Why we have to make God as our center of attraction?
Fraternity in human society develops gradually – from love for self to love for family; from love for family to love for the community; from love for the community to love for the nation, and from love for the nation to love for the international community. And in this gradual process, there is always a center of attraction that helps our love progress and develops from one stage to another. We do not know, however, that in this constant struggle for fraternal development the ultimate center of attraction is neither the family, the community, nor the nation, nor even the international community, but the all-pervading Godhead, Vishnu. This ignorance is due to the material curtain, the illusory energy of the Absolute Truth. The great devotee Prahlada Maharaja confirms that people, in general, do not know that their ultimate center of attraction is Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And in the Vishnu category, Sri Krishna is the Supreme attraction.
To understand a little better the principles involved, we can look at the mundane relationships around us. For example, the husband of our sister, who may have been unknown to us before he married her, nonetheless becomes our brother-in-law – simply by virtue of the shared central relationship with her. And thanks to that shared central relationship, this previously unknown man’s sons and daughters become our nephews and nieces. Again, all these loving relationships center upon our sister. In this case, our sister has become the center of attraction.
Similarly, if we make our country the center of attraction, we designate ourselves with some limiting and divisive national label, such as “Bengali”, “Punjabi”, or “English”. Or, when we profess a particular faith or religion and make this the center of attraction, again we designate ourselves with some sectarian label, such as “Hindu”, “Muslim”, or “Christian”. Thus we have chosen a center of attraction that many others cannot share with us – because, for them, our center of attraction is not all-attractive. Our relationship with one another can be perfected only when we make our center of attraction Krishna, the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. Constitutionally, we are all eternally related to Krishna, who is the original living being and thus the center of all attraction. So what we need to do is to revive this relationship, which has merged into oblivion because the covering process of Maya, the illusory energy, has fostered temporary forgetfulness. Therefore to begin the rehabilitation of our eternal relationship with Krishna, we should adopt karma-yoga, the first step to such transcendental realization.
Source: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (2012 edition), “Message of Godhead”, Page 42 & 43
