When we are attracted to material things through our senses, whereas Krishna is spiritual, how can Krishna be considered all-attractive?

From Swapnil Mani

if krishna is said to be all attractive then the bhakti for him must be fake, because attraction arises due to senses, for e.g i see a beautiful girl on street i get attracted. so how can attraction be defined a word for krishna..please describe what is attraction and why it arrises

Transcribed by: Argha Maji

Question: When we are attracted to material things through our senses, whereas Krishna is spiritual, how can Krishna be considered all-attractive?

Answer: Krishna is spiritual but he is not only spiritual. Because even the material is also his energy. And the Bhagavad Gita explains that whatever attracts us in this world, is also manifesting a spark of Krishna’s splendour. In 10.41 it is said

yad yad vibhūtimat sattvam

śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā

tat tad evāvagaccha tvam

mama tejo-‘mśa-sambhavam (BG 10.41)

yad yad vibhūtimat sattvam, whatever is opulent, whatever is beautiful , whatever is glorious, mama tejo-‘mśa-sambhavam, that manifests a spark of my splendour. That means that whatever is attracting us, why does that object have an attracting potency? That is because Krishna is manifesting his attraction to it. Krishna himself is spiritual, but that doesn’t mean he has no connection with the material. His beauty is manifesting even in the material world otherwise how would we ever be able to connect with him, when our consciousness is at the material level right now. Well, that was the question of Arjuna in 10.17. He says keshu keshu ca bhāveshu cintyo ‘si bhagavan mayā. That my Lord how can I remember you, in bhāveshu, in material manifestations. So pure devotees can remember Krishna constantly in their heart, but what about others who are seekers. How can they remember? So Krishna manifests his attractiveness even in this world. What we need to do is, when we see attractive things we need to remember that, OK their attraction is coming from Krishna and rather than getting attracted to those things, we learn to get attracted to Krishna. That redirection of attraction is our exercise. It is exercise of the will, it is exercise of the heart, it is the exercise of the head also. Remembering, it is the exercise of the head, doing it, is the exercise of the heart.

Once we do this, we slowly start developing our attraction towards Krishna. Now can we be attracted towards something material? Yes, because the material manifests Krishna’s attractiveness only and can we be attracted to Krishna, when we are at the material level of consciousness? Yes, one level is through his material manifestations like the beautiful things of this world but also through deities, through holy name of Krishna, through his scriptures. Here Krishna is manifesting more directly, more intimately. The material manifestations are not non-different from Krishna whereas the deity is non-different from Krishna. And by learning to focus our consciousness, by becoming attracted to the beauty of the deity, the wisdom of the scripture, the sweetness of the holy name. By these we can rise and slowly march towards Krishna. So, when we are attracted to external things or rather external manifestations of Krishna, that itself is auspicious. And as we are attracted to the deity, as our connection develops more and more towards the deity, then our Krishna Consciousness will awaken because of attraction to Krishna and then we will become conscious of Krishna’s presence in our heart also. So, in the advanced stages of devotion we won’t need the deity externally to remember Krishna. We will be remembering him in our heart itself. And in that way , we can come to the level of constant remembrance of Krishna, constant attraction to Krishna. Thank you. Hare Krishna.