From the Mahabharata Krishna to the Bhagavatam Krishna
Thank you today I will be speaking on the sweetness of the conception of Krishna as is revealed in the Bhagavatam in contrast with Krishna in the Mahabharata so I will basically talk about Krishna in Mahabharata and Krishna in Vrindavan in Bhagavatam so I will talk about it how there are similarities and how there are differences and how the Bhagavatam gives us a very sweet picture of God even not just God in itself but Krishna specifically so I will talk in three ways first is chronologically what is the relationship between the Bhagavatam and Mahabharata secondly in terms of the contextual focus what is the focus of the Mahabharata and what is the focus of the Bhagavatam and in terms of the context so chronology context and context these three terms we will look at how Krishna is depicted in the Mahabharata and how he is depicted in the Bhagavatam the Bhagavatam has is a book devoted to Krishna as I mentioned in yesterday's class out of 335 chapters 125 chapters of the Bhagavatam are devoted to Krishna directly the 9th, the 10th and the 11th and apart from that his reference comes repeatedly throughout the Bhagavatam in the first canto itself there are around 12 chapters which talk about Krishna directly not 17th, 18th, 19th they are not talking about Krishna directly 7-8 chapters so now if you look at it chronologically the Bhagavatam is spoken even after the Mahabharata has ended Shuddha Goswami while being asked a question by Shravanak Rishi Shravanak Rishi says that that Parikshit Maharaj is now reigning and in prosperity so Vishwanath Chaturthi's commentary explains that this event had happened so recently that it is as if it is present so Parikshit Maharaj has been cursed and the Bhagavatam has been narrated but was so recent that it is as if present so the point is if we consider a time graph if this is the time when Mahabharata has happened then the Bhagavatam is being recited after that so chronologically the Bhagavatam comes after the Mahabharata and the whole mood of the Bhagavatam is one of recollection the mood of the Mahabharata is of narration this happened, this happened, this happened whereas the mood of the Bhagavatam is of recollection recollection is, the focus is the great epic, the Mahabharata has happened and now how are the great devotees remembering that epic that is the mood in which the Bhagavatam speaks so it is a mood of separation and that mood will be repeatedly hinted at and it will attain its climax in the Pradyumna Chapter of the 10th Canto when the Gopis sing the Gopi Gita so from the setting to its very heart the Bhagavatam's mood is of recollection in separation so this is the Gopis are separated from Krishna because he has departed from their midst, similarly the sages, Suta Goswami and Namichandri sages they are recollecting that lord who was there but who has departed so the Mahabharata is a narration of what the lord did the Bhagavatam is also a narration but it is more in the mood of recollection recollection in separation now in terms of the context, the Bhagavatam and the Mahabharata don't overlap much for example if you look at the Bhagavatam the 40 chapters which are now let's come to Krishna 10th Canto the 40 chapters of the 10th Canto first are about love there is no overlap with Mahabharata over there then there is a little bit overlap when in the 49th chapter Krishna sends Akrura to Dhritarashtra Akrura who does he send as a messenger to check Akrura, he sends that Dhritarashtra should not be partial he sends Akrura there and after that the Bhagavatam the Bhagavatam in the 10th Canto does not directly talk about the gambling match does not talk about the disrobing of Draupadi and it is the Bhagavatam does not even directly describe the Mahabharata war so there what is told in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavatam sort of goes apart from that you know sometimes if you read news different newspapers have different political orientations some may be right wing orientation, some may be right wing newspaper, some may be left wing newspaper and the same news they will present in different ways depending on their particular slant so for example the Indian government released the census about the population and the population found that the Muslim population has grown and the Hindu population has decreased so there is one newspaper which reported, like in Google news if you go and see you can see 10, 5, 10 headlines at the same time so one newspaper said that Muslim population increases another newspaper which is known to be a left wing newspaper left wing means it is more in terms of appeasing minorities its headline was Muslim population growth decreases so what that meant was in the previous 10 years the population had increased by a particular percent 4% or 5% now it has increased by 4% so the percentage of growth has decreased although the population has decreased so the same headline can be put in entirely different ways say for example if you want to praise someone we may say oh that person had some problems earlier but now he is of a good character but if you want to subtly