Text 9
tām ātta-yaṣṭiṁ prasamīkṣya satvaras
tato ’varuhyāpasasāra bhītavat
gopy anvadhāvan na yam āpa yogināṁ
kṣamaṁ praveṣṭuṁ tapaseritaṁ manaḥ
Translation
When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw His mother, stick in hand, He very quickly got down from the top of the mortar and began to flee as if very much afraid. Although yogīs try to capture Him as Paramātmā by meditation, desiring to enter into the effulgence of the Lord with great austerities and penances, they fail to reach Him. But mother Yaśodā, thinking that same Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, to be her son, began following Kṛṣṇa to catch Him.
Purport
Yogīs, mystics, want to catch Kṛṣṇa as Paramātmā, and with great austerities and penances they try to approach Him, yet they cannot. Here we see, however, that Kṛṣṇa is going to be caught by Yaśodā and is running away in fear. This illustrates the difference between the bhakta and the yogī. Yogīs cannot reach Kṛṣṇa, but for pure devotees like mother Yaśodā, Kṛṣṇa is already caught. Kṛṣṇa was even afraid of mother Yaśodā’s stick. This was mentioned by Queen Kuntī in her prayers: bhaya-bhāvanayā sthitasya (Bhāg. 1.8.31). Kṛṣṇa is afraid of mother Yaśodā, and yogīs are afraid of Kṛṣṇa. Yogīs try to reach Kṛṣṇa by jñāna-yoga and other yogas, but fail. Yet although mother Yaśodā was a woman, Kṛṣṇa was afraid of her, as clearly described in this verse.
This describes the surprising attitude of mother Yasoda and the surprising response of Krishna. This is surprising because the Lord and the devotees usually act in a very predictable way. The devotee is a devotee, so he acts in a very respectful way. And the Supreme Lord shows all the qualities of being independent and supreme.
That is also the natural position of the Jiva. The Jiva is eternally the servant of Krishna. And anyone who approaches religion and God, etc., would expect to have such a relationship of great respect. But here, we see everything is reversed. Everything is opposite. So, mother Yasoda has a stick in her hand. Usually, we see Yamaraja has a stick in his hand. Or Vishnu has a chakra in his hand. Of course, we see that Vishnu has many weapons. He has a club, he has a bow and an arrow, etc., also. And these are for defeating the Asuras. But here we have mother Yasoda, a devotee, with a stick in her hand, ready to punish Krishna, Supreme Lord.
So, of course, we know by philosophy that the Supreme Lord is independent and supreme. So, we say he is the controller, he is Ishvara. He is also the punisher. So, sometimes he kills demons. Other times, he acts simply through the law of karma. That is how he punishes. So, he does that simply because he is supreme. And because he is supreme, he controls and he creates order for the jivas. Of course, in the spiritual world, that is not necessary.
The jivas are all very obedient. But in the material world, we have all sorts of jivas who have different ideas. And sometimes they cause great disturbances, so the Lord has to punish them.
When Krishna entered the arena of Kamsa, different persons saw Krishna differently. So, the Yadus saw him as their worshipable Lord. The cowherd boys saw him as their friend. Kamsa saw him as death. And the other kings saw Krishna as the punisher. He looked very angry. And Vasudeva, Devaki and Nanda saw Krishna as their child. So, sometimes the Lord does assume this role of being the great punisher. And so, he is the punisher. No one else can be the punisher. But, of course, the Lord does appoint devatas like Yamaraja to, on his behalf, carry out the punishment. But they are punishing the misbehaving jivas.
So, here Mother Yasoda is trying to punish Krishna. So, it looks rather unusual. But, as I said, in Vrindavan, things often are contradictory. So, the devotee becomes the punisher and punishing Krishna himself. And Krishna sees the punisher, Mother Yasoda, and he becomes frightened. Supreme Lord is supreme.
How can he be frightened of anybody? In the Upanishads, it says that out of fear of the Lord, the wind blows, the sun shines, the moon shines, the earth moves, etc. So, he is independent. There is nobody above him. He has nobody to fear. Rather, everyone should fear him. Here, Krishna becomes frightened. And who is he frightened of? Mother Yasoda. Not a demon, but a great devotee. So, devotee is acting very different and Krishna is acting very differently.
And what does Krishna do? He runs away. So, that is also not expected. If he is the Supreme Lord, he shouldn’t run away from anybody. After all, Supreme Lord is the most powerful. And why does he run? He is afraid of a stick. We know, of course, Supreme Lord has so many weapons like the chakra, etc. Why should he fear a little stick of Mother Yasoda? But he ran away in fear. We see, of course, running away in fear is not a very good sign. And it is very shameful for Kshatriyas to run away from battle. But we see also later on, Krishna ran away from Mathura and Jarasandha and all that. So, he gets criticized for that also. So, we must find other reasons for this.
Not because Krishna is weak, not because he is not all powerful. He is doing this for some other purpose. Not only did Krishna run away, but then Mother Yasoda began to chase him. And she caught him also. So, this is also surprising.
