Text 26
çré-çuka uväca
ity ädiçyämara-gaëän
prajäpati-patir vibhuù
äçväsya ca mahéà gérbhiù
sva-dhäma paramaà yayau
Text 27
çüraseno yadupatir
mathuräm ävasan purém
mäthuräï chürasenäàç ca
viñayän bubhuje purä
Text 28
räjadhäné tataù säbhüt
sarva-yädava-bhübhujäm
mathurä bhagavän yatra
nityaà sannihito hariù
Translation & Purport
Since the time the city of Mathura has been the capital of the Kings of Yadu dynasty, the city & district of Mathura are very intimately connected to Krishna as Krishna lives there eternally.
Srila Sukhdev Goswami herein explains the glory of the holy dhaam Vrindavan. That city & district are intimately connected with Krishna. Krishna lives there eternally- nitya dhaam. The lords abode is eternal & obviously Srila Sukhdev Goswami is explaining something which an ordinary materialist cannot see with his mundane eyes or by taking a train or a rickshaw to the holy place of Mathura & Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh. It is a fact that this place of pilgrimage is the tract of land in which lord Sri Krishna is eternally residing where he appeared on this earth. But Krishna reveals himself according to our consciousness and according to the purity of our heart.
Nitya Leela
It is described in CC by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami that in every universe there is a Mathura, Vrindavan & Dwarka & in each & every one of these universes Krishna displays his divine leela, therefore each & everyone of his leela is going on somewhere- nity leela, nitya dhaam. Pastimes of the lord are not only being enacted in the spiritual world but are constantly being enacted somewhere within this creation.
Nitya Leela- Deliverance of Nalkuvera and Manigriva
When Lord Sri Krishna is born in the Mathura of this universe, and as soon as that pastime is complete he is being born in another universe and as soon as that pastime is complete he is been born in another universe. When Lord Sri Krishna steels the butter from mother Yashoda and is been bound by ropes .He pulls the grinding motor between the twin Arjuna trees and they break. Nalakuvera & Manigriva come out, they offer prayers of love to this baby child.
The cowhered boys, men & elderly gopis, when they hear the crashing down of these two very-very large trees, they become worried for Lord Krishna,”Our child baby Krishna is sitting between the two trees after crawling & they both cracked & fell down”. They became worried & begin to chant mantras to protect him. The other children said, “No-no we saw Krishna crawled & dragged the grinding motor & he’s the one who pulled down the trees & after that two beautiful celestial personalities came & offered prayers to him”. The cowherd men & ladies could not believe that Krishna can be such exalted personality that demigods are coming to pray to Him, after all he is only a baby child.
This is yogmaya. Krishna did not want them to understand his exalted position. Krishna wanted them to simply love him as a beautiful child.
Nitya Leela- Deliverance of Putana
So as soon as that pastime is complete immediately in another universe Krishna is stealing butter. And when the mighty demon Putana came, Krishna sucked the life from her body and after she was dead mother Yasoda enacted many purificatory rituals to protect the child Krishna. And again Putana appeared in another universal creation.
Nitya Leela- Deliverance of Cart Demon
Around Krishna’s first birthday, mother Yasoda was greeting all the guests and Krishna was becoming very heavy in her arms, so she put Him down underneath a cart which was being used to hold various types of heavy pots .Little did she know that there was a demon who took the form of this cart especially to fall on Krishna & kill him. Nobody could understand how a demon can come in an unanimated object like a cart, but Krishna knows everything, but he did not reveal it in a ordinary way. In the premise of feeling separation from his mother he kicked his legs & one of his leg happen to kick the wheel of the cart. The force of that kick was that great that it destroyed the life of this demon and the cart fell to the ground with a great tumultuous sound & again at that time the gopas & gopis came in a very worried state that there is always such calamities, it just missed killing our beloved child. Our pious actions & our protection of the cows must have given us grace in the eyes of the God that he keeps again and again protecting our beloved child of our hearts Sri Krishna. And of course the cart demon is killed in this universe instantly he appears in some other universe to be killed by Sri Krishna.