criticise a person you can take the same statement and say although he has been a good character recently he had problems in the past so you are telling the same facts but the way this line that we give it can convey a completely different message so this brings us to the theme of the Bhagavata and the theme of the Mahabharata every book has a defining theme and that theme determines what the focus of that book will be so for example in the Ramayana there is no direct mention of Ram's divinity although it is understood in the Valmiki Ramayana there is no direct mention of Ram's divinity although from the context it can be inferred and the reason for that is Ramayana begins with a defining question Nagamuni has been asked by Valmiki Rishi who is the ideal human being what are the characteristics of ideal human being, is there a human being like that now if the ideal human being is told to be God then that ideal will be beyond what people will think practically therefore Valmiki Rishi explicitly talks about Ram's divinity although it can be inferred now the defining question of the Mahabharata is what is Dharma what is Dharma that is the question and one verse which comes repeatedly in the Mahabharata Vishnu talks about it when Draupadi is being dragged into the assembly later Yudhishthira talks about it when he is trying to deliberate and decide whether he should become the king or not the ways of Dharma are very subtle, very difficult to understand so the point is the Mahabharata's focus is not on Krishna Mahabharata's focus is on understanding what is Dharma trying to understand what is Dharma and Krishna is talked about in Mahabharata as God but its focus is not not even the Pandavas actually all the Pandavas are central characters the Mahabharata's focus is on how in difficult situations in one's life one can know one's Dharma and act according to the principles of Dharma so in the Mahabharata Krishna actually appears very late there Krishna and Arjuna are of course eternally related as lord and devotee but the meeting of Krishna and Arjuna happens for the first time in Panchala Draupadi's kingdom after Draupadi's surrender when they are living in a Brahmin's cottage Draupadi along with the five Pandavas Krishna goes there and introduces himself I am Krishna so all the Pandavas are very happy they have heard about Krishna from their mother Kunti and others but it is the first time they meet and in fact the first time Krishna appears in the Mahabharata in a prominent way is at the at the Draupadi's and there also he appears as a non-contestant just as Krishna is going to be a non-combatant in the Kurukshetra war here also Krishna is a non-contestant and why does Krishna play that role here because he told all the Radhavas none of you should contest also because Draupadi is meant for Arjuna and Arjuna will appear over here so just as Krishna is a non-combatant in the Mahabharata war similarly Krishna is not the central character in the Mahabharata that's why Krishna's first time they have not talked much the focus is on the Pandavas and the Pandavas struggle to determine what is Dharma basically and Mahabharata has huge amount of different directions the conversations go all in trying to find out what is Dharma so in the appendix of the Mahabharata called as the Hari Vamsha and in the Hari Vamsha the pastimes of Krishna are told quite a bit in the Hari Vamsha which is the appendix of the Mahabharata there are the pastimes of Krishna in the Mahabharata per se there are not many pastimes of Krishna and the role of Krishna he is thought of as God but he is primarily in the Mahabharata a very astute tactician very astute tactician you should not do this and so he is an expert diplomat in the Mahabharata and he is God but that conception of God in the Mahabharata is primarily of a person who is very great and very powerful it is not a relationship of intimate devotion as is there in Georgia and this is illustrated most graphically in the Asat Sabha in the Asat Sabha when Draupadi calls out to Krishna she calls out very clearly to Krishna Krishna Govinda I am sinking into the ocean of the Kuru assembly please save me so in the Mahabharata the Mahabharata does not say that Krishna comes there all that it says is we may see some TV series and movies where we see Krishna coming and raising his hand and sending endless saree but that's not what happens actually all that happens over there is the saree just doesn't end Dushasana is pulling and pulling the saree doesn't end and after that also the Mahabharata's mood is not crediting Krishna everybody over there the residents of the present assembly they praise Draupadi's chastity and they condemn Dushasana's villainy it is because of Draupadi's chastity that her saree never ended and because of Dushasana is so villainous now that he has fallen so interestingly after that also the whole events move on neither Duryodhana nor Dushasana give up their evil plans and eventually that event takes place so the point of this is Krishna intervenes miraculously but in the Mahabharata the focus is never on Krishna actually and if you look from the overall storyline point of view