Krishna jinka naam hai – Relish the most endearing vision of God

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna today we will discuss the meaning of the song Krishna jin ka naam hai this is not a Gauriya Vaishnav song in the sense that it is not composed by specifically a Gauriya Vaishnav Acharya most of the Gauriya Vaishnav Acharyas have written songs either in Bengali or in Sanskrit most of the Bhaktivinoda Thakur songs such as Bhuliya Tomare or Vidya Ravi Lase or Gopinath are in Bengali and some of the songs like Seshad Goswami Ashtakam or Radhika Ashtakam like Krishna Das Kailash Goswami or Krishna Das Acharya respectively they are actually in Sanskrit whereas this song is in Hindi and it is a part of the broader Vaishnav tradition that is prevalent in India Bhakti has always been the religion of the masses of course this does not mean that it has not been the religion of the classes there have been great people of high class, Brahmadas intellectuals, foremost intellectuals in fact who have practised Bhakti and who have propagated Bhakti all the Vaishnav Acharyas have been great scholars and they have written an extensive body of literature in Sanskrit but along with that they have also written in they have also recognised that Bhakti is something which needs to be presented to common people in a way that can be easily understood by them and that’s why there is a need for vernacular language presentation and vernacular language presentation has been immensely popular so just as the Ramayana of Valmiki has the importance of being a Sanskrit classic the original Ramayana but it is the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas that has that has been widely read, recited heard and memorised and cherished among the masses similarly there have been songs composed in Hindi which is the standard vernacular language and which communicate the glory of Krishna and the sweetness of devotion to him in an intimate and disarmingly simple way and this song is a representative of that genre of literature, of that genre of devotional poetry wherein the lofty glory of Krishna’s divinity is brought home in sweet simple poetry in vernacular language so here the song starts many of the songs in the in the literature in the devotional literature have become like a common intellectual property of the Bhakti tradition and the names of their composers have often been lost in lost to antiquity lost in antiquity so this song also its authorship is usually not mentioned in the song and there are several guesstimates about the author but we will not go into that, we will focus on the devotional emotions and the devotional essence that permeates this song so Krishna jin ka naam hai so that person, that god who is Krishna jin ka naam hai so jin ka is a respectful second person reference third person reference jin ka is a relatively more friendly equal sense of reference, so he is respectful although this god appears to be disarmingly human, in fact appears almost like a small child at times, in some past times but still he is god, so respectfully Krishna jin ka naam hai Gokul jin ka naam hai Gokul is the abode of this lord and to such a god and to this god I offer obeisances again and again again and again I offer obeisances so the mood of this verse is that actually Krishna is the all-attractive supreme lord and being the all-attractive supreme lord he is known aptly by the name Krishna, sarva karshati iti Krishna, now all over the world there have been thoughtful people, spiritually inclined people who have intuited the existence of a supreme being, however the identity of the supreme being has largely been shrouded in mystery with many people even coming to the conclusion that god is unknowable and that conclusion is true when we rest only on human efforts, by our own efforts we finite living beings cannot know the infinite supreme being, but the very infinitude of the supreme being includes within him the power to reveal himself to us and to thus make himself known to us, so it is that which is his unique privilege and it is this privilege which he has exercised in the revealed literature, so there is some knowledge of god given in some of the traditions of the world but it is in the devotee Vaishnav tradition that the most detail that in the Vedic tradition and specifically in the Vedic tradition in the revelation of god as Krishna the most intimate knowledge about god’s glory and god’s personality, god’s identity has been delivered so it is this knowledge that helps us to identify god even by his name, Krishna jin ka naam hai Gokula jin ka dhaam hai Sushila Prabhupada when he was in America in the west in general there also the people quite often accepted the existence of god but they had no clear idea about his identity hence Prabhupada would mention that yes you talk about love of god but how can you how much can we love a person about whom we don’t know much and thus it’s not that knowledge alone will bring love for god but when there is an intention to love and naturally knowledge helps in developing that love because naturally the more we know about the lord the more we become attracted to him so now here if we move onwards so