English
7th July 2019
bala sulabha lilā
Haribol spirit souls!
Just a quick communication, I read about. The devotees in Mauritius, one of their offering for 70th Vyasa puja, more than 20 devotees will be travelling to an island called Reunion. It is in Indian Ocean. More than 20 devotees will be going to Reunion. They will be conducting padayatra, and they will spread the holy name all over the island. That was good morning news. I am very happy with this very appropriate offering of conducting padayatra on the occasion of 70th Vyasa Puja. Others may consider something similar, in their own countries or temples.
So, today was the third day of Jagannāth being at Gundica Temple. Tomorrow is Hera Pancami. We will talk about Hera Pancami tomorrow. But, just a reminder, that Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu was performing kirtana thrice a day, like a tri sandhya, in the morning, during the day, and also in the evening. He used to gather with His associates and perform nama sankirtana, chanting and dancing in front of Jagannāth Baladeva Subhadra, for Their pleasure.
So, you also do lots of kirtana during this time for the pleasure of Jagannāth, in Jagannāth Puri, or of course Jagannāth is everywhere. Jagannāth is probably in your temple, Jagannāth is at your home. You can chant and dance for His pleasure. He will accept your offering of chanting of Hare Krsna and Jagannāth will be highly pleased if you do more and more kirtana during these days. Or you can always chant Hare Krsna on your japa beads more and more and try to do that with full attention and constantly avoiding all offenses and very humbly also,
tṛṇād api sunīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (Siksastakam Verse 3)
In such a state of mind - the humility and tolerance and respecting others and not expecting respect for oneself, in such a state of mind one could chant the holy name of the Lord constantly. So, try to endeavor, strive for achieving such a state of mind so that you could, we could chant the holy name of the Lord constantly as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu did chant all the time, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hari. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a glaring example of one who chanted all the time.
So, we mentioned yesterday that Jagannāth, Sri Krsna is back in Vrindavan and He is very happy to be back at home, that is Vrindavan dhama and this is the place, the abode, Vrindavan Dhām Ki Jay! where the Lord performs sweet pastimes, madhurya, madhura lilā, prema madhurya, lilā madhurya, rupa madhurya and venu madhurya. Vrindavan pastimes are known for these madhuryas, sweetnesses and there are all these pastimes, and even whole Vrindavan is sweet, madhurya dhāma because there Lord does not exhibit His greatness, like He exhibits in Vaikuntha, and other places His aishvarya “I am great. I am proprietor” - that spirit the Lord does not exhibit in Vrindavan. As a result, the pastimes of the Lord in Vrindavan are very, very wonderfully sweet where Lord is a child when is born, Lord does ‘bala sulabha lilā’. He acts like a child and everyone is amazed and we are also amazed when we hear His pastimes as a child.
Like children are naughty, Krsna as He becomes the child, baby Krsna, bala Krsna, He is no exception, He is bala Krsna and He is also naughty. God is great in Vaikuntha the Lord is not naughty, He is serious. But, in Vrindavan, He becomes a child and like any other, every other child, He acts very naughtily, He acts like a naughty child and His naughtiness, all His pastimes of being naughty become very, very funny and very interesting and very pleasing pastimes.
Sometimes, children like to steal things, some sweets or something. I also remember stealing, I use to steal some sugar, when no one was around, my mother was not around, I used to climb up and reach the container of sugar and get some sugar and looking around when no one is watching me, I used to eat sugar and mother used to note what is happening? Sugar is getting lesser and lesser.
So children, I am sure you all as children you remember you did something stealthily and no exception, He was also a thief, specially stealing the butter and that was His favorite item. So, He sometimes had to steal, or lot of times He would steal, or practically every day He would steal butter somewhere and as a result He has become known as butter thief, Makhan Chor. So, this makhan chori, stealing butter pastimes are so sweet, so nectarian, as one listens, one could relish those pastimes of the Lord and as one relishes, he gets attracted to such Krsna, ‘yah karsati sa krsna’. Krsna attracts us, Lord attracts us to Him by playing these interesting naughties or all sorts of pastimes in Vrindavan.
And then Krsna stole butter at His own home one day and then Yashoda caught Him- Yashodanandan red handed while He was in the middle of the act of stealing. Then because He was acting like a thief, thieves are punished. So, Yashoda also wanted to punish this thief, which was her own child. So, first He has to be arrested she is running after Him and finally she manages to catch up with Him, which was only possible because of the devotion of Yashoda, she was able to catch Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada explains that even yogis after endeavoring to catch or have a glimpse of Krsna for long long time they cannot manage to catch hold of the Lord Krsna. But Yashoda managed finally to catch Krsna. This was because of her devotion and of course the lot of endeavor, prayas she had done, she caught hold of Krsna, and she was trying to tie Him up with a rope but she realized that the rope which she had was two finger short. So, she managed to get longer rope. The shortage was only two fingers short. She managed to get a longer rope which was two-meter-long and tied it to the earlier rope and again as she attempted to tie Him up it was again two fingers short. And, then she managed to get twenty-meter-long rope and tied to the earlier rope and attempted to tie Him up and again it was two fingers short and she was amazed and others, those who were watching this scene were amazed to see what was going on here.
