Setting The Stage

“In other words, the Lord selected His mother and father—namely Prishni and Sutapa—specifically to appear in the material world. Whenever the Lord comes as a human being, He must have someone as a mother and father, so He selected Prishni and Sutapa perpetually as His mother and father. And on account of this, both Prishni and Sutapa could not ask the Lord for liberation. Liberation is not so important as the transcendental loving service of the Lord.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 3)

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There is the famous depiction accompanying the annual holiday celebration. Often described as a jayanti, there is commemoration of the moment when an important person appeared in this world. With Shri Krishna, there is the image of the mother and father, Devaki and Vasudeva, in the prison cell in Mathura.

This was not a chance occurrence. The person who is both nirguna and saguna did not randomly appear to those parents. There was an extended history as the backdrop. As time is infinite in both directions, the past and the future, the living beings who were Devaki and Vasudeva had been around before.

श्री-भगवान् उवाच
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि
जन्मानि तव चार्जुन
तान्य् अहं वेद सर्वाणि
न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
bahūni me vyatītāni
janmāni tava cārjuna
tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
na tvaṁ vettha parantapa

“The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!” (Bhagavad-gita, 4.5)

We see that when an important personality gets honored in a formal ceremony, they tend to tear up. The reasoning is understandable. When they are on the stage, accepting the award, they look back on the entirety of the experience.

They remember their parents. They remember their teachers and mentors. They recall the difficult journey and how nothing was guaranteed. In a sense, they can’t believe they ended up so successful, as no one would have guessed that such a path would be charted.

As the past leads to the future, so the present will one day become the past. What we do today affects our future wellbeing. Just as the doctor or lawyer didn’t accidentally stumble into the position, so the person who seeks perfection in the entirety of the living experience cannot expect to reach the summit without proper training.

There is tapasya. This is austerity. There is vairagya, which is the lack of attachment. There is attention to rituals, viddhi. There is faith in the process, shraddha. There is steadiness in determination to maintain vows, dridha-vrata.

येषां त्व् अन्त-गतं पापं
जनानां पुण्य-कर्मणाम्
ते द्वन्द्व-मोह-निर्मुक्ता
भजन्ते मां दृढ-व्रताः

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ

“Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.28)

It is that preparation which allows someone to eventually find themselves as the birth-mother or birth-father of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The material energy influences in the way of forgetfulness. This means that with each iteration of life, the previous memories get left behind.

But the results of those activities do not. They set the stage for the next iteration. Sort of like entering a continue-code from a video game or saving the state from the previous play, through consciousness the progress in spiritual life gets maintained through the transition in states.

We can take solace from these truths, as presented by the acharyas and the original Vedic texts. Our work does not have to be a waste of time. There is no reason to be hopeless about the future. What is done is done, but let us now try for the best future.

Let us follow spiritual life, in preparing for what lies ahead. The Supreme Lord is so kind and generous that He sometimes agrees to appear as someone’s child. The fortunate souls then get to witness His attractive, beautiful, and endearing transcendental form. As was displayed in that prison cell, to the deserving parents, Krishna had arrived.

In Closing:

After severe torture to survive,
Now He finally arrived.

For those parents to save,
First vision of Vishnu gave.

But from previous births setting,
That blessed opportunity getting.

Which means my choices important now,
For paving the future how.