Bhagavatam tenth canto study 43 – 10.8.7-12 Religious celebration is meant for spiritual purification, not social congregation

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 8, Entitled Krishna Shows Universal Form, Text 7. So, Gargamuni has come here and to Gokul and Nanda Maharaj has welcomed him and has requested him to perform the birth ceremony of Krishna. And here Gargamuni is going to respond now.
Text 7. So, Gargacharya expresses a practical concern about doing the birth ceremony of Krishna. He says, everyone knows that I am the Acharya of the Yadus. Everywhere on the earth it is known that I am their Acharya.
Therefore, if I do the janma samskara, the birth ceremony for a child, then people will think, manyate devaki sutam Now, they will consider that he is also the son of Devaki. So, people generally draw inference from the kind of actions that we do. So, for example, if a particular politician goes to a particular event, then people think, ok, what does this politician have to do with this event? Maybe he is cultivating this food bank.
Maybe he is… So, people generally, when they see actions, especially of people who are well-known, those actions are not just seen in terms of this person doing this. Often there are more greater significances to those actions. Whenever we have certain connections, whenever we have certain positions, our actions have implications far beyond simply our choices.
Our actions reflect, the implications extend because also of our connections and our positions. So, when that person here, when Gargacharya, who is the son of, who is the priest of the Yadus, the Yadus and the Vrijvasi, then the Maharaj family, they are related. But still, because their varna is different, their position is significantly different.
And normally, Kshatriyas have priests. Nanda Maharaj, although he is a king, he is a king in the sense of being the head of the Vaishya community. He is not the king in the sense of being a Kshatriya.
So, he is very much a Vaishya. Just as every community needs to have a head. Head in terms of an in-charge.
So, Shudras will also have a head. Vaishyas will also have a head. Sometimes Brahmanas may also need to have a head.
If Brahmanas are coming together and performing a ceremony, then they have to have a hierarchy. Who is in-charge over here? So, the Brahmanas are the head of society. But even Brahmanas need to have a head.
So, here the word head can be used in different senses. So, Nanda Maharaj doesn’t have priests working for him. He is a Vaishya.
So, priests, they may work, they may either be more like what in today’s language you could say freelance priests. They travel from place to place and do whatever sacrifices somebody tells them to do. Or they just live in forest and not depend on anyone at all.
And just live based on forest fair. Or they may be associated with a particular dynasty. But when a priest associated with a particular dynasty starts doing something for someone else, what reason could it be? If the priest does sacrifice for some other king, then that might mean that either this king and that king are going to be related soon.
That maybe they are close friends or they are going to have a marriage in their families. Or maybe this priest wants to leave the service of that particular dynasty and go to that dynasty. So, there are always hidden meanings of whatever actions that we do.
So, now obviously Nanda Maharaj, because he is a Vaishya, he is not going to employ, he is not going to, Karkacharya is not going to become his priest. So, then why would Karkacharya do the ceremony for the sons of Nanda? So, then people will infer that actually that means Devaki Sutham, the son of his, must actually be the son of Devaki. And even if people infer like that, what is the problem? One particular person inferring like that is a big problem.
And that will be mentioned in the next verse. Texts 8 and 9. Kamsa is very sinful. And that sinful Kamsa knows, He knows about the friendship between you and Anakadundbhe is another name for Vasudev.
He knows about the friendship between all of you, both of you. And he may therefore think that maybe this is the eighth child of Devaki. And maybe it was not actually a girl, somehow that girl appeared over there.
But the actual child was not a girl. So, he may infer like this. Kamsa had a change of heart when he saw that the eighth child was a girl and that girl turned into the goddess.
But because the goddess said your eighth child is already born somewhere, the one who is going to kill you is already born somewhere else. Now, Kamsa is on the lookout to find out where that child might be. And when he sees me performing the birth sacrifice for this child, and also he knows about the relationship between you and Vasudev, then he will put, as we say in English, two and two together.
And he will infer that actually this child is Vasudev’s eighth child. And Vasudev’s eighth child was not actually a girl. So, when he hears this and he considers in this way, he may think like this when he hears the news that I have performed the sacrifice for you.
Devaki is a daughter. So, the daughter of Devaki was that goddess. She had spoken that your killer is born elsewhere.
अपी हन्तागताशंकस So, thinking in this way, हत्गताशंक What is the possibility? I have the fear within me that he may, हन्ता, he may try to kill your child. Kill this child. तरही तन्नोन योभवेत And if that happens, that is a terrible possibility.
I don’t want that to happen. That will be grievous. That will be a catastrophe.
Those who are politicians are very shrewd. Many people, they just, they are simple minded. They take things at face value.
