Brahma had an experience where he tried to test Krishna. Krishna was out grazing the calves with all His friends, the gwalwals (cowherd boys), and Brahma observed Him eating lunch with His friends. Now, we all know that Shree Krishna reveals sweetness, lovingness, and playfulness, so He is not bound to the same maryādā (strict code of conduct) that He was when He came as Ram.
Brahma became very amazed seeing the way Krishna was sitting around with His friends. During lunch they were joking, playing around, sharing food with each other, acting like village boys would act, having fun playing together and sharing the food that their mothers had packed for them. Krishna was going to the point where He’d see something tasty that His friend was eating and He’d grab it out of his mouth and eat it. And Brahma said,
“This is God? I can’t believe God could be behaving like this!”
And he tried to test Him. The calves had wandered off to a distance, so Brahma snatched them up with his Divine power and hid them in a cave, keeping them in a trance. So when the boys noticed that the calves were missing, Krishna said, “You guys all keep eating! I’ll go find them!”
Krishna wandered off, but no matter where He went, He could not find them. So He came back to tell His friends that He could not find them, but by then Brahma had snatched up all His friends as well, keeping them in a trance and putting them in the same cave with the calves. So Shree Krishna just thought for one second,
“What is going on here? Oh yes! Brahma is trying to test Me.”
So, Shree Krishna, knowing this, He quickly went to Brahma’s abode, because Brahma had come down here, and then, you know, having played this trick on Krishna, he was thinking,
“I’m feeling hungry. Let me go back to my abode for lunch, and then I’ll come back and check on how confused this little Kanha (little Krishna) is getting.”
So Krishna beat him back to his abode. He got there first, and Krishna took the form of Brahma and sat on Brahma’s throne, and told all of his attendants,
“There’s an imposter Brahma who’s about to show up, and you arrest him!”
So when Brahma showed up, he got arrested by his own servants, or they tried to arrest him, and Brahma just ran out of there, back down to earth. But when he returned, he saw that, “Wait a second,” because Krishna now played a trick on him. Krishna took the form of all the gwalwals and all the calves, and He exactly imitated their each and every one of their characteristics physically, and their mannerisms of how they talk and how they walk - everything exactly.
So Brahma came, and he saw, “Wait a second, I thought I hid these in the cave?!” He went and checked, and they were there in the cave.
So he said, “Wait, what’s going on?”
He came back here, and no, they’re sitting here. Krishna’s eating lunch with the gwalwals like they were before, and the calves are grazing. He got so confused; he just felt like he was getting dizzy. And then it came to him,
“Oh, I tried to test Krishna, and He’s playing a trick on me to teach me a lesson!”
So then he surrendered to Krishna, and Krishna graced him, and when he received Krishna’s grace, then he saw,
“Oh, all these gwalwals are actually Krishna, and all these calves are actually Krishna!”
So that’s when he said that verse,
अथापि ते देव…
Athāpi te dev…- Bhagwatam 10.14.29
“Oh, it is only with Your grace, prasādaleshānu (a tiny drop of grace), only with just a tiny drop of Your grace, is required for someone to be able to know You!”
So His grace is required. No amount of self-effort can result in attaining or knowing God. No amount of meditation, no amount of good action, no amount of anything, because all of our actions are limited, and they are performed with our material mind and body.
So we can’t qualify to know Krishna through our own effort.