Nitya Kishore
Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explains that nitya lila even in this material world, Krishna is always adventing somewhere and his pastimes is always been enacted in one of these places within the material world. And of course in the spiritual world, as we have read this morning in the song of ‘Damodar Ashtakam’ prayers that his childhood pastimes as a baby, they are especially enacted when he appears in this material world because in Goloka Vrindavan he is nitya Kishore, he is eternally a youth playing upon his flute and having his celebrations with Srimati Radharani , sakhis, manjaris and gopis and the cowherd boys. So this pastime during His infancy or childhood is the special revealing and the intimate pastime that can only be witnessed in this material creation.
Goloka descends in the material world as Gokul
Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur explains that the spiritual world beyond this material world is called Goloka and when that Goloka descends to this material world it is called Gokula, there is no difference.
There is a slight difference in that the Gokula of this world is a type of training ground for people who are purified devotees to bring them to the level of intensified love so that they can enter into the spiritual world of Goloka. In Goloka Vrindavan the nitya-siddha devotees who are never conditioned by material life or material desires, they descend, many of them with Krishna simply to assist him in his leela.
Krishna is Rasraj
How wonderful it is that when Krishna incarnates he does not come alone. Srila Prabhupada explains that just when a King goes somewhere he doesn’t go alone he takes his entourage with him, he takes the palanquin, his intimate ministers, his body guards etc. Krishna is Rasaraj, He is the king of the entire creation. When he comes to this world he does not come alone but he brings his abode with him, he brings the eternal land of Brajabhumi along with him. But unlike the kings of this world he can remain as he is in the spiritual world. Through the process of expansion he can come and through the process of expansion his intimate associates, his cows, cowherd boys, cowherd men, gopis, the river Jamuna they all expand themselves from Goloka and appear in all over the universes throughout the creation. This is very important to understand because within each universe there is an earth planet and as I was explaining quoting Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, Krishna’s leela, each one is being enacted somewhere in this creation.
Krishna’s appearance is very recent
Of course we know that Krishna only appears once in every day of Brahma that means once every so many billions of years. The fact that he only appears only 5000 years ago, we are very fortunate as it is very recent. In fact for a mundane historian this is a long time, this is practically before man was civilized. According to many anthropologists man was just coming out of his cave man state about 5000 years ago. But according to those who are on the eternal platform of consciousness, it is different. When Srila Prabhupada would speak about Krishna he would just in a very simple, innocent and straight forward way to those eternal perception of existence ,would say ‘And just recently Krishna appeared only 5000 years ago’.
So Krishna appears once every day of Brahma and somewhere in some universe each one of his leela is going on. That means in thousands of universes simultaneously Krishna’s pastimes is going on within this material creation and in each one he appears at the most once in a day of Brahma. So this gives you some understanding of how many universes there must be. Quadrillions of universes and more, countless universes, emanating from the body of Maha Vishnu.
Our Insignificance
We are living in this one little universe and in this universe we are living on this one little plant called earth. And on this planet earth we are so minute in our ability to perceive and we think ourselves so wonderful and great because we can look through a telescope that we have created and can see the pod marks on the moon. Whether they went or not, we are very proud that we have gone to the moon, the absolute nearest planet according to modern science. But when we consider the countless universes all around us and the extent of the size of this universe we cannot even imagine what’s beyond our microscopes & telescopes.
Krishna- Larger Than the Largest, Smaller Than the Smallest
Krishna is larger than the largest & smaller than the smallest. He is existing in his universal form as all of the universes within this creation are just various aspects of his gigantic body of Maha Vishnu. And at the same time he is smaller than the smallest ‘mahato manayan anato anyan’. When we look into the highest powered microscope and we see molecules perhaps atoms, we can’t really see the electrons and the neutrons but we understand by the symptoms of what’s going on in the atoms that they must be there. But billions of times smaller than the electrons and neutrons is Krishna who is personally residing within, in and between every atom.
