Bhagavatam-daily 243 – 11.11.49 – Krishna teaches not as a pedant but as a friend

In bhagavatam 11.11.49 krishna is speaking to uddhava here therefore is this most confidential knowledge chunvato yadunandana here yadunandana krishna is also yadunandana here and uddhava is also yadunandana but clearly krishna is the speaker so here yadunandana refers to uddhava chunvato yadunandana that is very confidential apivakshami i’ll speak that to you you are my i’m going to talk about three degrees of the relationship between him and uddhava and uddhava tamne vritya vritya means servant surat is an ultimate friend and sakha is also a friend this is interesting but krishna has spoken two gita’s and both gita’s have been spoken to sakha’s of course the nature of the relationship between krishna and arjuna is different from the relationship between krishna and uddhava still they are both in that sakhi ras and both of them were in a situation of crisis and both of them were illumined by krishna so here vritya if you look at the relationship between the soul and the lord is always a relationship of service ultimately we are all meant to be servants of krishna and as his servants we are meant to love and serve him to the best of our capacity you see with all the heart that we have with all our hearts love when we serve that the central element is that the word servant often has a jarring connotation in our mind because we feel a servant is like a slave to be a servant is demeaning but actually when we serve krishna it is not demeaning it is uplifting krishna is such a wonderful loving master and the relationship is based on love and as we practice bhakti so krishna has also said in the bhagavad gita that suhrdam sarva bhutanam he has said how all living beings he has a very intimate relationship with them so he is the well-wisher of all living beings suhrad now the level of intimacy that is conveyed by the sanskrit word suhrad is not so easily conveyable in english the word friend has become somewhat bland because of overuse and the intensity the intimacy of the relationship conveyed by suhrad is not conveyed by the word friend sometimes the word bosom friend is used so somebody is very close to our heart one who is krishna is actually situated in our heart itself and in that sense he is a very special friend he is the most special friend the eternal companion and unfailing unflinching guide by the side krishna is not a sage on the stage who is sitting on a high moral pedestal gives us instructions he is a guide by the side and as a guide by the side he focuses on things that are critically important for us and he gives us guidance for those things so he gives us guidance about life’s ultimate purpose and he gives guidance about how we need to live our life externally and internally he guides us along and sakha similarly in that same mode krishna as a super soul guides externally and internally externally through guru sadhu shastra internally through his own super soul manifestation so in that same krishna is guiding uddhava by speaking this message of the uddhava gita so often in books if the author wants the reader to keep reading then reader often devise what is called cliffhanger ending that means that they design something which is akin to hero and villain are fighting suddenly the villain with a sudden forceful blow knocks down the hero and they are fighting on the top of a mountain so the hero just falls off the mountain cliff and now there are some there is a ledge of the mountain which the hero holds on to and that’s how he is hanging on and the villain comes there and the villain sees that oh this hero is still hanging on and raises his foot to bang the foot down on the hero’s hand so that the hero will be forced by that pain to let go and the hero will fall to his own death so in such a situation the reader will just not even resist will want to know what happened next so something similar Krishna is doing over here although this is not a fiction this is not a story this is more of a discourse and you will think of discourse in terms of such a drama such a dramatic set of events but if we look at the content and if we are absorbing the content the way Krishna ends it by saying that now I am going to speak to you most confidential knowledge so then naturally it catches attention and it doesn’t just retain but actually heightens attention Krishna says I am going to speak to you the highest most confidential knowledge and by learning this you will be able to the implied is that you will become liberated by learning this knowledge and Krishna says that you you are very dear to me you are my intimate friend you are my servant and therefore I am going to speak this to you so Krishna concludes this this this series of wisdom and bhakti with a cliffhanger note inviting Uddhava to continue hearing in the next chapter therefore this was most confidential knowledge you hear this I will speak that which is very confidential you are my servant and you are my very close friend