How Balarama acts as Krishna’s best friend – Balarama Purnima class

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And then we will begin the class. So, Namaste Dharani Dhara Namaste Dharani Dhara Namaste Balanaam Shrestha Namaste Balanaam Shrestha Pralambare Namaste Stuh Pralambare Namaste Stuh Pahimam Krishnapurvaja Pahimam Krishnapurvaja Hare Krsna So on the occasion of the appearance day of Lord Balram Today I will speak on the theme of how Balram is the best friend of Krishna And how we can also be the true friend of our friends You can learn about friendship from Balramji And I will talk about this in three broad parts A friend is one who sticks with us through thick and thin A friend is one who we can share good and bad news with One who understands our heart And third is a friend is one who does for us what we can’t do for ourselves So Krishna and Balram are actually God themselves in two separate forms The Bhakti tradition reveals God to be not just one majestic person Residing on top, accepting worship and subordination from everyone else It describes that God is a person who enjoys the rich spectrum of relationships That we aspire to enjoy in life And that means that he arranges in his leela, in his playful pastimes To have different people play different roles So there are devotees who may become his mother, who will become his father There are devotees who may become his friends Now in some of these relationships there are devotees who play very close roles for him And in some of these it is he himself who expands to play a particular role Now when there is this expansion, at that time Krishna is God, Balram is also God And yet although they are one person, they are two personalities And both of them have their own personality by which they interact with each other And Krishna’s personality charms Balram and Balram’s personality charms Krishna So if you look at the life of Krishna overall We can see what are the significant changes, the dramatic points that happen in his life If you look at our own lives also, if you look at the past The past is not just like a flat territory that extends for years upon years as long as we can remember The past is more like a territory that is filled with peaks and then flat That means we don’t remember everything about the past We remember certain incidents from the past when something significantly special, significantly different from the normal happened And usually that is the time when the people around us count the most If you are riding on a straight road then we can just go on our own But if we come to an intersection, should I go this way or that way? Then a true friend is one who tells us, okay go this way He shows the right way for us So similarly if you look at the life of Krishna There are broadly three places where Krishna lived Which are those three places? Does anyone know? Sorry? Yeah of course he lives wherever Bhakti is But during his descended pastimes in this world Vrindavan, Mathura and then Dwarka Now if you look at the 10th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam There are 90 chapters And this describes Krishna Leela In this the first 40 chapters describe Krishna’s presence in Vrindavan The next 10 chapters describe his presence in Dwarka In Mathura And from the 50th chapter onwards It is describing Krishna’s base in Dwarka Although Krishna travels to various places And does various things So not much happens in Dwarka But he is based in Dwarka And from there he is ruling the world Now actually speaking In all these three places There are only two people Who are with Krishna in all three places Sometimes we have friends Some friends are maybe 1 year old Some friends are 10 years old Some friends are 20 years old Sometimes we meet somebody And then a third person says Maybe these two people don’t know each other And they introduce This person says we know each other We go back a long time So Krishna and Balaram go back a long time Practically to the birth And so it is Who are the two characters Who are with Krishna Two people who are with Krishna throughout In Vrindavan, Mathura and Dwarka Who are they? Balaram is of course one And the other is Subhadra is not there in Vrindavan She is not manifest Uddhava is very close to the mood of Vrindavan And he is among the Dwarkavasis Who understands Vrajabhav the most However Uddhava is not in Vrindavan During Krishna’s Vrindavan pastimes Rohini, yes Who said? Thank you So Rohini is there with Krishna In all these three places However Rohini is again not there with Krishna When he travels For example Krishna goes to Gurukul And stays in the Gurukul At that time Rohini is not there At that time who is there with him? Only Balaram So Krishna and Balaram Right throughout Get together And just If we know somebody for a long time And if that relationship itself Goes on for a long time Then that indicates There must be a certain level of proximity Not just proximity But even intimacy Otherwise relationships are remarkably Difficult to sustain So now Krishna and Balaram Right from their childhood Although technically Balaram Is older than Krishna But in their upbringing They are almost together They are named together They play together