Unknown thief

The Unknown Thief

Thieves and robbers do not want to be be known as thieves and robbers, do they?  Once caught, they are called criminals.  Punishment follows. And their thievery has to stop while they are in prison.  As far as possible, thieves try to evade capture. They may be able to continue as thieves for a while, but if they repeat their activities, they will one day be captured.

In contrast, there is a very clever Thief.  He cannot be captured. Yes, He got captured in His childhood for stealing butter, curds, and milk several times.  But those actions were forgotten as a little child's mischievous exploits.  When that Little Thief came of age, He changed His strategy completely. He continued His stealing without giving anyone a chance to collect evidence. -- the stolen property.  He is still continuing it. How? Let me try to describe.

The butter thief stole the hearts of folks around Him while stealing milk products.  They knew that He was stealing milk and butter and curds, but they did not know that He was also capturing their hearts and minds.  To grasp it, they needed to have minds to understand, didn't they?

The butter thief grew up.  He pretended to be a serious young man and so stopped stealing milk, butter and curds.  Once for a short time He stole the clothes of some women and hid them away.  Without much delay, He returned the clothes to the women.  But their hearts that He had stolen were never given back to them by Him. They did not know it.  The poor women's hearts searched around for ever for the Butter Thief.

So our apple of the eye,  KaNNan,  is an eternal thief who steals the hearts of those who love Him, never returning those hearts voluntarily, and never allowing to be captured with the stolen property. Are subtle entities like our minds and thoughts similar to butter and milk?  We cannot see or know when KaNNan steals them and runs away and disappears.  Let alone capturing Him with the stolen property in His hands. Impossible.

Once our hearts are stolen, we can be aware of only one thing:  A power, a force that gives us immense tranquility, is attracting us toward Kr^shNa.  The root meaning of the word Kr^shNa is:   what attracts us is Kr^shNa (karshati iti Kr^shNa) and He makes that derivation meaningful by drawing us toward Him.  Simultaneously, He gives us various experiences to "till" our hearts (krish = to prepare the land for cultivation). That master thief knows very well that He can bring along those who love Him only if He steals their hearts and minds.

We say that Kr^shNa steals our hearts. Let us see now what He has to say because everything has a second side.  You know what Kr^shNa says about those who adore Him?  To understand it, the words He once spoke to MahaRshi duRvAsA will help.  Here are those words:

ahaṁ bhakta-pārādhīnō hyasvātantra iva dvija  /

sādhubhirgrasta-hr̥dayō bhakttair  bhakta-jana-priya: //

O, Brahamana Sage!  I am the slave of my devotees, and as such I am non-free.  I am a lover of my devotees and My heart has been captured by them.

Adding  to it, BhagavAn continued:

"I do not love Myself or even my never inseparable MahAlakshmi more than I love my devotees.  My heart is My devotees.  And I am the heart of My devotees.  They do not know anything that is separate from Me."

What does that mean?  BhagavAn steals the hearts of those who love Him.  And what about them?  They steal BhagavAn completely and ties Him up to their hearts using the rope of love.

Now we have landed in real confusion!  Who is the real thief -- the devotee or BhagavAn?  Who knows?  Let us ask KaNNan:  O, Kr^shNa,  If You return our hearts and minds, we can try to understand what is happening.  Now all is full Maayaa.  All is nclear.  O,  KaNNa, stop Your magic tricks and trickery and free us from this circle of delusion!

vrajē vasantaṁ navanīta-chōraṁ 

vrajāmganānāṁ cha dukūla-chōraṁ /

anēkajanmārjita-pāpachōraṁ 

chōrāgra-gaṇyaṁ tamahaṁ bhajāmi //

I worship You, the Supreme Thief,  who lives in Vrajam, steals butter, steals the clothes of the Vraja women,  steals the sins of devotees accumulated though many lives.

My unending millions of namaskAram-s  to that Supreme Thief !