Bhagavatam tenth canto study 40 – 10.7.27-30 Krishna silences Trinavarta to minimize anxiety for Vrajavasis

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 7, entitled The Killing of तुनावर्त, Text 26. Here, the Bhagavatam is speaking about how तुनावर्त has come to try to take Krishna away. And here he speaks, actually this is the 27th text, तं अश्मानं मन्यमाना आत्मनो गुरु मत्तया गले गृहिता उत्सरष्टुम् नाशक्नो अद्भुदार्भकम् So, तं अश्मानं मन्यमाना, so as तुनावर्त had taken Krishna high into the sky, he suddenly started feeling that this is like a stone, अश्म, means stone, in the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, समलोष्ट अश्म कान्चिनह, the self-realized people see, stone, gold and water to be like simply, to be equal.
So here he is saying that, is this a child or is this a lump of stone? How is this so heavy? They are thinking this is incredibly heavy. तं अश्मानं मन्यमाना आत्मनो गुरु मत्तया So, आत्मनो गुरु मत्तया, the word गुरु normally we associate with spiritual master, which is true, but literally the word गुरु means heavy, so here it is said गुरु मत्तया, how can this be so heavy? गले गुरुहीत उत्सरष्टुम Now, he was thinking like this and he wanted to put aside this child, but he just could not because this child had put his arms around him. गले गुरुहीत उत्सरष्टुम न अशक्, he could not give up.
So, when Trnavart carried this child in the sky, Krishna very nonchalantly put his arms around him, and Trnavart didn’t understand what is happening. He thought this is just like a child, sometimes you pick up a child and child puts arms around you, but Krishna had a plan, and thus even when he felt this child was so heavy, he couldn’t push him down. नशक्नोद, he could not do it.
शक्य, it was not possible for him. अद्भुतार्भकं, such was this wonderful child, who was different from any ordinary child. Now, Krishna used his weight in both ways, first to protect Yashoda and then to punish Trnavart.
Yashoda was carrying him, and if he was in Yashoda’s arms when Trnavart came, Trnavart would have knocked Yashoda over also, he would have injured her. So, if Krishna became heavy before, that was so that Yashoda put him down, and in fact, Krishna was so heavy that Yashoda felt that even a bed would get damaged, a bed would not be able to sustain Krishna’s weight, so she put Krishna on the floor, and thus Krishna did not allow even a bed of Vrindavan to get damaged. Krishna arranged in such a way that he was on the ground and Trnavart came as a fierce storm and swept him away, and when Trnavart swept him away, again Krishna made his weight light, so that Trnavart did not feel anything, he was just a child, I picked him up and I was successful, this is my mission, it’s successful, I came to steal, abduct this child, I was successful, but when he went high up into the sky, just when he was sensing his elation, his plan was that he would go high up into the sky and throw Krishna down, but now he found that Krishna had just held on to his neck, put both his arms around his neck and was holding him tight, now on one side the weight was heavy, on the other side the weight was just not able to let go of, it’s a scary situation for him, so now imagine if we lift some weight and we lift the weight with some energy, but then we find that this is becoming too much, I have to put it down, but as we try to put it down, we find that the weight has stuck to our hands, there is some kind of adhesive on it, and we are just not able to let go of the weight, and then as our muscles are unable to bear the weight, and the weight just crashes down on us, so the very weight we had lifted, that weight now crashes us, so something similar happens here to Trnavarta, he is just not able to let Krishna go, next text, 28, now because Krishna had held on to his neck, Gala is neck, Krishna had held on to it, and he just couldn’t do anything, he was not even able to breathe, now when the air inside us is not able to come out, and Krishna didn’t just hold on to his neck, Krishna didn’t just increase his weight, but Krishna actually pressed his neck, and he pressed his neck so tightly that the air which was within him couldn’t come out, and his eyes popped out because of that, now he couldn’t even make any sound, he crashed down, he fell with his life already expelled, so it is not that he