Someone can create something big like the ‘Series’ tower they are considered great & if they have made something very small like a pocket computer, this is also great. That is why it is said ‘mahato manayan anato anyan’ .This give people an understanding of how great God is. He is larger than the largest and smaller than the smallest. In the size of a mosquito, and one portion of the size of the mosquito, just like those little dots that just fly around, like the small fruit flies. You can hardly see it. It has wings, legs, eyes, ears, it flies around, it eats, it sleeps, it has sex life, has all the organs for sex life. And then the female produces a little baby.
In this way Krishna has created smallest of the small. But even more wondrous than that is that he is personally living within the heart of that baby to give it direction according to his previous karma , giving it intelligence how to fly. It doesn’t go to aerodynamic schools to get pilots license, they just naturally know how to fly. It gets the information from the paratama. He is the air traffic controller within the heart of the baby.
This is the greatness of Krishna. He can be Maha Vishnu from whom is so great that quadrillions and quadrillion unlimited number of universes are emanating from the pores of his body ‘mahato mahiyan’ greater than the greatest and he also the supersoul the paramatma giving directions to the tiniest indragopa insect. This is the greatness of Krishna.
Spiritual World
When Krishna descends to this world, Goloka Vrindavan remains just as it is but the same Goloka Vrindavan also appears, 90 miles south-east of Delhi. And when Lord Sri Krishna brings Sri Radharani and her brother Sridhama and Stoka Krishna and Subal, eight sakis headed by lalita, Chitra, they all come down to play with Krishna in so many wonderful ways to give pleasure to him. Same time they are all remaining within Goloka. There is no strain, they are not thinking of time schedules. Wherever they want to be they are there and everywhere else, that is the spiritual world.
Stages of Bhakti
In the material world there are three type of souls: sadha and siddha & nitya banda. They are those who are bound to the conditioned state of consciousness, have forgotten Krishna because of their rebellion, they want to enjoy the property of Krishna, want sense gratification therefore they are simply in the prison of their own desires and such souls are called eternally conditioned. But by the grace of Krishna, He intervenes by descending to this world, by speaking through scripture, by enacting his divine mercy through the sadhus to attract these conditioned souls back to him. Attracted to the association of devotees they take to the process of devotional service, bhakti. Sadhana bhakti is divided in two categories- vaidi bhakti which means under strict rules and regulations which may have no taste, no spontaneous desire to rise for mangal aartik, to chant the holy names to follow the 4 regulative principles, to engage our hard earned energies in Krishna’s service. But we do it because with our intelligence we are convinced that this is the right thing and we must do it. Even if it is torturous, even if it is painful I must do it- this is vaidi bhakti. And sadhana means at times it will be pleasurable and at times it will be terribly painful, this is the nature of the mind .It is accepting and rejecting. But a sadhana bhakta due to keeping a strong discipline of regulation in his life transcends gradually the whimsical nature of the mind. And through this process of becoming purified by adhering to the order of the spiritual master, taking shelter of the association of the devotees he attains the love of raganuga bhakti. In that state we have a spontaneous desire for Krishna. We have no considerations for the things of this world for our own sense enjoyment. There is nothing we would rather do than taste the sweetness of the holy name. There is nothing we would rather do than dance & chant with vaishanavas. It is no longer a discipline or austerity it is a spontaneous love.
This is also considered as a part of sadhana, part of the training process. And by practicing this method of raganuga bhakti for many years one becomes further purified until he attains higher states ruchi-firm faith, a higher taste. That is raganuga bhakti, and then one attains the level of bhava. Bhava means love of God. And from the process of bhava as we continue to purify ourselves beyond that in the process of devotional service we come to the level of prema-bhakti. And at that stage we are given entrance in to the lord’s leela after we leave this particular body. We cannot go directly to Goloka .We go to one of the places where Sri Krishna is manifesting his pastimes in this world. And there we become a particular assistant or servant of a particular divine brajwasi of the same natural rasa that we have acquired the taste for. If you are cowherd men you will be under the directions of Nanda Maharaj or one of his associates, if you are a gopi you will be under the directions of one of the sakhis or manjaris.
