By Niscala Dasi
Loving Krishna means loving everyone because Krsna is in their heart. Conversely, applying that logic backwards, if you don’t love everyone, it means that you are not loving Krsna. Using the root and leaves example, if the leaves are looking healthy, it is to be understood that the root is receiving nourishment.
In SB, eleventh canto, it is explained that only the kanishta or neophyte sees Krsna in the temple, but not in the hearts of all, and fails to respect and develop loving relationships with them. In my experience, the leaves and root example has been used in our preaching to discourage against trying to develop loving relationships that are devoid of a sense of everyone’s natural attachment to the tree of Krsna, who alone can fulfill of their insatiable need for happiness forever.
But there is an important consideration which needs to be taken into account. While it is true that while ignoring the root, the leaves will suffer, one must keep in mind also the limitation of the tree example. Unlike a tree, the root is within the heart of the very leaf itself. It is not that by offering respect to Krsna in the temple, at the same time ignoring His presence in the hearts of all living entities, somehow all living entities will be satisfied. Why? Because that is not bhakti. Lord Kapiladeva in 3rd Canto SB says that such attempted worship is like pouring ghee into ashes- utterly ineffective.
Pouring water on the root means to actually offer love, otherwise one is pouring something else. Only water will work, not oil, molten lead or some other liquid. These will cause the leaves to wither. Kanishta adhikari worship of the Deity in the temple, is like pouring molten lead on the root of the tree, or perhaps old cooking oil. It is old because it has been used to cook our material desires- for exploitation of other living entities for self-aggrandizement (material).
If we are pouring actual water, or giving our bhakti to Krsna, then simultaneously, and by the exact same increments, we should see our love for every one of his parts and parcels grow. Thus, one’s heart expands. It has to- Krsna is bigger than the biggest! The universes reside within His form. Loving Him means your heart explodes with love for the whole creation.
Thus a devotee develops friendly loving relationships with all living entities.
Niscala Dasi writes in the article, “Kanishta adhikari worship of the Deity in the temple, is like pouring molten lead on the root of the tree, or perhaps old cooking oil.” This is a nonsensical analogy. Kanistha adhikari, or third-class devotion, is not pernicious. On the contrary, it is beneficial and purifying, and can eventually lead to second-class devotion.
The stage of kanishta is the stage described by Lord Kapiladeva in the 3rd Canto, SB, (3.29.21-27) wherein one offers respect to the Deity in the temple, but acts in an inimical way to other living entities.
Lord Kapiladeva says that He comes as the "blazing fire of death" to those who make the "least discrimination between living entities because of a differential outlook"
This indicates that the kanishta stage does not automatically result in evolution to the platform of madhyama. Whether one progresses or not totally depends on whether, during that stage, one commits offense to living entities. If one is carefully guided by the spiritual master, or advanced devotees, during this stage, one may avoid that pitfall and progress to the madhyama platform. Without such guidance, which is often the case due to the guru having many thousands of disciples, then there is a good chance that offences will be committed, as the kanishta has no realised knowledge of the living entity being inseparable from the Lord. He must be guided.
I rather think along the same lines as Niscala dasi when it comes to Community creation and maintenance. In Community it can appear that it is going well, it looks good. But under the facade of Community there is much that is wrong. One of those wrong symptoms is often manifested by so called "leaders" of Community. They want to be controllers of Community. And there are many expressions of that barrier to create real Community. Coming into the creation of Community can be bring in with it so many misconceptions and prejudices with it. So the idea for a leader coming to belong to Community is that they must empty themselves, they have to offload all the expectations, preconceptions, prejudices, ideology, Theology, the need to heal , convert, fix or solve, and the biggest problem Leaders have is the need to Control . Very neophyte devotees have this penchant to control, to control everything. The need to control is borne from the idea of failure for many devotees. For leaders this is magnified because they believe a leader is by nature a controller. But authoritarian controllers dont make a Community, in fact they hinder community building. So the first idea when it comes to Community building is to empty yourselves of all these barriers to Community, otherwise all you wind up with is a group of people in a false community. We see it all the time especially in Religious people trying to be Community, but it is because they have not let go and emptied themselves that Community is always a failure. Community is made up of leaders, not controllers. Community is built on the foundational rocks of transparency. Otherwise it will always fail, which is the fear for leaders.