the identity of god is revealed over here that he is Krishna and his address is also revealed he lives in an abode called Gokula so it is the abode of cows, Krishna loves cows and he will discuss about Krishna love for the cows a little later but his abode is called Gokula and he is Bhagawan the word Bhagawan has many meanings, one meaning is of course that he is the reservoir of six opulences wealth, beauty, fame, knowledge strength and renunciation and with these six opulences he is able to attract everyone so he, that’s why whatever we see attractive in anyone, we can see that ultimately reduces down to these six opulences and thus actually we understand that whatever is attractive in anyone is originally present in Krishna and thus Krishna is the all attractive supreme person Bhagawan so unto such a god varam var pranam so in this song, the glory of that supreme being is mentioned and obeisances to him are offered in the same breath then it goes forward yashoda jinki mayya nandaji bapaiya aise shri gopal ko mere varam var pranam so now one of the most endearing and disarming revelations about god that comes in the Vaishnava tradition is that god has a father and mother yashoda jinki mayya hai yashoda is his mother nandaji bapaiya hai nandaji is his father aise shri gopal ko and this is a cowherd couple so their son is a cowherd boy, he is gopal one who takes care of cows and to such a gopal I offer my obeisances again and again mere varam var pranam hai I offer my obeisances again and again so now philosophically god is the supreme person he is the source of everyone in fact that is one of the fundamental definitions of god that he is the cause of all causes that he is the beginningless beginning of everything so if he is the beginningless beginning of everything then how can he have a father, when the father would be his beginning, isn’t it no, there is only in the Vedic Vaishnava revelation is the concept of leela so endearingly developed where it is understood that although god is great, although god is supreme but god does not delight in exhibiting his supremacy god delights in the intimacy of love and for the sake of having intimate love god subordinates his godhood so that his devotees can love him without reservation without hesitation without trepidation so if person if the devotees always remember that Krishna is supreme person, he is the person who holds by whose power the whole universe is sustained he is the person who can overpower in the greatest dangers in the greatest demons in the greatest difficulties if they always remember his awe inspiring power then the devotees will not be able to love him affectionately just as a servant of a king may have great affection great respect and affection for the king but the servant will always remember his position and remember he is the king of the state with one command the king can have my head chopped off with one command of the king I can lose everything so as long as the awareness of the power of god is there of the king is there then the intimacy of the affection is not so much there so the same applies with god and that’s why Krishna he has his yoga maya by which he subordinates the awareness of his godhood so that people can love him so that people can so that his devotees most intimate devotees can love him without any inhibition so yoga maya covers yoga maya creates like a setting of a drama for Krishna and his devotees so a drama of course conveys the notion that this is unreal that something is unreal but the drama of Krishna is the supreme reality and in this drama of Krishna there is the intimate reciprocation of love between Krishna and his devotees where both Krishna and his devotees forget Krishna’s supreme position and simply reciprocate love so to have the full spectrum of loving relationships with his devotees Krishna allocate the role of his parents to those devotees who want to reciprocate love with him in parental and to such devotees he gives them the cherished role of his parents that is those two are Yashoda and Nanda Maharaj so here he says so Yashoda is his mother Yashoda one who gives fame, glory to everyone Nanda is Ananda one who gives happiness that is Nanda Maharaj that is what the name signifies so these two are the intimate devotees whom Krishna has given the position as his parents and in this way God demonstrates the full spectrum of relationships including the relationship that is constitutionally impossible if he sticks only to his philosophical position as the source of everything because the source of everything cannot have a source so the father of everyone cannot have a father but in the Leela Krishna gives the position of his father to his devotee and that is how Krishna subordinates his divinity to the to the call of intimacy to what intimacy requires that is the the subordination of the awareness of his divinity so that an inhibited love can move forward so such a lord who takes on the role of Gopal to reciprocate intimate love with his devotees to that lord I offer my obeisances again and again and then it goes on Radha Jin Ki Chhaya Hai Adbhuta Jin Ki Maya Hai now Ehse Shree Ghanshyam ko mere Varam Vare Pranam Hai now Radha Jin Ki