Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Sridhar Mahārāj: You have so many differences such as your hair, eyes, etc.!

Disciple: These are material differences.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: But these are all drawn from the spiritual; they cannot demand any originality of their own.

There are so many things to be understood. Even it is found that in the presence of Kṛṣṇa at Puṣkar Tīrtha, the whole of the Yadu dynasties, including such a host of great personalities, were annihilated before His very eyes. But these dynasties fought in order to reveal the deeper realities of the plane of the soul. Whatever He wills is truth proper. Can you understand this? Kṛṣṇa was a sightseer! He simply watched. How can you adjust to that? Can you understand that fighting is life?

All the Pāṇḍavas including Arjuna were submissive to King Yudhiṣṭhir, but still they sometimes revolted against him.

Peace such as in the deep slumber of brahma-nirvāṇa is wanting in vitality; it is not true lasting peace. And the Absolute Truth is not impersonal but a person.

Disciple: My desire is to see Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s unity, to see full harmony.

Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Sridhar Mahārāj: Harmony presupposes independent thinking, but in consonance with the common plane.

When a mother cooks food, one child may say, “This is bitter”, another may say, “This is salty”, and another, “This is sour.” So, where there are many varieties, there must be the question of life. Variety shows that life is present. In diversity there is polarity within unity. Otherwise, simply ‘unity’ means jumbling everything together — a dead unity.

Viṣṇu does not represent just one feature but He represents infinite features which accommodate infinite possibilities. Kṛṣṇa is Akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti (the emporium of all nectarean rasas). Different groups of His servitors have so many diverse elements. Even Rādhārāṇī and Chandrāvalī compete with each other. They each head separate camps which fight in competition to satisfy Him. We have to understand how all this is possible. Mildly, with humility, we have to try to follow.

In the parliament there is an opposition party, but it is there to enhance the work of the main party. In this way the direct and the indirect combine in order to make the government complete, and if that principle is applied everywhere, it is not difficult to understand the nature of difference. We are not to try to create another world, but we are to understand what already exists. Why

is it so? What is the underlying meaning behind it? What are the differences between Kṛṣṇa and Balarām? Balarām sometimes sides with Duryodhan and Kṛṣṇa sides with the Pāṇḍavas, yet Kṛṣṇa and Balarām are almost one and the same. So, how are we to understand that? What is your answer? Do you think it is all bogus?!

Disciple: I can simply say I came to the Gauḍīya Maṭh for Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s gift of love.

Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Sridhar Mahārāj: Yes, this is true. And love means that there is classification amongst brothers. Rūpa Goswāmī gave the explanation:

aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet

(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 8.111)

Just as a serpent moves in a crooked way, similarly is the nature of love’s progress. The nature of affection is not straightforward because it has to accommodate everything in it. Everything possible in existence is accommodated in love. Love means sacrifice to such a high degree that it can embrace everything. The movement of love is generally crooked, and, for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, it has been designed in this way by the Lord’s divine power, yogamāyā, in order to prevent any staleness or sterility from entering the Pastimes. So try to adjust to this. Don’t be eager to create another world.

To do away with opposition, greater harmony is necessary. And in the higher type of harmony, opposition even enhances the beauty of that harmony and helps it. When harmony is successful, then it is found to be the necessity of beauty. Kṛṣṇa represents beauty, and His harmonising capacity supersedes everything. There is nothing He cannot harmonise, and all enemies become friends in that harmony. In so many ways this is to be accommodated. The Lord is the centre of highest harmony; He is sweetness, He is our Master, and He is the divine love of us all.