Bhagavatam tenth canto study 53 – 10.9.18-23 The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love

Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 9, Text 18. Mother Yashoda binds Krishna.
So here, Mother Yashoda is trying to tie Krishna, and despite putting many, many ropes, still she is not able to restrain Krishna, she is not able to tie him. So she is wondering what is happening. So when Krishna saw that his mother has become exhausted, she is perspiring heavily, because of all the effort first in running, and then in getting all the ropes, and tying them together and then stretching them around him to tie him.
When he saw she is becoming exhausted, that he saw that the flowers are falling from her hair. In this way, when he saw her endeavor, he decided to show mercy on his mother and thus he allowed himself to be bound by her. Actually here, the significance that is being conveyed here is that actually Krishna is Bhakta Vatsala.
He loves his devotees at the same time. He also wants us to show our devotion through our actions. So when we show our devotion through our actions, it involves some amount of stretching.
It involves some amount of effort that has to be put in. But when that effort is put in, that pleases Krishna. And the pleasure of Krishna brings about He delivering his mercy further by which whatever service we are trying to do, that becomes successful.
If sometimes our service is not successful, we don’t have to become disheartened. We can still keep heart by remembering that Krishna is always with us, and Krishna is watching us, Krishna is seeing us endeavoring. And when he feels that our endeavor is adequate, then he will definitely give the result to us.
So Krishna here observed mother Yashoda endeavoring so much, and he decided, okay, she wants to tie me, let her tie me. So for us, mother Yashoda, she is doing intimate personal service to Krishna to discipline him. In form, her service is radically different from ours.
We don’t have to tie Krishna. It would be audacious for us to think that we can never tie Krishna. But we also have our particular service to Krishna, in which also we may have to tie some loose ends.
We do this thing, but then that thing gets messed up. When we do that thing, another thing gets messed up. And that way, the loose ends never end.
We need to work to bring all those loose ends together so that they are all aligned properly. And sometimes to fix issues, we try our best, but things don’t seem to be working. At that time, we need to recognize that we need Krishna’s mercy.
We keep endeavoring. At the same time, we keep remembering Krishna, praying to Krishna, seeking the strength to serve him. And in due course, he will bestow his mercy on us.
And that’s how we will become successful in our service. Text 19. एवं संधर्शिताय अंग In this way, was exhibited, O Anga, affectionate way of addressing, O Maharaj Parikshit, Sukhdev Goswami speaking, एवं संधर्शिताय अंग, हरिणा भृत्यवश्यत By Hari, भृत्यवश्यत, how he becomes controlled by his devotees, how he becomes bound by his devotees, भृत्यवश्यत, such is the power of love.
By the power of force, nobody can bind Krishna, he will bind everyone, he is all-powerful. But, भृत्यवश्यत, Hari ना भृत्यवश्यत, Lord Hari displays his disposition of being bound by his devotees, सवशेनापि कृष्णेन, सवशेनापि, actually everybody is under the control of Krishna, even his devotees are under the control of Krishna, Krishna is of course always under his control, कृष्णेन यस्ये दंसेश्वरंवशे, that Lord, who is, under whose control the whole universe is this, ईश्वरंवशे, and even those who are, those who are the controllers of the universe, such as Brahma and Shiva, that Lord becomes controlled by his devotees. This is a beautiful verse, which underscores the essential point that is being demonstrated through this pastime and indeed through the whole 10th canto, that Krishna comes under the control of his devotees.
एवं संदरिषितायंग, thus way it is demonstrated how that Lord, who is the controller of the universe, that Lord, who is the controller of those who are the controllers of the universe, that Lord becomes controlled by his devotee. भरिणा बृत्यवश्यता, time and time again the Bhagavatam will demonstrate how love reigns supreme, that in the world, in Krishna’s intimate relationships, in the world of love that Krishna demonstrates, it is not just the kingdom of God, it is the kingdom of love. It is the kingdom of love where even God is controlled by love, God is bound by love.
Such is the sublime sweetness of Krishna’s pastimes, especially Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan wherein he is controlled by his devotees, he is bound by his devotees. Now, the narration has ended at least of this part of the pastime and now the exposition is going on. Exposition means its explanation of what does this pastime signify and for that purpose, here it is stated, text 20, नेमं विरिञ्चो नभवो नश्रीरः प्यांग संश्रया प्रसादम् लेभिरे गोपीयत प्राप्वि मुक्तिदात। नेमं विरिञ्चो नभवो नश्रीरः प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश्रया प्यांग संश बादम ले भिरे, गोपी, such was the mercy that is obtained by this Gopi, by mother Yashoda, यत्तः प्राप्मि मुक्तिदात्, that is obtained by Krishna who is the deliverer of everyone from the world.