Krishna's role is consequential but it is not conspicuous conspicuous means that it strikes to the eye it's consequential it's very important what he does but it's not conspicuous it is Krishna is always low profile there are only three parts of the Mahabharata which focus on bhakti one is the Bhagavad Gita the second is Narayani which is like a series of verses glorifying Narayana and the third is the Vishnu Sahasrana and apart from that the focus of the Mahabharata is what is Dharma so Krishna in the Mahabharata is the friend of the heroes who happens to be God who is God but as a friend of the heroes his role is subordinate and even if he is God he is given the position of God but he is not given the prominence in the Mahabharata so now in the Mahabharata there are references to Krishna's zindan pastimes periodically Bhishma when he is giving advice to Duryodhana telling him that abstain from the war at that time he does say that Krishna when he was a small child he lifted up a mountain he killed big demons and witches and wizards and you will not be able to face him but Duryodhana doesn't listen so the point is again in the Mahabharata there is indirect reference to Krishna's divinity and Krishna's glory the focus is on Krishna now if you look at the Bhagavatam the Bhagavatam's focus is on the question what is the duty at the time of death actually the Bhagavatam has according to Jiva Swamy in his Bhagavatsandarbha it has four seeds from where the Bhagavatam emerges the most important seed that we know is what is the duty of a person about to die the second seed he says is the questions of the Naimisharya messages the third is the instruction of Narada Muni to Vyasadeva and the fourth is related the fourth is after that so Narada Vyasa Samavad is fourth to six chapters of the first candle and after that in the start of the seventh chapter Vyasadeva sits in meditation and then there are four verses which describe what he saw and Jiva Swamy explains that these four verses are the essence of the Bhagavatam that means what Vyasadeva saw in these four verses that he has elaborated again in the remaining Bhagavatam so in that sense the Bhagavatam has these four seeds but consistently if we see one of the questions which the sages ask at what are the activities of Krishna and the focus also when the Bhagavatam Parashar Maharaj asks what is the duty of a person about to die Jiva Swamy replies that it is to remember the Lord Chota Vya Kirti Tavaiste Snar Tavaiste Ichita Bhayam hear about him, remember him speak about him, worship him in this way you will be free from fear so now with this background the thrust of the Bhagavatam is on depicting the object of remembrance the focus of the Bhagavatam is not on recollecting not on narrating the particular set of events it is on depicting the object of remembrance in such rich detail that remembering him will become relatively easy now in the Bhagavatam Krishna is described first as I said from the line it is interesting that Krishna's entry in the Bhagavatam in terms of action and Krishna's entry in the Bhagavad Gita in terms of action is similar both are where Krishna is the charioteer of Arjuna and in both the books whether the Bhagavatam or the Bhagavad Gita sometimes you have a movie in which the heroes will appear suddenly a car comes over there and the car door opens and then whoever is the rider of the car person comes up and the camera will show his shoes and the shoes go upward upward upward upward and then you see the face of the person this is the hero so like that if we see in the Bhagavad Gita as well as the Bhagavatam we see that the focus is so if you look at the Bhagavad Gita in the first verse it starts and then 14th verse when we come where Krishna describes Mahatishyantane sthitau on a magnificent chariot so how does the vision become? the camera which in this case Sanjay is focussing Tathashvetair hayai yukte the first thing he depicts are the wheels of the car that is the horses, white horses Mahatishyantane sthitau there is a magnificent chariot and then Madhava Pandava Ischariva so the Bhagavad Gita is a poetic work so there are many names for Krishna and Arjuna could have been used but the poetic rhyme comes over Madhava Pandava that is in such a way that the poetic introduction is done over there Divyavushankav Pradattmatu and then the divinity is pointed out by the Divyavushanku the conscious are divine so imagine if you have a movie in which the hero is going to make a dramatic entry you see the car and you see the car's wheels and you see the car's structure and then you find the hero is not in the passenger seat the hero is in the chauffeur seat that is the image that Krishna that is how Krishna is revealed so Krishna either whether it is in the Mahabharata or in the Bhagavatam is not a god who delights in his godhood and all of you have to go down to Krishna Krishna even when he is god he delights in the position of being a guide being an assistant being a friend being a counsellor so he is the charioteer so the same thing comes in the Bhagavatam the Bhagavatam starts off where? it starts off with actually if you see sometimes when