‘Shree Krishna ‘sukhaika tātparīyamayī bhakti’, means doing bhakti (devotion) with the sole purpose of giving happiness to Shree Krishna. This is true devotion, and this is our true identity. Our soul wants that more than anything.
“Oh, how can I make Krishna happy?”
That means this is our true goal. This is the true ultimate goal of every soul is to claim that birthright,
“Krishna, I want to be Your servant, but not the kind of servant who says, “I want to do this kind of seva (service) because I like doing that kind of seva.” No. That means I’m trying to serve myself. I want to do whatever will make You happy!”
That’s a devotional sentiment. And if we can cultivate that devotional sentiment, even while practicing devotion, before God realization, we can start to taste the sweetness of that niṣhkāṁ bhakti (selfless devotion), where we really, genuinely feel the desire to serve Radha-Krishna for Their happiness.
But Krishna is not to be outdone. If we desire to serve Him for His happiness, then He desires to serve us for our happiness. Because…
ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् |
Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāns tathaiva bhajāmyaham.- Gita 4.11
Shree Krishna says, “However you love Me, I love you the same way in return.”
So then it becomes a competition to see who can make the other one happy. And that’s why that prem (Divine love) goes on multiplying every moment, because Krishna gives us His Divine love, and we take that and we multiply it and we give it back to Him. And He receives it and He multiplies it and gives it back to us.
…प्रत्येक क्षण वर्धमानम…
…Pratyek kshaṇ vardhamānam…- Narad Bhakti Darshan 4.54
Narad ji says, “Prem is ever-increasing for that reason.” So our true goal and the true desire of our soul is to get that dāsattva (servant-identity).
तब जीव पा ले निज गोविन्द राधे ।
नित्य दासत्व अदिकार बता दे ।।
Tab jeev pā le nij Govind Radhe,
Nitya dāsattva adhikār batā de.- Shree Kripalu Trayodashi 12
Then we claim our right as Shree Krishna’s eternal servant, but only after having received His prem. Before we receive His power of Divine love, with what would we serve Him? We can’t serve Him with our material body, or material mind, or material money. No material thing is of any benefit to Him. And our soul already belongs to Him, then what can we serve Him with? Only when we surrender to Him and He gives us His prem, then, amazingly, He too is hungry for love (Vo bhi prem ke bhūkhe hain.). He is thirsty for love (Prem ke pyāse hain.). Shree Krishna desires the love of His devotees.
And whose love is it? It’s none other than His love. His power of prem that He gave to the devotees, and He desires that. It’s the miracle of the Divine relationship between the soul and God which we can’t understand until we get there. But it’s enough to know that when we receive His Divine love, then we can serve Him with that Divine love. And He also serves us, and that is the ultimate status that a soul can attain, and the highest state of bliss as well.
But keep in mind that as we do devotion, we always have to desire to see Krishna’s happiness. As long as we maintain that selflessness in our devotion, we’ll be on the right track.
