Question: How should I please Krishna so that He will help me understand Him, so that He elevates me to platform where I can become a nice devotee of Him?
This is a wonderful question, because it expresses genuine interest in Krishna, and an interest to please Him. This attitude is in fact what is really pleasing to Krishna! This is what devotion is all about – to consider how to satisfy Krishna rather than focus on one’s own personal interests.
Generally, pious people approach God for fulfilling their own interests – for mitigating their distress, desiring good fortune, out of inquisitiveness to know more about God, or with factual knowledge of the greatness and opulence of the Lord (BG 7.16). Krishna liberally accepts all of them also as His devotees. But when someone comes to Krishna simply to serve Him and please Him out of love, the Supreme Lord becomes attracted by such pure devotion and He gives Himself.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (10.10) that those who are constantly serving Him with love and devotion (bhajatam priti purvakam), to them He gives the intelligence by which they can understand Him and come to Him.
There are innumerable ways to lovingly serve Krishna. Whatever work you do can be done for the pleasure of Krishna provided you have the guidance of realized devotees. But particularly such loving service begins with engaging directly in the nine processes of devotional service viz. sravanam kirtanam visnoh etc. (SB 7.5.23-24)
Most important of these nine activities are hearing and chanting about Krishna. Particularly in this age, the chanting of the Hare Krishna mahamantra is most recommended. You can regularly chant the mahamantra, in a mood of wanting to call upon and please Krishna, and you will progressively experience the efficacy of this process in awakening your loving connection with Krishna.
Hearing about Krishna from the lips of a pure devotee is also very important to quickly attract Krishna’s mercy. Scriptures abound with the glories and importance of the process of hearing. (e.g. see SB 1.2.17-18, SB 3.25.25, SB 10.14.3) By hearing from saintly souls who are deeply attached to Krishna, we can easily come to understand Krishna’s heart. If it is possible for you, you can try to get some of the audio recordings of Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and hear them regularly, and/or you can study Prabhupada’s books, which is a recorded form of his speaking.
Krishna further reveals his heart in the Bhagavad-Gita disclosing some of the things that are most pleasing to Him. Particularly in the Twelfth chapter, the Lord enumerates many qualities of a devotee which make them very dear to Him. By striving to cultivate these qualities and following this path of pure devotion, you can become very, very dear to Krishna. (please see BG Texts 13-20)
I have deliberately quoted many references from the Bhagavad-gita in this answer just to give a hint as to how we can understand what pleases Krishna, simply by carefully studying the Gita. You can regularly study Krishna’s words in the Bhagavad-gita, with the desire to understand Krishna’s heart and as if these were personal messages to you from the Lord, delivered by Srila Prabhupada through the medium of disciplic succession. Such a devotional effort to study the scripture and carefully apply its messages in your life is highly potent — Krishna will be pleased by such an effort to reveal Himself to you, just as in the case of the South Indian brahmana who regularly studied the Gita and was favored by Lord Caitanya. (Cc. Madhya 9.93-107)
In summary, I have highlighted three highly effective ways by which we can easily approach Krishna – by hearing from pure devotees and chanting, by devotional study of scriptures and by cultivating the qualities of a devotee. Beginning with these important items, all other aspects of your devotional advancement will unfold naturally.
