The Caller and the Called

Why do some hear it (the call of the flute) and see him. others not? We are thrown back on two alternatives: Krishna’s Grace calls whom it wills to call without any determining reason for the choice of the rejection. it is all his mercy or his withholding or at least delaying of his mercy, or else he calls the hearts that are ready to vibrate and leap up at his call - and even there he waits till the moment has come. To say that it does not depend on outward merit or appearance of fitness is no doubt true: the something that was ready to wake in spite, it may be, of many hard layers in which it was enclosed, may be something visible to Krishna and not to us. It was there perhaps long before the flute began to play. but Krishna was busy melting the hard layers so that the heart in its leap might not be pressed back by them when the awakening notes came. The Gopis heard and rushed out into the forest. the others did not-or did they think it was only some rustic music or some rude cowherd-lover fluting to his sweetheart: not a call that learned and cultured or virtuous ears could recognize as the call of the Divine? There is something to be said alter all for the adhikari-bheda. But, of course, it must be understood in the large sense: some may have the adhikara for recognizing Krishna’s flute, some for the call of Christ, some for the dance of Shiva-to each his own way and his nature’s answer to the Divine Call. Adhikara cannot be stated in rigid mental terms: it is something spiritual and subtle, something mystic and secret between the called and the Caller.