Aisvarya and Madhurya in Krsna-lila
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2021
Chapters
Namah Vishnu-padaya Krishna-presthaya bhutale srimati Bhaktivedantasvami iti namaste sarasvate devi gaura-vani-pracharine nirvishesha-shunyavadi-paschatya-desa-tarine vancha-kalpatarubhyash ca कृपा-सिन्धुभ्य एव च पतितानां पावनेभ्यो वैष्णवेभ्यो नमो नमः
Jaya Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya om namo bhagavate vasudevaya om namo bhagavate vasudevaya namo narayanaya namas te narayanaya santo diyan Hare Krishna.
Uniqueness of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy
I'm also very happy to be with all of you this morning, this Sunday morning, which is quite early here in Moscow, and which is not so early in India. And yes, it's a great honor for me to speak in front of all of you.
And I have chosen this topic Aishvarya and Madhurya in Krishna's līlā because this vichāra, this consideration, this concept is a specialty of our sampradaya.
There are different schools of bhakti and they present their concept of devotion and they all propound that there is one Supreme Lord, and his name is Krishna or Vishnu. They all agree with this.
And the ultimate goal of life is to attain intimate relationship with the Supreme Lords through the process of bhakti. And the process of bhakti is the method of liberation from the shackles of material world.
This is more or less the common basis or common foundation of all the bhakti schools. And sometimes different Bhakti schools they stress devotion to Lord Ram or devotion to Lord Vishnu in his Narayana form,
or sometimes in the devotion to Lord Krishna, but ultimately they don't single out Krishna as the supreme object
of devotion, Gaudiya Sampradaya is special in this regard, and we all know that the foundation of Gaudiya Sampradaya is Krishna tu bhagavān svayam statement or sutra.
That's the sutra from the third chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the key to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
All Vaishnava sampradayas, all bhakti sampradayas, they revere Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as a very elevated scripture which propounds this notion or this idea that there is one Supreme Lord and we all should worship this Supreme Lord and sometimes indifference
and pradeshas they call the Supreme Lord Paramātmā who is playing as Boy in Vrindavan as is explained in
the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But our sampradaya is special in this regard because they say that the key to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is this Krishna's to Bhagavan Swayam verse?
All other manifestations of the Lord, including Lord Nārāyaṇa, including Mahā-Viṣṇu laying on the Ananta Śeṣa. They are either Amsa or Kala. They are either the parts of the Lord or parts of the parts of the parts of the Lord.
This is not the full manifestation of the Lord.
Krishna as the fullest manifestation of Godhead
The full manifestation of the Lord is Krishna. And why Krishna is the fullest manifestation of the Lord?
Why Krishna is the most amazing manifestation of the Lord because He not only manifests Ishwarya or His lordiness, His majestic feature to the fullest extent.
According to the conception of Gaudiya Sampradaya, he is the Supreme Lord because he manifests Ashwarya in the fullest possible extent, but not only ashvarya, Madhury, his sweetness totally covers his ashvarya.
So he is the Supreme Lord because He is the fullest manifestation of the Lord, because not any other manifestation of the Lord, not any other avatar of the Lord manifest both Aishwari and Maithuria to the same extent as Krishna.
So that's again the key for us to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to really understand what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wants to tell us,
and therefore that's the concept that's the Sambanda gyana, we are actually connected with Lord Krishna. We are not connected with Lord Narayan. We are not really connected.
Definitely, we are not connected with Maha Vishnu or any other manifestation of Vishnu within this material universe.
Because three manifestations of Vishnu, Karan Dakashaya Vishnu, Garbha Dakashai Vishnu and Ksiradakashay Vishnu as paramatmas in this material world, they are features of this material world.
They're maintaining this material world, and jivas in this material world have no real connection with Vishnu. That's again very special for our sampradaya. Because nowhere else you will hear this.
But Paramatma feature is specific to this material world. It's the mechanism by which Krishna, the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, maintains this material world.
He accepts these avataras, these three paramatma features Karandakashaya Vishnu, Garbada Kashaya Vishnu, and Ksiri Dakashay Vishnu to maintain this material world.
But Jiva being spiritual has nothing to do with this material world.
And because it has nothing to do with this material world, we're not really intimately connected with this feature of the Supreme Lord for this material world. Connected with this material world.
Our ultimate connection is with the completely spiritual manifestation of the Lord, which is again according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, not according to our conception.
Definitely according to Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Sūta Gosvāmī is Lord Krishna Himself. So And in the context of this understanding of this very important tool
by which we explain the meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and all the consequences for us which follow from this meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Distinction between Yogamaya and Mahamaya
From this the concept of yogamāyā and mādhurya and aiśvarya comes upfront. So again, talking about the specialty of our sampradaya, we will see this concept of yogamāyā.
Nowhere else, none other sampradāya speaks about yogamāyā as opposed to mahāmāyā or avidyā, śakti of the Lord. Everywhere in the philosophical conception of the Bhakti Sampradāya we talk about māyā.
But But there is no special attribution of a special feature of Lord's māyā as yogamāyā. Krishna himself says, nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga- māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. He in Bhagavad-gītā speaks about yogamāyā.
And different Acharyas, different philosophers, they differently explain why Krishna calls his māyā yogamāyā. All of a sudden, he calls his māyā yogamāyā.
And Śaṅkarācārya, while commenting on this verse from the seventh chapter of Bhagavad- gītā, he says, Why it is called yogamāyā? Because yoga means union.
And because this māyā connects tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa and sattva-guṇa together. It's called yogamāyā. It's just the māyā which mixes these three modes of material nature. Therefore, Krishna calls it yogamāyā.
And he is covered by this yogamāyā. Okay, fine. It's a good explanation. But what Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains is much much deeper.
He says, yes, indeed, this mahāmāyā consists of three modes of material nature, but this is not yet the reason to call it yogamāyā. There is a special significance to call internal energy of the Lord which ultimately covers his real nature from the people of this sorry, from the from the souls in the spiritual dimension.
There is much more important reason to call it Yoga Maya. Of course, when we're talking about the covering of the consciousness of material people, material conditioned souls, then we're talking about Mahamaya.
But Yoga Maya is a special energy of the Lord, which facilitates the closeness of the Lord with the soul. Why is it called Yogamaya? Because it brings about this close connection between the soul and the Lord.
How Yogamaya facilitates spiritual intimacy
That's why it's called Yoga-maya. If we look from an impartial point of view at the Lord, the Lord is so great and we are so tiny. The Lord is aṇu and He is vibhu. He is unlimited and we are infinitesimal.
These are the two features of the absolute which makes the absolute whole, you know, the absolutely great feature of the Lord, unlimited feature of the Lord, and totally insignificant feature of the Lord.
How the insignificant feature of the Lord can be closely connected with His greatest feature. How there can be intimate connection between the two.
We know that even in this material world, if somebody is very powerful, it's very difficult to come close to him. It's very difficult to relate with him in a normal manner.
When we come close to somebody who is very great, we naturally feel some trembling. You know, if you go to Prime Minister of India, naturally you will become very nervous.
