Why did Vasudeva not allow Krishna to return to Vrindavana?
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
changing. And eventually, when he saw him on the throne, complete negative perception. Now, Vasudev, if you see, there are two things here.
First is that Vasudev is not just alone in making decisions. He is one of the royal princes. He actually never occupies the throne.
Ugrasin occupies the throne. And of course, Krishna also will occupy the throne. And the Yadus themselves are constantly concerned.
So, of course, Krishna, he said that Vasudev is not allowing me to go. You know, in the world, when we live in a community, it is our decisions are not our decisions alone. We have to think of so many other things.
So, one is from the point of view of the Yadus, they are concerned that if Krishna goes, he will not come back. Vasudev knew from his side that Nandamaharaj is also very understanding. The very fact that Nandamaharaj did not insist that Krishna come back.
Vasudev was not alone in making the decisions. But he was alone in having to tell that decision to Krishna. Because he is the father.
So, that is one thing. And secondly is that it is also true that they all had the apprehension that if Krishna goes back to Vrindavan, he will not come back. Now, in tomorrow’s class about Vrasa, I will talk about this aspect more.
See, Jiva Swami in the Gopalacharya Purva is describing the whole pastime from the perspective of the Vrajavasis. And so, for example, now Jiva Swami says that there is a Sakha of Krishna in Arjuna. And there is a Sakha of Krishna in Vrindavan.
And he says that wherever Krishna goes, Krishna is constantly rendering Vrindavan and seeking to unite Arjuna for Vrindavan. So, he says, why was Krishna so dear of all the five Pandavas? Why did Krishna love Arjuna the most? Because this Arjuna reminded him of Vrindavan. Now, is it true? See, this is a whole different subject.
There is a transcendental subjectivity in which more important than truth is the emotion. The truth is there but more important is emotion. So, it is true that Arjuna had, no doubt, had very intense devotion among all the Pandavas.
But Jiva Swami is explaining things from the perspective of the Vrajavasis. So, similarly, he says, there are so many other students in the Gurukula Sannidhani. Why Krishna has special affection for Sudama only? Because this Sudama reminded him of Sudama and Vrindavan.
There is another Gopalakshetra in Sudama. So, the whole narration of Gopalakshetra is from the perspective of the Vrajavasis. And the Vrajavasis are just not able to understand the, how is Krishna not coming back? They understand the call of the beauty, the call of beauty that Krishna has, but still the heart doesn’t resemble that.
So, Jiva Swami, when he describes such things, you know, in the Sannidhani, say, when he is describing Tatha, he is describing Tatha, when he is describing Tattva, he is quite, he is quite cautious in telling things in a very broad and reconciliatory way. So, it is not that there is specifically stopping Krishna from going and, you know, Krishna is God, if you want to take from the, if he is, want to remove the rasa part of the Tattva, Krishna doesn’t have to obey those things. Krishna can just leave Vrindavan, Vrindavan.
But the point of this pastime is that the nature of love is such that one does not want to attribute any fault to one’s object of love. So, therefore, in a matter of, as I said, transcendent rasa, one attributes the fault to someone else. So, Krishna is not returning to Vrindavan, Krishna is not leaving.
Others around him must leave too. So, this is all very exalted. The point which I am making is that there is a specific understanding that also, here, the loka was not animated in this film.
And Jiva Goswami’s repetition is trying to make sense of Krishna’s going away from Vrindavan and staying away from Vrindavan from the perspective of the Vrajamasis. In fact, the whole Gopal Chambu is narrated as, as a narrative by two, two bars, two singers, Srikanta and Madhukanta. And they are narrating it when Krishna has come back from Vrindavan.
So, Krishna is already there and Krishna is giving his own pastimes. Narrated by Srikanta and Madhukanta. So, this whole pastime is, in that sense, when I describe it, it is from the perspective of the Vrajamasis.
How they were acclimated and how they were employed. So, it is Krishna who wanted to give his devotees the experience of love and separation. And that is the main reason why he stayed away from Vrindavan.
He heightened their love to the highest extent. But in the analysis within love, for the sake of rasa, different causal chains are pointed out. And in this case, it is almost, not entirely, but at least in Gopal Chambu, the way he was describing from the project perspective, the Madhuravasis are painted slightly alternative.
And that is a matter of rasa. Just as we may see that, for Radhakrishna, Chandravani and the Sakhis, they are the competitors. And they are competing in a negative way.
We have, you know, Vaishnavas can be so accommodating that Prabhupada, when he is in an S.K. interview, he can simply follow any word of God and go back to God. The interviewer asks him, can you go back to God? Yes, of course, any word of God you follow, you go back to God. So, the path of Vaishnavas is so broad, at that level, Prabhupada is saying that Jesus Christ was so good because he didn’t lie for God.
And that same Vaishnava path we have, Ramana Das Swami not wanting to even bring milk, if the milk is not from Sakhisthani, the milk of which the milk is from Sakhisthani. So, I don’t even want to bring that milk because it is not milk from Sakhisthani. So, this is the nature of rasa.
And it’s not that Chandravani is everywhere wrong or bad. But the nature of emotion is that for the intensity of relationships, there are different people who act in different ways or who are thought of, conceived of as acting in different ways to enhance the power of that relationship. And I saw in this particular analysis, the reason why Krishna has come back is the Madhuravasi model of love.
Thank you very much. Shukrubhaviti.