Krishna respects Balaram Because he is the brother Who is older in age to him But they are always together And Mother Yashoda She also respects Balaram As the older brother That is why Whenever Krishna goes out to the forest Mother Yashoda is initially very anxious Oh you know Krishna my little boy So many demons have been attacking him How will he be safe in the forest? But then Nanda Maharaj says Balaram will be there Oh if Balaram is there Then we will take care So Yashoda Although Balaram is not her son Balaram is Rohini’s son But she feels Krishna is very naughty Very restless But Balaram is mature So Balaram will take care of Krishna Now Krishna Shares The deepest secrets of his heart With Balaram And We will not go into the various past times specifically Which Krishna and Balaram performed But we will look at as I said The change points Where the The importance of Balaram’s presence In Krishna’s life comes up When Krishna is just barely a 10 year old boy At that time suddenly He is taken from the place where he has grown up forever And He has grown up till then And he is taken to another place entirely At one level we understand Krishna is God And as God He is omnipotent He is omniscient But Krishna in his Leela Does not act as God Why is that? Because Lovability Requires Vulnerability When we love someone What are the broad factors when we love someone? We want somebody to be powerful Maybe wealthy Attractive Wise We talk about the 6 attributes of Krishna The 6 opulences of Krishna So normally if we want to form a relationship with someone We want to have a person Who has certain virtues Who is strong Not just physically But in terms of virtues In terms of strengths So we are inspired We are attracted By somebody who is Very wise Very strong Very skilful But at the same time In any relationship We want to be attracted to the person Other person But we also need to feel Needed by the other person Say Many of you have children Now Imagine If you could play God with your child That means You could re-engineer a child To be Free from Whatever Weaknesses Whatever deficiencies Whatever vulnerabilities he has So maybe He is too small Or too thin He becomes like a Super body builder Maybe he doesn’t have such a good memory You make him Re-engineer him And make him the next Albert Einstein Maybe He is not that attractive And then you re-engineer him And make him Into a Hollywood star Now If gradually You remove Everything That is imperfect About him You might have A super human being But then he doesn’t need you And A primary Intensifier Of the parental Relationship With the child Is That the parent Feels the child Needs him So If you remove All that makes the child Vulnerable Eventually you will find out That The love In the relationship Will go away Or to put it another way Say somebody Who is Very Resourceful Very expert Very shrewd Very wise Now suppose Whenever you have Any problems You go and ask them And they give solutions To the problems But then Suppose one day They tell you Actually I am facing this problem Now when they tell Okay I am facing this problem Now generally We Put on A front In front of the world The world is a tough place Today’s culture is Cruelly competitive But even without this Cruel competition The world is still a tough place And People around us Can exploit Our weaknesses So suppose a boxing match Is going on And one boxer Just Touches the With a grazing blow Touches the jaw Of the other person Other boxer And that boxer Wins Immediately Boxer will say Okay he is weak over here So then The rule in Any Fight Any competition is Hit Where it hurts So the other boxer Will just Hit at the jaw Again and again And again And cause that person To just Lose the match So in general We know That we can’t show Our weaknesses to the world Because the world Can exploit them However We can’t just Put on a front All the time We Need to be Ourselves We ourselves means Yes our strengths And our weaknesses So If we share Our vulnerabilities With someone Now that Indicates A certain Level of trust In that relationship When I am telling you That I have these problems I am I am Having faith That you won’t Use this knowledge To exploit me You won’t use this knowledge Against me And then If The person who solves Our problems Always Shares some of their problems Then we If we actually feel Attracted in a different way To that person Yes They also have problems But still they are Perceiving strongly So it is The admission Of vulnerability That leads To the increase In lovability And this Applies Even to the Divine human relationship So if Krishna Is perfect And he doesn’t Need anyone Then That relationship Will not have The intensity So Madhuri Shodha Feels That if Krishna Does not If I don’t Feel Krishna Krishna will die He will be hungry He will become weak And he will die So similarly When Just as Krishna Admits his vulnerability So that Madhuri Shodha Will feel needed Vitally Indispensably Needed in that relationship So similarly In the relationship Between Krishna and Balaram Krishna acts Like a restless Fickle Mischievous boy And thus Balaram acts As the protector As the wise person So Krishna Acts with this Vulnerability So that Balaram Feels