In this way, if you are a cow, one of the cows of Gokula will train you how to eat nice grass and give milk for Krishna. So in this way they learn how to love in loving relationship with Krishna. And at that time when in that particular universe Krishna wraps up his pastimes, at that time Krishna personally brings all the devotees back home back to Goloka. That is his leela. In each universe Dandavakra attacks Mathura, Krishna leaves Dwarka under this excuse. If he would tell all his queens that I am going to Vrindavan they would all die because they all know how much Krishna loves Vrindavan and how much he loves the brijwasis and they know for sure if he goes back he will never come back. He has to secretly go. He arranges Dandavakra, happens to attack Mathura, the residents of Mathura are calling out please Krishna save us he is going to destroy everything. And Krishna says Balaram you stay here protect Dwarka I will go alone. And he goes and kills Dandavakra and he goes to Vrindavan. And of course the gopis and gopas are so happy that after a hundred years of separation it’s such a grand union and Krishna has wonderful leelas with them and he knows that I cannot leave them again, I can’t do that to them, I have already left them in the ocean of separation of over one hundred years.
So at that time he says they have innate separation, the nitya siddha devotees have tasted the unlimited infinite ecstasy of separation from Krishna and the sadha & siddha devotees, those devotees who have come up from other universes who have attained the level through the purification of devotional service under Guru who are now living as gopis and gopas and grasses and cows they in these hundred years of separation have been totally, completely & super excellently purified of any trace of any material desire that can ever again come in their hearts. So now everyone is ready to go back to Goloka and then Krishna personally escorts them through the air ways back to Goloka Vrindavan where everyone resumes their original constitutional position with Sri Krishna. And then Krishna thinks, but they are still waiting form me in Dwarka, so he comes back and continues his pastimes in Dwarka. So this Vrindavan that we sometimes go on pilgrimage, it is same Vrindavan & it is confirmed right here in the Srimad Bhagavatam by Sukhdev Goswami, it is simply our sentiment. It’s not that we just go to Vrindavan just to remember Krishna just to sentimentally superimpose some idea that Krishna is here but we cannot see him, this is just some imagination. But according to the most authorized shastras, according to Vyasdev & his beloved son Sukhdev that Krishna lives there eternally- nityam sanhito Hari. Because Krishna although physically in a spiritual physical way, there is a beginning and ending to his leela in Vrindavan. But Krishna never leaves Vrindavana. Vrindavan is still there, therefore all the leelas of Krishna are still present in Vrindavan, but on an another level, on a purely divinely spiritual level. And so Vrindavan, for those who have eyes which are anointed with the salve of love see Vrindavan as it is.
And it has been described here therefore that great-great holy men have gone to reside in this holy place since time immemorial, the supreme abode of the Lord revealed on this earth. So the question is why in the world a Vaishnav would like to live anywhere else. And Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport for our good fortune that the only reason a devotee would like to leave Vrindavan is for the service of the Lord. Because the Vrindavan spirit is the spirit of devotional service where everyone is willing to do anything, go anywhere for Krishna. Srila Prabhupada, the eternal brajwasi who was living at Sri Radha Damodar temple which is practically right on the sight of the raas-leela seva kunj.
Raas Leela
Of course we know the rasa leela doesn’t take place in one part of Vrindavan. During raas leela Krishna and gopis travel to many parts of Vrindavan. But there are special sections which the great acharyas have revealed where different aspects of rasa leela take place. Like for instance there is nidhi van, that is during the rasa leela after playing in so many ways, Krishna & Radharani go into bed, a beautiful bed made out of leaves and flowers by the sakhis and there they rest and everyone sings to them and fans them in the moonlight. And after taking some rest they again begin to dance. And seva kunj is considered a high aspect of rasa leela. That is where artik of Radha & Krishna takes place during the moon lit nights and also during that time Krishna massages the lotus feet of Sri Radharani, offering seva to her in order to give her pleasure.
All of the sakhis also give nice foodstuffs to Sri Radha & Krishna.