Okay, you said this, it means this. They said that, that means that. So, actually speaking, here what is happening is that Kamsa is a shrewd politician.
And thus he may infer that there is the possibility that he may actually kill this child. Because he will put two and two together. And he will actually make things into a very, it will be a grievous possibility that may occur.
So, I said politicians, some people are simple minded, they just take things at face value. But some people, they are very shrewd, very insightful. It could be positive, it can be negative.
They don’t just take things at face value. Okay, behind this, what does this mean? What does this imply? So, now, brahmanas at one level are simple, but they are not naive. Simple means that they themselves don’t have any ulterior motives.
Naive means that they are not able to detect ulterior motives in others. So, we can be simple, we can be simple, but we can’t afford to be naive. That means, Shatho Shathyam, it is said, associated with the Mahabharata, that with the cunning, we need to be cunning.
Not in an exploitative sense, but we all have our service, and we need to protect our service. So, Gargacharya here exhibits his sense of responsibility when he points out this danger. So, he is a brahmana, but just because a brahmana is simple hearted, that doesn’t mean he is naive.
He is a priest for a king, and he knows the ways kings function, and he has seen how his own patrons, the Yadus, are persecuted by Kamsa. He knows Kamsa’s demonic nature, and thus he is alerting Nanda to the danger. Nanda Maharaj still perseveres.
He doesn’t want to lose the opportunity to have a great sage like Gargacharya perform the birth rites for his child, and thus he says, Nanda Maharaj, what does he reply? Nanda Maharaj acknowledges that this danger is there, that which is not seen, that means that which will be without the knowledge of Kamsa. Nanda Maharaj is a cowherd, and he is working with the cows when Gargacharya comes over there. So, he says, here there is a cow shed.
In this rahasi, the secluded, solitary place, that we will do it in such a way that in this cow shed, even mamakai, even my own relatives will not know about it. And you can perform the samskara for the second birth. Please do it.
And you don’t have to have an elaborate ceremony. You can just chant the mantras, for this purpose, the purificatory ceremony, and thus it can be done over here. So, when there is an emergency, when there is danger, everybody has to be flexible about how things are to be done.
Naturally, a parent would like to have an elaborate ceremony for a child for every occasion. And even in the previous chapter, it was described, the utthana ceremony that was there, that Krishna just got up from his back, just moved about a little bit, and the vrajavasis celebrated even that. And what to speak of, the name giving of a child, that is such a, that is a far more significant occasion.
And yet, with Vrindavan being a, with vrajavasis being a very closely knit community, it would naturally raise questions. Why is the birth ceremony being performed secretly? People will ask later. Why is this, why was it, why were you not invited for it? Many times, if we have a lot of social connections, every event that we have, say there is a big joint family, and there is a wedding in the family, then there are dozens, and sometimes 50, 100, hundreds of people who expect invitations.
And if an invitation doesn’t come, then they feel very upset. So, although it could raise questions about why an elaborate ceremony is not done, but Nanda Maharaj considers that actually, celebrating the occasion is not as important as getting the blessings of a great soul on that occasion. So, if you understand this perspective, then it becomes very clear what the priority should be.
The priority is that whenever a ceremony is performed, there is a social dimension to it. But there is a spiritual dimension to it also. So, when we go for a festival to a temple, the social dimension is, it’s a festival or occasion for family and community to get together.
And it’s nice to get together with Allah, with those whom we are connected with. But sometimes festivals become simply social occasions. And say Diwali, for people it’s just noise and eating.
It is just blowing crackers and eating. But anything about the essence of Diwali, Lord Ram’s return, or other such festivals that are associated with Diwali, people don’t even think about those. So, here Nanda Maharaj is demonstrating how the essence of a festival is much more important than the elaborate arrangement, the social aspect of the festival.
The social aspect is fine if it is there. But the more important is the spiritual aspect. The spiritual aspect is that the right mantras are chanted.
And if they are chanted by a great soul who will invoke blessings, who will bring blessings, then that is more important. Sometimes when we get a service, we want the service and we want the world to know that we got the service. And then sometimes that might work against the service.
Sometimes it is that we do a service, but we may get the service, but we may not get the social prestige that comes from knowing that we have got the service. So, we have to understand that if the respect for having done a service comes, that’s fine. But if that is not there, the important thing is to do the service.
So, in this way, when Gargacharya sees that Nanda Maharaj is ready to sacrifice the whole social aspect of the ceremony, just so that he could have his presence, then he says, oh, he is really serious. This is what he wants. Surely.
