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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Sri Krishna Janmastami: Purport to Jaya Radha-Madhava (Srila Prabhupada)

Srila Prabhupada explains the song Jaya Radha Madhava, about Krishna in Vrindavan, His original form (not an expansion or incarnation).




TRANSCRIPT

So this is the original nature of Kṛṣṇa. He is Rādhā-Mādhava. He is the lover of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. And,

kunja-bihārī,

always enjoying the company of the gopīs within the bushes of Vrndavana forest.

rādhā-mādhava kunja-bihārī
 
He's not only lover of Rādhārāṇī, but vraja-jana-vallabha. All the residents of Vṛndāvana, they love Kṛṣṇa. They do not know anything else. They do not know that Kṛṣṇa is God or not; neither they are very much harassed that "I shall love Kṛṣṇa if He is God." "He may be God or He may be whatever He is. It doesn't matter, but we love Kṛṣṇa." That's all. That is called unnalloyed love. "If Kṛṣṇa is God, then I shall love Him" — this is conditional love. This is not pure love. Kṛṣṇa may be God or whatever He may be, but by His wonderful acts, the Vrajavāsīs [the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana], they are thinking, "Oh Kṛṣṇa, He is very wonderful child, maybe some demigod." Maybe some demigod. Because people are generally under impression that the demigods are all-powerful. They're powerful within this material world. But they do not know that Kṛṣṇa is above all of them.  

Īśvaraḥ paramaḥkṛṣṇaḥ 
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ 
The highest demigod, Brahmā, is giving his opinion. "The supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." 

And as the residents of Vṛndāvana love Kṛṣṇa without any condition, similarly, Kṛṣṇa also loves them.  

vraja-jana-vallabha 
giri-vara-dhārī

When the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were in danger because they stopped Indra-yajña and Indra became very angry, and he sent a very great, powerful cloud and rained over Vṛndāvana incessantly for seven days, so when the inhabitants became very much disturbed, Kṛṣṇa, although He was only a seven years old boy, He saved them by lifting the Govardhana Hill. So He taught Indradeva, demigod, that "To stop your disturbance is the business of My little finger. That's all." So he came down to his knees. These things you'll find in the Kṛṣṇa book. 

So as the gopī-jana-vallabha, His only business is how to protect gopī-jana. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is how to become one of the gopī-jana. Then Kṛṣṇa will save us from any danger, even by lifting a hill or mountain. Kṛṣṇa is so kind and so powerful. When Kṛṣṇa lifted the hill, He did not practice some yoga system. That is God. Although He was a child, He was playing like a child, He was dealing like a child, but when there was need, He was manifesting as God. That is Kṛṣṇa. Not that He has to go and practice some yoga system, then He "becomes God". No. He's not that type of God, not manufactured God. He's God. 

gopī-jana-vallabha
giri-vara-dhārī

And as a child, as beloved child of Yaśodā, 

yaśodā-nandana,

Kṛṣṇa likes to be a child of a devotee. He wants to be chastised from His devotee father and mother. Because everyone worships Him, nobody goes to chastise Him, so He takes pleasure when a devotee chastises Him. That is Kṛṣṇa's service. If Kṛṣṇa takes pleasure in being chastised, so the responsibility is taken by a devotee: "All right, I shall become Your father and chastise You." 

When Kṛṣṇa wants to fight, one of His devotees becomes Hiraṇyakaśipu and fights with Him. So all activities of Kṛṣṇa is with His devotees. Therefore, to become associate of Kṛṣṇa, to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

yaśodā-nandana 
vraja-jana-rañjana

As the vraja-jana's business is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, similarly, Kṛṣṇa's business is how to satisfy vraja-jana. This is reciprocation of love. 

yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī'

Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is wandering on the banks of Yamunā to please the gopīs, the cowherd boys, the birds, beasts, calves. They are not ordinary birds, beasts, calves or men. They are on the top of self-realization. 

kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ 
After many, many lives they got that position, to play with Kṛṣṇa. 

So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice that everyone can go to Kṛṣṇaloka and become His associate, as a friend or so many other things, as a servant, as father, as mother. And Kṛṣṇa is agreeable to any one of these propositions. These things are described very nicely in our book The teachings of Lord Caitanya. So Kṛṣṇa does not go even a step from Vṛndāvana. The original Kṛṣṇa is Vṛndāvana. That is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasukalpa-vṛkṣa
lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam
lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambrahma-sevyamānaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ...
 

[Brahma-samhita 5.29]

Brahmā is accepting the Supreme Personality of Govinda, Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. 

veṇuṁ kvaṇantam

"He is engaged in playing flute".

...aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ
barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam
kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ
govindamādi-puruṣaṁtamahaṁbhajāmi

[
Brahma-samhita 5.30

So take advantage of these books, this knowledge, and this prasādam, this chanting, and be happy and go to Kṛṣṇa. So nice thing. 



2 comments:

  1. Let me get this straight:

    Arjuna surrendered to Krishna, while knowing that Krishna is God. That is one thing. The vrajavasis are also surrendered to Krishna, but they don't know that He is God, just a wonderful person, maybe a demigod. That is a different thing, and not recommended in the shastras:

    "Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance ... that one result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that another result is obtained by worshiping what is not supreme."
    - Sri Isopanisad

    So the vrajavasis are gambling everything, since the chance of a wonderful person actually being the Supreme Personality of Godhead is astronomically slim. If they ever reflect on this, they may consider themselves un-dharmic, but they are unknowingly following the Supreme Dharma because their beloved Krishna IS the Supreme Dharma.

    We should not try to imitate the vrajavasis directly, since we are not in touch with Krishna Himself. Instead we should follow rules and regulations until He makes Himself known to us, and we find ourselves in their situation and cannot resist Him.

    Am I on the right track here?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Bhakta To for your reflections.

    The Vrajavasis are all Vaishnavas. They worship Vishnu on the altar and decorate their foreheads with the footprint tilak of Vishnu.

    Little do they (or He Himself) know that Krishna is Vishnu himself playing about in the courtyard of Nanda Baba.

    By the grace of the pure souls of this world we have recieved a cosmological map of the creation of God where Vraja is the most sacred land, crowning Vaikuntha, the spiritual sky, like an effulgent lotus.

    Siddhanta (philosophical consclusion) and Bhava (Divine loving emotion)
    are two different worlds running parallel with eachother.
    We are not yet blessed with Bhava and thus we study Siddhanta under the guidence of those whose thinking, feeling and willing are motivated by their intense spontanious love for Krishna.

    Similar to a student studying the grammar of a language with the hope that one day to speak spontaniously.
    The neophyte student may try to fitt the poems of the masters within the stringent rules of grammar missing the subtle reality they try to indicate altogether.

    It is true that we can only wait for Krishna to reveal himself to us. The following of rules and regulations are conducive for surrender. Rejecting the favorable and accepting the unfavorable. But in itself following rules and regulations can never attract Krishna. He is only attracted by love. Krishna reveals himself and his hearts desire through his pure devotees, the Vraja dwellers of this world. Associating and serving them is the only way to one day gain entrance into the mysterious spiritual magic of Vraja.


    Simply by associating with the great Vaishnava poets, not only will you learn the grammar of the mother tongue of the soul, but your every word uttered with be perfect poetry.

    because there every word is a song and every step is a dance...

    Dont try to get it straight because love, like a snake, moves in a crooked way.

    excuse the word play :)

    yours
    Brahma samhita das

    ReplyDelete