you try to understand the flow of the Bhagavatam so why suddenly the Bhagavatam is describing it starts Krishna enters the Bhagavatam with Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot chasing Ashwathama that is the entry in the 7th chapter so what is happening over here that is the 7th canto but this is how it explains that the 7th canto is primarily setting the scene for the two characters so in a few verses from around 7.11 onwards to 1.7.11 onwards to around 15 the briefly Shuddha Goswami's story is described and then the story of Parikshit Maharaj is told from a subsequent back story substantial back story so how Parikshit was born and how Parikshit came to a point where he was going to hear the Bhagavatam that is what is talked about so the Bhagavatam starts off where all of the Mahabharata ends the main war of the Mahabharata has ended already so but the entry point of Krishna in both is the same and we see that Krishna is the first reference to the Gopis in the Bhagavatam comes in terms of the elderly Gopis it comes in Kunti's prayers what we talk about how Krishna is being chastised by the Gopis by the Gopi Yashoda and then in the next chapter that is the Bishma's prayers then the first reference to the Madhurya's Gopis that comes it describes that when Krishna had disappeared Bishma they see as I said what a person remembers also tells you what that person's where that person's heart is so for example what did you remember of your first day of Krishna consciousness Mahaprasad there is nothing wrong in that so when Bishma is remembering Krishna's pastimes what is the angle by which he is remembering he is remembering Krishna's pastimes but he is saying those Gopis those Gopis when Krishna disappeared from them during the Raas Leela they went as if mad and started reenacting Krishna's pastimes krutam anukrutavate unmad andha with madness they became blind and they started thinking they are themselves one Gopi became Kali another Gopi became Krishna one Gopi became Putana another Gopi became Krishna they are reenacting those pastimes and so what is the mood which is revealed over here Bishma is about to die he is remembering Krishna Krishna is right in front of Bishma although Krishna is right in front of Bishma Bishma Chakradhakar raises this question you know in any form of address first person, second person, third person I, you and he so now if say I am talking with Murari Poonam he is my good friend and then I talk about him as a third person instead of saying you are my good friend he is my good friend so actually when Bishma is offering this concluding prayers Krishna is right in front of him but Bishma refers to Krishna not in the second person but in the third person so why is that Bishma Chakradhakar explains that at that time Bishma has gone into trance he has withdrawn all his consciousness within himself he has gone into trance and his focus is not seeing Krishna within him he sees Krishna but he is remembering the eternal super soul who is there and he is referring to that manifestation so he is by that mode showing that the Krishna who is in front of us he is not an ordinary person he is that same supreme lord so again the point of this third person reference is the mood of separation Bishma is in the mood of separation and that same mood of separation will be depicted by the Gopis later so now after this first canto depiction twice it comes about Krishna then we have Krishna acting in several chapters from the 9th chapter onwards to the 16th chapter before he disappears and the mood is again when Krishna is departing there is separation from the Pandavas and there is union with the Gargavasis and then again after that there is not much positive description then again if you see the Bhagavatam does not describe in this narrative there is a chapter called the disappearance of Krishna departure of Krishna but that event is not described again that event is described in recollection how is that? instead of describing what happened in Dwarka, the Bhagavatam describes Yudhisthira Maharaj is remembering why is there so much inauspiciousness and then Krishna comes and then Arjuna comes so then the mood is again Arjuna and Krishna Arjuna and the Pandavas are remembering in separation remembrance in separation that is the consistent theme the whole chapter, the whole narrative of the first canto moves towards that chapter where Arjuna prays that he prays he offers various prayers in which at the end he describes that Mohitanta, he says I have become completely deluded and then what happens when he is deluded he remembers the Bhagavad Gita and he gets so this narrative what it shows is when there is separation there is agony but amid separation if there is a basis for recollection if there is a structure for recollection if there is assistance for recollection then there is relief so that's why if you see in one sense the gopis are separated from Krishna and I am talking about again the 13th chapter now the gopis are separated from Krishna and they are offering Gopi Gita and suddenly in the middle of Gopi Gita they have this verse Tava Kathamrutam Tapta Jeevanam Kavibhiriditam