Lecture at Krsna Kund or Radha Sarovar
Why do Krsna wear peacock’s feather on his crown?
This beautiful reservoir of water is commonly known as Krsna kund although the local Vrajavasis call it by you the name Radha Sarovar, the lake of Shrimati Radharani. It is one of the favourite bathing places of the daughter of Vrishabhänu maharaj & her Gopi friends. This particular village is called 00.00.42, it is the birth place & eternal home place of Chitra Sakhi one of the eight principle gopis, maid servant of Sri Sri Radhagopinath. Very charming environment here, especially we read about Vrindavan in the scripture that in bathing Ghats the steps are decorated with jewels, today we are seeing with our own eyes, saffron jewels, green covered jewels, yellow covered jewels, all different varieties of dresses upon the one thousand shining jewels. Just on the top of this hill is 0.01.57 it is one of the very very holy places of Barsana. It is explained at one time Krsna awakened Shrimati Radharani’s anger, on this hill called Man Mandir; she would not look at him, she would not speak to him for the reason of increasing Krsna’s love. So Krsna tried everything & anything, to attract her attention he devised a transcendental plan; he came to this hill & he took the form of peacock & danced & Shrimati Radharani from Man Mandir seeing her beloved Gopinath dancing. How he danced…. no peacock in all of Vrindavan could dance so artistically as this particular peacock, she recognised it was Krsna & she began to laugh, thus her anger was broken. When she came across the valley & climbed the hill & assumed the form of a peahen & together Radha & Krsna danced as peacocks.
God helps those who help themselves
Thousands of years later there was a great devotee, who was blind he could not see, he was living on that hill & he dedicated his life to serving Radha & Krsna dancing as peacocks & longed for that vision year after year doing his bhajan, prayers, chanting the holy names. So, Shrimati Radharani appeared to him in dream & told him, I will give you the darshan of the peacock’s dance, however whatever you see, and you should paint so that the world should be able to have this darshan. He said I am blind, I cannot see, where will I get paint brush? where will I get paints?, where will I get canvas to paint on? At that time Barsana was a very very secluded Jungle, there is no Bazaar, so Shrimati Radharani told him that you just try & I will by my mercy make all arrangements. This is very important, what is impossible becomes possible if we have faith. In the Damodar Lila the rope that Yashoda Mayi was trying to put around Krsna was always two fingers too short; some of our acharyas describes these two fingers represents, one sincere endeavour & the mercy of Krsna. We must endeavour but we must understand without mercy we cannot succeed but as it is said, God helps those who help himself, so he had faith. He just started feeling in the ground & there he found what to make paint brushes from & he stared feeling on trees & Shrimati Radharani just arranged for him to make canvas & he started finding herbs & dyes & making paints & when everything was ready the peacock dance was revealed to him. And as we are saying he was painting & that painting is still on the temple today giving darshan.
The power of pure devotion
Some of the local vrajaväsés have told me the story that, about less than a hundred years ago there was a great devotee living at More Kutir, very pure heart this was a deadly jungle, there were lions roaming. One particular lion lived in a cave just under him & he used to day & night hear the chanting of holy name & beautiful bhajans & kirtans; the lion became so much purified that he came up & surrendered to him, placed his head on this great devotee’s feet. So the devotee actually accepted him as a disciple, he became a Brahmachari, very very strict Brahmachari more strict than any Brahmachari I know. He would go out & do Mädhukaré begging for his guru, he would go to door to door to these villages. Some of the vrajaväsés we know very well, they tell us that their grandfathers’ grandfather told them the story, the lion had a bag around his neck that said, Mädhukaré & he would come to the door & knock on the door & very gently growl & people would come & they would because very frightened. But he would look at them with such humility, & they would put rotti in the bag & when the bag was filled with rottis he went up on the hill & he delivered the bag to his guru maharaj; he would not take one grain of rotti until his guru maharaj eats his Prasad. And on Ekadashi his guru fasted, lion Brahmachari also fasted; this is the power of Barsana Dhaam.
The service attitude of Vrajavasis
This is the type of place we can sit for many hours & many days but the sun is setting, before it becomes too dark we will have kirtan through the very beautiful groves of 0.9.51 then we will go up the hill along the top of the mountain to Man Mandir, there we will have kirtan & bhajans come down. And some of the very very genuine loving Vrajavasis have cooked Prasad, rotti, sabjis & sweet for all of us. Just one family for them to cook for thousand people is just their daily lives because they fund this house at Man Mandir, there is a parikramä which is going on for some years; 99% are just vrajaväsés, it’s a six weeks parikramä & there are three thousand people & all the cooking is done in these people’s house. so they insisted, let us cook. We said, no no it’s too much trouble, just give us one little thing & they said we will give you one little thing, a plate of rotti, sabjis & sweets, that is their one little thing. The vrajaväsés spirit is so simple, it’s simply to serve & to chant the holy names of Krsna, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Day & night in that little house all that ever happens is the constant chanting of kirtans & constant cooking for anybody that comes, full Prasad. And they are very very poor simple people, but Shrimati Radharani arranges the fulfilment of their desire, simply to serve; this is the spirit of Vrindavan.
Madhumaìgala caught by Gopis, stealing butter.
There is another story that took place here, one time Krsna & gopas were stealing butter from the homes of Gopis of 0.12.17 Barsana & one Gopi felt, I am going to catch Krsna today. So as he sneaked into the house & he was stealing butter, she locked all the doors & then when she started coming through back door they were trying to escape but they couldn’t. There was one window way up high so Krsna & gopas jumped through that window & got out. However one Gopa, Madhumaìgala, Brahman very much eager to taste Prasad, in eternal world we see him offering Krsna a plate of laddus & whatever Krsna doesn’t it he has the remnants. So Madhumaìgala because of eating so much laddus he couldn’t fit through the window he got half way through & got stuck, he couldn’t either go forward or backward. So the Gopi, she came with stick & there she saw her legs just flapping, so they took him out & all gopis gathered around him & said, today we are going to punish him. So they took him to one of the trees they tied a rope to his Shikha & through it over a branch & started pulling it. So he was crying out, Krsna Krsna save me save me. So Krsna, he always responds to the helpless crying of his devotees. hearing his holy name chanted, he ran to place & he saw the situation & he told gopis that, Madhumaìgala is Brahman & you are performing Brahman aparädha, this is very bad. So they were very much in order to please Krsna they were feeling laughing in a sorrowful way that what we should do to atone for this Brahman aparädha. He said you should get every single laddu in all of Barsana Dhaam & you should give it to Madhumaìgala. So all the gopis they all brought all the laddus from their house, there were ten thousands of laddus brought & he was just eating them & eating them & he was sitting there & he was sharing them with Krsna & all the gopas it was a very joyous festival. Now this kirtan will be very special, at this very holy time of the day in this holy place. And we should see through the vision of the great souls, we should see through the eyes of the scriptures, theses trees are called Kalpavåkña trees. Devotees embrace the tree of Vraja Dhaam & pray for pure devotional service & if we offer that prayer with a sincere & honest heart then the divine trees of Vraja can bestow upon us benediction. Hare Krsna.
