Bhagavatam study 58 1.11.32-39 Krishna seemed attached but remained detached

Here, we will continue our discussion about what happened further in our next class. Thank you. दुरंतभावः परिरेधिरेपतिम् विरुद्धमप्यास्रवरंभुनेत्रयोर् विलज्यतीनं भुरुभुवर्यवैक्लवात् तमात्मजयीर् आत्मज is one who is born of oneself and refers to their children, their sons.
दुरिष्ठिभिरंतरात्मना and with their eyes, within their heart, दुरंतभावः, दुरंत, that which was uncontrollable, very forceful, insuperable, भावः, ecstasy. परिरेधिरेपतिम्, परिरेधिरे, they embraced their husband, निरुद्धमप्यास्रवर्, निरुद्धमप्यास्रवर् Their throats became choked up. आस्रवर्, अम्भुनेत्रयोर्, from their eyes, water in the form, tears, tears in the form, started coming out.
विलज्यतीनम्, those women, those wives of Krishna who were situated in shyness, in modesty. भुगुवर्य, वैक्लवात, भुगुवर्य, foremost of the descendants of Bhrugu, Suta Goswami is referring to Shravanakadi Krishna, वैक्लवात, even inadvertently, automatically. So, and the queens of Krishna saw him enter, then, because of their shyness, they stayed away from him.
But at the same time, they became overwhelmed with emotion, tears started flowing from their eyes, their throats became choked with ecstasy, and they embraced Krishna in two ways. One is that they अन्तरात्मना, they embraced him with their eyes in their hearts. That means they beheld him, they drank his form with their eyes, and they, through their eyes, they drew his vision into their hearts, and embraced him in the innermost core of their hearts.
And along with that, आत्मज़, they sent their sons forward. So the son was with them, they sent the son running towards their father, and he went and embraced Krishna, and Krishna embraced the son. And in Krishna’s embrace of their son, they felt embraced by Krishna, they felt Krishna’s affection for them.
So the mother, especially when the child is small, initially, till the child is conceived, the mother and the child are one unit. The mother carries the child inside her body. And when the child starts exhibiting, say, the first signs of activity, say, maybe kicking in the belly, the mother starts feeling ecstasy.
Eventually, when she delivers the child, at that time, the two manifest as two distinct persons to our vision. But even then, there is an intimate bond that joins the mother and the child. The mother breastfeeds the child, the very nourishment, the food of the child comes from the mother’s body.
And then, as the child grows up, keeps growing up, for the child, the world is centred on the mother. As the child grows up, say, beyond the age of five or something, then the bond with the father becomes more and it becomes more and more later. But essentially, the father is away.
Most of the time, the child is with the mother. So the mother and the child are almost like one unit. And when Krishna embraces their sons, the queens feel as if Krishna has embraced them.
And this way, they actually express, they feel Krishna’s affection for them and Krishna’s externally embracing their son. And thus, the ecstasy of these queens on seeing Krishna is, to some extent, fulfilled. Their anticipation is rising higher and higher.
They’re feeling joy at the same time, they’re also feeling anticipation. Krishna is here, but Krishna has not yet embraced me. So they envision Krishna embracing them within their hearts and they see Krishna embracing their sons.
In this way, their ecstasy is heightened further. Text 33 Although he was Asav, that supreme lord, Krishna would often be by their side and by their side alone. That means he would be exclusively with them.
They would receive Krishna’s exclusive attention. And in spite of that, normally, what is said, familiarity breeds contempt. That if a person is always with us, initially, we may find that person’s association exciting, thrilling.
But after some time, we may start feeling, oh, I know this person. And we may not feel it so exciting. But here, the queens, they felt Krishna’s lotus feet and Krishna’s association as constantly new, constantly fresh, constantly relishable.
So even when Krishna was regularly present at that time also, they would feel his presence as fresh and relishable. And how much more that will be. So when they, when Krishna has come after a long time.
