If God Is Everywhere, Why Does He Cry to Meet You?
Question:
How can Omnipresent God experience separation (viraha) from His devotee? If He doesn’t feel separation, in the Bhagavad Gita (4.11), why did Shri Krishna tells Arjun, “I reciprocate the sentiments and intensity of my devotees.” This implies that when a devotee cries out of love and longing to meet God, God also feels that same love and longing. When He is everywhere how can He long to meet them and shed tears? If He is only pretending, then is His love fake?
Answer:
The answer lies in the unique nature of Divine Love. God’s love is pure and genuine; there is absolutely no pretense in it. To understand how the All-Pervading Lord can "miss" His devotee, we must understand the hierarchy of His powers.
The Power of Love vs. The Power of Majesty
God possesses infinite powers, and He controls them all. However, the most powerful among them is the Power of Love (प्रेम शक्ति • prēma śakti).
This power is unique because it is the only force that does not stay under God’s control; instead, it has the power to control God. When Love becomes prominent, it suppresses God's majesty (ऐश्वर्य • aiśvarya) and His awareness of being the Supreme Controller.
Because of this love, the Almighty "forgets" His greatness and behaves like an ordinary person—crying to get His mother Yashoda’s attention or dancing for the Gopis to get a little buttermilk. In those moments, His omniscience (knowing everything) and omnipresence (being everywhere) are covered by His personal energy, Yogamaya (योगमाया • yogamāyā), so He intensely feels the emotions of a son, a friend, or a lover.
The Evidence: Brahma's Doubt
During Shri Krishna’s descent on Earth 5,000 years ago, this dynamic was on full display. He lived as a simple cowherd boy in Braj, apparently completely unaware of His divine powers. He ate with His friends, played with them, and even fought over food.
His behavior was so natural and human-like that even Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, began to doubt Krishna’s divinity. Brahma thought, "How can this village boy, who eats leftovers from his friends' hands, be the Supreme Brahman?"
To test Him, Brahma, with his Yogmaya power abducted Krishna’s friends and cows while Krishna was resting and put them in a cave. When Krishna woke up, He understood what had happened. Using His powers, He expanded Himself to become exact replicas of the missing boys and calves.
For one entire year, life in Braj continued as usual. The mothers loved these "new" boys even more than before, not realizing they were loving Krishna directly.
The Realization
When Brahma returned after a year, he was shocked. He saw Shri Krishna still enjoying a picnic with His friends, just as he had left them. He looked at the caves where he had hidden the original boys, and they were still there. He looked at the picnic, and they were there too.
Brahma was bewildered. Then Shri Krishna graced Brahma, and he quickly realized—he had doubted the Supreme Lord because he judged Him by standards of majesty, failing to see the sweetness of His love (madhurya).
Overcome with regret, Brahma bowed at Krishna’s feet and begged for forgiveness. He praised the fortune of the cowherd boys in the following verse:
अहोभाग्यमहोभाग्यं नंदगोपब्रजौकसाम् । यन्मित्रं परमानंदं पूर्णं ब्रह्म सनातनम् ॥
aho bhāgyam aho bhāgyaṁ nanda-gopa-vrajaukasām | yan-mitraṁ paramānandaṁ pūrṇaṁ brahma sanātanam || (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.32)
"Who can sing the glories of the fortune of these cowherd boys of Braj, whose friend is the Supreme Bliss, the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Brahm Himself!"
Conclusion: The Sweetness of Equality
Brahma prayed to be reborn as a clump of grass or a creeper in Braj just to receive the dust from the feet of these devotees.
This story illustrates the answer to your question: Love grows best between equals. If Krishna always remembered, "I am the Almighty God and I am everywhere," He could never play with His friends or cry for His mother. Therefore, through Yogamaya, He voluntarily covers His majesty to establish a relationship of equality (साजात्य • sājātya) and intimacy. When He cries for His devotee, it is not a drama; it is the highest reality of Divine Love.
Devotees sacrifice their hearts to Him knowing that despite being so great, He voluntarily forgets His Godliness to genuinely become one of us for our pleasure. If this was merely pretense, who would ever love a pretender?
Further Reading and Reference
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