And this nervousness, uh uh this awe and reverence in front of him really deprives the intimacy in the relationship. You cannot just go to Narendra Modi and say, Narendra, how are you today?
Let's let's do some fun together. You know, no, you will you will say, yeah, mahodaya, oh great soul.
You know, this natural awe, naturally being full of awe and reverence you will approach him and naturally this meeting with Narendra Modi will be very formal.
It will not bring really happiness to neither you or to Narendra Modi. Because what brings happiness to our heart is this feeling of intimacy. You know, you cannot come to Narendra Modi and embrace him. You know, his secretary will just explode,
you know. You will be driven out from his office because you cannot behave yourself properly. And the main disadvantage of being great, you know, Krishna as God has this great disadvantage.
His great disadvantage is that he is so great. And because he is so great, he cannot be really treated as somebody with intimacy.
And as we know, he is Rasovai Saha, he is rasa, it means that he is craving for the enjoyment. And enjoyment is only coming, even in this material world we know this, enjoyment is only coming from the intimacy.
It's not coming from the formalities. You know, if you behave in a formal way with other people you just you become very dry and other people also become dry. The formalities don't bring joy to you.
Sometimes in our temples also there is a great deal of formalities. I'm a senior devotee, I'm even more senior devotee, and I'm a sannyāsī, and I'm a guru, and you know, everyone is full of awe and reverence.
And this is a bhakta. But ultimately it doesn't bring you any joy. The joy is that when you sit together, eat together, joke together, and embrace each other. So, but we know that Krishna's energy is absolutely amazing.
The definition of Krishna's energy is that it's Agatha Nagatana Patiyasi, Shakti. That's the Sanskrit phrase which defines Krishna's energy. Krishna's energy can make impossible possible.
Agatana Gatana Pasita Patyasi Shakti. That's the definition of Krishna's energy. So Krishna's energy can make the intimacy between the infinitesimal soul and unlimited God possible.
And when Krishna's energy facilitates this intimacy between the unlimited God and very small tiny living entity, it's called Yoga Maya.
Yoga Maya, and that's Maya, that's illusion in one sense, because Krishna never loses his greatness. But Yoga Maya is greater than God. God is the greatest.
But according to Sri Chaitanya Mahabrabhu's conception, Yoga Maya or his internal energy is even greater than the Lord. Because Yoga Maya can cover the knowledge of the Lord about his greatness and facilitate his intimacy, his closeness with the infinitesimal tiny, small little individual souls.
To cover somebody, you have to be greater than somebody you cover. If you are even little smaller than somebody you cover, then it's not really called covering.
Therefore, according to Gaudiya Vaishnava ācāryas, the energy of the Lord is greater than the Lord, but it doesn't diminish his greatness because it's his energy.
He agrees to be covered by this energy, and in this way, the sweetness is possible.
So this is very, very important, and nowhere else you will find this fine analysis: how Yoga Maya covers the consciousness of the Supreme Lord, his understanding that he is the Supreme and how this Yoga Maya
Importance of developing possessiveness towards Krishna
covers the consciousness of the tiny living entities. And gives the knowledge that they are intimately connected with the Supreme Lord.
Why it is so important to understand for us, because to develop love for the Lord we need to develop first and foremost one feature which is Mamatha. Minness. He is mine. Mamatha Prema Sangata.
That's the definition of prema. Prema happens only when you have this possessiveness of the Supreme Lord. He is mine. He belongs to me.
You know when this feeling of mindness is not there, when the living entity does not really develop this feeling that he belongs to me, or at least I belong to him, then there is no question of love.
We know that when the mother comes to a school, you know, there are so many children playing around, running around, but she only has love to her own son. Why to her own son?
Because it's her own son because she has this feeling of Mamata, he's mine. You know, there are so many cute boys. And some of the boys may be even much better.
They may be even much better, more gentle. before they are more gentle. But mås son kan bli very rude and kan bli ugly. Still, she loves him, not other sons. Why? Because of this mamata.
And this mamata, this feeling that Lord belongs to me, and I belong to the Lord is only possible due to this influence of yoga-māyā. Ultimately, this experience of love which we want to achieve — That's our goal.
We know, premā pum-arthō mahān. This experience of love which is the goal of our endeavors and our practice is only possible when we develop mamata.
And mamata is only possible when we come under the influence of yoga- māyā.
And when we follow the footsteps of those souls, those great souls who are under the influence of yoga-māyā, that is the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana.
Chanting with a sense of belonging
And ultimately, when does it start? It actually starts from day one. When you enroll to bhakti program in a temple, or when you come to ISKCON temple and somebody tells you, you please chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra.
The main feature of the proper chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra is you should feel with this sense of belonging to the Lord, that He is mine. Who is this Kṛṣṇa?
Kṛṣṇa is not just some great supreme Lord who is far away and who has nothing to do with me. You know, from the day one, we have to have this notion or this understanding, He is mine. Only when this chanting
will be there, there will be offenseless chanting. The tenth offense of the chanting of the holy name is that a-haṁ mamēti paramō when you feel that "I and mine" is the Supreme. Great.
So unless we understand that the Lord is mine and I'm chanting the name of somebody who is mine who is very closely connected to me. There is no question of offenseless chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra.
So from the very beginning, this notion that the Lord is — that I'm ultimately and intimately connected with the Lord and I'm His and His mind should be there and it should be infused in our chanting.
And if this conception is there, then the Yoga Maya will start gradually giving us the shelter.
The whole path of Gaudiya Vaishnavas is to come from the influence of Mahamaya, which covers our knowledge and infuses in us this feeling of independence, feeling of separateness from
the Lord, this pṛthak-bhāva that I am separate from the Lord. So we should come from the influence, from under the influence
of Mahamaya to the influence of Yoga-maya. And this influence of Yoga-maya only starts when this notion or this understanding is very firmly established within our mind and within our heart, I belong to the Lord.
I have nothing to do with this material world. If we still feel that something in this material world is important, if we still feel that my career, my money, you know my whatever, whatever my which can be here my you know
two-bedroom flat in Bangalore or whatever concept of mind is there, if we still attach to this iron mind, aham mameti, this is the most important, this is of the paramount importance for myself.
We will never chant the holy name with feeling. Only when we understand who is mine, the Lord is mine, and I am his. Who is I? I belong to the Lord. And the Lord belongs to me.
Only with this feeling will we be able to chant properly. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare.
Overview of Srimad-Bhagavatam Tenth Canto Chapter 26
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So this yoga-maya is amazing and ultimately what I want to do today, I want to read a few verses from the 26th chapter of the
10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is called Wonderful Krishna. And these verses from this 10th Canto from the 26th chapter explain the amazing feature of the sweetness of the Lord,
Maya, will not diminish in the minds of Vrajabasis, Maya, will not diminish in the minds of Brijebasis, even though they know that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. How this experience of the sweetness of the Lord
completely covers his aiśvarya and does not really interfere with their feelings of intimacy. Because ultimately, according to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Rūpa Gaswami we have to follow on the footsteps of the Brijabasis.
