Bhagavatam tenth canto study 48 – 10.8.42-45 Yashoda makes sense of the incomprehensible by taking shelter of the transcendental Lord

Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10, Chapter 8 Lord Krishna shows the universal form Text 42 Malayeshwara has seen the universal form And she is somehow trying to make sense Of what she has seen And she Takes shelter of the supreme lord Thinking him to be the cause of everything And she starts considering That he is the only reality Everything else is an illusion With such thinking she says Aham mamastu patireshame suto Prajeshwarasyakhilavittapasati Gopeshche gopahasagodhanashchame Yanmaye thamkumati samegatihi Aham mamastu patireshame suto Think that I am I and mine These are all illusions Mama asav That That I am The queen of Vrindavan Asav patir This is my husband Eshame suto This is my son All this is an illusion Prajeshwarasyakhilavittapasati Prajeshwarasyakhilavittapasati My husband is a Is a lord of Raja Is a lord of Raja And therefore Akhilavittapasati Therefore I am the possessor of so much wealth Because Sati I am his wife Gopeshche gopahasagodhanashchame The Gopas and the Gopis The cowherd damsels All of them Sagodhanashchame That all these cows and cows They are mine Yanmaye thamkumati samegati Yanmaya Ya Actually it is The word maya can mean illusion It can also mean mercy So actually It is not mine It is by the lord’s mercy That they have been given to me But kumati samegati But because of kumati Because of my misdirected consciousness I am thinking that all these are mine And In order to get out of this illusion What do I have to do? Samegati That lord Whose maya is causing me to think all these things Let me take shelter of him He is my only shelter So actually The Vrajavasis have a very mysterious relationship With Vishnu and Narayan In the sense that For them it is very simple Krishna is their delightful cowherd boy The hero of their lives And They are all worshippers of Narayan That is It is as simple as that for them But for us who understand that Krishna is God And they are Exalted They are the most exalted devotees of God But the whole of Vrindavan Is actually depicted In In a culture of Devotional piety Or rather Vrindavan exists Not depicted Exists In devotional piety So the Vrajavasis worship Krishna They love Krishna as their own child But they worship Lord Narayan And thus here Rishabh Ramai thinks that Actually it is not just this Is an illusion That I saw the whole universe in the mouth of my child Was that an illusion? But actually that alone is not the illusion Everything that I see is an illusion That Everything right from My own self conception To my conception of others All this is an illusion So when she takes shelter of Lord Narayan She starts thinking that Why am I taking shelter of him On seeing this one illusion of Seeing the universe in my child’s mouth Actually Even if this Universe is not seen in my child’s mouth Still I am an illusion Because I am thinking That everything is mine That all these conceptions Janasyamoho Yamahammameti This is mine, that is mine All these are actually simply illusions And because I have these illusory conceptions Therefore I am totally into illusion So why get obsessed with one particular illusion When there are so many illusions That are dominating me And in this way She starts thinking That actually That Lord All these illusions are ultimately Come because of the Lord So I have to get out of this illusion And how will I get out of this illusion It is only by His mercy So Let me take shelter of that Supreme Who alone is the Reliever of all illusions Now at one level The Vrajavasis are forever beyond illusion Nothing can actually put They are At the supreme perfection of life Which is beyond all illusion They can’t be put in illusion But in this particular situation It appears as if they are an illusion Or rather Yashoda is thinking that I am an illusion And that is also a part of their transcendental devotion So everything that is present in the material world Is present in its purity and perfection In Krishna Loka So just as there is the realization that I am an illusion That we may get while we are functioning in the material world Similarly in the In the spiritual world also the Vrajavasis Get that I am an illusion But their illusion Is also in connection with Krishna Their illusion also deepens their devotion to Krishna And thus everything there is Supremely Krishna centered It takes 43 now In this way When she understood Truth She philosophically understood the truth of everything When Yashoda and my thoughts are thinking like this This was the mercy of the Lord But then But then the Lord decided Again with no Maya The Lord Covered him with Maya Covered her with Maya She became very much attached to Krishna Because of her maternal affection to him That Supreme Lord Who she considered to be her child She quarreled with affection for him once again So just as in this world