Bhagavatam tenth canto study 36 – 10.7.1-6 Krishna’s childhood pastimes are both entertaining and enlightening

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 7, entitled, Killing of the Demon Trnavarta, Texts 1 and 2. śrī rājo vāca yena yena avatārena bhagavān hari rīśvaraḥ karoti karana ramyāni mano jñāni chana hi prabhau yasyunvato paithi arathir vittriṣṇā sattvaṁ ca śuddhyaty acireṇa puṁ saḥ bhaktir harau tat puruṣe ca sakhyam tad eva harāṁ vadha manyase cet Parīkṣit Mahārāja is here, expressing his desire to continue hearing about Krishna, and Krishna’s sweet pastimes, yena yena avatāreṇa.
So, by that Lord, who in His various pastimes has various incarnations manifested in different pastimes, bhagavān hari rīśvaraḥ, that Lord, who is the Īśvara, who is the Supreme, all-attractive person, karoti karana ramyāni, those activities, when you hear about it, they are very dear to the heart, they are very pleasing to the heart, karoti karana ramyāni mano jñāni chana prabhau, and they are not only pleasing to the ear, but they are pleasing to the mind and the heart also. Actually, bhakti is such a powerful spiritual path, that it spiritualizes the senses, that it reconceptualizes or redefines the senses and the mind as pathways to liberation. Normally, we have to give up whatever is pleasurable for the senses and the mind, so that we can practice bhakti, or so that we can grow spiritually.
That is, largely speaking, the path of renunciation, wherein we understand that certain things are, at the physical and the mental level, they keep us entangled in this world, so they need to be given up. And that is certainly true, that certain things do indeed need to be given up, but along with that, it’s also true that the process of bhakti operates in a sector of empowerment for us. We consider a circle of bhakti and a circle of things that pleases the mind and senses.
The process of bhakti yoga has a significant area of overlap, where what we like, what our senses and mind find pleasing, as it is said over here, that which our ears and our mind finds pleasing, that is also within the circle of bhakti. Of course, our mind and senses may find many things pleasing, and we are not talking about hearing anything and everything, but within the purview of bhakti, the things that we find pleasing, if we hear those, by that, we’ll move forward in our life. So, Yashunvato, Krishna says over here that, on hearing this pastime, Apaiti Aratir Vitrishnam, so now something that pleases the mind and the senses, isn’t that just entertainment? No, no, no, this, when you’re talking about Krishna Bhakti, there’s much more to it than this entertainment.
Yashunvato Apaiti Aratir Vitrishnam, on hearing this, what do we get? Aratir Vitrishnam, our craving that is there in this world, Arati, we just become free from it. That our whole existence becomes purified. Achirenapamsa, quickly.
We develop bhakti for Lord Hari. To those who are dedicated to him, those who are devoted to him, means that friendship with those who are devoted to him. So, therefore, the activities of Hari are like a garland, which should be heard and by a hearing kept on the neck of the heart, on the neck, like a garland.
So, here it’s a beautiful metaphor is given. So, first, it’s pleasing, so we can talk about entertainment, but it’s not just entertainment, it’s also enlightenment. Enlightenment means worldly cravings disappear, the existence becomes purified, then attraction towards Krishna and friendship towards the association of devotees, all this resides.
So, renunciation, purification, devotion and association. So, all these result from hearing about Krishna. If we had in our life one activity that could offer us so many benefits, we would be eager to take up that activity.
How does all this happen? Just by hearing, actually, we are connecting with Krishna and that hearing, because it gives us some satisfaction, the craving for getting something else goes down by that. Ultimately, our craving is like our hunger. You may want one kind of food to eat, but if we get some other food and that food tastes as good as the food that we are craving for or that food tastes better, then we’ll start feeling, okay, why do I need to crave for that other food? This is good enough, this is good, let me just eat this and let me eat this more.
So, we have a tendency to hear something which gives us pleasure. And when we get one thing which gives us pleasure, then we feel maybe I don’t need to crave for anything else. So, if this is just another pleasure that tastes good, another pleasure, another enjoyable thing, no, it is a categorically different kind of enjoyment, because there are other pleasures, most worldly pleasures will contaminate our consciousness.
This will purify our consciousness. sattvaṁ ca śuddhyaty acireṇa puṁsahāṁ We’ll become purified. bhaktir harau tat puruṣe ca sakhyam Actually, yes, I mean, when the purification happens, that means the contaminating desires within us go away.
