Bhagavatam tenth canto study 89 – 10.15.13-25- The gopas ask Balarama-Krishna to get fruits by eliminating Dhenuka

Hare Krishna.
Chakor Kauncha Chakraava Bharadwajaamsha Varhinaha Anuravati Smasatvaanaam Bheetavad Vyagrasimhayao So now, here it is described, how Krishna played as a cowherd boy, in endearingly sweet ways. Chakor Kauncha Chakraava Bharadwajaamsha So, Siddharth, like various birds, the list is given, and the peacocks. Anuravati Smasatvaanaam So, He would imitate them, the way they would utter their sounds.
He would also utter sounds accordingly. And in this way, He would have fun. Generally, if we see, there are some natural and simple ways of having fun.
So, one of them is doing something which others are doing. Mimicry is an innocent way of playing along and having fun with others. now what happens is that, sometimes Krishna will do that.
And we don’t need high-tech gadgets for entertainment. If we have nature and we have creativity, then we can find out sweet ways of keeping ourselves amused and entertained. And Krishna demonstrates how amusement, entertainment can often happen in simplicity.
Simply mimicking, imitating birds, their sounds, their actions. And sometimes Krishna would act as if, oh, there’s a lion, a tiger over here, and would run, run, run. And He would run away with them, as if they’re in big danger now.
And similarly, kochit-kveeda-parishraman-chantam gopo-tsan-gopa-marhanam swayam-vishram-yathya-aryam paada-samvahana-dibi kochit-kveeda-parishrantam So sometimes, parishrantam, when one of the gopas would get tired, or especially in this case, by playing, while playing with the gopas, when Balram would get tired, gopo-tsan-gopa-marhanam then upa-marhanam. He would become like a pillow. swayam-vishram-yathya-aryam And he would help him relax, his elder brother, by paada-samvahana-dibi by massaging his feet.
So here, Krishna basically acts like a child within a cultured family. So, Krishna serves his brother when his brother is tired. And in some ways, this is inverting the position of Balram is Sheshnag and Krishna is Vishnu.
So normally, Vishnu lies on Sheshnag. But in this case, it is Sheshnag as Balram, lying on Krishna, who is Vishnu. So, we can draw parallels between what Krishna is doing here and what Krishna is doing elsewhere.
How? By recognizing that it is Krishna who is in the mood of love and love means service also. And he expresses love for his brother by serving his brother. We saw in the previous chapter also how Krishna serves by helping when the Gopas were there and the Gopas were eating lunch.
So Krishna said, you sit here, I will go and get the cows. You have wandered off, you don’t have to disturb your lunch. So there also we see Krishna expressing his service attitude.
And that service attitude is what very sweetly defines Krishna Above, we have Krishna acting as the servant of his loved ones. It is Bhakti Sankhya Thakur said that the Supreme Lord is devoted to serving those who serve him. We have Krishna becoming the charioteer of Arjun.
There also Krishna is serving Arjun. Of course, even when Krishna is serving he remains God but the point is Krishna relishes love in all its multifaceted flavors. It is not just one or two but many many different flavors Krishna reciprocates and relishes love.
And that is the theme being highlighted over here. Theme being described. And therefore, we see Krishna acting in a loving way serving Balram.
And thus the flavors of love multiply and are deepened and are relished more and more. Text 15 नुत्यतो गायत क्वापी वल्गतो युध्यतो मिठः गुर्हित हस्तव गोपालां हसन्तव प्रशसं सतुहु So, नुत्यतो गायत क्वापी Sometimes they would severely danced. वल्गतो युध्यतो मिठः As they are moved about here and there sometimes they would fight with each other.
It is more like mock fighting. गुर्हित हस्तव गोपालां And when the Gopas did this Krishna and Balaram would stand together holding their hands. हसन्तव प्रशसं सतुहु So, now here how Krishna relishes fraternal love with his brother is described in its sweetness when it is said that the sweet relationship between Krishna and Balaram will be described further also how Balaram is the only Gopa who goes with Krishna to Mathura and then to Dwaraka.
So, they lived in the same house and they travelled to various places together. So, here while all the Gopas were close friends, the brothers were especially close. The Gopas are having fun Krishna and Balaram are holding their hands and watching laughing and praising their friend’s activities.