Srila Prabhupad’s Compassion
Srila Prabhupada was living right in this district of sevakunj in Brajdham. And he such a devotee in the paramhamsa stage that he could feel within his heart the divine presence of these wonderful pastimes always. So why he would want to leave such a place to come to New York City, the leelas of New York City are something different. The bowery, the lower east side, the drunkards, drug addicts, prostitutes, rapists, terrible pollution everywhere, constant flow of cars honking their horns, everyone just passionately running for money-money-money, terrible music blaring out of window glorifying sex life, drugs. This is a different rasa altogether than living in seva kunj. But Srila Prabhupada left for the sake of service, service to his guru & service to Krishna, his heart was never outside of Vrindavan. By the arrangement of Krishna Vrindavan is wherever his devotee goes.
Mahaprabhu in Shantipur
Lord Chaitanya after taking sanyas was on his way to Vrindavana. You can imagine Krishna appeared after 4500 years; he appeared again on this earth in the mood of Radharani a devotee who simply wanted to go to Vrindavana. After 24 years he took sanyaas and he thought , “Now my wife is gone, my mother is gone, all my worldly responsibilities are over, I am just going to Vrindavana” .He was on his way but Lord Nityananda, who is the original spiritual master, felt compassion upon all the fallen souls of this world and understood that if Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu goes to Vrindavana and absorbs himself in the leela, then the whole purpose of his incarnation as far as external purpose of delivering conditional soul and establishing the truth of sanatan dharma through naam sankirtan ,will never happen. So to assist the Lord in his leela, Lord Balaram appearing as Nityananda tricked him and he told some cowherd men in the land of Radhadesh that if this sanyasi asks you where Vrindavan is you point the opposite way. Show him the way to the Ganges. So they did. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw the river Ganges near Shantipur he thought that it was river Jamuna, “I have arrived in Vrindavan already, this is wonderful”. And he went in ecstasy – Jamuna ki jai and he started bathing.
Advaitya Acharya came on boat, he was asked to come & bring some dry cloth for Mahaprabhu to change into. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw Sri Advaitya on a boat he said, “Advaitya how did you come on a boat to Vrindavana? How did you know I was here?” Advaita didn’t understand what was going on. He said, “This is Shantipur, this is Ganges”. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu understood that Lord Nityananda had tricked him, He said, “You have tricked me”. He was externally angry but internally pleased.
Advaitya could understand the mercy of Lord Nityananda. In order to defend him he said, “No-no my Lord actually you are in Vrindavana”. He explained in two ways and said, “First of all when the Ganges meets the Jamuna at Prayag, at that point it’s called the Ganges but in reality the eastern side is Ganga and the western side is Jamuna. And you are bathing on the western side. Actually Lord Nityananda was not lying; you are bathing in the Jamuna. As far as Vrindavana goes, wherever your lotus feet are that place becomes Vrindavana. It is said in the shastra that Krishna never leaves Vrindavana. You are always chanting his holy name & remembering him, and Krishna is non different than his name. Krishna is present in his name & he never leaves Vrindavana. Therefore wherever you are chanting that place is Vrindavana. So actually there is no problem.”
Lord Chaitanya, on hearing these beautiful prayers of his devotees became very happy. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Vrindavana later on & stayed for few months
To be enjoyed by Krishna
To the devotees of the Lord, the greatest desire, greatest longing in life is not to enjoy Krishna but to be enjoyed by Krishna. And how can we be enjoyed by Krishna, by serving Krishna. And the best way to serve Krishna is to assist him in his intimate pastimes. And on this earth his intimate pastime is showing compassion to the fallen conditioned souls, bringing the persons in bondage closer to him.
In the holy places like Vrindavan, Mathura, Dwarka, Ayodhya, Chitrakut, most of the devotees to some degree are very very close to Krishna. But what about the rest of India & rest of the planet earth where everyone is simply wasting their precious human lives in disobedience to Krishna’s will. Therefore it is explained that the most intimate service, the most confidential servitor of the Lord is he who is willing to even leave the spiritual dham to assist Guru & Krishna in spreading the mission of love of God.
Heritage of Vrindavana
Wherever the feet of such great souls as Srila Prabhupada are, that is Vrindavan, what an exalted position. And Srila Prabhupada came to the west & he was in so much separation of Vrindavan but at the same time was so much immersed in his leela of preaching. Srila Prabhupada said New Vrindavan is non different than the Vrindavan of India, there is no difference. The Brijwasi spirit where everyone is simply coming together to live a simple life for glorification of Krishna is there.
