Lord Balaram

Vanquishes Ignorance

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Just thought of sharing a nice pastime of Lord Balarama killing Dhenukasura as a meditation for the upcoming appearance day of Lord Balarama and the important lessons to be learnt from this pastime.

Once when Krishna and Balaram were sporting in the forest of Vrindavan along with Their cows and friends, Their friends petitioned to Them as follows: “There is a big forest named Talavan nearby which is full of palm trees that are have ripe fruits. But because of a great demon called Dhenukasura, it is very difficult to go there and one can only smell the sweet aroma of the fruits.” Desiring to please Their friends, Krishna and Balaram entered the Talavan forest. Balaram began to yank the trees with His powerful arms. Upon hearing the sound of the falling fruits, the demon Dhenukasura who was living there in the form of an ass, approached with great force and kicked Balaram’s chest with his hind legs.

Balaram immediately caught hold of the legs of the ass with one hand and, wheeling him around, threw him into the treetops and thus killed him. This caused an avalanche effect as the palm trees fell upon other trees. In order to retaliate, the friends of Dhenukasura immediately came there and attacked Balaram and Krishna with great force. Krishna and Balaram caught each of the asses by the hind legs and killed them by wheeling them around and throwing them into the trees. After a few days, people began to come to the Talavan forest to collect the fruits. Animals also began to go there to eat the nice grasses there without fear of the demon anymore.

To help us understand this pastime His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains in the Krishna book as follows

1. Dhenukasura represents ignorance of knowledge of the soul through gross materialistic intelligence, or jackass-like foolishness.

2. Lord's cowherd boyfriends are exalted, self-realized souls who would not ordinarily become greedy for sweet fruits. In fact, they were simply joking with the Lord and enthusing His pastimes, urging Him to perform unprecedented heroic feats in the Tala forest.

3. According to the Garga Samhita, in his previous life Dhenukasura was a son of Bali Maharaja named Sahasika. Once while Sahasika was enjoying with 10,000 women on Mount Gandhamadana, he made a lot of noise which disturbed the meditation of Durvasa Muni. So Durvasa cursed him to become an ass, saying: "Fool! Ass-like person! Become an ass! O demon, after 400,000 years, in transcendental circle of Mathura, in the sacred forest of Talavana, you will attain liberation by Lord Balarama's hand."

4. Dhenukasura could not be killed by Krsna because Krsna had given His word to Prahlada Maharaja that He would not kill any of his family members.

The first point in the above list on our ignorance is worth meditating. We are all immersed in the darkness of ignorance. Most of the time like Dhenukasura we forget the truth that we are just trustees here for whatever health/wealth/power which Lord has blessed us in this life time. So engrossed in the thoughts of "my" and "mine" we keep fighting with everyone around and try to grab. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 10.8 - "aham sarvasya prabhavo". Nothing belongs to us. So who are we to prevent others from enjoying the fruits that has been created by the Lord for all ? Even after understanding that it is wrong to have this attitude such anarthas might keep cropping in our minds. It is not possible to give up these bad thoughts and cleanse our hearts on our own. We need to take shelter of Lord Balarama and surrender unto Him. When we do so just like how He carried and threw Dhenukasura away, He will also kill all the anarthas in our heart. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.15.5, Lord Krishna glorifies Lord Balarama very nicely as follows

shri bhagavaan uvaaca
aho ami deva-varaamaraarcitam
paadaambujam te sumanah-phalaarhanam
namanty upaadaaya shikhaabhir aatmanas
tamo-'pahatyai taru-janma yat-kritam

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O greatest of Lords, just see how these trees are bowing their heads at Your lotus feet, which are worshipable by the immortal demigods. The trees are offering You their fruits and flowers to eradicate the dark ignorance that has caused their birth as trees."

In the purport to above verse it is mentioned that - The trees of Vrindavana were thinking that because of past offenses they had now taken birth as trees and, being immovable, could not accompany Lord Krishna in His wanderings throughout the Vrindavana area. In fact, all the creatures of Vrindavana, including the trees and cows, were great souls who could personally associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But because of ecstatic sentiments of separation, the trees considered themselves in ignorance and thus tried to purify themselves by bowing down at the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarama. Lord Krishna understanding their mentality, simultaneously glanced at them with affection and praised their devotional service before His older brother, Balarama.

So may we bow down to the powerful, magnanimous Lord Balarama and seek His mercy to cleanse our hearts and remove our ignorance so that we could serve the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna sincerely with full vigour.

Jaya Krishna-Balaram!

Hare Krishna.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada,
Govinda caran das.
Seattle.

Note : HG Govinda caran Prabhu and his good wife HG Rasika siromani mathaji are disciples of HH Indradyumna swami Maharaj. They are simple, humble, intelligent and cheerful devotees living in Seattle, working in Microsoft. Inspite of their busy schedule and hectic official work, they enthusiastically engage in preaching the message of Srila Prabhupada to all and they engage in all kinds of activities in devotional service. They are very dedicated in their service to their Guru Maharaj and have a very nice service attitude towards everyone.