Krishna Reveals Himself To Those Who Love Him
Krsna reveals himself to those who love Him. Sometimes it is the unspoilt love of a child which contains the highest wisdom unseen to the gross materialists.
We all experience economic pressures. Maintaining life in the twenty-first century includes many necessities which centuries before were completely unimaginable. Even in our attempts to live simply and render service to our holy Dhama, there are necessities which one would rather not struggle without.
There is a little confession and a story that I have been asked to share with all of You. Having racked my brain with plans and schemes to become economically independent, Krsna has smashed my attempts one after another. Upon complete desperation, I did that thing which every good Krsna devotee knows not to do. We know that Krsna is the controller of the demigods and we should go to him directly…but with patience running thin, I began to worship the demigods. We were driving our car through the snowy New Vrindaban roads and in the despair of poverty I said to my daughters, who are accustomed to my crazed schemes, “We are going to pray to Goddess Laxmi.” All the way to Moundsville, they very cooperatively, chanted with Me, “Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi, Laxmi…” In town I bravely pulled out a plastic credit card to buy those giant snow tires that would help ensure the twice daily meeting of our beloved cowherd with his awaiting milk herd.
Upon returning home from town my father called and volunteered to take care of our immediate economic crisis. Feeling a genuine appreciation for my father’s love and trust, I was also overcome with immense amazement. Later that night, as our family went down the road to meet the awaiting milk herd, my amazement increased.
Having fallen a little behind in the cleaning, the milk parlor which is home to six full grown cows, one continually growing ox, Rama, and Manjari (the baby), was overflowing with dung. A full grown cow usually produces about fifty pounds of manure per day. Compare the difficulty of keeping clean diapers on your little one, to keeping up with eight giant dependents with four stomachs each.
As the children, wrapped in snow gear from head to toe, enjoyed playing in the barn, Caitanya and I began the milking and cleaning. Shovel after shovel full of dung is really quite good exercise. Being deeply immersed, literally, in the bliss of shoveling, my six year old daughter walked over and looked at me with a proud smile on her face. “Mom”, she said, “We don’t have to worship Goddess Laxmi anymore. The cows are our wealth. When the demigods took shelter in the body of the cow, there was no room for Laxmi. But she is here in the dung. We have everything we need.”
As far as I know Goddess Lakshmi is not a demigod/goddess..She is an direct expansion of Srimati Radharani and the consort of Lord Vishnu…I do not think you should be so hard on yourself for praying to Her..in the NOD it is stated that Vaisnavas should worship Lord Ganapati (Ganesha) to remove obstacles on the path of devotion. I have found in my life that poverty for most devotees has been an obstacle in their lives. They struggle to meet the basic necessities then become bitter to the philosophy and Sri Krishna. I have experienced throughout my life as a devotee that the demigods were given such a bad rap that devotees feel guilty about even mentioning their names..I think we should remember that they are far superior devotees of Lord Vishnu than we are. To ask for their help to connect us more to the Lord I feel is not out of boundaries..I know devotees feel guilty for asking for material gains but we end up asking someone such as Indian donors, parents, grandparents, etc. I think we need to feel less guilty about material gains and as Sudama brahman realized, see them as a source of liberation rather than degradation.