Engagement in Krishna’s service brings about reciprocation from Him in one form or the other. After all, Krishna is a person. Why cannot He reciprocate? And why wouldn’t He reciprocate? Krishna Himself says in the Bhagavad Gita,
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. BG 4.11
Sometimes, when devotees share stories of how Krishna intervened and reciprocated in their life, one may term it as sentimental, or one may disbelieve it, or one may label those devotees as arrogant or overly proud of themselves. Is it really so?
Scriptures extol humility as the foremost quality of a devotee. Is sharing how the Lord reciprocated with oneself a breach of humility? Not necessarily.
The following examples can help us understand how sharing the Lord’s reciprocation can be a perfect demonstration of humility.
1] Sharing as a natural expression of one’s Love for the Lord:
Sometimes, narration of Lord’s reciprocation is simply an expression of the devotees’ love for the Lord, and the Lord’s love for the devotee.
Prabhupada had once said, “My purports are my personal ecstasies.” Definitely, he was not being proud when he said that. He simply said because he was tasting Krishna’s reciprocation in his writing of books.
In one lecture, Prabhupada speaks about Lord’s personal reciprocation. “Sakhyam, to make Kṛṣṇa as friend. Kṛṣṇa can be served in so many ways. Kṛṣṇa is so kind friend, even practically. We had a very big struggle in Bombay for our land. So they wanted to break our temple to drive away. It was a great commotion. All Bombay people know it. But I prayed simply Kṛṣṇa, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, anyway, You have come here. You have sat down here. It will be great insult if You are removed from this place.” So Kṛṣṇa heard it, and we won the battle. Now the land is ours.” Lecture SB 1.2.6, Calcutta, February 27, 1974.
Prabhupada here refers to Krishna as His friend. This is an extremely high level of reciprocation that Prabhupada shares. But it was spontaneous, and not based on any desire for personal aggrandizement. In fact, very less people would have even come to know what kind of emotions he was undergoing that time.
2] Sharing to help build Trust of others:
If I share something about the helping nature of one of my friends with many people, am I being arrogant? Definitely not. Rather, I am helping others’ develop a great trust on my friend.
Do not many of the shops, restaurants, hotels etc. request their customers to give a good feedback on Google? And that definitely helps others to make a fair amount of judgment. Krishna definitely doesn’t want any positive feedback for Himself. He is already being served by innumerable devotees. Yet, leaving a positive feedback helps the confused souls to take up to the path of Krishna Consciousness.
Furthermore, it helps one understand that Lord is a person. And He can intervene in our lives.
Therefore, devotees may sometimes share their personal experiences or reciprocation with the Lord.
HH Radhanatha Maharaja writes about how he received the Hare Krishna Mahamantra from Mother Ganges, how his path of bhakti was revealed at Rupa Goswami’s samadhi, and how he came to accept Shrila Prabhupada as his guru. Someone may call all of this as self-promotion, but those poor souls may not understand the actual intention of sharing the pastime.
Maharaja, in his utter humility, shares how the Lord reciprocated in his Journey Home, to Vrindavan, and thereby reveals to all of us that if Krishna can reciprocate with him, then why not with us?
3] When the Focus is Lord’s Merciful Nature:
HH Radhanatha Maharaja describes about Ghanashyam Baba in the Journey Home. Ghanashyam Baba was once worshipping the name of “Radha” written by him on the sand for the entire day. In the evening, while rubbing off Sri Radha’s name after his worship, his hand found something hard. When he came at a quiet time the next day, at that very spot, he found the beautiful Deities of Gopijana Vallabha.
HH Radanatha Maharaja writes, “One morning, as Ghanashyam and I sat alone, I asked him how he first came to Vrindavan. He bowed his head. “My story is of no importance,” he said. Then he gazed up in wonder. “But Krishna’s mercy upon a sinner is worth hearing.”
In the course of his narration, Ghanashyam narrated the above mentioned story to HH Radhanath Swami. There was no trace of arrogance in him. He simply wanted to extol Krishna’s fame.
4] To make the Lord’s Mercy known to all People:
Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami mentions in Caitanya Caritamrita CC Adi 4.158-159
āra eka śuna tāṅra kṛpāra mahimā
adhama jīvere caḍhāila ūrdhva-sīmā
Please listen to another glory of His ( Lord Nityananda’s) mercy. He made a fallen living entity climb to the highest limit.
veda-guhya kathā ei ayogya kahite
tathāpi kahiye tāṅra kṛpā prakāśite
To disclose it is not proper, for it should be kept as confidential as the Vedas, yet I shall speak of it to make His mercy known to all.
Kaviraja Goswami mentions how Lord Nityananda, being pleased, appeared to him in a dream. He ordered Kaviraja Goswami to go to Vrindavan, and told that all of his desires would be fulfilled in Vrindavan.
Kaviraja Goswami is one of the most humble personalities who ever existed in the history of mankind. He calls himself lower than a worm in the stool. Why would he do anything for self-aggrandizement?
Humility is much more profound than it may seem externally. Actually, all the Vaishnava etiquettes are ornaments of a devotee. When we may not have the right vision, we may see the ornaments as fake.
Therefore, one must practice Krishna Consciousness with a serious heart and intent to excavate the deeper mines of Vaishnava qualities in others, to apply them in our lives, and thus ornament our life with a host of Vaishnava qualities.
