Yashomati Nandana meaning – Seek shelter in the spotless and delightful holy names

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Yeshu Matanandan’s song meaning we will discuss today. This is a song which comprises entirely of the names of Lord Krishna. And in one sense singing this song is non-different from just chanting the holy names.
Of course other songs are also glorification of Krishna and glorification of the holy name also at times. This song is especially so. And because there are so many sweet names of Krishna which evoke the remembrance of many of his sweet pastimes.
So this is especially sweet song which is often sung by devotees during kīrtans. Yashomati Nandan, Brajabharo Nāgara, Gokula Ranjana Kāna So Krishna is Yashomati Nandan. So Nandan is son.
Yashomati Nandan refers to the son of Yashoda. Now the normal name is Yashoda. Yashoda, one who gives fame.
Yashoda was the illustrious person that in whoever’s life she came she brought fame to that person. And another name of Yashoda is Yashomati. So Yashomati means that one whose consciousness was famous.
That means she was so absorbed in Krishna that her consciousness was celebrated far and wide. So Krishna is Yashomati Nandan. Although he is God, he takes the role of a small child who sucks the milk from his mother’s breast, who trembles when his mother becomes angry and wants to tie him up, who feels great fun when he plays some mischief on his mother and thinks that he has outwitted his mother by stealing butter and then saying that I have not stolen butter.
So in this way he demonstrates the perfection of the rasa of Vatsalya. He plays the role of a perfect son so that the rasa of Vatsalya that Yashodamaya relishes can attain its zenith. That Krishna is Yashomati Nandan.
And among all Krishna’s pastimes, though the Madhurya rasa pastimes are by far the highest, but often the Madhurya rasa pastimes are somewhat difficult for us sometimes to understand because they seem very similar at least at our condition stage to the male-female interactions of this world. So Yashomati Nandan, the pastimes of Krishna as a small child, they are much easier to understand. For us they are much more relishable also because of the ease with which they can be understood and they can be universally related with.
Yashomati Nandan, Vrajabharo Nagara. So Vrajabharo Nagara. Now Nagara is the person who is very attractive, like a hero.
One who dances, one who sings, one who is the hero in a particular place. That is Krishna. Vrajabharo.
So Vraja is Vrindavan and in Vrindavan he is the best of the dancers. Vrajabharo Nagara. And his speciality is that he is in Vrindavan at the same time he is also the lord of the whole world and when he dances in Vrindavan, he doesn’t just dance and sing in Vrindavan and please Vrindavan, but he pleases everyone.
So Nagara is the dancer, the hero, the lover. And he is the transcendental lover in the land of Vraja. So Krishna’s Vrindavan dham, we often call it the pastoral paradise.
It’s a paradise, it’s the highest abode of the lord and it is pastoral paradise. So in that pastoral paradise, in that sweet, intimate, endearing actual setting, Krishna exhibits the topmost love between him and his devotees. And Gokula Ranjana Kaana.
So Gokula Ranjana. Ranjana means one who is a delighter. Like we have Manoranjana, that which entertains, that which delights the mind.
We call it as entertainment. That’s a well-used translation of Manoranjana. But Ranjana means one who entertains.
Or that which gives pleasure. That which gives pleasure actually. So Gokula Ranjana Kaana.
Gokula Ranjana means Krishna is a delighter of Gokul. He performs such pastimes that everybody in Gokula is inundated in pools of ecstasy. So as the Damodarashtra Kumarsu says that, that’s it.
So he would drown the residents of his own abode, his own village, that is Gokula. He in ecstasy by his pastimes. So Gokula Ranjana Kaana.
So now Krishna is his name. But in general, whenever there is any name, there is a tendency to, when there is affection, to shorten the name. And to simplify the name, that is not just for practical purposes.
People have long names and to address them by long names is difficult. But along with that, there is also the notion of affection. When two people are affectionate to each other, often they say that you can refer to me by this name.
You can refer to me in short by this or whatever. So like that Krishna is simplified. Krishna is involving a little amount of tongue twisting.
So that is simplified into Kaana. So it’s like one of the pet names of Krishna. Gokula Ranjana Kaana.
Such is the Lord who is being sung about in this song. The first song, first stanza, the first half of the first stanza we could say, it offers us a picture of Vrindavan and that same picture of Vrindavan is continued in the second half also. Gopi Parana Dhan Madana Manohara Kaliyada Manavidhana So Gopi Parana Dhan.
Dhana is wealth. Prana Dhana is the life wealth. That means that which one considers the most important treasure in one’s life.
