How can God be our Father, Son, Husband and so on?

[Dr. K. V. Prasad asked: I read one verse in a prayer that says “O God Krishna! You alone are my father and mother. You alone are my preacher and friend. You alone are my son and daughter. You alone are my husband and darling. This is very much true”. How one God can be father, son and husband?]

Swami replied: Suppose you have a large water tank and several water pipelines run from that tank to various houses. Water is flowing through all the pipelines in more or less quantities. Similarly, you have several worldly bonds like those with your father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter etc., and your love is flowing in all these bonds from your heart in more or less quantities. Suppose, you now add a very large-diameter water pipeline from the water tank to supply water to the palace of the king. The water will now flow through this large pipeline in a huge quantity and all the small pipelines connected to the various houses will run empty. Not even a drop of water will reach those houses. This large-diameter pipeline is the bond with God through which your love flows full force.

We can call this large water pipeline by the name of any of the houses. Every other water pipeline is totally empty and that single large pipeline alone carries all the water. This means that the single bond with God alone is full of love, whereas, all worldly bonds do not have even a drop of love in them. Such a situation is called the stage of single-pointed devotion or eka bhakti. You may call that single bond of yours with God by any name, such as the bond with your father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, darling or friend. It does not mean that the same water pipeline has two or more names. It only means that you have called the large pipeline by any one of the names, as per your choice since all other pipelines are empty in any case. Hence, eka bhakti means that your bond with God is the large pipeline which is full of the water of your love and it is called by the name of your choice (like father, mother etc.,). It means that all other pipelines representing other bonds are totally empty and do not carry even a drop of water. Your large pipeline of love for God possesses only one name, which is as per your liking. It does not have a second name. I hope you have understood the concept and that it removes your confusion.

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