When it comes to reading of Srimad Bhagavatam or chanting the holy name, we have to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as if we are the inhabitants of Vraj. Not even from the you know we shouldn't treat Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as if
we are inhabitants of Mathurā. Not even from the point of view of Mathurā Dvārakā, what to speak of Bangalore. We are not really inhabitants of Bangalore.
If we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from this vantage point of view, we will not understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly. We will not really experience the feelings which are there in the Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam.
To experience all the feelings, we should read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the inhabitants of Vraj because ultimately we belong to Vraj.
We should hear the story of Prahlāda Mahārāja and Nṛsiṁhadeva in the same way as the inhabitants of Gokula Vṛndāvana hear this story, not as the inhabitants of this material world.
And therefore, we should know how they relate to Krishna. And this particular chapter of the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains this very beautifully. So without too much more, I would like to
read with you the first verse of the 26th
Analysis of Srimad-Bhagavatam verse 10.26.1
chapter of the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Purport, which is the translation of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's purport to this verse, and then we will continue with our discussion. Sri Sukha Uvatya. Yes.
Evam vidhani karmani goph Krishnasya Viksyate, Atad virya vidak pročuk, praučuk. Sam beeta. So Śrī Śuka Vācā Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said. Every word in this verse and in every other verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is so important.
Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda translated every word of this for our understanding. Evam Vidhani in this way like this in this manner
Karmani activities Gopaḥ the cowherd men Kṛṣṇasya of Lord Krishna. Vīkṣya seeing te Atad vīrya vidah, unable to understand His power.
Procuḥ, praūcuḥ, they spoke. Pra ūcuḥ means very excitedly they spoke. They couldn't stop speaking.
Actually, one of the commentators of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Harikeśa Prabhu, the famous inhabitant of Nasik, he says that the real meaning of this chapter is
not to explain how the Brejabasis had some doubts about the Supreme Lord, whether he is about Krishna, whether he is Lord or not.
But the main meaning of this chapter is to teach us how to speak about the Krishna non-stop. How we should continuously without any break to speak about Lord Krishna.
And therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī says pṛcchantaḥ, pṛcchantaḥ, very excitedly and with a lot of feelings, they started speaking among each other, they gathered together. Sama Bhya. Approaching Nanda Mahārāja.
Approaching sambhramāt means they came to Nanda Mahārāja. Su-vismitāḥ, very astonished. Translation.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: The cowherd men were astonished when they saw Krishna's activities such as lifting Govardhana Hill, unable to understand His transcendental potency, a-tattva-vīrya-vidaḥ. They approached Nanda Maraja and spoke as follows.
Purport.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this verse as follows. During Lord Krishna's pastime of lifting Śrī Govardhana Hill, the cowherd men simply enjoyed the spiritual bliss of the Lord's activities without analyzing them.
But afterwards, when they had returned to their homes, perplexity arose within their hearts.
Thus they thought: Now we have directly seen child Krishna lift Govardhana Hill, and we remember how He killed Pūtanā and other demons, extinguished the forest fire, and so on.
At the time we thought that this extraordinary acts occurred because of the benediction from brāhmaṇas or because of Nanda Maharaja's great fortune, or that perhaps this boy had achievedкта the mercy of Lord Nārāyaṇa and thus empowered by him.
But all these presumptions are false because an ordinary seven-year-old boy could never hold up the king of the mountains for seven whole days. Krishna is not a human being. He must be the Supreme Lord Himself.
But on the other hand, child Krishna laughs when we coddle him. And he becomes morose when we, his uncles and well-wishers, simply worldly cowherd men, do not give him attention.
He appears to become hungry and thirsty, steals yogurt and milk, sometimes plays tricks, tells lies, chatters childlessly, and tends the cuffs. If he is actually the Supreme Lord, why would He do these things?
Don't they indicate that he is an ordinary human child? We are totally unable to establish the truth of his identity.
Therefore, let us go and inquire from the highly intelligent king of Vraja, Nanda Mahārāja, and he shall free us from our doubts.
According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the cowherd men thus made up their minds and then they entered Nanda Mahārāja's great assembly hall and questioned him as described in the following verse.
Okay, so that's the beautiful verse and even more beautiful
Intoxicating effect of Krishna's beauty
explanation given by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, which in gist explains the whole chapter. You know the most amazing feature of yoga-māyā is that when there is a meeting between Krishna and the inhabitants
of Vṛndāvana, footsteps of whom we want to follow, when they directly see Krishna, they are completely enamored by his beauty and by his sweetness and they're so much enamored by this by his sweetness
that even the shadow of a thought that he is the Supreme Lord does not come to their mind. He is mine, he's my son, he is my friend, he is my master, he is my beloved, he is Krishna, he is ours.
And they don't want to think that he is the Supreme Lord. They're so much in love with him. His beauty is so powerful that they cannot think about anything else, they're only drinking his beauty.
And his beauty is so intoxicating, it's actually the effect of his beauty. His beauty completely bewilders them and intoxicates them. You know, the beauty of Krishna is the most powerful drug.
Like in this material world people they are you know they're into drugs. They want to take some special drugs to be put into some illusory happiness of this world.
But the most powerful drug, and you know there are so many different drugs, and heroin is supposed to be the most powerful. But it's not true. The most powerful drug is Krishna's beauty.
And if you taste this drug, you're finished. It's like you know, if people take very powerful drugs,
their material life is totally ruined and finished. So in the same way, if you taste even a little bit, little little fraction of Krishna's sweetness and Krishna's beauty. That's it.
You are dead for this material world. Your material life is finished. No way. You know, you cannot really be a normally functioning member of this society.
You may pretend to be so, you know, but your addiction will be completely from inside, making you always longing for this supreme sweetness or supreme experience which is there.
In the same way, the Vraja-vasis they were so intoxicated by Krishna's sweetness and Krishna's beauty that during seven days they were drinking his beauty and they forgot that they have to eat and drink.
You never see the description. Śukadeva Gosvāmī doesn't say that, you know, for seven days they were camping under Govardhana Hill and they were, you know, gathering all the utensils and started cooking something. No.
Krishna felt completely happy by absorbing or by taking their love, the love of inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana they forgot about everything.
They forgot that they have to drink, they they they forgot that they have to eat. You know it's just the it's it's like this like people who are addicted to drugs. They also forget about drinking and eating
Some people they are so addicted to social media or to computer that they even forget that they have to drink and eat. You know, there is a real case in China.
One man he died in the computer, in front of the computer, he was so completely absorbed in this that he forgot that he has to eat and then he he died.
So of course, you know the difference between inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and this Chinese man is that they may not eat and drink, but because they're taking Krishna's beauty they still remain very healthy and very chubby, you know.
Nanda Mahārāja, he's very chubby. He's not a skinny man. He has a big belly. And uh so for seven days they were completely in bliss. But uh then uh on the next day actually on Navami
This Govardhana līlā started on the third day of the bright uh half of Kartik. On the first day there was this Govardhana pūjā on Pratipat, on Dvitiya there was this Yamuna what is it called?
