Sri Krishna Madbhagavatam
14. Prayers Offered by Lord Brahmā to
Lord Kṛṣṇa
Brahmā said,
"My dear Lord, You are the only worshipful Supreme Lord, Personality of
Godhead; therefore I am offering my humble obeisances and prayers just to
please You. Your bodily features are of the color of clouds filled with water.
You are glittering with a silver electric aura emanating from Your yellow
garments.
"Let
me offer my respectful repeated obeisances unto the son of Mahārāja Nanda who
is standing before me with conchshell, earrings and peacock feather on His
head. His face is beautiful; He is wearing a helmet, garlanded by forest
flowers, and He stands with a morsel of food in His hand. He is decorated with
cane and bugle, and He carries a buffalo horn and flute. He stands before me
with small lotus feet.
"My
dear Lord, people may say that I am the master of all Vedic knowledge, and I am
supposed to be the creator of this universe, but it has been proved now that I
cannot understand Your personality, even though You are present before me just
like a child. You are playing with Your boy friends, calves and cows, which
might imply that You do not even have sufficient education. You are appearing
just like a village boy, carrying Your food in Your hand and searching for Your
calves. And yet there is so much difference between Your body and mine that I
cannot estimate the potency of Your body. As I have already stated in the
Brahma-saṁhitā, Your body is not material."
In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the body of the Lord is all spiritual;
there is no difference between the Lord's body and His self. Each limb of His
body can perform the actions of all the others. The Lord can see with His
hands, He can hear with His eyes, He can accept offerings with His legs and He
can create with His mouth.
Brahmā
continued: "Your appearance as a cowherd child is for the benefit of the
devotees, and although I have committed offenses at Your lotus feet by stealing
away Your cows, boys and calves, I can understand that You have mercy upon me.
That is Your transcendental quality; You are very affectionate toward Your
devotees. In spite of Your affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of
Your bodily activities. It is to be understood that when I, Lord Brahmā, the
supreme personality of this universe, cannot estimate the child-like body of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then what to speak of others? And if I
cannot estimate the spiritual potency of Your child-like body, then what can I
understand about Your transcendental pastimes? Therefore, as it is said in the
Bhagavad-gītā, anyone who can understand a little of the transcendental
pastimes, appearance and disappearance of the Lord becomes immediately eligible
to enter into the kingdom of God after quitting the material body. This
statement is also confirmed in the Vedas, and it is stated simply: by
understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can overcome the chain of
repeated birth and death. I therefore recommend that people should not try to
understand You by their speculative knowledge.
"The
best process of understanding You is to submissively give up the speculative
process and try to hear about You, either from Yourself as You have given
statements in the Bhagavad-gītā and many similar Vedic literatures, or from a
realized devotee who has taken shelter at Your lotus feet. One has to hear from
a devotee without speculation. One does not even need to change his worldly
position; he simply has to hear Your message. Although You are not
understandable by the material senses, simply by hearing about You, one can
gradually conquer the nescience of misunderstanding. By Your own grace only,
You become revealed to a devotee. You are unconquerable by any other means.
Speculative knowledge without any trace of devotional service is simply a
useless waste of time in search for You. Devotional service is so important
that even a little attempt can raise one to the highest perfectional platform.
One should not, therefore, neglect this auspicious process of devotional
service and take to the speculative method. By the speculative method one may
gain partial knowledge of Your cosmic manifestation, but it is not possible to
understand You, the origin of everything. The attempt of persons who are
interested only in speculative knowledge is simply wasted labor, like the labor
of a person who attempts to gain something by beating the empty husk of a rice
paddy. A little quantity of paddy can be husked by the grinding wheel, and one
can gain some grains of rice, but if the skin of the paddy is already beaten by
the grinding wheel, there is no further gain in beating the husk. It is simply
useless labor.The Lord is all-pervading. As it is stated by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Everything is sustained by Me, but at the same time I am not in everything." Since the Lord is all-pervading, there is nothing existing without His knowledge. The all-pervasive nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can never be within the limited knowledge of a living entity; therefore, a person who has attained steadiness of the mind by fixing the mind on the lotus feet of the Lord is able to understand the Supreme Lord to some extent. It is the business of the mind to wander over varied subject matter for sense gratification. Therefore only a person who engages the senses always in the service of the Lord can control the mind and be fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord. This concentration of the mind upon the lotus feet of the Lord is called samādhi. Until one reaches the stage of samādhi, or trance, he cannot understand the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There may be some philosophers or scientists who can study the cosmic nature from atom to atom; they may be so advanced that they can count the atomic composition of the cosmic atmosphere or all the planets and stars in the sky, or even the shining molecular parts of the sun or other stars and luminaries in the sky. But it is not possible to count the qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
As described in the beginning of Vedānta-sūtra, the Supreme Person is the origin of all qualities. He is generally called nirguṇa. Nirguṇa means without qualities. Guṇa means quality, and nir means without. But impersonalists interpret this word nirguṇa as "having no quality." Because they are unable to estimate the qualities of the Lord in transcendental realization, they conclude that the Supreme Lord has no qualities. But that is actually not the position. The real position is that He is the original source of all qualities. All qualities are emanating constantly from Him. How, therefore, can a limited person count the qualities of the Lord? One may estimate the qualities of the Lord for one moment, but the next moment the qualities are increased; so it is not possible to make an estimation of the transcendental qualities of the Lord. He is therefore called nirguṇa. His qualities cannot be estimated.
