. They lived very simple lives. They just had a small little cottage that they live in and they worshipped the deity of lord shri krsna. And by material standards they were not so wealthy, but by true standards of wealth they were the richest in all creation because they had they had the husband of the goddess of fortune as their child. They had the supreme controller and the supreme possessor of everything, sarva lok mahesvaram, living within their hearts always, cherishing their love 24 hours a day. Therefore truly we can know that they were the wealthiest of all wealthy. Real wealth, real treasure is the love of god, without that love of god whatever we may attain in this world only diverts our attention away from the emptiness of our hearts which is the real poverty that causes everyone’s suffering birth after birth after birth. But whatever nice things jagannath mishra and sachi devi had, as soon as they would see it, they would only think how will I offer this to nimai to make him happy. They never considered I will be very rich or I will be very happy if I could get only this. They were thinking nimai will be very happy, if I could get him this. This was their whole life; this was their meditation day and night. Everything revolved around giving pleasure to nimai, Shri chaitanya. So with whatever they had, they like to decorate nimai very nicely. So they would put nice jewelry on him, they would find nice pearls, some nice golden ornaments and they would place them on the wrist, ankles, around his neck, just because they wanted to see nimai so beautiful and happy. But what was so amazing to everyone is that when they took this jewelry, it was just nice jewelry, but when they placed it on the beautiful, effulgent form of nimai, it became so illustrious, so opulent and extravagant looking. Nobody could understand the jewels just shined, but what it was that the jewels were simply reflecting the golden effulgence of the lord’s complexion.

Srila prabhupad tells us when you are decorating the beautiful deity of the lord, it is just
The opposite in consciousness as when we are decorating our own bodies or the
Bodies of some other person of this world we think these decorations will make
Me very beautiful and very attractive. Just like some matajis are ashamed to go
Out of the house without proper make up or mascaras and everything because they
Are afraid people will think I am not so beautiful, people will see me as I am which is just an ordinary jeev atma. Therefore we try to disguise our plainness by creating a very extravagant appearance and then people become accustomed to that and then we don’t want to disappoint them. Off course this is very unnecessary but this is the way the world is. But when we decorate krsna, actually srila praphupad says that when put a piece of jewelry on krsna the jewelry doesn’t make krsna beautiful, krsna makes the jewelry beautiful. When we put a crown on krsna, the crown doesn’t make krsna beautiful, but krsna gives beauty to the crown. In fact krsna gives beauty to everything and everyone at all times. Because he is the source of all beauty and a wise person knows that there’s nothing beautiful without it being connected to krsna. Anything that is not connected to krsna through love and devotion is terrible. A devotee is not the slightest bit attracted to any of the phenomenal glares of material attraction. A foolish person when he walks down the street he sees somebody having something I do not have “oh I want that, that’s so nice, if only I had this, if only I had that, oh just see this”. A devotee sees that anything that is not used to decorate krsna has no beauty at all. When we see an ambassador car being used to drive a devotee to drive a devotee to a nice preaching program we think “oh, this ambassador car is like a heavenly vehicle, just see it’s like a flower airplane, its so beautiful, krsna’s beauty is manifesting through it so much”. but when we see a Mercedes Benz driving someone to work simple to work like an ass all day for his own greedy purposes we see that Mercedes Benz like just a piece of junk, useless. It is a fact; we should learn to see like this, we should not be envious of materialistic people for what they have. Anything that is not decorating krsna, by being connected to him and loving service has no appeal has no attraction, it is disgusting looking. But when we see anything, whatever, however significant or insignificant it may be that it is being used in loving devotion in the service of krsna that connection makes it absolutely beautiful and satisfying to heart to perceive, this is krsna consciousness. So Sachi Devi would decorate little Nimai with all these beautiful pieces of jewelry and the jewelry was looking so wonderful due to its contact with Nimai. Now although sachi devi, jagannath mishra and the other devotees, their life and soul was just getting all of this beautiful jewelry and offering it to krsna, just getting wonderful foods, and offering it to nimai just everything beautiful, offering it to nimai, there was another class of men, who are not willing to recognize that everything is the property of god and whose business is try to exploit the resources of god’s mercy for their own personal sense gratification, these people are called thieves. Anything you claim to be your own is putting you in the category of being a thief. Anything you try to enjoy separate from krsna’s service puts you in the category of stealing, a thief, and subjected to the prosecution