Passage 5

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In plain words

It is very hard to recognise, within humanness, the nature of divinity

In the Dvāpara age a Gopī went to a well and filled two pots with water; she set one pot on her head and tried to set the other on top of it, but there was no one to help her. At that moment Kṛṣṇa came there. “Kṛṣṇa! Will You set this pot on the pot on my head?” the Gopī asked Him. Kṛṣṇa answered. “I will not do it,” He said. “Alas! If Kṛṣṇa Himself will not do it, who in this world will help?” Even as she was grieving so, another woman came. With her help the Gopī set that pot on the first one and went home. Kṛṣṇa, who went along right behind her, without her turning to Him or praying to Him, took the first pot and set it down on the ground. She was astonished. “Kṛṣṇa! At the well, when I asked You to set this pot on my head, You would not agree at all. Now, before I had even prayed to You, You have taken this pot down: what is the inner meaning of it?” she asked. To that, Kṛṣṇa: “Gopī! It is My nature to take a burden down; is it My nature to set a burden on the head?” He said. That is, in the principle of God too, His way is only to take the burden off, not to lay it on. Within humanness, such natural divinity is very hard to recognise.

Man, with no knowledge of his own svarūpa, searches the outer world for Ānanda

Man thirsts for Ānanda. Ānanda is his very svarūpa. But unable to recognise his own svarūpa, he thinks Ānanda is to be had somewhere in the outer world, and goes searching for it. Believing that there is Ānanda in study, he studies many subjects. But merely by studying he does not come by Ānanda. Thinking that if he takes a job he will find Ānanda in it, he makes many efforts to get jobs.