So Krishna, he has various devotees at various degrees of intimacy with him and he has various blessings which he can give to different people. Now, there can be the blessing of prosperity in this world, of power in this world, but far greater than that is the blessing of liberation from this world. So, the various exalted positions of the devatas, which are all given by Krishna to them, the various kinds of benedictions including even liberation of material existence which is given by Krishna to different people, even the position of being an intimate eternal associate of his, like Lakshmi Devi, even all these are given by Krishna to different people, but none of these gifts which are given by Krishna equal the gift that mother Yashoda has got.
प्रसादं ले भिरे गोपी, the mercy that she has got is unparalleled. It is the mercy by which she is able to tie Krishna and she is able to tie Krishna because she is already tied to Krishna in love. That is the exalted intimate bond of affection that she has with Krishna that the more intimately she is tied to Krishna in love, the more intimately she is able to tie Krishna.
And is God impartial or is God partial? That question often comes up. But God is not partial. God is reciprocal.
Yashoda has such intimate intense devotion for Krishna that Krishna reciprocates with her by offering extraordinary mercy to her, mercy by which she is able to bind Krishna. So, for us, the Bhagavatam repeatedly reminds how extraordinary the devotees, the vrijvasis are through various comparative frames and here the success of mother Yashoda in tying Krishna, it is being explained so that we can understand how extraordinary it is, how massively significant it is. Text 21 नायं सुखापो भगवान् देहि नाम गोपिका सुतः ज्याणि नाम चात्म भूतानाम् यथा भक्ति मतामिहा नायं सुखापो भगवान् Now, the Supreme Lord is easily, joyfully attained by, just as He was attained, that Lord who is Gopika Sutaha, that Lord who was in intimate relationship with mother Yashoda, that Lord who was attained by Him, Dehi Naam.
So, how can we who are materially embodied souls, how can we attain Him? So, He can be attained यथा भक्ति मतामिहा, with this kind of devotion which mother Yashoda had, this spontaneous devotion, He can be attained by such spontaneous devotion and He cannot be attained by any other way. ज्याणि नाम चात्म भूतानाम् Even if by, even Jnanis cannot attain Him and even Yogis, आत्म भूतानाम् who have detached themselves from everything external and their consciousness is gone inwards, towards the inner spiritual essence within them, even they cannot attain Krishna as He can be attained by devotion. So, Krishna is joyfully attained and Krishna is the object who is joyful to attain through the process of bhakti.
In the process of bhakti, both the journey and the destination are joyful, whereas in the other paths, the destination is okay, there is some joy, but it is primarily relief from the distress of material existence and the process involves a huge amount of austerity. So, in this way, actually Krishna is, Bhagavatam is underscoring not just the glory of, by expounding the glory of Bhagavan, the Bhagavatam expounds the glory of the bhakta and of bhakti. So, it has underscored the exalted position of Yashoda that she got mercy which even the great gods do not get.
But now, how is that relevant to us? We may say, I am nowhere near that level of devotion. Yes, that is true, but devotion is not just a state, devotion is also a process. That means that devotion is something which, not just a state that some devotees are in, devotion is also a process that we can follow by which we can attain that exalted state.
So here, that process aspect of devotion is being stressed now, wherein it is stated that if we consider the various processes for attaining transcendence, the process of devotion is both joyfully practiced and it gives us the supreme joyful destination. The Bhagavatam repeatedly contrasts various processes of self-realization and highlights the paramount supremacy of the process of bhakti. And that is being stressed over here, that the Lord cannot be attained by jnanis or yogis, the way He can be attained by bhaktas.
नायं सुखाप भगवान देहि नाम गोपि का सुत्थः नायं सुखाप भगवान देहि नाम गोपि का सुत्थः नायं सुखाप भगवान देहि नाम गोपि का सुत्थः नायं सुखाप भगवान देहि नाम गोपि का सुत्थः The glorious fruit that is attained by it is conveyed by the specific name that is being used to refer to the object of devotion, Krishna. So that Bhagwan whom the Gopi Yashoda has attained, he cannot be attained as easily by the Jnanis and the Yogis who are pursuing the absolute as easily as he can be attained by the practice of Bhakti. Those who are filled with devotion here, even in this world, they can attain the Lord by the practice of Bhakti.