Kalmashapaham Shravanamangalam Krishnimadatanam Bhui Granthiye Bhuridadina so now they are glorifying those who speak Krishna Katha and they are saying that they are the most magnanimous people in the whole world who speak Krishna Katha now what has that got to do with anything? the gopis are separated from Krishna they are searching where is Krishna? this chapter, the 29th chapter has been analysed so beautifully by Jiva Goswami Gopal Jampur he takes each of these prayers that is offered and he analyses the content of the prayer and he analyses the characteristic of each gopi and then he says this prayer is offered by this gopi this prayer is offered by this gopi this prayer is offered by this gopi and that way he gives a very beautiful analysis of this so the point is that each of the gopis are saying one gopi is saying oh Krishna we are your Ashunkadasika we are unpaid servants and instead of rewarding us are you going to murder us? because if you don't come back we will die but oh lord how can you kill us? because in the past you have saved us you have saved us so many times are you going to kill us now by your separation? and he says no but you are not you are not one of us you are god and we should have valued you but if you think that we have not valued you, the way we value you is if you come back again and then we will show you how much we value you, so please come back so like that the gopis use different arguments to get Krishna back and each of the verses in the Gopi Geet is actually one gopi's heart calling out to Krishna, please come but suddenly within that this horse comes which seems to be a non-sequitur non-sequitur means you are speaking one thing and when you speak something you have no connection with that so while the gopi is suddenly glorifying those saintly people who glorify Krishna, who speak Krishna katha, so what is happening is, in Anananda Avanchampu Kavita Anapura describes that the gopis as they are offering prayers, the gopis go deep into the forest in search for Krishna when they can't find Krishna anywhere, they go so deep into the forest that even the moon cannot penetrate and they can't see one step ahead of them, then they decide we are not going to find Krishna, so they come back from the forest and they sit on the banks of Yamuna and on the banks of Yamuna, they start offering these prayers but while they are offering these prayers, so one gopi is offering the prayers, all the other gopis are hoping Krishna will come but they are also enacting the wrong steps, so this gopi who is offering the prayers to all of them, her mood is that in separation from Krishna she is, see one way we appreciate Krishna is directly by glorifying him, but another way we appreciate Krishna is also by appreciating those who share Krishna with us, as you say as Adi Purana says, Krishna tells Arjuna that those who are my devotees are not my devotees but those who are my devotees they are my devotees, so here whom are the gopis appreciating the gopi, this gopi is appreciating the other gopis who are enacting Krishna's pastimes and thereby mitigating to some extent the feeling of separation that they are having, so in that sense it's not a non sequitur it is also a call for Krishna this is Krishna when you are separated the only solace for us is when you, when somebody speaks about you and thus gives us relief so now if you look at the 10th canto even from the Sanskrit language point of view there is a difference the whole 10th canto is very poetic very artistic, the whole Bhagavatam is a special book in the sense that the Puranas if you read Vishnu Puran, if you read Padma Puran, Sanskrit of those Puranas is very simple the verses are simple four line verses in fact when the Britishers came to India at that time not Britishers, Europeans they came to India some of them wanted to study Indian literature when they wanted to study Sanskrit they said the book that you should use to study Sanskrit is the Ramayana and the Mahabharata because the Sanskrit is so simple and it is widely prevalent so the Sanskrit of the Puranas and the Itihasas is usually very simple but the Bhagavatam Sanskrit is not at all simple sometimes if you have a big dictionary so you look at a particular word if there is a very complex word then you may wonder who has used it so what happens is often they give if you have unabridged dictionaries so you look at a particular word look at its meaning, you see the meaning and then after that you see where it has been used and by that their usage level it is called a usage index for words and when you look at the usage index then you understand how frequently it is used what is the level of that word and then you can decide whether you want to use it or not so many times it is curious if you look at the Bhagavatam and look at the particular meaning and look at the dictionary to find out what is the meaning of the word and look at the usage of the word so then you look at the meaning and look at the usage that word has been used only in the Bhagavatam the only recorded usage of the word is the Bhagavatam so that means it uses words which were esoteric even at that time so the point