When we see someone lost in a novel, we infer that an excellent author must have written it.

Similarly, when we see people, who are all spiritual souls, pursuing material pleasures under the spell of illusion, we can infer that a super-excellent maker must have made this illusion. That maker, the Bhagavad-gita (07.14) indicates, is Krishna.

Of course, there’s a big difference between the novel’s fiction and the world’s illusion: the author wants us to get absorbed, but Krishna doesn’t. He has created worldly illusion for facilitating our desire to enjoy separate from him. But we, being his eternal parts, can be truly happy only in relationship with him, the Supreme Whole. So desiring our happiness, he provides us through guru-sadhu-shastra the means for coming out of illusion.

The best way is bhakti-yoga, which connects us with Krishna and grants a higher fulfillment that makes resisting illusory pleasures easier. When we engage diligently in devotional activities such as hearing, chanting and studying scripture, our consciousness becomes permeated with him. That divine attachment enables us to perceive him everywhere, even in the power of the illusion that keeps us away from him.

Perceiving Krishna thus makes us see the power of illusion with a healthy respect that stops us from fooling around with it. Further, if we somehow fall into illusion, then, as soon as we come to our senses, we quickly remember Krishna as the master of illusion. That remembrance can save us from disproportionate self-condemnation, which keeps us self-conscious and obstructs us from becoming Krishna-conscious. Instead, we can meditate how the same person who set up the illusion will help us come out of it if we just surrender to him. Such meditation transforms discouraging falls into potent reminders of Krishna’s power, thus prompting intensification of our devotion.


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