42: Looking for Love

CHAPTER 9, VERSE 18: I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.

In the holy land of Vrindavan, India, this is written on a wall: 

Every living being is looking for Krishna's love. 

Below those words, more words have been wiped away by time, but I can just make out

But they  ......................  it.

Hm. 

Although there is no scriptural reference for this phrase on the wall, this verse from the Gita (9.18) and Prabhupad's expansion on the verse seems to align with the original artist's intent. Prabhupad writes, "Gati means the destination where we want to go. But the ultimate goal is Kṛṣṇa, although people do not know it." Indeed, the goal of what we are are looking for is Krishna and Krishna's love. And although we cannot read so clearly the words beneath, we can fill in those words from Prabhupad's purport:

Every living being is looking for Krishna's love. 

But they do not know it.  

Indeed, we look everywhere for love. Not just any love, true love. We want beauty and connection and trust and honesty. We want love to be pure and filled with joy. Most of all, we want love to last forever. 

That love cannot be found anywhere in this world. As mentioned in this verse, Krishna is nidhanam, the supreme resting place. We can only rest our hearts and our souls within Krishna's love. 

But we do not know it. 

We search everywhere. We try so many relationships, from pet dogs and cats to friends to parents to lovers and children and more. And even the most beautiful, most wonderful, seemingly pure love we encounter in this world, we all know that one day it will end with death. 

That love is not eternal. 

In fact, the more healthy and beautiful the love in this world, the more we will experience our hearts get ripped out of our chests in separation when death does inevitably come. 

You see, I love my husband very much. Sometimes tears come to my eyes when I realize that our love and our relationship will end one day. That day may be tomorrow because of some grisly accident, or that day may be decades from now when we are withered and gray. One of us will die first - it's inevitable. And then we will both die. Where will our love be then? 

I don't know. 

All I know is that I don't want our love to end. 

So even in this connection, I am looking for Krishna's love. I am looking for a love without end. A love where I can rest my heart. Forever.  

Full purport: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/9/18/