to the karmic reactions of material nature, and it is fact. So there were two thieves, and they were professional thieves, they were walking through the roadsides looking for something to steal. And they saw, the beautiful jewelry on nimai. They didn’t understand that the beauty was coming from nimai. They were thinking only in terms of the jewelry, this is material consciousness. So they were thinking we will take this child away, we will kidnap him, then we will murder him and then we will have all of this jewelry and we will become very wealthy. So they were very expert at their art. So, they went, nimai was playing in the courtyard of the home of jagannath mishra, and he was all alone for a few moments. So there were some people around, but not his relatives and they started saying, “Oh, our child, my own child we’ve been looking all over for you, now you have been lost, we will take you home, we will give you a ride home” and they put him on their shoulders and to keep him from crying they were just making nice ride. Children like to take rides. And they were just taking sandesh and other sweet meats and putting it in his mouth. And nimai was just enjoying eating sweet meats, eating a nice ride. And they just very quickly took him, further and further away through all these various forest paths to trying to lose whoever maybe following and they realized, “aah, nobody is following, we have successfully stolen this child”, they were just so lusty for this jewelry, “soon we will be rich man” and they took all the secret pathways where no one would see them and they were coming to their own homes. And as they were approaching their home they stopped and said, “Okay, we have come. We are at our hide out. Now let us take the jewelry from the child and become rich”. But what they could not understand is by the divine…… of the lord, they took nimai back to his own home. And all of his relatives and his mother and his father, they were in great anxiety looking every fore for him. They were thinking maybe he is hiding, maybe he is lost, sachi Devi was crying, jagannath mishra was sitting in great anxiety. And as they stopped there, nimai just jumped off their shoulders and ran to his mother and father and to the village people and they were just celebrating, “nimai has returned, nimai has returned.” And he was laughing and laughing and everyone was so happy and the thieves were thinking, “We are going to get caught, some how or other. How did we come here? We thought this was our own home. They are going to arrest us, and punish us”, so very quickly they ran away. And meanwhile, everyone was so interested in greeting little nimai, no body knew what had happened. So they asked nimai what had happened? So nimai said, “Oh, I was playing on the bank of the Ganges and I got lost, and these two very very nice gentlemen decided to take me home. So they picked me up and they carried me right to our door step and they brought me here. They were thinking, “oh, such wonderful men, such pious men, they have done such a good favor for us, let us give them nice gifts.” So they prepared beautiful silken turbans, and other nice precious gifts and they came out to present them to the men as a reward for bring home nimai but they couldn’t find them anywhere because they had already escaped for their lives. So this simple and wonderful historical narration is very instructive. First of all, we see how one person wants to decorate the lord with all nice things and another class of men wants to take from the lord all nice things. That is the difference between a devotee and an unfortunate soul. And another lesson is this, that ultimately, these thieves were so fortunate. They were so immensely fortunate. But they did not understand their fortune. And therefore that is the greatest misfortune. The supreme personality of godhead, the cause of all causes, who even the greatest of yogis perform tapasya for, for births and births and births to get one glimpse of. Who even the gyanis, they study the scripture, for births and births and births, day and night just to get a glimpse of the effulgence coming from him. The absolute truth in his fore perfect manifestation was riding right on their shoulders, was right within their hands and they were giving nice sweet meats, they were doing nice service to him, but they didn’t know it. Because of their greed, because they were not in a mood of devotion and faith, because they were thinking of taking from the lord rather than giving to the lord, they could not understand that they were they most fortunate people and they had attained the supreme perfection of life. And it is a fact that everyone in this world, krsna is here, krsna is with us. For the devotees of the lord srila prabhupad once told the devotees that you are all liberated. That everyone of my disciple is a liberated soul. And the disciples were thinking maybe he thinks I am liberated, he had to witness my mind all the time, it doesn’t appear that I am liberated, I am still very much attached, I am still suffering all sorts of anxieties, and still have so many desires just accumulating in my heart again and again even though I am trying to be a devotee. How can he say I am liberated? Liberation means freedom from misery, freedom from sufferings. Srila praphupad said, “no no you are liberated because you are engaging in krsna’s service and because you are chanting his name you are on a liberated platform. But you do not understand you are liberated, that is the only problem. You have not realized the fortune that you have.” Just today, to be in the association of devotees, to be chanting the holy names “hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare ram hare ram ram ram hare hare”, to be dancing, to be hearing the glories of the lord, to be sitting before the most beautiful and splendid forms of sri sri radha gopinath, this is the supreme perfection of life. We are all factually in goluka vrindavan; we have all actually attained the highest platform of divine realization. To be given entrance into the association of the devotees, where the loving service and the praise of krsna is taking place is the ultimate perfection in all of existence. And here we are! We have attained it, now. What separates us from the supreme joy and pleasure of what we have, why is it that even though we are sitting here right now, in the spiritual world, in the presence of radha and krsna and their devotees engaging in all the activities of the spiritual world, why is it that we are still in anxiety? What is it that we are still feeling distress in our heart? And we are still fulfilling the feeling of unfulfilled desires? Why are we not in ecstatic bliss? We should be, we are in the atmosphere and in the environment of ecstatic bliss. For one reason only. Because we do not have faith. We do not have that simple impure faith in the fortune that we have. That is all. That is the only the thing separating us right now from sachid anand consciousness, eternal knowledge full of bliss. And if srila prabhupad was sitting here right now he would say, you are all liberated. But we do not understand this liberation. We do not understand the fortune we have. We do not have faith in the mercy that is upon us. And therefore when we leave this room, we’re cast back again into material consciousness in so many ways. As long as we still have the desire to be the enjoyer. As long as we do not have that humble servant’s attitude, we cannot understand, appreciate or enjoy the fortune that is our’s. srila praphupad used to tell us, “ I give in you everything, you don’t need anything else. The first volume of the first canto of srimad bhagvatam, he said, “everything that is needed for the ultimate perfection of life, and the holy name of krsna, and the association of devotees. You don’t need anything else. You have krsna, you have radha, you have vrindavan, you have bramhajyoti included, mukti, you have everything, right here! But what is our misfortune? That we’re such fools and such rascals that although everything is here, the supreme spiritual mercy and opulence are right in our hands we’re still looking for something else. We’re still searching of something outside of krsna. Dhruva maharaj had the opposite realization. He was looking for material life, but by the grace of shri narada muni who taught him the proper process of chanting the holy name and service of guru, he attained the divine vision of lord narayana. And he said I was looking for broken pieces of glass but I have found the most beautiful, precious, invaluable jewel of your darshan, my lord. That was dhruva’s realization. But what is our position? We have the most beautiful, precious, invaluable jewel in our hands, in our hearts, in our minds in our life, all around us, and we are looking for broken pieces of glass. Does that make sense? That is our condition. So these thieves, the supreme realization of all transcendentalists was sitting right on their shoulders. And instead of feeling love and joy they were experiencing fear and anxiety. How is that? If nimai was on your shoulders, you would be very happy, but your not. Even if you put…….. You would be very happy. But just speak of nimai. He’s only a little a part and parcel. Or balaram, all of our devotees, they like to pick him up, and they feel very pleasing and very blissful, I have little balaram, yogininandan’s baby in my arms. So we like to carry beautiful little children, gives us joy. But to speak, whatever beauty, whatever charm, whatever pleasure they are giving us is insignificant, infinitesimal, little tiny, fragmental part of krsna. What to speak of having the complete whole in the form of a child riding on your shoulders. Can you imagine the bliss and ecstasy you’d be in? But these thieves were simply experiencing fear, no love but fear. The fact is we are carrying krsna in our hearts, 24 hours a day; he is there, personally manifesting. Yet our hearts are filled with fear and anxiety. Why is that? Everything is being given to us. We cannot appreciate it, because we do not have faith. When sachi Devi and jagannath mishra would pick up nimai and give him rides on their shoulders, they felt ultimate bliss. And the thieves, while he was on their shoulders, they felt nothing but fear. Why? It is explained in this verse ….. ye yath mam………………. Because as you approach me in your consciousness that is how I reveal myself to you. Haribol. To simply hear submissively, the glory of the supreme personality of godhead, in the association of sincere and honest devotees of the lord is the ways and the means of awakening this natural faith within out hearts. You see when a professional resider of bhagvatam or of any other transcendental literature resides, it sounds the same. But it can have no effect on heart. Krsna reveals himself, when honest, humble and sincere devotees repeat his names in glories. And when honest, humble and sincere devotees gather to hear the glories of the lord, that atmosphere creates faith