Seeing Krishna in Sri Vrindavana Dhama

Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 3.1.24 as follows:

"There are still many devotees of the Lord lingering there in ecstasy in search of Krishna and His childhood associates, the gopis. It is not that such devotees meet Krishna face to face in that tract of land, but a devotee's eagerly searching after Krishna is as good as his seeing Him personally. How this is so cannot be explained, but it is factually realized by those who are pure devotees of the Lord. Philosophically, one can understand that Lord Krishna and His remembrance are on the absolute plane and that the very idea of searching for Him at Vrindavana in pure God consciousness gives more pleasure to the devotee than seeing Him face to face. Such devotees of the Lord see Him face to face at every moment, as confirmed in the Brahma-samhita (5.38):

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

'Those who are in ecstasy of love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Syamasundara [Krishna], see Him always in their hearts due to love and devotional service rendered to the Lord.'"

These words from our beloved Founder-Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, are a great encouragement for us to properly utilize our time spent here in Lord Sri Krishna's transcendental abode, Sri Vrindavana Dhama.

The Lord's Most Holy Abode--Sri Vrindavana Dhama

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Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: Is the Individual Soul God?

Dear Master,

I read a book on self realization from Dada Bhagavan. It says that the soul inside us is God, whereas Bhagavad-gita says that the supreme soul, Lord Krishna is God and the soul is just a servant of the Lord. It's views on karma is same. However, they consider the soul inside us to be God. I think it's false and considering our soul to be God could again be false ego. I definitely respect Jainism as a religion, but in the book they even deny listening to the Lord's name at the time of death as they believe that the Lord is their own soul. I think this is false ego. Not accepting Lord Krishna as the supreme, but only as a human who attained self realization, is inappropriate. I would like to hear your views on it.

Jai Shri Krishna.
Shreyansh Barodia.

Answer: He Is Not God; He Is the Servant of God.

If one’s soul is God, how is it that God has become entangled in the cycle of birth and death? God can never come under the influence of his material energy. Therefore this philosophy that the living being is God is completely bogus. This false philosophy is demoniac because it will keep those who follow it imprisoned within the chains of birth, death, old age, and disease. In fact, it is the very desire to be God that brought us into the material world in the first place. And it is the desire to be God that keeps us here in material existence.

The author is erroneously called "Dada Bhagavan," which means "Old Man God." First of all he is not God and secondly God never becomes an old man because He is an eternal youth. God does not need to realize himself by a so-called process of self-realization. An ordinary man does not become God by a process of self-realization. A self-realized soul is someone who has mastered the art of being a cent per cent sold out servant of God.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari