Metaphorical understanding in bhakti philosophy and in Krishna’s killing of Putana

Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Chowpatty

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So welcome all to this Sunday afternoon programme. And from today onwards, till Janmashtami, there will be a series of talks to go on, on the topic of demons in Krishna Veda.
And today I will talk on three main parts. My topic is primarily about the demon Bhutana. I will first talk about the role of metaphorical interpretation in Bhakti.
Then I will talk specifically about the demon Bhutana. And then I will talk about what is the significance of this demon as explained by Bhakti Mahaprabhu in his Chaitanya Cikshant. So the first part, when we study scripture, scripture is the truth that God has revealed to us for our edification, for guiding us in life.
So just as whatever we need in our life, we need, we have hunger and there is food, we have thirst and there is water, we have a need for breathing and there is air. So whatever are our fundamental needs for living, they are provided in nature. Now one need for living which is distinctly human is knowledge.
All living beings need knowledge, but the sub-human living beings, their knowledge is almost entirely instinctive, that animals behave based on their instincts and these instincts can sometimes exhibit a level of intelligence that can baffle even the human mind. So for example, when birds migrate, they may migrate from one continent to another and then when the season gets over, they migrate and come back again to the same continent and they make a nest in the same tree on which they were there earlier. Now what exactly the system by which they do it is very difficult to fathom, but this is not learned intelligence, this is inherited intelligence which comes with the body.
So on the scale of from the human down to the lowest species, what differentiates how high up a particular species is, the proportion of inherited knowledge and learned knowledge. So you know if it is just a few days ago we had Ekadashi. Now I give the example, if a lion sees a deer on Ekadashi, the lion can’t say, today Ekadashi, I’ll fast.
So there is neither the capacity to fast nor the intelligence to understand that there is something which I can do apart from what my body drives me to. So for animals, most of their functional knowledge is provided to them by their instincts. We human beings also have instincts, but we are not satisfied with instinctive living.
Now we also are driven by things, we eat, sleep, mate, defend, these are the four bodily instincts, aahar, nidra, bhaimaithu, namche. But along with that, everywhere people search for some higher meaning in life. What does it all mean? And that knowledge of what is the ultimate purpose of life, that knowledge is what we humans distinctively need and that is the knowledge that scripture gives to us.
So scripture revelation is God fulfilling the human need for knowledge about the ultimate purpose of life. For the immediate purposes of life, how to cook food, how to drive a vehicle, we can get knowledge from various sources, from material sources of knowledge. But for the ultimate purpose of life, we need a transcendental source and that source is God.
So when we get scriptural knowledge, that knowledge is in one sense timeless, because it is meant to show us the path of life. And whether it is pre-modern, modern, post-modern, whatever be the age, the sun always illumines the sky. So like that spiritual knowledge always illumines humanity at all times.
Now in this scriptural knowledge, there is practical guidance for living. At the same time, scripture comes in particular genres. So for example, some scriptures are written as poetry.
So Bhagavad Gita, as we say the word is it’s a song, the song recited by God. So when it is recited by God, it is a song which becomes divine. But even the divine knowledge is coming in the form of poetry.
And then there are principles of how the poetry is composed, how the poetry is written, how the poetry is conveyed. And one of the characteristics of poetry is non-literal usage. In poetry, often the meaning is conveyed through metaphors, through similes, through hyperboles.
All these are various figures of speech, which add to the beauty of the composition. So poetry is not just sentences with last words rhyming. Some people can do that and they say I have written a poetry.
Well, you can call it poetry. But poetry means essentially good poetry is that which evokes a deeper meaning without necessarily directly stating it. So prose usually consists of direct statements.
Poetry consists of indirect statements. In the 11th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is said that the scriptures glorify the Lord indirectly. And the Lord is pleased by such glorification.
So I will give a few examples of this kind of metaphorical usage from the Bhagavad Gita and then we will go to Krishna Leela and look how metaphors apply over there. So one of the verses from the Bhagavad Gita in the second chapter 2.69 is So it said that that which is night for all living beings is day for the self-realised. And that which is night for the self-realised is day for all living beings.
Now, if we look at this verse literally, actually day is when the sun is up there in the sky and night is when sun is not there. So how can there be different conceptions of day and night for different people? So one way if we want to interpret it literally, we could say is that India and America are 12 hours apart. So when it is day in India, it is night in America.
When it is night in India, it is day in America. And we assume that all self-controlled people are in India. And all self-glorifiers are in America.
So what is day for all living beings is night for the self-controlled. Now, we can interpret like this if we want. But if you look at the context of the Bhagavad Gita where this verse comes 2.54 to 72, it is not talking about geography at all.
It is talking primarily about psychology, about human psychology in relationship with human spirituality. So the meaning of this verse is understood when we look at a day and night not literally in terms of the motions of the sun or the positions of the sun. We understand it when we look at day and night as signifying light or darkness.
When there is light, normally we do activity. When there is darkness, we cannot do activity. So when there is light, we can see.
We are interested in seeing. When there is darkness, we cannot see. So the verse, what it means is that the activities that interest materialistic people, the activities that are like daytime for materialistic people, they are like night for spiritualists.
That means materialistic people are very interested in sense gratificatory activities and worldly pleasures. But spiritualists feel this is all temporary. Why get so excited about it? There is no need to get so worked up about it.
So in contrast, when spiritualists, they focus on cultivating spiritual wisdom, experiencing spiritual emotion. So materialistic people, what are you doing? You are just sitting and uttering some mantras. What is the point of it all? So this is how the verse can be better understood when we see it in terms of metaphor.
So now the metaphorical understanding is a respected part of the broad bhakti tradition and it is called as gauna vritti. Mukhya vritti means direct meaning. Gauna vritti means indirect meaning.
So the standard example for gauna vritti which is given in Indian philosophy is, if we say their house is on the river or their house is on the sea. Now nobody’s house can be literally on the sea or on the river. What it means is, their house is on the river bank or it is on the seacoast, they have a sea facing windows, whatever.
So when the literal meaning leads to utter absurdity, at that time, the non-literal meaning is taken. So that the overall coherence of whatever the point is mending. So gauna vritti is used primarily when the mukhya vritti does not, not only does not make sense, but actually leads to nonsensical understandings.
Now Shri Madhavacharya has written many, many books, especially explaining scriptures. So one of his books is Mahabharata Parinirnayana. He has also written a book on the commentary on the Vedanta Sutra called the Brahma Sutra Bhashya.
And in that, in both these books, he points this, he says that when we look at the itihasas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, they can be understood at multiple levels, primarily at three levels. This is first is the literal understanding, that these are historical narratives of things as they happen. So when the Lord descends to this world, at that time, he performs extraordinary pastimes.
And just by hearing those pastimes, we can become purified. So when we hear about Krishna lifting over the hill, this is not a poetic exaggeration. I will talk about exaggerations, where they can be useful, literally devices a little later.
But Krishna is God, he is omnipotent. And being omnipotent, for him, those things are possible, which are not possible for us. Now if an ant were going on this box, and I can lift this glass, but for the ant, lifting that glass is impossible.
So this is a physical impossibility. Why? Because the ant’s scale is so small. What seems impossible at one level, is very easily possible at another level.
So if we take this up to the level of God, who is omnipotent, lifting a mountain may seem impossible for us, it is impossible for us. But it is not impossible for God. Because God, by definition, is omnipotent.
He is all powerful. So this is a literal reading of scripture. And those who start in every subject that we study, we start with certain approaches.
So unless we accept some fundamental axioms within the study of that subject, we cannot understand subject properly. So whenever we come to the concept of infinity, something like infinite, infinite is something which we cannot fully comprehend from the finite perspective. So if we consider, say the set of all natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
And within that, I say consider the set of all odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15. Now if I subtract the set of all odd numbers from the set of all natural numbers, what am I doing? The set of all natural numbers is infinite. The set of all, the set of all odd numbers is also infinite.
And now if I subtract the set of all odd numbers from the set of all natural numbers, what do I get? I get the set of all even numbers and that is also infinite. So here I have infinity minus infinity is equal to infinity. But suppose I take the set of all natural numbers and then I take the set of all natural numbers above 2. And I subtract all those numbers, all the numbers above 2 from the set of all natural numbers.
So I will have infinity minus infinity, but that will be equal to 2. So what is happening here? Is infinity minus infinity equal to infinity or infinity minus infinity is equal to 2? Now actually I can take any number. I can take infinite numbers and then I can take up to 10 and subtract all natural numbers after 10. What I will get? Infinity minus infinity I will get as 10.
So basically I can take this and I can get all answers, infinity minus infinity can be 1 to infinity. I can get all possible answers. So the point I am making over here is from the finite perspective, the infinite cannot make immediate sense.
And that is why we have to change the perspective when we look at infinity. And that is why within mathematics, the study of infinity is a different subject in itself. And often the normal laws of physics cannot be applied, normal laws of mathematics cannot be applied there.
So similarly when we approach God, now God is omnipotent. If somebody asks, if I have to lift say this table, then I had to hold, if I had to hold at one point, I had to find out the exact centre of that point and then I had to put my hand there, otherwise I would put my hand on some other side and just turn around and fall off. So in physics this is called the centre of gravity.
So I have to hold the table right at the centre of gravity to be able to hold it, to hold it up. Now if somebody asks, Krishna lifted the Govardhana, it was so big, how did Krishna so quickly find the centre of gravity of Govardhana in order to lift it up? Now Krishna does not have to find the centre of gravity, because he is the source of gravity. Gravity comes from him.
Mayadhyakshena prakriti suyate saccharachara, hetunanena kaunteya jagad viparivartate. Krishna says that material nature works under his supervision. So by his will, gama vishyacibhutani dharyamyamodhusa, ushnami ca ushadi sarva, somo bhutvarasatmakar.
15.13 he says that the earth is sustained by his energy. So the law of gravity is a physical mathematical formulation of the principle that material nature works under God’s supervision. So God can cause the law of gravity to act as he normally does, and he can suspend the law of gravity whenever he desires.
So the literal understanding, all this I am talking about to explain the point that the literal understanding of scripture is also true, because Krishna can do anything. So there is, so the scriptural narratives, the pastimes given in scripture about Krishna may seem to be fantastic, but they are not fantasy. Fantastic means amazing, astonishing, incredible, but they are not fantasy.
They are not just products of imagination. They are actually reality which is manifest at a particular time and history. Now along with this, so the first level at which scripture can be understood is the literal.
Second is the ethical. Ethical means through scripture, we can understand what is right and what is wrong. This person acted in this way.
So for example, Ravana had an evil eye towards Sita and that became the cause of his destruction. So what was right, what was wrong? So Kaikai came under the influence of Mantra and she had her Ram who was just like her own son, banished. So that illustrates how lust or bad association can make us take terribly wrong decisions.
So scripture gives some specific incidents, but those specific incidents illustrate some universal principles and those universal principles can apply in our times also. So to apply scripture, to see scripture ethically means to look at the specific incidents, but to not just see those incidents as historical events. We see those incidents as enactments of universal principles.
So some person gets captivated by greed, somebody else gets captivated by sensual desire, somebody else gets captivated by anger and then they act in ways that are self destructive, that are all destructive. So this is, that means there is a specific incident that happened thousands of years ago. From that specific incident, we generalise and understand a universal principle and then that universal principle we see how I can apply in my life.
This is the ethical application of scripture. So scripture can be read ethically to understand how we should act in our life. The third, he says is, Madhvacharya explains that we can also see scripture spiritually or metaphorically.
Now metaphorically means that scripture contains some incidents that happened, but they also symbolise something, symbolise something beyond what is specific. So for example, Govind Raj is a famous commentator on the Ramayana and he gives the example that when Ravana abducts Sita. So how exactly does this happen? So he explains that Ravana can be said to symbolise the mind and Lanka is the body and Sita is the soul.
So when the soul turns away from Ram, Sita was with Ram, but instead of relishing the presence of Ram, she desired a deer. She turned away from Ram and by that when she turned away from Ram, Ravana took that opportunity and grabbed her. So when the soul turns away from the Lord, then the mind grabs the soul and then traps the soul in the body.
That was in Lanka, that in bodily consciousness. So this is, now this does not mean that Ravana and Ram and Sita, they are all just symbolic. No, there is historic, but historic plus symbolic.
So the symbolism can help us understand scripture at another level. Now Shrila Prabhupada quite often opposed the symbolic interpretation of scripture, especially when it was used to deny the historic dimension of scripture. That means that if some people say that actually the Kurukshetra war, it did not happen.
The Kurukshetra war is just simply symbolic. Krishna is God. Why will God cause a peace loving person to fight a war? So it is simply symbolic.
It is quite a well-known commentator on the Gita. He says that actually, now Vyasadeva is a very learned person, but I wish to say that Vyasadeva has made a serious mistake. And his mistake is that he has used the metaphor of war to give the teachings of the Gita.
And he says that actually because of this metaphor of the war, people may be induced towards violence. And therefore, this is a bad metaphor. So it is a double error actually.
First of all, he is reducing the Bhagavad Gita’s Kurukshetra, the Kurukshetra battlefield to a metaphor. That itself is an error. And secondly, he is also saying it is a bad metaphor.
So now what is the problem? The concern underlying it is valid. Yes, it is not that the Bhagavad Gita is a call for indiscriminate violence. Today when there is so much violence in the name of religion, it is a very important valid concern.
But if you look at the history of the Bhagavad Gita, there have been so many great spiritual teachers who have been inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. And in Sanskrit itself there are, in English itself there are several hundred commentaries, and there are several thousand commentaries in the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. And none of these commentators have told that, oh, if you follow the Bhagavad Gita, that means you should fight a war and kill all your enemies.
No, they have all seen the Bhagavad Gita as a book for elevating human consciousness. So the Bhagavad Gita is neither a book of violence nor a book of silence. It is a book of transcendence.
It is a book that talks about raising human consciousness to the transcendental level. And for this purpose, the Bhagavad Gita is spoken on a setting of a battlefield. So it is historic.
In fact, the whole Mahabharata, the previous Parva in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita comes in the Vishwa Parva, before that is the Udyog Parva. In the Udyog Parva, there is elaborate peace negotiations. The Pandavas go to the ultimate extreme levels of accommodation just to try to avoid war.
And Duryodhana and his cohorts are completely recalcitrant, totally stubborn and obstinate, not willing to concede even, as Duryodhana says obstinately, I will not give as much land as can be used to fit a tip of a needle. So then, by such a statement, he seals his own fate. His fate is that he will be sealed at the tip of an arrow or a tip of a mace.
That is what happens to him eventually. So the point is, the Bhagavad Gita talks about a war which was historical. And the purpose of the Bhagavad Gita being spoken on a battlefield is to demonstrate the universality and the urgency of spiritual knowledge.
Spiritual knowledge is meant for people who are retired, people who have nothing else to do. I am in this world, I have so many things to do. Yes, who can have something more urgent to do than a warrior on a war field? And even for such a warrior, spiritual knowledge is important.
He found that without that spiritual knowledge, he was paralysed. Now what should I do? I am completely confused. So we all, we may be in the thick of things.
I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do that. But sometimes we just get a breakdown, emotional breakdown, psychological breakdown and we just don’t know what to do at that time. So at that time, we need some kind of counselling.
So the Bhagavad Gita illustrates this kind of breakdown which happens on a battlefield. And there the spiritual wisdom of the Gita offers uplifting wisdom. So what the battlefield setting of the Gita demonstrates the universality and the urgency of the Gita’s message.
So the point here is that when we talk about symbolic explanations, symbolic are in addition to the literal or the historic. They are not in substitution for the literal. Now there are some cases where the literal may not be relevant.
The literal may not be the primary thrust. I give the example of say what is day and night. So in the Bhagavatam, there are many places where there are facts and figures given.
So there are numbers and figures given. Now the point of the Bhagavatam is not to stress these numbers and figures. So for example, it is said that in the sixth canto, it is said that there was a king named Chitraketu and he had 10 million queens.
Now this 10 million queens, is this a literal figure? If you look at the context of the story, now the story is about a king who desperately wanted to have progeny and whatever he did, he could not get progeny. And if you look at the overall storyline, in that overall storyline, the main message is that materially one cannot become happy. Initially, the king had no son.
So he was miserable. Eventually, by the mercy of some sages, one of his queens got a son and then he was very happy. But then afterwards, through a series of vicissitudes, his son died and he was devastated.
So the whole point of the story is that materially no arrangement can make one happy. The first point is that although he wanted to have a son, he had so many queens, but still he could not get a son. Eventually, somehow he got a son, but then he lost him, so he could not be happy.
The point of the story is to talk about how materially one cannot become happy. And for this central message, the exact count of the queens is not very important. The point is he had many, many queens.
And the sheer number of queens, it doesn’t matter. It is not that he as a king was everywhere doing a roll call to see if 10 million queens are in attendance or not. No, it is said that after he got a son from a particular queen, he neglected the other queens.
That means that earlier he was paying attention to the other queens also. So how can one man pay attention to 10 million queens? He is not God. He is not at this point talked about as having any mystical powers.
He is a king, a powerful king, a virtuous king, but still he is ordinary human being. So in this particular story, Prabhupada also when he talks about it, he says later on in a parable, he had hundreds and thousands of queens. Prabhupada doesn’t say that specific count.
He is not at hundreds of thousands. He is not hundred into thousand. Hundreds and thousands.
Basically the point is a large number of queens. So now if we consider this and compare this with Krishna lifting over them. Now when we talk about Krishna lifting over them, the central point over there is of the narrative is Krishna is God and God can do anything.
So saying that this is a poetic description or poetic exaggeration that actually drives away from the thrust of the message that Krishna is God and he can do anything. But in the case of Chitraketu, there is no such case like that. It is Chitraketu, he is not God and that Chitraketu was capable of having so many queens.
That is not the message of the Bhagavatam. The message of the Bhagavatam through that story is that he could not be happy no matter what particular arrangement he made. So in this case, the literal facts may not be very important.
So there is no need to make adherence to the literal acceptance of this an absolute necessity. So Bhaktanath Thakur in his Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit, he talks about how the same one God is understood by different people in different ways and based on their understanding he is revealed differently. So because Bhagavatam is also poetry, at some times poetic ornaments are used.
So we have to look at the Siddhanta. The Bhagavatam Siddhanta is that Krishna is God. The Bhagavatam Siddhanta is not that say Chitraketu can have so many wives.
So if we look at the Siddhanta and see things in the light of the Siddhanta, we will be able to understand. So all this is the background to explain what Bhaktanath Thakur does in Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit. Now Bhaktanath Thakur lived about some 150 years ago roughly.
He wrote most of his books from 1870 to around 1900. 1865 I think he wrote his first book. So now Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit, he talks about the demons in Krishnila in two of his books.
One is the Krishna Samhita and the second is the Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit. And Bhaktanath Thakur lived at a time when the socio-religious culture in India was experiencing a tremendous change. Now prior to this in the 17th century, in the 16th century, there were debates say between impersonalists and personalists.
There were debates between various different kinds of people. But at this particular time, the Britishers had come to India and they had brought not only modern technology with which they won the wars against India, Indian rulers, but also they had brought the scientific world view. And many Indians who had been educated in the scientific world view were looking at their own, the Indian scriptural wisdom with scientific and often sceptical eyes.
So at such time, Bhaktanath Thakur, he wrote an essay on the Bhagavatam. And in that essay, he explains that when we approach a work like the Bhagavatam, we need a disposition of open-mindedness. He says a critic is a person who can simply find faults and such a person cannot learn from anything.
Whereas, he talks about the word sympathetic critic. Sympathetic critic means a person, it is not that they will believe anything and everything, but they before evaluating something, they try to walk in other people’s shoes. They try to understand the other person’s world view.
And after understanding that world view, then they try to evaluate it. So he says if you want to understand, if you want to even evaluate a work like the Bhagavatam, we have to become sympathetic to the way in which the author of the Bhagavatam is writing. And he talks about Krishna Leela at that time.
And he explains that Krishna’s pastimes, which are described in the 10th Canto of the Bhagavatam, they are the summit of the Bhagavatam. And these pastimes, the scriptures tell us that hearing Krishna’s pastimes is extremely purifying. Shunvatam Sukha Krishna Punya Sravana Teerthana Rudhyanta Stoya Vadrani Vidhunoti Suramsakam.
They cleanse the heart of impurities. So then he gives a further explanation of how this cleansing happens. And he explains that there are various demons in Krishna Leela and these demons represent specific anarthas.
And these anarthas, anartha means meaning or value or wealth. And anartha means that which has no meaning, no value, that which has no wealth. So anartha, that which is meaningless, that which is valueless.
So there are many, when we say anartha in the heart, that means there are desires, there are cravings within which ultimately lead to meaningless and valueless actions. And these need to be overcome. So when we hear Krishna Leela, in a general sense, the anarthas are cleansed, because Krishna is all pure.
But additionally, when we hear Krishna Leela, at that time, specific Krishna Leela can lead to the elimination of specific anarthas. So I will briefly describe the first time of Putana and then I will talk about, I will conclude by talking about how Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains this. So the Bhagavatam picks the narrative of the Putana Leela with Vasudeva and Nanda Maharaj meeting in Mathura.
And at that time Vasudeva tells Nanda Maharaj, please go back to Vrindavan as quickly as possible, because Kamsa is extremely unpredictable and dangerous. What he may do at any time, we can’t say. Nanda Maharaj hears this and he becomes filled with anxiety.
And taking permission from each other, they part. Nanda Maharaj rushes back. And while he is on his way back to Vrindavan, so the first attack of a demon that Krishna experiences, he experiences when his father is not there.
Krishna’s father, his original father Vasudeva left him in the childhood, because he himself was in danger. And then his foster father Nanda Maharaj, he was also not there at that time. So Gopal Champu, which is a book written by Swami, elaborates on the 10th Kanta description of the Putana Leela.
And he says that Kamsa called this ferocious demoness who was Nishacharini. Nishacharini means Nisha is night. Charini is one who moves about.
So demons move about at night. That means it’s not that they can’t move about in the day, but it is that they become hyperactive at night. Night is their home territory.
That is the time when they can act. So he called her and he told her that you have to go and kill Krishna. So at this particular time, Putana, she is called Yathudhani specifically.
There are different kinds of Rakshasas. She is Yathudhani. And she actually was very, very brutal.
And she specialised in the brutality, she specialised in killing infants, in killing babies. So Krishna was a small baby at this time. And then she was told, normally she would go in a hideous form and she would just throw aside whoever came in the way.
And whichever baby she wanted to target, she would just catch them and destroy them. But because she also had some kind of sense that this child is not all, this child is a dangerous child. And that’s why she took on a very attractive form.
And she could change her form. So she changed into a very beautiful looking form. And she came into love.
And then the Vrajavasis saw this very beautiful maternal looking woman. And they just felt, oh, who is this? And some of them felt, oh, maybe this is the goddess of fortune. And she has come, because our Nanda Maharaj is so virtuous, so she has come to nurse Nanda Maharaj’s son.
And they all just gave her the way. And when she came into the house of Nanda Maharaj at that time, Yashoda and Rohini were there and they were nursing Krishna. Balram was in another room at that time.
He was also a small baby. And when they saw him, when they saw this beautiful lady, they too were charmed. So it’s described that here, how can somebody like Yashoda or Rohini, how can they become illusioned? So this was the arrangement of Yoga Maya.
Yoga Maya is a divine illusion that facilitates things for Krishna Leela. So in traditional cultures, actually, it is said that to raise a good child requires a good village. Raising a child is not just one parent’s or one family’s responsibility.
The whole community contributes to that. And that’s why when a child is born in a traditional community, everybody would come together and celebrate. So taking care of the child was not just the mother’s responsibility, certainly the mother’s primary responsibility, but not only the mother’s responsibility.
That’s why when this beautiful woman came, now they couldn’t recognise who she was. But by her look, she looked so sweet, so maternally affectionate that both Yashoda and Rohini were disarmed. And normally, a mother would not allow, no mother will allow a stranger to even pick up her baby.
What to speak of allowing, say, a stranger to breastfeed a baby. But because she was such an expert disguiser of herself, she created an aura of maternal affection. She said, she told Yashoda that, Oh, your child is so lovely.
Such a child, if I had such a child, I would not let him come off my bosom for even one moment. How is it that this child is just lying next to you and you are sitting peacefully? Your heart must be made of stone that you can tolerate separation from such a child. Alas, just by seeing this child, I am filled with such an irresistible longing.
I cannot live. I must take this child and hold it to my bosom. She spoke like this.
Yashoda was taken aback and she just didn’t know what to do. And very affectionately, Putana took the child and put her on his bosom and she started looking at him. Now, she looked at Krishna, but Krishna did not look at her.
Krishna closed his eyes. And then she started breastfeeding Krishna. When she was breastfeeding Krishna, she had actually put very deadly poison on her breast and Krishna would take the milk.
In taking the milk, her plan was that Krishna will take the poison and he will be killed. Now, when Krishna started drinking the milk, at that time, he kept drinking the milk, kept drinking the milk. Now, he is the person who is the source of everything in the world.
And everything comes from him, but it does not affect him. So, even whatever poison is there in this world, that poison also comes from him. So, what if the poison has come out of him, it comes back again into him, nothing is going to happen.
So, he took in the poison and nothing happened. And then he took in the milk. And Putana was thinking that normally this poison was so dangerous, just a small touch of the poison would be enough to finish anyone.
But this child was just drinking and drinking and drinking. And he kept drinking the milk and Putana started feeling that now the milk is already over and this child is still suckling and suckling. And she just became panicked and said, leave me, leave me.
But Krishna, when he holds on to someone, he never lets go of that person. So, Krishna just held on to her. And demons, they can often change their forms.
But to stay in the changed form requires an investment of consciousness. They have to make a conscious effort. Okay, I am in this form and I will stay in this form.
But that is why whenever the demons face a great danger, where it is a matter of life or death for them, and they are just fighting, at that time, their mask falls apart, their masquerade falls apart, and they relapse into their normal forms. So, as Putana, she started realising, Gopal Champu gives the example that sometimes a snake may come along, slither along the ground, and then it sees a creature, which it thinks it’s a mouse. And then it thinks, I will catch this mouse and swallow the mouse.
But then, it takes the mouse in its coils, and then it finds it’s not a mouse, it’s a mongoose. And the snake wants to throw away the mongoose, but the mongoose has caught the snake. So, like that, Putana thought, this is just a small baby, and I can kill this baby at any moment.
But this baby, it turned out to be so powerful, it didn’t know what to do. She wanted to just throw away the baby, but the baby would not go. So, she tried to physically run away.
And she just got off from the room where she was so affectionate, just ran out of the house and started running to the forest. Her hope was that in running so fast, the baby will fall off. But as she was running, she came back to a natural form, and her natural form was gigantic.
And the Vrajavasis, they were just so stunned. You know, sometimes if we go into, if we are outside our room, and we see some nice sweet young man going into the house, and then we come, see, somebody looking like a terrorist with machine guns in the hand coming out. Hey, what happened? Somebody went in, somebody else came out.
The Vrajavasis were shocked over there, what is happening? So, this ferocious looking demoness, she was just running out. And as she was running so fast, her form was so huge, that her running appeared to be like a thunderstorm. And as she was running, she actually could even fly in the air.
And she just running, running, she just took off into the air. But as she took off into the air, Krishna kept holding on and holding on and tightly and sucking her life. And as she fell to the ground, the Vrajavasis felt as if it was an earthquake happening.
And when she fell on the ground, her body was so huge, the Vrajavasis felt as if another mountain range has been created over there. And then, Yashoda and Nanda, Yashoda and Rohini, they were almost paralytic. They didn’t know what to do.
Paralysed completely in agony. And some of the Vraja ladies, they saw that Krishna has been taken out. And whereas the affection for Krishna paralysed Yashoda and Rohini, that same affection for Krishna, that galvanised some of the other Vrajavasis.
They just charged out. And they fearlessly, when they saw Putana falling on the ground, just ran over there. And they ran over there and they saw Krishna on her chest, still playing peacefully, enjoying himself over there.
They just ran and grabbed Krishna. And they grabbed Krishna and brought him back. And when they came back, they saw that Yashoda and Rohini both had fainted.
Yashoda, Rohini, Krishna is safe. Krishna is safe. They were calling out.
But they were just not coming back to consciousness. And there was a wise old Vraja lady. She said, I know what to do.
And what she did, she took Krishna and she placed her on the bosom of Yashoda. And although Yashoda was unconscious, when she felt Krishna on her bosom, immediately her hands went around Krishna. And then her eyes started flipping.
And then that lady said, Krishna is there. Krishna is safe. Krishna is with you.
And Yashoda opened his eyes. And then they took Krishna and they placed her on Rohini there. And Rohini also came back to consciousness.
And then Yashoda fondled Krishna, caressed Krishna, smelled his hair. And then she suddenly looked around and she said, oh, but where is Balram? Is he safe? And she was almost like putting Krishna aside and charging out to look for Balram. So Rohini said, no, you wait, I’ll go and see.
And Rohini went to the next room and Balram was sleeping peacefully throughout this. So Rohini brought back Balram. And at that time, it was, both of them became very happy.
And then Nanda Maharaj came back. By this time, Nanda Maharaj, he had started off from Mathura and he came back. By the time he came back, this whole pastime had already happened.
So what the Vrajvasis did is that they decided that this demoness is so terrible, we don’t want her to be seen also in Vrindavan. So they decided to perform her last rites. And when they performed her last rites and they burnt her, she was a hideous demon.
But when she was burnt, her whole body gave out fragrance. And that was because Krishna had touched her. The touch of Krishna had purified her.
So the Garga Samhita describes that Putana was actually Ratnamala. She was the daughter of Bali Maharaj. Some people say it was a sister, but the Garga Samhita explains the daughter.
So in the previous, in an early incarnation, when the Lord had come as Vamana, Vamana was also a young boy. And when Ratnamala saw this boy, she felt, oh, such a sweet boy. How fortunate will be that lady who is the mother of this boy.
So she had maternal affection for that mother, for that boy, Vamana. But when afterwards she saw this same Vamana, who took away all the wealth of Bali and had Bali arrested, then her whole disposition changed. And she felt that, oh, this child is so cunning, so wicked.
I want to kill him. If I had any power, I would give poison and would kill this child. So she had both these desires in relationship to the Lord.
And the Lord in the next life, in a future life, he when he came as Krishna, that same Ratnamala came as, she came as Putana and she did both those things. She offered milk to Krishna and she offered poison to Krishna. But Krishna is so kind that he overlooked the poison.
And in the Balde Vidya Bhushan, he has written a commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranama and two of the names in Vishnu Sahasranama are Nimisha and Nimisha, the Lord who never blinks his eyes and the Lord who blinks his eyes. So why two contradictory names are used over there? Because it is said that when the Lord sees some devotee and that devotee commits a mistake, the Lord blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake. And when the Lord, when the devotee does some service, the Lord unblinkingly knows that service and rewards the service.
So that’s, so when Putana came along, Krishna saw that Putana is coming. Now her intention was malevolent. So Krishna blinked his eyes and closed his eyes and overlooked that.
Krishna, he purified her of that mentality of malevolence, that evil mentality, and he accepted her maternal affection, which was there in the form of his offering, her offering him milk. And he elevated her. So the idea is that normally the mother offers milk to a infant.
But in some cases, if there are some problems because the mother cannot offer milk, then there are nurses who also nurse the child. So, and one part of nursing may also be breastfeeding. So she was also a person who wanted to breastfeed Krishna.
So that is the position of a nurse. And Krishna elevated Putana to the level of a nurse in the spiritual world. So, Uddhapreda ho bakhiyam stanakalaputam.
He says that such is the law that even if somebody approaches him with a malevolent attitude, Krishna overlooks the malevolence and sees the little good and magnifies that good and rewards that good. Now, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, he tells that this story is in which Putana comes in this way. Putana represents, he says, a false teacher.
It’s a very interesting correlation. Why a false teacher? Just as between a mother and a child, there is a relationship of implicit trust. Now, who can be a greater well-wisher of a child than the mother? Similarly, between a teacher and a student, especially he talks about not just a general teacher, but a spiritual teacher.
It is a spiritual teacher and a spiritual aspirant. There has to be a relationship of implicit trust. In fact, the scriptures say that yasa deve para bhakti yatha devi ratha guru tasyaide katite yatha prakashante mahatmana.
Mundaka Upanishad says that just as we have faith in the Supreme Lord, similarly, we have faith in the spiritual master. Then the import of scripture is revealed within the heart. So, actually, sometimes people say, why should I have faith? Why should I have faith in God? Why should I have faith in scripture? Yes, that’s a valid question.
But actually speaking, if we see, the very first act that we do in our life after we are born is an act of faith. And after we are born, the first thing that we do is cry. And normally when we cry, then the mother takes mother takes us and the mother offers a breast milk to us.
Now, at that time, the child has no capacity to doubt. The mother’s breast is offered and child drinks the milk. So, the first act is an act of trust.
And so, there is a relationship of implicit trust between a mother or nurse and a child. But if that mother turns to, if that motherly figure turns to be like Putana, then it’s a great disaster for the child. Now, Krishna was a child for whom it was not a disaster.
Krishna avoided disaster for Putana. So, he was able to reverse the things. But Bhaktanath Thakur stresses that because there is this relationship of implicit trust between the spiritual teacher and the spiritual aspirant.
So, those who abuse this trust, those who are not actually spiritual teachers, but those who simply want to appropriate, misappropriate the prestige and prestige and power that comes by show parading oneself as a spiritual teacher, they are like Putana. They seem externally to be nourishing people’s spiritual knowledge. But what they are offering people is not spiritual knowledge.
They are offering something else, often their own concoctions. And they do not help people to go closer to God. And when they don’t help people to go closer to God, in fact, their ideas may keep people away from God, then they are doing spiritual violence to their followers.
And that is extremely dangerous. Now, there is, of course, it’s a sad reality that in the religious spiritual realm also, there are many people who make such a thing as their business. And they make simply, they use people’s faith, abuse people’s faith for aggrandising themselves.
And of course, recently in Bollywood, there have been movies also which talk about such false gurus. There was OMG, there was PK, I wrote a couple of books about those movies also, answering the questions raised on the movies. The point is that this is a very real and very sad phenomenon, which is there.
The problem with movies like OMG and PK is that they generalise from the bad. And they say that, nobody is denying that there are bad elements within the religious spiritual circle. But to say that that is all that is there in the religious spiritual circle, that is a generalisation, which is wrong.
So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that just as Krishna had a real mother, that is Yashoda, and she was offering, she wanted to offer all her milk with all her affection to her. But then there was a pseudo mother, Putana, who had malevolent intention. So similarly, there are genuine spiritual teachers who offer us the milk, the nourishing wisdom of spiritual spiritual truths.
But there are others who do not offer that, whose intention is not the spiritual elevation. There’s a spiritual teacher who used to say that, now there are many gurus who say that I am God. He says, I have not come to tell you I am God.
I have come to tell you, you are God. So one of the followers of this particular guru, he made a t-shirt. And then the t-shirt is a slogan.
And that became very popular. I was an atheist till I discovered I was God. So now the idea that I am God is the antithesis of the teaching of scripture.
So we are not God, we are Gods. We belong to God. Krishna says this 4.35 in the Bhagavad Gita.
4.34 is, you go to a spiritual master. Go to a spiritual master and learn from the spiritual master. What do we learn from the spiritual master? That is told in the next verse.
Next, this 4.35 states that, we go to a spiritual master, we’ll never fall back again in delusion. As Arjuna had fallen at the start of the Bhagavad Gita. And what will we see? We’ll see, we’ll see all living beings are spiritual as belonging to Krishna.
So we are not God, we are Gods. We belong to God. We are his parts eternally.
And the genuine spiritual teacher, teaches this. So now I’ll conclude with one example to illustrate this problem. Some people say, you know, when you are spiritual, you should not criticise anyone.
You know, everybody is good. Everybody is giving some wisdom. And we should appreciate the wisdom that we should see the good in everyone.
Yes, that is true. We should see the good in everyone. There’s no doubt about that.
At the same time, whenever people are playing a particular role, they have to play that role properly. If they’re not doing that, then that has to be told. So a simple example.
Suppose there is a, say, epidemic somewhere. Say recently, there was a great fear of Ebola epidemic. Suppose there is an Ebola epidemic, and there’s a doctor who is treating people.
And the doctor is giving proper medicine and is working very hard to treat patients. And he’s telling, okay, you have to avoid these environments, you have to avoid this food, you have to take this medicine, and you’ll be cured. And in that same place, there is a quack.
Quack is a fake doctor. And that doctor will say, oh, you don’t have to do anything, you can eat whatever you want, you can go wherever you want, you can do whatever you want. But just come and pay me these fees and take this medicine.
And you’ll be alright. Actually, by that people are not becoming better, people are becoming worse. Now, the people in general may not have the requisite qualifications to know that this particular person who is impersonating as a doctor is not a doctor.
And so at such a time, when a genuine doctor sees that other so called impersonating doctor is misleading people, is hurting people, then it becomes the professional and moral responsibility of this doctor to point out that that is not a doctor, that person is not going to cure you, going to that person is going to make your health worse. Now, that person may be good in many other ways, but that person is not a doctor. So now, similarly, there are spiritual teachers who teach the message of scripture.
And there are others who distort the message of scripture. Now, if Navashila Prabhupada, he would say that, you know, if anybody wants to give any spiritual message, and if they want to teach some their own philosophy, they can teach that philosophy. But if they are going to teach, if they are going to write a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, if they are going to, if they are saying that they are teachers of the Bhagavad Gita, then they have to teach the Bhagavad Gita.
If they don’t, then they are misleading people. Because if somebody says, okay, I want to give a class on Bhagavad Gita, then people come because they want to learn the Gita. But if this person doesn’t teach the Gita, this person teaches whatever they want to teach, then they are misleading people.
So to give an example for this, now suppose, say there is a famous international speaker, who is maybe a very famous speaker, he’s come to some part of Maharashtra, where most of the people speak Marathi. They don’t understand English, but the speaker speaks English. But because the speaker is very famous, they have come to here.
Now in between him, between the audience and the speaker, there will be a translator. So this translator is meant to hear what the speaker is speaking, and then convey that to the audience. Now suppose, all the people have come there, and they’re eager to hear.
And the speaker is speaking, and this translator, instead of translating, starts giving his own speech. And now, suppose the speaker doesn’t understand Marathi, and the audience doesn’t understand English. Then what will happen is that everybody will get misled.
Now, if this translator wants to give their own speech, they are free to give their own speech. But that is when you call a programme where they say, I am the speaker, come and hear me. But if they are coming as translators for somebody else’s speech, then they have to translate.
Now, if in this situation, say there is one person in the audience, who knows English and Marathi. And then he says, hey, this person is doing wrong. You’re not translating properly.
Don’t criticise me, please. Well, this is not a matter of criticism. This is a matter of education.
You know, people need to know what they’re getting. So similarly, when Prabhupada says that if somebody tells, Prabhupada quoted a relatively well known Gita commentator, 9.34, Krishna says, Six times Krishna uses the first person reference. Man, ma, me, main, like that.
Six times in this verse. And there is a Gita commentator who says, actually, we don’t have to surrender to Krishna. We have to surrender to the unborn within Krishna.
And where is Krishna saying this? This is not Bhagavad Gita as it is. This is Bhagavad Gita as you are. So Prabhupada said, if that’s what you want to teach, you can teach that.
But then don’t claim that you’re teaching the Bhagavad Gita. This is an example of some people say, oh, we are reading between the lines. We are giving the deeper meaning.
Well, actually, you are reading so much between the lines that you are missing the lines only. You are not seeing what is there in the message. So when we talk about false spiritual teachers, it is not with a judgemental attitude where we are criticising others.
No, if people are representing something, they should represent themselves properly. If they want to teach their own things, they can teach their own things. But if they’re teaching the Bhagavad Gita, they’re presenting the Vedic wisdom, then they have to teach that Vedic wisdom.
And just as Bhutana actually bewildered everyone, similarly, the spiritual teachers can bewilder everyone. And not spiritual teachers, the false spiritual teachers, they can bewilder everyone. So Bhutana had the exact form, she had assumed the exact form, which would appeal to the maternal instincts of all the ladies around Krishna.
Oh, she looks just like a mother. And that’s how they were all lulled into a sense of complacency. Similarly, many times people who claim to be spiritual teachers, they may be very good at the externals.
They may have maybe a long beard or whatever looks saintly according to the current cultural conception. And they may even quote something from Sanskrit. They may sometimes even shed tears.
They may do everything that will make people think they’re spiritual. They’re spiritual. But the test of spirituality is bhakti, pareesha, anubhava, viraktiranya trache.
The test of spirituality is how much is one attached to Krishna. And how does the test that one is attached to Krishna? When we have pareesha, anubhava, bhakti is the process that gives us experience of God. And when we get the experience of God, the result of that experience is viraktiranya trache.
One becomes detached from other things. So attachment to Krishna leads to detachment from things other than Krishna. One doesn’t crave for worldly experiences because one is fully satisfying experience in Krishna.
So the genuine spiritual teachers, they are not interested in fame and power and prestige. They’re interested simply in Krishna and sharing Krishna with others. So that, that Putana did not have this was revealed when Krishna contacted her.
When Krishna contacted her and she was thinking I’ll be able to kill Krishna. But actually, she just couldn’t take Krishna. So like that, when these false spiritual teachers come in contact with Krishna, then that falsity gets exposed.
That means with the light of scriptural wisdom, light of the Gita, when that comes in contact, then whatever they’re teaching, which is not correct, which is improper, that gets exposed. And that’s why when we are trying to study spirituality, we may say, oh, how will I know who’s the right teacher, who’s the wrong teacher? Yes, that is true. That is not so easy to know that.
But we have to understand that truth is one. Illusions are many. Just like three plus three is six.
Now, if I say what three plus three is not, that is infinite. Three plus three is not seven, three plus three is not 77, three plus three is not 777. There are millions of things that three plus three is not.
But three plus three is six. So like that, we don’t have to go about exploring all the spiritual teachers to try to find out who is right. Ultimately, the spiritual path is a path of connecting with Krishna.
So we pray to Krishna for guidance rather than worrying, you know, is my spiritual teacher genuine or not? What we should focus on is, am I genuine or not? Do I really have a sincere desire to know God? Do I really have a sincere desire to learn life’s ultimate purpose? Do I have a desire to know and love God? Or do I just want some figurehead spiritual teacher who will pat me on the back for doing what I am doing? That means many people, they think that, oh, I want to do good things. And one of the aspects of good life is to also be spiritual. So I want a spiritual teacher who will let me do whatever I want to.
And as long as that spiritual teacher, so people come to their house, guests come to their house. Oh, this is my showcase. This is my TV.
This is my dog. And this is my guru. So they want, many people want a guru to be just another cosmetic in the good looking facade of their life.
So they want the guru to be just there on the showcase or on the altar and give blessings to them, not give any instructions to them. Don’t ask me to change my life. Just ask, just let me do what I want and give me your blessings.
Well, then we are not really going to a guru. What we are going to is, so when we have, we don’t have any desire to learn to mould our life according to any higher principles, then the problem is that we ourselves are not looking for a guru. What we want is a rubber stamp on what we are doing.
And if that’s what we want, that’s what we will get. But if we want to know life’s ultimate purpose, then Krishna is there in our heart. Krishna from within our heart will guide us towards the right path.
So when we understand this principle that there may be people on the spiritual path who may not be bona fide, that doesn’t mean that we just have to become become paranoid about the spiritual path itself. We understand the spiritual path is ultimately connecting with God with a sincere devote, with a sincere intention. When we have that sincere intention, Krishna will guide us forward and Krishna will bring us to him, bring us to the spiritual master, the spiritual master will bring us to him.
So just as when Putana was brought in contact with Krishna, Putana’s falsity was exposed and Krishna’s glory was revealed. So similarly, when we come in contact with Krishna, whatever previous conceptions we may have had, our falsity is exposed and Krishna’s glory shines forth in our heart. And whatever misconceptions we have, they get dissipated and emanate steadily onwards towards Krishna.
And as soon as Krishna returned back, all the Brajavasis were jubilant in celebration. So like that, Guru is a person who is outside, but Guru also creates certain conceptions or misconceptions within our heart. So because of those misconceptions, we are unable to focus and advance in bhakti.
But when Krishna manifests in our heart, all those misconceptions are destroyed. And then just as Vrindavan erupted with celebration, like that our heart also erupts with celebration, devotional joy, when the misconceptions that are there in the heart are destroyed. The various misconceptions that are there in the heart, created by the lower moods, they get destroyed.
And then, with the cheerful dispersion, we start serving Krishna, and the knowledge of Krishna completely illumines our heart. And then we become liberated from material existence. That is life’s ultimate perfection.
To summarise, I started by talking about how the scripture is timeless revolution coming to us to fulfil the human need for knowledge. Animals have primarily instinctive knowledge. The difference between humans and animals is humans can learn a lot of knowledge, especially knowledge that is trans-instinctual, beyond what we learn from our instincts.
And that knowledge is a need for understanding life’s ultimate purpose. And scripture fulfils that need by giving us timeless knowledge. At the same time, this timeless knowledge comes in particular forms, say, Bhagavad Gita comes in the form of poetry.
And poetry sometimes uses ornaments such as non-literal or metaphorical devices. So I give the example of yani shastra bhutana, what is night for all living beings, day for the self-realised. That is, that cannot be understood literally, that has to be seen non-literally as referring to area of activity or inactivity.
And then we discuss Madhvacharya’s explanation of scripture as historical truth, literal or historical truth. So Krishna is omnipotent, and that is why he does not have to find the centre of gravity, he is the source of gravity. Krishna’s Leela is fantastic, but it is not fantasy.
He is omnipotent and he can do anything. Along with the literal, there is also the ethical understanding of scripture. Ethical understanding means that scripture gives specific incidents from which we understand universal principles.
And those universal principles, how we apply in our life. So how we should resist lust or resist greed, or resist selfishness, this we can learn from scripture. The third link is the metaphorical understanding of scripture, where the symbolic is in addition to the historical.
So now in some cases, the symbolic may be, the symbolism may be what is primarily important, such as in the count of 10 million wives, where the count is not important, the principle that extravagant material arrangements also cannot guarantee material happiness, that is what is important over there. But with respect to Krishna Leela, the point is Krishna is omnipotent, Krishna can do anything. So there it is not symbolic instead of the historical, it is symbolic plus the historical.
I discussed the Kurukshetra pastime, the Kurukshetra war, that is not symbolic, that is historic, it is symbolic also. Historic and symbolic go parallel over there. And that parallel also applies to Krishna Leela.
So we discussed the Putana pastime, where Putana by her appearance disarmed all the Vrajavasis and that is how she deluded them. But Krishna was not deluded. Krishna removed her poisonous mentality, removed her poison and her poisonous mentality and delivered her.
So Putana, Bhaktivedanta Thakur explains, represents the false spiritual masters. So just as there is a relationship of implicit trust between a mother or a nurse and a child, similarly there is a relationship of implicit trust between a spiritual master and a spiritual aspirant. And those who abuse that implicit trust are like Putana.
And we discussed that when we talk about different spiritual teachers, they are entitled to their different views. But if they are representing something, then they have to teach what they are representing. Just like if a person is a doctor, is claiming to be a doctor, then they should be able to offer proper medicines.
If they are quacks, then it is the professional and moral responsibility of a doctor to tell people that this person is not a proper doctor, this person is a quack. Similarly, people want to concoct their own philosophies, they can do that. But if they are claiming to teach the Bhagavad Gita, then they have to teach the Bhagavad Gita.
Otherwise, they are misleading people. Just like if people are coming to hear a famous speaker and the translator, instead of translating their speech, starts giving their own speech, then they are misleading people. So, when there is pointing out that this is not a proper spiritual teaching, this is a proper spiritual teaching, this is not criticism, this is actually education.
And this education is for the purpose of our making healthy choices. And how do we know whether a particular spiritual master is proper or not? Now, we may not be able to know initially. What we should focus on is, what is my intention? If my intention is simply to do what I want to do and just have a spiritual stamp on what I am doing, then I am not really interested in the right spiritual dimension.
And then I will get a spiritual teacher who will also not be interested in telling me about spiritual life. But if I am interested in knowing life’s ultimate purpose, if I have a sincere desire for higher wisdom, then it is Krishna’s responsibility to guide us towards the sources of that higher wisdom. And when we do our part in trying to cultivate a sincere intention, Krishna will guide us towards those who will give us spiritual knowledge.
And then with that spiritual knowledge, just as when Krishna came in contact with Putana, Putana’s falsity was exposed. So, like that, whatever misconceptions we may have, when we come in contact with Krishna’s wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita, those misconceptions will be exposed. And just as Vrindavan became joyful after Krishna freed it from Putana, similarly, our heart will become joyful when the misconceptions that have come from false sources that are there in our heart, when they are removed, and our heart will become a celebration of devotion.
Thank you very much. We have a few minutes. Does anyone have any questions? Yeah, we’ll come to you.
We’ll come to you. One minute. One question.
So, does Krishna manifest the different leelas such as Bala Leela, Pavan Leela and Yovan Leela in the spiritual world? Or is there only one leela in the spiritual world? No. There is a book by Kavi Karanapur called Anandam Champu, which explains that Krishna manifests different forms and different moods with different devotees. So, he says the Kaishoraru, the 15-16 year old youth Krishna, that is the original form of Krishna.
And from that form of Krishna, whichever relationship is being performed, that particular form and mood manifests. That means when Krishna is relating with the Gopis, at that time, he manifests in a youthful form. When he is relating with Yashoda and Nanda, at that time, he manifests in a smaller child form, where that relationship can be facilitated.
So, whereas, the progression here is a progression from, say, Bala Leela to Pavan Leela to Yovana, that is chronological here. In the spiritual world, it is parallel. That means all the associates are there at the same time in the spiritual world.
And whichever leela is being performed, Krishna manifests the appropriate mood and the appropriate relationship at that time. So, the spiritual world is primarily, everything in the spiritual world is meant for the facilitation of love. And whatever is required, that is manifested by Yogamaya.
So, Krishna manifests whichever form is required, whichever mood is required for reciprocating with different devotees. So, in that sense, all the Rasas and all the relationships in the Rasas are present, but they are parallel, not chronological. Yes.
So, when the Bhagavad Gita talks about Jnana, Karma and Bhakti equally, why is Bhakti emphasised more? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita does definitely talk about Jnana, Karma and Bhakti, but it does not talk about them equally. There is a clear development of thought in the Bhagavad Gita. And yes, we can say that different people can interpret the Bhagavad Gita in different ways.