Here in the verse it says she ran after him and she caught him and the yogis could not catch him. So Yogis may strive for yoga process for thousands of years, they can never catch Krishna. But Mother Yasoda caught Krishna. This, of course, is also stated in Nectar Devotion. One of the qualities of Bhakti is Sudurlabha. It cannot be attained by karmis, jnanis or yogis.
But it can be attained by devotees. So, the attempts of the yogis and jnanis are useless. At best, after much endeavor, they can attain Brahman. But they can never attain Krishna. And Mother Yasoda ran after Krishna and caught Krishna. Of course, even if the yogis were to realize Krishna, that’s all they would do. They would see him. But Mother Yasoda not only saw Krishna, she ran after him, she caught him and she tied him up. So, therefore, she did something that is impossible for the yogis and the jnanis.
And Krishna, Supreme Lord, why did he allow himself to get caught? Why did he allow himself to get tied up? He does not allow the yogis and the jnanis and the karmis to do this. And even other forms of the Lord do not allow this. Nobody runs after Narasimha, they even tie him up.
But here, Yasoda is able to catch Krishna and tie him up. So, this shows that the devotee is very special. He can not only see the Lord, but he interacts with the Lord. And this is very different from any realization of jnanis and yogis. It is also very different from the devotees of other forms of the Lord. The other forms of the Lord do not allow people to tie them up at all. But here with Krishna and Vrindavan, yes it is so. Of course, it also does not happen in Dwaraka or Mathura. Nobody ties up Krishna there. Devaki would never think of tying up Krishna. But it happens in Vrindavan. Of course, it does not happen even with other devotees in Vrindavan, but it happens with Mother Yasoda. So, she is a special devotee in Vrindavan. In fact, she is celebrated as one of the greatest devotees in Vrindavan. And thus, she is able to run after Krishna, catch him and tie him up.
And Krishna allows all this to happen. And we may say, that shows Krishna is very weak. He is weak in the sense that he is completely melted by the devotion of the devotee. And if Mother Yasoda wants to tie up Krishna, Krishna will also allow it. So, in this way, it shows that Krishna is under the control of his devotees.
Q & A
1) Is there a pastime where Radharani ties up Krishna ?
I think it is mentioned somewhere by Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarthi that the gopis tie up Krishna. But I have not seen a description of a particular pastime. However, the tying up, even of Yasoda tying up Krishna, says it is not real ropes, it is ropes of Prema. So, all the devotees can tie up Krishna with ropes of Prema. And particularly the gopis. So, Krishna tells the gopis that actually, I cannot repay you, I am your eternal debtor. Because you have sacrificed for me, I cannot repay by sacrificing for you. I cannot repay you, I am your eternal debtor. You have sacrificed for me, I cannot repay by sacrificing for you. Krishna tells this to the gopis.
2) When Maharaj had mentioned that no one ties Narasimha. Just to understand Maharaj, on the other hand, when neither Brahma nor Shiva nor Goddess of fortune could approach Narasimha when he appeared to kill Hiranyakashipu, no one else except Prahlada fearlessly approached Narasimha Deva. So, what should be the understanding in that context Maharaj?
In that case, even Prahlada was fearless. Whereas, every Devata, Goddess of fortune, everybody was fearful. Only Prahlada was fearless. So, of course, the Devatas, Brahma, Shiva and even Lakshmi were great devotees. But they were all surprised at the ferocity and the anger of Narasimha. And though they were present there and Lord saw them, his anger did not cease. But when he saw Prahlada, his anger ceased. So, obviously, the whole reason for Narasimha Deva appearing was Prahlada. And Narasimha Deva was angry because Prahlada was being afflicted by his father. So, in anger, Narasimha Deva killed Hiranyakashipu. So, this, of course, is vyabhachari bhava, anger. This anger cannot exist without any sthayi bhava. So, the sthayi bhava, of course, is a positive relationship. So, he had attraction for Prahlada. So, the secondary bhava or vyabhachari bhava cannot exist unless the primary emotion is there. So, when he saw Prahlada, then the primary bhava, that is affection for him, manifested very strongly. And suddenly the anger disappeared. So, it was because the original cause of the anger was in relation to Prahlada and then Hiranyakashipu afflicting. And then the final cause of the sthayi bhava is Prahlada. So, then suddenly Narasimha Deva became pacified. In spite of his fearful appearance, etc., the devotees also become inspired by that Supreme Lord.
And often they may be astonished. So, the devotees were very astonished. And they were also frightened because the anger was uncontrollable. But we know that Prahlada is always famous because of smaranam. So, though Narasimha Deva was angry, etc., Prahlada understood, oh, this is the object of my meditation. And thus he had no fear of him.
3) Krishna knows future, past and present. Does he know what, using that free will, what that Jiva is going to decide?
So, because Lord is omniscient, he knows everything. But past, present and future are material concepts. And therefore, to talk about does the Lord know what will happen to the Jiva in the future, cannot really be answered because we are stuck in our linear type of time. So, of course, the free will of the Jiva is there and generally the Lord never interferes with that. And of course, the Jiva can always do something unpredictable.