Text 33 So here, a further example is given of how Krishna is so attractive that people become attached to him. So at every step, So chala means moving, chanchala is one of the characteristics used to describe the mind. It is restless.
It keeps moving. So the goddess of Lakshmi is said to be chanchala or chala for short. So she doesn’t, wealth doesn’t stay with one person for a very long time.
Although it doesn’t say wealth doesn’t stay along with everyone still, with a person still. That goddess of fortune, chalapiya shrir na jahati karhi chit. Although she leaves other people, she does not leave Krishna.
She always stays with Krishna. It is mentioned earlier that Krishna, that the goddess of fortune is present on Krishna’s lotus feet as a Srivatsa. So if the goddess of fortune, who is restless, can’t leave Krishna, if she stays with Krishna, then what to speak of others? What woman, if she gets the shelter of Krishna, can she leave it? Padhe padhe ka virame tat padaach.
So once having tat padaach, taking shelter of his lotus feet, at what step will a woman leave his shelter? So the point of this verse is that the queens of Krishna were completely attached to Krishna, totally sheltered in him and they’re being sheltered, they’re being completely, they have completely given themselves to him. It’s a demonstration of a universal principle that arises from all attractiveness. So earlier also in the Bhagavatam, as a further generalisation principle, it is stated that if once we taste the lotus feet of Krishna, we cannot go back into material existence because material things will not taste pleasurable anymore.
So similarly, what to speak of, if that is the case for even sadhakas who move towards Krishna, what then to speak of those exalted devotees who are the queens of Krishna and who have this personal and intimate association for a long time, how can they ever consider going away from Krishna? So even if Krishna went away from them for some other work, in their hearts, Krishna was, attachment to Krishna was always there and they were longing to see Krishna. And the question of being distanced from Krishna, the question of not being sheltered on Krishna just didn’t rise in their heart because he was always very relishable. His lotus feet, his association, even when he was there daily, still it was relishable and what to speak of when he comes back after a long time.
Such is the infinite, unending, all attractiveness of Krishna. So what had Krishna done? This is like a, now we are moving towards the conclusion of this narrative. In this way, the kings, Kshitibhara, Kshiti is the earth, Bhara is the burden.
So those kings who were the burdens of the earth, Janmanam, those who were born in this way, they were of a demoniac mentality and they were creating terror on the earth. So disrupting law and order, spreading adharma. So such kings, Akshavani Bhi Parivrutt Tejasam.
Those kings may have had huge number of military divisions, soldiers, horses, chariots, elephants. And with this Parivrutt Tejasam, they were puffed up by this, by such prowess. They had become very arrogant.
So Krishna had arranged for Vaira, for animosity to take place so that with the interaction of the wind and pipe plants, Atha Analam, fire arises and Mithavadhena Uparataha. So by their fighting among themselves, they had killed each other. And in this way, the earth’s burden had been removed.
And in this whole process, Krishna had remained nirayudhaha. He had not fought at all. He had been not a party to such fighting.
So there are many terrible kings who had aided Duryodhana. Duryodhana himself was a very evil person. And he was Chitibhara, the burden on the earth.
So Krishna had arranged for animosity to arise between the various kings. For example, between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. And thereby, he had caused the fire to arise.
So when fire arises in a forest, then the whole forest gets burned down. So like that, the fire of conflict and war between the Kshatriyas had caused the Kshatriyas who were burdens to the earth to get burned down. So now, here, is it that then we say Krishna is the cause of the war? That Krishna is the cause of the bloodshed? There we have to recognise the difference between the immediate cause and the ultimate cause.
And we have to recognise the context and what that context is focussing on. So it is Duryodhana’s own envy and greed that had caused the war. Krishna himself went as a Shantinoot and offered Duryodhana peace on the most accommodating terms.
But Duryodhana was so stubborn that he refused that. And thus, he courted disaster and destruction for himself. So if we look at the linear narrative of the Mahabharata, Krishna did his best to avoid the war.
So to say that Krishna caused the war is a clear misrepresentation of historical reality. So the immediate cause of the war was the envious and arrogant and greedy nature of Duryodhana. And of course, the weak sanctioning attachment of Dhritarashtra.
But from the ultimate point of view, when there is Adharma, the Lord’s will is that Adharma be annihilated. Now, he may give the Adharmic the opportunity to become Dharmic. That is his mercyfulness.
Rather than destroying the Adharmic for their misdeeds, he gives them an opportunity to either become Dharmic or to at least allow Dharma to rule. Then the Adharmic don’t have to be destroyed. If the Adharmic are going to doggedly, stubbornly stay recalcitrant, stay impious, then they need to be destroyed.
So in the sense of the ultimate cause, Krishna’s mission, Dharmasamsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge. Krishna, it is described in 4.8 that he comes to paritranaya sadhunam, vinashaya ja duskrtam. He comes to deliver the pious saintly and to destroy the demoniac.
And thus he establishes Dharma millennia after millennia, yuge yuge. So from the point of view of the ultimate purpose, Yes, Krishna did want to establish Dharma and he created a means by which the impious would be destroyed. So in this particular context, the focus is on Krishna and how this person who is now so intimately relating with his queens, we should not mistake him to be just an ordinary person.
We have to remember that he is the Supreme Lord. Now he has come back home. And normally we may come back home in various situations.
Sometimes somebody goes from India to Australia for a cricket World Cup or something like that. And they come back, either they’re winners or they’re not winners, they’re losers. So they’re losers.
Quite often they come back discontented. If they are winners, they’re champions, then they come back jubilant. So now when Krishna has come back home, his happiness is not just that he has come back home.
That is, of course, happiness is there. He’s come back among his loved ones. But along with that, the mission for which he had gone, that is also complete.
Duryodhana and many, many others like him, the demoniac people have been removed from the surface of the earth. And that has been removed. The earth’s burden has been removed.
And not only that, a virtuous king, Yudhishthir, is now taken of the throne. And he is assisted by many other competent assistants, including his own brothers. So seeing this, Krishna is satisfied.
He feels the mission is accomplished. And thus he has come back to Dwarka and he is extremely happy about being back here. So the joy of the Lord in having his mission completed is being depicted over here.
Take 35. In this way, that absolute truth, Saesh, that very Lord, he appeared in Naraloka, in the human world. He descended by his own maya shakti.
And he enjoyed. Sriratna. Kutastho.
Sriratna means the jewel among women, the topmost women. The women who were competent to be his queens. They were exalted women, not just physically beautiful, but spiritually also beautiful.
They were adorned with devotion. Bhagavan prakrito yatha. He is Kutastho.
Kutastho means that supreme Lord who is situated high up at an exalted level. He appeared in the humans, prakrito yatha. He appeared and acted as if he were a human being.
This is also the wonderful nature of the Lord. One of the mysteries of the descent of the Lord is how the transcendental becomes immanent. How he acts in this world, sometimes acting just like another human being, but all along remaining transcendental.
That transcendence of the supreme is highlighted here and is stated that this Lord, he, although he seems to be partaking mundane affairs, he is interacting with his queens, but still he is transcendental. He is a transcendental Lord who has descended over here, but performing extraordinary pastimes. Text 36.
uddhāma-bhāva-kṛṣṇa-mali-vala-guhāsa-gṛhāvalokanyato madanopiyāsāṁ saṁmuṇha-cāpaṁ ajahāt-pramadotamāś ca yasyendriyam vimathitum kuhakair naśekuhū uddhāma-bhāva So now it’s talked about how the Lord remains transcendental. It is stated that the Lord reciprocated affection with his queens and yet it is said that he was prakṛta and kūputastha. So how did that happen? That is demonstrated here.
So how beautiful the queens were, that is mentioned. So uddhāma-bhāva, the Lord remained grave, pishunāma-mala-vala-guhāsa. So now they had their gentle smiles, valguhāsa, vṛdhāvaloka, their side glances at him, their loving glances at him.
Now they were all pishunāma-mala, they were spotless and they were exciting. So women can attract men in many ways. The prominent is their glances and the smiles.