We have Krishna Balaram deities also on the altar and these deities illustrate or rather demonstrate the special bond of affection between these two divine brothers which is being depicted here in all its sweetness through some glimpses for us. Text 26 Quachit Pallava Talpeshu Niyuddha Shramakarshitaha Rukshamulashraya Hasyate Gopotsango Pabarhanaha Quachit Pallava Talpeshu Sometimes when they would try Niyuddha Shramakarshitaha if they while doing mock fighting Shramakarshitaha will be tired by that Niyuddha passage fighting Quachit Pallava Talpeshu they would lie down on a bed made of twigs and buds, the soft bed Rukshamulashraya Hasyate would lie down at the foot of a tree Gopotsango Pabarhanaha and now in this case some Gopa would become like the bed for him so we have the flavors are variated and are interchanged also at times so sometimes Krishna would become a pillow and sometimes another Gopa would become a pillow for Krishna and that God who is the lord of the goddess of fortune the same lord who has palaces and countless goddesses of fortune ready to serve him that God becomes simply a sleeping under a tree, not even a proper bed such is the sweetness, the sweet innocence of the childhood pastimes where Krishna demonstrates such inimitably sweet activities then take 17 Padasam Vahanam Jakru Kechitasya Mahatmanah Aparehat Paap Mano Vyanjanai Samavijayan Padasam Vahanam Jakru now just as Krishna would massage the feet of Balram sometimes some of the Gopas would massage Krishna’s feet and these Gopas were also Kechitasya Mahatmanah we shouldn’t mistake them to be ordinary people, they are great souls Aparehat Paap Mano and how were they so close to Krishna, able to do such intimate service to him because Aparehat Paap Mano they are freed from all sins and thus some of the other Gopas Vyanjanai Samavijayan so with fans they would fan Krishna Samvijayan, perfectly if Krishna was sweating in a particular part of his body exactly that part of the body they would they would fan so that Krishna would get relief from the heat and Krishna would just be perfectly comfortable Annetad Anurupani Manogyani Mahatmanah Gayantisma Maharaja Sneha Klinnadi Ashanai Annetad Anurupani others as per the occasion Manogyani Mahatmanah so as per the appropriate occasion they would sing songs and these songs would be so endearing, Gayantisma Maharaja hoping they would sing and Sneha Klinnadi Ashanai and music has the capacity to melt the human heart so so here they would sing and thus they would have, their hearts would melt as they would speak the glories of Krishna sing the glories of Krishna appropriately according to the situation Manogyani Mahatmanah so there are different ragas for different times similarly different glories of Krishna can be sung at different times and whichever glories are sung at what a time those glories especially can touch and move and melt the heart that’s what exactly Krishna did with the Gopas the Gopas did with Krishna and thus they were relishing intimate love with Him text 19 evam nigudatmagati swamaya gopatmajatvam chaditai vidambayan re meramala litapadapallavo gram yai samam gram nivadi shucheshtitaha evam nigudatmagati swamaya so in this way nigudatmagati swamaya by His own illusory energy by His own maya shakti Krishna has concealed His own glories His omnipotence is concealed by Krishna evam nigudatmagati gopatmajatvam chaditai vidambayan so He acts like the son of a Gopa and in this way He bevels His activities are extraordinary which can be beveled in vidambayan re meramala litapadapallavo that same Lord whose lotus feet are served by by ramala lita, they are attended to by ramadevi, but that Lord enjoyed what? gram yai samam gram nivadi shucheshtitaha so He enjoyed like a village child the childlike activities which other village children were doing, shucheshtitaha but while doing all this was also displaying as required His divinity so there are two words here nigudatmagati samayaya and gram nivadi shucheshtitaha so by His own illusion He had covered His divine position but such was His pastime shucheshtitaha that whenever He was required while acting as a village boy, He could also act as a divine person so God remains God even when He is acting as just a simple child so God’s omnipotence is concealed by His will and thus when it is concealed it is not lost He has concealed it and He can reveal it whenever He wants such is His extraordinary prowess and it is that prowess which He is relishing over here and which He is enabling others to relish by the power here in Vrindavan is the power of His sweetness how the omnipotent can act like an ordinary person in order to relish sweet mellows of love shucheshtitaha now text 20 shudama nama gopalo ramakeshava yosakaha subala stoka krishnadya gopa premnedam abruvan so now we see a specific pastime starting off so there was a particular gopa by the name shudama and he is a friend of ram and krishna and now it is shudama who spoke but along with that subala and stoka krishna others also expressed the same desire premnedam abruvan with love they spoke all these things now what was it that they spoke you see this is how the pastime of will start rising therefore ram ram mahabaho krishna dushta nibharana ito vidure sumahat vanam talali sankulam ram ram mahabaho o krishna krishna dushta nibharana o mighty arm ram and o krishna who is a destroyer of the miscreants dushta