And I will do it, he says. So, now in one sense, Gargacharya also, he would love to do the ceremony for this boy. And because he knows that he is connected with Vasudev, and it will become clear to him.
Now, there is an interesting suspense that will be kept and revealed both as the sequence moves on. So, Shukadeva Goswami says, when he was just requested, the Vipra, the Brahmana was requested, he himself wanted to do it also. That’s why he had come there actually.
He performed appropriately the name-giving ceremony in a secluded place. And now he performed it for both the children, for both Krishna and Balaram. There would have been no problem for Gargacharya to perform the ceremony for Balaram, because Rohini was Vasudev’s wife, and it was known that she was there.
And it was not hidden from Kamsa. Just like if there is a government with a tyrannical ruler, then the tyrannical ruler, in order to maintain the tyrannical rule, also has many spies, a whole elaborate network for spying, which is aware of everything that is happening, or most of the things that are happening. So, and also, when Rohini was there, and the Maharaj did not try to hide the presence of Rohini in any way.
So, the Rohini’s presence was fine, and Gargacharya doing the birth ceremony for Balaram, Rohini’s son, that is also fine. But then, Krishna and Balaram were inseparable. And to have the ceremony done for Balaram and not for Krishna, that was out of question.
That would create a dissension among the two. And, of course, they were too small to understand dissension, but still, Krishna, there is a whole ceremony going on for Balaram, and Krishna is left aside. That was not appropriate.
Therefore, they decided to do the ceremony for both of them privately. And Krishna descends to this world. He is God.
He is worshipped. He is the lord of the goddess of fortune. He has immense fortune in his own abode.
But when he descends to this world, for the purpose of Leela, he is ready to have his own, he is ready to have sacrifice performed, his birth giving sacrifice performed, in a confidential place, in a private place, without any ceremony at all, when Krishna’s birth happens in a prison. So now, he is going to give the names. Shri Gargacharya speaks now.
So he points towards the child. Both the children are in front of him. They are kept there.
This child, Rohini Putro. He points to this child, Rohini Putro. He will delight his surdas, his well-wishers, with his qualities.
Thus, he will be known by the name Ram. And moreover, he will give joy. So he will be known as Ram, one who gives joy.
But he will also have extraordinary strength. And thus, he will be known as Balam. He will have a name associated with Bala.
He will be known as Bala. And because he is actually linking the families together, the Yadu family, he is bringing together. He will also be known as Sankarshan.
So now, actually it is described that Vasudev and Nanda Maharaj, they had the same forefathers. But their family had become separated because they had married differently. So Nanda Maharaj was a Vaishya and Vasudev was a Kshatriya.
The families had become separated over the generations with marriage and other things. But here he is saying that these two families are brought together. Ultimately, what forms a family is not just blood relationships.
It is love. For example, when there is love, and sometimes if there is friendship between two people, very great affection in the friendship, then that bond might be closer than the bond even of blood. Relationship might not be as intensely affectionate as might be friendship.
So here it is said that these two families, because it is Vasudev’s son Balaram, but he is being taken care of by Nanda Maharaj and his family, who are all assisting Rohini in taking care of Krishna. So in their affection for Balaram, both these families are coming together. And thus because he is bringing them together, so his name is Sankarsana.
Sankarsana means one who links, one who joins, one who brings together. So Balaram also is the Adi Guru. He brings the soul in contact with Krishna.
There also he plays the role of Sankarsana. So he gives these three names, Bala of Rama, Bala and Sankarsana. Now the Vrajavasis say, there are many Lokakatha that is there.
Along with the Vrajakatha, there is a Shastra Pramana and there is a Loka Pramana it is said. So Shastra Pramana refers to what is known through Shastra. Loka Pramana refers to that which is known through people in general, through the wise people.
So one such Vrajakatha is that, when Yashoda and Rohini brought their children over there, they wanted to see how expert is this Brahmana. So what they did was, they interchanged their children. So Yashoda carried Rohini’s child and Rohini carried Yashoda’s child.
But they wanted to see whether he will recognize or not. But when he saw, he pointed to Balram and exactly pointed to the right child and said, I am he Rohini’s putro. This is Rohini’s child.
That’s why that I am he. This is Rohini’s child. So although that Rohini’s child was being carried by Yashoda, but Gargacharya recognized.
This is Yashoda and Rohini looked at each other and smiled. Oh, he is a very learned Brahmana. He is insightful.
He didn’t presume that the child with me is mine and the child with you is yours. So he has some special powers. So they appreciated.
So that is the significance of that I am he. This particular child is the child of Rohini. And now he will turn towards Krishna and he will talk about the naming of Krishna, the history of Krishna.
That we will discuss in our next session.