I recently met a young monk named Abhishek who in his travels around the country spent time with many masters and mahatmas. He had lived for a while in Vrindhavan and I have a yearning to visit there. The conversation we had, though brief, was one of the most beautiful of my life. Bhaskar: Bhaiya, tell me about Vrindhavan... I long to go there. Abhishek: Vrindhavan is within you. The more you search outside, the farther you will be from finding it. Bhaskar: But I can't see Vrindhavan in me. Abhishek: Of course you can. You just need to look. It is all there... the woodland paths are there for you to wander through. As you walk among the trees, you see a path that is covered with flowers - the trees and saw Krishna walking that way an showered him with blossoms. And as you walk you realise the ground is very soft, as though it has been freshly ploughed. When Krishna walked this way, the Earth moved all the soft soil to the top to cover the stones and pebbles and prtect his feet. And now you can see footprints! They are his! And Balaram was walking next to him! And here you can see the calves were shoving and jostling to get closer to Krishna and walk by his side... But what is this? A puddle of milk! The cow must have seen him and, in her love for him, the milk must have flowed out from her udders. And this tree's trunk is bent... Did that tree bow down when it saw the lord walk by? No... look at the footprints. He stopped beneath it and stood on tiptoe trying to pluck it's flowers. Can you see? Bhaskar: *silence* Abhishek: Create Vrindhavan in your mind. Let every path of thought bear the footprints of Krishna. When your mind beomes Vrindhavan, you will be full of love for Him. No longer will you have love for anything in the world. Bhaskar: But shouldn't we love the world? Abhishek: Whether you eat chocolate or cake or ice cream or pedas or halwa, the sweetness is that of sugar. In every leaf and pebble, every human, every bird and animal, in everything that which is beautiful and lovable... that is Krishna alone. To love him is to love the best and highest in everything.
I actually had to translate from Hindi, in which the original conversation was. He's a wonderful soul. He was one of the few monks who decided to leave the ashram but managed to do so without creating disharmony and is able to maintain a good relationship with the monks there. He was just too much a free spirit to be stuck in one ashram forever.
Hare Krishna! That is so wonderful! Thank you, Bhaskar, for sharing. Glory to Shri Abhishek and glory to the Lord. We look forward to having such gems of conversations. Love, Kumar.
I love this. How beautiful! That's so wonderful that you got to have a conversation with such a beautiful soul!