is though the Puranas themselves are relatively in simple language the Bhagavatam in Sanskrit is not simple the Bhagavatam in Sanskrit is much more Vedic than Puranic not just Vedic, it is Upanishadic Sanskrit Upanishadic Sanskrit is the word just like we can have Indian English and we can have American English so for example if you tell some American please come for my marriage how can I come for your marriage because in America the word marriage means the relationship between the husband and wife and the event of marriage is called wedding so when I say please sir, in America we say please come for my wedding, not for my marriage what do you mean? how do I come for your marriage? you want me to stay in your house or what? so different words have different meanings in different context American English is different from Indian English so like that Puranic Sanskrit is different from Upanishadic Sanskrit so now depending on the way a person uses words, you can understand this person is American or this person is Indian or this person is American Indian so like that Bhagavatam Sanskrit is a blend between Puranic Sanskrit and the Upanishadic Sanskrit but this is the way like we have this long words like Janma, Jasya, Tata we have many long verses in Bhagavatam so usually in the Puranas you don't find long verses the usual Anushtuk Chanda that is there in the Gita there is a typical Chanda that length is the usual standard for the Puranas the Bhagavatam uses heavy Upanishadic philosophy and heavy Sanskrit language then it comes in the 10th Canto and Sridhar Swami when he wrote the first extent commentary in the Bhagavatam extent means what is right now existing so Sridhar Swami's commentary is mostly resolution of the meanings of words so that the Bhagavatam's message can become clear in the 10th Canto the whole language of the Bhagavatam becomes much more poetic and artistic and at the same time it doesn't remain so complex basic complexity is there but still it becomes very sweet and the appeal of the Bhagavatam has largely been because of the 10th Canto Vishwanath Chakravartak for example when he is commenting on the 5th Canto he is talking about the cosmology so he says this cosmological description is for those Jnana Mishra Bhaktas who are attached to the Virat so for them they can meditate on this and the devotees should focus on the pastimes of Krishna in the 10th Canto so now in the 10th Canto there are 3 broad divisions, I'll just conclude with this so we'll talk about in the Bhagavatam itself in the 10th Canto there are 3 broad divisions first 40 chapters are about the Vraja pastimes the 40-50 chapters roughly are about Mathura pastimes and 51-90 chapters are about the subsequent pastimes not only Dwaraka because Krishna travels in different places and it's Dwaraka and other places so now in each of these the mood is different the mood, I'll start from back and I'll come forward because we are moving from Mahabharata to Bhagavatam so the Mahabharata as I said, Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam overlap in some places but the focus is different so it's almost nowhere that the same event is there in Mahabharata and is again repeated here as it is, no it doesn't happen as I said the Bhagavatam's focus is very curious now imagine there's a war between India and Pakistan going on and then some newspaper just covers the story of what happened in the local political elections why are you not covering the war? the question may come up so like that the whole Kurukshetra war is going on and what does Shukadeva Goswami focus on? he focusses on Balram's pilgrimage which all places Balram went to you say what is happening over here? why would a narrator do like that? narrator do like that so now Acharya has described, Shri Goswami describes that a war, Parikshit Parikshit Maharaj is hearing this and Parikshit Maharaj never even got to see his father who is his father? Agni he never got to see his father and Kurukshetra war was the war in which his father died not this way, it was killed brutally so Shukadeva Goswami is so sensitive that he doesn't talk about that war directly because he knows at that time if he talks about the war after he started talking about the war how will he bypass that? and if he talks about that, that will unnecessarily disturb Shukadeva, Parikshit Maharaj that's why he takes a different though yes the war is happening like Prabhupada also says that bad news will spread on its own we don't have to be a spreader of bad news so what Parikshit Maharaj, what Shukadeva Goswami does he bypasses that narrative his focus is on trying to assist Krishna, assist Parikshit Maharaj in his remembrance of Krishna and yes you could say that the past times that Mahabharata has so many other places also which might stimulate his remembrance yes that is there, but that is he has already heard that from the Pandavas he has already heard that he is so emotionally connected with that that even without narrating that that recollection will be there so he bypasses that and for his focus, because again in the Mahabharata war if you go to the details of the Mahabharata war the focus is on Krishna yes Krishna intervenes at critical events but his focus is not on Krishna so he wants to keep the focus on Krishna and that's why he just bypasses that and now the last 40 chapters 50 to 90 they are like a miscellany various things are described but the focus is for example in the Rajasuya Yajna if you read the same narrative in the Mahabharata Rajasuya Yajna and if you read the same narrative in the Bhagavatam in the Bhagavatam the focus is on how the Pandavas glorified Krishna in the Mahabharata the focus is on all the political intrigues that were going on and then after that how those events were going to lead to the gambling match as in the gambling match the Bhagavatam again bypasses that because that is also agonising see if if a family a woman has been abused it's a very painful thing to talk about so for Parikshit Maharaj his grandmother has been abused publicly so Parikshit Maharaj Shukdevaswamy prefers not talking about that so he avoids that so the mood is to focus on the Shivalayas activities of Krishna and those pastimes which directly depict those Shivalayas activities the glory of Krishna then moving backwards the heart of the Bhagavatam is the Vraja depiction in Mathura Krishna is in transition Krishna is just like a sometimes there is like a Indian popular game is cricket so there is some player who might have been playing in the village fields and suddenly there is an India Pakistan match and somehow he is selected and on the last ball he hits a match winning six and then he becomes an overnight superstar from rural background he is just a small child playing on the fields now he becomes a national superstar so like that Krishna is living in a small village and he just comes into the assembly and it's not just one match winning six he hits he defeats all the top wrestlers and then defeats and delivers and destroys even the biggest tyrant of those times so it's like sometimes you have an upset win you see you know this team was supposed to be a minnow and this team was supposed to be very easily winning but the small team upsets the big team so like that Krishna is defeating Kamsa and not only defeating Kamsa actually defeating all those who were in his ranks practically at that time President Mathur it was sensational so Krishna from a now Krishna killed many demons in Andhra but hardly anyone came to know about that you see how it was Kamsa what Kamsa did was many of his associates were being killed by one by one but these associates were all demons so they would not it's not that Arishtasura and Bakasura they were prominent presences in his palace all the time he would summon them whenever he wanted to do something so when they were killed he did not let that news spread far and wide that these demons have been killed it's like in the Ramayana it is described every night after the war took place so Lord Rama would stay awake to perform the last rites of every single monkey that had been killed in contrast every night Ravana gave the instruction all the demons who have been killed throw their bodies into the river, into the ocean why? so that the enemies will not come to know how many of our ranks have been killed so gross somebody dies for you you throw away his body so the point is Kamsa he did not even tell anyone that all these demons have been killed so people did not know that Krishna had lost his demons Krishna just came and stunningly killed the biggest demon of that time he became an overnight sensation so in the Mahabharata the Mathura Leela is more or less a leela of transgression where Krishna from an unknown cowherd is going to become the greatest warrior of his times and moving backwards as I said the heart of the Bhagavatam is the 10th Canto and in the 10th Canto it is the Vraja Leela in the Vraja Leela if you see the Vraja Leela it is also described in the Padma Purana, in the Vishnu Purana in the Brahma Vyavarta Purana in the place where Krishna's marriage with Radha is talked about for the first time as far as we know and then it is also talked about in Hari Vamsa but the intimacy that is described in the Bhagavatam that is not there anywhere else and I will talk about I could just mention three pastimes to conclude this from the 10th Canto see, there is the first expression of Madhurya approach to Krishna Krishna is first a small boy, then he grows up then he becomes, comes to the Madhurya Vav so that is when the Gopis in the 19th, 20th chapter describe, Krishna has gone around the forest and the Gopis are saying we are not able to get darshan of Krishna the sun is getting darshan of Krishna but then they start thinking the sun is getting darshan, but then everybody wants to serve Krishna, the clouds they want to serve Krishna, so they think that oh, the sun is putting too much heat on Krishna and therefore we will come in between Krishna and the sun and therefore we will give shade to Krishna and when they give shade to Krishna, the Gopis are envisioning this, the Aseras elaborate what is given in the 19th, 20th chapter, they say that but then the sun starts thinking, why is this cloud coming between, I am not able to have darshan of Krishna so the sun