fell down and that fall caused him to die, rather Krishna by crushing him, by choking him with his arms, took away his life even before he fell, now the Vaishno Toshani explains that when Putana had come at that time, Putana she had screamed, Muncha, Muncha, let me go child, let me go, and her screams, her shrieks, her screeches, that had also alarmed the Vrajavasis, and Krishna did not want the Vrajavasis to be alarmed, so this time he ensured that Trnavart could not make any noise, although Trnavart had come at a storm and disrupted the Vrajavasis, Krishna wanted to keep the disruption the minimum, so we will see after this, most of the demons who come, they actually come, they don’t come into Vrindavan, they, Dhenukasur, Pralambasur or whoever else, Keshi, most of the demons, Keshi is one demon who just comes somewhat inside Vrindavan in the form of a horse, but most of the demons Krishna deals with when he is outside of Vrindavan, in the pastoral grounds, so there the demons can’t cause much damage, much disruption, and Krishna’s friends, young children, they often don’t understand, when there is danger for them, it’s not so much danger, it is adventure, as we become older, we start valuing safety more, we start, in childhood, often we don’t realize how much danger and damage and trouble can result because of some things, so there is recklessness, daredevilishness that is there in children, and thus children have fun with Krishna’s various adventures, we will see how the Gopas just enter into the mouth of Agahasur, hey, this is a new place, let’s explore it, so in this way the demons, not only does Krishna deliver them, but the demons don’t even cause much anxiety to the Vrajavasis, because most of the demons come outside of Vrindavan, in this case because he had come inside Vrindavan, now of course another reason for this is that Krishna is too small to himself go out of Vrindavan at this stage, Krishna is just a child, just an infant, not even a child, an infant, and Arbhaka, because he is such a small child, actually the demons who want to kill him have to come inside Vrindavan, because he himself is not going out of his home also alone, what to speak of, go out of Kaukul, right now to the pastoral grounds, so Krishna lets the demon come in, but he ensures that the demon doesn’t disrupt anyone, so he doesn’t allow the demon to make any noise also, and he just crashes down to his death, not being able to make a noise also, such is the total domination of Krishna that the opponent falls without even making any noise, it’s normally whenever an opponent is knocked down, opponent screams or yells or shouts, at least when an arrow pierces through somebody’s body, when Ram with his final arrow kills Ravan, Ravan lets out a shout that seems to cause the whole earth to shake, and with that shout he falls to the ground, but here Trnavart is not allowed to make even any sound at all, text 29, tam antarikshat patitam shilayam, vishirna sarva vayavam karalam, puram yatharudra sharena vidham, sthriyor datyodadrushu sametaham, tam antarikshat, so antarikshat refers to the outer sky, from the sky, from the space actually, Trnavart was way way high up in the sky, his plan was that he would throw Krishna down from there, and the greater the height from which Krishna is thrown down, the lesser the chance that Krishna will survive, that’s why Trnavart had taken Krishna very high up into the sky, tam trnavartat, tam antarikshat patitam shilayam, so when he fell down, Krishna arranged that he did not fall into Vrindavan, in the Gokul village anywhere, he fell in an uninhabited part, and he also arranged that he fell on a slab of stone, patitam shilayam, vishirna sarva vayam, karalam vishirna, his whole body became scattered, his limbs became dislocated, karalam, he had fierce eyes and legs, but they all became scattered, puramyatha rudra sharena viddham, puramyatha, so just now here, every culture, every tradition, has certain metaphors which it draws back from, which it draws from, they are a part of the cultural language, the cultural imagery, these are called as allusions, allusion, no it’s not illusion, it’s allusion, allusion means, it is an expression designed to call something to the mind without mentioning it explicitly, an indirect or a passing reference, so, allusions