nibharana interesting now here we see a variant in this this normally the bhagavatam says krishna krishna mahabaho but here it is ram ram mahabaho the bhagavatam is focusing here on the two lords many times till now the focus has been on krishna but here it has been two lords the two lords because in this particular pastime it is balram also is going to play a prominent role and that is indicated by the mode of narration as well as the mode of addressing over here so dhinuka will be delivered specifically by balram not by krishna and that is you could say portended through indicated through the form of address where ram is addressed first and ram is addressed the same way as krishna because balram and krishna are non different so then what are they saying specifically ito avidure sumahad panam talali sankulam there is a tal forest over here avidure not very far from here and it is a grand forest it is a large forest with many tall trees so let’s go there that is the point just like somebody says that oh you know there is a nice ice cream shop over here now it is implicit in that let’s go and eat some ice cream phalani tatra bhurini patanti pati tanicha santi kintu avarudhani dhenuke neduratmana phalani tatra bhurini there are abundant fruits over there patanti pati tanicha and the fruits are falling even now and some have already fallen santi kintu avarudhani however although there are so many fruits they are controlled dhenuke neduratmana there is a demoniac being by the name of dhenuka who is controlling it it is interesting that there is a difference between this demon and other demons so the demons till now if you consider whether it is putana or trnavarth or shaktasur or dhenukasur or aghasur or sorry not aghasur or bakasur all of them are demons who visited rindavan for the purpose of trying to kill krishna but it seems dhenukasur was already in rindavan so it seems that he controlled the forest now it could also be that he and the forest was already there and the forest the gopas came to know about it and dhenukasur had also come over there and he had taken charge so the gopas couldn’t go in so but the point is that dhenukasur was not just visiting here dhenukasur was already there and so whereas in the other past times the demons come to attack krishna in krishna’s territory you could say whereas here this particular demon dhenuka has already taken over krishna’s territory in a sense, a part of krishna’s territory and he is ultimately krishna he is the owner of everything in all the worlds and certainly he is the rindavan is his board so dhenuka seems to have possessed that obviously it’s not that he didn’t cultivate the orchard that was the tal forest it’s not a garden so in that sense it’s just that those fruits were growing over there and dhenuka could have had a plan that krishna will come and sooner or later will come so let me stay here and let him come so he could have taken over charge of the forest also driving everyone away but either way the point here is that krishna and balaram in this particular past time will go into the territory of dhenuka and thus they will live over there they will free that forest from his control and they will enjoy the fruits over there and in this particular case the gopas specifically ask krishna to go in go to that forest whereas if you see in the aghasya pastime the gopas without asking krishna they desire to enter into the mouth of the agha but here knowingly they are saying krishna let us go in over there so text 23 so this demon is extremely powerful and he has taken the form of a donkey and not only is he very strong there are many other demons who are also as strong as him he is surrounded by many such demons like him who have all occupied and are terrorizing that forest and thus they are indicating that this demon will have to be dealt with if they are to get those fruits text 24 text 24 so nar-ahar ahar is food so he has eaten many human beings text 25 and therefore everyone is afraid of him text 25 so he has killed human beings, he has eaten them so the remaining human beings stay away from him and not only human beings nasaivyate pashuganai, that animals are afraid to go to the forest and not only animals pakshisangai viverjitam, even the birds have abandoned that forest, and amitrahan, so mitra is friend, amitra is enemy, so Krishna you are the, you are the destroyer of those who are your enemies, so please oh lord destroy this demon and deliver this beautiful forest for all of us, so text 25, vidyante abhukta purvani, palani surabhinicha, eshavai surabhir gandho, vishuchino avagruhyate, vidyante bhukta purvani, that there exist over there abhukta purvani, nobody has eaten those fruits but they are supposed to be very delicious, palani surabhinicha, they are not only sweet smelling but they are also fragrant, they are not only sweet to taste but also they are fragrant, so now, now of course if it’s abhukta purvani that means nobody has actually eaten them, but sometimes the fruit is fragrant we can also assume that it must be delicious, eshavai surabhir gandho, and they are so fragrant that even now from where we are we can we can sense the fragrance of those fruits, so here at one level the danger is being told and then the opportunity is being told, and thus the gopas are going to tell Krishna please let’s go and get these fruits for us, so what happens subsequently we’ll discuss