needed And it is not just Vulnerability in terms Of irresponsibility The vulnerability Comes up Especially When Krishna Has to take up A huge responsibility So Krishna is just A small boy About ten And suddenly He is Ripped out Of his home And he is told Now you have to stay In Mathura So Krishna When he goes to Mathura He has no intention To stay in Mathura His intention Is just to Deal with Kamsa Finish Kamsa And come back to Vrindavan But then The Yadus The Yadus The Mathuravasis They say Actually Kamsa Was not alone Kamsa has allies Across the whole World And You have saved us From him But who will save us From his allies Who will wreak Vengeance on us When They come to know That Kamsa is dead So now Krishna says that I can go back To Vrindavan And I will come back Whenever needed He says no When they attack There will be no time For you to come back He says no but I belong to Vrindavan And they say no You belong to us You are the son of Vasudev Now Nanda Maharaj Actually never accepts That Krishna is not his son Nanda Maharaj never Directly tells or admits That Krishna is not my son And they say Actually You killed Kamsa The Yadus say And It was The Ashtam Garbha The eighth child Of Devaki That was going to kill Kamsa So because You killed Kamsa That means You are that Eighth child of Devaki That means You actually belong To Mathura Not to Vrindavan And therefore You should stay here And at that time Now this Krishna Such a small Ten year old boy And at that time Generally for a child No matter How much they grow up At least As long as they are In the pre-teens Their defining sense Of identity Comes from their parents Now when you ask a child And then you ask Who are your parents But Now suddenly For a child To come to know That his parents Are actually Foster parents And then his parents Are real parents Now even if that That itself is quite Disorienting Even traumatising But even if that is there At least It is broken generally And then After that There is a gradual period Okay maybe the Both parents Come and meet And gradually They get to know each other And then gradually The relationship develops But here Krishna Has to suddenly Leave his foster parents And come to be With his birth parents And then The Yadus Are even stronger Gopal Champu Which is a book Written by Jiva Goswami Which describes How The Yadus Were very concerned That if Krishna If Krishna Stays in touch With the Brajwasis They will Captivate him so much That he will not come back So They want him To not be in touch With them also And then Krishna Is also worried Concerned about The Brajwasis Now it is The Yadus They leave it to Krishna Krishna you have to Stay with us And then Krishna Comes and he has to Tell the news To his parents Actually The Brajwasis Are claiming That I am their son And they want me To stay here And Ananda Maharaj Is so disturbed So disappointed So devastated And He says that Krishna It is our fortune That Krishna Is actually crying He can’t even cry His heart is crying He says Krishna We will stay here We will come and stay here So Krishna says No there is not enough Place for all of you Especially for our cows To stay here And he says Then we will keep Coming regularly And now Here Krishna Has to put A heavy boulder On his heart And he says No Please Never come here And you should come He says no I cannot not come back He says why? And he says I cannot be at Two places I cannot be at Vrindavan and Mathura both So if Kamsa’s friends Come to know That I am closely Related with you Then they will Come and attack you And if I am Mathura I won’t be able to protect you So therefore It is important For the world To feel That Actually I have no Deep affection For you I just happened to Grow up at your place But as soon as I came back home I forgot all of you Now just when Krishna speaks this I forgot all of you That’s like a Thunderbolt in the heart Of Nanda Maharaj But Nanda Maharaj Accepts it Because Krishna Says so And now Krishna Is achingly Alone The Vrajavasis Have all gone And now Even the Vrajavasis Are concerned Nanda Maharaj Is concerned I am a simple Coward boy I am a simple Coward man And Mathura Has so much Royal opulence Will Krishna Forget us Will Krishna Prefer his birth Parents to us Who gave him Our everything So at this time Krishna can’t Be with the Vrajavasis Krishna Also knows That the Vrajavasis Are doubting Whether I still Love them or not At that time He is so Alone And the greatest Loneliness Is not When we are Physically alone The most Painful loneliness Is when We are Surrounded by People Who don’t Understand us And such Is the predicament Of Krishna The Vrajavasis Those who have Been allowed They are thinking Is Krishna Going to be Allured by Mathura And leave us And go away And the Mathuravasis Are thinking If Krishna Speaks anything About Vrindavan Also They immediately Start disapproving They think If Krishna Never speaks about Vrindavan Krishna will forget Vrindavan And then That way He will be Safely with us So when Krishna is Alone Like this Who is the one Person who understands him? Balram Balram Has been in Vrindavan And he has Come to Mathura Suppose We are practising Bhakti And we are practising Bhakti very seriously Krishna is the