That for which a person may even consider giving up one’s life. That is life wealth, life treasure. Some people have dedicated something, dedicated their life for a particular cause.
Then they may even be ready to lay down their life for that cause. That’s because that causes their life treasure. They can’t live without it.
So Gopi Parana Dhan. Krishna is the life of the Gopis. He is the life treasure of the Gopis.
And this is evident especially in their pastime wherein he actually, the Gopis are ready to go to hell. It’s one thing to risk life and to die but it’s quite another to die means end of life but actually going to hell means not just losing one’s life but actually gaining an eternity of misery. So for those who know about hell and those who understand the reality of the sufferings which can come for one who makes choices that will take one to hell.
For such a person to accept that choice indicates that that person is really dedicated to a particular cause. The Gopis being ready to give the dust of their lotus feet to Krishna so that Krishna’s headache would be relieved. You all know this pastime when Narada Muni went to various devotees all over the world, all over the universe and no one was ready to give the dust of their feet to Krishna.
But the Gopis immediately gave and Narada Muni told them that you will go to hell for this. The Gopis said yes. We know and we are ready to go if that’s what can offer relief to Krishna for even one moment from his headache.
We are more than happy to go to hell forever. Such was the extent of the love of the Gopis. So that is indicated in Gopi Paranadhan.
Madana Manohar, as it is said over here. Gopi Paranadhana Madana Manohar Hara is to steal. So Manohar is one who steals the mind.
So normally, now the Madana Manohar means one who steals the mind of Madana. So Krishna is one who is Madana Manohar. There is a pastime at a place in Vrindavan called Terakadam where Madana came with his Pushpa bar, this flower arrows.
When Krishna was performing pastimes with the Gopis, Madana started shooting arrows at Krishna. It is said that when Madana’s arrows enter into the consciousness, enter into the heart, that they excite people with lust. So Madana saw that Krishna is here with the Gopis and this young man, these young ladies.
This is a good opportunity for me to shoot my arrows. But he shot his arrows and nothing happened at all. Rather than Krishna getting affected, Krishna just cast his side glance at Madana.
And that was so beautiful, that actually it was from Krishna’s side glance that arrows came towards Madana and Madana fell unconscious, swooned at the beauty of Krishna. And in this way, what essentially happened was that Krishna, that Madana who is supposed to attract and conquer people, so what happened is Madana Manohar. So Krishna, rather than Madana stealing the minds of Krishna, Krishna stole the mind of Madana.
So that is the glory of Krishna and therein lies the hope of devotees also that if we let Krishna steal our mind, then Krishna will drive Madana, then Madana will have no power to steal our mind because Krishna is the master of Madana also. And Kaliyadamana Vidhana. So Kaliyadamana, we know that Krishna danced on Kaliya and overcame Kaliya.
That was no easy task to do. Because Kaliya was an extremely powerful snake and so powerful that he just in the vicinity of the Kaliya kundi, if any birds would flow over it, the birds would fall dead because of the toxicity. And Krishna, how did he not use any weapons? He just danced and danced majestically.
So Krishna was enjoying a majestic dance performance above and below this particular demon, the Kaliya, the demoniac person was being suppressed. And what a majestic dance performance it must have been, we can just contemplate. Now dancing a lot depends on the smoothness of the floor, of the floor being proper.
If the floor is rough or slippery, people can’t dance. No one can dance. But Krishna was dancing on a floor, leave alone it being smooth and steady and firm, it was actually a, it was a moving floor.
And it was not just, there was not even one continuous floor. There were different heads and they were all moving. And they were not just moving, moving unpredictably or moving just in a, in just sometimes in an earthquake they move, they just move here and there actually.
But these heads were moving to specifically try to attack Krishna. So Krishna had to evade the movements of their head and he had to, it was not just one, but many heads. Kaliya had thousand heads and Krishna was just knocking down all those heads one by one by one.
And just two feet. And this snake’s skin is not particularly, it’s often slippery. And especially if the snake has been in water, then water itself makes it further slippery.
So to dance on that was a next to impossible task. And Krishna just did it not just for a minute or two, but he did it for so long that Kaliya got exhausted. So Kaliya, Damana, Vidhana.
So Krishna not only Damana, he defeated him, but Vidhana, he actually made a statement to Kaliya and to everyone watching about the extraordinary nature of his power. Nobody could match him and Kaliya was punished and Kaliya was exiled from Braj Dham by Krishna. Such is the, so all of the first six, first five names in this section talk about very endearing aspect of Krishna.