are used to indicate similarity, and it’s with something which is already familiar, and in this way, two people can use their shared understanding to communicate using allusions, so, if two people know that a particular person laughs very loudly, then this person is actually not genuine, is deceiving, and is pretending to be happy, and is having some other malicious plan, so when they hear that person laughing loudly, they will look at each other, and that glance itself conveys to them, this is, they are not speaking anything, but something is being conveyed, so like that, so that is of course, we could say a visual or a facial gesture, but when we have a verbal expression, wherein something is just vaguely mentioned, those who are familiar with it, they will understand it, and those who are not familiar, it will be not comprehensible to them, so every culture has its allusions, so today, for example, in today’s world, we may refer to cricket, in India, and that is an allusion which will make sense to Indians, but in America, we talk about cricket, some people may think it’s just referring to some insect, so now, here, so Shukdev Goswami is speaking to sages, whose minds are filled with lures from the past, with past battles between great sages, between great devtas and great demons, so here, he refers to an ancient battle, पूरम्यथा रूद्रशरेन विद्धम् just as Rudra’s arrow killed the demon named Tripura, Tripura was a very powerful demon, and he actually had his own like a flying planet, what we might call today a flying saucer in today’s language, and he was invincible, but Lord Shiva shot a formidable weapon and knocked him down, so Tripura is one of the names of Lord Shiva, so just as Lord Shiva shot an arrow and a huge Tripurasura, the abode of Tripura, पुरा, that is referred to here by simply the word पुरा, just as it came crashing down, similarly, here, the demon came crashing down, and Vrindavan Krishna does not use any weapons, but he can have the effect that can be had, even by the most powerful weapons, Krishna can have it without using any weapons also, such is his prowess.
स्रियोर्दत्यो दद्रिष्यो समेतः Now Krishna wanted to minimize the grief of the Vrajavasis, and earlier we described how Yashoda and the other elderly women of Vrindavan were crying in agony thinking what has happened to Krishna, Krishna had been kept in a particular place and suddenly he had disappeared from that place, so Krishna arranged in such a way that they saw that he fell nearby, he fell nearby so that their agony could be relieved. Text 13, प्रदाय मात्रे प्रतिर्यत्य विष्मितः कृष्णं चितस्योरसिलं लंबमानं तम् स्वस्तिमंतं पुरुषाद्नीतं विहायस्यमृत्युमुखात् प्रमुक्तं कोप्याश्य गोपाकिलनंदमुख्या लव्ध्वापुनप्रापुरतीवमोदं प्रदाय मात्रे So when right in front of them they saw that Krishna has fallen down, they became delighted, they became, first they were of course anxious, has anything happened to Krishna? But they were relieved to see that Krishna was already there with them. So प्रदाय मात्रे पत्येत् विश्मितासदे In astonishment they picked up Krishna.
They, now Mother Yashoda was so paralyzed that she herself could not run, she was so overwhelmed by agony. So then they picked up, the other Vajvasis picked up Krishna and they gave him, handed him over to Yashoda. विश्मितासदे And they were all astonished.
कृष्णम् चतस्योरसि लंबमानम् And they saw that Krishna was situated, उरसी, on his chest. लंबमानम् And they saw that from स्वस्तिमनम् स्वस्तिमन्तम् And he was completely okay, nothing had happened to him. स्वस्ति means auspicious.
There was no inauspiciousness on him. Everything was perfectly fine. स्वस्तिमन्तम् पुरुषाद नीतम् He had been taken away, पुरुषाद, one who eats human beings, a cannibal, a राक्षस.
He had been taken, नीतम्. He had been taken by somebody who is as deadly as that. विहायस्याम्रत्यमुखात् प्रमुक्तम् He’s taken high up into the sky, it’s like somebody has gone to the mouth of death, प्रमुक्तम्, but has become liberated from that.
And in this we’re seeing this गोपेश्च गोपा किलि नन्दमुख्या The Gopas, the Gopis had all of them headed by नन्दमुख्या, Nandamaharaj. लभापुनप्रापुरतीवमोदम् That they became delighted thinking that Krishna has come back. So for them, it was like Krishna had gone into the mouth of death, into the hands of this terrible demon and had come back.