Centre and the purpose Of our life And then somehow Our job Our family obligations Forces us to go away From the association Of devotees And then We are all alone And there is No one with whom We can talk about Krishna There are many People around us But if the people Don’t share our values People don’t Understand us Then we feel So alone So If we are Far away in a country Where there are no devotees And there we meet Even one devotee We feel such joy At least I can Talk with someone Who can understand My heart So that person Becomes so dear So Krishna and Balram Are already very close To each other But this is the time When Krishna Is vulnerable He is alone He fears that Everybody To some extent Suspects him The Rajivasi Suspect him The Mathuravasi Suspect him And the only person Who understands him is Balram And of course To some extent Rohini also understands Now Krishna Has to suddenly come back And now There is one lady Whom he has always Called his mother And now suddenly He comes to Mathura And he has to address Devaki as his mother He just can’t do it It’s just not natural And Vasudev sees this And Vasudev says What to do now He says Rohini was from here He calls Rohini also back Initially when Krishna and Balram come Rohini doesn’t come At that time Because they know Kamsa is hostile So no females Come initially Only the Nanda Maharaj Krishna And the Gopas come Along with Balram of course But then he calls for Rohini And Rohini comes back And Krishna runs And hugs Rohini in his feet And he pours out His heart to her Now Balram is his friend But he needs somebody older Who can understand him And then Quickly Rohini understands And then She tries to explain To the Vrajavasis How much Krishna loves The Vrajavasis And how much The Vrajavasis love Krishna And when she starts Speaking about them The Vrajavasis Start thinking Have you also Become a Vrajavasi Are you also On their side He says What kind of sweets Do these Vrajavasis Feed everyone Who goes there Everybody forgets Their home Their roots And they just Start loving Vrindavan And like that Not only they don’t Understand her But they start Suspecting her also So then Rohini also cannot Speak too much About Vrindavan And thus again Krishna is left Only with Balram So At this point Nobody understands him Krishna and Balram Are together And often Krishna and Balram Sit together And they talk And they talk about Vrindavan They keep talking About Vrindavan And In their talking About Vrindavan They Relieve the agony Of their heart And then Whenever Krishna and Balram Are talking alone For too long At that time The Mathuravasis Again become suspicious They talk about Vrindavan And then Krishna himself Persuades Vasudev He says Actually And Vasudev He also gets that Inspiration That he has to go to A Gurukul Because he has to Learn So then They both go to The Gurukul of Sannipanini And there They learn various Skills Krishna and Balram It is said They learn everything Very fast And they learn Everything fast And after that As soon as The day’s classes Are over They go back To the place Where they are staying And they again Talk about Vrindavan Keep talking About Vrindavan And in that way Sometimes as they Talk about Vrindavan Tears come from The eyes of both of them And they just Tightly hug each other And try to Relieve each other’s Agony In separation From Vrindavan So A friend Is one Who understands us Who Understands us When we go through Pains They understand Our pain And they Do the The friend Is one who does The best To help us Navigate that pain And it is that Which Balram Does for Krishna Always And Not only that In our relationships Also Whenever somebody Is going through Some pain If at that time We are there For them That Can create a bond Which Can last Through many many storms And when we are Needed If we are not there That time That can create A rupture When we are needed And if we are not there Then after that We may do A hundred things For that person But They Will not be able To trust us Because It’s like You are a fair weather friend When I needed you You were not there Other times You were there What’s so big So Ultimately It’s not Friendship is not just Created By how How often we meet Of course That’s important But It is It is When we need a friend If That person is there Or not for us So now Sometimes People Openly tell us That I need you Can you come here But Many times People don’t Tell us that When they are going Through distress If we Have bonded With them well Then Even if they don’t Express that need We understand And then That is Just like Prabhupada said The best servant Is one Who understands The mind of the spiritual master And follows the instruction And does what is required Similarly The best friend Is one Who understands The need of another friend And is there To address that need So Balram Is that kind of friend And when Krishna Is vulnerable Krishna Is just a small child Who is alone Cut off from his parents Cut off from all those Whom he has loved And who has loved him At that time When he is vulnerable Balram Does not make fun of him Balram Doesn’t call him Oh you are a cry baby Balram is there with him Sharing his joys Sharing his sorrows One way We can know Who are