now there are different recensions of this song sometimes it is Radha Jin Ki Chhaya Hai and sometimes it is Radha Jin Ki Jaya Hai so Jaya refers to consort so that is true Radha and Krishna although they are not officially married in Vrindavan but they are in terms of Rasa they are not married but in terms of Tattva they are eternally the consorts Radharani is the consort of Krishna and the other consorts of Krishna such as Lakshmi Lakshmi in his form as Vishnu Sita in his form as Ram or even Rukmini in his form as Varkadish Krishna all these forms are also intimate form are also expansions of Radharani so that means constitutionally it is true that Radha Jin Ki Jaya Hai Radha is his wife his consort and at the same time she is also his child wherever Krishna is there Radharani is there not far away from him in his consciousness Radharani is still there always wherever Krishna is and Krishna remembers the Vrajagopis and chief among them Radharani even when he leaves Vrindavan even when he is in Dwaraka performing his royal duties and that sweet memory stays in his heart so in that sense Radha is like a shadow a shadow always accompanies a person so Radharani in the form of her remembrance in the form of her memory always accompanies Krishna so Jaya is also a acceptable recension that is there here now he goes for Radha so Radha is his consort and then Adbhuta Jin Ki Maya Hai so Maya is the Maya that which is not Maya is the illusory energy of the Lord that illusory energy makes that which is insubstantial appear to be substantial that which is not a source of much pleasure seems to be a source of immense irresistible pleasure that which is temporary appear to be eternal that is the illusory energy of Maya and the important point is that this is his Maya and it is wondrous it is amazing it is Adbhuta Jin Ki Maya Hai so there are some some faith traditions in which the problem of evil is dealt with by separating the source of evil entirely from God and placing the source of evil in inveterate opposition to God so the devil is considered to be the source of evil and the devil is considered to be the enemy of God and they said that presently in the world it is the devil who is in control and that’s why because the devil is in control sometimes devil may allow evil things devil causes evil things and God does not want evil to happen but still the evil happens and in this way people this is how the problem of evil is explained by separating entirely evil the author of evil from God and and assume and saying that God presently does not have any control over the devil that’s why even against God’s desire sometimes devil inflicts evil on people but the Vedic philosophy recognises that God is always in control and the author of evil and illusion is not God is not certainly not God but is also not an authority that is independent of God so authority that is subordinate to God just as if there is a prison in the prison who is put in the prison are put those living beings who are in this prison are put those citizens who are law breakers and there is a warden who looks after who oversees the operation of the prison and yes there is suffering in the prison but that suffering is not because the king is evil nor is it because the warden is evil but that suffering is because that’s what is required for the rectification of the prisoners so similarly Krishna is not evil and his Maya is also not evil that’s why here when talking about Maya what is talked about is this Maya is Adbhut Maya is not talked about as evil but it’s wonderful astonishing so what is astonishing about the Maya generally speaking if we see some magician who does something so if a magician say suddenly makes it appear as if a rabbit has come out of the hat or magician makes it appear as if a sword has penetrated through the body then we think oh we know that the sword cannot penetrate through the body rabbit cannot come out of the hat there has to be some trickery over there some illusion over there but it is done so expertly that it appears as if it has actually been done and that we call as a somebody who makes an illusion in such an expert way that the illusion appears to be real such a person such a person we consider as expert magician so in that sense the capacity of Maya to produce illusion can also be appreciated because Maya what does she do she makes such an illusion that we completely get captivated by it so the soul identifies with the body whichever body the soul is in presently and the soul imagines the sense objects to be sources of pleasure and this goes on in spite of the fact that the body is made of dead matter and cannot be the source of consciousness whereas we are undeniably conscious and further we have time and again experienced that the sense objects give only petty pleasure and yet we think that next time around the sense objects will provide me immense pleasure and this way we get deluded so so when actually we have developed devotion to Krishna and we have developed a certain amount of distance and detachment from Maya so that we are no longer seduced by our illusions then even the potency of Maya can become can become a source for increasing our admiration