“Ketaki me kanta phool Govinda Radhey, ek rula dey ek rotey ko hansa dey.”
(Synopsis of a talk by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on August 13, 2009, in Meerut, India, explaining this new kirtan verse)
All of you have seen a rose plant. It has two prominent features – thorns and flowers. If someone were shown only the thorns, he would say, “What a useless plant! The thorns prick you and make you bleed.” If someone were shown the flowers, he would feel good. Flowers are symbols of love and affection. They develop our feelings of love for one another. All important people are gifted with flowers as a sign of respect.
So the rose plant is just an ordinary thing. It has two opposite features – thorns that cause pain and flowers that inspire love. This is not at all surprising to find in the world. But the fact that this material world emerged from God, who is the supreme divine personality, surprises everyone.
God did not create anything. He made everything appear as it was earlier. The word ‘srija’ in Sanskrit means to cause something to manifest or appear. During mahapralay, the time of complete universal dissolution, the souls along with their karmas merge into God’s personality.
The Bhagwatam (2/9/38) describes that God simply desired and the universe appeared. It further says (3/9/33) that God asked Brahma to introduce the souls again into the material world. So God did not create anything new. He simply caused whatever was existed prior to mahapralay to reappear in the same state. Souls were given the same body they had previously according to the consequences of their actions.
In this way God didn’t create anything, rather He graced the souls and brought them out of their dormant state so they could practice devotion and attain their ultimate aim. This was all due to His extremely gracious nature.
Veda Vyas humorously said, “Lokavattu leela kaivalyam,” God made the world appear just for amusement. This is not correct. The main purpose of creation is to grace the souls. “Mukhyam tasya hi kaivalyam.” Thus, everything that God does is exclusively to grace the souls.
© Radha Govinda Samiti and Bhakti Bliss
