English
8 August 2020
Make your heart an ideal home for the Lord
Hare Krsna! Chanting is taking place from 804 locations. Sri Krsna Janmastami Mahotsava ki Jay!
Some serious students are hearing the Japa talk and taking notes. Soon Krsna Janmastami will be there and we are preparing for the Appearance day of Krsna. We should make such preparations that the Lord appears. I was saying yesterday, we wish that Krsna appears in our hearts and our lives. We become fully Krishna conscious after such an appearance. By chanting and hearing about His Kathas, by engaging in other services, by offering Him Bhoga and by honouring prasada, we are cleaning our heart (ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ) and our consciousness is getting purified. Cleaning the consciousness is very important as the Lord does not appear where there is low thinking and high living.
paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma
pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān
puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam
ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum
Translation:
Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. [BG 10.12]
Arjuna said, “Lord you are the most clean and pure.” So if we want the Lord to appear in our heart, then we need to clean it, because the pure Lord will appear only in pure hearts, pure places. If thinking is pure, then everything is pure. The Lord did not stay at Duryodhan's palace. This is a Katha from Mahabharata. The Lord went to Hastinapur as the peace ambassador before the war. The Lord saw that Duryodhan was filled with envy and hatred for the Pandavas. Duryodhan invited the Lord to his huge palace for lunch, but the Lord did not go there as there was high living, but low thinking. Instead He went to the small cottage of Vidura which was a very pure place. They did not have any material expectations from the Lord. He was cordially welcomed there by Vidura and his wife. They lived in a hut and eating was also simple. There they had talks and discussions, which were very pure. In the end when Vidura's wife, who was over-whelmed in the mood of bhakti, wished to offer a banana to Krsna. She was not in material consciousness so she peeled a banana and instead of giving the fruit she gave the peel to Krsna. Krishna affectionately accepted the peel and relished it joyfully. Krsna relished it and said that it was the tastiest fruit he ever ate. Krsna never becomes hungry. He just wants to take the essence of all the fruits. It is simply love and affection, the mood of bhakti in the offering. We can learn a lesson from this and apply it to our life.
I wanted to talk of Krsna Lila. So, get prepared for the appearance of the Lord, especially for you.
ekadā gṛha-dāsīṣu
yaśodā nanda-gehinī
karmāntara-niyuktāsu
nirmamantha svayaṁ dadhi
Translation:
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: One day when mother Yaśodā saw that all the maidservants were engaged in other household affairs, she personally began to churn the yogurt. While churning, she remembered the childish activities of Kṛṣṇa, and in her own way, she composed songs and enjoyed singing to herself about all those activities.[SB 10.9.1-2].
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.9 one more pastime is mentioned. This is also going to be the last pastime of Krsna in Gokula. This pastime happened on the day of Diwali. On that day, Yasoda gave her home servants a day off from churning yogurt and she started churning it herself.
tāṁ stanya-kāma āsādya
mathnantīṁ jananīṁ hariḥ
gṛhītvā dadhi-manthānaṁ
nyaṣedhat prītim āvahan
Translation:
While mother Yaśodā was churning butter, Lord Kṛṣṇa, desiring to drink the milk of her breast, appeared before her, and in order to increase her transcendental pleasure, He caught hold of the churning rod and began to prevent her from churning.[ SB 10.9.4]
When Yasoda was churning the milk early in the morning, Krsna woke up hungry and came to her with the desire to drink her milk. Yasoda had not gone to wake Him up. He got up. This is a transcendental desire. Lord is void of any material or mundane desires. Krsna came, so Yaśodā maiya stopped churning, took Him in her lap, and started breastfeeding Him. Suddenly she saw that the milk on fire was about to come to a boil. She gently put Krsna aside and ran towards the milk. Here the milk is also Krishna conscious. It is seeing that Krsna is being breastfed by His mother. So the milk thinks, “If His hunger is satiated, then I won't get the chance to serve Him. I am useless. There is no worse life than this. I better jump in the fire.” Seeing Yaśodā chose the milk over Him, Krsna got angry and broke the pot that was next to Him. He was also distributing butter to the monkeys. Seeing this Yasoda got angry and started chasing Krsna. Krsna was running and Yasoda was chasing Him. It is not easy to catch hold of Krsna. But seeing the efforts of Yasoda the Lord allowed Himself to be caught. Yasoda decided to punish Krsna. She thought that He should be tied, and since the pounder had helped Him reach the pot tied up, she decided to punish both of them.
She tried to tie Krsna to the pounder, but the rope was 2 fingers short. Each time she added some extra rope, but still it would be two fingers sort. Again by her sincere efforts Krsna again allowed Him to be tied. Yasoda left Him tied in the courtyard. While mother Yaśodā was very busy with household affairs, the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, observed twin trees known as yamala-arjuna, which in a former millennium had been the demigod sons of Kuvera. Due to a curse by Narada Muni they had become trees. Narada Muni had also said that they will be delivered by the Lord when He appears as Krsna. Krsna remembered this. He dragged the pounder between the trees and uprooted both the huge trees simply by pulling them. The prayers of these brothers Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva are worth reading. Since these two age-old trees were now uprooted there was a loud bang and a lot of dust everywhere. All the Gokul vasis got worried and started running towards Nanda Bhavan.They were very happy to see Krsna safe.
This was the day of Diwali in the month of Kartik. After this, all the Gokula vasis headed by Nanda Maharaja assembled to discuss some observations. They all felt that Gokula was not a safe place as they had witnessed Putana, Shaktasur, Tṛṇāvart, and many more. They all decided to leave Gokula and were planning as to where to go. Upananda, the elder brother of Nanda Maharaja suggested that they should go to Vrindavan. He said, “Tthis place is very suitable because it is lush with grass, plants, and creepers for the cows and other animals.” Everyone was asked to vote. Everyone was in favour of the decision and they decided to shift immediately. They did not have any transportation of major household stuff as they lived a simple life. They loaded all their necessary items on their bullock carts and left for Vṛndāvana. All the Gokula Vasis started walking towards Vrindavan along with their cows, oxen, and calves.
There were thousands of Bullock carts. The old women, and children are on the carts and the young men are walking and taking care of the entire crowd. Krsna, Balarama, and mother Rohini were on the same cart. Among so many carts, each Gokula Vasi desired that His cart should be near to that of Krsna. Moving out of Gokula for the first time, Krsna asked his mother Yaśodā, who was also on the same cart, where were they going.
Yaśodā maiya replied that they were going to Vrindavan which was a huge playground. Listening to this Krsna and Balarama were very excited. They had to cross the Yamuna, but as it was late so they camped on the way and the next morning they started crossing the river. They made a bridge with the carts on the river. The bulls were freed from the carts and allowed to cross the river to the other side. The carts were arranged side by side making a bridge. The cowherds were carrying the calves on their shoulders and the mother cows followed swimming to the other side. Like that they all crossed the Yamuna to Vrindavana They parked the bullock carts in a circular formation and in they stayed in the middle. That place is called saktavrat. This place is called Chhatikara, where Gokula Vasis started to stay.
I will end here. Remain busy in devotional services.
