Damodarashtakam Verse 04 – Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing

Thank you Hare Krishna Damodarashtakam verse 4 varam devamoksham namoksha vadhimva na chanyam vruneham varesha dapiha idam devapurnatha gopalabalam sadame manasya avirashtam kimanyai here now after describing the pastime and describing its extraordinariness with a conclusion of offering obeisances now spontaneous desire attraction for the lord is awakening in the heart of Satyabhat Muni and he is praying my dear lord I want a benediction but what is that benediction normally when people go to somebody wealthy wealthy people know by default this person is going to ask for money this person is going to ask for this or that so most people go to the lord for asking for material things so if not material things then they are going to ask for liberation so whatever are the standard benedictions that people are going to ask Satyabhat Muni tells first no I am not going to ask for these things varam deva moksham you oh lord you are the supreme lord of all lords you can give anything deva one who gives detehe jo so one who gives varam deva you can give any vara moksham na moksha vadhim va but I am not going to moksha so actually the level of love in this past time is so great that dharma artha kama are not brought into consideration only that the devotees are not even thinking of anything material and directly going to that which is the ultimate aspiration of the gyana is moksha rejecting that varam deva moksha na moksha vadhim va moksha vadhim what is greater than moksha moksha means we attain the brahman beyond brahman is the vaikuntha planets so attainment of one of the different forms of muktis in vaikuntha I don't want that also na moksha vadhim not even greater than moksha and na chanyam vruneham pareshad apiha so na chanyam not anything else now what may remain after this actually for a devotee engagement in the ninefold processes of devotion service shravanam kirtanam vishnu smaranam all those processes that Prahlad Maharaj can describe in the seventh cant of shrimad bhagavatam that is considered to be higher than attainment of vaikuntha also so that's why Prahlad Maharaj says I don't I'm not worried about how I'm going to attain vaikuntha how I'm going to cross beyond vaitharani river because I know my dear lord that I'm absorbed in glorifying you so by glorifying you I'm getting such mahamrit such great nectar that I don't want I don't need anything else my dear lord nothing else is needed for me thank you for having given me this and this is all that I want so higher than attainment of vaikuntha is absorption in the glorification of the lord and here Satyarthani is saying I don't even want that my dear lord nachanyam vruneham vareeshad apiha vareeshad my dear lord you are the eshwar and you can give any kind of her then what do I want I want something it is not that I don't want anything I want something my dear lord what is that idamte vapurnatha gopalabalam this form of you my dear lord idamte vapur my dear in this particular form as a small child and in that form also gopalabalam as a small gopal as a child gopal sadhame manasya avirashtam kimanyai let it be manifest again and again and again sadha always sadha does not just mean repeatedly it means perpetually sadhame manasya avirashtam let it be manifested again and again kimanyai what other thing can I ask from you my dear lord this is the only thing I want sometimes when a child is crying so the mother is doing some other thing so the mother may child starts crying the mother gives some toy to the child then the child accepts the toy and the mother goes away and after the child cries again the mother gives another toy the child accepts the toy starts playing and forgets everything and becomes happy after sometime the child starts crying again so if the child keeps accepting the toys from the mother then the mother will give the toys and she will go on with her work but then the mother gives one toy and the child keeps crying the mother gives another toy the child keeps crying and the mother says what do you want the child is crying is indicating that I don't want this toy I don't want this toy what do you want I want you I want you when the mother sees this the mother puts all the toys aside takes the child and cuddles it to her chest to her bosom in love so like that when we are crying what is our crying actually we are doing some sort of religious activity we are doing some sort of worship we are doing some sort of bhakti at that time we are approaching the lord but when we approach the lord what happens at that time the lord comes and gives us some things how do you want this take this Prabhupada would say that people who go to god and ask for bread that going to god and asking for bread shows their love for bread not their love for god it may show some faith in god that god can be the bread provider but that doesn't show the love for god Krishna's greatest blessing is Krishna himself Krishna's greatest blessing is Krishna himself when he reveals his all attractiveness he reveals his beauty his charm in our heart his glory he conquers our heart then that flood of love that is released in our heart keeps forever and ever flowing towards Krishna and floods us with everlasting in fact ever increasing happiness and that is the supreme perfection of life so here Satyavada Muni is similarly praying my dear lord it's like a child saying I don't want this toy I don't want this toy I only want you my dear lord so similarly Satyavada Muni is saying I don't want Moksha I don't want Moksha I don't want Anya nothing else what do I want not only do I want you but actually when the rasa is fixed the rasa is a very great shastra rasa is analyzed in shastras like the bhakti rasa amrit sundhu and then the durgam sangana tika on the bhakti rasa amrit sundhu by that tika is by jiva goswami and then further rasa is analyzed even more deeper especially madhuri rasa is analyzed by rupa goswami in his book kujjvala neelamadi so in all these books the important point to recognize is that rasa is the spontaneous and overflowing relish that happens in the life of a devotee and what is this nature of this sweetness of this joy it is special flavor which every devotee has in his or her individual relationship with krishna so in the emotions get attracted to that rasa naturally just as if there are grooves on the earth in the ground when water is flowing water will naturally flow itself in the grooves instead of flowing here and there so like that when we are purified our natural spiritual desires automatically align with and flow through the groove of our eternal swaroopa so both become automatically aligned to each other whatever is our swaroopa our desires automatically flow accordingly so when the devotees is in a particular swaroopa rasa with the lord when the devotee does not think of anything else and the other forms of the rasa with the lord are not so attractive when Krishna comes home and there are dust marks on his face and various different marks and the gopas his motherly gopis and the conjugal rasa mother rasa gopis they all interpret these marks differently they all think oh what was Krishna doing because of which he got these marks so the gopas think differently depending on their relationship and similarly other polygories think differently depending on their relationship how did Krishna get these marks so it is described that the gopis the gopis in mother rasa they do not become attracted they are not attracted to Krishna drinking the breast milk of mother Yashoda because there is rasa that is not the form of the lord to which they are attracted so that rasa is so sweet and so fixed that a devotee may be aware of other forms but the devotee is not attracted to those other forms so this is also described in Sanatana Goswami's Brihad Bhagavatam where the Gopakumar goes right up to Vaikuntha Ayodhya Dwaraka and then returns back and ultimately attains Vrindavan and is satisfied only when he attains Vrajraj Krishna no other form of Vishnu so here Satyavrat Muni is focusing simply on not even Krishna alone but this particular form of Krishna he says my dear lord when I meditate on this particular form my heart becomes flooded with memories of how you are conquered by the love of your devotees and when I think of that what need is there for me to think of anything else so kimanyai there is nothing else that I want my dear lord nothing else we can pray that one day we also come to that level of devotion where we can also say to the lord my dear lord kimanyai I don't want anything else I only want you my dear lord only you.