Bhagavan Sri Krishna – The Divine Perfection : 8. Swami Krishnananda

08/05/2019
(Spoken on Sri Krishna Janmashtami, August 25, 1978)
8.

We are all things at the same time. We are in the earth plane, we are in the astral plane, we are in the celestial plane, and we are also planted in the bosom of the Absolute, even at this very moment. We are not tiny toys pulled by the strings of nature, puppets which are dancing to the tune of forces over which we have no control. Not so is the truth. We have great profundities in us, and we are not such little things as we appear to be on our surface. There is in us that magnificence which can open up the gates of heaven itself, and raise us up to the status of a perfection which will drown us in the bliss unknowable.

We are little physical bodies no doubt, we are social units living on this Earth no doubt, but that is not the whole truth of our life. We are simultaneously in all realms of being, even today. By the term ‘we’, I do not mean merely human beings. Everything that is created, right up to the atom, is simultaneously connected with all levels of manifestation, so that right from the lowest element of creation conceivable to the highest crown of creation there is a totality and perfection manifest.

God is immanent, we say in ordinary language. When we say God is present in all things, we mean perfection is present everywhere. God is perfection. Even in the littlest dust that is floating in the air there is this completeness manifest, and it can reveal its magnificence if the time for it comes. This is symbolically, traditionally and mythologically told to us by stories like God bursting forth from a pillar made of bricks, God speaking through a flaming bush as He did to Moses, and voices coming from nowhere, etc., which means to say the most transcendent, unreachable, super-individual Absolute is also the most immanent reality present in the deepest core of the cells of our bodies, so that there is perfection within as well as outside.

The consciousness of there being such a perfection everywhere is what we call the attainment of true yoga, mastery in yoga. Though this perfection is present everywhere, it has not become a content of our consciousness. When we are awakened to the presence of such a mysterious magnificence in life, we become divinities overnight. God reveals himself immediately.  One example before us, among many others, of the conceivable pattern of this divine perfection that is possible is the history of the advent of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, whose incarnation we celebrate today, known as Sri Krishna Janmasthami.

May the grace of this supreme Master be upon all of us. May we rise to the status of this great expectation of Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. May we live the life chalked out to us in the Bhagavadgita, a life of perfection, true and simple. “May our life be godly,” be our prayer.

THE END