Don’t hold back!
BB Govinda Swami: Krishna never forgets anything what we have done. But Krishna is not a foolish person. He sees that we’re offering, but we’re holding so much back. Consequently, He wants us to give everything. Therefore we should question ourselves what are we giving and what are we holding back and why are we holding back.
Why are we holding on to the concept that there will be happiness within this world? We’ve never seen the example of lasting happiness within this world. Non of us have. Our near and dear - they all die, they go away. Some people try to steal everything, some people, they have more wealth they can ever imagine using in one lifetime, still they try to steal more. And then the only result is that they die and they cannot take anything with them along that path. There have been so many stories of great love, but they end in tragedy.
So why do we hold back from giving to Krishna? Why do we always think that if I do hold back something good will be attained here? Basically it’s because of poor knowledge.
Krishna says: “mām ekaḿ śaraṇaḿ vraja
ahaḿ tvāḿ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ”
He says: “I will give you liberation from this world. But why do you fear? Don’t fear. Why won’t you take shelter of me? Why don’t you believe?”
And basically people are fearful to surrender because people fear: “I will lose something”. Or people are afraid to to surrender because they have a material conception of service. Material conception of service means we serve because we are forced to serve. And the people who are taking the service, they are generally the abusers. Therefore in the material world no one likes to serve.
But Krishna is saying “Why won’t you surrender fully? Why are you afraid? Because I promise you that I’ll give you liberation from this world. I promise you that if you have a disqualification I will remove the disqualification. Please don’t be fearful.”
So this is Krishna’s mentality. He never forgets anything which we do for His favor. But He wonders: “Why won’t they give all?”
Sometimes people don’t like to hear preaching like this. People think “Oh, well, we are what we are. Therefore everybody should just accept that we are what we are and people should not expect more. Be happy with what I am.”
And in one perspective that is like a model we have to work in. You see, no one can do magic on Govinda Swami and turn Govinda Swami into something else. Nor can I sprinkle magic on the head of Gadadhar Prana and turn him into something else.
But each of us should have the desire to do the very best we can.
Each of us should have a strong desire that whatever service has been given to us - we will EXCEL at that service.
And that may be full of faults and we may have many shortcomings.
But still nothing should keep us from doing the very very best thing that we can.
And Krishna appreciates that.