CONTENTS:
- I AM KRISHNA'S & KRISHNA IS MINE
- FORGETFULNESS OUT OF LOVE
- INQUIRIES OF THE SOUL
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S VICTORY
1. I AM KRISHNA'S & KRISHNA IS MINE
In Vrindavan, the forgetfulness of the residents about Krishna’s situation as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is something like that. Their attitude is, “You may be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but so what? What really matters is that You are my friend. Whether You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead or not, you will always remain my friend. I will always treat You as my friend. I will always treat You as my son. I will always treat You as my lover.” So that is Vrindavan- forgetfulness out of intense love. That is Yogamaya. Maya is forgetfulness. Another meaning of the word Maya, is that He belongs to me; that feeling that somebody is mine. So, due to their intense love for Krishna, the Vraja vasis feel that Krishna is mine, Krishna is my friend, Krishna is my son. And Krishna’s position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead therefore becomes irrelevant. So that is Vrindavan.
2. FORGETFULNESS OUT OF LOVE
By Yogamaya’s arrangement, Krishna makes this situation where the gopis or the residents of Vrndavana feel that Krishna has left Vrndavana and He didn’t come back for almost a hundred years. That is their feeling. But in reality, Vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati, Krishna never goes anywhere leaving Vrindavan. Krishna does not even take one step out of Vrindavan. That is the reality.
Then the question is, then why do the residents of Vrndavana feel like that? It is because of Yogamaya’s arrangement. When Krishna is with them, it is not that they don’t deal with Krishna. Krishna deals with them and they are meeting Krishna, but they feel as if they are dreaming. So, this is what Vrndavana is like. Krishna in reality never leaves Vrndavana.
The question may arise, well Krishna did leave to go to Mathura to kill Kamsa. Now when Akrura was taking Krishna and Balarama to Mathura, they came to the border of Vrndavana and Akrura decided to take a dip in the Yamuna. So, when Akrura went to the Yamuna he saw Krishna and Balarama were there in the river. He was surprised, that Krishna and Balarama were in the chariot and now how come They are here? So, he went back and found that Krishna and Balarama were still sitting on the chariot. When he came back, he saw Them in Their four-armed forms. So, at that point Vrajendra-nandana Krishna went back to Vrndavana and Vasudeva Krishna, the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, came and sat on the chariot. So, whom Akrura took to Mathura was not Vrajendra-nandana Krishna but Vasudeva Krishna. Vrajendra-nandana Krishna never leaves Vrndavana.
So again, we can go back to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings. What are Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings? Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura has summed up Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings: Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam. Aradhyo bhagavan, the Supreme worshippable Personality of Godhead is the son of Nanda Maharaja.
Now also this is quite understandable because Vasudeva Krishna is an expansion of Krishna, so He merged into Krishna’s body. And when Akrura came, then that Vasudeva Krishna went to Mathura. So, this is how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gives us a very clear understanding of who Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is. He is the son of Nanda Maharaja. His abode is Vrindavan and His Vrindavan pastimes are the Supreme.
He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ, Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). So, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna of Vrndavana and His first expansion is Balarama. Then He expands into the catur vyuha of Dvarka Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. This Vasudeva Krishna has two aspects again, one is Mathuresa Krishna and the other is Dvarkesa Krishna; His pastimes are in Mathura as well as in Dvarka.
He is emphatically pointing out that, aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead is the son of Nanda Maharaja, vrajesa. And, tad-dhäma Vrindavanam, His abode is Vrindavan. And, ramya kascid upasana vraja-vadhu-varga-ya kalpita, the way the cowherd damsels worship Krishna, that is the Supreme worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; that is the highest form of worship. So, this is actually indicating clearly that there are two Krishna’s: Devaki-nandana Krishna, who is Vasudeva Krishna and Vrajendra-nanda Krishna. The Krishna in Vrindavan is the son of Nanda Maharaja. Then the question may arise, but Vasudeva brought Krishna to Vrindavan from Mathura? Krishna was brought to Vrindavan. So, this is also a mystery. Mother Yashoda actually gave birth to two children, one son and one daughter.
When Vasudeva Krishna was brought by Vasudeva to Vrindavan and placed on the bed, then it was dark and Vasudeva didn’t really see properly that the other son was there. So, this Devaki-nandana Krishna merged into Nanda-nandana Krishna. And then Vasudeva took the daughter and went away.
3. INQUIRIES OF THE SOUL
Question: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you for the class. You mentioned that Krishna takes pleasure in intensifying His devotees’ love for Him. But someone may question that the gopis or the devotees of Krishna, are in one sense suffering in separation from Him and Krishna is taking pleasure in that. He may misunderstand that. So, what is that apparent suffering of the gopis and how do we understand that to be their pleasure?
HH BCS: Well, love is like that. Love doesn’t always give pleasure. That love in separation becomes intensely painful, but that pain is not really like ordinary pain. When one goes deeply into it, one sees that this pain is actually a source of joy, especially when it is in relation to Krishna. On the material platform separations are painful, because material relationships are temporary to begin with. But that is not the case with relationships with Krishna. The relationship is eternal. There is no question of separation. On the one hand one can consider, why there should be separation because Krishna is there in the heart. When Uddhava went to Vrndavana He was trying to pacify the gopis, “Why you are feeling this separation? Krishna is always there in your heart. You can feel Him. He is there.” Their response was, “Uddhava, you do not know what love is.” So that love and loving relationships with Krishna is very different from mundane loving relationships. It is a feeling that He is not there. And that feeling of separation eventually is intensifying the joy of union, because when separation is there, then union becomes so much more delightful. Hare Krishna.
Question: (First part inaudible) What is the difference between Kali and Maya?
HH BCS: Maya is Krsna’s external energy and Kali is a personality. Maya also is a personality but she is Krsna’s external energy. Kali is the ruler of this age. To speak about the genealogy of Kali, Kali is the grandson of Brahma. Anger also is a personality. Envy also is a personality. When they were united, the by product or offspring is Kali.
Well, personal interest is, you know, personal interest ultimately comes to sense gratification or the desire to establish ourselves. If we think that I should be the only person in the temple and let everyone go out, then here our cooperation goes. But if we think that let everybody stay in the temple and I will find some middle corner somewhere and let us all work together. That is the meaning of sacrificing of personal interests. Another big impediment towards cooperation is actually to think that whatever my understanding, that is it, and let everybody follow me. If somebody does not want to follow me or my instruction let him just go out. So, if you develop that mentality, can you cooperate? This way we can see that in order to cooperate we actually have to make a lot of personal sacrifices.
The underlying principle of our cooperation will be Srila Prabhupada’s pleasure. Because although it is difficult for me to cooperate, but let me cooperate because that will please Srila Prabhupada.
4. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S VICTORY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST KALI
Srila Prabhupada gave us the most perfect arrangement to fight against Kali in the form of Iskcon. Iskcon is actually a fort to fight against Kali. If we remain in Iskcon, then we will be protected by Srila Prabhupada and fighting against Kali will be very, very easy. This thing can be understood by this point. This age is a very, very dangerous age, the age of Kali. All over the world these sinful activities have become so prevalent. Wherever we go there is intoxication, illicit sex, gambling and meat eating. It is practically impossible to avoid these influences in this age. Even very, very strong and powerful devotees cannot avoid these influences just by themselves.
If one is in Iskcon, in the association of devotees, then one can very easily avoid these influences. Even a very weak devotee, because he stays in the association of devotees, he does not indulge in these influences.
Whereas we have seen many powerful, very, very strong and powerful Sannyasis have gradually fallen down after leaving Iskcon. I personally saw when some individual Sannyasi left, I thought he was so strong that he will not fell down. I met him after he left Iskcon when he was staying in one devotee’s father’s house, and he was worshipping his deities and shilas. After some years I met him again and saw that he started to work as a lawyer’s assistant. He was still worshipping his deities. Next time I met him, he was engaged to a woman. Now he is married and has children. This is how one becomes a victim of the external energy, and I was thinking that if he had remained in Iskcon then he would never have come to that stage. For a Sannyasi to get married, is the worst thing that can happen. Therefore, it has been very, very strictly warned,
Mahaprabhu himself said, when Govinda stopped him. When Mahaprabhu heard some Devadasi woman, Jagannath’s maid servant, one dancing girl, singing Gita Govinda by Jayadeva so beautifully that Mahaprabhu became ecstatic and He ran towards her. At that time Mahaprabhu became so ecstatic that He did not have any external consciousness.
He did not care. He did not consider whether it was a man or a woman who was singing, and He became so attracted to the song or the person that was singing that He would have gone and embraced her. At that time Govinda grabbed Him, stopped Him and shouted, “That’s a woman!” Then Mahaprabhu came back to His senses and said, “Govinda, you saved Me. Had I touched that woman, that would have been My death.”
Mahaprabhu also showed that through His example when He became annoyed with Chota Haridas for his association with a woman. Chota Haridas did not even touch the woman or have an affair with her but Mahaprabhu detected that there is some attachment in the heart, and that is why Mahaprabhu rejected that.
Finally, Chota Haridas drowned himself in the Triveni, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. Mahaprabhu approved of the act of drowning and said, “It was good that he killed himself.” This is how strict Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was, and that is how strictly Mahaprabhu exemplified the renounced order of life. So, the devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the soldiers of Srila Prabhupada’s army must be very, very careful not to be affected by Kali’s influence.