What is the access point for all of us in talking about conquering the heart of Kṛṣṇa? We hear the pastimes in which great devotees conquer Kṛṣṇa's heart, but how is it that we all have access? Well, we heard this morning that one of the ways is to understand what providential means. Once, when I was having a managerial crisis, I consulted some godbrothers about what to do, and they tried to placate me by saying, "It'll probably be all right." And I've heard that a lot before, throughout my whole life, and it wasn't necessarily true. I came home and was still quite disturbed about the situation, which I won't go into now, because I'm sure you have many of your own. Then I got an email from one of my godbrothers who had been there when I had gone to consult with several of them, they happen to be in one place same time. And he said, "Oh, maybe this will help you." It was a verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the pastimes of Pṛthu Mahārāja.

Pṛthu Mahārāja had been engaged in performing his 100th horse sacrifice, but it was thwarted by Indra, as you know, who became envious and didn't want to see him complete it, because he's known as the one who's done 100 horse sacrifices—Indra, that is. He disguised himself several times as a sannyāsī (which he's not), and he stole the sacrificial horse and rode off into the sky with it a couple of times. Pṛthu Mahārāja's son, chased after him. Finally, Pṛthu Mahārāja said, "Oh, I'm going to kill him." The priest there said, "Not a good idea. We'll kill him. We'll use our power of mantra, and we'll suck him into the fire, and he'll be killed in that way." Then Brahmā came and said, "You can't kill Indra. He's a devotee." And at that time, Brahmā gave a verse to Pṛthu Mahārāja, saying that these kinds of twists of fate come to us, and we have to learn to tolerate them when there's nothing else that can be done. In the purport, Prabhupāda said, "When something's providential, and you have to learn to tolerate, just as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, what else can you do?" When I read that, I felt relief, amazingly, as if I had taken a magic pill.

There's a way in which we have the opportunity to enter into the mercy of Vṛndāvana and avail ourselves of the Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy by ārya-vacasā— by following the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Second Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the matter of the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in a purport that "The order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a manifestation of His internal potency." I'll say that again: "The order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a manifestation of His internal potency." And then he goes on. You want to hear the second part? (Yes) "It is by that particular potency that one comes to see the Personality of Godhead face to face."

When I read that, I thought, "Oh, this is access." I had spoken with the scholar and great devotee, Rādhikā-ramaṇa Prabhu, when we stayed at his house in Utah, and we had a conversation about access. And he said, "Scholars everywhere, philosophers everywhere, say that whatever philosophy you may present, if it has no access point for people in general, that philosophy is useless." What good is it to us? It sounds good, but where do we come in? And finding the access point is always important, because we want something to do, and we want to know what's in it for us, right? so this is the order of The Supreme Personality of Godhead, which is abundantly available to anybody.

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