So, not only do we get a better pleasure, but we also get freedom or diminution of the desire towards, of the craving for the lower pleasures. And then as we start experiencing pleasure in relationship with Krishna, we start feeling more attracted to Krishna. Oh, yeah, there’s so much pleasure here, why do I need to go anywhere else? Let me experience this more and more.
bhaktir harau tat puruṣe And then, now, where do we hear about Krishna? So, normally, if, say, somebody gives a child a chocolate, a child enjoys the chocolate, and the child also looks forward to meeting that person again, say, a relative, whenever they come, they give a chocolate, then the child starts looking forward to that chocolate, whoever, and looks forward to those who give that chocolate, so becomes attached to them also. So, similarly, where do we hear about Krishna? We hear in association. And thus, bhaktir harau tat puruṣe ca sakhyam, what happens is that our attraction to the association of devotees also increases, because it is in the devotion, in our association, that we get to hear about all this.
So, tad eva hāram. So, please, O Swami, speak all this, speak all this, so that I can become more and more purified, more and more satisfied, more and more free from cravings, and more and more attached to Krishna and to the association of those devoted to Krishna. Next, 3, 10.7.3, athānyad api kṛṣṇasya toka-caritam adbhutam vānuśyam lokam āsādhyam tajjātim anurundhataḥ athānyad api kṛṣṇasya.
So, now, there are many, many pastimes of the Lord, which have, which are very purifying. So, the previous verse was about general pastimes of the Lord, and now, specifically, He asks about Krishna and Krishna as a child. Athānyad api kṛṣṇasya, also specifically described, toka-caritam adbhutam, toka-caritam, His childhood pastimes, adbhutam, they are extraordinary, vānuśyam lokam āsādhyam, He appeared as a human being, He appeared in the human world, tajjātim anurundhataḥ, and He acted just as a normal childhood act, but His acting in this way is wonderful.
So, please describe about it. There is this eagerness, because Krishna’s childhood pastimes are especially endearing. While every one of His pastimes is sweet, the sweetness in Krishna’s childhood pastimes is immense.
Normally, children are playful, and they attract, they evoke a sense, if they are playful, with cheers, full of life, that brings a smile and a charm to those who are watching them. And if that child happens to be that supreme person, then there is no limit to the amount of joy that can be experienced in relationship with Him. Tajjātim anurundhataḥ.
So, text 4. Now, Parikshit Maharaj has finished speaking, and Śukadeva Goswami will respond. śiśhukavāca kadācit avthānik kauto kāplave janmārkṣe yoge samaveta yoṣitāṁ vāditra-gīta-dvija-mantra-vāca-kaish cakārasu nora-abhishecha-namsati cakārasu nora-abhishecha-namsati So, the ceremony was celebrated with great pomp, abhishechanam, the bathing ceremony. So, what happened here, kadācit avthānik kautu kāplave, kadācit.
At that time, Prabhupāda explains when Krishna was about three months old, avthānik kautu kāplave. So, his body was developing, and children normally, when they are infants, every small step of their growth brings great jubilation to their parents. So, avthānik kautu kāplave.
So, when Krishna turned, Krishna was lying on the bed, and he decided to try to turn. He developed enough energy to turn around his body, and that was kautu kāplave. This was āplave.
It was, it brought such delight to the Vajvāsis that they had a special festival in which they had bathed the child. Janmārakṣa-yoge-samaveta-yoshitāṁ janmārakṣe. So, again at that time, the same constellation, the conjunction of the moon with auspicious constellation, Rohini happened, something similar to what had happened at his birth.
Samaveta-yoshitāṁ. So, now this ceremony was performed. This is mostly a family ceremony.
So, mostly ladies were present at this particular ceremony. Samaveta-yoshitāṁ. Now, these ladies are, Krishna’s bāla-līlā is largely centered on the reciprocation of vatsalya-rasa.
So, most of the gopis who are referred to Vajvāsis-yoshitāṁ, they are referred to, they are of the age of the mother of Krishna, and they are all reciprocating maternal affection and seeing Krishna’s pastimes. So, unless specifically mentioned, otherwise, Krishna in his childhood is relishing largely the vatsalya-rasa, the parental affection with the vraja-ladies. From the chapter 19th onwards, the first reference to Madhurya-rasa, and then that will become more and more prominent as we move forward.
Vāditra-gīta-dvija-mantra-vācakaiśa. So, on the occasion of the ceremony, what happened? Vāditra, the different varieties of music and singing was going on. Dvija-mantra-vācakaiśa.
So, vācakaiśa, those who are trained, qualified to read scripture and to recite mantras. So, those brāhmaṇas, dvija-mantra, they were reciting mantras. Chakara-sonor-abhishej-janam-sati.
And at that time, the chaste mother Yashoda, she performed the weeding ceremony of Krishna. So, in the child’s growth, every landmark is treated with great joy by the parents. And when there is a close-knit community, as Vrindavan happens to be, then every child in the community is like the child of not just that family, but the child of the community.
And Krishna especially is the life of all the Vrajavasis. And thus, whatever is to be done about Krishna’s rites of passages, Krishna’s going through significant landmarks in his life, that is something which all the Vrajavasis join in. So, that.
