Pastimes of facination of Brahma
brahman kalantara-kritam tat-kalinam katham bhavet
yat kaumare hari-kritam jaguh paugandake rbhakah (10/12/41 )
Maharaj Parikhit is hereby submitting at the feet of adorable Sukdevji – Gurubar the activities that are performed in the past, how the cowherd children describe them as it has happened today. The pastime of killing Aghasura was performed by Sri Krishna during His kaumara age and after one year during His pauganda age the cowherd children are telling the Brajabashis that it has happened recently, how is it possible? Everyday after reaching home the cowherd boys narrates their cow grazing pastimes to their mother, what their life dear friend Sri Krishna has done today everything they use to describe.
After the pastimes of deliverance of Aghasura, saving all His dear companions from the death personified Aghasura, Krishna brings all his friends to the banks of Jamuna. He says to them, dear friends the banks of Jamunaji are extremely pleasant, let us have our lunch here and the calves can drink the water of Jamuna and feed themselves with green grass and creepers grown nearby.
All the cowherd children agree to what Krishna has said and starts taking out their food. They made their dear friend Krishna eat their food first and then they start feeding themselves, some of them ate first to check whether the food is tasty or not, then they offered it in the mouth of Sri Krishna and took the rest as left over from Him. It is a very strange pastime. Acharya Sukdevji witnessing the pastimes says –
bibhrad venum jathara-patayoh sringa-vetre ca kakse
vame panau masrna-kavalam tat-phalany angulesu
tisthan madhye sva-parisuhrdo hasayan narmabhih svaih
svarge loke misati bubhuje yajna-bhug bala-keli (10/13/11 )
Although being the enjoyer of all sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna inserting His flute in-between his waist and the tied cloth and His horn bugle and cane below his left armpit, holding rice mixed with yoghurt in His hands and fruits in-between His fingers, telling jokes to his companions surrounding him and making them laugh, becoming a noticeable subject for the denizens of heaven, enjoys His food in front of everybody.
This pastime is extremely wonderful. The sadhu-mahatmas of Vrindavana describe the raas-leela pastimes in four ways – one is raas-leela with the old gopis, second is raas-leela with the go-matas (cows), third is with His cowherd friends and the fourth is with the young women of Braja.
Chief of adorable Sri Sukdevji says, Hey Rajashri this is a very strange and transcendental raas-leela. The significance of raas-leela has to be understood properly. The Upanishads has described Paramatma as ‘raso bai sa’ means Paramatma happens to be rasarupa (form of juice), rasamaya (juicy), rasa-sindhu (ocean of juice), only the rasamaya person achieves Paramatma, becoming similar with Paramatma is raas-leela. The old gopis of Gokula use to see Krishna and think don’t know how much happiness Yasoda is enjoying having this Krishna as her son. So they had a strong desire to visibly attain Krishna as their son. When the strong desire of union fulfills at that time raas take place.
The go-matas of Gokula also had a strong desire to unite with Krishna, means they had a powerful longing to have Krishna as their son (calf) and in this chapter Paramatma Balgopala also performs raas with the go-matas.
According to what Sukdev Maharaj has thought while absorbed in samadhi (trance) –
This lunch meeting in the forest is like a kamala (water lily), in the middle of kamala there is a pushpa-danda (peduncle) and Sri Krishna is in the middle and in the form of small and big petals the cowherd children are surrounding Him. The big petals seem to be far away but every petal is connected with the peduncle. If there are thousands of petals still all of them are connected and in this way all the cowherd children are connected with Sri Krishna and feeding themselves. Also in the raas-leela with the gopis, Krishna made all the gopis feel that He is alongwith each of them and in this way He gave pleasure to all.
The love of these cowherd children is very wonderful. The love of children is always uncontaminated. The items which they brought from their homes, only the best ones among them they use to insert in the mouth of their life dear friend Gopala, those which are medium they give it to the other friends and that which is general they feeds themselves with that. In this way they use to distribute and enjoy their meal. To give the best object to others, to Prabhu that is bhakti and taking by one ownself is attachment.
They all wish to sit beside Krishna so that they can with their own hands make Krishna eat their best items. In this way Sri Krishna is enjoying His meal alongwith His friends we are also sitting with the friends of Krishna and having our prasada – this should be our remembrance, our thought. Among friends of Sri Krishna there is a brahmana whose name if Madhumangala, son of Sandilya rishi (preceptor of Krishna-Balarama). This brahmana friend is very much caressed by mother Yashoda and daily she uses to feed him alongwith her sons Krishna and Balarama. Madhumangal’s mother is Paurnamasi who is the chief actress in this pastime of Sri Krishna and it is by her wish that Krishna performs the pastimes of Braja.
Rishi Sandilya was a great ascetic – his whole day is passed by doing meditation and worship. The incarnation of brahmana is not only to feed himself, but for doing bhakti the whole day. A healthy human body takes breath 900 times in one hour and in 24 hours takes 21,600 times. In every breath rishi Sandilya uses to chant the names of the Lord and he is husband of Paurnamasi and father of Madhumangala.
Sri Krishna forcibly drinks buttermilk brought from the house of Madhumangala and says, today I am blessed receiving prasada from the house of a great ascetic.
On the other side, these pastimes of Sri Krishna are being noticed by Brahma and other denizens of heaven. Brahmaji gets very much surprised, what kind of Bhagavan is this; He eats the left over food and roams around in the fields grazing cows. The pastimes of Krishna are so variegated that even the devataas who were watching becomes distracted, so a Brahmaji having doubt is not at all surprising.
Brahmaji wishes to examine Bhagavan Sri Krishna. He thinks, if Bhagavan Sri Krishna can build a samsara like me than I comprehend that He is Iswara.
Sri Krishna is having His meal with the cowherd children; the claves are tearing grass on their own will. At the end of lunch the cowherd children realizes that the calves are not there and they tells Krishna, dear friend we are not seeing the claves anywhere. Sri Krishna says, you complete your food, I will be just going and bring them back and saying this He goes in search of the calves. Brahmaji had already abducted the calves and while Krishna goes away he also kidnaps the cowherd children. Sri Krishna could not find the calves anywhere and after returning back could not also find his cowherd companion. He felt the incident to be very strange.
Realising that the creator prajapati Brahmaji is after Him today without any reason and is creating obstruction in the performance His pastime, Bhagavan by the influence of His own energy takes the form of all cowherd children and their calves. Adorable Sukdevji says –
yavad vatsapa-vatsakalpaka-vapur yavat karanghry-adikam
yavad yasti-visana-venu-dala-sig yavad vibhusambaram
yavac chila-gunabhidhakrti-vayo yavad viharadikam
sarvam visnumayam giro nga-vad ajah sarva-svarupo babhau (10/13/19 )
The form which the cowherd children and their calves had, their stick, their flute, bugle, lunch box, their dresses, their character, their qualities, their shape, their way of walking and talking, unborn Krishna assuming exactly all those forms and “Vishnu is all-pervading”, making this speech visibly embodied happens to be existing.
After taking various forms Sri Krishna finishes grazing and goes back to the respective houses taking the respective calves from where it belongs to. Today each of the elder gopis are not meeting their own child but meeting direct Paramatma. Today Gopala fulfills the heart desire of all the elderly ladies of Gokula and thus ocean of happiness starts flowing from each houses of Gokula. Until now the gopis had to go to Yashoda’s place to enjoy happiness but today Paramananda is manifested in their own homes. Today the happiness of the mother cows also knew no bounds, as Govinda assumed the form of their calves and came to them. This is the raas-leela performed by Govinda with the mother cows and the gopis impersonating as mother and this is unification of jiva and Iswara, meeting of atma and Paramatma. During this time everything in Vrindavana attains Brahmaswarupa (nature of Brahman). Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself is performing a strange pastime with Sri Krishna impersonating as calves and cowherd friends.
The learned persons sports with their own selves and so they are called atmaram. Bibartabad (doctrine of illusion or maya) of Vedanta and the Brahma-parinambad (theory of evolution) of the Vaishnava acharyas both are originated from this pastime. Bhagavattam synthesizes these two theories. Variety, many, multifarious these are said to be illusion, ignorance otherwise everything is Brahma, Paramatma, everything is Bhagavan Sri Krishna and except Him there is nothing. The vaishnava acharyas defines this world as consequence of Brahma means Brahma is this universe. Sri Krishna Himself, taking shelter of various qualities and moods goes on performing His various pastimes.
At that time Bhagavan Balgopala performs another wonder, He takes the form of Brahma and goes to Brahmaloka and there He sits on the throne and says to the servitors of Brahma, I am taking rest, nowadays an imitation Brahma has been created, if he comes don’t let him in without my permission, bid him farewell from the entrance itself. Now as Brahma comes from Vrindavana to Brahmaloka his servitors do not let him enter and further insults and dishonours him. Now Sri Nandanandana tests Brahma. Brahmaji closes his eyes and sits down to meditate and through his learned eyes he visualizes that God Himself is existing in his throne, these are all Krishna’s pastimes and actually Sri Krishna is the Supreme Lord. Brahmaji realizing his fault starts repenting that he had created obstruction in the pastimes of Sri Krishna.
Now he comes to Vrindavana and coming to Lord Krishna he prays for forgiveness. Coming down from his swan carrier he falls flat at the feet of Sri Krishna and with 40 slokas he glorifies the Lord and begs for forgiveness. Brahmaji says –
naumidya te bhra-vapude tadid-ambaraya
gunjavatamsa-paripiccha-lasan-mukhaya
vanya-sraje kavala-vetra-visana-venu-
laksma-sriye mridu-pade pasupangajaya (10/14/1 )
O glorifiable one, Your body is of the colour of cloud, Your garment is of the colour of lightning, Your head is adorned with the peacock feather, wearing garland of various forest flowers, herding stick, buffalo horn and flute, by all this symbols You are excellently beautified. O son of king of cowherds unto Your soft feet I am bowing down and offering my obeisance. Hey Nandalala, in this universe You are the only worthy Person to be glorified.
utksepanam garbha-gatasya padayoh
kim kalpate matur adhoksajagase
kim asti-nasti-vyapadesa-bhisitam
tavassti kukseh kiyad apy anantah (10/14/12 )
As the child who resides in the womb of mother if unknowingly he kicks his mother, his mother forgives him, similarly You also forgive me, as in Your pastimes I became enchanted, who can reach the banks of Your pastimes.
ko vetti bhuman bhagavan paratman
yogesvarotir bhavatas tri-lokyam
kva vä katham va kati va kadeti
vistarayan kridasi yoga-mayam (10/14/21 )
The pastimes of Sri Krishna are a great mercy upon the jivas of universe. What Bhagavan does, He does it for the jivas, He does it for the welfare of the world and for His own, He does not have any purpose. The relation of jivas with the world is general and the relation with Paramatma is eternal. Only by hearing, remembering and narrating the pastimes of Krishna , the jivas will forget about samsara, his thoughts of samsara will not occur. The mind getting drowned in the objects of samsara gets fastened in the bondage of attachment and selfishness. So the mind is bounded, the soul does not have any bindings, it is always free, part of Paramatma. Again some mahatma says, atma is not a part but ownself Paramatma means there is no difference between atma and Paramatma, but the opinion of Mahaprabhu Sri Krishna Chaitanya Dev is – atma Paramtama veda-abheda (difference and non-difference) is so subtle that it could not be thought of. So His decision is achinta ved-abhed tattva (unthinkable difference and non-difference). As long as the mind of jivas keeps holding properties, as long as there are desires, till that time it is bounded, renouncing properties-longings there is no bondage, he is free – attains supreme bliss.
In the pastimes of Krishna there is such a divine power that the mind which is bounded in samsara very easily forgets about the material possessions by hearing and remembering it. Staying in this samsara itself one has to forget about it and bear Paramatma in mind because He is always and ever with us but with the samsara there is always union and estrangement going on.
Sri Nandanandana drives away the enchantment of Brahma and Brahma goes and brings back the cowherd children and the calves. While this incident is going on one year of human beings passes away but nobody could ascertain it. They think that today only Aghasura is killed and we just came from our picnic. Therefore after one year they returned back to their homes and narrate the pastimes of killing of Aghasura to their respective mother.
Brahmaji becomes so happy seeing the pastimes of Braja that he folds his hands and prays –
tad astu me natha sa bhuri-bhago
bhave tra vanyatra tu va tirascam
yenaham eko pi bhavaj-jananam
bhutva niseve tava pada-pallavam
aho ti-dhanya vraja-go-ramanyah
stanyamritam pitam ativa te muda
yasam vibho vatsataratmajatmana
yat-triptaye dyapi na alam adhvarah
aho bhagyam aho bhagyam
nanda-gopa-vrajaukasam
yan-mitram paramanandam
purnam brahma sanatanam (10/14/30 ,31,32)
O dear Lord, hey Prabhu whether in this birth or any other birth, wherever I may be, whether I become an animal or a bird, may I become one among Your devotees and attain the good fortune of serving Your lotus feet.
Hey Bibho uptill now the sacrifices could not satisfy You, blessed are the cows and gopis of Braja because You became Gobatsa and Gopalak (calf and maintainer) and drank their breast milk and thus became satisfied.
Nandagopa etc. Brajabashis are also extremely fortunate because the real form of Paramananda, Purna-brahma (the complete Brahman) is their chief friend.
One who takes birth in this human world, that also in Vrindavana moreover in Gokula, he is most fortunate because till today the foot-dust of Whose the Vedas are inquiring, that Bhagavan Mukunda is making the life of Brajabashis completely successful. So any kind of birth in this land of Braja
tad bhuri-bhagyam iha janma kim apy atavyam
yad gokule pi katamanghri-rajo-bhisekam
yaj-jivitam tu nikhilam bhagavan mukundas
tv adyapi yat-pada-rajah sruti-mrigyam eva (10/14/34 )
to be continued
(A part of the Summary of Srimad Bhagavattam translated from the diary of Sri Gurudeb)
