Suppose a country’s president visits a jail for inspiring prisoners to reform and be released. But suppose the prisoners ignorantly mistake the president to be just another visitor. If somehow they understand this visitor’s position and purpose, they can appreciate the generosity and grab the opportunity.

The material world we presently inhabit is like a prison. Here, our aspirations for lasting life and love are thwarted by the limitations of material things, with their greatest limitation being their temporariness. Unfortunately, not knowing any world beyond the material, we don’t even realize that we are shackled, or that we are missing out on the free and full life available at the spiritual level of reality. That is the life we are meant to have by our essential identity as souls, eternal parts of Krishna, about whom too we remain largely ignorant.

When Krishna descends to this world, he is like the president visiting a prison on a mission of compassion. Unfortunately, due to our spiritual ignorance, we mistake him to be just another person. Thankfully, Gita wisdom helps us understand his position and purpose. He is the Supreme Person, utterly transcendental to everything material – he delights eternally in a life of love with his devotees in his supreme abode.

He descends to this world to charm our heart and inspire us to redirect our love from worldly things to him. The Bhagavad-gita (04.09) declares that by such knowledge and redirection, we can attain him. Thus, knowledge of his position and purpose is our gateway to freedom. The more we comprehend his transcendence, the more we appreciate his munificence in sharing the opportunity to practice bhakti.

When we cherish the opportunity and cultivate bhakti by diligent practice, we propel ourselves towards the ultimate liberation of eternal ecstatic life with Krishna.

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