In this way, Srila Prabhupada said that in many ways New Vrindavan is better than old Vrindavan because to display the pastimes of Vrindavana to the world we can create it in such a way where everything is directly Krishna conscious. Where as in old Vrindavana, over the years many businessmen have come and now there are big government oil refineries and everything else. Fortunately in New Vrindavan we don’t have that. So in many ways we can protect it. But Vrindavan is always been attacked by these types of materialistic principles.
In order for New Vrindavan to truly have the recognition of being Vrindavan it has to be attacked by demons sometimes, otherwise no one will take it seriously, to understand the true philosophy of Krishna’s leela.
Srila Prabhupada actually said that the people of India is chasing after the west.The people of India don’t want to go to Vrindavan but want to go to New York city, they want to go to Washington DC, Los Angles, they want to go to Niagara falls, Buffalow New York. They are more interested to spend their hard earned money to go to these places than just take a train to go to Vrindavan. This is the lost condition of the sub continent of India. Srila Prabhupada explained that if we can make the west Krishna conscious and bring the western Krishna conscious people and the western Krishna conscious culture to India, then they will perhaps take their own spiritual heritage of Vrindavana seriously.
Try to serve Vrindavana
Sukhdev Goswami in this most beautiful verse is explaining the true glory of the Vrindavan dham. When we go for pilgrimages we should not think it is for our sense gratification. To go in the association of devotees in these holy places for purification is a very essential and important part of our spiritual development. In fact Srila Rupa Goswami explains there are five most important principles out of 64 that one must accept in devotional service. The first is to associate with devotees, the second is to chant the holy names of Krishna regularly, the third is to regularly hear the Srimad Bhagavatam, the fourth is to worship the Tulasi and the fifth is to visit the holy places like Mathura and Vrindavana, to go for a spiritual recharging. But just to go by ourselves and visit some temples and walk around to see some holy places and have a professional guide tell us what’s what has minimum value.
But if one goes in the association of very-very sincere devotees who are going there especially for purification of their hearts, to meet the holy people, so forth, then such yatras and pilgrimages have a profound effect of deepening our realizations of Krishna consciousness. When we go to Vrindavan & we are fortunate we will experience the higher taste of Krishna’s leela and we never want to leave, but for the service of Krishna we leave. And if we leave for that purpose of service of Krishna, for service of his mission, then factually in that mood we are more in Vrindavan than even if are there. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to say that don’t try to see Krishna but serve Krishna in such a way that he wants to see you. And Vrindavan is non different than Krishna so it is the same principle, don’t try to simply go to Vrindavan to see Vrindavan but try to serve Vrindavan in such a way that Vrindavan will reveal herself to you.
Are there any questions:
Question: Maharaj is it intellectual conviction or sense gratification when one is trying to surrender.
Maharaj: Intellectual conviction, it depends upon what your intellectual conviction is. If your intellectual conviction is that I am an eternal servant of Krishna then that is a great asset in the process of surrender. In fact it is a necessary, preliminary asset for the surrender. That is why we come to the class everyday to get an intellectual conviction of the way of life. Intellectual conviction that I am this body and I am the enjoyer and to make a nice situation in this world is really the real goal of life and this Krishna consciousness is something that I like to do on the side, that type of intellectual conviction certainly will be a barrier in your Krishna consciousness.
If you learn to find gratification in pleasing Krishna’s senses that is real sense gratification. Srila Prabhupada said that in Krishna consciousness we are not actually against the sense gratification. By sacrificing the use of the senses in Krishna’s service our senses derive the ultimate spiritual experience of gratification. But when our senses want to enjoy apart from Krishna, that type of sense gratification simply diverts our consciousness away from the spiritual principle and merges our consciousness in the bondages of material condition of birth & death. Therefore yes, this material sense gratification is the greatest opposition to the purification of consciousness.
Question : What is the difference in incarnation of Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?
