Bhagavatam tenth canto study 66 – 10.12.1.12 That the extraordinary appears ordinary is extraordinary

Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 12 The Killing of the Being in Avahasura Text 1 शिशुकवाच्यो कचित्वनाशायमनोददद्रजात् प्रातः समुथ्थाय अयस्यवत्सपान प्रभोदयाश्वं जरवेन चारुण निरिगतो वत्सपुरहसरो शुगदेगो श्वामि is continuing to speak over here and he is reading कचित्वनाशयमनोददद्रजात् वनाशयमनोददद्रजात् One day वनाशयमनोददद्रजात् to enjoy the forest, to enjoy a picnic in the forest मनोददद्रजात् Krishna went out into the forest प्रातः समुथ्थाय अयस्यवत्सपान प्रातः early morning, Samutthaya, he woke up all his friends. Vyasya Vatsapan.
So Vyasya refers to the cowherd boys who are of the same age as him and Vatsapan, the cows. Prabodhayan Shrunga Ravena Charuna, Prabodhayan. So to wake them up, Shrunga Ravena Charuna, he played the bugle sound, Ravena, he sounded the bugle.
It is very sweet. Vinirgato Vatsapuraha Sarohari. Vinirgato.
They all came out. Vatsapuraha Sarohari. And they all came with their cows in front of them.
So in this way, they all started off. So here, the whole idea is, an important thing is being stressed over here, that Krishna, along with his Gopa friends, decided to go out to the forest. When they went out like this, their purpose, their objective was just to have fun.
So normally, they would go out daily, but in this case, they decided to go out early in the morning. And they went out early in the morning because they wanted to enjoy a picnic. Sometimes, the forest shows different colors at different times.
So if you can understand those colors, then we can appreciate those pastimes better. So we can relish it more. So sometimes, if you want to see a sunset or sunrise, it said go at this particular time.
That’s the time when you’ll see it the best. So Krishna wanted to enjoy the picnic in this way. And thus he started off.
Now when he started off, he called his friends and with all of them, they went out now. Just as any important activities to be started, you need to call out many people. Sometimes, the human voice is not enough to reach out to a large number of people.
So here, it is said that he used the voice of a bugle. We may call out, but if you play an instrument, traditionally, that’s how instruments are used to signify auspicious beginnings of things. The war, that the war is beginning is signified with a conch.
And similarly, here that Krishna is about to go out of the forest is conveyed by him through blowing a bugle. So when he was accompanied like this by Pruthukaha, the boys, there are hundreds and thousands of them. Vrindavan was rich with devotion and Vrindavan was rich with devotees.
And thus they all decided to go together. And they went out like this. At that time, they came out and they came out with their cowherd boys.
They were all affectionate. They were all attractive. Then they were all Shushiga, Vetra, Vishana.
So they came with their own lunchboxes. They had this Vetrapana. So they had a stick for controlling the cows.
Vishana, Vena, Vaha. They had their horn bugles, their flutes. Svansan, Sahasropari, Sankhya, and Vithan.
They had their own cows, which were counting, numbering to thousands. Vatsan, Puraskrutya, Viniriyayur, Mudha. And they all came out happily.
To go out to the forest was a joy. To go out early in the morning was a special joy. To go out in the early morning with Krishna was the most special joy.
They all naturally happily came out. And with children, children are usually bubbling with energy, especially if they feel loved and protected. Children have a natural effervescent energy with them, which keeps them happy and which helps them, which brings good cheer wherever they go.
So in this way, all the Gopas came out and they all marched out. Now, the large number of Gopas, large number of Gopis, Vrindavan is meant for the pleasure of Krishna. And when Krishna wants a large number of associates to be with him, then by his will, by his inconceivable arrangement, whatever he wills becomes possible.
