Empowered by His Glance

According to the Vedic sastras, a pure devotee can impart Krishna consciousness to others through his words, his good wishes, and by his glance.  “Simply by seeing such empowered individuals, people from different villages would become like them by the mercy of their glance.”  (Cc. Madhya 7.104)

In the confidential exchanges between Radha and Krishna, much is accomplished by the lover’s glances.  The gopis are thrilled to receive the direct or side-long glance of Sri Krishna, and Lord Krishna is especially anxious to receive the glance of Srimati Radharani.  One time while Krishna was searching for Radharani in the groves of Vrindavana, He spoke in this way to a female deer: “O doe, the walking young vine that is the beautiful girl Radha must have passed through this forest because, O friend, I see you have accepted Me as your guru and taken initiation from Her in the art of playful, sweet restless glances.”  (Lalita-Madhava, Act 9.62)

In the loving exchanges between the spiritual master and disciple, Srila Prabhupada’s glances were certainly treasured by his devotees.

I doubt that we fully understand how much those glances went into us and how they stayed with us.  The Krishna conscious siddhanta asserts that words are able to convey the Absolute Truth, yet we also think that there are certain things which cannot be conveyed fully in words: for example, what it feels like to receive Prabhupada’s glance.

Sometimes the glances were loving, and sometimes they reprimanded.  If King Mucukunda could reduce a person to fiery ashes just by his gaze, Krishna’s pure devotee could “knock over” a misbehaving disciple.

Srila Prabhupada’s looks clued us in on his emotions.  His eyes sparkled with humor.  Tears came to his eyes while talking about the cruelty of cow slaughter.  Sometimes, though, his glance excluded us.  In a memoir by a Zen student about her guru, she said that when you looked into his eyes you saw “total zero for 10,000 miles.”  Prabhupada never conveyed blank to us, but his gaze did convince us that he was experiencing something we could not.  Prabhupada would glance at a painting or Indian print in his room and say, “Here is Krishna.”  Yet when we looked at that picture of Lord Krishna, so many relative thoughts and impressions registered in our hearts and minds.  We knew that Prabhupada saw Him differently.  We saw the difference when we looked into his eyes.

In Raghunatha dasa Gosvami’s Sri Stavavali, one of the poems ends with the refrain, “When will Saci’s son again walk on the pathway of my eyes?”  We pray to know when we may be able to see Prabhupada – and when he will again bestow his glance upon us.