of Krishna that Krishna how wonderful are you that even your Maya has such magical potency to create illusion so of course along with this appreciation of Krishna for the formidable power of his Maya potency, there is also a devotee of Krishna, right now I am not affected by Maya but please don’t let me fall into Maya, please protect me from illusion, please keep me fixed in devotion and so aise shri ghan shyam ko mere barambar pranam hai aise shri ghan shyam ko so ghan shyam refers to that lord who is shyama shyama is dark complexioned but ghana is it refers to darkish complexion like that of a freshly formed monsoon cloud so bluish black complexion so now in this world although now we live in an age of political correctness where to say that our dark complexion is ugly our dark complexion doesn’t look so good ugly is too strong a word but sorry about that to say that a dark complexion doesn’t look good or a fair complexion looks good this is considered to be politically incorrect in today’s world and actually so we often avoid such words which involve value judgements are avoided still in general it has been that a fair complexion has been considered beautiful historically and below the below the political correctness even today a fair complexion attracts much more attention than the dark complexion for most people but still whatever it is so although fair circumstantial reality today now even if it is that there is a dark complexion not so attractive bhakti goes beyond the dark and fair complexions because bhakti tells that the complexions of the body have nothing to do with the have little to do in terms of ultimate consequence actually it is the colour of the consciousness it is the content of the consciousness it is the level of the consciousness that is the actual substance of a person’s character and that is the determinant of happiness and determinant of the the calibre of the person and from the bhakti point of view further the dark the lord transcends such politically correct or politically incorrect conceptions of beauty when he assumes a dark when he has a dark complexion which is breathtakingly attractive which is heart-stoppingly captivating which is mesmerizingly irresistible that is Krishna’s beauty Ghanashyam I offer my obeisance to Sri Ghanashyam again and again and then as the song goes on I offer my obeisance to Sri Ghanashyam I offer my obeisance to Sri Ghanashyam loot loot Krishna steals and eats curd and butter with the Gwal Bala’s with his other cowherd friends, cowherd boyfriends he grazes the cows, so to such a person who is abode of leelas, who performs such wonderful leelas, I offer my obeisances again and again Now looter, looter, so now Krishna’s butter stealing pastimes are among his most charming pastimes and he steals butter because for many reasons, one of the reasons is that the butter represents the concentrated love of his devotees, the cows, which has, in the form of milk, which has been further processed by the intense love of his other set of intimate devotees, the gopis, so he wants to taste that concentrated love of his many devotees, which manifests together in the form of butter and that’s why he’s so eager for butter and why does he steal butter, although the butter is readily available for him in his own house because he wants to increase the ecstasy of his devotees, the adventure of the chase, the thrill of the catch and the suspense of the flight, all that comes together when Krishna, when Krishna in a sweet way conspires to steal butter and this is straightforward asking for butter or curd from his mother would not be anywhere as adventurous or as memorable as is his stealing butter and ultimately Krishna wants to give his devotees many many pastimes so that they can relish them more and more, Krishna wants to give his devotees many many things to think about, many many of his attributes and activities to talk about, to think about, to relish, so Krishna acts in an endearing way to increase the love of his devotees and he does that by stealing butter, so his butter stealing pastimes are legendary, not in the sense of being imaginary but legendary in the sense that which have been remembered and cherished for literally millennia now, so such is Krishna who steals butter to thus captivate the hearts of his devotees and yes eventually by stealing butter he steals the hearts of his devotees because the devotees hearts become captivated by the thoughts of him as a sweet little butter thief and then so he takes the cows for grazing along with his cowherd boyfriends, this is his very intimate pastime wherein he reciprocates love with his cows as well as with his Gopas, so every morning the Gwalpals come and they start chanting the names, they start calling out to Krishna, hey Gopal, hey Krishna, come it is time for us to go out, it is time for us to relish pastimes, to relish love, so Krishna goes along with the Gopas and then as he goes along they perform sweet pastimes, they have lunch together, they imitate the birds that they see flying in the sky, they imitate the jumping of the frogs, they play various games in the forest and they care for the cows and then Krishna knows the names