They speak a world of messages through these. And people can get completely captivated by the smiles and glances of beautiful women. And these women, Krishna’s queens, were extraordinarily beautiful.
And nihato madana-piyasam, by these, even madana, madana is the agent who attacks men. Madana is accompanied by women and he is expert at directing the arrows of beautiful women towards men. And because madana is surrounded with so many beautiful women, so usually madana is thought of as not being susceptible to captivation by women.
But that madana is also prone to be captivated. Such was the exquisite beauty of these queens. sammūya-chāpam-ajahāt-pramadottamāś ca So here there is madana which can refer to Madana Kamadeva and āmadana.
Āmadana is one who has actually conquered Kamadeva, that refers to Shiva. Even he could have been deluded by this. sammūya-chāpam-ajahāt-pramadottamāś ca So by there are the arrows.
So when Kramadhan becomes bewildered, he just gives up his bow in frustration because this is so beautiful. ajahāt-pramadottamāś ca So pramada is maddening, so here it refers to women who madden and among them these were the best. They were extremely attractive women.
yassēndriyam vimathitum kuhakai naśekuhu Kuhakai, even slightly they were not able to shake, they were not able to agitate his mind. yassēndriyam vimathitum So they were not able to perturb the senses of Krishna. So Krishna can never come under maya and that is demonstrated through his reciprocations with his queens.
Now Krishna did interact with the queens. Krishna did beget children. Krishna was a loving lord and husband for them.
But Krishna never became controlled by them. No, the women were beautiful and they were offering service to Krishna through their beauty and through their form and through their womanly nature. And Krishna accepted that service as was appropriate.
But Krishna never came under their control. Krishna remained transcendental. And his senses were not even slightly agitated.
So the Bhagavatam will later talk about how just by meditating on Krishna even sages become self-controlled and their senses don’t get agitated. So how is it possible that the person on whom they meditate, Krishna, how can he be under lust? How can he be under greed? How can he be under anger? So it is Krishna was self-controlled and he could not get tempted or deluded. That’s 37.
tam ayaṁ manyate loko ya asaṅgam apya saṅginam ātmopam yena manujam vyāpruṇvānaṁ yato buddhā buddhaham tam ayaṁ manyate loko So unto that Lord manyate loko, general people think about him in this world. What do they think? ya asaṅgam apya saṅginam So, although he is unattached, they think that he is attached. saṅginam ātmopam yena manujam ātmopam By comparing with themselves, manujam, ordinary people, human beings.
vyāpruṇvānaṁ yato They think he is engaged like us. yato buddhaham buddhā means wise, buddhā means not wise or foolish. So foolish people think that this is going to be a terrible thing.
So they think that this is, this sort of understanding which they have is actually a terrible thing because if they think of the Lord as an ordinary person, then they can’t take shelter of the Lord. And their thinking is because they, quite often, they approach the Leela without a tattva. They consider the action without considering the position.
So just like a surgeon may cut a patient. And if some tribal doesn’t know about surgery, they may think, oh, this person is killing this patient because they are seeing the action without understanding the position. So like that, what happens with Krishna, what happens with common people is that they look at Krishna’s actions but they do not think of Krishna’s sublime supreme position.
And because of not thinking of that, not taking into account the supreme position of Krishna, they lose the opportunity to appreciate his greatness and thereafter to relish his sweetness. Now in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that those who understand him in truth, they can become liberated. 4.9 he states that janma karma cha me vidyam evam yo vetti tattvata, So when janma karma appears in activities, if people understand it, they will come to me.
But when tattvata, they have to understand it in truth. So we have to see the Leela in truth, in tattvata. So we have to understand the philosophy and then we have to look at the action.
Otherwise there is misconception and that misconception was present even at that time. So the Goswami is telling that even then common people thought of him as an ordinary person. So the misunderstanding of Krishna now, there are many misunderstandings of Krishna which are present today.