sometimes There are moments of illumination Say for example If a loved one passes away At that time people go to the crematorium And then they have They have Spells of renunciation What is this? Everything in life is temporary Things will come and go People will come and go I am getting so attached and entangled in this I have to think about the Big picture of my life I have to think about the big things in my life So So in this way they started thinking And they said that So then they come out of illusion for some time But again after that When they see their loved ones And again the attachment arises And again they go into illusion So Just as there is Illumination and illusion in the material world This pastime depicts how there is illumination and illusion Even in the spiritual world But because it is all within the context of Krishna Of pure devotion to Krishna Of loving service to Krishna It’s all transcendental So just as One might get some philosophical wisdom But when one sees a loved one The philosophical wisdom disappears Rudrastra would sometimes appreciate spiritual truths But then when he would Look at Duryodhana Of course he could not see Duryodhana because he was blind But when he would hear Duryodhana’s speech He would think about Duryodhana Interact with Duryodhana And Duryodhana would act as if he was displeased Then immediately What would happen is That all his attachment would come back And all the illumination would disappear So now that is generally reproachable But when it is for intimate devotees of Krishna Like Yashodamayi Actually the state of illusion Is higher than the state of illumination Normally illumination is higher than illusion But the illusion that deepens one’s devotion for Krishna The illusion that strengthens one’s affection for Krishna The illusion that intensifies one’s absorption in Krishna That is the illusion of Yoga Maya And the Vrajavasis are in that illusion Where they forget Krishna’s greatness So that they can become more absorbed in Krishna’s sweetness And such an extraordinary level of consciousness Such that is far far above what is even conceivable By the rest of humanity Or all other living beings put together also So by Krishna’s mercy So when it is She, by Krishna’s mercy She in one sense it said Came out of illusion towards illumination And started thinking Oh all this is illusory But then again when she saw Krishna She became overwhelmed By attraction towards him And she forgot everything that she had just contemplated But this is actually a more exalted stage Because in this stage She is completely absorbed in Krishna She is giving herself completely to Krishna And thus this state of absorption is the supreme absorption पुत्रस्नेह मैं विभू So पुत्रस्नेह मैं She became filled with affection for her son विभू That son who is the supreme lord Who is all attractive, who is all powerful She became absorbed in him Which is the inconceivable affection that she has for Krishna Text 44 सद्यो नष्ट स्मृतेर गोपी सारो प्यारो हमा आत्मजम प्रवृद्ध स्नेह कलिल रुदया सीद्य था पुरा So when Krishna arranged Krishna did not want Yashodamayi to be thinking about his greatness He simply wanted to reciprocate love with Yashodamayi In the mood of बात्सल्य भाव He wanted her to see him as Her child, not as the supreme lord So he Maya Devi, the goddess of illusion She is his servitor And he arranged for her To again expand and cover Yashodamayi Yashodamayi is covered, then what happens? सद्यो नष्ट स्मृतेर गोपी So after Sadya, after all these philosophical Ruminations नष्ट स्मृतेर गोपी Her Remembrance of having seen Krishna with the universal form How Krishna is depicting the universe Within his mouth That disappeared, that memory disappeared Now we may wonder How can something as memorable As unforgettable As seeing someone As seeing one’s own child showing the universe How can anyone possibly forget that? Yes It seems improbable But actually It’s eminently possible Because Ultimately Krishna is the giver of knowledge and Krishna is the giver of forgetfulness So नष्ट स्मृतेर गोपी So actually if we consider for ourselves Both recollection Remembrance and forgetfulness are miraculous things We all experience hundreds and thousands of stimuli And how can we remember some stimuli among those hundreds and thousands That is very difficult to understand And how can we forget some stimuli That is also very difficult to understand So Sometimes some things We read Have I read this before? No, you read it, you told me about this Oh, I don’t remember it at all So how our memory gets wiped out It’s amazing Sometimes it may happen because of amnesia, blow on the head That’s more of a physical damage That causes that wiping out But sometimes time, the passage of time Somebody might have been a very close friend of ours But if we don’t meet them for 10, 20, 30 years When we meet them Then somebody whom we might have considered to be our As they say BFF, best friend forever That person