We’re at an important juncture wherein Akroora is getting entangled into something that we too often get into – The worldly “Maya” or Illusion! At one moment Akroora understands that the little child who is sitting on the chariot is Bhagawan Himself, and suddenly in the next moment itself, the “Maya” is forcing Akroora to look at Bhagawan Bala-Krishna as a mere ordinary child! With this, Akroora is underestimating Bhagawan Bala-Krishna, as he goes down to the river bank for performing his regular “Nitya-Anushtaana” for the evening. Akroora has this mindset as he gets carried away with the “Maya” that it was he who is instrumental in bringing Bhagawan Bala-Krishna to Mathura, and that He couldn’t have found an alternate way to reach Mathura else. Akroora was thinking that he was doing a great favor to Bhagawan Krishna for performing His duty. This “I” attitude is what all of us have most of the time in whatever “Karma” that we perform in our day-to-day life. While we perform any action, little do we have a thought that it is Bhagawan who is making us perform it, along with the effort that we’re putting through. When we succeed in the action, we totally tend to forget Bhagawan’s divine hand in it. However, when we encounter failure, we would squarely put the blame on Bhagawan that He didn’t care to help us out!
This is exactly what is happening in the case of Akroora. When Akroora is escorting Bhagawan Krishna from Gokula to Mathura, he fails to realize that Bhagawan is using him as an instrument to execute His divine duties. Instead, Akroora started to think that it was solely because of his effort, Bhagawan Krishna was able to move forward with His incarnation. We can see here how easy it is to slip off the track, even though one might be an ardent devotee. We’ve to be extremely careful in this context and make sure that our mind doesn’t wander away. It is very easy for the mind to stray off and it has happened in many ardent devotees’ contexts too. This is where “mind control” is the first thing that any spiritual aspirant should strive for. Once the mind is brought under control, all other aspects would automatically start falling in place. Of course, it is easier said than done! Especially in today’s scenario wherein we’re plagued with so much external disturbance in the form of our professional requirements, family commitments, social media, etc. it is very easy for our minds to get carried and driven away from Bhagawan. Given all these external commitments and disturbances, it is also scientifically proven that our mind today cannot be in one place and context for more than two minutes together. This might be a startling and a shocking fact for many of us, but such is the intensity of the disturbances in today’s scenario. Amidst all this, if we’ve to control our mind and focus on our spiritual growth, it is not an easy task for any of us! If Akroora is being carried away with the Maya even when Bhagawan Krishna is right in front of him, what can we say about ourselves? We’re not seeing Bhagawan every day, are we? In such a scenario, it is going to be even more difficult for us in terms of bringing our mind under control.
Of course, I’m not trying to scare anybody here by saying all this. All that is important here is that we need to put the right effort to bring our mind under control. Although it is an extremely difficult thing to do, we’ve to have the consistency of effort. The issue with all of us is this – We would start everything in a grand fashion – Daily prayers, meditation, etc. However, after one or two days, our efforts would start withering off! That is primarily because of the fact that when we sit down for meditation, that is the time when our mind would wander the most! All sorts of thoughts would enter into our mind and it would take us all around the world! 🙂 Because of this, we would try once or twice, and unable to control our mind, we would give it up so easily! This is where the lack of consistency comes in. Just because we’re unable to control our thoughts, should we give up the entire action of meditation? The answer is “No”! We’ve to keep putting in repeated efforts to bring our thoughts under control. It is only with repeated efforts and consistency will our mind come under control. Thus, the point here is that, if Akroora is getting carried away even with Bhagawan’s divine presence near him, where are we? Don’t we need that extra effort to get things right? Let us think about this important point today and let us start doing the needful.
Moving on further with Akroora’s case, now Bhagawan Bala-Krishna too realizes that Akroora is going a bit overboard with his thought process and that He has to teach him a lesson. As Akroora was performing his “Nitya-Anushtaana”, all of a sudden, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna appeared in front of him amidst the waters of the river. Upon seeing this, Akroora was shell-shocked! How can Bhagawan Bala-Krishna enter into the water just like that? Wasn’t He sitting on the chariot? With this thought, Akroora immediately turns around to have a look at the chariot! There also, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna was sitting along with His brother, Balarama! Unable to believe this, Akroora again looks back into the river, and there too, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna was standing along with His brother Balarama! It is only now Akroora realizes that Bhagawan Krishna is omni-present! His divine presence was not only restricted to the chariot alone, but He is present everywhere! This is exactly what Bhagawan Bala-Krishna assured to the people of Gokula when He came out. Now after seeing this, Akroora was suddenly able to make sense of what Bhagawan explained to the Gokula people! He’s ever going to be at Gokula with all His friends and devotees! Bhagawan Krishna and Gokula can never be separated from each other! Similarly, Bhagawan Krishna would still execute His divine duties in several other places too!
With this, Akroora realized the significance of Bhagawan Krishna! So for today, let us also realize this significance of Bhagawan Krishna and let us realize the fact that Bhagawan is always with us at any point of time. It is this faith that is important here for us to move on with our spiritual growth. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the continuation of Akroora taking Bhagawan Krishna and Balarama to Mathura City! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 