And for us to decide what is the right interpretation will be very difficult. That is true. At the same time, we can have some objective markers.
Say, what could be the objective markers? Say, for example, A, just now I gave a class. Now, different people may like different points from the class. Some people may not like any points, whatever it is.
But the thing is, if at the end of a class, I give a conclusion, then that conclusion is like a summary, whatever points I wanted to convey as important, they come in the conclusion. Isn’t it? So, if somebody says, no, no, this class, I gave this conclusion, but the actual conclusion was something else. Well, then that is your own class.
That is not my class. Isn’t it? So, similarly, if you look at the Bhagavad Gita, there is a lot that is taught in the Bhagavad Gita, no doubt. But there is a conclusion to the Gita.
And what is that conclusion? That is, sarva-dharman parityajya maam ekam saranam vraja, aam tvam sarva-papa eva moksheshya maam vraja. Now, there is, it is very categorical, sarva-dharman parityajya, give up everything else. And Krishna is not just saying, sarva-papa parityajya.
He says, sarva-dharman parityajya. That means, he is not just saying, give up all bad things. He is saying, give up also all good things or things which you consider to be good.
And what you should do? Maam ekam saranam vraja, saranam vraja. So, that means, if you look at the chronological flow of the Gita over there, what Krishna has told is, I have given you many levels of instructions, but put aside everything else. And if you look at the flow over there, in 18.63, Krishna says, Arjuna, you deliberate now and decide what you want to do.
Vimrishsheta dasheshena yathe chisi tadhar kuru, deliberate and decide. But at that time, Arjuna becomes lost in thought. Krishna, you have taught so many things and so many things.
What should I be doing? And when Krishna sees Arjuna lost in thought, at that time, Krishna tells, I will tell you very clearly, sarva-guhyatamam bhuya, shudume paramam bhaja, ishto sine dudhante tato vakshante tam. Now, I will give you the most confidential knowledge. Krishna uses actually so many intensifiers in this verse.
Sarva-guhyatamam, most confidential knowledge. Bhuya, okay, he has given it earlier. Shudume paramam bhaja, supreme words.
So, second intensifier. Ishto sine dudhante, you are very dearly loved by me, very strongly loved by me, dudha ishto. We have a very intense affectionate bond.
So, I am not just doing some, like a salesman selling a product. I really have your good at mind. Ishto sine dudhante tato vakshante tam, for your benefit I am speaking.
So, from the context, Krishna is clearly saying, this is my highest message. And then further also in the message, one will say, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam shivanam bhaja. So, in any spiritual path, or any spiritual book, there are two main messages, that the sadhna and that the sadhana.
Sadhana is the means and sadhya is the goal. That is like, if I want to go to a journey, I will decide, where do I want to go? I want to go to Calcutta, I want to go to Melbourne, I want to go to New York, where do I want to go? And second is, how am I going to get there? So, sadhya and sadhana, the goal and the means. So, the sadhana, Krishna makes it very clear, it is bhakti.
Give up everything else, just mam ekam shivanam, shivana is bhakti. And what is the sadhya? What is the goal that is taught in the Bhagavad Gita? Now, to understand this, we can look at the first person’s destiny. That means, the original student of the Bhagavad Gita is Arjuna.
And suppose say, you know, we go and get some class from some spiritual teacher, and then at the end of that, somebody else goes and says, after the class, some person who is attending this goes, you know, you spoke this, I like this, you spoke this. And then, if they say yes, they don’t contradict it, they accept it. So, what happens is, Arjuna, at the 10.8 to 10.11 in the Bhagavad Gita, that is called the chatushloki Bhagavad Gita.
It is like the four words essence of the Gita. And after that, Arjuna gives his understanding of Krishna’s message. He says, He says, you are the absolute truth, you are the supreme person, you are the original God, you are the highest absolute truth.
And it is not just I saying it, this is the great thing. And then after that, from that point onwards, he asks, Arjuna asks Krishna, okay, please tell me more about your glories, please help me to understand you better. So, when Krishna and Arjuna gives this conclusion, Krishna does not contradict it.
So, the point is that from the Bhagavad Gita’s own narrative, the sadhana is bhakti, and the sadhya is Krishna. Now, those who want to follow other paths, they can also find support for those paths in the Bhagavad Gita, no doubt. The Bhagavad Gita does not condemn the path of jnana, it does not condemn the path of karma, it does not, but it puts them in a hierarchy.
The people on the path of jnana after many lifetimes, they will come and practise, they will come and surrender to me. He says, those who practise the path of karma, ultimately, what do they have to do? They have to offer the karma to me and become my devotees. So, the Bhagavad Gita is a book which has its own thought flow.
And if we take certain sections out of that thought flow, then we can say the path of karma also, the Bhagavad Gita talks about the path of jnana also. Yes, it does definitely talk about it. Because these are valid and valuable paths for spiritual growth within the broad Vedic tradition.
And the Bhagavad Gita acknowledges that. But at the same time, the Bhagavad Gita does not have an all paths are right attitude. Now, once one person asked Prabhupada, in America, Prabhupada was giving a lecture, he said, Swamiji, I don’t know the words in the Gita, but I’ve heard the Gita says that, you know, whatever you do, Krishna says, you will come to me.
So, when Prabhupada asked, if that is the case, then why does Krishna have to speak the Gita? If whatever you do, you’re going to come to him, then Krishna doesn’t have to speak the Gita. So, the Gita doesn’t teach this. So, it is not a, the Gita is not licencing a spiritual licence Now, whatever you do, it’s right.
It does say that, okay, the path of karma is good, the path of Jnana is also good. Both are good, because both lead to spiritual growth. But Krishna gives a hierarchy.
So, it is not that certain Bhakti teachers alone stress the Bhakti in the Gita. If we look at the Bhagavad Gita’s own flow, we will clearly see that it emphasises Bhakti. It is not that it rejects other paths, but it harmonises the various paths in a hierarchy that culminates in love.
And love is our deepest longing. So, those spiritual teachers who use the Bhagavad Gita to teach other paths, they are taking sections of the Gita and they are basing their interpretations on sections of the Gita. But they are not taking the Gita in its wholeness and they are not letting the Gita speak its own conclusion.
So, we don’t want to hear, there are many respected spiritual teachers who have taught different paths. And as far as their spiritual advancement is concerned, we respect their spiritual exaltedness. But at the same time, it is not that taking a section of the Gita and making that as the most important part reflects the Gita in itself.
We have to look at the Gita’s own flow. And then we have to see the conclusion. And the Gita’s conclusion is that Bhakti to Krishna is the path of Supreme Consciousness.
Yes, we will come to you. We will come to you. No, you can ask.
ॐ देवे शुपा कुळं सत्वा म्रत्मुच्य जेवि तम् देवे विश्या भिर्विर्वुद॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥ ॐ देवे शुपा कुळं सत्वा म्रत्मुच्य जेवि तम् देवे विश्या भिर्विर्व॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥� ॐ देवे शुपा कुळं सत्वा म्रत्मुच्य जेवि तम् देवे विश्या भिर्विर्व॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥� ॐ देवे शुपा कुळं सत्वा म्रत्मुच्य जेवि तम् देवे भिर्विर्व॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥॥� It is that by practising bhakti study, one can transcend demons. So, the 18.40 we see, the focus over there is on the universal necessity of the process of purification. See, 18.40 is the launching pad.
After that, Krishna talks about Varanashram. Krishna talks about the duties of a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra. And then he says, स्वस्वस्वेकर्मन्यभिरतासंसिद्धिम्लबतेमिला। स्वस्वस्वेकर्मन्यभिरतासंसिद्धिम्लबतेमिला। He says, by doing one’s duty in a mood of devotion, स्वस्वस्वेकर्मन्यभिरतासंसिद्धिम्लबतेमिला। स्वस्वस्वेकर्मन्यभिरतासंसिद्धिम्लबतेमिला। by worshipping the Lord through one’s work, one can attain perfection.
So, that means that we could give an example, say, if there is an epidemic that can affect everyone. So, you may say, oh, I have never had any disease in my life, but still you can get an epidemic. So, the point of saying that nobody is free from the danger of that epidemic is that everybody should take the vaccine.
Everybody needs the vaccine. And if they take the vaccine, they can be protected. So, 18.40, when it says that actually nobody is beyond the modes, the stress of that verse is that everybody needs to follow the process of dharma by which they can rise from the lower modes to the higher level of consciousness.
And that we have the capacity to rise to a higher level of consciousness and that we can become liberated. That is talked about in 14.20. Thank you. Hare Krishna.
