evaṁ sandarśitā hy aṅga
hariṇā bhṛtya-vaśyatā
sva-vaśenāpi kṛṣṇena
yasyedaṁ seśvaraṁ vaśe
Translation
O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, this entire universe, with its great, exalted demigods like Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā and Lord Indra, is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yet the Supreme Lord has one transcendental attribute: He comes under the control of His devotees. This was now exhibited by Kṛṣṇa in this pastime.
Purport
This pastime of Kṛṣṇa’s is very difficult to understand, but devotees can understand it. It is therefore said, darśayaṁs tad-vidāṁ loka ātmano bhakta-vaśyatām (Bhāg. 10.11.9): the Lord displays the transcendental attribute of coming under the control of His devotees. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.35):
eko ’py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ
yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ
aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
By His one plenary portion as Paramātmā, the Lord controls innumerable universes, with all their demigods; yet He agrees to be controlled by a devotee. In the Upaniṣads it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead can run with more speed than the mind, but here we see that although Kṛṣṇa wanted to avoid being arrested by His mother, He was finally defeated, and mother Yaśodā captured Him. Lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam: Kṛṣṇa is served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. Nonetheless, He steals butter like one who is poverty-stricken. Yamarāja, the controller of all living entities, fears the order of Kṛṣṇa, yet Kṛṣṇa is afraid of His mother’s stick. These contradictions cannot be understood by one who is not a devotee, but a devotee can understand how powerful is unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa; it is so powerful that Kṛṣṇa can be controlled by an unalloyed devotee. This bhṛtya-vaśyatā does not mean that He is under the control of the servant; rather, He is under the control of the servant’s pure love. In Bhagavad-gītā (1.21) it is said that Kṛṣṇa became the chariot driver of Arjuna. Arjuna ordered Him, senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me ’cyuta: “My dear Kṛṣṇa, You have agreed to be my charioteer and to execute my orders. Place my chariot between the two armies of soldiers.” Kṛṣṇa immediately executed this order, and therefore one may argue that Kṛṣṇa also is not independent. But this is one’s ajñāna, ignorance. Kṛṣṇa is always fully independent; when He becomes subordinate to His devotees, this is a display of ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, the humor of transcendental qualities that increases His transcendental pleasure. Everyone worships Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore He sometimes desires to be controlled by someone else. Such a controller can be no one else but a pure devotee.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So this verse illustrates or explains the essence of this particular pastime. So the Lord is the controller of everyone. As stated in this verse, Kṛṣṇa controls the whole universe. He controls all the demigods. And no one controls him. So it says, Kṛṣṇa is controlled by himself(svavaśena). So in the material world usually we’ll have one event caused by another caused by another, caused by another, caused by another. We can go back and find a cause of a cause of a cause. But finally we have to end somewhere. So this ends in the Supreme Lord. He’s the cause of all causes and therefore he controls everything else. So we cannot ask the question who controls Kṛṣṇa. By definition, he has no controller.
So we say he is controlled by himself. So similarly we have the word prakāśaḥ or illumination or light and we know that all the lights here come from the sunlight. And each light is dependent on another light. But finally we come back to the original light. Who is the person who lights up everything? That again is the Supreme Lord. So he lights up himself, we say svaprakāśa
Another word often used is Svayamjyoti. He is able to illuminate himself. He doesn’t require somebody else to light him up. So this is so for all aspects of the Lord. There is no one higher than him. There is no one higher than the Lord in the aspects of the Lord. However, we see here in this past time and other past times as well, Kṛṣṇa is under the control of the devotee. And what is the particular past time here? He got tied up. So he is completely independent but he got bound up. How is it possible? So normally the Lord binds everybody else up, he punishes everybody. But in this past time, Kṛṣṇa gets punished. So normally this will look very strange. This is against the principle that the Supreme Lord is independent. But it takes place under this one condition- The devotee.