You know Raksha Bandan this when the sisters put the special wrists to a special bands to their brothers, Bratri, what is this? Anyway, this special Raksha Bandana festival. And on the third day started the rain.
Indra became very angry, And for seven days till Navami. This rain was going on.
So on Navami day they all came out from the hill and they were so excited and they were so happy and they were embracing Krishna and they were congratulating each other that how they miraculously were saved. So nobody thought that something was wrong.
But on the tenth day, and this event takes place on Dashami of Ekadeshi. On the tenth day, they woke up with a strange feeling. This is too much.
You know, before that Krishna was doing so many miracles, and nobody thought that there is something strange.
Rationalizations of the cowherd men for miracles
And here, Viswanachakravati Thakur explains how they usually thought about these miraculous events which take place in Vrindavan. They had three very rational explanations.
The first explanation was that our Nanda Mahārāja is so pious and he is such a great pious soul that Lord Nārāyaṇa always protects his son. That's the first explanation.
We all know that if somebody is pious, then the you you know the power of dharma protects him. Dharma Rakshati Rakshitaha. This is the very important aphorism, very important sutra
from Mahābhārata. The whole meaning of Mahābhārata is that if you are pious, if you follow dharma, dharma will protect you.
Dharma Rakshati Rakshitaha, and the somebody who is really trying to protect Dharma, follow very strictly dharma in his life, then he will be protected by Dharma. So that's the first explanation.
Vrajavāsīs are very pious, and Nanda Mahārāja is most pious out of them, and they say, of course, naturally, his son is always protected because he is so dharmic. So the second explanation is even more important.
They say our Brahmanas are so good. Our Brahmanas are so powerful. They do such a powerful yagyas. Then we are all protected by their yagyas by their piety and you know they're very proud of their Brahmanas.
It's uh you know see this is all mentality of the simple inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. They're very simple, simple-hearted.
And they say, yes, our Brahmanas are so powerful that they can protect us, every one of us, from all the dangers. They have this unflinching faith in the Brahmanas.
And the third explanation is that yes, Krishna must be exceptionally lucky. He has good karma. You know. That's the way of thinking of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana.
They think, yeah, Krishna is an ordinary child, but he's of course, not really ordinary. He's very special. He has very good pious credits and he came and we are very lucky that he is here.
So for many many years, for seven years they were able to explain all the miraculous events by this rational reasoning. Starting with Putina, you know, when Krishna was six days old, you know, he killed Putina.
And they thought, okay, yes, Lord Narayan actually, you know, because Nandamarachi so is pious that happened. For so many years they were using this rationale.
But when Krishna for seven days, seven days was hold Govardhana Hill in one hand. For them it was really strange.
They probably would be much more happy if Krishna would sometimes put Govardhana Hill from the left hand to the right hand, from the pinky finger to his thumb, you know.
But they saw that's really strange, you know. know, for seven days he was holding, you know, you all know if you if you lift some heavy thing, you know, you just want to put it. For seven days non-stop.
And you know when these seven days were going on, they didn't think about it. They didn't have time to think about it. They were so enamored and so mesmerized by Krishna's
beauty, but when this all finished, they started thinking and they said, that's too much. And after going through this amazing experience that Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill.
And not only you know at Govardhana Hill, we call this Govardhana Hill because now it's a hill.
But for the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana it was not the hill. It was Girivara. It was the best of the mountains. At that time Govardhan was the highest mountain. It was one Yojanahai. 8 kilometers high. You know.
One yojan or maybe more, I don't remember. But at least one yojana high. The greatest uh mountain in the world now is uh seven something uh kilometers high. Seven plus. Govardhana was higher than this.
It was it was not It was not a joke. It really was the highest mountain. And Krishna easily lifted this highest mountain, and nobody. nobody saw that something is strange because they were totally covered
by this yoga-māyā. But in the separation from Krishna, sometimes aiśvarya comes forward.
Effects of meeting Krishna versus separation
And the explanation, the beautiful explanation which is given by our Acharyas, is that meeting in the meeting with Krishna meeting is like the moonshine.
When Krishna is there and when you see Krishna it's you know his beauty shines and it makes the darkness of this world to dissipate, but in a very gentle way, exactly like the moonshine also dissipates the darkness, but does not really show all the details of this world.
You know, we know when there is a full moon night, there is a gentle moon slide, and everything looks very romantic.
You can very clearly see there is a lot of sun, enough oh sorry, not sun, enough light to see everything, but at the same time you don't see everything. But they say that the sunshine is very fierce.
And when the sun shines, then you can see all the small details, and it it shows it in a very sharp way.
So in the same way, when the Vrajavāsīs they meet with Krishna, they feel this, you know, Krishna is Krishna Chandra. He is like the moon. He gives them knowledge. They understand. But what is this knowledge?
This knowledge is this knowledge of love.
In the same way as the full moon invokes this feeling of love in the hearts of people, in the same way when inhabitants of Vṛndāvana Vrajavāsīs they meet with Krishna, this his beauty invokes this feeling of love within their heart.
But when there is separation, separation is so strong, it's like sun. So So, when they separated with the Lord, all of a sudden they start realizing maybe Krishna is something very special.
So, in the same way, uh, in this particular scene, when Krishna went out and it specifically said that Krishna was not there. If Krishna was there in the assembly of Nanda Mahārāja, they would never say these things.
They might have thought all these strange things that maybe Krishna is the Supreme Lord in their homes.
But when they would come to to uh the assembly hall of Nanda Mahārāja and they would see Krishna they would come immediately completely forget about this.
They would say oh yeah la la la la la la Hare Krishna And they would embrace him and would s sniff or smell his head and you know give him some gifts and you know would start joking with him.
Even though they m might have had these doubts, they would never be able to express even these doubts. They will never be able to speak it loudly because they would experience the sweetness of the Lord.
But in the separation, sometimes they get this feeling. So they came with this feeling that maybe He is the Supreme Lord.
And uh and from this point of view, they started seeing all the pastimes which Krishna performed in Vṛndāvana. They started rethinking what happened in Vrindavan.
Initially, they easily explained all these events by using this rationale, these three reasons which are mentioned here.
But you know, thinking back from the point of view that Krishna for seven days and it was it was too long. All other events they were, you know, really quick and Krishna didn't really give them the chance to think more.
But here, you know, they were thinking for seven days he was holding this huge mountain. How could it happen? And they started thinking, you know, what happened uh when he was six years old, six days old.
You know they was that they started describing in all the details uh all these past times they said, you know, when Krishna was six days old, he couldn't properly even open his eyes. You know, we know when the little babies are born. They have difficulties of opening eyes, you know. They are they're always sleepy, you know. You know, it's easier for them to close the eyes. If you see these little babies, they always, you know, they are they're half asleep.
They even when they're wake, they're not really awake. So they they started remembering this past times with that much details. Actually, this detailed remembering about pastimes of Krishna means dhyana, means meditation.
