ŚRĪMAD BHĀGAVATAM (5.18.30) DATED 21-01-2006
(Verse)
TRANSLATION
PURPORT
Lecture by His Holiness Radhanath Swami
This verse is from Chaitanya Charitamrita, where Srila Krishna das kaviraj Goswami, have given us throughout his divine eyes, a vision of the spiritual world, Sri Vrindavan Dham, Vrindavan is that place beyond the earthly pleasures that we all are aspiring to achieve. Beyond the heavenly pleasures which the most pious of all man attains, beyond the brahmajyoti , the state of mukti in which the gyanis and the impersonalists perform lifetimes of sacrifice to enter into. Beyond even the planets of Vaikuntha where Lord Narayan , the supreme Godhead is eternally reciprocating Love with his eternal servants. Sri Vrindavan dham is that place which is unique in all spiritual realizations. And if 1 very carefully studies that science of theology, and comparatively analyzes the teaching and realizations of all the great religions of the world, you will find that the atmosphere of Love that is revealed by the supreme Godhead in the land of Goloka Sri Vrindavan dham is all inclusive and is the essence of sweetness in its most sublime personification of the exchanges between the Supreme Godhead and its eternal parts. When Lord Sri CM was in Sri Rangam having discussion with Venkat Bhat, he was a very very very great devotee of the Lord, He explained to him what is the special feature that is unique only in the abode of Sri Krishna and that is that Vrindavaneshwari, Sri Radharani the Goddess , the queen of Vrindavan, She provides an intimacy with Godhead that is incomparable in any other realization of the Absolute truth we see in Vaikuntha the abode of Narayama , in which the ecstasy of that realization is millions and billions of time better than the pleasure achieved by mukti. When we are frustrated to this temporary nature of this world, Dukhalayam ashashwatam , we try to escape the miseries by escaping the repetition of birth and death. In this way, people strive to merge in to the impersonal conception, because after all they are thinking due to personality due to the variegated conditions of the world , which are temporary we have to suffer so we have to somehow or other free ourselves from the bondage of dualities, give up all sense of personal identities. Then there is non one and nothing to suffer anymore, therefore the monist who strive for this conception of realization of the absolute truth are striving for the negation of suffering which after all is greatly blissful compared to the repetition of birth and death. To make a gross comparison sometimes when people are very miserable in this world and everything is going wrong for them , they just want to go to sleep , they take so many sleeping pills so that they go to sleep and in that state the forget their problems and if you forget your problems, as far as u r concerned,atleast for the time being u have no problem s. so this state of impersonal realization of absolute truth is going to sleep to all the problems of the world. Sripad sankaracharya , buddhistic conception of absolute truth is this way. Lord Budhha thought, that this is the world of duality, pleasure pain, honor dishonor, happiness distress, heat cold and there for sometimes there is pleasure sometimes there is pain . to the degree you become attached to pleasure to that degree you have to suffer when its taken away and it will be taken away so why r u wasting your precious time, through various processes of meditation concentration , very high standard of morality , piety , study of his teachings , you can go beyond the external conditions of this finite world and enter into the realm of eternity and in that realm of eternity there is no suffering. Because all suffering is due to temporary natures of the conditions of this world. Dukhalayam ashashvatam , Krishna says this world is miserable because everything is temporary and we r longing for something eternal, we never want the pleasures to end. so therefore this state of nirvana, is the negation of all those principles which cause us suffering, and it is a blissful state no doubt , it is the state in where u r consciously unconscious of the relative world. But Sri Budhha gave no name to this state of nirvana . He just described it as a state of peace , a state of utter emptiness of desires and longings. Shankaracharya defined that same nirvana but explained that this same nirvana, the state of complete abstention from any longings in this world is Brahman , the God, the impersonal aspect of God. Can you understand the difference? It’s the same realization , the same consciousness the same liberated state. One simply defines it as a liberated state and one defines it as God- Brahman. But in this state, kaivalya narakayate, there is no facility for love and reciprocation and the soul in everyone’s hearts is by nature active pleasure seeking. However long you fall a sleep, unless you are dead, eventually you must wake up. Sometimes that’s the worst part of the day for people. To wake up in the morning . In fact for many people its such a pleasure and an ecstasy in sleeping, u don’t have to worry about anything u don’t have to worry about what people are saying about you . You don’t have to worry about people r doing to u. u don’t have to worry about your