Kṛṣṇa can be controlled by a devotee, not by anybody else. So this shows that Kṛṣṇa is not independent. So we can say this is a special case. However, if we look in the spiritual world, it’s not so special. The spiritual world is full of devotees. So if they all have Prema, he is definitely under the control of every single devotee in the spiritual world. So in the spiritual world, we will see that the Lord is often controlled by his devotees.
Of course, if we go to Vaikuṇṭha, where Viṣṇu is supreme, all the devotees, even if they somewhat control the Lord, they always consider Viṣṇu as supreme. Nevertheless, Viṣṇu also says, I am controlled by my devotee. So the Supreme Lord told Durvāsa, if you want to get free from the affliction of the Sudarśana Chakra, you go to my devotee, because I am under the control of my devotee. Whatever the devotee says, I will do. It is not uncommon in the spiritual world that the Lord is controlled by the devotee. It is very common.
So what is so special about Kṛṣṇa being bound up by mother Yaśodā? Another example, under the control of the devotee. What is so special about Kṛṣṇa being bound up by mother Yaśodā? And the answer is, he is more under the control of his devotee in Vriṇdāvan. Viṣṇu is controlled by the devotee andKṛṣṇa is controlled by the devotee. But Kṛṣṇa is more controlled by the devotee. And of course the reason is that Kṛṣṇa being the ultimate form of the Lord, shows all the wonderful qualities of the Lord in a more remarkable way.
So, Viṣṇu can show powers, Kṛṣṇa will show more power. Rama will show some sweetness, Kṛṣṇa will show more sweetness. Viṣṇu is merciful to everybody in the material world. Kṛṣṇa will show more mercy to everyone in the material world. So, Kṛṣṇa is more under the control of his devotee than any other form of the Lord. But simultaneously, he also has more power than any other form of the Lord.
So, in Kṛṣṇa we will see more extreme contradiction. And this makes it difficult for some people to appreciate Kṛṣṇa. So, yes, Lord, under the control of his devotee, Viṣṇu gives his Sudarśan Chakra to Ambariśa. But then Kṛṣṇa becomes the charioteer of Arjuna. We never see Viṣṇu do that. And even Rāma doesn’t do that. But even more remarkable is Kṛṣṇa gets tied up by Mother Yaśodā, not seen anywhere in the spiritual world. So, the devotees understand that this shows how Kṛṣṇa is completely controlled by Mother Yaśodā’s love. Other people will not appreciate that how can the Lord get tied up- I don’t want to worship Kṛṣṇa. Why should we worship a Lord who steals butter? Why should we have a Lord who tells lies? So, Kṛṣṇa acts in a very extreme way out of affection for the devotees. As I said, it’s natural.
The Lord is affectionate to the devotee, under control of the devotee. But in Kṛṣṇa, this becomes extreme. So, Mother Yasoda is able to tie up Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa can’t even move. Mother Yasoda threatens Kṛṣṇa with a stick, runs after him with a stick. Not only that, Kṛṣṇa runs away in fear.
So, normally, of course, how can the Lord be afraid of anyone? Rāma is not afraid of anyone. Viṣṇu is not afraid of anyone. Kṛṣṇa is afraid of Mother Yasoda. How is it possible? All this is possible in Vṛṇdāvan because of this great bond of affection between the devotee and the Supreme Lord. Of course, even in Vṛṇdāvan, not everybody runs after Kṛṣṇa with a stick and ties him up. Even Nanda, when he saw Kṛṣṇa tied up, he thought, Oh, Mother Yaśodā, how can she do this? How can she tie up Kṛṣṇa? But, because of the intense love that Mother Yaśodā had for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa agreed to be tied up.
So, not only is Kṛṣṇa in Vṛṇdāvan, the highest level of manifesting qualities, but also, he has these devotees who are on the highest level. Because of their most intense prema, then Kṛṣṇa will also act in the most unusual ways. So, Mother Yaśodā’s prema is very special.
