For getting Krishna, forgetting Krishna is fatal

When we get anything valuable in our life, we usually desire it and strive for it. Such desiring and striving naturally center on remembering. A person who wants to buy a new car, especially a prized car, remembers it frequently. Remembrance is a natural result of affection; simultaneously remembrance is also the way to develop affection. This principle of recollection engendering affection applies to all things in general – the advertising industry uses it to sell us products by bombarding us repeatedly and alluringly with images of those products. But this principle applies all the more so to Krishna. Why does it apply especially to Krishna? Because he is all-attractive and all-purifying. We may not feel attracted to him because of our impurities, just as rusted iron is not attracted to a magnet. Thankfully, Krishna is also all-purifying – if we keep connecting with him through remembrance, that connection will purify us, thereby kindling our latent attraction for him. The Bhagavad-gita (12.09) indicates that the diligent practice of remembering him will engender within us desire for him. While practicing bhakti-yoga, if we forget Krishna, then we will naturally remember something else. As conscious beings, we can’t live without thinking of something. And we usually think of those things that we believe will give us pleasure. So, when we forget Krishna, our consciousness will go towards our past attachments, thereby fuelling our desires for them. The resulting obsession will drag us further and further away from Krishna. By thus understanding that forgetting Krishna is fatal for getting Krishna, we can strive diligently to remember him. If we remember him whenever he is manifest before us while we perform directly devotional activities, Krishna will gradually permeate and pervade our consciousness, thereby making his remembrance steadier, stronger and sweeter – till he ultimately becomes our life’s foremostreality.