our friends Is by looking At with whom Can we share good news And bad news Suppose we share Some good news Something wonderful Has happened in our life And The other person Start thinking Why did this Happen to you I deserve this Much more than you Why do all the good things Happen to you And all the bad things Happen to me Now even if they don’t Speak like that There is much That is spoken Through our gestures And especially When people are Close to each other Even without Sorry There is much That is spoken Without our words Just through our gestures And not just Just through our gestures Sometimes even A slight hesitation In Making the appropriate Expression That can also cause Suppose we give Some good news And that person Hesitates to congratulate us What’s going on So Krishna and Balram They share Their heart Entirely with each other Now Krishna and Balram That time Krishna has told Nanda Maharaj You should not come here Nor will I come there But Nanda Maharaj Keeps sending messengers To find out How is Krishna How is Krishna And Now when Krishna and Balram Are not there The messengers They can’t detect Krishna And the Mathuravasis Don’t answer their questions And the Mathuravasis Don’t answer their questions Mathuravasis think that You know If we just remove Krishna’s connection With Vrindavan Then Krishna will stop Remembering them And Rajivasis will also Stop remembering him So they discourage Now the Mathuravasis Are not bad intentioned They are simply concerned That Krishna should stay with us So What happens is Now when Krishna and Balram Come back Now Rohini notices All this What is happening And Rohini tries to sneak in And give some news Actually Krishna has gone To his Gurukul And he has come And come back After some time But when they come back And they know Come to know That actually Krishna and Balram Come to know that Rajivasis don’t even know And Nanda Maharaj Go into panic Now where is Krishna Without Krishna I went to Mathura And Krishna is not in Mathura Where is he So they don’t know And thus they become Very panicky And then When he comes Now when we Love someone And if they are disturbed Then naturally We also become disturbed So when Krishna Krishna comes to know That the Rajivasis Are disturbed He naturally Becomes disturbed What do I do What do I do And then Again He meets the messengers Who have come And tells them I am alright I have sent some gifts For Krishna For the Rajivasis And then After that As Krishna and Balram Continue on Now a situation Comes in his life Where They grow old But Kamsa has So many allies And although Some people are killed But still Other demons Are still there And it’s not easy To finish all of them So what does Krishna do The Mathuravasis think That If We can form If We want to We want to tie Krishna To this place And how do we tie They said that Let us Get Krishna married And there is Actually Krishna cannot Marry first Because He is a younger brother So first Balram Has to be married And then When Balram Whom does Balram Marry Revati So when he is To marry Revati At that time The first thing That happens is That Balram sends a message To the Rajivasis Seeking their Permission and blessings That This is The arrangement That is being made And I seek your blessings Now Everybody knows that Balram is from Mathura When Nanda Maharaj Hears this He is happy But at the same time He is concerned He thinks What is going to happen To Krishna Whom will Krishna Marry If Krishna Marries A Vaishya Krishna marries A Rajivasi Then he is accepting That he belongs To Rajiv But if Krishna Gets married to a Kshatrayani Krishna gets married To a royal princess Then Krishna Is accepting That I belong to Mathura And thus Everything that happens In Vrindavan With Krishna In Mathura And in Dwarka That Has Strong Emotional Effect On the Rajivasis And because Krishna Loves the Rajivasis so much And the Rajivasis Love Krishna so much Krishna understands What is going on In their hearts And then Time and time The demons keep coming And attacking Mathura And you see Mathura and Vrindavan Are not that far away Actually You could say that Mathura is closer To Vrindavan Than what London Is to Leicester So if somebody Attacks London Leicester would be concerned So many of the Armies that pass by That go to attack Mathura They pass by Vrindavan And the Rajivasis Have to flee From their homes And hide in the forests So then Finally Krishna decides That the danger For the Rajivasis Is too much Sometimes when Armies are on attack They sometimes Out of anger Just go on a rampage And they cannot Defeat their target Their enemy Then they might just Destroy whoever They can find And just vent Out their anger So he says I can’t afford This happening To the Rajivasis And therefore Krishna Decides That the danger I will go Far away From Vrindavan Now At one level When he goes Far away From Vrindavan His intention Is to protect The Rajivasis But That action Mortifies The Rajivasis At least Krishna Was closer than Mathura Although we can’t go But if we need to go We can go anytime But when Krishna Goes across the country And not just Across the country He goes into An island fortress Which is that Dwarka And in that The Rajivasis Are completely