If we want to meditate on Krishna, we have to remember these minute details. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains these little beautiful details. And Acharyas they explain them even more to facilitate our meditation.
If we want to develop love of God or relationship, as much as bridgebasis have relationship with the Supreme Lord, we have to remember we have not only to remember, we have to cherish all these small little details, how this pastime happened, or how that pastime happened.
So while remembering this first pastime about Putana and they said no, actually, even before that. Anyway, let me finish with this and then I will go a little back.
So while remembering this pastime with Putana, they you know this beautiful image of baby Krishna with half-closed eyes come to their mind.
And how this baby Krishna, who couldn't even stand himself without help of others, open his eyes, how this baby Krishna killed these huge demonies. And they compare it with the power of time.
You know, the power of time is so powerful, the time is so powerful that it sucks our youth without any endeavor, you know, that time doesn't really open his eyes. The time is so powerful.
So they say maybe he is the time personified. Maybe he is the Supreme Lord.
But the most amazing thing in the second verse they will say, you know, how he performed this adbhutāni karmāṇi adbhutāni vai? Karmani Atyad Bhutani vai? He performed these amazing pastimes, but how is that possible?
Because uh he was born among us who are ātmā-jugupsitam, from the point of view of his greatness, we are so low. Ātmā-jugupsitam.
Humility required to experience Krishna's sweetness
So that's the first very important feature because now we are trying to understand the feelings in the minds or in the hearts of Vrajabasis, the first thing which they say we are very low, we are very lowborn. And how he is so great.
And that that is a very important uh philosophical point which we have to understand. To really appreciate Krishna we should not be proud. The first condition to experience sweetness of Krishna is humility.
If we don't have humility, we will never be able to appreciate sweetness of Krishna. Duryodhana saw Krishna. And how did he see Krishna? Did he see his sweetness? No, no.
For him, Krishna was just somebody, you know, he didn't appreciate the sweetness of Krishna. Sometimes devotees, they have this strong idea that how I can appreciate Krishna if I never seen Krishna.
But even if you see Krishna, you will not be able to appreciate Krishna unless your heart is properly tuned. And in the first verse, the brijvasis they explain how we will be able to appreciate real sweetness of Krishna.
Only if we have humility within our heart. Anyway, so they started speaking about Putina, then they said Shakatasura. You know, when he was three months old and they even you know they say only one month old.
Actually that happened when he was three months old. He was he destroyed this huge cart. Shakat means cart, but this cart, actually this cart was not just an ordinary cart. You know if it was an ordinary cart, it may not be.
If you see in Vṛndāvana some carts they're really you know not very impressive. You know you you you touch them and they may completely break you know these carts which is still there.
But this cart, uh, the commentaries say that this cart was so huge that uh it needed six bulls to carry this cart. And not over six bulls would carry this cart. It was actually the huge truck. It was huge, like a big truck, you know.
Sometimes you see these huge trucks, you know, which are you know I don't know six meters long. So this cart was huge, and on the top of
this cart there was huge pots with ghee and with yoghurt. Heh, heh. You know like for festival cooking. They use special pots. So this pots were there on this cart. And Krishna just you know, he was three months old.
And before that he couldn't even turn on the side. He was so weak and so sweet that he was just laying on his back and it needed help of his nurse or mother to turn from one side to another.
So on this day, when he killed Shakata Sura or destroyed this cart, Krishna, for the first time in his life, he turned from one side to another side.
It was a huge festival because the maid servant of Yaśodā in the morning came to the bedroom where Krishna was sleeping, and she was amazed because Krishna himself turned onto his side. And she was so excited.
She ran to Yaśodā and she said, Krishna himself turned on the side. And Yaśodā became so excited and she said, let's make a big festival. This is a huge course to arrange a big festival.
Let's cook, let's invite everyone, let's celebrate this. Krishna was able to do this. And this little baby Krishna, who before that couldn't even turn
on the side, you know, by just touching this cart, destroyed completely the cart, and you know, all the utensils, all the huge pots, all the yogurt was spilled over all over the place.
When Vraja-vāsīs ran to this place, when Śakaṭāsura-vadha took place, you know, that there was a you know yogurt and ghee, everything was place, you know, that there was a you know yogurt and ghee, everything was spilled out.
Because uh, from all these huge pots and they said now
looking back they are again remembering all these details and they meditating on Krishna in exactly the same way how we should meditate on Krishna to develop love for him.
So you know basically they went on explaining different pastimes, then they remember about Tṛṇāvarta. And then they remember about how he was stealing butter.
And while stealing butter, they became completely puzzled because they said you know he's so naughty and so strange, he was stealing butter from everywhere, and you know and
And but at the same time he uprooted all these huge Arjuna trees.
But at the same time, you know the doubt was there as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura was saying, you know, he was so behaving in such a strange and erratic way. You know he was breaking the pots. He was so naughty.
And not only he was breaking the pots, he was breaking the pots in his own house. And his mother had to punish him. So and then they were remembering about Pralambāsura, huge demon, huge, amazing demon who was killed by
Balarāma and they all knew that Krishna facilitated this. They remembered about Kāliya, how Krishna danced on the heads of Kāliya. So they came to Nanda Mahārāja expressing these doubts.
And what did Nanda Mahārāja say? Nanda Mahārāja actually started smiling. And he said, Oh, yeah.
There is a saying that those who are cowherds they never become adult till the age of 80. They are so simple-hearted, they always like children. You know all these gopālas abīras,
they are simple-hearted people and uh and Nanda Mahārāja started smiling and saying, you know, you know, what you're saying?
Philosophical argument based on love for Krishna
Actually, the most important doubt which they had, and this is explained by our ācāryas, and the most important doubt which they have, and very solid doubt. Actually, this doubt shows how knowledgeable they were.
All these events were strange enough, but the most important doubt which inhabitants of
Vṛndāvana had when they came to Nanda Mahārāja at this particular moment of time was that somehow rather in a very strange way we love Kṛṣṇa more than our than ourselves and we love Kṛṣṇa more than our own sons. And even more than ourselves.
So basically, while saying this, they say Kṛṣṇa must be God, must be the Supreme Lord. Why? Because we love our sons and our possession because it relates to us.
We love ourselves because there is ātmā. But even more than ātmā, we love Paramātmā. That's their logic. That's their amazing, amazing philosophical logic.
That's actually the logic of Upaniṣads. What is the most dear object in our life? The most dear object of our life is our ātmā. But Paramātmā, which is the soul of our soul, is even more dear.
That's Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad. And the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, they are coming to Nanda Mahārāja and they say somehow rather in a very strange way we love Kṛṣṇa so much that we are ready to sacrifice our life for him.
If something is wrong with him, we will not think twice. We will give everything for him. Our love for him is so strong. Can you explain the cause for our love? He must be God because otherwise we cannot love him so much.
And Nanda Mahārāja of course he smiled and he said oh yeah you are just simple childish like cowherds.
You just you you just you know due to the association with the cows you know instead of brain you have some cow dung inside.