So, text 5. nandasya patne kruta-majjanādhikam viprayi kruta-svastyayanaṁ supūjitai annādhyavāsa-sraga-bhīṣṭa-dhenubhī sañjāta-nidrākṣaṁ aśīśayacchanai nandasya patne. So, at that time, the wife of Nanda Maharaj, kruta-majjanādhikam. So, after the majjan, the bathing had been done for herself as well as for her children and other family members, viprayi kruta, then she offered to the vipras.
What are the vipras the brahmana has done? svastyayanaṁ supūjitai svastyayanaṁ. Those who had engaged in the chanting of auspicious Vedic mantras, supūjitai, she worshipped them properly. annādhyavāsa-sraga-bhīṣṭa-dhenubhī.
She offered them food, annādhyavāsa-sraga-bhīṣṭa-dhenubhī and then she offered them garlands, other desirable things such as aviṣṭa-dhenubhī, very beautiful cows. sanjāta-nidrākṣaṁ aśīśa-yacchanai and sanjāta-nidrākṣaṁ, at that time the child, nidrākṣaṁ, his eyes closed, aśīśa-yacchanai. So, as the child got tired, the child went to sleep, sanjāta-nidrākṣaṁ, he went to sleep.
Children, especially infants, most of the time of their life they keep sleeping. So, when they sleep does, at that time, nidrākṣaṁ. So, the mother just understand that, okay, now the child is tired, let him sleep.
Their body is growing, especially in infancy, the body grows very fast, almost all the bodily energy is caught in whatever little activities that they do and is caught in growth. So, children sleep, infants sleep a lot. So, during this ceremony, Krishna was awake, but after that he went to sleep.
Now, Krishna’s body is transcendental, but at the same time, when Krishna descends to this world, as it is mentioned in the previous verse, two verses, he acts as if he were an ordinary child and he does all the things that ordinary children will do. And thus, he, after the ceremony got over, he acted like an ordinary child, acted like he was tired, and he went to sleep. It’s like six here.
auṭhāni kautusukhya manā manasvinī samāgatāṁ pūjayati vrajaukasah naivāśino dvairuditam sutaśyasā rudhaṁ sthānārthi caranā udakṣipat So, auṭhāni kautusukhya manā, her mind was filled with the enthusiasm or the festival, thoughts of the festival, auṭhāni ka, the utthāna festival, when the first child gets up and turns around, her mind was occupied with doing the festival. So, utthaha utthau, the word is similar, when there is utthaha, that is enthusiasm, utthau, there is a celebration. So, whenever there is celebration, a lot of things have to be done to take care of all the logistics, and this keeps the members of the house, especially the chief members of the house, which is the main housewife, very busy.
And because of that, because her mind was busy managing, organizing all these things, at that time she did not, she was, what was her busy in doing? She was busy in doing various things, which is samāgatāṁ pūjayati vajavukasah, samāgatāṁ, she was distributing pūjayati vajavukasah, various guests had come over there, the vraja-vasis. Now, one thing was that the brāhmaṇas were already worshipped, pūjayata, giving them the appropriate charity, but there were many other guests also who had come there, and because all these guests were there, Yashodamāi was busy in taking care of them, in attending to their needs. Although she had attendants to help her, but still, it was her ceremony, it was the ceremony at her house, it was her child, and actually she wanted to be present so that the ceremony go off wonderfully, so that everybody pleased, and everybody offered their lavish blessings to Kṛṣṇa.
Now, as she was going through all this, it’s interesting that she was so busy that what happened, the next line is described in that, naivaḥ śraṇodvairuddhitaṁ sutaśyasaḥ, her son, when she started crying, ruditam, naivaḥ śraṇod, she did not hear the child, the child had just gone to sleep, so the mother thought that, oh, he’ll stay asleep for some time, and she went in various directions. Normally, when a baby is small, the wards, someone stays nearby, in case the baby starts crying, something happens to the baby, they keep an eye on the baby, but although babies can be unpredictable, there is at least some predictable pattern. So, if the baby has been, has just fallen asleep, then it could be hoped that the baby will stay asleep for a good amount of time, reasonable amount of time.
So, thinking like that, Yashodamayi had gone elsewhere, but in this case, it turned out that Kṛṣṇa had not, Kṛṣṇa woke up soon, He just closed His eyes, but soon He woke up. So, He wanted milk. He wanted the breast of His mother, so that He could get milk from there.
So, in anger, He just lifted up His leg and started throwing it here and there, threw His leg upwards. So, children become restless and they start moving. Now, within the limited range of movement that is possible for them, within that, infants can also be very expressive.
So, they may cry, cry very loudly with the small throats that they have, sometimes they may have a powerful set of lungs, and it may be amazing how such a small child can emit such a large sound. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa, despite being a small child, He got angry and He started kicking, flailing. So, He moved His leg upwards.
Now, by this, something dramatic will happen. What that is, we will discuss in the