Giriraj Swami spoke on the appearance of Lord Ramacandra at the San Diego temple on Sunday, March 28.
“Krishna and Rama come to show us who They are and how attractive They are, so that instead of running after the temporary, illusory objects of the material world, which will never satisfy us, we can be attracted to Them, desire to have a relationship with Them, and realize Their presence in our lives. That will satisfy us, make us happy, and bring us the peace that we all want.
“Srimad-Bhagavatam says, anugrahaya bhaktanam. ‘The Lord assumes a humanlike body to show mercy to His devotees, and He engages in such pastimes as will attract those who hear about them to become dedicated to Him.’ The Supreme Being descends in a humanlike form to attract people in human forms to His activities, to inspire them to enter into a relationship with Him, which alone will satisfy them.
“When I say ‘Him’ I could more properly say ‘Them,’ because we always appreciate the Lord with His energy. The two together – Sita and Rama, or Radha and Krishna – are the complete conception of the Absolute Truth, and we can enter into a personal, living, loving relationship with Them, a relationship we can experience every moment of our lives.
“We can develop our relationship with Them by hearing about Them. We often want to enter into a relationship with someone because we have heard or read something about them – or seen them or a picture of them – and we think that we would like to get to know them. The Lord comes, and great sages record descriptions of His appearance, His activities, His qualities, and His relationships, so we become attracted: ‘Oh, I would like to have a relationship with Him.'”
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