02 Sep KRISHNA JANMASHTAMI 2021- THE ADVENT OF LORD SRI KRISHNA
KRISHNA The All Attractive, The Absolute Truth, All Knowing, All Powerful, All Knowledge. These are some ways we think of God according to our understanding.
According to our Founder achraya Srila Prabhupada: Krishna is The Supreme Personality of Godhead- Bhagwan.
BHAGWAN- Bhaga means “opulence” and van means “one who possesses.” Because God owns everything, He is called Bhagavan. Sage Parashara has defined Bhagavan as the one who possesses in full 6 opulences: beauty, wealth, fame, strength, knowledge, and renunciation.
(Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47)
aiśvaryasya samagrasya
vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ
jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva
ṣaṇṇāṁ bhagam itīṅganā
Lord Brahma describes Krishna in the Brahma Samhita prayers as:
ishvarah paramah krishnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaha
anadir adir govinda
sarva-karana-karanam
Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
sat-cid-ananda, full of eternity, knowledge and bliss. These correspond to three main features of the Supreme:Brahman, Parmatma and Bhagawan.
The Brahmavadis worship the Brahman feature of Krishna which is His bodily effulgence called the Brahmajyoti. The mystic yogis, who initially perform the hatha-yoga exercises, meditate on the Antaryami or Parmatma feature of Krishna, the Lord within the heart.
The Bhaktas or devotees of The Lord worship Him through the process of bhakti or devotional service as the Supreme Person (Bhagavan or Param-Ishvara), residing in His spiritual abode Goloka Vrndavan performing ever fresh eternal pastimes with His pure devotees in various rasas or mellows exchanging pure love.
BG Verse 4.8
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge
Humanity has not come across another personality like Lord Krishna with His unparalleled beauty, valour and activities. Lord Krishna descended on planet earth 5,000 years ago and played his part as a human being to perfection.
There were three reasons for His appearance on this material planets:
- To deliver the pious and
- To annihilate the miscreants, as well as
- To reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.
But Krishna primarily appears on earth to reciprocate the love of His dear devotees.
There is a nice story to illustrate this:
Once the mighty king Akbar The Great asked his minister Birbal-
“Your scriptures say that your God Sri Krishna appears on earth to save His devotees from miscreants. If He is all powerful, why does He need to come down Himself- is He not qualified enough? Doesn’t He have special powerful ministers or beings to carry out his orders to help His devotees in danger?”
Birbal who was renowned for his wisdom and wit replied-
“O king, I will give you the answer to this question at an appropriate time.
It so happened that few days later Akbar and Birbal went together with some chosen ministers and the little prince Salim who later was known as Jahangir on nauka vihar- a boat excursion in the river Yamuna.
While the king was busy in some discussions with Birbal, there was a commotion and someone shouted that the little prince who was no more than 4 years old had somehow fallen into the river.
Hearing, this without a moment’s hesitation, King Akbar dived headlong into the river and rescued his son from drowning within minutes.
After the commotion had settled, Birbal approached Akbar and asked him – “when we are surrounded by so many brave soldiers who are willingly and happily ready to plunge into the waters of the Yamuna to save the crown prince’s life- why did you –O great king decide to save him yourself? Wouldn’t it be easier to order one of your brave soldiers?
At this Akbar replied: Birbal, when my dear son is in danger, how can I even think of not rescuing him myself? My love for him is so great that the thought of ordering someone else to save him didn’t even come to my mind!
Birbal gave a mischievous smile and responded- I think now is the appropriate time to answer your question about Lord Krishna is Bhakt vatsala and that’s why He chooses to come down Himself on material earth to rescue His devotees who are so dear to Him that the thought of asking some other devi devata to rescue them does not even occur to Him. Such is the reciprocating relationship between my Lord and His pure devotees.
This is why He appeared within the prison of His maternal uncle Kamsa, where His father Vasudev and mother Devaki were confined. Slaying demons like Kamsa is a secondary reason for His advent.
In the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Rupa Goswami lists sixty-four characteristics or qualities exhibited by living beings. Fifty of these, he writes, can be found in an ordinary soul (jiva) in minute proportions, while Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva, and other demigods may possess as many as fifty-five. Vishnu, he continues, displays up to sixty of these qualities.
But the remaining four are found only in Krishna, escaping all other manifestations of the Supreme.
The four qualities unique to Krishna are as follows:
Lila-madhurya
Bhakta-madhurya
Venu-madhurya
Rupa-madhurya
1. Lila-madhurya: He exhibits numerous wonderful pastimes for the pleasure of His devotees.
2. Bhakta-madhurya: He interacts with loving devotees in intimate ways.
3. Venu-madhurya: He plays on His divine flute, thus attracting all souls.
4. Rupa-madhurya: His beautiful form is incomparable, unrivaled in all of existence.
Krishna first appeared outside His mother Devaki’s body as the four-handed Vishnu – Narayana. Then He turned Himself into a baby and told His father to carry Him to the house of Nanda Maharaja and his wife Yashoda in Gokula.
