WSHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) sent an uplifting message in celebration of Sri Krishna Janmashtami, saying that “we should consider what we can do that would be most pleasing to Him.”
“The Supreme Lord is the owner and controller of everything. There is nothing that He is lacking. He doesn’t need anything from us. But there is one thing that He wants from us. Our love. This is the one thing we have to offer that makes Krishna very happy,” Rep. Gabbard said in statement. “But our love can only be offered as an expression of free will. Love can’t be taken or forced. That’s not the nature of love.”
She said Krishna appeared on this planet in His original form 5,000 years ago and came for many reasons.
“He came so we could come to know of the absolute reality of His existence. He came to display His wonderful pastimes and loving exchanges with His devotees. He came to speak the Bhagavad-gita, which is His personal and direct instructions to each of us,” said Rep. Gabbard. “And as we hear about Sri Krishna, and His wonderful pastimes, and become more attracted to Him, something wonderful happens. The love that we begin to experience for the Supreme Lord attracts Him to us. And He begins to reveal Himself to us more and more. This is the ultimate truth that Sri Krishna reveals to us in the Bhagavad-gita.”
Earlier this year, Rep. Gabbard took her oath of office in the US House of Representatives on the Bhagavad Gita again, and said how the Bhagavad Gita continues to serve as an inspiration in her life.
Rep. Gabbard spent her life growing up in Hawai‘i. As a teenager, she co-founded an environmental non-profit called Healthy Hawai’i Coalition, focused on educating children about protecting Hawaii’s environment, according to her official biography.
An advocate for environmental policy, Rep. Gabbard was elected to the Hawai‘i State Legislature in 2002 when she was just 21 years old, becoming the youngest person ever elected in the state. A year later, she joined the Hawai‘i Army National Guard to serve Hawai‘i and our country. In 2004, Tulsi volunteered to deploy with her fellow soldiers, becoming the first state official to voluntarily step down from public office to serve in a war zone.
In 2012, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving Hawaii’s 2nd District. She is one of the first two female combat veterans to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, and also its first Hindu member.