mortified What is going to happen So while Krishna Is in Mathura At that time Krishna Sends Uddhava As a messenger It’s a very moving story But we can’t We don’t have time To go into that But eventually when Krishna Is in Dwarka At that time Balaram Loses patience With Krishna And he says Krishna You know How much The Rajivasis Love you And Their love Has not decreased You know that From the report That Uddhava gave you Of the plight Of the Rajivasis Do you have A heart of stone After hearing The news of How much the Rajivasis Are in agony In separation From you How can you Not go to Vrindavan So Krishna Looks at Balaram And just Falls on his shoulder And starts crying And he says Every single day I long to go to Vrindavan But Nanda Maharaj Has told me Obey The Yadus While you are here Treat Vasudev Like me He says I Cannot displease them I cannot disobey them My heart Is pulled by the ropes Of love Towards Vrindavan But there are shackles That tie my feet Here to Dwarka I cannot go As Krishna and Balaram Are thinking Can we send Someone else As a messenger Because they are also Concerned that the Rajivasis Are Feeling so much agony In separation From Krishna But then they decide That Krishna knows Whom can I send He had himself said I will come back soon But Soon Soon is like An elastic word Soon can mean In an hour Soon can mean In an year Soon can mean Even in a decade So Krishna cannot go He has already said Uddhava And Uddhava has said Yes Krishna loves you Krishna cares for you Krishna remembers you As soon as The demons are killed Krishna will come So Krishna and Balaram Think of Uddhava Uddhava says I am not going again I am not Going again He said I cannot Bear to see The terrible agony Of the Rajivasis And They will not Trust me now So then As they are thinking Krishna Because Balaram Is older to him Krishna Doesn’t want Balaram to act Like his messenger Or his servant But Balaram Understands Krishna’s heart And As Krishna and Balaram Are thinking And they are looking At each other Balaram says I will go And Krishna embraces Balaram And he says Please convey To the Rajivasis That I Only remember Them constantly In Vrindavan The moments that I enjoy They are the Sweetest memories Of my entire life And he gives a Very sweet Heartrending Heartfelt message And then Balaram goes Now Balaram Has never been Separated from Krishna For very long And for Balaram At one level He doesn’t want To leave Krishna But Balaram knows That It is It is Krishna’s Heart’s desire Therefore it becomes Balaram’s heart’s desire Of course Balaram Also loves the Rajivasis And naturally He wants to go there But he also loves Krishna And he doesn’t want To leave Krishna So although Balaram Feels stoned In leaving Krishna But he decides For Krishna’s sake I will go away From Krishna And there when he Enters Andhavan For two full months Krishna Pacifies Balaram Pacifies and satisfies The Rajivasis He They are Suffering in agony In separation From Krishna And Balaram speaks About Krishna Balaram performs The last leela With his own gopis And the gopis of Krishna Observe And they Feel pacified By remembering how Krishna Had similar loving Dealings with him Day and night Krishna Is speaking Balaram is speaking About Krishna Balaram is acting On Krishna’s behalf And Balaram Is healing The wounded Hearts Of the Rajivasis And thus Balaram does For Krishna What he himself Can’t do And it is in that Role Of acting As a bridge Between Krishna And those whom Krishna Loves That Balaram Manifests In our Spiritual world Also Balaram Represents the Guru Tantra And the Guru Acts as a bridge Between Krishna And us We are separated Right now We are in the Material world Krishna is in the Spiritual world The Guru Prabhupada said Krishna is not one The Guru ultimately Is one in Tattva But Whoever Inspires us Toward Krishna Whoever gives us Knowledge of Krishna Whoever increases Our attraction Toward Krishna That person Is the representative Of Balaram And that person Can Inspire us To come closer And closer To Balaram The word Balaram Has two parts We conclude With this And then we can Have a few questions If any Balaram Has two parts Bala And Ram So of course At one level This means That Balaram Is the one Who gets Ram In exhibiting Bala One Who delights Ram is to Delight To get joy One who gets joy In Exhibiting his power So dharani Dharam We discussed In the beginning That Balaram When he got Upset with the Kauravas When he got angry With them He just used his Aladhara He used his plough And he ripped up The earth He ripped up The whole city Of the Of the Kurus Extremely powerful So that That One who delights In Exhibiting Strength That is Balaram But Balaram Also has a meaning For us In the sense Of the bridge We are in the Material world Krishna is in the Spiritual world And We While practising Bhakti Need Balar And Rama We need Balar We need strength To resist The distractions The temptations The tribulations Of the world There are so many Things in this world Which allure us Come on Do this Do this Do this And then We get distracted From Krishna So we need Strength To say no To the world’s Allurements And Balaram The spiritual Master Gives us that Strength The spiritual Master speaks The message