The Vaishnava Toshini explains that the Krishna Achintya Shakti is seen over here, that somebody might argue Vrindavan is a small place, but how can thousands of living beings come over there, come out of houses and march out with Krishna. That is Krishna’s inconceivable potency. krishna-vatsair asankhyatai yuthi-krutya-svabhatsakaan charayantor-bhalilabhir vijah-rus-tatra-tatraha So krishna along with the cows, asankhyatai, same point asankhyatai, the large number of them were there.
yuthi-krutya-svabhatsakaan, yuthi-krutya, that they were assembled, svabhatsakaan, they had their personal cows, charayantor, executing arbalilabhir. Arbalilabhir means they were Arbha’s boyhood. So as they were grazing the cows, they were executing their childhood pastimes.
Arbalilabhir. Vijah-rus-tatra-tatraha. So here and there, as they sported and herded their cows, they had a jolly good time.
The spirit of Vrindavan is a spirit of unending joy and Krishna’s Arbalila, his childhood pastimes characterize such joy in especially extraordinary ways. So here the Gopas are out in the forests and they have a good time as compared to being constricted at home. To go out in the forest is always joyful and the Gopas are celebrating that joy.
Text 14, phala-prabhal-sthavak, sumana-pichchidha-tubhi-kaachi-gunyamani-svarna-bhushitapya-bhushayan, phala-prabhal-sthavak. So now in the forest of Vrindavan, what all was there worth seeing, worth enjoying? Phala-prabhal-sthavak. So there were fruits, there were leaves, there were bunches of flowers, sumana-pichchidha-tubhi.
So they took all these, there were various pichchidha-tubhi, the soft and colorful minerals, the peacock feathers and they decorated themselves with all these, picking it up and applying them on their bodies which were already adorned with kaachi-gunyamani-svarna-bhushitapya-bhushayan. So they decorated themselves, although abhushayan, they were already decorated by their mothers, abhushayan. So kaachi-gunyamani-svarna, there were gold, there were jewels, gunja, there were coinshells and kaachi, there were gems.
So it’s interesting that whereas their mothers, we could say, put them, put very valuable objects on them, they put on simple forest items. Their idea was, when children are very small, they may not understand so much the monetary value of things. For them, it is just the play, the beauty of the play that matters.
And thus, the gopas here were cheerfully decorating themselves just for the sake of fun. Text 5, muśnanto anyoṇya-śikyādin, jñātān ārācchicikṣibhūpuh, tatratyāśca-punardhūrād, tasantasca-punardhadhuḥ, muśnanto anyoṇya-śikyādin. So as they were playing muśnanto, they started stealing from each other, anyoṇya, from each other, śikyādin.
So when someone was not looking at them, they would just quickly take the lunch bag of that person, and then they would pass it on to others. Jñātān ārācchicikṣibhūpuh, jñātān. As soon as that person noticed, oh, my lunch bag is gone, he would become alarmed, but then ārācchicikṣibhūpuh, they would take the, so they would pass it on, they would throw it further away.
So as that person would come towards him, they would throw it away, tatratyāśca, and when he came to that place, punardhūrād, they again threw it away. Now apparently, they were going to the forest, so the food item that had been given to them was such that it won’t spill or get damaged so easily. So the important thing is that, tatratyāśca punardhūrād, and that way, they threw it again and again further, and they had a jolly good time.
So when the bag, when the owner would cry, they would just, others would just have a jolly good laugh. All this was done in a good spirit, with no malevolence or negativity towards anyone. The idea was, they just have fun.
Now, you may say that, is this somebody’s idea of fun? Well, children, generally the same thing is done by an adult, to be considered malicious, to be considered offensive. But children have no malice in them, and thus they can do things without, out of mischief, without any malice. And that’s how they were acting over here.
Just one verse that describes this play. The idea is, they were playing in different ways and having fun. yadidūram, thick sex, yadidūram gataḥ kṛṣṇo vanśobhe kṣaṇāyataṁ aham pūrvam aham pūrvam iti saṁspuśyare mire So, yadidūram gataḥ kṛṣṇo, if Kṛṣṇa went far away, dūram gataḥ, and what do they do? Kṛṣṇa would go, vanśobhe kṣaṇāyataṁ.
