By His Holiness Satsvarūpa Dāsa Gosvāmī

His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami is the personal secretary of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

One should not mistakenly think that Krsna's appearance and pastimes are mythical or allegorical. Rather, we should accept Lord Krsna as the Absolute Truth, the cause of all causes, who actually appeared in a humanlike form and walked the earth. Bhagavad-gita states that the proper transcendental understanding of His appearance is so important that if one realizes only this one subject, at the time of death he does not have to return to the material world, but goes to join Krsna in the eternal spiritual world called Vaikuntha.

One should hear the pastimes of Krsna from a pure' devotee of Krsna who has understood Krsna through his own spiritual master in a disciplic succession from Krsna Himself. Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita that those who thus perfectly understand Him worship Him in His personal form. He declares, "There is no truth superior to Me. Everything depends on Me, as pearls are strung on a thread." Materialistic scientists and philosophers who accept as truth only what they perceive with their imperfect senses, as well as so-called transcendentalists who speculate that God is impersonal, cannot understand Krsna's pastimes, nor can they achieve the perfection of life, love of God. Working outside of Krsna consciousness, therefore, they exist in illusion, for whatever they achieve independently from Krsna is vanquished at the time of death, and then they must take on new bodies in the various species of material life.

The most elevated transcendentalists, however, understand Krsna's lilas, or pastimes, and relish them without cessation. Srimad-Bhagavatam declares: "The highest perfectional gain of humanity is to discuss the activities and glories of the pious actor [Krsna]." The great sages who compiled the Vedic literature, and the great spiritual masters who in turn recited it, such as Vyasadeva, Sukadeva, Narada and others, were completely free from all the vices of material attachment because they were aware of spirit's permanence and matter's temporality. Consequently their being fully absorbed in the activities of the Supreme Lord, Krsna, is solid evidence that the accounts of His activities are not whimsical tales. Had these pastimes been merely tall stories, such perfect sages would not have relished them. These sages were concerned with the highest good for humanity, beyond the illusion of temporary material welfare work, and therefore we should take seriously their recommendation that we hear the pastimes of Krsna. There are many examples of devotees who have attained perfection simply by hearing these pastimes.