bills, about your jobs about studies, u r free. U r liberated. Your are asleep. And then when u wake up in the morning u have to face the world, u have to face your duties, your responsibilities, your problems. U just want to go on in the pleasure of sleeping. How many of you, when u have to get up in the morning is such an austerity, because sleeping is such a pleasure? Did u all felt that? There is 1 honest young lady in this audience. So in this way, sleep is a very blissful condition for one who is suffering. For 1 who is unfulfilled, ungratified in his life. But u can not sleep forever because the nature of the consciousness within us is to seek out positive satisfaction through loving relationships, which is a stronger burning in our lives? To go to sleep or to find love? To empty ourselves of the things that are causing us pain or to fill our selves with the thought of someone that we intimately and intensely love? Therefore millions of times according to great acharyas, higher than that state of mukti, is pure Bhakti. Pure Bhakti means that state of divine love transcending all the temporary conditions of this world detaching ourselves from through bondage of our passions and completely immersing our consciousness merging our consciousness in the loving service of Krishna, of SPOG, everyone wants an eternal unlimited lover, but in this world there is no such thing as eternal unlimited lover. But Narayan is that supreme eternal unlimited lover and to be the servant eternally immersed in that service is bliss, is a state of loving conscious that can not be imagined or comprehended with out limited brains of the world. It is the constitutional position of the soul. And this is the place which is called vaikuntha, where everyone is immersed for all of eternity in loving service of SPOG. But there is a state categorically more inclusive than vaikuntha, because in Vaikuntha we can become the servant of the Lord Narayan. But in the land, the spiritual abode of Ajodhya, Lord sri ram, one could also take the position of Lord’s friend. And eve n the Lord’s [aren’t , that is why it is said , a 1000 names of Vishnu is equal to 1 name of Rama. But the freedom the absolute freedom of the loving reciprocation with Godhead find its combination in Sri Vrindavan dham. Because in ayodhya, and in vaikuntha everyone is conscious that Narayan and Rama is the SPOG. But in Vrindavan dham there is no resident that in any way conceives Krishna as God, why? Because such conception interferes with the freedom and intimacy of their love. The cowherd boys see Krishna as their best friend, if the saw him as god, they would not be playing with Him, they would be serving him. Now even in this world, can you have a more intimate relationship with your servant? Or your friend? This is called Sakhya rasa, the deeper and more inclusive than that friendly Rasa is that of a parent. The intimacy of all the elderly gopis and gopas were in a mood that Krishna is their son , Krishna as their child. They cared for him they fed him . they worried about him , it is described that after Krishna killed the great demon as putana , she was very very gigantic rakshasi, caport which , mother yashoda was thinking that it mush be because of pious activities of brajavasis that God is so kind that he protected our child and then she began to perform many many rituals to protect him . She started chanting mantras over every part of his body. Touching him with the tail touching him with the Kush grass, touching him with cow urine and cow dung. Trying to make everything auspicious so that demons can no longer hurt him. And a little later when Trunavarta came to kill Krishna, he took Krishna high into the sky and mother yashoda was simply – what will happen to my son? She couldn’t find her anywhere in the dust, she fainted, like a cow that has just lost her calf. She had the intensity of a mothers love for a child, but because that child was Krishna, that love was infinitely sweeter deeper and more intense, that we can love any child in this world, in fact at 1 time mother yashoda, she was told that Krishna had eaten dirt, and she worried about him, like a mother would worry for her child, that Krishna u r eating dirt you will become sick. Pl Krishna never eat dirt again, Krishna said I never ate dirt, Balaram said he ate dirt,. Balaram and his friends were accusing him that Krishna ate dirt. And Krishna and his friends were saying no, he is lying he ate dirt. See even in the spiritual world brothers deal with each other like this. Trying to get each other in troubles with parents. The reason why our children do it, in this world because Krishna and Balaram are doing it in that world, but of course in spiritual world , it is only for the sake of increasing the pleasure of their lila. So mother Yasoda said to Krishna, “Krishna, if you want to prove that you haven’t eaten dirt , then kindly open your mouth. She was so much concerned with her child’s welfare. And when Krishna opened his mouth. She looked within it, she saw the most wondrous of all sights, she saw the entire cosmic manifestation, al the universes all the planets all the oceans all the mountains all the rivers , all the demigods, all living beings, she saw everything within it the mouth of Krishna and then she realized