Even though the pastimes of the Vishnu form in the various Vaikuntha planets are transcendental and complete, they are all predominated with Aishwarya bhava, due to which the love of all the associates present there is tinged with awe and reverence, for they are well aware that Vishnu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
This, however, does not give the highest pleasure to the Lord, rather He Vrajendranandan Shyamsundar relishes the love of the Vrajavasis, which is full of Madhurya bhava, transcendental sweetness, due to which they forget about Krishna being the Supreme Lord and love him just as their friend, son or beloved. Due to the predominance of this sweetness, the pastimes performed in Vrndavan are far more enchanting and captivating for the heart of the devotees than the pastimes that are in Aishwarya rasa. It is due to this sweetness that Krishna displays these four transcendental qualities in Vraja and not anywhere else.
In other words- Krishna although is God, doesn’t like to be God. No amount of material opulence, therefore, can attract Him. Just as one could not attract a millionaire by offering him a few dollars, one cannot attract Krishna merely by one’s limited material opulence. Nevertheless, pure devotional service attracts even Krishna. This is the unique transcendental excellence of devotional service.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura writes in the Navadvipa Bhava Taranga (118): “As much as my Sri Krishna is endowed with utmost sweetness [madhurya], similarly the Lord of Vaikuntha is endowed with absolute opulence and grandeur [aishvarya]. Lord Krishna as Vrajendra-nandana [the darling of the king of Vraja] never gives up this same opulence, but such aspects of His spiritual grandeur are considered unimportant by His pure devotees.”
In other words, while Krishna sometimes reveals an opulent side that parallels that of Vishnu, as, for instance, when He enacts His kingly pastimes in Dwarka, Vishnu never displays the sweetness associated with Krishna and His associates. Therefore, it can be said that Krishna has something not found in Vishnu—pastimes of intimate, familiar love.
Most concepts of God, even in the Vaishnava tradition, naturally evoke awe and reverence, but Krishna evokes intimacy and personal loving relationship. It is this, beyond all else, that distinguishes Him among manifestations of the Supreme. And love, as we all know, is the highest phenomenon in all of existence. After all, when confronted with a choice between power and love, who would choose the former?
The Gaudiya Vaishnava vision of the divine is that all forms of Godhead are equal—since there is only one God—but Krishna enjoys a special position as the “candle who lights the other candles.”
ete chamsha-kalah pumsah
krishnas tu bhagavan svayam
“All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead.” (Bhag. 1.3.28) describes Krishna’s primary position.
In addition to His ontologically prior position as the source of all Vishnu manifestations of the Supreme, He exudes a sweetness and intimacy that eclipses the power and majesty of other divine forms. In fact, His all-attractive nature (Krishna means “the all-attractive one”) even attracts other manifestations of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explains that Krishna is known as Madana-mohana because He conquers the mind of Cupid (Madana). When He stands in a three-curved way, He attracts all living entities, including the demigods. Indeed, He even attracts the Narayana form presiding in every Vaikuntha planet.
Srila Prabhupada writes in Chapter Ten of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya: “There is no beauty to compare with that of Krishna, who is the origin of Narayana and all other incarnations, for no one possesses beauty equal to or greater than Krishna’s. Otherwise, why would the goddess of fortune, the constant companion of Narayana, give up His association and engage herself in penance to gain the association of Krishna? Such is the superexcellent beauty of Krishna, the everlasting mine of all beauty. It is from that beauty that all other beautiful things emanate.”
The incarnation Dhanvantari displayed His fame, Nrsimha dev incarnation displayed His valour , Mohinī and Vāmana exhibited His beauty, Vishnu displays His opulence
Dattātreya, Matsya, Kumāra and Kapila exhibited His transcendental knowledge. Nara and Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣis exhibited His renunciation.
So all the different indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead in perfection and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations.
Vishnu can never display the sweetness associated with Krishna although Krishna reveals an opulent side that parallels Vishnu when He enacts the Dwarika pastimes. So, Krishna is said to have something which is not found in Vishnu- pastimes of intimate, familiar love which is proof that Krishna’s supremacy underscores the superiority of Love over power, sweetness over opulence.
Krishna forsakes or gives up so much opulence and power for the loving reciprocation of His pure devotees in the form of Damodar or that Bal Gopal form of Vrindavan that bewilders great jyanis from time immemorial. He gets bored with the beautiful and poetic rendition of the divine Purush Sukta prayers of the demigods glorifying Him in great awe and reverence. He would rather be chased by a stick by mother yashoda or made fun of by His Gopa friends in loving friendly banter.
Tulasidas says:
“Sur asur nag nar prabal karma ki dori
Soi avichhinn parabrahma yashomati hath baddhyo sakat na chhori”
“One Who binds all living entities ranging from demigods, demons, snakes and humans specially with the strong rope of karma, that same Krishna Who is sarva vyapak Parabrahma is captured by the determination of Mother Yashoda from which even He could not free Himself.”
The Unfathomable- Krishna and His lila are both Agadh
sesa, ganesa, mahesa, dinesa, suresahu jahi nirantara gavain
jahi anadi ananta akhanda acheda abheda su veda batavain
The gods Sesh, Ganesh, Mahesh, Suresh, and Dinesh constantly sing of Him
Who is beginningless, endless, unlimited, indestructible, void of differences, and revealed in the Vedas.
narada se suka vyasa rahain paci hare tau puni para na pavain
tahi ahira ki chochariyan chachiya bhari chacha pai naca nacavain
Narada, Sukha, and Vyasa are exhausted from searching for Him. They can never fathom His limits.
Yet, the dairymaids of Vrindavana can make Him dance—
for a sip of buttermilk from the palm of their hands!
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