Kṛṣṇa was observing the beauty of the forest. So sometimes, we are walking along, and we all have our thoughts, we all have things that we are seeing, and sometimes while the group is, we are going with the group, but suddenly, if something catches our sight, we move slightly away from the others. So like that, if something beautiful would catch the sight of Kṛṣṇa in the forest, then Gopāla would say, oh, Kṛṣṇa is there, and immediately, at the moment itself, they would set up a race.
aham pūrvam aham pūrvam, I first, I first, iti saṁspuśyare mire. Saying this, they would run to catch Him. So, I’ll go first, I’ll go first.
Life, we can choose to live it with a smile or with a frown. There are many things which we have to do on an ordinary basis, and we can either do them, we can do them either with a grim look on our face, thinking of all the responsibilities we have, all the burdens we have to carry, all the crosses we have to bear, or we could just do them cheerfully. Life has to be lived, to be lived fully, life should be lived cheerfully.
So the Gopās would live life cheerfully. So just a simple activity of running, they would make it into a race, and they would have fun. So they would live life fully by living life cheerfully.
yadidūraṁ gataḥ kṛṣṇa re mire. So they ran towards Krishna after that, to catch Him over there. Now text 7 to 11 is one unit of thought.
kecidvenuṁ vādayanto bhāntaḥ śrīṅgāni kecinaḥ kecid brahmaiprāgayantah kujantah kōkilai pare. kecidvenuṁ vādayanto. So sometimes they would play the flute.
Now they were not like an army unit doing march past, all moving synchronously, raising their hands back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, no. They were all actually doing the more or less the straightforward thing, in the sense that they were all doing what they felt like doing. So kecid, some of them, venuṇvādayantaḥ, they were playing their flute.
māntam śrīṅgāni kecinaḥ dhvāntaḥ. Some of them were wiggling their horse bugles, kecinaḥ, some others. kecid brahmaiprāgayantah.
Some of them were, they were the bumblebees who were singing and they were singing with the bumblebees. kujantah kōkilai pare. And some of them were singing with the kōkilas, with the cuckoos.
So there are instruments which can produce noise, produce sweet sounds, and some of them were producing sweet sounds with the instruments. There were natural, we could say, there were natural forces, that is, or there are birds in nature, in the forests of Vrindavan, who too could produce sweet sounds. And the gopas, some of them would imitate that sound.
And in that way, whatever they had to do, they would do it joyfully. kujantah kōkilai pare. Some others were doing it that way.
So each gopa, while being with Krishna, did what pleased him, and because their gopa’s heart was devoted to Krishna, whatever they did pleased Krishna also. vichāyābhī pradhāvanto gacchanta sādhu haṁsakai bakai upaviśantasya nityantasya kalāpibhī vichāyābhī pradhāvanto vichāyābhī vichāyābhī So now, sometimes, they, vichāyā is shadow, they started running after their own shadows, pradhāvanto. So they started to run to catch the shadow.
gacchanta sādhu haṁsakai And sometimes, they started going with the, so as the birds were moving far up in the sky, they would catch, they would run after their shadows, trying to catch them. And then, sometimes, there were beautiful swans were there, which had very graceful movements, and they imitated those beautiful movements with the heart. gacchanta sādhu haṁsakai bakai upaviśantasya nityantasya kalāpibhī bakai upaviśantasya So now, sometimes, the ducks would just sit silently, the swans were moving, the ducks were sitting.
So either, whatever they were doing, the gopās would try to imitate them, and they would do what they could do, haṁsakai, bakai. So in this way, each one of them was having fun, nityanta, kalāpibhī, some of them started dancing like the peacocks. Peacocks are beautiful, and they also dance beautifully.
So, the gopās saw this, they also started dancing gracefully with them. vikarśanta kishyabālān Now, as they were doing this, now they also had somebody, similar to someone they had in the vijay village, that is, the monkeys. vikarśanta kishyabālān The young monkeys, as they were playing, they were attracted.