that this is not my son, this is God, this is the father of all living beings this is the absolute truth, in whom everything is contained , my dear lord please forgive me I 21L51 u I scolded u I had such ego tot think that u r depending on me this is craziness . Now I understand really that who you are and with such awe and reverence with folded palms she began to offer prayers, you are the absolute truth, you are the controller is all controllers. You are the ultimate realization of all yogis gyanis and bhaktas.” but Krishna was not pleased to see her in this condition. Why? Because her knowing that Krishna was God interfered with their relationship as a mother and child. So at that time Krishna closed his beautiful lotus like mouth and He smiled at his mother and when he smiled at his mother, his child like beauty captivated her heart and her breast just began to flow with milk due to motherly affection and in this motherly love it was like an ocean that completely drown all remembrance of what she had just seen. And she put Krishna in her arms and embraced him, gave the milk from her body and said oh my dear child u must be hungry if I do not feed you, you will die..
This is Vrindavan. But the highest the most inclusive of all the relationships or rasas in Vrindavan is that of madhurya rasa, the conjugal love of Gopis for Sri Krishna. They didn’t care whether he was God or not God. They simply loved him because he was Krishna/. It is described that the Gopis’ love for Krishna was under s spell of total infatuation. But unlike the love affairs in this world there is not even the slightest tinge of desire for one’s own sense gratification. They loved Krishna to simply give pleasure to Krishna. And because Krishna is infinite, their love for him is infinite. Because Krishna is ever expanding and ever increasing in every way, their love for him was ever expanding, and ever increasing. In every way. The greatest misconception I to anyway shape or form to compare the love between the gopis and sri Krishna to the love affairs of this world. Because we are dealing with the spirit souls in their ultimate perfected condition of consciousness they do not have material bodies, but pure spiritual bodies and for pleasure of Krishna they are loving him in this most spontaneous of all forms of love. and it is described in Goloka Vrindavan there are 3 neighborhoods there is Mathura, there is dwaraka, and there is Vrindavan, they are all on the supreme planet of goloka. In dwaraka Krishna is worshiped in svakiya rasa by the queens. But in Vrindavan he is worshiped in Parakiya rasa . and according you great acharyas this parakiya rasa must be understood very very very carefully under the guidance of very learned and realized soul. Otherwise we are bound to commit offenses in our mind. In fact the conjugal love affairs of Radha and Krishna and Gopis are so grossly misunderstood by common man, although Krishna descended along with the abode of Vrindavan into this world just to attract us to this wonderful pastimes, people in kaliyuga gradually became so misinformed, taking it sol cheaply that Krishna appeared again to reveal the conjugal love between Radha and Krishna, but in the form of Lord sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu. Lord Chaitanya is Krishna who wanted o taste the sweetness of the conjugal love of Radha. But he did it in such a way that he was a sanyasi and with the heart of Radha’s love he was manifesting her love for Krishna, but nobody could misunderstand in this form, because he lived such a strict life. So therefore the great acharyas explain, that there is not greater and better way of understating what is Radha and Krishna’s Lila. What is the lila of Gopis and Krishna no greater way than prove the life and the teaching of sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu , because if u try to understand through any other means, we are very susceptible to committing offense of misunderstanding and having some tinge of feeling that this is like the illicit affairs if this material world. It is a pure spiritual expression, loving exchange of utter giving. Krishna is simply giving 100% for the pleasure of each of his Gopis. And the Gopis are giving 100% of themselves for the pleasure of Krishna. Although it appeared to be expressed the the activities of the spiritual bodies, in essence this expressions were simply manifestations of the deepest love of the pure heart of the jivatmas. And of course it is on this night, it is most holy and auspicious evening of sharad Purnima that Krishna on seeing the beautiful moon rising in the horizon, the moon that night had a beautiful golden reddish hue, it was the most beautiful moon of all moons, why is this? Because it is explained that Krishna wanted to satisfy His devotees with his highest of all relationships and therefore He himself felt a very deep desire to enjoy the love of Gopis. So the moon who the founder of the dynasty of sri Krishna. Krishna was born in the Lunar dynasty was very anxious to assist the Lord by creating the most incredibly beautiful atmosphere that anyone has ever seen. The whole sky was simply emanating the beautiful color of the effulgent moon. Sharad Purnima. And at that time Krishna on the bank of Jamuna, under the holy Bamsivat tree he