Question: How can one know if Krishna is pleased or not pleased by one’s action? Or, how do I know that whatever I am doing besides devotional services is pleasing Krishna?
Answer by Romapada Swami: We can know that Krishna is pleased when His representative, the spiritual master is pleased with us. Therefore everyone is urged to seek the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and render service unto him. By serving under the guidance of an able spiritual master, one can easily and clearly understand how to please Krishna without having to rely on speculation. We sing everyday in our Guru Vandanam: yasya prasadad bhagavat prasado yasya aprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi: “By pleasing the spiritual master, one automatically pleases the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And without pleasing the spiritual master it is not possible to make any advancement in spiritual life.”
As we discussed in reply to a recent inquiry (Digest 263), Krishna (as well as guru) are pleased not just by one’s actions, but more so by the disciple’s sincerity of desire and effort to please Them. In other words, if one is sincerely striving at every step to fulfill the directions and guidelines given by the spiritual master – both in executing devotional activities as well as in other duties, by that *loving effort* Guru and Krishna become very pleased.
Such sincerity and loving effort implicitly includes the effort to understand what is pleasing to Guru and Krishna, or what their teachings and instructions are, and then taking steps to execute their expressed desire. In other words, one who is sincerely trying to please Guru and Krishna would try to consult and abide by the principles and teachings given by spiritual master, or scriptures or saintly persons in all of their activities – both in direct devotional activities as well as in executing their other duties. The disciple should be eager to receive such directions from the spiritual master – by that eagerness, mood of inquiry and service attitude, one is able to understand how to act and make the right decisions and choices in life by which they can please Krishna.
Grandfather Bhismadev, in his instructions to Maharaja Yudhisthira gives this 3-point check by which one can understand if he/she is in line with Krishna’s desires: vipra-dharma-acyuta-asrayah (http://vedabase.net/sb/1/9/12/en): When one’s actions are in accordance with scriptural tenets, and is guided by the spiritual master or qualified brahmanas, and when one’s internal purpose in doing those activities is simply for pleasing Krishna, then one can be confident that one is pleasing Krishna.
(For a more detailed discussion of this principle see Digest 193 and 258)
