116 THE PATH OF PERFECTION Failure and Success in Yoga 117
before you in the visva-riuipa form, you will be so filled with fear the creating, preserving, and destroying agency of this mundane
that you will forget your love. So don’t be eager like the imper- world. I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, in accordance with
sonalists to see the visva-riuipa form; just render loving service to whose will Durga conducts herself.” (Brahma-samhita 5.44) Thus
Syamasundara, Krsna. when we pray to Krsna, we pray to Durga immediately, because
We have more or less seen Krsna as the visva-ripa during war- Durga is His energy. And when we pray to Durga, we are actually
time in Calcutta in 1942. There was a siren, and we ran into a praying to Krsna, because she is working under the direction of
shelter, and the bombing began. In this way, we were seeing that Krsna. When the devotee sees the activities of Maya, he sees
viSva-rupa, and I was thinking, ‘‘Of course, this is also just another Krsna immediately, thinking, ‘‘Oh, Maya is acting so nicely under
form of Krsna. But this is not a very lovable form.’’ A devotee the direction of Krsna.” When one offers respect to a policeman,
wants to love Krsna in His original form, and this visva-ripa is not | he is actually offering respect to the government. Durga, the ma-
_ His original form. Being omnipotent, Krsna can appear in any terial energy, is so powerful that she can create, annihilate, and

form, but His lovable form is that of Krsna, Syamasundara. Al- maintain, but in all cases she is acting under Krsna’s directions.
though a man may be a police officer, when he is at home he is a Through bhakti, pure devotion to Krsna, we can leave the
beloved father to his son. But if he comes home firing his association of Maya and be promoted to the eternal association of
revolver, the son will be so frightened that he will forget that he is Krsna. Some of the gopas, Krsna’s friends, are eternal associates,
his beloved father. Naturally, the child loves his father when he’s and others are promoted to that eternal position. If only the eter-
at home like a father, and similarly we love Krsna as He is in His nal associates of Krsna can play with Him and others cannot, then
eternal abode, in the form of Syamasundara. what is the meaning of becoming Krsna conscious? We can also
The visva-riuipa was shown to Arjuna to warn those rascals who become eternal associates of Krsna through pious deeds executed
claim, ‘tI am God.” Arjuna asked to see the visva-riipa so that in in many, many lives. Actually, in the Vrndavana manifest in this
the future we may have some criterion by which to test rascals material world, the associates of Krsna are mainly conditioned liv-
who claim to be God. In other words, if someone says, ‘‘I am ing entities who have been promoted to the perfect stage of Krsna
God,”’ we can simply reply, ‘‘If you are God, please show me your consciousness. Thus promoted, they are first of all allowed to see
viSva-rupa.’’ And we can rest assured that such rascals cannot dis- Krsna on the planet where Krsna’s pastimes are being enacted.
play this form. , After this, they are promoted to the transcendental Goloka
Of course, Arjuna was offering all respects to the visva-ruipa Vrndavana in the spiritual sky. Therefore it is stated in the

form. That is a natural quality of a devotee. A devotee even Bhdgavata (10.12.11), krta-punya-purjah.

respects Durga, Maya, because Maya is Krsna’s energy. If we Bhakti-yoga means connecting ourselves with Krsna, God, and
respect Krsna, we respect everyone, even an ant. Therefore becoming His eternal associates. Bhakti-yoga cannot be applied to
Brahma prays, any other objective; therefore in Buddhism, for instance, there is
no bhakti-yoga, because they do not recognize the Supreme Lord
srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka existing as the supreme objective. Christians, however, practice
chayeva yasya bhuvanani bibharti durga bhakti-yoga when they worship Jesus Christ, because they are ac-
icchanurtipam api yasya ca cestate sd cepting him as the son of God and are therefore accepting God.
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami Unless one accepts God, there is no question of bhakti-yoga.
Christianity, therefore, is also a form of Vaisnavism, because God
**The external potency, Maya, who is of the nature of the shadow is recognized. Nonetheless, there are different stages of God
of the cit [spiritual] potency, is worshiped by all people as Durga, realization. Mainly, Christianity says, ‘‘Godisgreat,”’ and that is a
