The birth of Krishna means that God came to this Earth in the form of a human being.  “Where is the person we call God?  What is He like?  What form does He have?” – these are thoughts that run in people’s minds and there are people who spend many of their days and much of their time in pursuit of His vision.  Some spend much of their time sharing their sorrows, difficulties and daily problems with Him.  To make human beings reach the Supreme that is beyond all in existence, the permanent and true Reality, to make them experience this state and to make them use the opportunity of their human birth, God itself incarnates in a human form and teaches the people.  They do this in accordance with those times and the circumstances that are there.  Without understanding that God, human beings torture, murder and give troubles to those divine beings.  Not being saddened by these difficulties, they taught dharma.  They say that treachery overcomes dharma, but in the end it is dharma that prevails.  Their lives are based upon an unshakable faith in this.  When Lord Krishna was born, the people who were so lucky to be with him and talk to him, were very gifted souls who had accumulated a lot of merit.  Just think about this.

We are all very fortunate to be celebrating the birthday of Lord Krishna, who lived many centuries ago, to think about him, pray to him and consider this day as a great day.  We should realize this well.  When Krishna asked Draupadi what boon she wanted, Draupadi replied, “Krishna!  Grant me the boon of always being in sorrow.”  When Krishna smiled because of Draupadi’s great devotion, the Pandava brothers got angry and asked why she would ask such a strange boon.  She said, “In sorrowful times thoughts of Krishna always come to my mind and I am always praying to Him.  When I don’t have any difficulties I forget about Krishna and I happily become involved in worldly pleasures.  I asked this boon of sorrow so that I would always live with thoughts of Krishna.” 

I am telling you about Draupadi’s request of sorrow, as if it were a great gift, to remind you that you should leave these worldly illusory pleasures and live life thinking of God with all your heart.  When we have small difficulties we tend to think of God more often.  Therefore, we should overcome this state and reach the mature state of always living with God-consciousness.  When we receive an opportunity and gift that is very rare, we should not only realize this but also find ways to attain true wisdom.  We were born somewhere, we are living somewhere, we are doing something.  We are living in various ways but we all have this good state.  This is a very great gift.

Jai Prema Shanti!