SB 4.30.42 – Krishna Never Forgets Us

 Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

ŚB 4.30.42

namaḥ samāya śuddhāya
puruṣāya parāya ca
vāsudevāya sattvāya
tubhyaṁ bhagavate namaḥ

TRANSLATION

Dear Lord, You have no enemies or friends. Therefore You are equal to everyone. You cannot be contaminated by sinful activities, and Your transcendental form is always beyond the material creation. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead because You remain everywhere within all existence. You are consequently known as Vāsudeva. We offer You our respectful obeisances.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Vāsudeva because He lives everywhere. The word vas means “to live.” As stated in Brahma-saṁhitā, eko ‘py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim: the Lord, through His plenary portion, enters into each and every universe to create the material manifestation. He also enters into each and every heart in all living entities and into each and every atom also (paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham). Because the Supreme Lord lives everywhere, He is known as Vāsudeva.

COMMENT

So the word ‘vas’ means “to live.” And Vāsudeva means the Supreme Personality of Godhead who lives everywhere as Maha-Vishnu. He is the source of all the universes. Then again, he expands as Garbhodakashayi Vishnu and enters in each and every universe and again enters as Kshirodakshayi within the hearts of every living entity. He also enters into every atom as well, so he is all-pervading. The consciousness of the living entity is not all-pervading. Our consciousness is pervading within our body. Just as the sunlight pervades the universe, similarly, our consciousness pervades our body. I am conscious of the pains and pleasures in my body from top to bottom, but I am not conscious of the pains and pleasures in your body. But the Supersoul, Vāsudeva, Paramātmā, He is situated within the heart of everybody, and he is conscious of the pains and pleasures in everybody. So, that is the difference between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. The individual soul, his consciousness is all-pervading within his body, whereas the Supreme Soul’s consciousness is all-pervading in everybody, in every universe, and in every atom in every universe.

PURPORT (continued)

Although He lives everywhere within the material world, He is not contaminated by the modes of nature. The Lord is therefore described in Īśopaniṣad as apāpa-viddham: He is never contaminated by the modes of material nature. When the Lord descends to this planet, He acts in many ways. He kills demons and performs acts not sanctioned by the Vedic principles, that is, acts considered sinful. Even though He acts in such a way, He is never contaminated by His action. He is therefore described herein as śuddha, meaning “always free from contamination.”

COMMENT

So the Supreme Lord is śuddha, he is always pure and never contaminated by sinful reactions or sinful activities. He is like the sun. The sun can go into a dirty place where there is urine and can evaporate the urine and purify the place, but the sun does not become contaminated. So Krishna is all-powerful and he is never contaminated by sinful activities. Krishna is the origin of all religions. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam. Religion means the orders of God. So the orders of God are the codes of religion, but God Himself is beyond religious and sinful activity because He is on the absolute platform, beyond the duality of pious and impious activity.

We in the material world must follow certain regulative principles. One of the most basic religious principles is no illicit sex. But we read in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Lord Krishna danced with the wives of others in the dead of the night. From the ordinary point of view, Krishna’s activities seem immoral. But actually Krishna is the proprietor of everyone and everything. He is the origin and He is the proprietor of the material and spiritual energy. So everyone and everything belongs to Him. Krishna has the right to do with His creation as He likes. So Krishna is beyond the duality of this material world. One of the regulative principles is no gambling, but we read in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Lord Balarama played some game with Rukmi. Balarama is also on the absolute platform, whatever he does is all good. In the material world, stealing is bad, but God is good. He is all-good, absolutely. So when God steals, it is not bad.

If someone comes into our house and steals, we will not be happy. But when Krishna used to enter into the homes of the gopīs and steal butter, they would feel happy. If someone is a thief, he is called chor, and he is condemned. But when Krishna steals, He is glorified, Makhan-chor. Everybody loves Makhan-chor. When Krishna used to go into the homes of the gopīs, He would sometimes steal butter and yogurt and distribute it to His friends, even monkey friends. Sometimes He would even pinch the babies in the house and make them cry. Sometimes He would even pass water on the floor. So, the elderly gopīs complaint to Mother Yasoda. They said that, “Your son is very naughty. He comes into our house, steals our butter, steals our yogurt, and distributes it to His friends. Even if we hide the butter and yogurt in some dark place, there is some effulgence that comes from His body and He can see where we have kept the butter and yogurt hidden. So you should control your son. You should keep your son in the house; otherwise, He will become bad.” Mother Yasoda became concerned because she was thinking of Krishna as her son. She was not thinking of Krishna as God. Out of her love for Krishna, she decided to keep Him in the house. Then again, after some time, the elderly gopīs came to complain to Mother Yasoda that, “We are so unhappy that your son is not coming to our houses to steal butter anymore.” Mother Yasoda said, “You complain that He comes and stealing.” They said “Yes, but we were happier when He was coming and stealing. So, we want Him to come and steal again.” So God is good. He is all-good, absolutely, and whatever He does gives pleasure to others, even His stealing.

