It is impossible to remain indifferent to Suka’s captivating description of Krishna’s life in Gokula, where the experience of Brahma Tatva is brought within easy reach, pointed out Nochur Sri Venkataraman in a discourse.
Every childhood prank is for the benefit of the jivatma’s realisation. Why did He unleash the calf at the wrong moment, asks a Gopi. Krishna’s reply is a charming smile, which indicates that none but He alone decides the moment of release and His job is to loosen the bond and not to bind.
Did he eat mud, asks Yasodha, and when he feigns innocence, she demands He opens His mouth. She undergoes a moment of realisation of the Eternal Truth by whose Maya all this is held. But the Lord makes her forget this vision and she sees Him as her son.
Why did He pinch the sleeping baby and make it cry? It is to rouse the jivatma from the slumber of samsara to the awareness of the purpose of his birth and seek the divine. Why did He enter the houses of Gopis to steal butter? It is to take possession of the hearts of His devotees who are dear to Him.
The truth is that even as ghee is not directly seen in milk though it is very much in it, the Paramatma dwells in our hearts but His presence is not overtly recognised. Ghee is extracted from milk through a set of processes.
The milk is made into curds and this is churned to get butter which in turn is made into ghee.
Just as milk turns into curd, the jivatma’s mind is transformed with the drops of viveka and vairagya gleaned from association with the pious.
Yogic practices and His intervention enable a jivatma to realise Him in his heart.