ārohanta chattai dhrūmān So, there were young monkeys who came to see what are these boys doing. And sometimes some of the gopās just jumped onto the trees, imitating monkeys. So, some of them, it is said that, vikurvantaśyatahi sākaṁ plavantaśyapalāśiśu ārohanta chattai dhrūmān That some of them climbed onto the trees, just jumped up to be next to the monkeys.
And the monkeys, they started moving about. vikurvantaśyatahi sākaṁ So, some of them, vikurvantaśyatahi, they started doing what the monkeys were doing, that is, imitating, making various facial expressions. Monkeys have faces somewhat similar to humans and they can be quite expressive.
And sometimes they started gliding over from one tree to another. sākaṁ plavantaśyapalāśiśu They started just jumping about, having fun in various ways. Their whole idea was that they would just go from… So, there’s one paragraph whole devoted to how they would play with the monkeys.
So, the various animals are described, but prominent among the animals with which Krishna played, gopās played, was the monkeys. So, here’s one full paragraph devoted to how they were playing with monkeys. So, now, what happens is that sometimes the frogs were there.
So, the frogs move by jumping from one spot to another and the gopās would also jump from one spot to another. saritāḥ sarva-samplutāḥ saritāḥ slava-samplutāḥ And as they’re jumping like this, they sometimes would jump across waterfalls, walk across over the river, jump, go under the waterfall and have some fun. They would cross over the rivers, jump with the frogs.
And now when they would see sometimes the… saritāḥ sarva-samplutāḥ viha-santah pati-chāyā śapantaś ca pati-svanān So, they would look at their own reflections in the mirror, they would just delight in those reflections. śapantaś ca pati-svanān prati-svanān Sometimes in places where an echo would come and their idea was that śapantaś ca pati-svanān and then the idea is they just wanted to have fun. And now this might just seem to be like ordinary fun, but the last verse gives the twist over here.
ittham sathāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyam gataṇāṁ paradeivatena māyāśritāṇāṁ naradārakena sākhaṁ vijarūkuta-puṇya-puñjahā ittham sathāṁ In this way, here there is brahma-sukhānubhūtyā. That same absolute truth is perceived as brahma-sukha. Those who experience spiritual happiness, by those who seek the absolute that way, dāsyam gataṇāṁ paradeivatena Those who devote themselves to a deity, dāsyam gataṇāṁ They see this lord as this boy whom they see as the supreme lord, the ultimate goal of their lives.
māyāśritāṇāṁ naradārakena naradārakena There are some people who are themselves in illusion. māyāśritāṇāṁ They would see this boy as just an ordinary child. naradārakena sākhaṁ vijarūkuta-puṇya-puñjahā So, actually, these boys were playing with Krishna, who was the supreme lord, although he is perceived differently by different people, but still the perception doesn’t change the reality.
How were those gopās able to play with Krishna like this? kuta-puṇya-puñjahā Because they had done extraordinarily pious activities for many lifetimes, and thus puñjahā, they had accumulated piety for so long, that they were able to absorb themselves in Krishna thus. So here, the point being stressed is that none of this activity is ordinary, and that the extraordinary seems ordinary is extraordinary. That means, what is extraordinary? Extraordinary is that the supreme absolute truth, itthaṁsatāṁ brahma-sukhāṁ bhūtyādāsyam gataṇāṁ paradaivatena That absolute truth, who is relished as the supreme spiritual happiness, that absolute truth, who is considered the supreme object of devotion and surrender, that absolute truth is playing like an ordinary boy.
That is, that the extraordinary seems ordinary is extraordinary. So, it’s simply out of love for his devotees that Krishna subordinates himself to, Krishna subordinates his divinity to his nature and need of seeking reciprocity. Although God is one above everyone, he seems to, he likes to be the one with everyone.
And thus, he plays with the gopās abundantly over here, as he described in this passage.