SB 1.3.28

Giriraj Swami

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

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto One, Chapter Three, “Kṛṣṇa Is the Source of All Incarnations.”

TEXT 28

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

TRANSLATION

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists. 

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In this particular stanza Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, is distinguished from other incarnations. He is counted amongst the avatāras (incarnations) because out of His causeless mercy the Lord descends from His transcendental abode. Avatāra means “one who descends.” All the incarnations of the Lord, including the Lord Himself, descend to the different planets of the material world as also in different species of life to fulfill particular missions. Sometimes He comes Himself, and sometimes His different plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, or His differentiated portions directly or indirectly empowered by Him, descend to this material world to execute certain specific functions. Originally the Lord is full of all opulences, all prowess, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. When they are partly manifested through the plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, it should be noted that certain manifestations of His different powers are required for those particular functions. When in the room small electric bulbs are displayed, it does not mean that the electric powerhouse is limited by the small bulbs. The same powerhouse can supply power to operate large-scale industrial dynamos with greater volts. Similarly, the incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time.

COMMENT

Lord Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. But He is counted as an avatar because He also descends from the spiritual world into the material manifestation on occasion as required. But He is the original Personality of Godhead Who is full in all six opulences. And the Lord’s opulences are manifest in different degrees, in different incarnations, according to the need. Here, Srila Prabhupada gives the example of the electric powerhouse that it can supply as much power as required. It may supply a small quantity of power for some light bulbs because the light bulbs only require a small quantity of power. And similarly, it can supply huge amounts of power to run industrial dynamos because the dynamos require more energy.

So, the Lord has all power and all opulences. But He only manifests them in different incarnations as required by the situation for the purpose for which the incarnation descends. So, this verse is considered the paribhāṣā-sutra verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Srila Jiva Gosvami. The paribhāṣā-sutra is the essence of the work and the principle of the essence of the work governs all the other verses or passages in the work.

So, in one sense, one could say that the entire Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is just an elaboration or an exposition of the verse here. And the implications of the verse are very deep obviously because the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam elaborates on the basic principle, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam that Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. And as we continue to read the purport, we will get some sense of how the verse does contain in essential form, the basic principle that is elaborated throughout the entire Bhāgavatam.

PURPORT (continued)

The incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time.

For example, Lord Paraśurāma and Lord Nṛsiṁha displayed unusual opulence by killing the disobedient kṣatriyas twenty-one times and killing the greatly powerful atheist Hiraṇyakaśipu. Hiraṇyakaśipu was so powerful that even the demigods in other planets would tremble simply by the unfavorable raising of his eyebrow. The demigods in the higher level of material existence many, many times excel the most well-to-do human beings in duration of life, beauty, wealth, paraphernalia and all other respects. Still they were afraid of Hiraṇyakaśipu. Thus we can simply imagine how powerful Hiraṇyakaśipu was in this material world. But even Hiraṇyakaśipu was cut into small pieces by the nails of Lord Nṛsiṁha. This means that anyone materially powerful cannot stand the strength of the Lord’s nails.

COMMENT

So, among the six opulences, strength is listed at the beginning here. And Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva especially exhibited the opulence of strength as described here in the purport. But He also exhibited the opulence of intelligence. Who can suggest why or how in the pastimes Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva exhibited the opulence of intelligence? [Unintelligible 00:17:49–00:17:59] Yes.

After Hiraṇyakaśipu had performed such severe austerities that the whole universe was disturbed, and Lord Brahma had to approach him and offer him some boon so that he would desist from his severe austerities. Hiraṇyakaśipu asked to become immortal but Lord Brahma replied, “I myself am not immortal. So how can I make you immortal?” Then Hiraṇyakaśipu asked for so many benedictions that he believed, indirectly would make him immortal. That he would not be killed on the land, the sea, or in the sky. He would not be killed inside the house or outside the house. He would not be killed by any man, or animal, or demigod. He would not be killed during the day or during the night. Lord Brahma granted all of the boons that he asked.

So, Hiraṇyakaśipu thought that he’d become immortal because he covered all the conditions. And in the end, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva killed him, not just by great strength but also by His supreme intelligence by which, He was able to keep intact all the boons that were granted by Lord Brahma. And at the same time, killed the demon.