Text 22 क्रिष्णस्तु ग्रह कृत्येशु वेग्राया मातरी प्रभू अद्राक्षित अर्जुनो पूर्वं गुयको धनदात्मजो So now, the Bhagavatam moves from exposition back to narration. क्रिष्णस्तु ग्रह कृत्येशु So after time, Krishna, mother Ishvara decided that she will discipline Krishna for at least for some time by restraining him. The children love to move around, to explore the world around them.
They have so much energy that energy begs expression. And if that energy is not given expression, then that is a great distress for them. So, when people are older, if somebody is a criminal, they are put in prison.
Now, they are put in prison for multiple reasons. First is that prison is a restricted arena where they can move and therein they can’t get into much trouble. So they can’t cause much trouble to others.
So one is to prevent them from causing more trouble. But restriction itself is a distress. If somebody, if any kind of restriction to our freedom is there, that itself is a deprivation of our capacity to move.
And that is itself a punishment. So, mother Ishvara tried Krishna not just so that he would not do more mischief. That was one aspect.
But the way Krishna was fearful, that indicated that lesson that if you commit mischief like that, you will be punished. That has been conveyed. But more important, mother Ishvara wanted to discipline Krishna that actions have consequences.
You have to bear this consequence. So she tied Krishna up and for children to have their restless child’s energy, to not be expressed in any way, to just be in one place, that is very difficult. So, when she resumed her household duties, after tying Krishna up, she started resuming her household duties.
So, once he saw that his mother was busy in household activities, then Krishna started thinking. Krishna started thinking, I should do something else now. He saw two tall Arjuna trees, Yamala Arjuna trees, in front of him.
They were there in the courtyard of Nanda Maharaj and they had been there for a long time. Krishna knew they were there, but at this specific point, Krishna cast his glance on them. He understood that in the past life, there had been demigods of a particular category, gods of a particular category named Guhyakas and Dhanada Atmajao.
Dhanada is wealth. Dhanada is one who looks after the wealth. Dhanada is the supreme lord, that is Kuvera, who has been entrusted by the supreme lord the responsibility to be the treasurer of the gods, Atmajao, that they were his sons.
So, here again we see Krishna’s transcendental, omnipotent position manifesting. And although he’s tied up physically, he’s just in a small form, he’s tied up, but he’s actually not limited. He’s still supreme.
And as the supreme, he is omniscient. And as he looks at a tree, and immediately he remembers Adrakshita. Oh, these trees, they are actually the sons of Kuvera in a previous life.
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita also tells Arjuna that in 4.5 he states that both of us have gone through many lives, but Arjuna, you remember them? Arjuna, you don’t remember them, I do remember them. So that is the difference between God and a human being. Human beings are prone to forgetfulness.
Krishna doesn’t forget. Krishna may, certain information may go into the background of his consciousness because he wants to enjoy some other leela at that time. But things do not go permanently out of his consciousness.
They’re always there, and they’re always relishable for him. So here, they’re always accessible for him whenever they’re needed for a particular pastime of his. So here, Krishna manifests his divine omniscience.
When he sees trees, and he recognizes that in a previous life, those trees were actually special people. They were the sons of Kuvera. Text 23.
So, naturally, if we have that kind of thing, that this statement made that these trees were the sons of Kuvera in the previous life, then immediately the question comes up, how did they become trees then? If we see some beggars sitting on the street near our house, and somebody tells us that they were the sons of a millionaire in the past, immediately we’ll get the question, oh really? Then what happened to them? How did they end up in this position? So that is told concisely over here. Pura, sorry, Pura, not Puru. Similar word, similar meaning, but specific word over here is Pura.
Because they got the curse of Narada. They got the body of a tree because they were intoxicated with their wealth and their position. They were Nalakuvara and Manigreeva.
They were Nalakuvara and Manigreeva. And they were sons of Devata, but they had become intoxicated with their wealth, Madat. They were well known thus by these two names.
But Shri Anvitha, because their father had wealth, so they had also become intoxicated with the wealth that they had got. And that wealth had made them so intoxicated that they did not conduct themselves properly. And seeing the intoxication which they were suffering from, Narada Muni decided that they needed to be taught a lesson.
And thus, for their own deliverance, Narada Muni had cursed them. Narada Shapi. So now, how the bound lord freed the gods from the bondage of being in tree bodies, that will be described in the next chapter, which we will see in our next session.