of each of the cows and he calls each of them by name when it is time to get them back and to take them to back to home, to their cowsheds, so in this way Krishna reciprocates love with his cows and his cowherds and cowherd boyfriends, so Gwalbal Sangdhenu Charayo, so Krishna demonstrates the simple life of a cowherd wherein Trunacharanugam Shriniketanam, the Gopis in their Gopi Geeta say that how wonderful is it that that Lord who Shriniketanam, Lord who is the abode of the Goddess of Fortune, the Lord who is the master of the Goddess of Fortune on whom Goddess of Fortune resides as Srivatsa, that Lord what is he doing? He is Trunacharanugam, Trunachara, those who eat, those who graze on grass, Truna, that Anugam, he follows them, so when the cows are to be grazed, the cows go ahead and Krishna follows behind them, wherever the cows want to go, if there is a good grass available, Krishna lets them go and he follows them, so he demonstrates a life of how he is serving his devotees, the cows, he is taking care of the devotees, he is protecting them and in this way he reciprocates in the pastoral paradise of Vrindavan’s forests, he relishes intimate love between, intimate love with his cows and with his cowherd boyfriends, so Aise Shri Leela Dhamko, Aise Leela Dhamko, unto such a person who is the abode of pastimes, abode of pastimes means so many pastimes reside within him and at different pastimes he reveals these pastimes and thus he floods the hearts of his devotees, present and potential, with ecstasy. Offer obeisances again and again. Drupada Suta ko laaj bachayo, grah se gaj ko fand chudayo, Aise Kripa Dhamko, bhaarambhaar pranaam hai, Drupada Suta ko laaj bachayo, so now this describes Krishna’s pastimes of how he protected Drupada Suta, that is Draupadi, ko laaj bachayo, that means he protected her honour when she was being disrobed by the wretched Dushasana in the Kuru assembly, at that time Krishna appeared over there as an unlimited strip of cloth and as the unlimited cloth he protected his devotee, he protected her honour and that cloth at that time this pastime is celebrated because actually Draupadi despite having so many protectors she had normally for a woman her husband is considered to be a protector and if a woman has a strong virile husband she’s fortunate but Draupadi had five husbands and all of them were very embodiments of manhood, powerful Kshatriyas and yet none of them was able to protect Draupadi, so through this pastime Krishna demonstrates that when no one is able to protect us at that time he protects, now Draupadi was a woman and she did not have much strength and Krishna protected the weak when her normal protectors could not protect and this is one pastime where he protects the weak and then does that mean that Krishna is a God who is needed only by the weak? No, Krishna is a God who is needed even by the strong and that is demonstrated by so there was this formidably strong elephant Gajendra, now elephant themselves are very powerful but this elephant was not just a gaja he was gaj indra he was the king of the elephants he was gigantic in proportion and awesome in strength and yet he also became powerless he was also when he was captured by the crocodile the crocodile’s grip was so strong and so unbreakable that even he could do nothing and what happened was as he could do nothing about the nothing to release himself from that vice like grip he was left with no hope except to call out to the lord and he called out and when he called out the lord came and the lord delivered him also so in this world whether we are weak or whether we are strong it is Krishna who is and we all need Krishna the thing that we don’t need him is the illusion is a misunderstanding a person who is such a abode of mercy who bestows his mercy on anyone who calls out fervently sincerely urgently the common denominator is Draupadi called out to Krishna and Gajendra also called out to Krishna and Krishna responded to their calls and delivered them so similarly when we are in danger you know Krishna may not come to our rescue in such a dramatic ways where but the principle is if you call out to Krishna at an inner level at the very least we will experience relief we’ll experience shelter we’ll experience solace and strength and wisdom dawning in our heart by which we will know how to deal with situations and that also we need to see as Krishna’s wisdom as Krishna’s as Krishna’s benediction Krishna’s protection and that is also the manifestation of the truth that he is Kripadham I offer obeisances again and again and then he can Kuru Pandava now it’s interesting here the what is said over here Kuru Pandava that means Krishna caused the war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas that he gave the instructions to Arjuna and to such a lord who is Dinanath who is the lord who is the master of the fallen and to him I offer obeisances again and again now what does this mean exactly how can what does it mean to say that Krishna actually caused the conflict between the Kauravas and the Pandavas this theme comes in the Mahabharata also towards the end when it says that actually it is it was by the will of the supreme lord that