And seeing that he is safe, filled them with immense joy. Normally, the intensity of our attachment determines the intensity of our emotions. If we hear about some bomb blast happening in some remote part of Africa, we may not feel, of course we may have some human concern for the casualties, but we may not immediately feel agitated.
But if we hear about a bomb blast happening in our own neighborhood, maybe a place where our friends or relatives stay, that anxiety will be much more for us. So now for the Vrajvasis, all their emotion is invested in Krishna. And thus when Krishna is in danger, that is unbearable for them.
But, so the agony was very great, and to the extent the agony is great, to that extent when Krishna is found to be safe, their joy is also great. So, generally the abode of the spiritual world, the abode of Krishna is the abode of intense emotions, all kinds of intense emotions. It’s intensely charged with love for Krishna, permeated with love for Krishna.
And as the Vrajvasis go through the whole panorama of emotions, from agony, anxiety, ecstasy, anticipation, fear, thrill, astonishment, the whole panorama of emotions they go through. In fact, to be alive means to go through all these emotions. And to be supremely alive means to go through these emotions to a supreme degree.
So, ativa modam, in this way they were extremely happy. They went into immense bliss, ativa, excessive. Bhaktas te ativa me priyaha.
The last verse of the twelfth chapter, 12.20, Krishna says that those who devote themselves to me, they are extremely dear to me, ativa me priyaha. So, the ativa indicates excess in a positive sense, not in a negative sense. Extremely happy, extremely dear to me, that’s what Bhagavad Gita says.
So, like that, the Vrajvasis became relieved and delighted on seeing Krishna, See, text 31 now, aho bataatya adbhutame shiraaksh rakshasa balo nivrttum gamito bhyagat punah himsra sva-papena vismita kala sadhu samatvena bhaya dvimuchyate aho bataatya adbhutame shiraakshasa So, isn’t it astonishing? Isha adbhutam, isha rakshasa, this rakshasa took balo, he was taken away because of this child, nivrttum, and his nivrttum, his purpose was to kill this child, but gamito bhyagat punah, he went away but he came back and heard, bhyagat, himsra sva-papena vismita kala and actually, instead of Krishna being killed, this demon himself was killed by sva-papena, by his own sins he was killed, kala, that evil person, vismita, vihimsita, not vismita, it is vihimsita. So, vismita is astonish, but himsa is violence, so vihimsita means he was violently killed, sadhu samatvena bhaya dvimuchyate just as an innocent person who is virtuous, who is pious, who is sadhu, who is saintly, samatvena bhaya dvimuchyate just as a saintly person being equal to everyone is protected, samatvena bhaya dvimuchyate So here, we are moving from narration to exposition and the Vrajvasis are amazed, how is it that this boy has been freed? This is sva-papena vihimsita kala So by his own sins, this boy has been, by this demon has been killed and that the sinful are killed eventually, that is the law of nature. And then they further say that, two more things, principles they give, sadhu samatvena bhaya dvimuchyate The law of nature is on one side the sinful are always punished and the virtues are always protected.
So generally whatever happens, we try to make sense of things and at one level, it just doesn’t make sense that how could a child who is carried away by a demon, a child is protected and a demon is killed. So now they don’t think that the child has done anything, for them Krishna is just their lovable little child. So they think, oh actually the law of karma is supreme.
By the law of karma, this demon was killed and Krishna was protected. So thus they consider it is Krishna’s virtue because of which he was saved and because of this demon’s sinfulness that he was killed. So the vrajvasis we will see at various times, they will make sense of things without actually attributing Krishna as the source of everything that is happening.
Of course there are some occasions when they will recognize it is Krishna who is acting, it is Krishna who is wonderful, it is Krishna who has done extraordinary things. But in general, the mood of the vrajvasis is such that they delight primarily in considering, in looking for some explanation other than Krishna as the cause of the wonderful things that are happening. So here they consider it is a law of nature by which the vrajvasi, by which Krishna is protected and the resident and the demon is killed.