played the 5th note of his flute and when that beautiful song of that air of Vrindavan, everything and everyone became surcharged with ecstatic love . and when that sound vibration entered into the ears of the Gopis the damsels of Vraja dham they became so much captivated that there was nothing or no one else that cud divert their attention from meeting Krishna . it is described that some of the young girls who were unmarried and those girls leaving immediately whatever duties they had, ran to meet with Krishna, an some were married and so many family responsibilities, someone milking cows and they left the cows without even considering of what stage of milking process was at hand. Some of them were cooking milk leaving the milk on the stove and went for Krishna. Some of them were breast feeding their baby children; they put their children down to meet with Krishna. Some of them were serving their husbands their father in laws, their brothers, immediately without even consideration of what they will think they ran up to Krishna, the Gopis of Vrindavan exhibited complete renunciation, they are the supreme embodiments of vairagya. For the pleasure and service of Krishna they were willing to detach themselves from those forms of love that are most difficult to ever forget in this world. The security of their homes they left behind. Each 1 of them went alone into the forest filled with wild animals. It was very very dangerous predicament. For a young woman who is chaste and is protected throughout her life. They knew that they would never be welcomed home again. In fact it is explain by Vishwanath chakravarthy Thakur, that their husbands their in laws, those who were unmarried their fathers, their brother they stood often times with sticks and said you can not go anywhere tonight. You must stay home. And yet somehow or other they got by them. Knowing that I such a shameful condition I will never b able to return, they even renounced the most sacred of all possession of a woman , the chastity the social image was completely destroyed, for the pleasure of Krishna. And it is described that some of them by the arrangement of yogmaya, were forcibly locked in rooms so that they couldn’t escape. Those Gopis with such longing with such intense feeling they could do nothing but meditate in core of their heart and meeting Krishna and giving pleasure to Krishna. It is described that there are different categories of Gopis someone nitya sidhhas , they descended from the spiritual world of Goloka in order to simply assist the lord in his pastimes , those Gopis with no problem they went to meet Krishna, but there were others. It is described in the shastras that they personified Vedas, they longed to have such intimate relationship with Krishna. So they as sadhan sidhhas allowed to take birth in Vrindavan to completely purify themselves in the association of other gopis. And there was also a group of sages in dandakaranya forest who met Lord Rama, and when the met Sita and Rama although they were quite due to their great humility they were all loning to have a loving relationship with Rama. But because in that incarnation Sri Rama would only have such relationship with 1 person, that is Sita , He gave them the benediction that they would take rebirth as Gopis to enjoy this relationships. But some of them although they were pure devotees of the Lord they still were not to the level of complete purification of the other gopis. Those gopis were not allowed to see Krishna a that night, they were locked in rooms and it is explained , the intensity of the separation , they were on the verge of death. They could not understand ho they were leaving it was such a burning fire, of longing to be with Krishna the meditation of Krishna in their heart was so overwhelming that at that night all of the gopis completely burned to ashes through this meditation any tinge of material contamination that may have been in their hearts any tinge of any form o impurity and thus they were allowed to enter into the realm of the nitya sidhhas, the higher level of gopi’s love. And when the went to meet with Krishna, Lord sri Krishna wanted to test them, he said my dear gopis why have you come in the middle of the nights ? it is not appropriate for chaste young ladies like u to leave your fathers, brothers, husbands to meet another man in the forest and besides that its very dangerous, there is no security here. It is very dark, u should go home. And upon hearing this gopis told so many heartfelt arguments, one of those argument was , Krishna u r in everyone’s heart u r the source of life for every living being, if u leave a person’s heart, all that is left is a dead corpse and no one loves dead corpses. They put them in fire or bury them under ground. In truth my dear lord, it is your presence within the person’s heart that makes them lovable and that is a fact because Krishna is in that heart of your child you love your child. It is actually Krishna is their hearts that you love. Because Krishna is in the heart of your mother and your father – you love them it is actually Krishna that you loved. In the romantic relationship or a relationship of a husband and wife the intensity of that love is that they are both loving the Krishna within themselves because Krishna is all