Welcome to the Purely Prabhupada YouTube channel. This video series is called “Reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” My name is Kamra devi dasi, and I am a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
This is the sixth video of the series. It is called, “How can we love what we do not know?” Essentially, we are taught to learn to love God, but how can we love what we do not know?
A religion is bonafide if it teaches one how to love God, how to serve God. Religions may look different according to the culture in which they are practiced, but if the essence of learning to love God is there, the outer appearances are superficial. Our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada said that the prime goal was “Just learn to love Krishna.” Jesus also said that the most important thing was to, “Learn to love the Lord, thy God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” Translations may vary some, but the point is there, to develop love of God is the most important goal of human life, and any religion that actually teaches this is real religion.
But it may be hard to learn to love someone who we do not know. How do we love a person if we don’t know him? Love develops from service, but how do we serve someone if we don’t know what they like, or what they want from us?
There are traditions that have arranged marriages. In these bonafide cultures, there is expert astrological consultation and an assessment of the character of the potential spouses by those who have become very proficient in that science. I am not talking about the more modern version of young girls forced to marry men their father’s age or just throwing people together for some convenience. I have spoken with many couples from India who had properly arranged marriages, and the feedback from them has been very consistent. The couple may not have interacted before the marriage, but they learned to love each other as they interacted, got to know each other, and served each other. They are both persons, with needs, preferences, unique traits, and individual personalities.
Loving relationships cannot develop in a void or with some nebulous force. They can only develop with other people. We can’t love nothingness, and if we try, we will find the quest to be ultimately unsatisfactory and be simply a concoction on the mental plane. There is no reciprocation, no ecstasy, no loving exchanges in nothingness, and therefore any so-called religion that claims that its goal is nothingness cannot be regarded as real religion. It is simply some cheating presentation that seductively tries to erase God and keeps the follower from entering into a real, ever increasing, reciprocal loving relationship with the Supreme Person, Krishna. To become reinstated in our constitutional loving relationship with God is our only hope for real and eternal happiness
Where can we get the information to learn enough about God to begin to serve Him and learn to love Him? If we are satisfied with the scriptures that we are following, that is fine. But, if we want more information about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His activities, His relationships with His devotees, how He likes to dress, what He likes to eat, His extraordinary sense of humor, His chivalry, His prowess in every field, His unequaled beauty, we will have to take shelter of the teachings of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. There are no other literatures like these on the face of the entire planet. They are purely transcendental, coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself through a transparent lineage of the topmost devotional personalities.