But the last name also talks about, along with Krishna dancing on Kaliya is endearing, but it also talks about his fearsome strength by which he suppressed Kaliya. So Amal Harinam Amiyavilasa Vipinapurandar Navin Nagar Bamshibadana Suvasa So Amal Harinam Amiyavilasa So here Bhaktunath Thakur, he is just glorifying the name of Krishna and right then, just cannot resist conveying to the readers, conveying to the hearers, conveying to those who are singing with him or those who will sing the song in future, that how sweet it is, so I am relishing it and even if you don’t relish it, know that I am relishing it and you become pure, you will also relish it. So Amal Harinam, so these names which you are chanting, these are spotless, this is spotless name, they are pure and they are purifying.
Amal Harinam, Amiyavilasa Amiyavilasa means I am just Amiya, I am delighting in them and they are, Amiyavilasa means we all can delight in them, everyone can delight in them, Amiyavilasa Vilasa means to delight and Vipinapurandar Navin Nagar So Vipinapurandar Vipinapurandar means Purandar Purandar is the master So he is the master of the forests of Vrindavan Vrindavan actually, there are 12 forests and Krishna is the lord of all the 12 forests, the 12 forests, Krishna is the master of those forests Vrindavan So here it means Vipinapurandar is the lord So Krishna is a god, normally in this world if somebody is a king, normally we don’t say that the person is the king of a forest, we say that normally the king of a city the king has a capital and the king is the capital of the city So Krishna is in that sense the capital of Dwaraka He is the king of Dwaraka, he is the capital and of course Krishna has Dandan Maharaj’s home is also in its own way opulent but Krishna is a Krishna is a god He is very close to nature and one of his glories is described here, he is the lord of the forest, Vipinapurandar He delights in being in the forest and many of his most intimate pastimes are performed in the forest So his glory is that he is the lord of the forest, Vipinapurandar Navina Nagarabora Navina Nagarabora So Navina is ever fresh, ever youthful Krishna is always ever As Yamacharya says that when I meditate on Krishna I get new new rasa and I delight in that rasa So Navina Nagarabora Nagarabora means, Nagar is again lover, Bora is Bora is bada, best, he is the best among the lovers in Vrindavan Navina Nagarabora Vamsivadana Suvasa So Vamsivadana, Krishna plays Vamsi, Vamsi is Krishna’s intimate associate Normally in Krishna’s, in the lord’s pastimes wherever his pastimes are performed, he has some intimate associate or the other, so for example he has Shastra Brahma, Shastra So Shastra Brahma So it says that Ram was Dhanur Dharam and then Parashuram was Parashur Dharam, that’s why it’s called Parashur So they had bows and arrows Vishnu is often depicted with Chakra So actually Krishna, he also uses Chakra sometimes, especially outside Vrindavan that’s required, he also uses bow and arrow and he also uses mace also sometimes, but in Vrindavan Krishna is not killing demons, he is actually attracting his devotees and thus he has his flute and Krishna has different flute, Krishna’s flute music is so sweet that it attracts his devotee’s heart so Krishna’s love for his devotee comes out from his heart through the music of his sound music of his flute and goes out through the holes in the flute or through the atmosphere of Vrindavan goes into the hearts of his devotees and drags those devotees from wherever they are to come to him so the Gopis in the Gopi Gita say that we have been attracted by the song of the flute Udgita, so Krishna is Suvasa is, he is Krishna dresses in an excellent way, Krishna is all attractive and even his dress is, he doesn’t need the dress to be attractive but his dress and hands dress serves him so here there is something similar to so here Krishna is saying so Krishna what is he doing in Vrindavan yes he is performing pastimes with his devotees but there are always demons who keep coming so Krishna destroys the demons and he protects his devotees is protection is destroyer so now what happens so Krishna doesn’t just protect the Rajvasis he also protects their Dharma Krishna tells the Rajvasis that Krishna is also told in Bhagavad Gita that is the Dharma of the Vaishyas and for the prescribed duties so of course Krishna comes to the material world to establish Dharma that in my sense means righteous rule but it also means that protecting people so that they can do protecting people’s Dharma that means enabling people to do their Dharma so for Maharaj in the cowherd they are protectors of cows and for them Krishna is the protector of their cows that’s how when the Govardhanila happens at that time when the Rajvasis are all endangered severely endangered by the torrential rains that are storming down in Vrindavan so at that time what he does is the Rajvasis come first with the cows Krishna says Krishna your cows are in danger so the Rajvasis don’t think of their own protection they think of cows protection they don’t think they are our cows they are Krishna’s cows protect them the Rajvasis are concerned about the cows Krishna is also concerned about the cows so Krishna protects them that’s why he took not only the Rajvasis but all the cows and along with the cows the other animals of