attractive and because we are all part of Krishna it is that attractive quality of Krishna that attracts people to us. So the gopis explained actually the only person we ever love is you. The only person factually anyone can love is you. But unfortunately because we do not understand Krishna in truth, our love is steep in ignorance and therefore we don’t taste the sweetness of transcendental ecstasy in our loving relationship in this world. But factually if you learned how to love Krishna then you have loving relationship with everybody in this world on one level or another according to how they approach you because you see and reciprocate with Krishna in their hearts – This is love. It’s simply the matter of being conscious of truth. The gopis were perfectly self realized souls so they told Krishna like by loving you by watering the root of the tree everyone and everything will be nourished. So we should stay right here and satisfy you tonight and Krishna was so happy to hear these words of love that he began to dance with the gopis and that is how the rasa dance has began. Note how Krishna puts them to a test – he puts all his devotees to test. Before Krishna reveals himself to you, he will offer you everything and anything else and if you are attracted to any other, Krishna will let you be content with that. When a baby cries, the mother tries to occupy his mind with something, sometimes giving him with something to play with and if they get amused by that, the mother goes on with her business. But if the child just throws that down and says I don’t want this, I want you then the mother may put one of those pacifiers in the mouth and if the child is happy with that thinking on very nice then the mother goes on with her business but if the child reaps it off his mouth and throws it and cries more than ever then the mother gives him a bottle of milk. Hmm, very nice, now I have my milk, the mother goes on with her business. But if the child throws the milk on the ground and cries louder than ever, then the mother knows that this child will not be content with anything or anyone except me, then the mother picks up the child with great love and gives her child herself. So in Krishna consciousness, Krishna will do the same thing. It is interesting to know that at the time of the rasa lila Lord Sri Krishna, Syamasundar was only eight years old and at the age of eight years old, you must understand that such a conjugal relationship was even from the material point of view in perfect innocence – there cannot be lust in an eight year old. You are not old enough to be like that so from the material and from spiritual point of view it was a perfectly pure exchange of love. And of course many of you here are Brahmacharis, sanyasis. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained that those in the renounced order should follow in the footsteps of gopis and simply be with Krishna, put everything else aside. But most of you here tonight are married men and women; you have responsibilities in this world. In this case also, the rasa lila is very instructive because although in spirit the gopis of vraja dham put aside all material attachment simply for the pleasure of Krishna, after they danced went back to their homes and performed all their responsibilities and loved their children if they had children, loved their husbands, loved their parents because they feel and experience Krishna in their hearts. But first and foremost in our lives is that we must make Krishna the center. Whatever our activities in this world may be, they are perfect if we put Krishna in the center. That means Krishna’s service is the unifying factor of all of our relationships. The perfect marriage is when the husband and the wife simply exist together for the pleasure and the loving service of Krishna. If they do this, they will have perfect respect for one another, perfect compassion and sympathy for one another because they won’t see each other as objects of enjoyment. A man should see his wife as the sacred property of God and to misuse his wife in any way or even exploit their wives as per his own desires is an offence to God. This is his property not yours therefore Krishna conscious marriage means utmost respect and vice-versa the woman sees the man as the representative of God. He is the sacred property of God. At the time of wedding, what happens – you make a vow before God to have this respect, this love and this God conscious unity amongst each other. Therefore the wives should see the husbands in this light that he is not here for me to boss around, tell what to do, to use for my own purposes. We are simply a partnership together to love and respect and honor one another for Krishna’s service and that marriage is perfect marriage. The gopis teach the householders the perfect household lives and the gopis also teach sannyasis, the perfect sannyas life. The rasa lila of Lord Sri Krishna if it is understood according to our level of consciousness, according to the teachings of the great saints, there is great, great, great knowledge information that we can practically apply to our lives. Krishna’s past times are not meant for just to be entertainers, they are meant to be understood for purification. That is why Srila Prabhupada and all of the great acharyas