The following is a transcription of a discourse delivered by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja in Germany on February 24, 2003

 

You should all come with me to Vraja.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it has been clearly written that Kṛṣṇa appeared in the jail of Kaṁsa, from the womb of Mother Devakī, by Vasudeva Mahārāja. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Śrīla Vyāsadeva both knew, however, that Kṛṣṇa was only partly the son of Vasudeva and Devakī, whereas He was fully the son of Yaśodā and Nanda Bābā. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī knew that fact, but he concealed it, and he has said instead that Kṛṣṇa came from the womb of Devakī. Later on, however, the truth came out of his mouth.

There is a reason that Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī did not reveal this truth clearly at first. Many problems may have come up for ordinary people, especially for the Vedic smārta brāhmaṇas. They would not have read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or they would have spoken against it. It was only very secretly, therefore, that Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī told Mahārāja Parīkṣit that Kṛṣṇa took birth from the womb of Yaśodā and Nanda Bābā. If he had clearly explained this, from the point of view of the smārtas, would Kṛṣṇa have been able to act as the most beloved of all the gopīs in Nandagaon (Vraja)? It would have been impossible. If Kṛṣṇa had been born in Vraja, the gopīs would have had a blood relationship with Him. It must be this way. They will either be like aunties or like elder or younger cousin-sisters. In those cases, how would Kṛṣṇa be able to perform the rāsa dance with them, and how would He be able to embrace them?

In India, the smārta-samāja (the caste brāhmaṇas who are attached only to the external, ritualistic rules and regulations of Vedic culture) do not accept this behaviour, and that is why Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī told the real fact secretly. Such smārtas do not know the secret tattva of the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa, so they may have raised this aforementioned question out of ignorance.

Why is their question based on ignorance? The gopīs are not different from Kṛṣṇa. They are themselves Kṛṣṇa or manifestations of Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhikā came from His left side:

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

Śrī Brahmā-saṁhitā (5.37)

[“I worship Govinda, the primaeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes (sakhīs), embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalised by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.”]

Nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ. Kalā means Kṛṣṇa’s kalā (plenary portion), or in other words, the kalā of Rādhikā. Śrīmatī Rādhikā is the hlādinī-śakti of Kṛṣṇa, and all the gopīs have come from hlādinī-śakti Śrīmatī Rādhikā as Her kāya-vyūha rūpa (bodily expansions). Kṛṣṇa can play with His potency as one plays with one’s own shadow; there is no harm in that. Similarly, the gopīs dance and play with Kṛṣṇa, embracing and kissing Him, and there is no harm in that. If I wrap my arms around each other, there is no harm in that. In the same way, Kṛṣṇa plays with the gopīs as one plays with His own shadow or His own body, in the form of the gopīs. The gopīs are like Kṛṣṇa’s own body and ātmā; they are His everything. Ordinary persons, those who are not associating with Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and especially with the associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, cannot understand these facts.

In India, the Arya Samaj* and other groups say, “We accept Kṛṣṇa on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, but we do not accept Vrajarāja Kṛṣṇa because He was a wretched and lusty person.” And they also write against Kṛṣṇa. We want to help them understand, but they cannot understand. They are not qualified to understand at all. They have no saṁskāra for this, and therefore, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī tried to conceal all these facts.

Still, he could not conceal them. The truth is compared to the sun, which will automatically manifest itself at the appropriate time. If you secretly perform nonsense activities, the truth will manifest like the sun one day, and all will see that you are guilty. You cannot conceal any bad activities, so be careful. Cancer, leprosy, or other embarrassing diseases and situations will come, and you will always be restless. The reaction will surely come, so do not secretly engage in sinful activities.

Kṛṣṇa took birth in Kaṁsa’s jail and simultaneously from the womb of Mother Yaśodā in Gokula. It is prominently written, however, that He took birth from Devakī and Vasudeva, which is why Vasudeva took Him across the river. This has been written in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vasudeva went to Gokula, secretly placed his son on Yaśodā Maiyā’s bed, and then returned to Mathurā with the newborn baby daughter of Nanda Bābā. Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī never revealed that while Vasudeva was taking Kṛṣṇa across the river, Kṛṣṇa fell into the river waters, and it was Vrajendra-nandana Kṛṣṇa who emerged, not Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa. Still, our highly realised ācāryas like Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, and many others have explained that He who appeared in Mathurā and crossed the Yamunā River was Devakī-suta and, returning from Vraja years later with Akrūra, was Nanda-nandana Kṛṣṇa. When Akrūra and Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma came to Yamunā-ghāṭa (Akrūra-ghāṭa), Kṛṣṇa and Baladeva disappeared and then remained in Vraja, and those who came to Mathurā, with Akrūra, were Devakī-suta Kṛṣṇa and Baladeva.

Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa is somewhat different from Nanda-nandana Kṛṣṇa. The symptoms of Kṛṣṇa, when He is in Vraja, are that He plays His flute and wears a peacock feather in His hair or turban. Even when Mother Yaśodā binds His hair, she places a peacock feather there. From His childhood, Kṛṣṇa went out into the forest to graze calves and, after that, cows. This is the symptom of Vrajendra-nandana Kṛṣṇa. The son of Devakī and Vasudeva cannot, on the other hand, wear a peacock feather in His hair. He cannot play a flute or carry a stick, and He cannot wear the dress and turban of a gopa as these behaviours would be against social etiquette. In Dvārakā, Kṛṣṇa wears a mukuṭa (crown), lives in palatial buildings, and wears the dress of royalty. In Vraja, He will not wear royal ornaments; He will only wear necklaces of guñjā-mālā and flowers.

After Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā, He lamented grievously. During His stay there, He first took dīkṣā and upanāyana-saṁskāra (the sacred thread), then went to a gurukula very far from Mathurā, and after 64 days, returned to Mathurā. Then, one day, sitting on the top of one of the palatial buildings in Mathurā, He saw that the Yamunā was flowing very sweetly and gently. He saw it coming from Vṛndāvana and, very near, just to the north of Mathurā, He saw Vṛndāvana. He remembered that all the gopīs and all the cows were dying, as He had previously heard that from Lalitā’s messenger and other messengers coming from Vṛndāvana. The calves were not grazing grass; the cows were not giving milk; the peacocks were not dancing; the cuckoos were not singing; and all of Vraja was lamenting for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was meditating on this and also seeing this directly with His eyes of emotion (bhāva-netra). He began to weep loudly, “Mother, Mother! Father, Father! Where are My friends like Subala-sakhā, Madhumaṅgala, and others? O Rādhike, Lalite, Viśākhe! O Mother Yaśode!” Weeping for them, His many tears fell like a stream.

In the meantime, Uddhava Prabhu had been searching for Kṛṣṇa here and there. He could not find Him, and finally, he arrived at the top of the building, where Kṛṣṇa was sitting. Seeing that Kṛṣṇa was weeping bitterly, he approached Him and, putting his hands on His back, said, “My dear friend, why are You weeping and lamenting?” Hearing Uddhava’s voice, Kṛṣṇa wept even louder, and, with His voice choked, He told him, “I am remembering My mother and father, who are about to die. They have been fasting for so many days and not cooking. For whom would they cook? If I am here, they will not cook there. Their cooking vessels remain upside down and unclean atop the cūlhā (old-fashioned stove), with cobwebs all over the kitchen.” In this way, Kṛṣṇa greatly lamented.

Who was Uddhava?

śrī-śuka uvāca
vṛṣṇīnāṁ pravaro mantrī
kṛṣṇasya dayitaḥ sakhā
śiṣyo bṛhaspateḥ sākṣād
uddhavo buddhi-sattamaḥ

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.46.1)

[“(Śukadeva Gosvāmī said:) The supremely intelligent Uddhava was the best counsellor of the Vṛṣṇi dynasty, a beloved friend of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and a direct disciple of Bṛhaspati.”]

He was the prime minister of Kṛṣṇa and extremely near and dear to Him. He was a sakhā (friend of Kṛṣṇa); he was His śiṣya (disciple), His dāsa (servant), and a disciple of Bṛhaspati. From his boyhood, he used to worship Kṛṣṇa like a Deity because he understood that Kṛṣṇa, who had come from the womb of Mother Devakī, was there in Vṛndāvana. He knew this, so he would continually lament and weep for Him, waiting for Him to return to Mathurā. From boyhood, he would chant Kṛṣṇa’s name, thinking Him his very near and dear one.

Now Kṛṣṇa took Uddhava’s hands in His own and began to tell him, “Uddhava, please go at once to Vraja, where My mother and father are lamenting for Me.” Prītim āvaha – All the elderly gopas and gopīs in Vraja are like Kṛṣṇa’s mothers and fathers, so Kṛṣṇa said, “Please go and pacify them.” Gopīnāṁ – He had a great desire to tell Uddhava to go to the young gopīs, but He wanted to observe the proper etiquette and not immediately reveal that the gopīs are His most beloved. He tried to conceal this, so he first told Uddhava about His mother and father.

gacchoddhava vrajaṁ saumya
pitror nau prītim āvaha
gopīnāṁ mad-viyogādhiṁ
mat-sandeśair vimocaya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.46.3)

[“(Lord Kṛṣṇa said:) ‘Dear gentle Uddhava, go to Vraja and give pleasure to Our parents. And also relieve the gopīs, suffering in separation from Me, by giving them My message.'”]

Kṛṣṇa told Uddhava, “Please go at once and pacify them, but do not use your intelligence or your own words to do so. I am giving you so many messages, one after another, that you should tell the gopīs. If they are pacified by the first message, very good; otherwise, tell them the next message, and if that is not effective, then tell them the next, and then the next.”

tā man-manaskā mat-prāṇā
mat-arthe tyakta-daihikāḥ
mām eva dayitaṁ preṣṭham
ātmānaṁ manasā gatāḥ
ye tyakta-loka-dharmāś ca
mad-arthe tān bibharmy aham

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.46.4)

[“The minds of those gopīs are always absorbed in Me, and their very lives are ever devoted to Me. For My sake they have abandoned everything related to their bodies, renouncing ordinary happiness in this life, as well as religious duties necessary for such happiness in the next life. I alone am their dearmost beloved and, indeed, their very Self. I personally sustain such devotees, who for My sake give up all worldly duties.”]