Vrindavan also with them so then that Lord is Govinda Madhava Navanita Tashkala Govinda so Vinda is to delight to gain pleasure Vindati Atmani Vindati so Atmani Vindati means to delight within this is the verse that comes in the Bhagavad Gita in 5.20 Krishna says that become detached from external pleasures and seek happiness within so Govinda so Vindati means basically Vindati Atmani seek happiness within so Krishna says Govinda Govinda means one who actually gives pleasure to the cows who gets pleasure from the cows and also when we say go as senses then actually Krishna gives pleasure to the senses also although we say that we have to give up sense gratification to practise Krishna Bhakti but it is not that we have to give up all happiness of the senses Bhakti is sensory spirituality in the process of Bhakti we actually chant Krishna’s name at that time our tongue is involved so like that our tongue is always involved when we relish Krishna Prasad and when we behold Krishna’s form at that time also tongue is involved and in this way what happens is that they are all relishing we do relish with our senses also although there is regulation but there is higher satisfaction of the senses also that comes and of course when we are purified we have pure spiritual form at that time we get immense pleasure Govinda Madhava this lord is no ordinary person he is the lord of the goddess of fortune he is Madhava and he is the lord of the goddess of fortune and he is Navanita Taskar Navanita Taskar he is a stealer of butter now by juxtaposing these two names together Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives us a glimpse of the wondrous nature of God normally if you juxtaposing two opposite words together leads to a literary device called oxymoron let me say if somebody says that he is a courageous coward what does it mean? either you are courageous or you are a coward how can there be a courageous coward so what it means is that that two opposite words are used to convey some deep meaning as it happens when we say suicide is an act of courageous cowardice so like these two opposite names are used over here Krishna is Madhava is the lord of the goddess of fortune goddess of fortune means everything all from the fortune comes from him she is the mistress of all the precious things and Krishna is her lord that means he has everything if he has the one who has everything then why does he need to steal anything that is a great paradox so Madhava and Namita are put together in the same breath here and that indicates that Krishna he steals butter because by stealing butter he wants to steal he doesn’t need butter he is self satisfied he is Atmarama but he steals butter so that he can through the mischief of stealing butter attract and charm and conquer the hearts of the Vajagopis and thus steal their hearts too Krishna possesses everything but Krishna doesn’t possess the hearts our hearts are free because we have free will and that’s what we can offer and Krishna wants to offer our hearts and Krishna in that way comes and steals the hearts so the Gopis work very hard to make butter high quality butter using the whole Vrindavan centres on taking care of cows getting their milk and then churning their milk and gradually making it into high quality butter so the Gopis heart is poured into making butter and Krishna steals that butter Krishna steals thereby their heart and this person who does this Sundara Nanda Gopala Sundara Nanda Gopala he is beautiful and who is he? he is Gopala the son of he is the cow herd now Gopala is a name which is used for Krishna but actually Gopala is a generic name so anyone who is a cow herd can be called as Gopala so the specific cow herd that is being referred to here is specified through Nanda Gopala he is the Gopala who is the son of Nanda Nanda Gopala the prefix of the word Nanda is used to clarify he is beautiful Krishna is all attractive all the beauty that is there in this world that a glimpse of that that is only a spark of Krishna’s beauty Krishna is the reservoir of all beauty and further it is said so what is Krishna on the coast of Yamuna on the banks of Yamuna he moves around and he performs pastimes over there so basically this song is largely offering us a vision of Vrindavan and the pastimes of Vrindavan so one of the very intimate and integral parts of Vrindavan is is Yamuna there so Yamuna is there beautiful river and that Yamuna is present is there is often the venue of Krishna’s pastimes Yamuna Tatacharya Krishna moves around the banks of Yamuna that is Yamuna’s greatest fortune to always be able to behold Krishna’s pastimes and be able to participate in many of his pastimes and Gopi Basana one of the most celebrated pastimes that happened in Yamuna was that Krishna stole his Basana, Basana is the dress the clothes of the Gopis so Krishna stole the clothes of the Gopis so that when Krishna actually was stealing their clothes he fulfilled their desire to have him as their husband in general in a cultured society a woman is never undressed in front of anyone except her husband so when Krishna in that sense he took away their clothes and the Gopis had to come and undress in front of him, Krishna thereby accepted the Gopis as his wives and he fulfilled their desire and of course later when in the Brahma Vimohan Lila Krishna had expanded as all the Gopas, he married the Gopis also and in that way he actually accepted them as as his wives and in Rasa Lila he performed a costume of dancing with them also and that is brought in the next time, Rasa Rasika so Rasa refers to the special sweetness of the flavour of relationships but Rasa refers to a particular particular activity that is Rasa dance, so Rasa and Rasa are different so generally the word Rasa is used with Rasa Lila or Rasa Nritya in English we say Rasa Dance but Rasa Lila is the word that is used but even sometimes just Rasa means especially the dancing and the whole Rasa Lila also but Rasa Rasika, Rasika means one who delights in so Rasa Rasika means Krishna is the one who delights in the Rasa Lila and by delighting in the Rasa Lila what does he do? he actually demonstrates how whatever desires we want to fulfil in this world, those desires of love and happiness which we long to have fulfilled in this world they are fulfilled in their purest and greatest form in Krishna and the reciprocation that Krishna has with his devotees, so the eternal dance of divine love is the Rasa Lila and instead of trying to dance in this world Krishna and the Gopis dance eternally and we can join their eternal dance so Kripamoya, so he is merciful very merciful, why? because this topmost topmost Rasa of the spiritual world he reveals to us so that by understanding that revelation we can become attracted to him and we can attain him Kripamoya, so if Krishna has not revealed the Rasa Lila then we would never know what is this, what is the beauty of the spiritual world, we would have very little glimpse of that and without the glimpse of the beauty of the spiritual world we would not feel charmed by that and we would not want to go towards the spiritual world, just like when we understand that there is a reality then if we are attracted to the reflection we will stop being attracted to the reflection and we will try to go towards the reality, just like if we have seen a reflected mango and somebody tells us don’t go towards the mango, we will feel deprived but if somebody tells us, you see there is a tree over there and that real mango is there on top of the tree, so don’t jump into the river to get the mango, climb up the tree and then you can get the mango so then we will be willing to not jump into the river, so like that when we understand the real love and wonderful happiness that is there in the spiritual world, then when we are told don’t pursue the pleasures of this world in an adharmic way then that statement that injunction makes sense, otherwise it doesn’t make sense at all so Krishna is revealing the topmost rasa in the spiritual world through rasa dance, that is a manifestation of his kripa because then when we see such love and such joy in the spiritual world, we feel that I want to go there and whatever it takes for me to go there, I will do it kripa mohe, it’s his great mercy that he has revealed this Shri Radha Vallabha, Vrindavan Natyapara Shri Radha Vallabha and Bhaktivinoda Thakura has talked about the gopis, he has talked about Yashodamayi, he has talked about Nanda also Nanda Gopala, he has talked about practically everyone in Nandavan and how can a Gaudiya Vaishnava actually live without talking about Srimati Radharani so he mentions Radharani Shri Radha Vallabha that he is the lover of Radharani and he is loved by Radharani that intimate love between the divine couple is the centre of all relationships in the spiritual world and in this way, God has his divine consort and the picture of Vrindavan is not a picture of of isolated single divinity but it is a picture of divine couple and there is divine romance between them and that is the centre of the hearts and lives of all living beings in Vrindavan Shri Radha Vallabha, Vrindavan and Natyapara Natyapara means one who dances excellently Natyapara is the Natyapara is a great dancer and he is the great dancer of Vrindavan Natyapara, so as we discussed that he dances in Kaliya, he dances in the Rasalila, he used to dance even at home and the elderly Gopis would sometimes, Krishna the small child would tell him dance, he would dance at that time also so Vrindavan and Natyapara, he is the mesmerising, captivating, intoxicating heart conquering and Bhaktivinoda Ashraya such a lord is the shelter of Bhaktivinoda so these names are to be chanted reciting these names is very joyful but we chant these names not just to get some entertainment but actually to take shelter Bhaktivinoda Thakur is giving those names and we will all release these names also but then he reminds us of the conclusion that this is the lord we are meant to take shelter of, don’t treat him just as an object of entertainment like we may treat some Batman, Superman or we may treat some historical figures, some leaders who have done some valorous deeds but this is the lord we are meant to take shelter of and by taking shelter of him, we will never be bereaved of shelter we will never be lost, we will attain eternal satisfaction, we will attain his abode and we will live eternally with him and that will be the perfection of our life Bhaktivinoda Ashraya so let us all pray to Bhaktivinoda Thakur who has given us this beautiful song by which we can remember Krishna and take shelter of Krishna that we can all get that shelter of this beautiful lord