Of course, in the material world, most of the activities and choices of the Jiva are very predictable according to their gunas. And there is a little variation within that. So, in that sense, yes, the Lord knows what they are all going to do. However, the big choice is, will they surrender to the Lord? And, in one sense, it’s unpredictable. Life after life after life, after the whole lifetimes of Brahma, the Jivas don’t surrender. So, the Lord places devotees in the material world to help the Jivas.
And then the devotees, by their free will, distribute mercy here and there. And then, out of that, some become devotees. And when they attain Brahma and they enter the spiritual world, there is no more time. So, in the spiritual world, everything is in the present.
4) We try to understand them in association of devotees. But we see that whatever we read has to be realized. When and how will one be able to get the realization?
So, we have scripture. We have to follow the directions of scripture. The scripture describes the process of bhakti, how to act. As a result of that action, we get a certain result. So, the final result is prema. It’s usually not a sudden process. Like a seed has to grow into a plant and then have flowers and fruit, so the Jiva has to develop bhakti until it comes to prema. Like a seed has to grow into a plant and then have flowers and fruit, so the Jiva has to develop bhakti until it comes to prema.
By engaging our senses in bhakti, worshipping the Lord, gradually the bhakti increases until we get that final result, the realization. When we engage our senses in bhakti and worship the Lord, gradually the bhakti increases and at a certain point it comes to prema. It goes through different stages. So, we have sadhu-sangha, bhajana-kriya, anartha-nivritti, nishta, ruchi, asakti, bhava and then prema. So, by cultivating bhakti properly, we are guaranteed to get the result.
5) Does Balya Lila, Kaumara Lila and Yavana Lila, all these Lilas take place simultaneously in the Nithya Goloka?
In the spiritual world, Krishna doesn’t have different ages. In the material world, he is a baby. When he grows up, then he goes to Kaishora period. When he grows up, then he goes to Kaishora period. In the spiritual world, Krishna is Kaishora age. This is very suitable for Madhurya Rasa. This is very suitable for Madhurya Rasa. The young Kaumara form of Krishna is very suitable for Vatsalya. Paukonda form is very suitable for Sakya Rasa. There is no Kaumara Krishna and no Paukonda Krishna.
So how do they express these other Rasas? The answer is that though Krishna is Kaishora age, those who have Vatsalya will still see Krishna in a young form and those who are in Sakhya Rasa will see him in Paukonda form. Those who have motherly love will see Krishna as a child and those who are in the form of friends will see Krishna in that form.
6) The question is, in the second line it is written, Bheethi Vat Bheethi Vat As if he is afraid, but he is not afraid. So if he is not afraid, then it is not natural for him, correct?
So Bheethi Vat can mean having fear or it can mean having like fear. Either way. So if he is as if fearful, but actually he is not fearful, that means he is pretending. And therefore we also have to say when he cried, it is also pretend tears. But then we have the fault, Krishna is pretending everything for people. He doesn’t feel it at all, but he is just pretending.
So he is deceiving the devotees. So that also cannot be possible. So though by nature Krishna has no fear, he also doesn’t act as if fearful just to fool people.So therefore, yes he is fearful in one sense, not just acting. But it is definitely not like fear in the material world. It is definitely genuine on his part, but it is not like fear in the material world.
We know that in the spiritual world also there is fear rasa. But it is based upon a primary rasa. In the material world, the secondary rasas are not really secondary. They don’t depend on primary rasas. They are independent. So this is an emotion of genuine fear, which supports the main rasa. It increases the vatsalya rasa. It stimulates the love of mother Yashoda. And it also stimulates Krishna’s affection for mother Yashoda.
In vatsalya rasa, Krishna is a small child, unprotected, can’t do anything for himself. So this is a form of the Supreme Lord. And there will be suitable actions and emotions to support that identity as a small child. And that will increase the vatsalya of mother Yashoda. It will increase the vatsalya of mother Yashoda. So therefore it is not fear like material fear.
7) Whether the pastimes like Damodar Lila and Govardhan Lila happens in Goloka Vrindavan also?
Yes, they do have pastimes like that. But they also appear repeatedly. Repeatedly. But when they happen the second time or third or fourth time, it’s as if it never happened previously. Everything is in the present, so there is no past to remember. Please.
The highest goal in bhakti is prema bhava. And Krishna recommends in Bhagavad Gita to do dhyana yoga, to remember, to think in meditation. When you are doing some devotional service or chanting japa, any kind of seva, to get this bhakti rasa, move with Krishna, because we are not in bhakti rasa here in the material world.
But if you do some meditation and chanting with good japa, you can get this bhakti rasa in this material world with Krishna. So the purpose of sadhana bhakti, that is hearing and chanting and deity worship, etc., ultimately is to get to bhava. The purpose of sadhana bhakti is to get to bhava.In bhava, one realizes Krishna and begins to develop rasa. And this will further develop into prema. If one develops prema, then one can enter into the spiritual world. So in bhava and prema, we still have a material body, but internally we have this realization of the Lord and his pastimes. So our sadhana, our practice of bhakti, will transform into that realization where we participate in the pastimes of Krishna with rasa. Our sadhana bhakti will transform into that realization and through that I can participate in the pastimes of Krishna with bhava.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!