As a householder, what are the rules followed by Lord Krishna? In terms of food, in terms of child-rearing? Okay. As a householder, what are the rules followed by Krishna? Actually, when Krishna comes to this world, there are two distinct aspects to his living. One is that by his living, he sets an example for others.
But another is, by his living, he demonstrates his transcendence. Means he demonstrates his distinct, unique position. So, for example, it is said that there is a chapter, I think, 70th chapter in the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam where it is described how Krishna did the various duties of a householder.
Now, he would chant prayers and he would chant mantras and do prayers in the morning. He would give charity. He would arrange for hospitality of guests.
He took diligently the responsibility of getting his sons and daughters married. He would hear spiritual wisdom. He would go to holy places.
So, basically, whatever the standard duties of a householder as described in scripture, which broadly comprise the staying, doing one’s worldly duties in this world, that is called as aparadharma. Our duty to our family, our duty to our nation, our duty to our community. All these are important.
They are aparadharma. And there is paradharma. Paradharma is our duty as souls.
See, we are souls in material bodies. So, because we are in a particular material body, we have certain duties associated with the body. But at the same time, we are souls.
And a soul also has a particular nature. So, today when we talk about dharma, people talk about duty, they talk primarily about duty in terms of things related to the body. Oh, I have to take care of my family.
I have to make sure that my children get educated. They get well placed in jobs. They get married.
These are what people think of as duties. They are duties, but they are aparadharma. They are duties connected with the body.
But we are not just our bodies. We are souls. And as souls also we have spiritual duty.
And the spiritual duty is to connect with Krishna, to develop our love for Krishna. And so, Krishna, it is described in the Krishna Buddha, the duty of a person is not just to do world duty, but is also to meditate on the absolute truth. Now, Krishna would wake up in the morning and he is the absolute truth.
So, he would meditate on himself. But we are not meant to meditate on ourselves. We are meant to meditate on Krishna.
So, Krishna demonstrated both the apara and the paradharma. And sometimes for demonstrating the paradharma, he would transcend the normal principles of dharma. So, we should learn from the Guru Sadhu Shastra, from the sages and scriptures, which of Krishna’s activities are examples for us to follow and which are for anukaran, which we should follow in his footsteps and which are the activities that are meant to demonstrate his divinity, his transcendence.
So, Krishna performed Raas Leela. So, people say, I will also perform Raas Leela. So, Prabhupada would say Krishna performed Raas Leela when he was 8 years old.
But at the age of 7, he lifted Govardhan. So, he said, first please lift Govardhan, then you can perform Raas Leela. So, there are certain activities of Krishna which demonstrate his divinity.
And that we are not meant to imitate. That is just to help us understand that he is God and to help us develop our devotion to him. But there are activities which he did to demonstrate the principles of dharma.
And those we can take as examples for us to follow. Does it answer your question? No, did not he have concrete duties that he carried out as a householder? Concrete duties, I mean, as I said, yajna, dana, tapa. These are the three primary ways in which duties occur.
Yajna means doing sacrifice. Dana is doing charity. Tapa is doing austerity.
And those Krishna did demonstrate in his activities. Thank you. Yes.
I also have a question. Ok. Till the mic goes there, does anyone have any question here? Ok.
Ramji. Yes, Rajpalji. As you beautifully explained the Krishna yajna.
So, by our acharyas, you did not explain why Krishna closed his eyes when Krishna came to him. So, can I know some reasons why Krishna closed his eyes? Ok. I have a question.
Just one minute. There is a question. I will come to you.
So, are there any, have acharyas given any reasons why Krishna closed his eyes? See, there are, when you talk about the word acharya, there are many spiritual teachers. And for us, in our tradition, we have Vishwanatha Kriya Thakur, we have Jiva Goswami, Rupa Goswami. And these are the prominent spiritual teachers who have been accepted as spiritual teachers by our prominent acharyas.
Sri Prabhupada, Bhaktsamjha Thakur, Bhaktivinoda Thakur. And as far as I have read, they have not gone extensively into analysing a list. Ok.
These are 8 reasons why Krishna closed his eyes or say 7 reasons why Krishna ate mud or whatever like that. Now, this is not to say that such an analysis cannot be done. This is simply to say that that is not what our acharyas have done.
So, when we talk about Krishna closing his eyes, there are different explanations that are given. But it is not a, it is not an exhaustive list and it is not necessarily an exclusive list also. So, there are different ways it is explained that Putana was, Putana, although she was a demoness, she came in a female form.
And Krishna did not want to, want to attack a female, but she had come to attack him. So, he closed his eyes. So, similarly, we see Ram also had reservations with Dattaka.
Now, the first demon, demon that he had to fight and he did not want to kill her. But then Vishwamitra had to tell her that you can’t just look at the fact that she is female. You have to look at the fact that she is, she is a demoness.
And so, that’s one reason. And as I mentioned that Krishna wanted to focus, she focused on the fact that she had a devotional intention, although her actions were malevolent. And that’s why to avoid looking at the externals and he closed his eyes.
Another also the reason explained that, that although Putana had come to kill Krishna, she was also apprehensive about the power of Krishna. And in order to, in order to lull her appreciations, apprehensions, Krishna just closed his eyes. So, if she was thinking that Krishna is also a dangerous enemy, Krishna will fight and kill.
And normally, if we anticipate somebody is going to come to attack us, at that time we won’t close our eyes. The eyes will be wide open to fight the war at that time. So, if somebody is closing the eyes, that means they don’t think there is much danger over there.
And that means Putana would think that Krishna is not such a great person. Krishna has not even understood that I am anything. So, because Putana was on a rampage of killing children and Krishna wanted to stop her, stop her atrocities at that particular point.
Krishna did not want Putana to go away in fear and kill some other children. So, at that time Krishna, he closed her eyes. By that Putana thought, oh, this is just an ordinary child.
He has just gone to sleep. I can easily kill him. And then after she had lowered her guard and she took Krishna in her lap, then Krishna sucked her poison and sucked her poisonous mentality also.
These are some of the reasons as far as I know. Thank you. Yes, last question.
As you said that sadhya and sadhana, because whatever may be sadhya and sadhana, may become not sadhana in due course. For example, during British rule, attaining independence was a sadhana but that became sadhya. But independence became a sadhana for attaining economic development of the country.
So, what would you like to comment on? Okay. So, when we pursue a particular sadhya, at that time, sometimes the sadhya may become the sadhana or sadhana may become the sadhya. So, how to make sure that we use the means to pursue the ends? Yes.
See, the nature of the human mind is that whatever we do repeatedly, we tend to become attached to that. So, for example, when people drink for the first time, alcohol doesn’t taste good. But just they keep drinking and they develop a taste for alcohol.
In fact, not only a taste, they develop irresistible taste for alcohol. So, the nature of the mind is, you know, somebody in India doesn’t even know about baseball. But they go to America to some university to start studying and everybody is mad for baseball over there.
And six months later, they are mad for baseball. How did that happen? That’s just habituation. So, the human mind, whatever we are habituated to, whenever we do something repeatedly, we tend to become attached to it.
Now, the path of bhakti is the sadhana and Krishna is the sadhya. So, there are nine stages in the process of bhakti. There is nishtha, ruchi and asakti.
They are the fifth, sixth and seventh stages. So, it is described that at the stage of ruchi, one is attached to the process of bhakti itself. But at the stage of asakti, one becomes attached to the object of bhakti, that is Krishna.
That means at the stage of ruchi, one just likes to sing. Sing and dance, sing kirtans, sing Hare Krishna. We may sing Hare Krishna, but we are more caught in the music, in the dancing.
And what we are singing, that doesn’t matter so much. But by the time we come to asakti, we are aware that this is not just music, this is not just dancing, this is not just singing. This is singing about Krishna.
So, in the process of bhakti, even if we become attached to the externals, that is also good. Because those externals also help us draw our consciousness towards Krishna. But by doing those externals attentively, our consciousness will move closer and closer to Krishna.
And then the sadhya and sadhana are both eternal. Because it is not that when after we attain Krishna, we stop practising bhakti. No, in the spiritual world also we practise bhakti.
So, in that sense, the sadhya and sadhana are eternal. It is not like I take a plane to go to New York and after that I leave the plane. Bhakti is not like that.
Bhakti is a process which takes us to the spiritual world. But in the spiritual world also we practise bhakti. So, but as we advance in the process of bhakti, then our focus shifts more from the external forms in which we are practising bhakti to the internal essence of remembering Krishna that comprises the heart of bhakti.
So, the process of bhakti has this inbuilt pushing mechanism by which the means draw our consciousness towards the end. So, thank you very much. Shri Prabhupada ki Jai.
Gaurav Bhaktanand ki Jai. Jai Krishna.