Shukdev Ji explained to Parikshit when he asked about Aghasur and how Aghasur got killed by Shree Krishna. Although Aghasur was a demon, Shree Krishna entered his mouth and that demon received the Divine touch of Shree Krishna so he was liberated. Parikshit asked,
“How is it possible? Aghasur tried to kill all the gwalbals (cowherd boys) and wanted to kill Shree Krishna as well! How is it that he was liberated?”
Shukdev Ji said, “Parikshit, think about it. Shree Krishna entered into him, and he received His physical touch.”
He contrasted it with another situation.
सकृद् यदङ्गप्रतिमान्तराहिता मनोमयी भागवतीं ददौ गतिम् । …
Sakṛid yad-aṅga-pratimāntarāhitā manomayī bhāgavatīṁ dadau gatim …
- Bhagwat Mahapuran 10.12.39 (partial)
A soul under the bondage of maya (God’s material energy), who has never met Krishna. Or even if that soul met Krishna, he or she did not recognize Him and has no way to know Him and cannot see Him right now, such a soul has no way of correctly imagining His form. And yet, manomayi (through a mental image), by creating their own mental image of Shree Krishna, that soul is able to attain a state of oneness with Shree Krishna.
When Shree Krishna is so gracious that a maya-bound soul with a mayic (material) mind, who is incorrectly imagining Shree Krishna’s form…because how could a mayic mind correctly imagine His Divine form? We are incorrectly imagining His Divine form and yet He says,
“That’s all you have to do. I accept your effort.”
He accepts our incorrect meditation and gives us Divine credit for it. So Shukdev Ji’s point was that when Shree Krishna is so gracious, He is willing to give us so much leeway that He says,
“You don’t even have to imagine Me correctly. Just try to think of Me! Create your own form of Me. I enter into that form as well. I accept that form, and I give you Divine credit for your effort, no matter how good or bad your meditation is. If you are trying, I grace you accordingly.”
So when He is so willing to grace any soul, why is it so surprising to you that He was willing to grace Aghasur? This is how Shukdev Ji explained it to King Parikshit. But the main point for us, the practical point, is that in this explanation Shukdev Ji reconfirmed this process that merely by creating our own mental image of Shree Krishna, we are actually able to attain Him.
And this brings us back to that original point. How can the soul say that Krishna is being stubborn? We’re saying,
“No, no, no! You grace me first, then I’ll surrender.”
And we think He’s being stubborn. No. Why are you telling Me to surrender first? Look at how udar (generous) He is. Look at how liberal He is with His grace. All He says is,
“Just try. Try to think of Me. Try to do my smaran (loving remembrance), and I will accept your effort. No matter what kind of form you create in your mind, no matter how far it is from the correct form, I accept your effort!”
So this illustrates Shree Krishna’s extreme graciousness, His extreme mercy upon us, and demonstrates to us that He is already gracing us so much. All that is required from us is a little bit of effort to open our mind to Him and receive that grace. The act of doing smaran is just our effort to receive His grace by joining our mind with Him. The electricity is already in the lines running through the walls. But if you don’t plug into the outlet to receive the power to run your appliance, then how can you blame the powerhouse by saying,
“You’re not giving me energy?”
The powerhouse says, “I’m giving everybody energy, but it’s up to you to plug in!”
So this summarizes our quarrel with Shree Krishna.
