What you want—is Krishna

The Scientific Definition of Krishna (Rasa)

Srila Sridhar Maharaja speaks on the inner demand of the heart for pleasure: love, beauty, charm and sweetness.

The want of Krishna consciousness is responsible for all the troubles in the world (Mahaprabhu says). And that is the aim of Gaudiya Math: to remove this fundamental difficulty. At the root of all this disturbance is that we do not know our real objective. For whom we are searching, is Krishna. But we do not know. So the only real necessity for the people is to connect them, "What you want — is Krishna. You do not know, you cannot ascertain, but your inner search is only for Krishna. Without him nothing can satisfy you, even other conceptions of God, not Narayana, not even Ramachandra." All different types of rasa, in detail, are only found in Krishna (akhila-rasamrta-murtih).

All rasa, all the inner demands of our heart, when it takes a personification, then the product is Krishna. Everywhere. The inner demand of every heart is a common thing and he is Krishna. Sweetness personified. Sweetness, charm, beauty, mercy, affection, harmony — personified. And consciously or unconsciously our thirst is only for him. Rasa means for which you feel taste. Krishna is rasa personified (akhila-rasamrta-murtih). The scientific definition of Krishna is this: all sorts of rasa, when given life are personified as Krishna.

So Krishna is not being thrust upon us. He is not a burden on our heads. The scientific research scholars, spiritual research scholars, by His grace have understood this thoroughly and are trying to inform us, that what we think we want — this thing, that thing, a third thing, a fourth thing — no, it will ultimately come to the conception of Krishna consciousness. It has been thoroughly examined and investigated and given by the spiritual scholars (sadhus). Nothing less can satisfy us.

They have observed that even those who do not want anything — the self-satisfied — their hearts are also attracted towards Krishna consciousness. Their investigation revealed that even those who do not want anything — the self-content — when they somehow come in connection with Krishna consciousness, they hanker for it (atmaramas ca munayo…prayena munayo rajan).

And Sukadeva says, "I myself am a witness. I have no aspiration for anything in this world, what to speak of money, a house, or anything else, I do not even want a cloth to cover myself! Nothing is necessary for me in this world. Still my heart was attracted to something that I am unable to resist. Helplessly I fell prey to that sort of consciousness (Krishna). Although without any aspiration for anything in this world (parinisthito 'pi nairgunya) still, my heart has been snatched away. I had some sort of equilibrium, balance in my mind, but that has been disrupted and some attraction has come from the upper world and captured me, taking me to that side: the plane of higher consciousness, higher feeling, higher sentiment, higher intelligence — all higher — culminating in harmony, in love."

By Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev Goswami