Of Krishna Speaks the Philosophy Of Krishna And by that Philosophy We understand That whatever Is attractive In this world It actually Manifests the Spark of Krishna’s Splendour So the things In this world Can give us Pleasure But that Pleasure Is like a Drop What Krishna Can give us Is like an Ocean And therefore Understanding this We get the Strength The Balar To resist The allurements Of this world He says Don’t think That because All this Is philosophy I am not Interested in Philosophy I am interested Only in Ila No by the Philosophy We understand That apart from Krishna Nothing is Truly meaningful And that gives us Balaram But just Saying no To the world Is not enough We need to Say yes To Krishna And to say Yes to Krishna Means we need to Connect with Krishna We need to Remember Krishna We need to get Joy in connecting With Krishna And remembering Krishna And serving Krishna And that Ram Is given By Balaram Our Spiritual Master Or our Spiritual Guys They try To engage Us They try To engage Us in Service In such A way That we Can join Fully Perfectly So when we Get Ram When we Start getting Joy In our Connection With Krishna In our Service To Krishna Then we Can move Forward Steady And this Giving us Bala And Ram Is the Gift of Balaram And on this Day today On Balaram Purnima We can Pray to Balaram That he Give us These twin Gifts The gift Of strength To resist The world’s Allurements And the Gift of Taste In our Service To Krishna So I’ll Summarise I spoke Today about How Balaram Acts as the Best friend Of Krishna And I Talked about Friendship Is tested Through tough Times So who Stays With us So I Talked about Balaram’s Friendship In three Ways How he Sticks by Krishna’s Side There are Three phases In Krishna’s Life And Balaram Is the one Constant Apart from Rohini But Rohini Also cannot Be as close To Krishna As Balaram Can be So When we Seek Friends Or we Want to be Friends With someone Then we Thick and Thin To the Person That’s Important And especially When the Person Needs us Needs can be Of different Kinds So God Is poor He doesn’t Need anyone But God Exhibits Vulnerability To increase Lovability And It is When Krishna Is vulnerable Being alone In fear Of being Misunderstood By the Vrajavasis And the Mathuravasis It is Balaram Who understands Him So A friend Is one Who understands Our heart Who understands Our need Even without Us speaking That need A friend Is one Who understands What kind of Emotions we are Going through And Balaram Is the one Who is so Empathic With Krishna And then Lastly A friend Is one Who understands What we need And does it Even without Us So Krishna Is afflicted Considering How the Vrajavasis Are afflicted And He can’t Go himself Because he is Obliged To be with The Yadus So then Balaram Himself Says I will go On your behalf Although for Balaram It is painful To leave Krishna And go But he goes Out of his love For Krishna And he alleviates The distress Of the Vrajavasis And being A bridge Between Krishna And those Whom Krishna Loves Balaram Acts like The spiritual Master And for us The spiritual Master Helps us To connect With Krishna Helps us To feel the presence Of Krishna In his absence And we are In the material world Some distance From him Right now And Balaram Is one Who gets joy In doing Strong Exhibiting Strength But Balaram Is also the one Who gives Bala and Ram To us Who gives us Strength To resist The world’s Allurements And who gives us Taste Ram In our service To Krishna So thank you very much Shri Balaram Jee Ki Jai Let us conclude By repeating the prayer Which we had started With initially Namaste Dharani Dharam Namaste Dharani Dharam Namaste Balaram Shrestha Namaste Balaram Shrestha Pralambare Pralambare Namaste Sukh Pralambare Namaste Sukh Pahimam Krishnapurvaja Pahimam Krishnapurvaja Shri Balaram Jee Ki Jai Shri Balaram Purnima Mahotsav Ki Jai Shri Krishna Prabhupada Ki Jai We have a few minutes For questions Does anyone have Any questions? Yes please Just wondering The spiritual master Gives instructions And Say if we If we were In front of Lord Balaram Would his Instructions Have actually been The same As the Spiritual master And just to Extend on that Question If We take Initiation Of one Spiritual master And then we In fact Take initiation Of another Spiritual master Would we have Received the same Type of instructions If If it’s If it’s ultimately Coming from Lord Balaram Okay Thank you So If If Balaramji Directly gave us Instructions And if our Spiritual master Gave us the instructions Would the two Be the same And if We had taken Instructions from Another Spiritual master Would we have Got the same Instructions From that Spiritual master As our Present Spiritual master For this We have to Understand that Krishna’s Plan Is Resourceful Enough To include Our Individuality What that Means is That Sometimes we Think of Krishna’s Plan as like One straight line And If we go along With that plan Then everything is Happening right If you go along With that plan You go along With that plan But Krishna Has given us Free will And free will Means that It’s not that Krishna expects us To be Like robots Krishna doesn’t Expect us To Not have Consciousness Not have Aspirations But For a devotee The Aspirations The