Of course, all the prema in Vrindavan is special. Therefore, Brahma is astonished by that. Let me be a blade of grass in Vṛṇdāvan, he is praying. But, Mother Yaśodā’s prema is most intense. And because of this, she decides to punish Kṛṣṇa, run after him and tie him up. And because of her intense prema, Kṛṣṇa also agrees to be tied up.
So, not only does it show how the Lord is under the control of the devotee, but it also shows that the Lord is under the control of the devotee to the highest degree in Vṛṇdāvan. And he is most under the control of the devotee when the devotee also has the highest level of prema. So, this pastime is also a celebration of the greatness of prema.
Through that prema, we get the most remarkable pastimes. Kṛṣṇa has 64 qualities. Of those, these 4 qualities are very special.
And one of those qualities is Mādhurya Līla, very sweet pastimes. So, all the forms of the Lord show wonderful pastimes that devotees experience bliss. The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛṇdāvan show the greatest sweetness. The sweetness means the most intimacy, the greatest closeness. And the reason is the devotees never see Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord. Mother Yaśodā always sees Kṛṣṇa as her child. And Kṛṣṇa also doesn’t think of himself as the Supreme Lord. He also says, I am a child. I am smaller, mother Yaśodā is bigger, she has got a stick, I must run away. So, all this takes place because of that very sweet prema in Vṛṇdāvan.
Q & A
1) One of the previous verses, it is mentioned that something like with false fear, Kṛṣṇa has false fear. So, I think it’s the beginning of the pastime when he breaks and then he runs away. False anger, I think. Oh,( as if. iva), appeared to be. So, but it appears that he is angry, but why is it mentioned as false?
So, of course, language is such that there are many suggestions by words. So, Kṛṣṇa can appear to be angry when mother Yaśodā goes and leaves him or so that would mean it’s false or whatever. Or, iva can also mean a little bit angry. It is not like the anger of the material world. In that sense, it is false. So, we know in the spiritual world, there is anger, there is a rasa, a secondary rasa is there. It’s not unreal, it’s real. It’s an offshoot of Prema itself. It’s unlike material anger. Material anger does not depend upon love. So, therefore, it appears to be anger because it’s not material anger. You can say it like that. If we say in the spiritual world there should be no anger, Kṛṣṇa should have no fear or whatever, and then if Kṛṣṇa shows fear or anger, that he’s just pretending, that would make Kṛṣṇa also like an actor.
So, he’s doing it just because mother Yaśodā is a great devotee, I’ll act like this, but I don’t feel anything. That would be false. So, it would be a great disappointment if the devotee found out, oh, Kṛṣṇa is only acting all the time.
Just like in the material world we have actors, so on stage or in the movies they can portray hero or whatever like that, and everybody feels, oh, he’s such a wonderful person. And then when they see what he does in the actual life in the material world, they say, how can we appreciate this person? They get disappointed. Of course, we can say Kṛṣṇa is so perfect he can arrange it so they never find out he’s acting in the spiritual world. But then this would also be a bigger deceit. So, yes, Kṛṣṇa actually does have fear, but it is spiritual fear. He may show anger, it is spiritual anger, but it is real, it’s an experience of Kṛṣṇa.
Now, of course, the main problem is how can the Supreme Lord show fear or anger or anything at all? But as I said, these are aspects of prema, not like the material world, so we can never criticize the Lord for that. So, Mother Yaśodā may show anger, it’s because of her prema. And Kṛṣṇa may show anger, also because of his prema.
2) Is Kṛṣṇa’s all the pastimes are eternal or only specific pastime? Like Kṛṣṇa appeared and disappeared in the material world. So, his childhood pastimes are only temporary (one time) or it would be every cycle?
So, everything spiritual should be eternal. So, therefore, if Kṛṣṇa appears in the material world, it should be eternal, cannot be temporary. But furthermore, every single act seems to have a beginning and an end.