So they are certainly likely because Krishna’s activities can, if seen without philosophically informed eyes, they can seem ordinary, they can seem mundane. And it is the Guru Sadhu Shastra, it is the sages and the scriptures, if we study them submissively, then we get the true understanding of Krishna and then we get the ultimate benefit of knowing Krishna. That is we become attracted to him and ultimately we become liberated from our existence.
So text 38. Here the Bhagavatam continues, the narrative. This is the supremacy of the supreme.
This is the divinity of the Lord. Although he is situated in the material nature, he is not engaged in material nature. He is not engaged by the modes.
He remains transcendental to the modes. He is always situated in the spiritual level. He is situated always in his own position, in his own divine transcendental position.
As are those who, with their intelligence, take shelter of him. So Krishna’s divinity is demonstrated. Such is the divinity that he can be in the material world and not be affected by matter.
His divinity, his transcendence, his omnipotence, his purity is not limited to him alone, but it extends from him to those connected with him. So when Krishna descends, he remains transcendental. And those who connect with Krishna, they also become transcendental.
And indeed that giving the facility for transcendence is the purpose why Krishna descends in this world. So we need to take shelter of him. And how do we do it? With Buddhism.
We have to use our intelligence to understand. This is not an ordinary person. This is the supreme person, the transcendental person.
And he has come here to offer me shelter. So let me take shelter of him. And thus by taking shelter, let me transcend material existence.
39, last text of the 11th chapter. They, about him, they took it for granted. Abala, mudhaha.
So Abala, these were gentle, they were delicate ladies. Mudhaha, the word mudhaha can mean foolish. Prabhupada translates it as simple.
So the queens of Darka were not philosophically astute sages. They were simple and gentle, delicate as Prabhupada translates, simple and delicate women. Trainam chaanuvratam raha.
So they thought that, oh he follows us around. Anuvratam, as we tell him, he does it like that. And they thought that he is almost like a henpecked husband.
Apramana vidho bhartur. Apramana vidho, they were unaware of his glories. Raho, in secluded places, he comes to us and he enjoys with us.
Apramana vidho bhartur. Ishwaram matayo yatha. They did not understand that their bhartur, their husband was Ishwaram.
So just as, similarly, as the atheists are unaware of him as a supreme controller. Apramana vidho bhartur. So it’s a striking example with which this chapter is concluded that they say the atheists may not understand God as a supreme controller.
The queens of Dwarka were not aware of him as the, of him as the supreme. They thought of him simply as their husband. They did not know his transcendental glories.
So are the queens being compared here to atheists? No, not at all. Every comparison, every analogy has a particular purpose. And the purpose is to be understood.
The queens of Krishna were exalted devotees. And the devotion is talked about earlier when it is said that they were simply overwhelmed on seeing Krishna. But the point is that there can be ignorance because of Mahamaya.
There can be ignorance because of Yogamaya. And externally the two may seem similar. An atheist may say, I don’t know Krishna.
I don’t accept Krishna as God. I don’t know Krishna as God. And the queens of Krishna may not accept Krishna as God.
They may say, oh, Krishna is our husband. And the atheists may say that Krishna is just some historical person who was there a long time ago. In both cases, they don’t know the supreme, supreme supremacy.
But still there is a world of difference between the two because one is motivated by ignorance and envy and the other is motivated by affection, by intense love. So Yogamaya also has Maya in it. There is illusion in it.
And Mahamaya also has Maya in it. But Yogamaya is the Maya which brings yoga, which brings connection with Krishna, which intensifies one’s connection with Krishna. Whereas Mahamaya is the Maya which makes us forget Krishna.
So the point here is not that the queens were like atheists, but rather that the queens were also in ignorance of Krishna’s transcendental position, just as atheists may be. But the ignorance was of an entirely different category, being an ignorance or an illusion that enhanced devotion. So this glimpse of the transcendental ignorance of Krishna’s supremacy, that will be further talked in the 10th canto when Krishna’s intimate pastimes with the Vrajavasis will be discussed.
We’ll come to that in due course. Thank you very much.