Krishna Shares Butter with His Friends

This is a short story to capture an unexpectedly beautiful moment in my day.

Jul 17, 2024

Today I had a bit of an epiphany while eating a muffin served to me by my friend at the café he once owned but now works at. It was a vegan muffin but, when he asked if I wanted some butter with it, I agreed.

So he served it with this large, thick slice of butter directly off the block. The muffin wasn't hot enough to really melt it so, at some point, I ended up with a mouthful of butter.

At that point, I thought, "Wow, Kṛṣṇa, I think I get it. This is delicious." So I closed my eyes and meditated on how Kṛṣṇa loved butter so much that he would even steal it.

This led to me thinking that sometimes he stole butter just to share it with his monkey friends, like Dadhilobha. Then I thought, "How fortunate those monkeys are for receiving butter directly from the hand of the most beautiful person." Then I thought about how much Kṛṣṇa loves his monkey friends, and I stopped chewing my muffin because the thought was overwhelming.

I got a tattoo so that I could remember this thought.

So I looked a bit stupid there in the trendy café sitting by myself with my eyes closed with my mouth full of butter. At my age, I couldn't care less. I enjoyed that muffin more than anything I've eaten in as long as I can remember-almost as much as those rasa-malai mahā-prasādam milk sweets from Sri Sri Rādha-Govardhandhārī I ate after two months of fasting last year. That was incredible.

I thank Kṛṣṇa with all of my heart that I can experience him through my tongue. He's so kind to us that he makes himself available that way. I'll wrap this up with an excerpt from a conversation by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda with his student George Harrison of The Beatles fame:

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
This is bhakti. When our senses are purified from the material contamination... Senses, you cannot... The Māyāvādī philosopher says that "You stop the activities of senses." That is not possible. It is not possible. As living entity we must have our senses. Without senses we are dead stone. So senses must be there. You cannot avoid it. That Māyāvāda philosophy, that "Give up your desire," how can I give up desire? That is not possible. So that is not really salvation. Desire you must have, because as living entity there must be desire. So desire should be purified. Now we are desiring for our personal gratification. So when the desire will be utilized for serving Kṛṣṇa...
That is Rādhārāṇī's attitude. They are lamenting. The desire is "How to see Kṛṣṇa? You are gone from us. We do not find that how we can live, because without Your service, our life is useless." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. "Where You are, Kṛṣṇa? I cannot serve You, then what is my life, this useless life?" Huh? Govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ: "The whole world, universe, is vacant without Your service, without seeing You." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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These words were not generated with or augmented by artificial intelligence; just “flawsome” human thoughts here … with, of course, due homage to The Algorithm that abides over us all.