So, Srila Prabhupada says that no matter how intelligent we are, we can never be as intelligent as the Lord. Our intelligence will always fall short. And he gave the example of, when Mother Yasoda tried to bind Lord Krishna with ropes, no matter how many ropes she gathered, the ropes were always two inches or two fingers too short to bind Him. So Srila Prabhupada said, “In the same way, our intelligence will always fall short. We will never be able to match the Lord’s intelligence or circumvent the Lord’s desire by our intelligence.” So, one of the major pastimes of the Seventh Canto, was the story of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva and Hiraṇyakaśipu. So, we can see how the Lord appeared to kill Hiraṇyakaśipu, who was the enemy of Indra and give protection to Sri Prahlada who was a faithful [Unintelligible 00:21:44]. And therefore, that pastime is more or less an elaboration of the principle stated here.

PURPORT (continued)

Similarly, Jāmadagnya displayed the Lord’s power to kill all the disobedient kings powerfully situated in their respective states.

COMMENT

Jāmadagnya is Paraśurāma, the son of Jāmadagniya.

PURPORT (continued)

The Lord’s empowered incarnation Nārada and plenary incarnation Varāha, as well as indirectly empowered Lord Buddha, created faith in the mass of people.

COMMENT

So, the same opulence here can be manifest by or carried by different categories of incarnations. Narada is an empowered incarnation. That means, he was given the power to inspire bhakti. And Varaha is the plenary incarnation; that means, He is full incarnation, He is Vishnu-tattva. And Lord Buddha was also empowered by Narada but indirectly empowered. Although, he had the power to create faith in people, but the faith he created was not directly in bhakti as in the case of Narada. But it was in the philosophy of ahimsa which the Lord wanted Buddha to establish but just as a step on the way to bhakti but not as the direct goal.

PURPORT (continued)

The incarnations of Rāma and Dhanvantari displayed His fame, and Balarāma, Mohinī and Vāmana exhibited His beauty. Dattātreya, Matsya, Kumāra and Kapila exhibited His transcendental knowledge. Nara and Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣis exhibited His renunciation. So all the different incarnations of the Lord indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations.

COMMENT

So, the source must have all the qualities or all the potencies of the things that emanate from Him. Because if He doesn’t have them, then where do the things that emanate from Him, get them from. And Srila Prabhupada used the same argument to establish the personal form of the Lord. Using the same argument in reverse you could say that we have form. We are coming from God or from the Absolute Truth.

So, how can God or the Absolute Truth be without form? God is our father. Krishna is the Supreme father of all living entities. So, we have form and our father doesn’t have form? It doesn’t make sense. So, it is a very simple argument but very powerful that God has manufactured our arms, and legs, and eyes, and ears but He has no hands, or legs, or eyes, or ears. It is not possible. He has everything that we have and more.

So, we have form, so He also has form. But His form is spiritual. And when we are in the conditioned state, our form is material or you can say, our spiritual form which exists as a seed is covered by the material form of the physical body. So, that is why people have difficulty understanding the form of the Lord. Because they think, form means like our form, limited and miserable. So they think, we have form and we are limited, so God is unlimited, He cannot have form. But the logic is faulty because yes, we have form and we are limited, but there is also unlimited form – that is the defect in the logic. They presume that all form is limited because our form is limited. But actually, some forms are limited and some are unlimited. Some are material and some are spiritual. So their logic is defective, but Srila Prabhupada’s logic is perfect. That whatever the origin has, whatever the father has, the children must also have. Whatever is there in the origin must also be there in the byproducts.

PURPORT (continued)

So all the different indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations. Because He has everything that all the other incarnations have. He must be the origin of them. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls.

COMMENT

So, Krishna is the origin of all other incarnations. And therefore, He has all that they have and more. So, the same principle applies to rasa. All the other incarnations manifest rasa to different degrees. For example, Lord Narayana manifests dāsya-rasa and the lower portion of sākhya-rasa which is a friendship with on awe and reverence, friendship with servitude. And Lord Rama exhibits more. He exhibits sākhya-rasa and vātsalya-rasa and with His parents Dasaratha and Kausalya. And it is only Krishna that exhibits mādhurya-rasa. Even the relationship between Lakshmi and Narayana is basically dāsya-rasa, in the mood of servant. But it is only Krishna Who manifests mādhurya-rasa. And even then, there is the expansion of Krishna, Vasudeva Krishna. He also manifests mādhurya-rasa in Dvaraka. But the mādhurya-rasa in Dvaraka is also mixed some with awe and reverence. 

