Spiritual Relationships

One can serve the Supreme Lord in various relationships, but in the material world those relationships exist only as perverted reflections. What is our engagement in relationship to this material world? What are our ideas of society, friendship and love? They are all based on the material conception of life. In our society, someone is engaged as a father or mother to a son, and others are engaged as husband and wife, lover and beloved. There are other rasas (relationships) also, such as to be engaged with another as an enemy. There are twelve different relationships, out of which five are predominant. The other seven are indirect relationships, such as, for example, to be someone's enemy. There is usually a relationship between enemies, even between a murderer and the one he murders. As far as our relationship with Krsna is concerned, however, even if one establishes a relationship as His enemy, then his life is successful. Therefore, when one engages his senses with Krsna, a relationship can be established in one of twelve different varieties, of which five varieties are direct and seven are indirect.

When Krsna appeared in the arena of Kamsa, there were many big wrestlers prepared to kill Him. In fact, He was invited there to be killed. His enemy, Kamsa thought, "Soon the boys will come. We have tried for sixteen years to kill them, but that boy Krsna could not be killed. But now I have invited Him as a guest, and when He arrives He will fight with these wrestlers, and they will kill Him." The demoniac or atheistic people are always thinking of Krsna or God in terms of killing Him. Therefore they present their theories that God is dead. They think that if God becomes dead, then they will be free to act however they please. But as far as their actual activities are concerned, God may be dead or alive, but God's agent, the material energy, is so strong that no one can do any wrong. As soon as anyone does something wrong, there is immediate punishment. It does not require the presence of God. God may be dead or alive, but the material energy is sufficient to punish anyone who violates the material laws, even to the slightest degree. God has set these conditions, but foolish people do not understand.

Lord Caitanya, however, speaks of favorably engaging all the senses in the service of Krsna in pure devotional life. One should favorably engage one's senses and should do whatever Krsna wants. Yet even if one engages one's senses against the will of Krsna but still thinks of Krsna, that is also advantageous. The demon Pūtana, for example, thought of killing Krsna. Just as the occupation of godly persons is to serve God, so the demons and atheists are always prepared to kill God. Pūtana thought, "I shall kill Krsna. He is only a child." This is another mistake of the demoniac. They think Krsna or God to be an ordinary child or man. So in this way Pūtana was thinking: "Let me smear my breast with poison, and when the child goes to suck my milk, He wi11 die." As we study this, we see that she approached Krsna as His enemy, and yet He accepted her as a friend because He is so merciful. He did not take the demoniac portion of her mentality, but He accepted her. Every living entity is conditioned but Krsna is not. A doctor or psychiatrist treats madmen, but he does not become mad. Sometimes a patient may become angry with him or call him ill names, but the doctor is sober and simply treats him. Similarly, if someone treats Krsna as his enemy, Krsna does not become his enemy.

Pūtana came to poison Krsna, but He took it otherwise. He thought, "I have sucked her breast milk. Therefore she has become My mother." Krsna treated her as His mother, and therefore she became liberated to the same position as Krsna's real mother, Yasoda. The conclusion is that the highest perfection is to establish a favorable relationship with Krsna, but even if one engages himself unfavorably, Krsna is so merciful that He at least gives one salvation. All the enemies killed by Krsna were immediately liberated.

Two classes of men may merge into the impersonal brahma-jyoti: he who is intentionally aspiring to merge into the impersonal brahma-jyoti may enter, and those who are enemies of Krsna and are killed by Him may also do so. Therefore, the devotee concludes, why should I accept a condition which is offered even to God's enemies?

Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends pure devotional service. There should be no desire to fulfill one's own material desires, there should be no attempt to understand Krsna by experimental philosophy, and there should be no fruitive activities to derive material benefits from Krsna. The only desire should be to serve Him favorably, as He desires. If Krsna wants something, then we should do it. Suppose I were to ask a disciple, "My dear student, please give me a glass of water." It is then his duty to give me a glass of water. If he thinks, "Prabhupada wants a glass of water, but why not give him something better? Why not a glass of hot milk?" that is not service. In his consideration, hot milk is very palatable and is better than water, yet because I have asked for water, he has to give me water, not milk. That is favorable service. One has to understand what Krsna wants. When there is that intimate relationship, then one can serve Krsna most favorably. And as long as there is not that intimate relationship, one must take information of what Krsna wants through the transparent media of the spiritual master.

A Vaisnava never thinks that he has a direct relationship with Krsna. Lord Caitanya says, "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant-a hundred times the servant of the servant-of Krsna." We have to agree to become the servant of the servant of the servant. This is the process of disciplic succession, and if one wants real transcendental love of God, then he has to adopt this process. Because people do not accept this process, they therefore do not develop real love of God. They speak of God, but actually they do not love God; because there is no cultivation of pure devotional service, they love dog.