15.15 – Krishna is responsive; we are responsible

The Bhagavad-gita (15.15) states that Krishna gives us remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.

Then when we forget Krishna, is he responsible for our forgetfulness?

No, because he is responsive; we are responsible.  According to our desires, he responds by granting remembrance or forgetfulness – whatever will facilitate us in playing out those desires. And our desires are our responsibility, not his.

To take responsibility for our desires, we need to become introspective:

• Periodically pausing to observe our desires: “Why am I doing what I am doing? What do I really want at the moment and in my life at large?”
• Consciously choosing devotional desires: “I want to love and serve Krishna. I want to purify my heart and become an instrument of Krishna’s compassion for doing good to others.”
• Determinedly rejecting anti-devotional desires: “I want to stop self-centered indulgence that has promised pleasure but delivered emptiness at best and distress at worst.”

We can boost such introspection with sincere prayer, begging Krishna for strength and wisdom to do what is right and avoid what is wrong.

By this blend of introspection and prayer, we show Krishna the genuineness and seriousness of our desires. And he reciprocates by giving us forgetfulness and remembrance in an amazing way that completely and delightfully inverts our inner life.

Due to our present material addiction, we remember sensual pleasures even when we are not in the presence of sense objects. But when Krishna gives us forgetfulness, we will forget those pleasures even when we are in the presence of sense objects.

Due to our present spiritual apathy, we forget Krishna even when we are surrounded by devotional stimuli. But when he gives us remembrance, we will remember him even when we aren’t surrounded by devotional stimuli.

That steady absorption in Krishna makes life exciting and fulfilling – constantly.