So, the highest manifestation of rasa is manifested by Krishna in Vrindavan with the gopīs, mādhurya-rasa. And just as Krishna is the source of all incarnations, and we can say that all the other incarnations are included in Krishna. We could also say that mādhurya-rasa is the origin of all of the rasas or the ingredients of all of the other rasas are present in mādhurya-rasa. And therefore, the whole Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the culmination of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also an elaboration of the basic principle enunciated here, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. That not only do all the six opulences come from Him, but all the rasas come from Him and are present fully only in Him, in relation to Him.

PURPORT (continued)

His pastimes with the gopīs are all displays of transcendental existence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopīs should never be misunderstood. The Bhāgavatam relates these transcendental pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to understand the transcendental nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs, the Bhāgavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.

COMMENT

So, here is another point that as stated in Bhagavad-gītā the material world [Unintelligible 00:34:49–00:35:01] when reflected pervertedly, becomes the lowest in the material world. And that which is the lowest in the spiritual world, is the highest in the material world. Of course, Bhagavad-gītā gives the example of the tree whose roots are upward and branches are downward. And Srila Prabhupada gives the example that we can see such a perverted reflection, when we look at a tree reflected in the water of a reservoir. In the original tree, the trunk is at the bottom, and the branches and leaves are at the top. But in the reflection in the water, the trunk is at the top, and the branches and leaves are at the bottom.

So, the highest in the spiritual world is parakīya-rasa which is conjugal love with paramour. But conjugal love with the paramour is abominable in the material world, therefore it is the lowest. And in terms of rasa, śānta-rasa is the lowest, just being peaceful. That is the lowest. But in the material world, when we judge externally, someone who is peaceful is the highest. And therefore, impersonalists who don’t have any idea of rasa but just want to negate the material affections or transcend the material affections, they are attracted to śānta-rasa because there is none of the turbulence of the material modes of nature.

But that is just the beginning of spiritual rasa. And the highest spiritual rasa is mādhurya-rasa, parakīya-rasa which is the most turbulent but it is spiritual turbulence. Srila Prabhupada had one and initiated one devotee named Sai who became Siddha Svarupa. And, Siddha Svarupananda, after some time, he left the movement. He had his own movement before he joined. And then after some time, after he took initiation, he left and then started his own movement again. But once, he complained to Srila Prabhupada that, “One thing that I can’t stand about your disciples is that they are always in anxiety.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. That is their love, the gopīs also were always in anxiety.”

Well, maybe we should stop because some devotees may have to go to work. We can have questions and answers and then we will continue tomorrow. Are there any questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:39:10–00:39:33].

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Well, the confusion can come from two types of cultural backgrounds, Hindu and Christian. But I just heard a good answer for people coming from the Christian background. So, I will tell you the story, just because it is a good story. In Poland, the daughter of one lady joined Krishna consciousness, some branch official of Krishna consciousness and so, the mother became very angry and she wanted to make a court case and she got a nun to join her in the court case. So, one of the accusations in the court case was that devotees of Krishna, worship a God Who had affairs with other men’s wives. It is like you said, they would leave their homes in the middle of the night and meet Krishna in the forest, and dance, and play. So, what kind of a God is that? And then the devotee who was representing Krishna consciousness asked the nun, when she was in the witness box, “What is the ring, you are wearing on your finger?” She didn’t want to answer. No. “What is the ring, you are wearing on your finger?” And, she wouldn’t answer. And then, the devotee said that the nuns accept Jesus as their husband and they even wear a ring as a token of their marriage to Jesus. So he said, what kind of a God do they worship that is married to every single nun in the whole country? And then the judge dismissed the case. But as far as you could say the science of the loving affairs of Krishna and the gopīs, the first point is that Krishna has a spiritual body. Now, that itself is very difficult to understand. If someone just understands that Krishna’s body is transcendental and therefore, Krishna’s activities are transcendental, he is liberated. janma karma ca me divyam, evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ. (BG. 4.9)