So, Lord’s waist was not getting bigger in size, and it was round, one quarter meter in circumference, ten twenty inches in circumference. That size of the form of Bala Krsna, and the waist and circumference were not changing, but the rope was many miles long and was getting longer and longer and was not long enough to tie or put around the waist of bala Krsna.
So, Lord is exhibiting His greatness. Lord is great. He is also reminding that, ‘tvadiyo dharayata visvasya dhāmne’ that from Damodarastaka we understand, the last stanza, that the Lord, and Lord’s form and His belly is the dhama, is the abode of whole entire viśva is within Him. Also, He is jagatnivāsa. He is nivāsa, residence of whole universe. The whole world is within Him. So, that is what He is trying to prove by making the rope two fingers short, no matter how much longer, the length of that rope was getting longer and longer and longer, but it was insufficient to tie because you need a long enough rope to tie up the brahmānda and again the Lord is ananta koti brahmānda nāyak. Billions and trillions of brahmāndas and universes are within Him. You cannot even imagine the length of rope that would be required that goes around all the universes. So Lord is trying to make that point –“You are trying to tie Me. But, I am not that small as you think.” But of course, Lord influences the devotees of Vrindavan with His yogamāya, where the transcendental illusion is created, and they don’t think of the greatness aspect of the Lord.
They just ignore that, they don’t pay attention, or they don’t try to realize the kind greatness that Lord was trying to display or exhibit. They were thinking there was something wrong, the rope was not long enough or something is happening. There is nothing to do with this child. Child was not the cause of the rope requiring a longer and longer length. In this way, there is no awe and reverence attitude of Vrajavasi towards the Lord, because they are kept in transcendental illusion, in ignorance in fact. They remain ignorant of the greatness and aisvarya- the opulence of the Lord by the arrangement of the Lord.
Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47).
These things they do not know. The Lord doesn’t let them to know.
So, as He was finally tied up to the mortar and He is supposed to be child and He does not know a lot of things but He remembers those two yamala arjuna trees. They are the sons of Kuvera. They were cursed by Narada Muni and then they were also blessed to be born in the courtyard of Nanda bhavan where I would be taking birth and I was supposed to be giving them benediction. So, let me take this opportunity and let that day be today.
The Lord goes crawling outside Nanda bhavan in the courtyard, in between the two trees and He uprooted the two trees and then two personalities, they appeared, they came out of the tree and they offered their prayers to the Lord. The Lord has liberated these Nalakuvara and Manigriva.
Lord is tied up; He is bound up. That Lord who is bound, is making others free, liberated “You become liberated, I am tied up. You become liberated”. So when the trees were uprooted and the whole big bang sounds and everyone comes running, and they were all thinking of Krsna and were pleased to note that Krsna is safe. They are all wondering who did this, who uprooted the trees. And they are trying to investigate and understand the person who uprooted the trees. And the children, some friends of Lord Krsna, bala Krsna, Nandanandana, they were around when Krsna had come out crawling, they knew He is the one and they were the witness.
So, elderly members, Nanda Baba, Upananda and others were enquiring from all sources. So, they asked the children, “Do you know who is the cause of this?” And they said, “anena – He is the one, He is the one.” – pointing to Krsna. But, they did not believe that the child is that great, or that powerful to uproot these gigantic trees. So, they said – “you kids, take some sweets, go”. They did not take the kids’ statement seriously, which was the fact. The children were right there. They have seen who did this. But then, these are the Vrajavasi. This is how they are governed by internal energy, yogamaya. They cannot think of the Lord being great and this and that. Although, Lord has exhibited His greatness and His prowess by uprooting these trees, and also abhijñaḥ svarāṭ He remembered – “Oh! These trees are the two sons of Kuvera.” So, this opulence, this greatness is displayed but it is covered, subdued and ignored by the inhabitants of Vrindavan. And, then they just think this is just our sweet little darling child and they just love Him like anything and like that the prema madhurya or lila madhurya and goes together. And rupa madhurya and venu madhurya. Venu madhurya will come later on. He is just a child now; He is not playing the flute. He is performing sweet pastimes as a child and all the greatness is covered.
naham prakasah sarvasya
yoga-maya-samavrtah [BG 7.25]
I cover over and as a result the persons do not get to know the Lord. Maya is of two kinds. The conditioned souls are covered by maya. And the residents are also covered by maya. Lord doesn’t make His greatness aspect of His personality known to the residents of Vrindāvan and keeping those pastimes sweet, mesmerizing, nectarian pastimes as Lord performs bala sulabh lila, acting very naturally as a child. Everyone likes children; children are lovable so the people, the residents of Vrindavan like children and especially this child Nandanandana, Yashodanandan.
Kanhaiya Lal Ki! Jai!
Vrindavan Dhām Ki! Jai!
Jagannāth Swami Ki! Jai!
Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu Ki!
Jai! Srila Prabhupada Ki! Jai!
