Simply to love Krsna

Expressions researched:
"simply to love Krsna"

CC Adi-lila

Yogamāyā creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 4.30, Purport: In Goloka Vṛndāvana there is an exchange of love known as parakīya-rasa. It is something like the attraction of a married woman for a man other than her husband. In the material world this sort of relationship is most abominable because it is a perverted reflection of the parakīya-rasa in the spiritual world, where it is the highest kind of loving affair. Such feelings between the devotee and the Lord are presented by the influence of yogamāyā. The Bhagavad-gītā states that devotees of the highest grade are under the care of daiva-māyā, or yogamāyā: mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (Bg. 9.13). Those who are actually great souls (mahātmās) are fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always engaged in the service of the Lord. They are under the care of daivī-prakṛti, or yogamāyā. Yogamāyā creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Kṛṣṇa. A devotee naturally does not like to transgress the laws of reverence for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but by the influence of yogamāyā he is prepared to do anything to love the Supreme Lord better.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

The gopīs, they learned how to love Kṛṣṇa. That's all. They never underwent any severe austerities like the great saintly persons going to Himalaya and pressing their nose and something like that. Of course, that stage is not easily obtained, but the śāstra says if you come to that stage, simply to love Kṛṣṇa, then you are on the highest platform of blissful life.

Lecture on SB 1.8.18-19 -- Bombay, April 9, 1971: Therefore śāstra says that alakṣya... Ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: [Nārada-pañcarātra] "If one has come to the point of worshiping the Supreme Lord, there is no more necessity of undergoing severe austerities and penances." Because others, karmīs and yogis, for their sense gratification, karmīs, jñānīs, and yogis, they have to undergo severe austerities. But the bhakta, somehow or other, he can, if he simply learns how to love Kṛṣṇa, then he hasn't got to undergo severe austerities and penance. Immediately he is released. Because that is the perfectional stage. If you live in Kṛṣṇa, always loving... Just like the gopīs. The gopīs, they learned how to love Kṛṣṇa. That's all. They never underwent any severe austerities like the great saintly persons going to Himalaya and pressing their nose and something like that. No, never did. Their only business was how to love Kṛṣṇa. Automatically. Without any... Of course, that stage is not easily obtained, but the śāstra says if you come to that stage, simply to love Kṛṣṇa, then you are on the highest platform of blissful life. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu [Bs. 5.38]. Santaḥ, those who are devotees, they are twenty-four hours seeing God. That is to be... That is the highest stage of perfection. And by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, one can be brought to the platform, how to love Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours without any cessation.

So our business is simply to love Kṛṣṇa. The more you love Kṛṣṇa, the more you become perfect. It is not that it is necessary to understand Kṛṣṇa, how He has created.

Lecture on SB 1.8.31 -- Los Angeles, April 23, 1973: So how we can study Kṛṣṇa? And Kṛṣṇa has created all these things. So if you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa's created things, how you can understand Kṛṣṇa? This is not possible at all. It is not possible. Therefore this Vṛndāvana status of mind for the devotees is the perfection. They have no business to understand Kṛṣṇa. They want to love Kṛṣṇa, without condition. "Because Kṛṣṇa is God, therefore I love Him." Their mentality is not like that. Kṛṣṇa is not just playing in Vṛndāvana as God. He is playing there as ordinary cowherds boy. But at times, He's proving that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But they do not care to know it. So outside Vṛndāvana... Just like Kuntīdevī. Kuntīdevī is not inhabitant of Vṛndāvana. She is inhabitant of Hastināpura, outside Vṛndāvana. The outside devotees, the devotees who are outside Vṛndāvana, they are studying the inhabitants of the Vṛndāvana, how great they are. But the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, they don't care to know how great is Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. So our business is simply to love Kṛṣṇa. The more you love Kṛṣṇa, the more you become perfect. It is not that it is necessary to understand Kṛṣṇa, how He has created. The things are mentioned there. Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā so much. Don't bother very much to know Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. Simply increase your unalloyed love for Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection of life.

Initiation Lectures

You have got your love, you love somebody, but if you divide your love, that "I shall love this country and my society, my girlfriend and this and that, or boyfriend, and I shall try to love Kṛṣṇa also..." No. That is also nice, but if you give predominance, all predominance, simply to love Kṛṣṇa, you'll automatically love other things, and your life will be perfect.

Lecture & Initiation -- Seattle, October 20, 1968: And what is the test of realization, finishing full percentage? The test is how much you have learned to love God, Kṛṣṇa, that's all. You have got your love, you love somebody, but if you divide your love, that "I shall love this country and my society, my girlfriend and this and that, or boyfriend, and I shall try to love Kṛṣṇa also..." No. That is also nice, but if you give predominance, all predominance, simply to love Kṛṣṇa, you'll automatically love other things, and your life will be perfect. Other loving affairs will not be minus. Just like a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, he loves not only his family and society; he loves even the animal, he loves even the ant, his love is so much expanded. It is so nice thing. How much you can love? Anything, as soon as there is some misunderstanding, the love is broken. But Kṛṣṇa love is so sound that you'll never break, and your love will be expanded universally. It is so nice thing. And love you have got. You have simply misplaced your loving capacity to so many things. You just revert it to Kṛṣṇa, and when you perfectly love Kṛṣṇa, you'll see that you're loving your country, your society, your friend, more than what you loved before, it is so nice thing.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Without any cultivation of knowledge, without any activities of fruitive action, without any desire, simply to love Kṛṣṇa in order to please Him—that is the highest perfectional stage of devotion.

Questions and Answers -- September 6, 1968, New York:

Prabhupāda: And those who are advanced devotees, they do not want to see whether Kṛṣṇa is great or small. They simply love Him. That's all. That is pure love. In Vṛndāvana, at least these gopīs, they never saw Kṛṣṇa's any jugglery or any greatness. But they still love, pure love. Pure love means

anyābhilāśitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

[Brs. 1.1.11]

Without any cultivation of knowledge, without any activities of fruitive action, without any desire, simply to love Kṛṣṇa in order to please Him—that is the highest perfectional stage of devotion. There is no consideration "Whether Kṛṣṇa is God or not, whether we are getting benefit or not." "Simply we love Kṛṣṇa." That is the perfectional stage.