 Now, if someone leaves the battlefield, runs away from the battlefield, he is called cowardly and he is condemned. But when Krishna left the battlefield when Jarasandha attacked, He was not condemned but He is worshiped as Ranachor. Now, Ranachor means coward; coward is very bad, but when Krishna acts like a coward, He is worshipped as Ranachorji. So, Krishna is absolute, He is always pure. He is never contaminated by sinful activities. Sometimes people raise the question that all living entities have souls. The plants have souls and animals have souls. So, what is the need to be vegetarian? When you eat vegetables, you are also killing. And when we eat, we kill animals. So, what is the difference? The answer is that in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, if one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or some water, I will accept it. So if we take some plant and offer it to Krishna, we are not responsible for any sin because we are acting on the orders of the Supreme authority, Krishna. If there is any sin, it is Krishna’s sin, not ours. But Krishna is apāpa vidham, He can never be contaminated by sinful activities. So there is no sin in offering vegetarian food to Krishna. But if we eat vegetarian food without offering it to Krishna, there is sin because it is true that when we take a vegetable, we are either killing the plant or at least causing pain to the plant, which is sinful. And everything belongs to Krishna, both the plants and the animals, and we have no right to take another’s property without permission. But Krishna gives us permission to take vegetables on the condition that we offer the vegetables to Him first. So there is no sin if we take kṛṣṇa-prasāda, but if we take any other food, even vegetarian food, it is sinful. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada said “We are not vegetarian and we are not non-vegetarian but we are Krishna-tarian. We only take food offered to Krishna.”

PURPORT (continued)

The Lord is also sama, equal to everyone. In this regard, He states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.29), samo ‘haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo ‘sti na priyaḥ: the Lord has no one as His friend or enemy, and He is equal to everyone.

COMMENT

So who is a friend and who is an enemy? Someone who helps us is a friend, and someone who harms us is an enemy. But Krishna is perfect and complete, and no one can help Him because He doesn’t need anyone’s help. And no one can harm Him, He is always perfect and complete. No one can add to His completeness or take away from it. So no one can be Krishna’s friend or Krishna’s enemy, therefore He is equal to everyone. And, samo ‘haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu, He is the father of every living entity. And as father He love all His children equally. Someone may be a good child, someone may be a naughty child, but still, the father loves all of the children and always wants the best for all the children. Even if one child does some wrong and the father punishes him, the punishment is for the good of the child. If another child, or the same child, does some good, the father may reward the child. But both the punishment and the reward are for the good of the child. So, the Lord is equal to everyone and He is good to everyone.

PURPORT (continued)

The word sattvāya indicates that the form of the Lord is not material. It is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. His body is different from our material bodies. One should not think that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has a material body, like ours.

COMMENT

The Lord is absolute, so there is no difference between the Lord’s inside and outside. In every conditioned soul, there is difference between the soul and the body. With us, the soul is inside the body, and the body is a covering for the soul. So, Krishna is absolute, and there is no difference between the Lord’s inside and outside. He is completely spiritual. The soul is sac-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss, but the body is the opposite, asac: temporary, acid: ignorance, nirānanda: full of misery. But in the case of Krishna, His body is the same, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, and therefore He is called sattvāya.

In conclusion, the Supreme Lord is absolute, and He is all good, whatever He does. And He is all-pervading. He is actually everywhere, and therefore we can never be separated from Him, only we may forget Him. Even if we forget Him, He never forgets us. He stays with us in our heart, no matter where we go or what specie of life we take birth. He is always accompanying us as our well-wishing friend. He is waiting for us to turn towards Him, to surrender unto Him because He knows only if we surrender unto Him, can we be happy. And as the father, He wants all of us to be happy. So we should take the opportunity now and surrender to Krishna. We can also rise above the dualities of material existence, and experience pure life, eternal life, full of bliss and knowledge with Krishna. The best way to realize our eternal nature, or our spiritual nature, is to chant the holy name of Krishna. As you may have heard in the lecture in the hall, by chanting Hare Krishna, we associate with Krishna, and by associating with Krishna, we develop the same qualities as Krishna. We also become sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. So we should all chant Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare