How can we know that our service is pleasing Krishna?

Anwser Podcast

Time: 3 minutes

Transcribed by: Nikhil Fernandes

Question:
How can we know that our service is pleasing to Krishna?

Answer:
We should never try to read Krishna’s mind. If we do so, we will enter into endless speculation. We can use following three points to check whether our service is pleasing to Krishna:

1) Do our best: Krishna is a loving god. If we are doing our best according to our situation and capacity then Krishna is pleased with us. Even when we are doing nothing, Krishna still remains in our heart and desires our wellbeing. Rather than worrying whether Krishna is pleased, we can focus on whether we are doing our best. We obtain energy automatically when we eat food without anyone having to tell us. Similarly, when we are serving Krishna wholeheartedly, he becomes pleased.

2) Please our spiritual guides: Krishna manifests for us in this world through his devotees. When we associate with our spiritual guides, seek their advice and inform them of what we are doing, if they are happy with us, we should understand that Krishna is also happy with us. In the Gurvashtakam it is written yasya prasadad bhagavat prasado – through the spiritual master’s mercy we get Krishna’s mercy. We may not be able to please all devotees but we should try to please especially those devotees who are guiding us in our spiritual life.

3) Experience of inner contentment: If we keep practising bhakti steadily, Krishna is pleased. The result of that pleasure is we experience inner contentment. Bhaktiḥ pareshanubhavo viraktir (SB 11.2.42). Pareshanubhava can be broken as para + isha + anubhava. Para is transcendental, isha is god and anubhava is experience. God, who cannot be experienced through normal senses, can be experienced through bhakti. The experience of god is so enriching that once we have tasted it, we don’t chase after other things. A test of whether we are pleasing Krishna is that we are internally contented. Such contentment in turn lowers our craving for things unconnected with god.