So, each pastime has so many beginnings and ends. How can the spiritual world exist at all? It’s got beginning and end to it. Can’t be spiritual. And that is why the impersonalists say, there should be no activity, there should be no qualities and no form because it’s all limitation on Brahman. So, the explanation given is that it looks like from our point of view that a particular activity like Kṛṣṇa’s birth is a single event in time. But no, it’s taking place all the time in some universe. So, in that sense, the birth is always taking place somewhere. Of course, in the spiritual world, there is no time at all. So, we can’t even speak of beginning and end of a certain pastime. It’s always the present.
3) Not audible
Oh, well, Kṛṣṇa is not a submissive child. He got angry when mother Yaśodā put him down and went to kick the pot. So, then mother Yaśodā wanted to tie him up. Then Kṛṣṇa said, I’m not going to be tied up. The reason, of course, is not because he is Supreme Lord, but because he wanted to go and play with his friends. But he expanded himself so the rope couldn’t tie him. That was, of course, a show of his power as the Supreme Lord. But that was not actually to show mother Yaśodā, I am the Supreme Lord. It was because he didn’t want to get tied up because he wanted to go and play.
4) When this point of eternality and time is not present in spiritual world, do we understand that effect the time has in material world does not apply in spiritual world?Because in material world it destroys everything. For example there are different pastimes that happens in a particular time of the day and that regularly happens.
So what we can say is, time as we think of in the material world does not exist in the spiritual world. So there is a sense of time in that they have a day and a night, and past times in the day, and past times in the night, etc.
But when we think of time, time is destructive. Time has a past, a present, and a future. So there is no past, present, and future. There is only a present. And time is not destructive. It increases the past times and the bliss. So of course, the inhabitants of the spiritual world do have a sense that, okay, I remember what happened yesterday, or whatever. I’ll think of what to do tomorrow. But then, how far the memory goes back, they can’t remember when Kṛṣṇa was born. Because he wasn’t born. In one sense, he is there eternally. But there is somehow, maybe he was born sometime in the past, but there is no memory of it. So time and memory of past is only a function of the past times. What is useful for the past times, will exist for it.
5) Unless one understands about different aspects of rasa, it will be difficult to appreciate the past times of Kṛṣṇa. So how can a sadhaka try to understand the past times of Kṛṣṇa?
Of course, not only we have to understand rasa, we have to understand basic tattva or philosophy. So, of course, along with that understanding of philosophy or rasa, there has to be devotion, because we can’t understand any of that unless there is a devotion. So, the philosophical aspect, of course, is pretty evident in Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita and commentaries of our ācāryas. And the knowledge of rasa is there, particularly in Nectar of devotion. As we see, Nectar of devotion is one of the first books that Prabhupāda translated into English. So, we should understand what is in the book rather than just look at it.
Kṛṣṇa is Akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti. He is the form of all rasas. So, definitely we cannot understand a little bit about Kṛṣṇa if we don’t know a little bit about rasa. In fact, by Taittiriya Upaniṣad, the Supreme Lord is rasa. So, if you want to know the Lord, you have to know rasa.
6) The jiva who qualifies to go to Goloka Vṛṇdāvan will take birth necessarily in the Bhauma Vṛṇdāvan in some other universe where Kṛṣṇa is doing pastimes and then go back to Godhead along with Kṛṣṇa or the jiva will straightly go to the Goloka without participating in the Bhauma Vṛṇdāvan pastimes?
So, it is all up to the will of Kṛṣṇa what he wants a particular devotee to do. At the same time, his participating in the pastimes when they take place in the material world is quite suitable. We see in the past time of the Rāsalīla, some of the gopis were kept in their houses and they couldn’t go out and they gave up their bodies. So, ācāryas is explaining these were gopīs who were not actually at the highest level. They were doing sadhana and they came out of the material world and they were just getting to the spiritual level. So, the Lord allowed them to come to Vṛṇdāvan but because they were impure to some degree, they could not go to the Rāsalīla. By the separation from Kṛṣṇa, getting locked in their houses, they felt such intense prema that they gave up all their impurities and they assumed a pure spiritual body. Then they could meet Kṛṣṇa.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !!