SB 10.9.20 – Mother Yasoda Binds Lord Krishna—Part 02

Giriraj Swami:

[SB 10.9.20]

nemaṁ viriñco na bhavo
na śrīr apy aṅga-saṁśrayā
prasādaṁ lebhire gopī
yat tat prāpa vimuktidāt

TRANSLATION

Neither Lord Brahmā, nor Lord Śiva, nor even the goddess of fortune, who is always the better half of the Supreme Lord, can obtain from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer from this material world, such mercy as received by mother Yaśodā.

PURPORT

This is a comparative study between mother Yaśodā and other devotees of the Lord. As stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 5.142), ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya: the only supreme master is Kṛṣṇa, and all others are His servants. Kṛṣṇa has the transcendental quality of bhṛtya-vaśyatā, becoming subordinate to His bhṛtya, or servant. Now, although everyone is bhṛtya and although Kṛṣṇa has the quality of becoming subordinate to His bhṛtya, the position of mother Yaśodā is the greatest. Lord Brahmā is bhṛtya, a servant of Kṛṣṇa, and he is ādi-kavi, the original creator of this universe (tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye). Nonetheless, even he could not obtain such mercy as mother Yaśodā. As for Lord Śiva, he is the topmost Vaiṣṇava (vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ). What to speak of Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, is the Lord’s constant companion in service, since she always associates with His body. But even she could not get such mercy. Therefore Mahārāja Parīkṣit was surprised, thinking, “What did mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja do in their previous lives by which they got such a great opportunity, the opportunity to be the affectionate father and mother of Kṛṣṇa?”

In this verse there are three negative pronouncements — na, na, na. When anything is uttered three times — “do it, do it, do it” — one should understand that this is meant to indicate great stress on a fact. In this verse, we find na lebhire, na lebhire, na lebhire. Yet mother Yaśodā is in the supermost exalted position, and thus Kṛṣṇa has become completely subordinate to her.

The word vimuktidāt is also significant. There are different types of liberation, such as sāyujya, sālokya, sārūpya, sārṣṭi and sāmīpya, but vimukti means “special mukti.” When after liberation one is situated on the platform of prema-bhakti, one is said to have achieved vimukti, “special mukti.” Therefore the word na is mentioned. That exalted platform of premā is described by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as premā pum-artho mahān, and mother Yaśodā naturally acts in such an exalted position in loving affairs. She is therefore a nitya-siddha devotee, an expansion of Kṛṣṇa’s hlādinī potency, His potency to enjoy transcendental bliss through expansions who are special devotees (ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ). Such devotees are not sādhana-siddha.

COMMENT

So in the purport Srila Prabhupada mentions that when anything is uttered three times it indicates great stress on a fact. Of course we have one famous verse that has two utterances repeated three times and one of them with na, na and na. Can anyone. . .

Audience:

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā

Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma indicates as Srila Prabhupada said, “You must do it! You must do it! You must do it! You must chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names.” And, nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā, there is no other way, no other way, no other way indicates not by karma, not by jnana, not by yoga but only by hari-nāma, which is part of bhakti, most important item of bhakti. 

So here Śukadeva Gosvami is emphasizing the exalted position of mother Yasoda. There are different lokāś or planetary systems or categories of places and some are considered higher and some are considered lower and here higher and lower are calculated in terms of Krishna consciousness, they are actually calculated in terms of Krishna consciousness. So Lord Brahma has the highest planet within the material universe, Brahmaloka but still he is living in the material universe and as Srila Prabhupada has informed us, even Lord Brahma being within the material universe and having the duty to create the material universe sometimes becomes influenced by the conception that he is the creator or he is the chief of the demigods. Lord Shiva also has his abode. Lord Brahma is at the top of devi-dhāma or the material world and Lord Shiva also has his abode called Mahesh-dhāma, which is higher than devi-dhāma. It’s almost spiritual just like Srila Prabhupada said Lord Shiva is almost Vishnu. So Śivaloka is almost spiritual, half of it sort of spiritual and then even higher than Mahesh-dhāma is Hari-dhāma, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, the abode of Lord Narayana. The Vaikuntha planets are fully spiritual and there Sri or the goddess of fortune resides with Lord Narayana and all of them, Brahma, Shiva, and the goddess of fortune are servants of the Lord but they do not have such pure love as the residents of Vraja-dhama, the residents of Vrindavan because the residents of Vrindavan has spontaneous love for Krishna which is devoid of the sense of awe and reverence which is prominent in Vaikuṇṭhaloka and within the vrajavāsīs there are still further gradations of intimacy and service to Krishna. The servants although they too have spontaneous attraction and affection for Krishna but still they have the sense that they are the servants and Krishna is the master not because they think that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead but because He is the son of mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja and they are servants in the household of Nanda and Yasoda and the cowherd boyfriends of Krishna have more intimate relationships with Krishna because they consider themselves equal to Krishna like friends. But the parents of Krishna like Nanda and Yasoda have even more intimate service because in their mood of service they actually consider themselves to be superior in the sense that they are the parents of Krishna, the guardians of Krishna. They have to nourish Krishna, and protect Him and educate Him and control Him. So they are the highest and Krishna, just as a child comes under—not comes under the control of the parents, yes He comes under the control of the parents but He is meant to be controlled by the parents because He is too young to take care of Himself. So they have to take care of Him and within vātsalya-rasa or the parental relationship, mother Yasoda is the best example and therefore Krishna comes completely under her control as we discussed yesterday. 

