CONTENTS:
- THINK ABOUT KRISHNA WITH LOVE AND DEVOTION
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. THINK ABOUT KRISHNA WITH LOVE AND DEVOTION
[SB 10.3.45]
yuvam mam putra-bhavena
brahma-bhavena casakrt
cinta yantaukrta-snehau
yasyethe mad-gatim param
TRANSLATION
Both of you, husband and wife, constantly think of Me as your son, but always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By thus thinking of Me constantly with love and affection, you will achieve the highest perfection: returning home, back to Godhead.
This is the last thing Krishna told his father and mother before leaving for Vrindavan. Krishna was born in the prison of Kamsa. Kamsa heard that Vasudeva and Devaki’s eight son will be the cause of his death. Kamsa wanted to 
kill Devaki to prevent himself from this threat and at that time Vasudeva, Devaki’s husband, Krishna’s father pleaded with Kamsa and suggested that, “There is no need to kill Devaki but as soon as the sons are born of Devaki he would bring them to Kamsa and Kamsa could decide what he wanted to do.
In this way Devaki was rescued but as and when their children were born, Vasudeva carried them to Kamsa and Kasmsa mercilessly killed them. In this way Kamsa killed six of Devaki’s sons. The seventh son was Sankarshan, Balarama and Balarama after seven months was transferred from Devaki’s womb to Rohini’s womb and it was understood that the seventh pregnancy of Devaki was a miscarriage then Vasudeva appeared in the womb of Devaki and in due course of time Krishna was born in the prison of Kamsa.
Kamsa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva because he didn’t want to take any chance. Although Kamsa knew that Vasudeva was very honest and truthful, Vasudeva is situated in sutrasattva, transcendental mood and that transcendental platform is the platform of absolute truth there is no falsity in that platform. Vasudeva never tells a lie, a person who is situated in sutrasattva or brahma-bhuta platform he never tells anything but the absolute truth so Kamsa knew that Vasudeva, Krishna’s father would never tell a lie or would never do anything deceptive, will never cheat anyone but still because Kamsa was a demon and the demons are by nature suspicious and never trusts anyone.
Kamsa could not even trust the most honest person Vasudeva so he put Vasudeva and Devaki in the prison and Krishna was born in the prison. So here is the pastime of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supreme controller and Supreme Proprietor of everything, although without His sanction even a blade of grass doesn’t move, that Supreme Personality of Godhead simply out of His sweet will and in order to perform His pastimes took birth in the presence of Kamsa. This is how unpredictable Krishna’s activities are. Krishna acts in the most unpredictable way and He acts in that way simply to give pleasure to His devotees simply to increase the love of His devotee. Everything that Krishna does is to increase the love of His devotee.
Now by appearing in the prison of Kamsa as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, Krishna actually increased the love of His devotees. First of all the love of Vasudeva and Devaki. In the prison is a very distressful condition and when one is in a distressful condition and when one is going through a lot of difficulties one’s heart naturally becomes heavy and when our hearts become heavy our dependence and our submission to Krishna and our love for Krishna becomes more intensified therefore Krishna puts His devotees into difficulties. When the devotees are in difficulties then they can depend upon Krishna and meditate upon Krishna in a better way and that is why often it is seen that the devotees undergo various kinds of difficulties whereas the non-devotees the demons apparently enjoy.
Devotees also maybe in difficulties and distresses but Krishna always gives them protection. Krishna comes to this planet simply to give pleasure to His devotees and Krishna allows them and helps them become situated on the perfect spiritual platform. 
Krishna Himself comes and allows His devotees to participate in His pastimes and participating in His pastimes the devotee becomes completely purified of their material contaminations or material attachments.
Here Krishna appeared to give pleasure to His devotees Vasudeva and Devaki and here Krishna is giving them the final instruction before leaving for Vrindavan or Gokula. The instruction was always think of Me as your son and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thinking of Krishna is the means of becoming free from material bondage. Krishna gives the assurance if you do that then you will gain the ultimate perfection and you will go back to the spiritual sky.