Kṛṣṇa has explained the most confidential knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā:

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo ’si me

Bhagavad-gītā (18.65)

[“Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.”]

Man-manā bhava means man-manaskā. The gopīs are man-manaskā, and there is no example of this other than them. Man-manā bhava also refers only to the gopīs because their hearts, minds, and senses are wholly absorbed in Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa continued, “They have given their souls, their minds and their everything to Me, and now they are about to die, but they are not dying. Why? Because they have given their souls to Me. Otherwise, if their souls were with them, they would have died at once. Mat-prāṇā – “I am the life and soul of all the gopīs, and all My most beloved gopīs are My soul.”

Mat-arthe tyakta-daihikāḥ – the gopīs gave up everything related to their bodies. One gopī was cooking for her husband and the others, and then she left. One gopī was decorating herself, another was sweeping, one was distributing prasādam to her children, husband, and others, and they all stopped their activities and ran away to Kṛṣṇa. They never returned to their homes, but Yogamāyā secretly made duplicate gopī forms and made it seem as though they were still with their families. But the real gopīs never returned, especially when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā.

Mām eva dayitaṁ – “I am the most beloved of the gopīs, and they are My most beloved.” Preṣṭham ātmānaṁ manasā – “Now they are as though lifeless.” Ye tyakta-loka-dharmāś ca mad-arthe tān bibharmy aham – “They have given up all worldly activities, including bathing and decorating themselves. They gave up all relationships with their mothers, fathers, husbands, and others. They have given up all this for Me, so I will have to support them, but how will I be able to support them from Mathurā? It is impossible. I, therefore, go to them in dreams, and sometimes I go personally, but they think My presence is merely a sphūrti (momentary vision). When they see Me, they consider, ‘Perhaps we are mad, and that is why we think Kṛṣṇa is here.’”

mayi tāḥ preyasāṁ preṣṭhe
dūra-sthe gokula-striyaḥ
smarantyo ’ṅga vimuhyanti
virahautkaṇṭhya-vihvalāḥ

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.46.5)

[“My dear Uddhava, for those women of Gokula I am the most cherished object of love. Thus when they remember Me, who am so far away, they are overwhelmed by the anxiety of separation.”]

“The gopīs are so far away from here.” Smarantyo – “But they remember Me.” Vimuhyanti – “Sometimes they become faint and roll on the earth, calling, ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.’”

dhārayanty ati-kṛcchreṇa
prāyaḥ prāṇān kathañcana
pratyāgamana-sandeśair
ballavyo me mad-ātmikāḥ

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.46.6)

[“Simply because I have promised to return to them, My fully devoted cowherd girlfriends struggle to maintain their lives somehow or other.”]

Somehow, they are maintaining their lives. How? Kṛṣṇa has promised He will come,“Tomorrow or the next day.” This is their only hope. It is only because of this hope that they are not dying; otherwise, they would have surely died. The hope that Kṛṣṇa will return is possible because Kṛṣṇa never tells a lie, and He promised He would return. The gopīs thought, “He may be late, but He must come, so we should not die. If we die, then our fathers, mothers, and others may also die, and then Kṛṣṇa will come here and see that we have all died. He will lament and weep, and He may also die. So we should not die. It may be that He will die, so we should not die.”

Kṛṣṇa had told the gopīs, “I am coming; do not be upset. Very soon, the day after tomorrow or after killing Kaṁsa, I am coming.” Kṛṣṇa had been with the gopīs for many years; after that, He went to Mathurā, and from there to Dvārakā, and He never returned. What suffering the gopīs were experiencing! But still, they thought, “One day Kṛṣṇa will come because He has told us so.” Kṛṣṇa did return to Vraja toward the end of His manifest stay in this world, and this secret has been told in our ācāryas’ commentaries to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has especially described it. He did not want the gopīs to be separated from Kṛṣṇa and lament forever. None of our Gosvāmīs, including Śrī Kavi-karṇapūra, who is an associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, has written that the gopīs felt perpetual separation from Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kavi-karṇapūra described Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes only up to rāsa-līlā and Holi. After that, he stopped writing his Śrī Ānanda-vṛndavana-campū because he was not able to tolerate Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s suffering from separation.

So Kṛṣṇa told Uddhava, “You must go to Vṛndāvana.”

* “Those who are Āryans strictly follow the Vedic principles, but in this Age of Kali a community has sprung up known as the Arya Samaj, whose members are ignorant of the import of the Vedas in the paramparā system. They decry all bona fide ācāryas and pose themselves as the real followers of the Vedic principles, but in fact such non-Āryans do not follow the Vedic principles.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.15.1 purport)

Source: Purebhakti.com

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Unless indicated differently, all verse translations and quotes are from the books by Śrīla Prabhupāda (Vedabase.com)