Now the devotees who render service to Krishna, gives Krishna pleasure and they also experience pleasure in their service and the pleasure that Krishna gets is the function of hlādinī-śakti. Hlādinī-śakti means the pleasure giving potency, which is part of bhakti. Wherever there is bhakti, there is hlādinī-śakti’s presence and the pleasure that the devotees get from devotional service to Krishna is also from the hlādinī-śakti and Krishna becomes as we read yesterday. He is controlled by the love of the devotees, not exactly by the devotees but by the love of the devotees and part of their love is hlādinī-śakti. But hlādinī-śakti is also personified as Srimati Radharani and therefore She gives the greatest pleasure to Krishna and Krishna is under the control of Srimati Radharani to the greatest degree and therefore She is considered the greatest recipient of Krishna’s mercy. And we find in the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta also when Narada searches for the persons or the devotees who have received the most mercy from Krishna ultimately he comes to the point of the residents of Vrindavan and specially the gopīs of Vrindavan but here Śukadeva Gosvami is experiencing the ecstasy of the pastime of dāmodara-līlā and he is considering that no one could receive such ecstasy as mother Yasoda and her service such mercy as mother Yasoda and we find the same phenomenon in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta that wherever Narada went he thought this devotee is the greatest, no one has received such mercy of Krishna as this devotee. And even Gopa-Kumara, as he went from one place to another, one loka to another, he felt this is the best place. Here the devotees do the best service to Krishna.

So subjectively when one is in the mood of a particular place or appreciating the mood of a particular devotee, he or she will feel, “Yes this devotee is the best, this devotee has received the greatest mercy from the Lord and in one sense it’s true because when we get to the absolute platform, everything is supper most. Everything is supper most. Sometimes Srila Prabhupada would visit the temple and he would say these are the most beautiful deities and then he would go to another temple he would say these are the most beautiful deities and he felt it because each deity is the most beautiful deity. In fact, when the gopīs would see Krishna because of the exalted nature of their love, anurāga, every time they saw Krishna, He looked more beautiful than the last time and they felt as if they never seen Krishna before. They had never seen such beauty in their whole life and then the next moment Krishna will look different than the moment before they will think He is even more beautiful than ever. It’s like I have never seen Him before. So that’s the nature of spiritual life, as the Vedānta-sūtra says that brahman is unlimited but it’s always expanding—and same thing with service. Prabhupada would say book distribution is the most important service but then he would say gurukula and taking care of the children is the most important service. In India he would say making life members is the most important service and they are all the most important service because on the absolute platform we can’t really distinguish. They are all topmost. They are all super most. So here mother Yasoda is considered the topmost of all devotees because Krishna likes to come under the control of His devotees and Śukadeva Gosvami is saying that He has come completely under the control of mother Yasoda’s love and therefore she must have received the most mercy from Krishna. Hare Krishna!

So I have been blessed to come here to Houston Dhāma. I forgot to mention Houston Dhāma in the list of dhāma but Houston Dhāma I think is the highest. I feel blessed to be able to come here to associate with such exalted bhrtyas of Krishna and the previous year I came once and this year I came twice I think. Next year three times if Krishna and you all allow. OK. Thank you very much! Look forward to seeing you next time. 

Devotees: Next time, soon.

Giriraj Swami: Oh. Ok! I have to go.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Srila Gurudeva ki jaya!