we might almost forget them entirely So Krishna is the giver of remembrance And Krishna is the giver of forgetfulness So here Krishna gives forgetfulness सद्यो नष्ट स्मृतेर गोपी This Gopi, she forgot everything सारोप्यारोहमात्मजम् सारोप्यारोहमात्मजम् Beautiful alliteration here Of the आ आ sound आरोप्यारोहमात्मजम् She took this child And sat him down On her lap And she became absorbed in that affection for the child प्रवुद्धस्नेह कलिला And as her affection for the child increased When he was seated on her lap रुदयासी यथा पुरा And her heart became situated as it was before So her heart was situated in affection for Krishna Not in the conception that Oh everything is illusion I am going to become detached from all this No, that was not the conception she had She had a much Broader, she She was situated in the intense affection for Krishna Which Was The perfect situation for her heart And she returned to that situation So Krishna performs pastimes in which He manifests something and That triggers certain emotions in the devotees But when he wants them to forget He unmanifests that vision And that emotion also disappears from the heart of the devotee So the वरजवासी is the devotion इशुदमा is devotion for Krishna Is so great that Whatever is favorable for her Devotional relationship with Krishna That is what stays prominent in her consciousness And everything else goes to the Background of her consciousness Now we say A principle in bhakti is Accept that which is favorable And avoid that which is unfavorable So We have to do it conscientiously Although we will be attracted to some things Which are unfavorable to bhakti We have to conscientiously stay away from them And although some things Connect with bhakti We may not feel so attracted towards them But still we have to conscientiously Stay connected with them That is how We have to do this अनुकुल्यस्यसंकल्पण्पत्तिकुल्यस्यवरजनम् Accepting the favorable, avoiding the unfavorable But For इशुदमा this happens spontaneously That for her For the For her intense relationship Sweet relationship With her Baby She wants to have An affectionate relationship with him And for that whatever is required That manifests immediately And whatever is unfavorable That just disappears So thinking of Krishna’s Greatness is unfavorable for the intimacy Of her relationship with Krishna And his mother So the Chaitanya Charitambar says that अईश्वर शितील प्रेम ना इश्वरेर भुजाय That when The knowledge of आईश्वर्य Of the greatness of Krishna That knowledge comes in And that actually weakens The intensity of the love Because the devotee starts thinking If Krishna is God How can I love Krishna? How can I consider Krishna as my child? How can I love him in that mood? And that contemplation Weakens the devotion And Krishna doesn’t like That weakened devotion And thus Krishna Loves foremost The devotion of the devotees Who have Who are not ignorant of his वैश्वर्य But who are transcendent Who are transcendental to his आईश्वर्य Mother Yashoda is in that situation So Now Here Suta Goswami So Shukadeva Goswami will give a Brief commentary or a conclusion Exposition of what has happened And he says त्रयाचोपनशिद्धिष्च सांख्ययोगैश सात्वतै उपगीयमान्महात्म्यम् हरिम् साम्योगैश साम्यतात्मजम् सामन्यतात्मजम् So that Lord Hari What is his position? त्रयाचोपनशिद्धिष्च त्रयाचोपनशिद्धिष्च That When one studies the three Vedas रिक्साम्यजूर Or साम्यजूर अतर विचेवर The three Vedas is often talked about And then one studies the three Vedas उपनशिद्धिष्च उपनशिद्धिष्च One studies the Vedas That Lord is described Is glorified in the Vedas, in the Upanishads सांख्ययोगैश सात्वतै Through the Study, through the practice of Sankhya or Yoga Philosophical analysis or Austerity Physical austerity Through all this That Lord सात्वतै The great sages, the great devotees They all come to know about this सात्वतै सात्वतै can also refer to The literature of सात्वता The Pancharatras, the Vaishnava Tantra उपगीयन, महात्मियन So, through all these parts Of say Of the Vedic Upanishadic study Of Sankhya Yoga Of the Tantra worship And through all the books that describe all these Through all this In all these books that Lord is glorified उपगीयन, महात्मियन His glory Is described in all these books But एशोदा माई thinks that हरिं सामान्यत आत्मजम स अमन्यत आत्मजम स she thinks अमन्यत she thinks that He is आत्मजम He is my son Such is The extraordinary Understanding Of एशोदा माई And it is extraordinary Not in a negative sense But in a supremely positive sense There is no one who can Be in Such a exalted level of devotion That they start thinking like this Thus Actually she is This is her exalted position that That Supreme Lord who is glorified In all the great literature She thinks of him as her child And devotes herself to him As As a mother would devote herself to a child So अमन्यत आत्मजम She thinks of him as her child Now Parikshit Maharaj will ask some question And The narrative will move forward And we will discuss that In a future session