The following is a summary translation of a Hindi discourse delivered by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja at the Bharatiya Mandir in Auckland, New Zealand, on January 14, 2001
Mukti, liberation, means, “muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ.” One realizes the rūpa, or form of Kṛṣṇa, and simultaneously his own form and the relationship between the two. This is the definition of mukti. Mukti must be in the affirmative. If you are in jail, and then somebody lets you out of jail, it does not mean something affirmative is taking place. It means you are freed from suffering, but no positive pleasure exists. Going home to your relative’s house and enjoying eating, talking, and laughing with them is an affirmative pleasure. That is real mukti. Real mukti is positive.
Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is also not positive. Kṛṣṇa is saying, “Give up all varieties of bogus religion, material religion, and just surrender to Me. In return, I will relieve you from all sinful reactions.” Here again, relief is offered, but nothing affirmative. This verse is, therefore, about śaraṇāgati, the six limbs of surrender to Kṛṣṇa, but it is only the door to bhakti. It is not bhakti.
The real definition of bhakti is not given in this verse. It is given in the verse, “anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam. With one’s body, mind, discrimination, sentiments, and every aspect of oneself, one tries to give Bhagavān pleasure. He has no material desires or desire for Svarga or mukti. He has no desire to be relieved from any suffering, and his whole being is dedicated to Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure.”
The gopīs are the perfect example of those who exemplify this verse. They even decorated themselves, only for Kṛṣṇa to see them and be happy. They always fulfil Kṛṣṇa’s desires. They are the best examples of bhakti; another example is Mother Yaśodā. She is making Kṛṣṇa angry. When the pot of milk is boiling over, even though Kṛṣṇa is clinging on to her with all His might, with both hands on her breast, His mouth on her breasts, and His legs around her waist like a monkey, still she can put Him down with one hand and order Him, “Be quiet. Sit down quietly.” Although Kṛṣṇa is crying because her only desire is Kṛṣṇa’s welfare, her action is pure bhakti. She thinks the milk should not boil over because she needs to prepare so many nice sweets and other preparations for Kṛṣṇa to grow up nicely. On the contrary, the activity of Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika, the two wrestlers in the arena of Kaṁsa, although giving Kṛṣṇa great pleasure in the mood of vīra, heroism, is not bhakti. This is because they intended to kill Him. Bhakti is understood by one’s intention, and one who has that intention can control Kṛṣṇa.
Mother Yaśodā ran after Kṛṣṇa to catch Him and punish Him for stealing butter, and she could catch Him. To catch Kṛṣṇa is not an ordinary occurrence. Even Brahmā and Śiva, even in their most intense samādhi, cannot even capture Kṛṣṇa within their minds, what to speak of demons like Kālayavana. Kālayavana was running as fast as he could, trying to reach out and grab Kṛṣṇa. Although Kṛṣṇa was walking at a natural pace, Kālayavana could not catch Him. No one with a material inclination can touch Kṛṣṇa; what to speak of capturing Him. But Mother Yaśodā could easily catch Him, and she told Him in a punitive but loving voice, “No one will save You now. I’m going to punish You.” She has so much of this prema, this desire to please Kṛṣṇa, that her prema is greater than His. And because it is greater, it attracts Him. Mother Yaśodā’s prema attracts Kṛṣṇa, and therefore, Kṛṣṇa was pulled backwards like a magnet. Although she was behind Him, she could catch Him because of that attraction. She was calling Him so many bad names: “O Bandara-buddhi. You have a brain like a monkey. O thief.” These words attracted Him because she was using them with the aim that Kṛṣṇa should grow up with very good behaviour and character.
Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that His part of a part of a part, Lord Nārāyaṇa, manifests a part of Himself as Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, who breathes in and out all the universes. Still, because of Mother Yaśodā’s prema, she could tie Him up and make Him weep. Weeping, Kṛṣṇa tells Yaśodā, “O Maiyā, I didn’t steal any butter.” “Well, then, how did the pot get broken?” “When you were quickly going back and forth, you didn’t realize what you were doing, so your ankle-bells banged into the pot and broke it.” “Don’t say those things; you’re a big thief.” “No, there’s no thief in my father’s dynasty. Maybe there are thieves in your dynasty, but none in my father’s dynasty.”
(As Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja was telling these stories, he was laughing with great joy, and his whole body was shaking as he laughed)
Nārāyaṇa can’t do this. He can’t enjoy those blissful, childish, playful conversations. And even Dvārakādhīśa cannot do this. Before those pastimes, Kṛṣṇa sent Pūtanā to Goloka. This showed His great mercy. Not only is He sweet with childish pranks, enjoying His mother’s affection, but He is the only one who can be so merciful as to send a demon like Pūtanā to Goloka. Nārāyaṇa cannot be so dayālu (merciful). Gaṇeśa and Śaṅkara cannot be so merciful.
(Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja is speaking in a temple where many Deities are worshipped. Day by day, he is breaking his audience’s misconceptions that all the Deities are equal)
You may worship Śaṅkara as God because Rāmacandra Himself worships him, but that is only because that is Rāma’s nara-līlā. Actually, Śaṅkara wants to serve Rāma. To do that, he becomes Hanumān. Hanumān, although a great servant of Rāma, is lakhs and lakhs inferior to Mother Yaśodā. If he saw Mother Yaśodā pulling on Kṛṣṇa’s ears and chastising Him, he would become angry and consider that an offence. Śivajī is far inferior to Mother Yaśodā. When Kṛṣṇa was a small baby, Śivajī came to Vṛndāvana, intensely desiring Kṛṣṇa’s darśana. Mother Yaśodā kept refusing, and finally, she agreed only when she knew Kṛṣṇa would be protected by her wrapping Him thoroughly in a black cloth and putting thick black kājala on Him. Then, she only opened that cloth for one second so that Śivajī could get her son’s darśana. She thought, “That person is so ferocious. How can I let my baby see him?” Therefore, because he was so eager to see Kṛṣṇa, he had to become like Mother Yaśodā. He had to become a gopī. He became Gopīśvara so that he could enter Kṛṣṇa’s intimate pastime arena.
Lord Rāma cannot show the favour of such intimacy with so many devotees. He had one wife, Sītā, and when the princesses from Janakapura begged him to marry them, He said, “No, in this incarnation, I can have only one wife. When I appear as Kṛṣṇa, I will marry all of you.” Besides this, Sītā, in her golden form, was sitting on the left side of Rāma, and Rāma and Vasiṣṭha were performing prāṇa-pratiṣṭha, meaning giving life to the mūrti and making that Deity actually present. Every year, Rāma performed this sacrifice, and every year, there was a new golden Sītā. Later, when He was about to go to Ayodhyā (His abode in the spiritual world), all those Sītās wanted to be with Him. However, He said, “No. In this life, I can only have one. When I come as Kṛṣṇa, I’ll dance and enjoy with you all.” On the contrary, in rāsa-līlā all the gopīs are expansions of Rādhārāṇī, as manifestations of Her different moods. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa is greater than Rāma.
Mother Yaśodā finally bound Kṛṣṇa. Because of His being controlled by her love, she bound His belly with a simple little hair-band. Actually, she wasn’t binding Kṛṣṇa with her hair rope; she was binding Him with her prema. In the same way, Kṛṣṇa was not stealing the butter and yoghurt of the gopīs. The mākhana, butter, represents the prema in the hearts of the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa was stealing their hearts. He is God, the supreme proprietor. He can say, “Everything is Mine. I am the owner and controller of everything.” But there is not so much joy in that, compared to His taking everything that is already His indirectly by stealing.
He is stealing hearts by His all-enchanting nature. A heart can only belong to someone if he has stolen it. These hearts are taking the forms of different paraphernalia so that Kṛṣṇa can ‘steal them’ and thus have loving exchanges with His devotees.
Kṛṣṇa is āptakāma. He is fully satisfied with everything He already owns. So why is He stealing? To steal hearts. He eternally owns those hearts, so how is He owning them? By enchantment. He is ātmārāma; He only takes pleasure in Himself; He does not need to go outside of Himself. So why is He enjoying exchanges with others? Because they are Himself, manifestations of Himself. Śrīmatī Rādhikā is His entire self, and everyone else is coming from Her.
(Tattva is within līlā, and therefore, two mornings earlier, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja said, “I will visit the temple, and it will be just like a kindergarten class. I will speak so much sweet līlā that they will understand tattva from that.”)
So, Mother Yaśodā bound Kṛṣṇa with her prema. Of all prema, the gopīs’ prema is the greatest. Being bound by the greatest prema means that Kṛṣṇa cannot understand how to become unbound. He has to continue being bound by indebtedness. If Kṛṣṇa will ask the gopīs, “How can I repay you?” they will reply, “Give us your service. We want to serve you.” Then He becomes still more indebted. He remains indebted and says, “Na pāraye ’haṁ. O gopīs, your love for Me is so great. It is nirmala, completely pure. You have given up what nobody else can: society’s ties, friendship, and love. Even if I have a lifetime of Brahmā, I cannot repay this debt. Your own activities will have to be your payment”. If, therefore, one comes under the anugatya (guidance) of the gopīs, one can then bind Kṛṣṇa like them.
Source: Purebhakti.com
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Unless indicated differently, all verse translations and quotes are from the books by Śrīla Prabhupāda (Vedabase.com)