There Is Nothing Sinful About Showing Appreciation

By krishnasmercy on August 26, 2025 • ( 0 )

“’O naughty child, now try going from here, if you can.’ Having spoken thus, she returned to her household duties.” (Vishnu Purana, 5.6.15)

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यदि शक्नोषि गच्छ त्वम् अतिचञ्चलचेष्टित
इत्य् उक्त्वा च निजं कर्म सा चकार कुटुम्बिनी

yadi śaknoṣi gaccha tvam aticañcalaceṣṭita
ity uktvā ca nijaṃ karma sā cakāra kuṭumbinī

“How do you deal with the issue of a general incompatibility in the bhakti-yoga culture? This must come up often enough. You must have some sort of flow-chart in how to steer the conversation. I believe that is how those phone calls to tech support operate. You speak with someone who barely knows the language, who works at a call center in a foreign country, to get your personal computer to stop popping up ads left and right. Or you want the operating system to be cleaned up, to function as intended, instead of crawling along at a snail’s pace.

“You connect to the agent on the phone. They ask you a series of questions. Most of the answers are obvious, but then they need to be diligent. The agents are not always dealing with a tech savvy customer. Depending on the answers they receive, they propose different solutions. When all else fails, simply reboot the machine. Hopefully, that will make the problem go away.

“What if someone is interested in chanting the holy names, in following a vegetarian diet of the sattvic specification, in worshiping God with a form, but they cannot rationalize some of the practices? For instance, the love of cows. Their friends and family might think they are crazy. The restriction on intoxication. In many parts of the world, celebrations involve choosing the most expensive kind of cow flesh and the finest adult beverages. In absence of these, how are people supposed to celebrate? If you take away the most enjoyable things in life, what is left? Why would you ask others to implement a system of torture?

“Moreover, justifications for the practices have developed over the years. Especially with the cows, the idea is that God made the animals for the enjoyment of man. The human population has dominion over the animals. This gives the humans the right to kill those animals, at any time, for any reason, and at any scale. They can extract valuables prior to that slaughter, as well. Like stealing from someone before killing them. They can take the milk from the cow, after she has seen her children. They can show those children to the mother. They can then kill both mother and child, like products placed on an assembly line. According to their logic, this is what God wants humans to do.

“Then they see this strange, new-age, backwards tradition, stuck in the ancient times, that shows love to the same animals. The people in this tradition treat the cows like pets. Isn’t that weird? They worship these statues and paintings. They believe in many gods. Isn’t it all too much to take, even for the open-minded? The people of the region have been taught that such practices are not only sinful, but demonic. It is the worst sin to worship a false god. It is crazy to keep cows as pets.”

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada intentionally translates the Sanskrit concept of bhakti-yoga as “Krishna consciousness.” Consciousness is the mechanism behind the transformation and also meeting the final objective. The goal is not to convert anyone to a different religion. It is not to gather more followers to give donations to the house of worship. It is not to make one religion more prominent than another. It is not to give protection to an entire class of animals.

The objective is to change consciousness. Change the priority of items of burden on a given day, for a given stage of life, over an entire lifetime, in fact. Move that consciousness from illusion to transcendence. More than following religion out of a sense of fear, obligation, or loyalty to community, always think of the object of worship. To think of Him is to know Him. To know Him is to identify His features. To identify His features is to understand ways to address Him. Krishna is the ideal name since God is all-attractive. Everyone follows Him, in all respects. Whether they love Him, hate Him, ignore Him, or think He is a product of mythology, they are always attached to Him in some way.

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते
तांस् तथैव भजाम्य् अहम्
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते
मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

“All of them – as they surrender unto Me – I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pritha.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.11)

Consciousness of Krishna might also involve appreciation. As there is nothing sinful about worshiping God as an all-attractive being, there is nothing wrong with appreciating the source of everything. It is natural to then extend that appreciation, in a flow resembling a waterfall. If we were to describe the culture of Krishna consciousness in one word, it would be “appreciation.”

There is appreciation from beginning to end. This Krishna consciousness is actually the human consciousness. It is the purified version, as the living entity is the same no matter the type of body they inhabit. The human birth is auspicious because of the opportunity for Krishna consciousness. In the manner that a wise and honest person appreciates their well-wishers, their colleagues, their teachers, and their favorite celebrities, so the Krishna conscious person appreciates God every single day. Whether good or bad, whether in triumph or in tragedy, whether in pleasure or in pain, they always connect in a way that shows conscious awareness.

In the culture of Krishna consciousness, there is appreciation of the parents. There is appreciation of the heavenly administrators, who coordinate the workings of the universe. There is appreciation of spiritual guides and saints who have passed down various instruction manuals for decoding the universe and the mysteries of the living experience.

At a more granular level, the individual might show appreciation for everything they have in their community. For instance, in the rural area of Gokula-Vrindavana, the people appreciate the land and the animals. They keep many animals with them. In the formal sense, worship of Krishna, or God, involves offerings made into a fire. The cows assist in that worship through the milk products they give. Cows produce the substances that later turn into ghee. This ghee is then dropped into the sacrificial fire, during times of yajna. This yajna is what gives the human society happiness. The entire life experience can turn into yajna.

We have the ideal example in the mother named Yashoda. She lives in Gokula and is always working. The home is sacred. The land is sacred. The cows are appreciated. Even the mortar used for grinding is an integral aspect of the life that is yajna. She one time ties her naughty son to the grinding mortar. This is a mild rebuke for an innocent offense. The real reason is to keep the son in place, to make sure He does not wander about. Yashoda can then continue with her household duties, which are for the benefit of the son in the first place.

Of course, she does not realize that her son Krishna is the person at the receiving end of yajna. She is unaware that the Krishna living in her home is the Lord of the universe. Nevertheless, she appreciates everything to the level of turning the interactions into song. Mother Yashoda writes songs about her dealings with Krishna. In that sense, everything associated with her parenting becomes transcendental.

“While churning the butter, mother Yashoda was singing about the childhood activities of Krishna. It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember something constantly, he would transform it into poetry or have this done by a professional poet. It appears that mother Yashoda did not want to forget Krishna’s activities at any time.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.9.1-2 Purport)

How can any honest person say that the life of mother Yashoda is sinful? How can dressing beautifully and remaining faithful to the Supreme Lord, in all bliss and full attachment, be the wrong way to live? How can sparing the life of the cow be the wrong way and killing it for sense enjoyment be the right way? How can remaining afraid of the Almighty, in not knowing His features and His demeanor, be the pious path and worshiping Him in pure love, with attachment to His beauty and His kindness, be the wrong way?