in our sampraday, any time they translate the Vedic literature, they always give a commentary because without that commentary you don’t have an access to understand what’s being said. Just like sometime ago, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata was playing on the television and it was very nice. The nicest part of it was that it was giving people a connection to Rama and to Krishna. People were giving more prominence to them in their lives but simply by seeing the story, we are very much entertained and we may grasp certain moral principles but as far as purification, unless there is purport, the explanations of the great saints, the great acharyas, it is minimal therefore Srila Prabhupada explained that his purports were thousands of times more important than the translations because they give us access to the translations. They give us a way to apply these teachings in our lives for our purifications. Today there are so many people who recite Bhagavat, recites Ramayana or people who paint beautiful pictures of Krishna’s Lila. But what really does it mean to us. Here we see Krishna throwing the dyes on gopis celebrating holi. Here on this wall, we see him stealing the butter and the dahi from the vraja gopis. Here we see him performing the beautiful zulan yatra with Srimati Radharani. It gives us a real feeling that this is Indian culture, this is hindu culture and this is from where my birth and my heritage is coming from and this is Krishna. I remember the first time I flew on Air India, this was about 1979 and on each airplane on each seat there was a painting of rasa lila, Krishna dancing with gopis and I was thinking my God, this is wonderful. An airline that has rasa lila going on, over each seat. They just see it as art as part of their hindu heritage. Does anyone of them understand what the rasa lila is? I must say hear from Prabhupada or similar great acharyas, it is almost meaningless to them. So this is the importance of associating with devotees. By coming to the temple of the Lord, by reading the books of the spiritual master, by associating with sadhus who are really trying to follow in the footsteps of the previous acharyas. They gave us a practical understanding of what Krishna’s lila means to us, what it means to our lives. How to purify our consciousness in such a way that we can not be just entertained by these past times, but we can be purified and we can actually enter in the loving past time. And how is this done, by learning how to engage in the process of devotional service. If you hear properly the beautiful stories of Krishna’s lila, you will be inspired to surrender to Krishna, you will be inspired to do something for the pleasure of Krishna and his devotees and if that’s not there then you are not hearing properly or it’s not being presented properly. We are not meant to enjoy, we are meant to be enjoyed, enjoyed by Krishna and that is the meaning of rasa lila evening – Sharad Poornima the night when everyone simply gives up all their ego, all their attachments for the purpose of being enjoyed by Krishna. And we are also fortunate because the temple of the Lord is not different than the Vrindavan itself . You all are now sitting in the highest realm of the spiritual world – the abode of Krishna and Radha – Sri Sri Radhagopinath’s Vrindavan. We even have one waterfall, it’s actually there is Jamuna water. So the jamuna is here and you see the cows are here, the forest is here. Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda taught us the greatest most sublime way of giving pleasure to Krishna. Not only does they taught us but within few moments we will practically witness how they have demonstrated to us – how to be enjoyed by Krishna. Lord Chaitanya who was Krishna himself appeared in the guise of a devotee to teach us how to love, how to give pleasure, how to be enjoyed by God. And the most simple sublime of all processes which is the foundation in which we can build our devotion, our love is the chanting of the Holy name - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. But we should chant in this spirit. With this chanting, we should be conscious that this is the offering of our hearts, an offering of our love, an offering of our life for the pleasure of Krishna. In this way, somehow or the other, whatever our state of awareness, whatever our conditioning is, some inconceivable will of the Lord that tonight we all are being allowed to be part of the rasa lila. This is a fact – Krishna is celebrating his rasa lila in the form of Radhagopinath – the lord of the gopis. What better motive there could be than in the association of in this night with the Lord of the gopis and he is enjoying with Sri Radharani and he is allowing all of us to assist in this enjoyment by chanting the glories, by dancing for them, by showing our love. So let us all really really really seriously and deeply ponder upon the good fortune that we have and take full advantage of it. This night is the supreme night of Krishna’s reciprocating pleasure with his devotees so according to our little tiny capacity let us give it all, all of our concentration, all of our awareness, all of our prayer in chanting the holy name for the pleasure of Krishna.
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