Link-Up—With Kṛṣṇa

But still there are some men who will not take to this direct easy process. And so the Lord, who incarnates just to reclaim all the conditioned souls, explains other processes by which, ultimately, with more difficulty, one may come to the same goal, namely Himself. Krsna now describes the mystic yoga system of body control through various sitting postures and breathing exercises in conjunction with bona fide meditation. Bona fide meditation is meditation upon the Visnu expansion of Krsna which resides in the heart of every living entity. The object of meditation is not void or formless, as is sometimes taught today. Actually, all paths of spiritual development, such as Krsna describes in the Gita, are yogas, either karma-yoga, or jnana-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Yoga means to contact or connect, literally to link up, with Krsna, the Soul of all souls. Without reaching that end, the practice is all useless. There is a verse in the Srimad-Bhagavatam which says that if after performing all the rules and regulations, observing all kinds of vows of austerity, studying all the Vedas and related holy literature, or practicing the yoga system, or visiting all the places of pilgrimage, or giving everything in charity, one does not come to Krsna consciousness, it is all useless, a great waste of time. Similarly, Lord Krsna tells his intimate friend Uddhava, in the same text: "These are, of course, very nice activities, but they are not as attractive to Me as the transcendental loving service rendered by My devotees." (Bhag. 11.12.1)

That is the way to attract Krsna-by transcendental loving service. But we are now talking about those foolish persons who will not go that way. In verses 10-15 Krsna explains how by practicing the mystic yoga system one can come "to the highest perfection." But what is the key to that perfection? "Without deviation in remembering Me" and "constant engagement in devotional service." In the five verses, thinking of or remembering the Lord is mentioned three times, and devotion or devotional service is also mentioned three times. What then is the possibility of reaching or "linking up" with the Lord by some fraudulent system which neglects these two necessities which are declared by the Lord Himself?

The Lord is very anxious for all His sons to leave this material universe, this place of miseries. The next four verses, 16-19, tell us that from the highest to the lowest condition within the material spheres, all are places of misery, because everywhere there is birth, old age, disease and death. No one wants these things, but they are always present even up to Brahmaloka, the planet of Lord Brahma, creator of this universe. Krsna, however, is contrasting this with His own abode, in verses 20-21. That nature, He says, is eternal. Actually, it is sac-cid-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge, and always blissful. It is not void; it is not impersonal. It is only hinted at here by such terms as "My supreme abode," "never annihilated," and "infallible." But this transcendental abode of Lord Krsna is elaborately described in the Brahma-samhita as the cintamani-dhama, called Goloka Vrndavana. "It is full of palaces made of touchstone. There the trees are called desire-trees, and the cows are called surabhi. And the Lord is being served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. It is He whose name is Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes. There the Lord plays His flute. His eyes are like lotus petals, and the color of His body like a beautiful cloud; on His head there is a peacock feather. So attractive is He that He excels thousands of Cupids."