Prabhupada is pointing out here that Krishna gave this instruction to Vasudeva and Devaki not because they needed that instruction but it is Krishna’s pastime and He plays in a certain way to teach the conditioned soul and Krishna in this way is showing them how everyone can become free from material bondage and go back to the spiritual sky. The only way to go back to the spiritual sky is to think about Krishna with love and devotion.
Time and time again Krishna instructed that in Bhagavad Gita think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me, offer obeisances unto Me. In Bhagavad Gita this is the only instruction that Krishna repeated twice. Never in Bhagavad Gita one instruction has been repeated twice except this one so that shows how important this instruction of Krishna is and here also Krishna is giving the same instruction, Think of Me with love and affection and remember Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead and think of Me as your son. Actually one can think of Krishna in any way he wants and Krishna will reciprocate.
Our thinking cannot be impersonal, impersonal thinking cannot be long lasting, we cannot think on one thing that we do have any feeling for, for a long time but the things that are dear to us, that we have attachment and feelings we can think of them for a long time. When we think of Krishna we must think of Krishna with feeling and certain emotion. There are four positive and active emotions namely servitorship, friendship, parental and conjugal and one can develop these with Krishna. One can develop a relationship with Krishna thinking Krishna is the master and he is the servant. One can also think of Krishna as a friend, one can even think of Krishna as his son and one cane even think of Krishna as his lover. Krishna has actually given us the freedom to develop our relationship with Him.
Krishna says, as one surrenders unto Me, as one develops his relation to Me accordingly I reciprocate. One has the freedom to develop his relationship with Krishna it is not that since Krishna is God, He is very remote and no one can ever come close to Him. No, Krishna is not that kind of great personality. In the material world a great personality is difficult to approach. In the material nature the greater one is or most famous and important one is the more difficult it is to approach him but that is not the case with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual nature. In the spiritual nature the spiritual personalities are very easily accessible and available.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead has become so easily accessible that He has given everyone the chance of freedom to decide for himself how he wants to develop his relationship with Krishna, that freedom has been given to the individual. I
n order to develop that relationship with Krishna one must go through the process of devotional service and practise sadhana bhakti. One must become free from his material attachments in order to develop his relationship with Krishna and the process to do this is called vaidhi bhakti, devotional service in practise.
Unless and until one becomes free from material attachments he cannot develop his genuine spiritual relationship with Krishna. The way to become free from material attachments is sadhana bhakti. If he does not follow the sadhana bhakti and wants to directly develop a relationship with Krishna then that is called sahajiya taking Krishna very cheaply. Therefore Krishna is saying here, “Always know that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Krishna is telling them that you can think of Me as your son but at the same time remember that I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
It is not that one should try to develop relationship with Krishna remaining on the material platform then we are running at the risk of mistaking Krishna to be an ordinary mundane living being. If we want to elevate ourselves to the transcendental platform then we must recognise Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and then as we develop our relationship we will be elevated to that platform. Here Prabhupada is pointing out that the only way to become free from material bondage is to develop a loving relationship with Krishna by constantly remembering Him, by constantly thinking about Him. Going back to Godhead is not difficult Krishna actually wants us to go back to the spiritual sky back to Godhead.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
The more we dwell on Srila Prabhupada’s achievements, the more we probe into what Srila Prabhupada has done, the more we recognize what an amazing spiritual personality Srila Prabhupada is. In this way Srila Prabhupada came to bless this world.
(Extract from HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s 2017 Srila Prabhupada Vyasa puja message)
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
To approach Krishna and develop our relationship with Him is not at all difficult. The only requirement is to desire that. Only requirement is to feel that He is there and how much He cares for us, how much He loves us that He is following us, practically He is crying and running behind us and inviting us to come back to Him. Telling us, “Please come back, please come back to Me. My heart is breaking due to your separation.” This is how the Supreme Personality of Godhead cares for all living entities. If we show a little bit of willingness and eagerness to go back to Him then He will make all arrangements. Prabhupada said if we take one step towards Krishna then Krishna will take hundred steps to pick us up. Why hundred steps Prabhupada said thousand steps to come and pick us up. This is how Krishna wants us to go back to Him.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja in Durban, South Africa on 2 August 1992 Janmashtami)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)