this whole destruction took place so now here we have to understand that now it’s very clear if you look at the Mahabharata’s narrative that Krishna tried his tried his best to avoid the war and he went to such an extreme that for a king for a formidable warrior of his calibre to go as a peace messenger is an extraordinarily it could be said to be an extraordinarily demeaning thing but here Krishna was ready to do that because that was what was appropriate at that time that was what was required and Krishna did that Krishna went as a Shantidote and if you look at that conversation which Krishna had Krishna used all possible strategies he used Sam, Dam, Danda and he even threatened Sam, Dam, Bheda and he even warned of the possibility of Danda and the destruction that would result that means he tried to strike a peaceful note he tried to Sam he tried to show how they shared interests and therefore Duryodhana should not cause unnecessary fight he Duryodhana Sam, Dam he offered the he offered the offer peace on the most accommodating of terms and he said that you can just take five villages and you can just give five villages so that was his offering Dama and Bheda you know he tried to also he addressed the Kuru assembly and he said that if Duryodhana does not listen then it is best in the interest of the larger Kuru dynasty that you arrest Duryodhana and imprison him and depose him from any position of power and then negotiate for and settle for peace with the Pandavas and Krishna was so persuasive in the negotiation that even Dushyasana temporarily was inflected in was influenced but then his evil nature came forth and the effect of bad association also came forth and he returned back to his evil disposition so and Krishna also warned on the many occasions when the Pandavas had proven their military superiority over the Kauravas and not just over the Kauravas even Arjuna had proven his military superiority over Devas and Dhanavas so Krishna used all possible means to avoid conflict but here Kuru Pandava ko yudha machayo means that Krishna it is ultimately the will of Krishna so it is not that Krishna wants it but when people choose a particular course of action in spite of being told not to go in that course of action then the consequences that come they are ultimately sanctioned by the lord it is not that Krishna wants them to happen but they are consequences that come to our actions so in that ultimate sense so when we see evil in this world sometimes some people just can’t understand how can God allow such evil but that evil which God allows is a consequence of the free will that God has allowed all of us so in the ultimate sense even the devastation of Kurukshetra was a result of Krishna’s will but it is not Krishna who is responsible it is those who chose by their obstinacy to stick to the path of Adharma who are responsible and in that dramatic setting of the Kurukshetra war what did Krishna do Arjuna spoke the supreme wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita which illumined Arjuna and continues to illumine people for millennia it continues to illumine all of us and it will continue to illumine people so it is such a lord Arjuna he was the charioteer who became the counsellor and he gave timeless instructions Krishna there are good teachers who use experiential learning that means they try to they try to simulate real life situations and real life experiences and the simulation of real life experiences they try to teach lessons which will which can be internalised better by the students because they are real life experiences but Krishna is such an expert teacher that he simulated the ultimately challenge in real life experience that is a war field and Krishna converted into a battlefield into a classroom and therein he instructed Arjuna such is the wondrous glory of Krishna that such a teacher that is by his presence and by his presentation he lifted Arjuna by his poise by his by his by the precision of his arguments by the depth of his wisdom he lifted Arjuna far above the Kurukshetra battlefield and he raised him to summits of wisdom that has scarcely ever been seen before or after and when Arjuna and Krishna returned back to the when their consciousness returned back to the Kurukshetra battlefield at that time Arjuna was intellectually illumined spiritually strengthened and emotionally enlivened completely transformed so such was the instruction of Krishna and Krishna’s instruction in the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates for all time the transformational potency of words of wisdom and love which are spoken in the Bhagavad Gita and I say dheena nath ko mere baarambar pranam hai he is the protector the deliverer of the fallen he is so those who are lost in ignorance who are dheen Krishna delivers them and elevates them by the practise of bhakti I say dheena by teaching them the knowledge of bhakti he elevates them all and therefore he is glorious lord to him I offer my obeisances so by thus meditating on the lord’s glories we can all become absorbed in devotion and eventually be transported to the land of undistracted eternal ever ecstatic devotion that is Krishna’s eternal abode thank you