within our hearts. And as that faith grows, krsna reveals the truth of the fortune that we have. Therefore, the first, the most important duty in our life, according to the shastras is to associate with sadhus and to submissively open our ears, open our hearts and hear from them. That message, of the supreme personality of godhead, when it enters into our ears, it purifies our minds, it purifies our hearts. Chaitanya mahaprabhu has said krsna surya…. That krsna is like the sun, full of light and effulgence. And Maya is like darkness. And krsna is non different that the sound vibrations of the Holy Scriptures, when they are vibrated by the gentle vaishnavas. Just like when the sun rises, automatically all darkness is removed. Darkness is the cause of fear. When you are in darkness, you do not know what is in front, what is behind? You do not know what is next. Whether you’re going into step in a ditch, whether you’re going to step on a poisoness snake. Whether someone is behind you, about to kill u, murder you. In darkness there is fear. Fear is due to not knowing. And what is the darkness of this world? We do not know, what ever we ever gained in our life, through all of our hard labour, we do not know whether it will be taken tomorrow or even today, we could lose it all, we could lose our loved ones, we could lose our selves, our own life, our own body, we could die. We don’t know, because we’re in darkness. And therefore we are living our life in fear. And advancement of civilization is simply our civilization is trying, all sorts of artificial devices to some how or other trying to pacify us from this fear, which is based on ignorance. Ignorance is the by-product of darkness. But when the sun rises, we can see everything as it is. We can see everything in its relationship with krsna. What is as it is, we are the eternal soul,…………………..
The soul is eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss, it is unborn, it is undying, it not slain when the body is slain. The soul is perfect and complete in and out of itself, when it understands its eternal relationship with its source, with krsna. The fact that we are eternally connected to krsna. Every living being is krsna conscious, every living being is liberated, and every living being is a pure lover of god. But some have forgotten and some remember. That is the only difference. So when the light of truth, when the light of knowledge awakens within our hearts, we understand the most fortune position that we are always in, eternally, past present and future, we are most fortunate, we are part of krsna, we are liberated. But when we are like the thieves, even though we have everything, we are fearful, we are in anxiety. We are trying to run and hide from the truth. So krsna consciousness means simply learning how to hear, and allow all this transcendental vibration, which if full of all light to come into our ears and give brilliant illumination to our hearts and to our lives by which we can perceive everything in truth with faith. “Shabda Brahma”, shabda brahma means brahma; the supreme truth appears within sound vibration. He is within the narration, with his divine pastimes, he is within personally with the deep philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta and he is appearing so wonderfully. Bhakti siddhant saraswati thakur used to say in every syllable of the srimad bhagvatam, the supreme absolute truth is fully manifesting himself, and if we simply read with faith, we will experience divine ecstasy in every syllable. So we have to develop this faith through association of those who have faith, which is the only means. Krsna, the supreme Brahman is eternally manifesting within his name, hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare Rama hare Rama Rama Rama hare hare. According to our purity of heart and purity of faith, we will be able to experience the supreme divinity of krsna in every syllable of his name. So this is the highest and truest path of yoga, to simply keep our consciousness forever connected to krsna through sound vibration. Through associating with faithful people and by utilizing whatever we have, our skills, our intelligence in reconnecting them to krsna through the process of bhakti, through the whole process of devotion. This is the great science, this is the great gift, the fortune that the lord has given us. We can simply learn how to come together, free of envy and pride for one another, simply to come together to help to inspire one another, to chant the holy names of god and serve the mission of the lord. Then we will create and atmosphere by which krsna will be pleased, so pleased to liberate all of us. Because this is the “sangkirtan” movement, to the extent we are coming together in congregation to glorify the lord, free of pride and envy to that degree krsna is going to reveal himself to all of us individually as well as collectively. So for in any way holding some grudge or feeling some impediment created by another devotee, or feeling envy or feeling anger for another devotee, or not willing to forget another devotee, what we are doing is we are creating an atmosphere where the congregational chanting of the holy name, where are hearts are not one in krsna’s glory, we are creating a situation where krsna will not be pleased to reveal himself to you or to any one else. So this is sangkirtan consciousness, that if I have any bad feeling towards any other devotee, if I am holding any bad feelings in this way I am cheating my self.