Does our seeking end after we find God as the Bible indicates or continue forever as Gaudiya Vaishnavism indicate?

Transcription by- Keshav Gopal Das and Ambuj Gupta

Question: Does our seeking stop when we find Krishna as the Bible say seek and you shall find or does the seeking continue forever as the separation of the Goswamis where they are searching for Krishna he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite indicates in the Sad Goswami Astakam?

Answer: Both are true.

The Bible is talking at the preliminary level when it says that seek and you shall find. It means that when we are trying to understand the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, when we are trying to know about God, so initially we have to have a mood of seeking. By that mood of seeking we move upwards towards Krishna and ultimately come to know about Him. So without seeking we cannot find Him. That is more a call for enterprise an activity, seek. We know that Krishna is present as the super soul in the heart and He will also guide us. By that seeking we will find Him. Now significantly Krishna is not just like a treasure, but Krishna is actually a person. As a person He is an ocean of auspicious qualities. Therefore, knowing Him never ends and loving Him never ends. So it’s a constant ever increasing ecstasy. The Goswamis have “seek and you shall find”. Although they were living in material comfort but still they were seeking for something higher and they surrender to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, came to Vrindawan to Krishna’s own abode. Many of them have had mystical visions of Krishna. Krishna is constantly there in their heart, as evident from their life style and devotion, and their contribution in form of literature and example. But along with that they also feeling we want to know Krishna more.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also talks about this when he says that actually Krishna I have no love for you. Without you I cannot exist. The point is, in love separation intensifies love. That’s why the Gaudiya acharyas specially have glorified separation. So at one level we find Krishna when we search for Him, we develop love for Him but at another level we are eternally finding Krishna. When Radha and Krishna meet, although they had met many times, the excitement of their meeting is there each time they meet because their love remains eternally fresh and fulfilling. In one sense, our mission, our purpose and perfection of life, is always be seeking for perfection because in the seeking of perfection there is a sublime joy of remembrance of Krishna, of intense concentrated seeking for Krishna. In that seeking itself Krishna’s presence is there, Krishna’s intensified ecstatic remembrance is there and off course Krishna manifest also. In spiritual word there is sanyog and viyog. There is union and there is separation and it goes on eternally.

So in one sense the devotees have already found Krishna in their heart but at the same time they also seeking Him eternally. In that seeking itself they are finding Him more and more in their hearts and off course their seeking is also interrupted sometime, interspersed periodically at times when there is union. Thus the ecstasy in the spiritual world continues on eternally with its alternate cycles of union and separation, and again union and separation and so on forever. Thank you. Hare Krishna.