One should not
uselessly labor in mental speculation to estimate the Lord's qualities. There
is no need of adopting the speculative method or exercising the body to attain
mystic yoga perfection. One should simply understand that the distress and
happiness of this body are predestined; there is no need to try to avoid the
distress of this bodily existence or to attempt to achieve happiness by
different types of exercises. The best course is to surrender unto the Supreme
Personality of Godhead with body, mind and words and always be engaged in His
service. This transcendental labor is fruitful, but other attempts to
understand the Absolute Truth are never successful. Therefore an intelligent
man does not try to understand the Supreme Person, Absolute Truth, by
speculative or mystic power. Rather, he engages in devotional service and
depends on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He knows that whatever may
happen to the body is due to his past fruitive activities. If one lives such a
simple life in devotional service, then automatically he can inherit the
transcendental abode of the Lord. Actually, every living entity is part and
parcel of the Supreme Lord and a son of the Godhead. Each has the natural right
to inherit and share the transcendental pleasures of the Lord, but due to the
contact of matter, conditioned living entities have been practically
disinherited. If one adopts the simple method of engaging himself in devotional
service, automatically he becomes eligible to become freed from the material
contamination and elevated to the transcendental position of associating with
the Supreme Lord.
Lord Brahmā
presented himself to Lord Kṛṣṇa as the most presumptuous living
creature because he wanted to examine the wonder of His personal power. He
stole the boys and calves of the Lord in order to see how the Lord would
recover them. After his maneuver, Lord Brahmā admitted that his attempt was
most presumptuous, for he was attempting to test his energy before the person
of original energy. Coming to his senses, Lord Brahmā saw that although he was
a very powerful living creature in the estimation of all other living creatures
within this material world, in comparison to the power and energy of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, his power was nothing. The scientists of the
material world have discovered wonders such as atomic weapons, and when tested
in a city or insignificant place on this planet, such powerful weapons create
so-called havoc, but if the atomic weapons are tested on the sun, what is their
significance? They are insignificant there. Similarly, Brahmā's stealing the
calves and boys from Śrī Kṛṣṇa may be a wonderful display of mystic
power, but when Śrī Kṛṣṇa exhibited His expansive power in so
many calves and boys and maintained them without effort, Brahmā could
understand that his own power was insignificant.
Brahmā addressed
Lord Kṛṣṇa as Acyuta because the Lord is never
forgetful of a little service rendered by His devotee. He is so kind and
affectionate towards His devotees that a little service by them is accepted by
Him as a great deal. Brahmā has certainly rendered much service to the Lord. As
the supreme personality in charge of this particular universe, he is, without a
doubt, a faithful servant of Kṛṣṇa; therefore he could appease Kṛṣṇa. He asked that the Lord understand him as a subordinate servant
whose little mistake and impudence might be excused. He admitted that he was
puffed up by his powerful position as Lord Brahmā. Because he is the
qualitative incarnation of the mode of passion within this material world, this
was natural for him, and therefore he committed the mistake. But after all,
Lord Kṛṣṇa would kindly take compassion upon His
subordinate and excuse him for his gross mistake.
