Skeptics deride Krishna’s pastimes like lifting Govardhan hill: “How could anyone have lifted such a huge object? How could he have found its center of gravity?”

Krishna doesn’t have to find the center of gravity because he is the source of gravity. Material nature with all its laws such as gravity work under his supervision, as the Bhagavad-gita (09.10) indicates. So he can, at his will, suspend the laws of nature, just as the head of state can suspend the laws of traffic.

The laws of nature, as we know them, are our logical inferences derived from our finite capacities and our finite experiences. Though they may help in our study of the finite, but they can harm when extrapolated and imposed on the infinite. They act as a distorting filter that erroneously reduces the infinite to the finite.

By expecting Krishna who is infinite to conform to the limits of the finite, we deprive ourselves of authentic understanding of the infinite. The Bhagavad-gita (09.11) indicates that those who equate Krishna with finite mortals get it all wrong (avajananti mam mudha), for they overlook his supreme position (param bhavam ajananto).

The next verse (09.12) asserts that all their efforts end in futility (mogha), and they fall deeper into illusion (prakritim mohinim shritah). Indeed, their illusion continues for as long as they keep seeing the infinite through finite filters. Thus, they make their finite illusions infinite. That is, their narrow filters cause the illusion to persist infinitely, for as long as they hold on to those filters.

When Krishna suspends the laws of nature, those demonstrations of his supremacy invite us to transcend the limits of the finite. By accepting his invitation we open our heart to receive and relish his infinite love.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09 Text 12

“Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.”