You know because we know the more we associate with somebody we become like like them we become we adopt the same qualities as them and uh I started joking with them you know uh how you can say that he is the Lord?
He cannot be the Lord. No way! You know why Lord will tell lies? Why the Lord will break pots? Why the Lord? You know, the Lord is ātmārāma. He's self-satisfied. Is Kṛṣṇa self-satisfied?
When he's hungry, you know, he starts, you know he becomes angry. You know, when uh we know sometimes even ourselves when we become really hungry, we become really irritable. We start yelling at other people.
I'm afraid that you will be very angry at me because I'm depriving you the breakfast. So and Nanda Mahārāja started arguing with the Vraja-vāsīs.
He said, you know, my child, my Lala, he becomes angry. He starts breaking something and he starts crying if I don't feed him. And how many times I have to feed him? At least 10 times a day.
Other little children they're satisfied with two, three times a day. You know, my Lala, he wants to be, he wants to eat every every time when he sees me.
He sees me and he always asks me. Give me some sweet and give me something, you know. How he can be the Supreme Lord, Supreme Lord we all know. He is self-satisfied.
He is ātmārāma, he is āpta-kāma. All his desires are fulfilled. My Lala, he has so many desires. I cannot fulfill all his desires.
I have to run the whole day and Mother Yaśodā, she is cooking all day long, you know, to satisfy his desires. How can he be the Supreme Lord? And then he started explaining them. He starts pacifying them.
That's the way of his pacification. He started saying that you know Gargamuni came and he is a great sage. And when he was explaining to me who is my son, he said, Your son is really great.
And he is Nārāyaṇa-samaḥ. He is almost like Nārāyaṇa. Basically, word by word, the verses which Gargamuni told him.
The only little editing which he makes, and it's also very interesting and very sweet in this particular chapter of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Nanda Mahārāja repeats all the verses which Garga Muni told him, but he changes, he makes little change. Garga Muni tells, your son will be like this: your
son previously was born to Vasudeva and he was born in every age, in every yuga, and he was born as black and he was born as white and he was born as yellow and he was born as red.
So he's telling this to Vrajavāsīs, but instead of saying my son, he says your son. He is actually saying that Krishna is not my son. Krishna is the son of all of you.
He is very generously sharing his possessiveness with all the Vrajavāsīs. He is our son. He's saying, not my son, not your son. He's saying our son. Our Lala, our child. And that's also very important.
That's the only little change which Nanda Mahārāja, uh, is making while uh speaking the verses which uh Gargamuni told to him.
And then he says that he is Nārāyaṇa-sama-bhūta, he is basically on the level of Narayana, and then he gives his own purport to what Garga Muni said.
It basically means, you know, literally it means Nārāyaṇa-sama-bhūta. He is Nārāyaṇa himself. He is the same as Narayana.
But how Nanda Mahārāja understands this Nārāyaṇa sama-bhūta, he says, it means that a little particle of Nārāyaṇa entered my son.
Aṁśa of Nārāyaṇa, he is there with my son, and therefore all these miraculous things are happening. Actually, he is my son.
But little particle of Nārāyaṇa entered him and when he creates, when he makes all these miracles, it's not him who is making these miracles,
it's little particle of Nārāyaṇa who is Almighty Supreme Lord creates these miracles, but He remains my son. He remains not my son. He remains our son. He is our Son. Nothing else. He is our son and nobody else.
So basically and that's what he says.
He interprets uh in a very roundabout way what Garga Muni told him, and he says, yeah, this is just, you know, he's a little āveśa. And sometimes Nārāyaṇa manifests himself, but ultimately he's my son.
So, so that's uh that's the unflinching uh love of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and all the vraja-vāsīs, when they heard this, they became pacified. They said, oh, thank God, our Krishna is not God. That was their prayer.
Actually, when they came to Nanda Mahārāja, they came in a prayerful mood. They came with this desire. Please dissipate our doubts. We have this strange doubt that Krishna is God. Please destroy this doubt, smash this doubt.
Please tell us that Krishna is not God. And when Nanda Mahārāja told them, no, Krishna is not God, just little particle of God is working through Krishna, acting through Krishna.
They became so happy, they became so pacified, they said, okay, thank God, Krishna is not God. That's the conclusion. And it is said that when after that Krishna came to the
assembly because Krishna was not there, and when Krishna came to the assembly, they thought, how can we even think that Krishna is God?
He is so sweet. He is so beautiful. And they started giving him some sweets and some little toys
because Krishna was only seven years old at that time and started embracing him and uh coddling him and uh pampering him and doing all kinds of things. So that's uh that's the sweetness uh facilitated by Yogamaya.
And Krishna himself uh he his knowledge of his godhood, or how you say this,
that he is God himself, is also covered by Yogamāyā, and without understanding this, how Yogamāyā facilitates Maya, and without understanding this, how Yoga Maya facilitates
love of inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and the Supreme Lord Himself, we will never be able to understand what is going on in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Five stages of understanding the Absolute Truth
Actually, it's very interesting and very important.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that there is one verse in the eighth in the eighth chapter of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The concluding verse of the eighth chapter of the eighth or sixth chapter of I think eight of the no six six when the Krishna showed his universal form.
Please listen very carefully because that's important. In this verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that he actually gives the path which we have to traverse.
He says that the followers of Upaniṣads they think that the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Absolute Truth is impersonal Brahman. And that's the first step of understanding who is the Supreme Lord.
He says then Sānkhya, the followers of Sānkhya. By Sānkhya he doesn't really mean Sānkhya, this you know nirīśvara Sānkhya, by you know dualistic Sānkhya.
By Sānkhya he means, uh, the same which Krishna means, uh, in Bhagavad- gītā. The second, uh, chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is called Sānkhya Yoga. And Sānkhya Yoga means the yoga of discrimination.
He says that the followers of Upaniṣads and Vedas they think that the Supreme Lord is impersonal Brahman. When they become more discriminate, when the discrimination comes to them and they become followers of Sānkhya, they understand that there is one personal God, who is behind everything.
So that's the next step. To understand that God is impersonal is the first step. The next step to understand that ultimately the highest conception of God is personal God.
That's the followers of Sānkhya according to this verse. The step number three is the followers of yoga. The followers of yoga they want to connect with the Supreme Lord through meditation.
You know, nowadays it's very popular, you know, Ramdev Baba, you know, can teach you meditation or there is this pilot Baba who goes to Samadhi, all this Baba or that Baba. They teach you meditation. What is meditation?
Meditation is to connect you with the Supersoul within your heart. To give you the vision or darśana of the Supersoul, Paramātmā within your heart. That's the followers of yoga. That's the third step.
The third understanding. The fourth understanding is the understanding of Pañcarātra. Because Sānkhya understands there is Paramātmā, Yoga teaches how to see Paramātmā, how to deal with Paramātmā.
The followers of Pañcarātra-vidhi, which is the fourth step, they worship the Lord in the form of the deity.