Lord Brahmā
realized his actual position. He is certainly the supreme teacher of this
universe, in charge of the production of material nature consisting of complete
material elements, false ego, sky, air, fire, water and earth. Such a universe
may be gigantic, but it can be measured, just as we measure our body as seven
cubits. Generally everyone's personal bodily measurement is calculated to be
seven cubits of his hand. This particular universe may appear as a very
gigantic body, but it is nothing but the measurement of seven cubits for Lord
Brahmā. Aside from this universe, there are unlimited other universes which are
outside the jurisdiction of this particular Lord Brahmā. Just as innumerable
atomic infinitesimal fragments pass through the holes of a screened window, so
millions and trillions of universes in their seedling form are coming out from
the bodily pores of Mahā-Viṣṇu, and that Mahā-Viṣṇu is but a part of the plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Under these circumstances, although Lord Brahmā is the supreme
creature within this universe, what is his importance in the presence of Lord Kṛṣṇa?
Lord Brahmā then admitted that his birth was from the lotus flower which blossomed from the navel of Nārāyaṇa after the dissolution of the three worlds, or three planetary systems, known as Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka and Svarloka. The universe is divided into three divisions, namely Svarga, Martya and Pātāla. These three planetary systems are merged into water at the time of dissolution. At that time Nārāyaṇa, the plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa, lies down on the water and gradually a lotus stem grows from His navel, and from that lotus flower, Brahmā is born. It is naturally concluded that the mother of Brahmā is Nārāyaṇa. Because the Lord is the resting place of all the living entities after the dissolution of the universe, He is called Nārāyaṇa. The word nāra means the aggregate total of all living entities, and ayana means the resting place. The form of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is called Nārāyaṇa because He rests Himself on that water. In addition, He is the resting place of all living creatures. Besides that, Nārāyaṇa is also present in everyone's heart, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. In that sense, also, He is Nārāyaṇa, as ayana means the source of knowledge as well as the resting place. It is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that remembrance of the living entity is due to the presence of the Supersoul within the heart. After changing the body, a living creature forgets everything of his past life, but because Nārāyaṇa the Supersoul is present within his heart, he is reminded by Him to act according to his past desire. Lord Brahmā wanted to prove that Kṛṣṇa is the original Nārāyaṇa, that He is the source of Nārāyaṇa, and that Nārāyaṇa is not an exhibition of the external energy, māyā, but is an expansion of spiritual energy. The activities of the external energy or māyā are exhibited after the creation of this cosmic world, and the original spiritual energy of Nārāyaṇa was acting before the creation. So the expansions of Nārāyaṇa, from Kṛṣṇa to Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu to Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and from Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu to everyone's heart, are manifestations of His spiritual energy. They are not conducted by the material energy; therefore they are not temporary. Anything conducted by the material energy is temporary, but everything executed by the spiritual energy is eternal.
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Lord Brahmā reconfirmed his statement
establishing Kṛṣṇa as the original
Nārāyaṇa. He said that the
gigantic universal body is still resting on the water known as Garbhodaka. He
spoke as follows: "This gigantic body of the universe is another
manifestation of Your energy. On account of His resting on the water, this
universal form is also Nārāyaṇa, and we are all
within the womb of this Nārāyaṇa form. I see Your
different Nārāyaṇa forms everywhere.
I can see You on the water, I can feel You within my heart, and I can also
see You before me now. You are the original Nārāyaṇa.
"My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have
proved that You are the supreme controller of māyā. You remain within the
cosmic manifestation, and yet the whole creation is within You. This fact has
already been proved by You when You exhibited the whole universal creation
within Your mouth before Your mother Yaśodā. By Your inconceivable potency of
yogamāyā, You can make such things effective without external help.
"My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, the whole cosmic manifestation
that we are visualizing at present is all within Your body. Yet I am seeing
You outside, and You are also seeing me outside. How can such things happen
without being influenced by Your inconceivable energy?"
Lord Brahmā stressed herein that without
accepting the inconceivable energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one
cannot explain things as they are. He continued: "My dear Lord, leaving
aside all other things and just considering today's happenings--what I have
seen--are they not all due to Your inconceivable energies? First of all I saw
You alone; thereafter You expanded Yourself as Your friends, the calves and
all the existence of Vṛndāvana; then I saw
You and all the boys as four-handed Visnus, and They were being worshiped by
all elements and all demigods, including myself. Again They all became
cowherd boys, and You remained alone as You were before. Does this not mean
that You are the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa, the origin of
everything, and from You everything emanates, and again everything enters
unto You, and You remain the same as before?"