becomes hotter trying to dissipate dissolve the clouds, so that it can penetrate and have darshan, and as the clouds dissolve, the clouds, oh, sun is coming again, sun is coming again, so we need to give shade, so the more clouds come on, they become thicker so in this way, there is a competition for gaining Krishna, both the sun and the clouds are gaining Krishna, but we are not gaining Krishna so again here the mood is the mood of separation the mood of separation then the second reference to the Madhurya das, Madhuryabhav is in the Brahmanis, the Brahmanpathnis coming to Krishna, and Anandam Japa describes, when Krishna tells the Brahmanpathnis, please go back, so the Brahmanpathnis say, oh Krishna when a river leaves a mountain to come to the ocean, how can the river go back to the mountain similarly we have left everything to come to you how can we go back to you it's not possible, so then Krishna says, no, you don't have to just go back in body in your heart, you stay with me so Krishna going to Karnapur states that the society at that time was quite conservative, and for Brahmanis to have a relationship with Vaishya that would have disrupted the society he's giving an external reason for the caste conscious Brahmanat over there but he says, that's why he told the Gopis to go back, the Brahmanpathnis to go back now, actually this particular pastime, it is it is setting the scene for the Gopis first, so now if you see, more or less exactly the same thing happens that when Krishna plays the flute, the Gopis come, and more or less if you look at the content the same instruction that Krishna gave to the Brahmanpathnis, Krishna gives to the Gopis and he says, oh you should go back to your family, one's duty is to serve our family, and what happens? The Gopis reject Krishna's instruction so actually speaking both are no doubt very exalted devotees, but what the Bhagavatam is doing is to the Brahmanpathnis, pastime and the Gopis' pastime, see one of the beauties of the Bhagavatam is, it invokes all the conventional hierarchy, so for example generally the gods are considered to be good and demons are bad, but Uttarasura is shown to be good, and Indra is shown to be bad generally speaking, Brahmins are considered to be good, and Kshatriyas are considered to be lower Sanyasas are considered to be good, Grhasas are considered to be lower, but the Bhagavatam shows Durvasa Muni to be lower and Ambanish Maharaj to be higher similarly usually the husband is considered to be like the head of the family, wife is considered subordinate but what happens the Brahmanpathnis' pastimes, the husband is shown to be lower, the wife is shown to be higher, but that same inversion of, what is the point of inverting the hierarchy the Bhagavatam is showing, yes all these hierarchies are important, but the most important is Bhakti if there is Bhakti, then all normal hierarchies get inverted, and what the Bhagavatam is showing is, there are Brahmanpathnis who come to Krishna, and there are Vaishyas, Gopis are external Vaishyas, they come to Krishna, but what happens is this also gets reversed so whereas the Brahmanpathnis go back, the Gopis stay, and in their negligence of Krishna's instruction is revealed the exaltedness of their devotion, that the Brahmanpathnis show their devotion by obeying Krishna's instructions, but the Gopis show their devotion by refusing to follow Krishna's instruction and they stay there and then there is a celebration of Rasa but before that also, before that celebration of Rasa dance comes, what happens? The Gopis in one sense reject everyone for Krishna's sake, and they reject even Krishna's word for Krishna's sake and after they do all this, then Krishna rejects them, and goes away and at that time the mood of the Bhagavatam, that actually in the absence of Krishna, feeling his presence through recollection that is the mood of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, that is the mood which … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Separation is to love as wind is to fire. What does that mean? If we start thinking, oh, actually my bhakti will go in separation, so I will go away from devotees. Then I will start appreciating devotees more.
Now, you know, if there is a fire that is small, it's like a small candle and then wind comes, what will happen? The candle will get extinguished. So for us, if we are separated from devotees, our bhakti will get extinguished. But if there is a big forest fire and at that time wind comes, then what will happen? The forest fire will spread.
So for the Gopis and the exalted devotees, our bhakti is like a small candle. If we become separated from devotees, our bhakti will get extinguished. But for the advanced devotees, their bhakti is like a forest fire.
And when the wind of separation comes, then what happens? That forest fire spreads more and more. So in separation, recollection actually increases the devotion. And that recollection in separation, the mood of devotion, of recollection in separation, that is the mood of the bhagavatam.
Thank you very much. Krantaraj Krishna Bhagavatam Ki, Shila Prabhupada Ki, Kaur Bhakta Vindaki, by Gaur Prema.