So, that is difficult and that comes back to the discussion, we just had that the form of the Lord is spiritual. It is not material like forms of conditioned souls. And there, Srila Prabhupada gave various types of evidence. One is that when Krishna was three months old, He killed the Pūtanā, a demon who was very powerful and no ordinary person with a material body could have killed such a powerful demon at the age of three. Yes. Yogis also develop extraordinary powers, but they have to practice yoga. But Krishna never had to practice yoga. He was powerful from birth. Then in the same vein, Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill when He was seven years old. No one with an ordinary physical body could lift a mountain at the age of seven and hold it up for seven days with the little finger of his left hand. And people that have ordinary physical bodies, their bodies grow old. Krishna’s body never aged beyond the age of a young man of sixteen or twenty years. You never see a picture of Krishna as an old man with gray hair, and beard, and walking with a stick, even when He was on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. By material calculation, He was over hundred years old but still He looked like a young man.

So, that is the first one that Krishna’s body is spiritual. And the second point is that the bodies of the gopīs are also spiritual because they are expansions of Krishna’s spiritual energy. Krishna basically has three energies, the spiritual energy, the material energy and the marginal energy. So, the marginal energy, which are us, the living entities, is by nature spiritual. But it has the tendency to become covered by the material energy which is our position. But the gopīs, they have spiritual bodies. And therefore, there is no question of mundane sex between Krishna and the gopīs because mundane sex pertains to the physical body. And again, the same point that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. So, the rasa dance is the original and that is based on love. And the affairs between men and women here is the perverted reflection, and they are based on lust. And again, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes that love means, to desire the happiness of the beloved and lust means to desire one’s own happiness.

So, in the spiritual world, the activities are of love. Krishna only desires that the gopīs should be happy. And the gopīs also desire, only Krishna should be happy. But here, the man and the women get together, but each one is thinking of his own gratification or her own gratification. I mean, one could go on. It depends on who the person is? And the Bhāgavatam itself gives so many arguments that Krishna is already in the hearts of everybody as the Supersoul. So, if He comes out of the heart and dances with them, what is wrong? Where is the impropriety? And then another argument that Srila Prabhupada gave is that everything is the property of Krishna. Like one man in, maybe in Boston in the early days, but he challenged Srila Prabhupada that Krishna danced with other men’s wives. And Srila Prabhupada said that everything is the property of Krishna. And therefore, your wife is also the property of Krishna. So, you are the one who is having the illicit affair, not Krishna.

But it is a difficult subject, and that is why people are advised to begin with the First Canto, then proceed to the Second and gradually study the first nine cantos, before they advance to the Tenth Canto. Because unless they understand the philosophy presented in the earlier Cantos, they won’t understand the Tenth Canto. And that is the problem, people who don’t understand kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. They are jumping to the Tenth Canto, rāsa-līlā, and coming to wrong conclusions. God is the Supreme enjoyer and as Krishna, He showed the Supreme enjoyment, but it is not sex. It is not based on trying to squeeze pleasure out of the bag of blood and stool on your bones and so on. It is pure spiritual love. And the gopīs’ bodies, just like Krishna’s body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. (BS. 5.1), the gopīs’ bodies are the same. But specifically, their bodies are made of mahā-bhāva which is the highest love, the purest love. So, Krishna is not really consorting with women, with physical bodies. He is actually exchanging love with His own energies that are manifested as ecstatic rasa.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:51:20–00:51:30]

Giriraj Swami: Well yes, Jiva Gosvami gives some argument that actually, Radharani and gopīs were married to Krishna. And there are some pastimes that support the idea. But anyway, that is the detail. But the reason Jiva Gosvami did it is because he had followers that were so mundane, they couldn’t really appreciate the transcendental parakīya-rasa. So, he gave some arguments to establish sākhya-rasa which means relations with one’s wedded husband or with one’s wedded wife. And then the other thing that Srila Prabhupada sometime would say that. Of course, this is the other way to about people who want to imitate Krishna that if you want to imitate Krishna, dance with the gopīs, first you should lift Govardhana Hill. Now, if you have the power to lift Govardhana Hill then you can try to imitate Krishna.