"Persons who are unaware of Your
inconceivable energy cannot understand that You alone expand Yourself as the
creator Brahmā, maintainer Viṣṇu, and annihilator
Śiva. Persons who are not in awareness of things as they are contemplate that
I, Brahmā, am the creator, Viṣṇu is the maintainer,
and Lord Śiva is the annihilator. Actually, You are alone
everything--creator, maintainer, and annihilator. Similarly, You expand
Yourself in different incarnations; among the demigods You incarnate as
Vāmanadeva, among the great sages You incarnate as Paraśurāma, among the
human beings You appear as Yourself, as Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Lord Rāma,
among the animals You appear as the boar incarnation, and among the aquatics
You appear as the incarnation of fish. And yet You have no appearance; You
are always eternal. Your appearance and disappearance are made possible by
Your inconceivable energy just to give protection to the faithful devotees
and to annihilate the demons. O my Lord, O all-pervading Supreme Personality
of Godhead, O Supersoul, controller of all mystic powers, no one can
appreciate Your transcendental pastimes as they are exhibited within these
three worlds. No one can estimate how You have expanded Your yogamāyā and
Your incarnation and how You act by Your transcendental energy. My dear Lord,
this whole cosmic manifestation is just like a flashing dream, and its
temporary existence simply disturbs the mind. As a result, we are full of
anxiety in this existence; to live within this material world means simply to
suffer and to be full of all miseries. And yet this temporary existence of
the material world appears to be pleasing and dear on account of its having
evolved from Your body, which is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge.
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"My conclusion is, therefore, that You are the
Supreme Soul, Absolute Truth, and the supreme original person; and although You
have expanded Yourself in so many Viṣṇu forms, or in living
entities and energies, by Your inconceivable transcendental potencies, You are
the supreme one without a second, You are the supreme Supersoul. The
innumerable living entities are simply like sparks of the original fire. Your
Lordship, the conception of the Supersoul as impersonal is wrongly accepted
because I see that You are the original person. A person with a poor fund of
knowledge may think that, because You are the son of Mahārāja Nanda, You are
not the original person, that You are born just like a human being. They are
mistaken. You are the actual original person; that is my conclusion. In spite
of Your being the son of Nanda, You are the original person, and there is no
doubt about it. You are the Absolute Truth, and You are not of this material
darkness. You are the source of the original brahmajyoti as well as the
material luminaries. Your transcendental effulgence is identical with
brahmajyoti. As it is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā, the brahmajyoti
is nothing but Your personal bodily effulgence. There are many Viṣṇu incarnations and incarnations of Your different
qualities, but all those incarnations are not on the same level. You are the
original lamp. Other incarnations may possess the same candle power as the
original lamp, but the original lamp is the beginning of all light. And because
You are not one of the creations of this material world, even after the
annihilation of this world, Your existence as You will continue.
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"Because You are the original person, You
are therefore described in the Gopāla-tāpanī (the Vedic Upaniṣad), as well as in the Brahma-saṁhitā, as govindam ādi-puruṣam. Govinda is the original person, the cause of
all causes. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated that You are the source of
the Brahman effulgence. No one should conclude that Your body is like an
ordinary material body. Your body is akṣara,
indestructible. The material body is always full of threefold miseries, but
Your body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha: full of being, bliss, knowledge and
eternality. You are also nirañjana because Your pastimes, as the little son
of mother Yaśodā or the Lord of the gopīs, are never contaminated by the
material qualities. And although You exhibited Yourself in so many cowherd
boys, calves and cows, Your transcendental potency is not reduced. You are
always complete. As it is described in the Vedic literature, even if the
complete is taken away from the complete--Supreme Absolute Truth--it yet
remains the complete, Supreme Absolute Truth. And although many expansions
from the complete are visible, the complete is one without a second. Since
all Your pastimes are spiritual, there is no possibility of their being
contaminated by the material modes of nature. When You place Yourself
subordinate to Your father and mother, Nanda and Yaśodā, You are not reduced
in Your potency; this is an expression of Your loving attitude for Your
devotees. There is no other competitor or second identity than Yourself. A
person with a poor fund of knowledge concludes that Your pastimes and
appearance are simply material designations. You are transcendental to both
nescience and knowledge, as it is confirmed in the Gopāla-tāpanī. You are the
original amṛta (nectar of
immortality), indestructible. As it is confirmed in the Vedas, amṛtaṁ śāśvataṁ brahme. Brahman is the eternal, the supreme
origin of everything, who has no birth or death.
"In the Upaniṣads it is stated
that the Supreme Brahman is as effulgent as the sun and is the origin of
everything, and anyone who can understand that original person becomes
liberated from the material conditional life. Anyone who can simply be
attached to You by devotional service can know Your actual position, Your
birth, appearance, disappearance and activities. As confirmed in the
Bhagavad-gītā, simply by understanding Your constitutional position,
appearance and disappearance, one can be immediately elevated to the
spiritual kingdom after quitting this present body. Therefore to cross over
the ocean of material nescience, an intelligent person takes shelter of Your
lotus feet and is easily transferred to the spiritual world. "There are
many so-called meditators who do not know that You are the Supreme Soul. As
stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, You are the Supreme Soul present in everyone's
heart. Therefore there is no necessity of one's meditating on something
beyond You. One who is always absorbed in meditation on Your original form of
Kṛṣṇa easily crosses over the ocean of
material nescience. But persons who do not know that You are the Supreme Soul
remain within this material world in spite of their so-called meditation. If,
by the association of Your devotees, a person comes to the knowledge that
Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original
Supersoul, then it is possible for him to cross over the ocean of material
ignorance. For instance, a person becomes transcendental to the mistake of
thinking a rope is a snake; as soon as one understands that the rope is not a
snake, he is liberated from fear. For one who understands You, therefore,
through Your personal teachings, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, or through
Your pure devotees, as stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and all Vedic
literatures--that You are the ultimate goal of understanding--he need no more
fear this material existence.
"So-called liberation and bondage have no
meaning for a person who is already engaged in Your devotional service, just
as a person who knows that the rope is not a snake is unafraid. A devotee
knows that this material world belongs to You, and he therefore engages
everything in Your transcendental loving service. Thus there is no bondage
for him. For a person who is already situated in the sun planet, there is no
question of the appearance or disappearance of the sun in the name of day or
night. It is also said that You, Kṛṣṇa, are just like
the sun, and māyā is like darkness. When the sun is present, there is no
question of darkness; so, for those who are always in Your presence, there is
no question of bondage or liberation. They are already liberated. On the
other hand, persons who falsely think themselves to be liberated without
taking shelter of Your lotus feet, fall down because their intelligence is
not pure.
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“Your teachings in the Bhagavad-gītā are that one should give up all other processes of self- realization and simply surrender unto You, for that is complete. Because You are supreme in everything, those who are searching after the Brahman effulgence are also searching after You. And those who are searching after Supersoul realization are also searching after You. You have stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that You Yourself, by Your partial representation as the Supersoul, have entered into this material cosmic manifestation. You are present in everyone’s heart and there is no need to search out the Supersoul anywhere else. If someone does so, he is simply in ignorance. One who is transcendental to such a position understands that You are unlimited; You are both within and without. Your presence is everywhere. Instead of searching for the Supersoul anywhere else, a devotee only concentrates his mind on You within. Actually one who is liberated from the material concept of life can search for You; others cannot. The simile of thinking the rope to be a snake is applicable only to those who are still in ignorance of You. Actually the existence of a snake besides the rope is only within the mind. The existence of māyā, similarly, is only within the mind. Māyā is nothing but ignorance of Your personality. When one forgets Your personality, that is the conditional state of māyā. Therefore one who is fixed upon You both internally and externally is not illusioned.
"One who has attained a little devotional service can understand Your glories. Even one striving for Brahman realization or Paramātmā realization cannot understand the different features of Your personality unless he treads the devotional path. One may be the spiritual master of many impersonalists, or he may go to the forest or to a cave or mountain and meditate as a hermit for many, many years, but he cannot understand Your glories without being favored by a slight degree of devotional service. Brahman realization or Paramātmā realization are also not possible even after one searches for many, many years unless one is touched by the wonderful effect of devotional service.
"My dear Lord, I pray that I may be so fortunate that, in this life or in another life, wherever I may take my birth, I may be counted as one of Your devotees. Wherever I may be, I pray that I may be engaged in Your devotional service. I do not even care what form of life I get in the future, because I can see that even in the form of cows and calves or cowherd boys, the devotees are so fortunate to be always engaged in Your transcendental loving service and association. Therefore I wish to be one of them instead of such an exalted person as I am now, for I am full of ignorance. The gopīs and cows of Vṛndāvana are so fortunate that they have been able to supply their breast milk to You. Persons who are engaged in performing great sacrifices and offering many valuable goats in the sacrifice cannot attain the perfection of understanding You, but simply by devotional service these innocent village women and cows are all able to satisfy You with their milk. You have drunk their milk to satisfaction, yet You are never satisfied by those engaged in performing sacrifices. I am simply surprised, therefore, with the fortunate position of Mahārāja Nanda, mother Yaśodā and the cowherd men and gopīs, because You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, are existing here as their most intimate lovable object. My dear Lord, no one can actually appreciate the good fortune of these residents of Vṛndāvana. We are all demigods, controlling deities of the various senses of the living entities, and we are proud of enjoying such privileges, but actually there is no comparison between our position and the position of these fortunate residents of Vṛndāvana because they are actually relishing Your presence and enjoying Your association by dint of their activities. We may be proud of being controllers of the senses, but here the residents of Vṛndāvana are so transcendental that they are not under our control. Actually they are enjoying the senses through service to You. I shall therefore consider myself fortunate to be given a chance to take birth in this land of Vṛndāvana in any of my future lives.
"My dear Lord, I am therefore not interested in either material opulences or liberation. I am most humbly praying at Your lotus feet for You to please give me any sort of birth within this Vṛndāvana forest so that I may be able to be favored by the dust of the feet of some of the devotees of Vṛndāvana. If I am given the chance to grow just as the humble grass in this land, that will be a glorious birth for me. But if I am not so fortunate to take birth within the forest of Vṛndāvana, I beg to be allowed to take birth outside the immediate area of Vṛndāvana so that when the devotees go out they will walk over me. Even that would be a great fortune for me. I am just aspiring for a birth in which I will be smeared by the dust of the devotees' feet.
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It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā
that the purpose of Vedic knowledge is to find Kṛṣṇa. And it is said in the Brahma-saṁhitā that it is very difficult to find Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, by systematic reading of the Vedic literature. But He is very easily
available through the mercy of a pure devotee. The pure devotees of Vṛndāvana are fortunate because they can see
Mukunda (Lord Kṛṣṇa) all the time.
This word "mukunda" can be understood in two ways. Muk means
liberation. Lord Kṛṣṇa can give
liberation and therefore transcendental bliss. The word also refers to His
smiling face, which is just like the kunda flower. Mukha also means face. The
kunda flower is very beautiful, and it appears to be smiling. Thus the
comparison is made.
The difference between the pure
devotees of Vṛndāvana and other
devotees is that the residents of Vṛndāvana have no
other desire but to be associated with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, being very kind to His devotees,
fulfills their desire; because they always want Kṛṣṇa's association, the Lord is always
prepared to give it to them. The devotees of Vṛndāvana are also
spontaneous lovers. They do not follow the regulative principles. They are
not required to strictly follow regulative principles because they are
already naturally developed in transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa. Regulative principles are required
for persons who have not achieved the position of transcendental love. Brahmā
is also a devotee of the Lord, but he is subject to follow the regulative
principles. He prays to Kṛṣṇa to give him the
chance to take birth in Vṛndāvana so that he
might be elevated to the platform of spontaneous love.
Lord Brahmā continued: "My Lord,
sometimes I am puzzled as to how Your Lordship will be able to repay, in
gratitude, the devotional service of these residents of Vṛndāvana. Although I know that You are the supreme
source of all benediction, I am puzzled to know how You will be able to repay
all the service that You are receiving from these residents of Vṛndāvana. I think of how You are so kind, so
magnanimous, that even Pūtanā, who came to cheat You by dressing herself as a
very affectionate mother, was awarded liberation and the actual post of a
mother. And other demons belonging to the same family, such as Aghāsura and
Bakāsura, were also favored with liberation. Under the circumstances, I am
puzzled. These residents of Vṛndāvana have given
You everything--their bodies, their minds, their love, their homes.
Everything is being utilized for Your purpose. So how will You be able to
repay their debt? You have already given Yourself to Pūtanā! I surmise that
You shall ever remain a debtor to the residents of Vṛndāvana, being unable to repay their loving
service. My Lord, I can understand that the superexcellent service of the
residents of Vṛndāvana is due to
their spontaneously engaging all natural instincts in Your service. It is
said that attachment for material objects and home is due to illusion, which
makes a living entity conditioned in the material world. But this is only the
case for persons who are not in Kṛṣṇa conscious. In the
case of the residents of Vṛndāvana, such
obstructions, as attachment to hearth and home, are nonexistent. Because
their attachment has been converted unto You, and their home has been
converted into a temple because You are always there, and because they have
forgotten everything for Your sake, there is no impediment. For a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, there is no such
thing as impediments in hearth and home. Nor is there illusion.
"I can also understand that Your
appearance as a small cowherd boy, a child of the cowherd men, is not at all
a material activity. You are so much obliged by their affection that You are
here to enthuse them with more loving service by Your transcendental
presence. In Vṛndāvana there is no
distinction between material and spiritual because everything is dedicated to
Your loving service. My dear Lord, Your Vṛndāvana pastimes
are simply to enthuse Your devotees. If someone takes Your Vṛndāvana pastimes to be material, he will be
misled.
"My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, those who deride You, claiming
that You have a material body like an ordinary man, are described in the
Bhagavad-gītā as demonic and less intelligent. You are always transcendental.
The nondevotees are cheated because they consider You to be a material
creation. Actually, You have assumed this body, which resembles that of an
ordinary cowherd boy, simply to increase the devotion and transcendental
bliss of Your devotees.
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"My dear Lord, I have nothing to say about
people who advertise that they have already realized God or that by their
realization they have themselves become God. But as far as I am concerned, I
admit frankly that for me it is not possible to realize You by my body, mind or
speech. What can I say about You, or how can I realize You by my senses? I
cannot even think of You perfectly with my mind, which is the master of the
senses. Your qualities, Your activities and Your body cannot be conceived by
any person within this material world. Only by Your mercy can one understand,
to some extent, what You are. My dear Lord, You are the Supreme Lord of all
creation, although I sometimes falsely think that I am the master of this
universe. I may be master of this universe, but there are innumerable
universes, and there are innumerable Brahmās also who preside over these
universes. But actually You are the master of them all. As the Supersoul in
everyone's heart, You know everything. Please, therefore accept me as Your
surrendered servant. I hope that You will excuse me for disturbing You in Your
pastimes with Your friends and calves. Now if You will kindly allow me, I will
immediately leave so You can enjoy Your friends and calves without my presence.
"My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, Your very name
suggests that You are all-attractive. The attraction of the sun and the moon
are all due to You. By the attraction of the sun, You are beautifying the very
existence of the Yadu dynasty. With the attraction of the moon, You are
enhancing the potency of the land, the demigods, the brāhmaṇas, the cows and the oceans. Because of Your
supreme attraction, demons like Kaṁsa and others are
annihilated. Therefore it is my deliberate conclusion that You are the only
worshipable Deity within the creation. Accept my humble obeisances until the
annihilation of this material world. As long as there is sunshine within this material
world, kindly accept my humble obeisances."
In this way, Brahmā, the master of this universe,
after offering humble and respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of
Godhead and circumambulating Him three times, was ready to return to his abode
known as Brahmaloka. By His gesture, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gave
him permission to return. As soon as Brahmā left, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa immediately appeared as He had on the very day
the cows and cowherd boys had vanished.
Kṛṣṇa had left His friends
on the bank of the Yamunā while they were engaged in lunch, and although He
returned exactly one year later, the cowherd boys thought that He had returned
within a second. That is the way of Kṛṣṇa’s different
energies and activities. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that Kṛṣṇa Himself is residing in everyone’s heart, and He
causes both remembrance and forgetfulness. All living entities are controlled
by the supreme energy of the Lord, and sometimes they remember and sometimes
they forget their constitutional position. His friends, being controlled in
such a way, could not understand that for one whole year they were absent from
the Yamunā bank and were under the spell of Brahmā’s illusion. When Kṛṣṇa appeared before the boys, they thought, “Kṛṣṇa has returned within a minute.” They began to
laugh, thinking that Kṛṣṇa was not willing to
leave their lunchtime company. They were very jubilant and invited Him, “Dear
friend Kṛṣṇa, You have come back
so quickly! All right, we have not as yet begun our lunch, not even taken one
morsel of food. So please come and join us and let us eat together.” Kṛṣṇa smiled and accepted their invitation, and He
began to enjoy the lunchtime company of His friends. While eating, Kṛṣṇa was thinking, “These boys believe that I have
come back within a second, but they do not know that for the last year I have
been involved with the mystic activities of Lord Brahmā.”
After finishing
their lunch, Kṛṣṇa and His friends and calves began to
return to their Vrajabhūmi homes. While passing, they enjoyed seeing the dead
carcass of Aghāsura in the shape of a gigantic serpent. When Kṛṣṇa returned home to Vrajabhūmi, He was seen by all the inhabitants
of Vṛndāvana. He was wearing a peacock
feather in His helmet, which was also decorated with forest flowers. Kṛṣṇa was also garlanded with flowers and painted with different
colored minerals collected from the caves of Govardhana Hill. Govardhana Hill
is always famous for supplying natural red dyes, and Kṛṣṇa and His friends painted their bodies with them. Each of them had
a bugle made of buffalo horn and a stick and a flute, and each called his
respective calves by their particular names. They were so proud of Kṛṣṇa's wonderful activities that, while entering the village, they
all sang His glories. All the gopīs in Vṛndāvana
saw beautiful Kṛṣṇa entering the village. The boys
composed nice songs describing how they were saved from being swallowed by the
great serpent and how the serpent was killed. Some described Kṛṣṇa as the son of Yaśodā, and others as the son of Nanda Mahārāja.
"He is so wonderful that He saved us from the clutches of the great
serpent and killed him," they said. But little did they know that one year
had passed since the killing of Aghāsura.
In this regard,
Mahārāja Parīkṣit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī how the
inhabitants of Vṛndāvana suddenly developed so much love
for Kṛṣṇa, although Kṛṣṇa was not a member of any of their families. Mahārāja Parīkṣit enquired, "During the absence of the original cowherd
boys, when Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself, why is it that the
boys' parents became more loving toward Him than toward their own sons? Also,
why did the cows become so loving toward the calves, more than toward their own
calves?"
Śukadeva Gosvāmī
told Mahārāja Parīkṣit that every living entity is actually
most attached to his own self. Outward paraphernalia such as home, family,
friends, country, society, wealth, opulence, reputation, etc., are all only
secondary in pleasing the living entity. They please only because they bring
pleasure to the self. For this reason, one is self-centered and is attached to
his body and self more than he is to relatives like wife, children, and
friends. If there is some immediate danger to one's own person, he first of all
takes care of himself, then others. That is natural. That means, more than
anything else, he loves his own self. The next important object of affection,
after his own self, is his material body. A person who has no information of
the spirit soul is very much attached to his material body, so much so that
even in old age he wants to preserve the body in so many artificial ways,
thinking that his old and broken body can be saved. Everyone is working hard
day and night just to give pleasure to his own self, under either the bodily or
spiritual concept of life. We are attached to material possessions because they
give pleasure to the senses or to the body. The attachment to the body is there
only because the "I," the spirit soul, is within the body. Similarly,
when one is further advanced, he knows that the spirit soul is pleasing because
it is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Ultimately, it is Kṛṣṇa who is pleasing and all-attractive. He is the Supersoul of
everything. And in order to give us this information, Kṛṣṇa descends and tells us that the all-attractive center is He
Himself. Without being an expansion of Kṛṣṇa,
nothing can be attractive.
Whatever is
attractive within the cosmic manifestation is due to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is therefore the reservoir of all
pleasure. The active principle of everything is Kṛṣṇa, and highly elevated transcendentalists see everything in
connection with Him. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta
it is stated that a mahābhagavata, or highly advanced devotee, sees Kṛṣṇa as the active principle in all movable and immovable living
entities. Therefore he sees everything within this cosmic manifestation in
relation to Kṛṣṇa. For the fortunate person who has
taken shelter of Kṛṣṇa as everything, liberation is already
there. He is no longer in the material world. This is also confirmed in the
Bhagavad-gītā: Whoever is engaged in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa is already on the brahma-bhūta or spiritual platform. The very
name Kṛṣṇa suggests piety and liberation. Anyone
who takes shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa
enters the boat for crossing over the ocean of nescience. For him, this vast
expansion of the material manifestation becomes as insignificant as a
hoofprint. Kṛṣṇa is the center of all great souls, and
He is the shelter of the material worlds
For one who is on the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Vaikuṇṭha, or the spiritual world, is not far away. He
does not live within the material world where there is danger at every step. In
this way Kṛṣṇa consciousness
was fully explained by Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Śukadeva Gosvāmī even recited to the king the
statements and prayers of Lord Brahmā. These descriptions of Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastimes with His cowherd boys, His eating with
them on the bank of the Yamunā and Lord Brahmā's prayers unto Him, are all
transcendental subject matters. Anyone who hears, recites or chants them surely
gets all his spiritual desires fulfilled. Thus Kṛṣṇa's childhood
appearance, His sporting with Balarāma in Vṛndāvana, was
described.
Om
Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations H H Swami Sri Prabhupada ji, Sri Krishnalilas
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