32. "So we should show our aptitude for craving His mercy. This is bhakti."


The Supreme Lord cannot be known through our intellectual efforts. Unless He gives us the power of knowing Him, we cannot know Him. It is His mercy. If He is not at all merciful to us, we won't be able, by our strenuous exertions, to approach Him. The thing is that we have to approach Him and He has to give us the facility of approaching Him. He is the Autocrat - He is the Despot - He has the fullest freedom. We cannot, by our flimsy little way of thinking and by any of our attempts, reach Him in any way.

So, craving is the only need in us by which we can surmount all there difficulties, the barriers and the impediments of these phenomena. The objective references of the reciprocated entities of our senses, will never disclose Him unless He is so lenient to show us that latitude as to be approachable by us. This is the only method by which we can approach the Absolute. It will be a tremendous task for us to have an access to Him through our intellectualism and labour and our senses confined to finite things. So we should show our aptitude for craving His mercy. This is bhakti. Bhakti represents devotion - transcendental devotion. Transcendental devotion need not be covered by our thoughts, fruitive attempts or desire for salvation.


By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada

Notes from a Discourse
(Srila Prabhupada speaking to Miss Maximiani at the Gaudiya Math, Calcutta, on June 29, 1935. Transcribed in shorthand by Sj. Anil Kanta Ganguli, B.A.)

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