Maharaj : Through sound vibration how many people of this earth actually witness Krishna dancing on the hoods of Kaliya? Only his most intimate associates in Vrindavan. The rest of the earth they were there, but they were going on with their nonsense. So Krishna in the form of Lord Chaitanya & Lord Nityananda, same Krishna same Balaram, but in a more magnanimous manifestation, magnanimous in the sense that Vrindavan was the spiritual world with the pleasures of spiritual rasa was confined only to those residents of Brajadham. Krishna was not out preaching the glories of Vrindavan he was simply enjoying in Vrindavan. But in the form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they are going through out all the lands teaching the whole world about the glories of Vrindavan. Krishna himself has left Vrindavan to reveal Vrindavan to the entire world through the sound of the holy name. When Krishna was performing his leela in Vrindavan he was establishing the leela for the whole world for all time to come which only the Brijbasis saw , but when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and other great acharyas would travel and speak and deliver the Bhagavatam, Vrindavan is available to the world.
All the pastimes, the sound vibration is non different than Krishna. When we are reading the story of Krishna killing Kaliya, we are actually in Vrindavan, we are witnessing it. If we have the eyes to see it as we are hearing the vibration in the pure heart we will have the direct experience and ecstatic love of witnessing that pastime through sound vibration. That’s why Srila Prabhupada was so anxious for these books to be distributed massively to give the whole world the opportunity to enter into the leela of Vrindavan.By chanting the holy name we can actually realize the content of these great literatures, realize the leela of Krishna in our own life. So in this way Krishna is in this age of kaliyuga, is incarnating himself through his name and through his devotees in a more magnanimous way than he did when he had appeared directly 5000 years back. He has broken all barriers and distributed the content of Vrindavan’s love throughout the world.
Question: What is the definition of the mind and intelligence and how do we differentiate them in devotional service that is it the mind talking or is it the intelligence talking.
Maharaj : Unless you have the spiritual master you cannot discriminate. Intelligence is in spirituality the word of Krishna. The faculty within us that is able to discriminate between Krishna’s desire and the desire of my senses. The nature of the mind is that sometimes it listens to Krishna and sometimes it listens to its ego, false ego and senses. As neophyte devotees we cannot even differentiate between the voice of false ego & voice of Krishna.
Therefore we need someone who is actually hearing the voice of Krishna, who is repeating the words of scriptures which is the voice of Krishna to guide us. And when we take shelter of hearing to the voice of Guru, sadhu & sashtra that is our intelligence. And when we append the voice of guru, sadhu & shastra that is simply our conditioned mind. It is very easy, if you simply accept the authority of advances souls there is no question of where my mind is going when I am using my good intelligence. But if you do not submit yourself before the higher authority of guru, sadhu & shastra then factually you are just guessing this is my mind .
The mind is so tricky, maya is so subtle, she can disguise her sound just like Krishna’s, and you will never know. Unless there’s someone who knows how to guide you and tell you. Therefore ‘praniprashnena seveya’ we enquire submissively and render service.
Even Arjuna, such a great person, his mind was going wild on that battlefield of Kurukshetra. “I am not going to fight this war, and he had so many good arguments. If I fight this war then what is the use, how will I enjoy if all of our wealth is stained by blood of our teacher, grandfather and our cousins and those we love. So for this reason this is not good, what to speak that’s for my own personal reasons and for social reasons all these soldiers are going to die, their women are going to be unprotected. If women are going to be unprotected then men are going to exploit them and make them unchaste and there is going to be unwanted population, and if there is unwanted population the children are no longer going to follow any of the samskaras, they will not have any religious base to their lives and they will perform irreligious activities and sanatan dharma will be totally ruined all over the world. I am not going to fight this war”. He was convinced himself & he thought that it was a good thing. Seemed intelligence but it was his mind. But then how did he understand what was right. As long as he thought he was right Krishna didn’t bother with him. But when he said ‘shishyat te mam’ now I am your disciple, you instruct me, that is when Krishna spoke. “You are talking nonsense, while speaking learned words you are revealing yourself to be a fool”. Then Krishna explained to him what the truth is. So such a great personality as Arjuna, without the help of Guru could not understand what is real and what is unreal, what is our position.