dreams They are all For serving Krishna So that Means That Krishna’s Plan Is so Resourceful That It Accommodates Our Individuality So If we are Connected with A particular Spiritual master Each spiritual Master Is an Individual And Krishna Acts through Them According to Their Individuality If we Consider the Pandavas All five Pandavas Are considered To be great Devotees Pure devotees But each Of them Has their Individuality And Same issue Sometimes Bhima says We should Fight And Yudhisthira Says let’s Not fight They are pure Devotees Both of them But That doesn’t Mean Just because They are purely Surrendered to Krishna Doesn’t mean That they Lose their Individuality So Krishna Inspires Devotees From within Their heart And That Inspiration Works in Harmony With that Devotees Individuality So Is it That So Regarding The first Question The first Isn’t that Whatever Balramji Get the same Instruction from Balramji And ask Spiritual Master It’s the Same purpose But the Specifics Will be According to Individuality The Lord Has many Plans for Many souls And the Lord May execute One plan Through one Soul And the Lord Make Him To be As Specific As Yudhisthira So Krishna Executes His will Keeping in Mind The Individuality Of each Person So If we Are initiated By another Spiritual Master It is not Necessary That we Would have Got exactly The same Instruction The purpose Of taking us Towards Krishna Will be the Same But it will Be executed According to The particular Individuality Of the Spiritual Master And not just The individuality Of the Spiritual Master It’s also The individuality Of the Disciple So that’s Why We have To recognise That at One level We need To have Submission Towards the Spiritual Master But at Another level We also Need to do Negotiation With the Spiritual Master What do I Mean by Negotiation Just as We see Dhruva When he Was incited And he Went to The forest Narada Muni Came in Front of Him And he Said You are A small Child Children Don’t take Such insult Seriously Go back Home And if you Think you Are grown up And mature Then even Adults Those who Are spiritually Advanced They don’t Take insult So seriously So go Back home And at That time What does Dhruva Say So the So I Need To get a Kingdom bigger Than my Father’s Please guide Me for that Otherwise let Me go on My way So this Is not Considered Rebellion So it’s Not that We In the Name of Surrender Have to Suppress Our Individuality Or suppress Our needs So you Can negotiate And of Course initially We Need to Learn Submission And discipline But Bhakti Is Bhakti Channels Our Individuality It doesn’t Suppress Our Individuality Any other Questions When we Surrender To the Spiritual Master Are we Surrendering To the Individual Or The Guru Tattva Or Balram It’s All Together It’s Broadly Practising Bhakti Or Taking Initiation Is like Committing Ourselves To the Process That Will Connect Us With Krishna And That Process Includes Many Things That Process Includes Our Practises Of Bhakti That Process Includes Our Relationship With Our Spiritual Master We Can’t Fragment One Thing And Emphasise Only That There Is A General Principle In Bhakti That Whenever There Is Glorification There Is No Reservation In Glorification There Is No Qualification Or Contextualisation Say For Example Holy Name If A Dham Is To Be Glorified That Actually If Somebody Has Never Come To Vrindavan Has Never Sanctified Themselves By Beholding The Sacred Places Of Vrindavan Then Their Whole Human Life Is A Waste If Somebody Has Never Got And Why Did They Even Live Better Than They Have Died Before Their Birth So There Are A More In Bhakti Literature That In The Bhakti Tradition That One One Limb Is Glorified It Is Glorified Without Reservation Without So We Need To Understand The Broader Context And Various Elements Combined Together To Inspire And Propel Us On The Path Of Bhakti So Yes When We Surrendered To The Spiritual Master At The Time Of Our Birth So How Exactly Was Balram Conceived So Basically What Happens Is It Is A Little Complicated But How When We Know That There Is The 7th Day Pregnancy Which Devaki Has At That Time It Appears As If She Has A Miscarriage And She Loses That Child But Actually Sankarshana Means To Link So Now Thereafter It Is Said That Rohini At A Particular Time Because It Is Devaki’s Child Which Is Going To Be A Threat For Kamsa So Kamsa Arrested Devaki And Then He Arrested Vasudev Also But He Doesn’t Necessarily Persecute The Other Queens Or Other Family Members Of Vasudev In The Same Way But Still There Is Always A Because Demons Are Fickle So Then Eventually It Is Described In The Gopal Champu That Vasudev He Has Even In The Prison And Everything He Has He Conveys To Rohini That For Her Safety She Should Leave And She Should Go To Vrindavan And They Arrange That She Goes Alone On A Single Horse Normally Queens Will Go With Royal Entourage Escorted By Soldiers But She Goes Alone On Single Horse So That Will Not Attract Any Attention Of Anyone And He Is Also In Form He Is Also In Form Nanda Maharaj So Nanda Maharaj Welcomes Her And Then Yashoda And Rohini Become Like Sisters And They Both Take Care Of Their Two Children Okay Thank you So Thank you Very Much Shri Balram Purnima Ki Jai Jai Jai Jai Jai Jai