Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 11
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs-tathaiva bhajāmy-aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
As men approach Me or seek Me, so I accept them to My love; men follow in every way My path, O Arjuna.
“As men approach Me…” Here Krishna says that whatever Names one calls Him, in whatever forms one worships Him or prays to Him, He will appear and reveal Himself before the devotee, in that form. Before a devotee of Maha Vishnu, He will appear and reveal Himself in the form of Maha Vishnu. Before a devotee of Sri Rama, He will come in the form of Rama. To the devotee of Krishna, He will appear as Krishna. To the devotee of Shiva, He will appear as Shiva. To the devotee of Devi, He will appear as Devi. To the devotee of Jesus, He will appear as Jesus. To those who pray to Him in His formless state, He will also reveal Himself to them accordingly. Because His formless state, which is all-pervading, is also an aspect of Him. He has appeared many times in the forms of different Avatars – Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, and others – to redeem the devotees from desire, from negativity.
“… so I accept them to My love...” tāṁs-tathaiva bhajāmy-aham. He reciprocates the feeling of the ones who approach Him. He thinks of the ones who think of Him. He longs for those who pine for Him, who long for Him. Like the Bible also says, God longs for His creation. He longs for everyone to attain salvation. So whoever has this longing, know that it is He who is also longing for you. It happens both ways, but He loves you more than you can love Him. As the devotee who longs for God can’t bear being separate from Him, He also can’t live separate from His devotee. If you can’t live without Him, He also can’t live without you. In such a state of Love, He offers Himself fully to His bhakta.
When the Lord manifested Himself in the form of Krishna, the gopas treated Him as a friend and He also treated them as friends. Nanda and Yashoda loved Him as their child. They had Vatsalya Bhav. Even if they were not His biological parents, because they longed for Him as a child, He chose to manifest to them as a child. For Rukmini, Satyabhama, and all His wives, He was the perfect husband. The gopis also loved Him as a lover, so He was the perfect Lover. Hanuman loved Him as a servant, as a dasya, and He looked upon Sri Rama as His Master. This kind of love is called Dasya Bhav. The Lord accepted it and for Hanuman, He manifested Himself as the Master. Like this, when God sees love for Him in the bhakta, He takes different forms to reciprocate this love for Him. This shows that there is no limit to God’s Love. If you develop a certain way of loving Him, He will take any form or any aspect to come to you.
“...men follow in every way My path.” Krishna says that it doesn’t matter which path one takes, since all paths lead only to Him.
Bhagavad Gita