Maybe one of the days, we can discuss from the Tenth Canto. Because at the end of the description of the rasa dance, Maharaja Parīkṣit raises the same type of question not for himself but for the sake of others. That Lord Krishna came to establish the principles of religion, dharma. So, how could He act in a way that is contrary to religion or dharma? And then Narsingh Śukadeva Gosvami gives so many detailed explanations in terms of līlā and rasa. But those are somewhat elevated for an ordinary person that is trying to find fault with Krishna. And the simple answer like, once Srila Prabhupada asked me the question that we say no gambling, but we worship Krishna and Balarama. Balarama indulged in gambling. We say no intoxication, but Balarama engaged in drinking vāruṇī-rasa. Of course, we say no stealing, Krishna steal stole butter. And no illicit sex, Krishna danced with gopīs. So, if someone challenges that we worship Gods, Who do all the things that we are not supposed to do, what do we answer?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:55:36–00:55:45]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Srila Prabhupada said that God is Absolute. And therefore, there is no distinction between good and bad, or right and wrong in the Lord because the Lord is Absolute. So, whatever He does is all good. But because we are in the relative world which is the world of duality. So for us, there is good and bad, and right and wrong. And then he gave the example that in the material world, if you steal from someone, the person you steal from will be unhappy. But in the spiritual world, when Krishna stole butter from the gopīs, they were actually happy. Yes, the elderly gopīs did complain to Mother Yasoda that Krishna was coming and stealing their butter and yogurt. And they told Mother Yasoda, “You should control your child. Otherwise, He will go astray.” So, then she started to control Him. And He wasn’t going to their houses anymore and stealing their butter and yogurt. So, then they came back and complained to Mother Yasoda that now, “Krishna is not coming to our house anymore and stealing our butter and yogurt. And we are missing the joy that we used to get from His visit. So, please let Him come and steal our butter and yogurt again.”

So, that is the absolute nature of God that if He steals, His stealing is all good, it is not bad. He gives pleasure, when He steals. But if we steal, we cause misery to ourselves and to others and He gives pleasures. So, that is the absolute nature of Krishna that everything He does is all good. Similarly, if someone leaves the battlefield in an act of cowardice, a person is condemned but Krishna is worshipped as Ranacora. He is worshipped because He is absolute. So, His bravery and His so-called cowardice are the same.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:58:47–00:58:52]

Giriraj Swami: Exactly. Whatever Krishna did, He did for the pleasure of His devotees. So, we can enjoy His pastimes. It is the perfect answer. And another point coming back to Krishna and the gopīs. Of course, in one sense the gopīs didn’t have material bodies, but when they went out to dance with Krishna, their physical bodies or their other bodies were at home with their husbands. And they only came out and danced with Krishna with their spiritual bodies. So, the body that their husbands thought, who were their wives stayed with them. And they just danced with Krishna in their spiritual bodies. And therefore, the husbands didn’t harbor any ill feelings towards Krishna because they thought their wives were there at home with them, that is also in the Bhāgavatam.

So, there are many complexities and intricacies. And people don’t know that the gopīs’ one body was with their husband and that they came out with their spiritual body to dance with Krishna. So, they do need to be educated but the problem is that unless they understand first they are not the body, and Krishna’s body is spiritual and the gopīs’ bodies are spiritual; they will never really understand. But the more we discuss, the more we explain, the more they can get some sense that we are not just worshiping a God who likes to enjoy women. And Srila Prabhupada also quoted as saying that a sweet-maker never likes sweets. So, Krishna has manufactured all the physical bodies in the material world. He is not going to get pleasure out of that.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:02:02–01:02:30]

Giriraj Swami: Well, he says that in the material world, Krishna kills demons but there are no demons in the spiritual world. Similarly, in the material world, the gopīs have husbands but there are no husbands in the spiritual world. Well, these are inconceivable topics and from our position here, we cannot actually understand what is the position in the spiritual world. Sometimes, people say that there aren’t demons but there is the idea of demons. There aren’t husbands, there is the idea of husbands. But what does that mean? We in our position cannot really understand. But the essence of the transactions between Krishna and the devotees is rasa, and the same rasa is there in the spiritual world. [Unintelligible 01:03:56–01:04:02] discuss with words that there is like shadows of the husbands. You will only really know what it means, when you get there.

Srila Prabhupada, ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande, Haribol!

Devotee: Giriraj Maharaja, ki jaya!

Giriraj Swami: Gaura-bhakta-vrnda, ki jaya!