And the understanding, because it is said in this verse that Sattvatay, Satvata, this is the followers of Pancharatra. The followers of Pancharatra they serve the Supreme Lord in the form of the deity.
And And by saying this, going through these steps, they say there are different conceptions of the Lord. By saying, but what is the conception of Mother Yaśodā, for her, he is her son. And that's the fifth step.
You know, in our spiritual journey, we ultimately have to come to this fifth step, the highest realization of the supreme truth. Who is Krishna? Who is the Supreme Lord? He is my Son. He is my beloved.
He is my master and the very last. But he is mine. So, and we can understand the tension of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam only if we understand this verse. All the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana have this understanding.
Yes, he is the Supreme Lord. He may be the Supreme Lord. We don't care.
You know, in one of the next chapters, practically immediately after that, what happened, Krishna really tested the sweetness or steadiness of the love of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana by immediately after that showing the pastime of Varunadev.
Because, as we said, on the 10th day they expressed their doubt to Nanda Mahārāja. On the 11th day, Indra came to Vṛndāvana.
On the Kadeshi day, Indra remorsefully started crying and was offering prayers to Krishna and Krishna chastised him. On the 12th day, Nanda Mahārāja in the morning came to Varunalok.
The demonic servant of Varuna dragged Nanda Mahārāja from Yamuna to Varunalok. Immediately after that. And Krishna came to Varunalok practically immediately after this Govardhana līlā in a couple of days.
And Nanda Mahārāja saw Krishna that he is being worshipped by Varuna. And Nanda Mahārāja came back to Vṛndāvana and he said, you know, maybe you're right.
You know, here in this pastime he says, no, no, Krishna is not the Supreme Lord, it's just a little amshaw the Supreme Lord came to him.
But in a couple of days, on Dvadeshi, Nandi Maharaj came back to Vrindavan and he said, you know, maybe you were right. Maybe he is the Supreme Lord. Because Varunadev put him on a throne and was worshiping him.
And then all the inhabitants of Vrindavan on the full moon day of Kartik, they came to Krishna and they said, Krishna, come on Krishna, now we know you are the Supreme Lord. Please tell us how we can get liberation.
And Krishna showed them first the impersonal Brahman, first Goloka, then Vaikuntha, then impersonal Brahman, and then he showed them Vrindavan and they said, okay, we understand everything, we come to Vrindavan.
They actually were not impressed by impersonal Brahman, they were not impressed by Vaikuntha, they felt uneasy there. And when Krishna said, you know, your ultimate destination will be Vrindavan,
they with great relief said, okay, Krishna, very good. You are the Supreme Lord. But you are our constant friend and our best beloved child. So, and you will always remain like this.
So, therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura— That is the last thing which I will say now. Because it's already too late. He says that it's not that inhabitants of Vrindavan don't know that Krishna is the Supreme Lord.
Sometimes they do know that He is the Supreme Lord. Sometimes in certain occasions this understanding that Krishna is the Supreme Lord comes to their mind and to their heart.
But despite this knowledge coming to them, it does not really break their relationship with Krishna as their beloved son. Or as their beloved friend or as their beloved master or their beloved paramour. Despite the knowledge, they still maintain this understanding.
He is our son, he is our friend, he is all in all for us. In the same way, we may know that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. We know that Krishna is the Supreme Lord.
Concept of Madhurya-jnana in devotional service
But despite knowing that Krishna is the Supreme Lord, we still at the same time have to have this understanding that despite of being the Supreme Lord, He is very close to us. And He wants to be close to us.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura calls this madhurya-jñāna. He says that there is aiśvarya-jñāna, the knowledge that Krishna is great.
But when we speak or when we study the scriptures, when we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we also have to have jñāna knowledge. But what is this knowledge? It's a different kind of knowledge. It's Maduria Jn.
It's the knowledge of Krishna's sweetness. That's the most important. And the knowledge of Krishna's sweetness gives us experience of Krishna.
While reading Shrimad Bhagavatam, we have to understand and we have to really imbibe this conception that Krishna is so sweet. And with this knowledge of Krishna's sweetness, we will not be inhibited in front of him.
Krishna doesn't want us to be very inhibited, very you know overwhelmed by awe and reverence in front of him.
He wants us to relate to him in a very simple way as the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, even though we know He is the Supreme Lord.
You know, yes, he's standing there, he's playing the flute, you know, and but we are not afraid of him. He is our best friend and best well wisher. And in this mood we chant his holy name.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram, Ram Hari Hari. Only in this mood. Not in any other mood. We chant his holy name in this mood. And Krishna He relates to this mood.
And he reveals He can reveal His sweetness in the Holy Name accordingly. If we chant this in this mood, if we chant the Holy Name, if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra in this mood, then Kṛṣṇa will reciprocate with us.
And if we chant yes, Krishna is the Supreme Lord, let me get some favor from Him. Well that is called bugti nam or mukti nam or let's get liberation from him let's get something from him.
But no from the very beginning we should try to chant the Holy Name properly. He is the Supreme Lord, therefore, He is the center of creation. He is Parama. He is the Supreme. But how He is the Supreme?
Because why he is the Supreme? Because he is mine. He belongs to me. And because he is so close to me. And he wants me to come to Vrindavan and to stay with him eternally.
In this mood, if we chant Hare Krishna mantra, then we will become successful. Anyway, I'm really sorry for this long and uh uh yeah whatever uh keoti class uh I thought I should speak about this. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna, thank you so much Maharaj. It was uh as some dudes are commenting in the chat box that this was real breakfast.
You are mentioning in the class that for seven days, seven nights, Rajwasis under the Golden Mountain did not cook, did not uh eat anything, but they were drinking the beauty of uh Krishna.
So similarly you also made us bring the nectar of Krishna to your katha by and letting on a very important topic, very less often discussed topic.
Uh thank you Maharaj for choosing this topic and explaining it in such detail. We started from topic of Yogamaya, how Krishna agrees in so without the Yogamaya.
And then you said that if you already develop prema, then that prema is possible by developing Mamatha. Thinking that Krishna is mine. And that mamata can be achieved only by the mercy of Yogamaya. Many many other topics.
So thank you it's a worth uh this topic is worth contemplating for many many weeks. So much content you've given Maharaj. We'd like to surely contemplate on this topic and try to understand more properly this topic.
Maharaj, would you like to take any questions? Yeah, a couple of questions I can take. So there are some comments coming here. I don't hear anything. I think where is the mic? Mic setting has to be changed.
In the meantime there is a comment coming here. Sundaraksan who says please accept dandavats Maharaj, very deep and brilliantly presented mode of chanting and our connect with the Supreme Lord. Thank you so much.
Sankarshana dasa prabhu offers dandavats Maharaj, wonderful class Maharaj, he took us through time machine to the age of Vrindavan. Hare Krishna. Yes.
Questions and answers on practical devotion
Am I audible now? Yes, yes. Dandavats Maharaj, myself Banamali Govindadas from ISKCON. As we uh as you mentioned that uh feeling of Krishna as mine is very important for us to relate with him.
Sometimes I feel that feeling that mineness that Śrīla Prabhupāda is mine or a senior devotee is mine is more easier than to feel that for Krishna.
So is it a uh correct understanding or the uh feeling? Yeah you have to start somewhere. But until ultimately you have to come to this understanding that Krishna is mine.
But we we should start somewhere, yes, we start with Prabhupada, with our spiritual master. He is mine and only mine. Well, actually we have to be generous.
As I said, Nanda Mahārāja, he is very generous when he says he doesn't say Krishna is mine. He says Krishna is ours. He belongs to us all, yes. Yes, definitely.
We should start somewhere, but ultimately Śrīla Prabhupāda brings us to this point to understand Krishna is mine. Now I don't hear you again. And now is it audible, Mahul? Yes. Yes.
One more question was that uh uh any tips on balancing intimacy versus distance because we have to keep some distance with devotees, otherwise it breeds familiarity.
So it is necessary to be intimate, but at the same time, sometimes we have to keep distance. See that's the that's the art of relationship.
Relationship means you have to uh be intimate enough but at the same time uh not uh contemptuous. Uh so but uh the relationship develop.
If you properly behave, first we have to be established in this you know proper gentle mood dealing with the devotees. But the proper relationship should develop, the dynamics should be there.
You know, yes, in the beginning we should not try to be too intimate because we know it will bring contempt. Familiarity brings contempt.
But at the same time, we should not be also satisfied with this distant relationship. Based only on the etiquette.
If we think, you know, yeah, I'm behaving properly, let everyone behave properly with me, and that's it, then we're missing something very important. The dynamic in the relationship should be that yes, we become more
and more, like, you know, why Vraja-vasis can be so intimate with Krishna because they have huge you really, they're not in all in reverence, they are in complete bliss about Krishna's qualities.
They appreciate Krishna's qualities. They are appreciation of Krishna's qualities is so deep, then the intimacy does not turn into familiarity.
Our intimacy turns into familiarity only when there is no appreciation of the qualities, wonderful qualities which other devotees or Krishna have. So they can be so intimate and close to Krishna because they have such a deep appreciation of his wonderful qualities.
And you know, Duryodhana can never be close to Krishna. Krishna will never allow Duryodhana to come even close to him because Duryodhana doesn't have appreciation.
So, you know the relationship, the dynamic of relationship should be that we deepen our appreciation of devotees, and by deepening the appreciation of devotees, we can come closer to them without being familiar or contemptuous to them.
So that's what I want to say about this.
Yes, we have to keep the distance but at the same time we have to shorten our distance by trying to appreciate the qualities of devotees more and more and more without you know fault-finding mentality. That's the point.
Anybody has any question? I may ask the question Prabhuji. Yes, Sankarshana Prabhu. The fourth level, Maharaj, you indicated about establishing the relationship through Pañcarātrika-vidhi.
So as a practicing sādhaka, how can we understand this? Can you elaborate? Yeah, we start at this level.
We conceptually understand who is the Supreme Lord, and we start at this level by studying the scriptures, and especially Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we start here, and that's where the sādhana-bhakti starts. Sādhana-bhakti starts at this level.
We already, by sambandha-jñāna given to us by our ācāryas, we already passed the previous stages. We are not really interested in impersonal Brahman, we know that this is a lower conception.
We're not really interested in just theoretical understanding of Paramātmā as the source of this creation. We're not really interested in yoga because this is again a very distant understanding.
We start with this Pañcarātrika-vidhi and that's called vaidī-sādhana-bhakti.
By following vaidī, by following the rules, we purify our heart, but we have to really understand where it should bring us ultimately. It should ultimately bring us to Vṛndāvana.
So therefore it is said that till the level of niṣṭhā we follow vaidī-sādhana-bhakti. On the level of niṣṭhā, when our steadiness in worship, in chanting the holy name becomes very great, then we can feel some ruci, some taste after the stage of niṣṭhā.
And uh and this stage uh there is the point the turning point when we can really practice Raganuga Sadhana,
which is less confined by the rules and regulations, and more based on the personal relationship with the Lord, on the taste with the personal relationship. It's like this.
You know, we start from Vidi Sadhana Bhakti and by following very strictly the rules and regulations. Purify our heart. Come to the level of Nista. When we feel very humble and very tolerant.
And that's exactly where also that's why I mentioned that Bridge Basis also they have this feeling of humility within their heart.
And then after that we will be able to come to the higher stage of practice, the higher level of practice, more deep practice of devotional service. Thank you, Maharaj. Hare Krishna Maharaj, matajis.
There's actually one particular question from Siddharth Shantrabhu.
He's asking that uh Hare Krishna Maharaj, is it is it correct to think and tell in our chanting prayers that Lord I am yours, please engage me in your loving service. Is this correct Maharaj? Yes.
Is this a is this a different meaning than what is discussed here, Maharaj? Thanks for so, uh, no, it's not a different meaning. Again, this is the starting point.
Uh you know uh it is also uh Lord Ramachandra in his famous verse from Sundarakanda or is it Sundarakanda already. Yudhakanda. From Yudhakanda probably. Yeah, from Yudhakanda where he says what is this verse?
Sakrideva what is this verse? Tavasmity. Tavasmiti Sayachate Syachate, yes. I am yours. Tava I am. I am yours, O my Lord. Tavasmiti Syachate. Sakri Teva Prapanna Yah.
If somebody surrenders to me even once with this feeling I belong to you, I am yours, then I will always make him uh fearless.
Abhayam sarva-bhutebhyo dadāmy etad vrataṁ mama. This is my Vrata, Lord Ramachandra says. So that's the beginning when we come to the Lord and when surrender. That's the mood of surrender. That's the mood of Sharanagati.
And that's actually what Lord Ramachandra teaches in Rāmāyaṇa. This Rāmāyaṇa grantha is a very great scripture which teaches Saranagati, surrender.
But ultimately, according to the higher conception of Srimad Bhagavatam, at one point we have to come to the stage not only that the Lord is that I'm yours, but you're mine.
That's what the followers of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī do. And all our Acharyas, they are followers of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. She doesn't say I'm yours, she says you are mine. So this mamata goes to another level of closeness.
But we should start from this, I'm yours. We should not imitate too prematurely or too quickly. Yes. Okay, I guess that's it. It's already long enough.
Maharaj, one last thing, they're asking, is there any shastric basis for the Raksha Bandhan celebrated within India between brothers and sisters? Well, yeah, there is.
Some say that Raksha Bandhan is coming from when Draupadi took because Draupadi had this sister and brother relationship with Krishna.
So when Krishna pricked his hand and some little drop of blood was in his finger, then Draupadi, she tore her sari and she put the band in his hand. So some say that this is coming from that thing.
So, but uh, apparently it was even before that happened. You know, the Raksha Bandhan festival was there, uh, after uh, celebrating of Govardhana Puja.
So there is definitely — I'm not aware of any other, uh, episode, but it's definitely there. Thank you. Thank you very much. I hope to see you sometime soon.