Lord Balarama’s Appearance Day

Giriraj Swami: So today is the auspicious appearance day of Lord Balarama. According to Vedic knowledge, Lord Krishna is the absolute truth which means that He is the origin of all that be. And his first expansion is Lord Balarama. Sri Brahma-saṁhitā gives the example that if you have one candle, from the first candle you can light the second candle, and from the second candle you can light the third candle and so on. And all are of the same substance- fire. All are of the same candlepower, but still there is one original candle. So the original candle, or the original Personality of Godhead is Krishna, and His first expansion is Balarama, and from Balarama comes so many other expansions, and incarnations of Godhead. In term of their līlā, or pastimes on earth, Balarama appears as the older brother of Krishna. As we read in Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s song, 

brajendra-nandana jei, śacī-suta hoilo sei,
balarāma hoilo nitāi

Lord Krishna, who is the son of Nanda Maharaja, the king of Vrindavan and Balarama played as the older brother of Krishna. They enjoyed many pastimes together, in the forest of Vrindavan and with their cowherd boyfriends, and with their parents—Nanda and Yasoda. Of course no one can really be the father or mother of God. God is unborn and eternal. But to reciprocate in love, in intimate love, in sweet intimate love with their devotees, Krishna and Balarama accepted some special devotees as their mothers and fathers, for the sake of their pastimes. And they accepted other devotees as their boyfriends, others as their girlfriends. And thus they enjoyed pastimes of love in Vraja.

Balarama is considered the original spiritual master, as the first expansion of Krishna, he has knowledge of Krishna. And he is also the first servant of Krishna. So the spiritual master has two functions; he gives knowledge of god, and engages in service to god. He teaches his disciples the science of Godhead, and he engages them in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So Balarama is the original spiritual master. Bala means strength, and rama means enjoyment. He personally enjoys spiritual pleasure that is derived from spiritual strength, and he also bestows spiritual strength by which one can enjoy transcendental pleasure. And therefore devotees pray to Lord Balarama to bless them with spiritual strength. The Vedas say that without being blessed with spiritual strength from Balarama, one cannot make any advancement in spiritual life. And Srila Prabhupada has explained that strength in the spiritual sense, really means intelligence. So Balarama gives us the intelligence, how to serve Krishna, how to remain fixed in Krishna consciousness, in spite of all the obstacles, that we may face on the path. At present we are in the age of Kali, which is the worst of the ages. There are so many anomalies in Kali-yuga, 

mandāḥ sumanda-matayo

manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ

In Kali-yuga, people in general are lazy, unfortunate, misguided, hypocritical. Their duration of life is short, their physical strength is diminished, their memories are diminished. And above all they are always engaged in quarrel, doesn’t matter what it is, they are always engaged in quarrel; so they are always disturbed. It is difficult to make spiritual advancement in the age of Kali. And out of compassion for the fallen souls in Kali-yuga, Krishna and Balarama have descended in their most merciful form as Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda to bestow the great treasure of love of Godhead on fallen souls of the age, especially to the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, chanting of Hare Krishna. And the chanting can be done individually, as we chant on the japa-mālā, or without the mālā, it can be done individually or it can be done congregationally, as we just be doing, singing together with musical instruments. Although one can sing without the instruments as well.

But the most effective process is to chant together, and therefore the association of devotees is so important. In the association of devotees, we can chant the holy name together, in saṅkīrtana and discuss the glories of the Lord. And therefore Srila Rupa Gosvami who was the chief disciple of Lord Chaitanya, he has enumerated the five most potent processes of devotional service, and the first is nāma-kīrtana—the chanting of the holy names, and bhāgavata-śravaṇa—the hearing of the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and sādhu-saṅga – the association of devotees, especially the association of devotees who are more advanced. And murti sevā - as we are seeing, the beautiful worship of the deities, and mathurā-vāsa or residing in the holy place, or in a place where the deities are installed, and devotees gather to chant, and hear the glories of the Lord. These are the most powerful processes. But out of them the first and foremost is nāma-saṅkīrtana—the congregational chanting of the holy name. That is the special gift of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, who are the same Krishna and Balarama, descended from Vrindavan to bestow their special mercy upon all of us. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? 

[Unintelligible 00:10:40] Prabhu, would you like to say something?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:10:45–46]

Giriraj Swami: How can he give his mercy?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:10:47–49]

Giriraj Swami: How can you get his mercy?

Well, we mentioned the five processes. We didn’t mention taking prasāda, but that is also another way to get mercy. I hope you will be able to stay because sometimes we have to, [Unintelligible 00:11:18–21], we are getting closer. But maybe my hearing your question—how can we get the mercy of Lord Balarama does give a clue to how we can get the mercy of Lord Balarama.

I think of Srila Prabhupada’s statement in Los Angeles, in order to approach Radha and Krishna, we need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya we need the mercy of Lord Nityananda, and to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, we have to approach people who are like Jagai and Madhai. So in Kali-yuga in particular, we do seek the mercy of Krishna and Balarama, in their forms as Gaura-Nitai, by chanting the holy names and try to induce others to chant the holy names and join the saṅkīrtana movement. 

Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:13:10–00:13:30]

Giriraj Swami: Very good question. After Krishna and Balarama enjoyed their childhood pastimes in Vrindavan, they went to Mathura to deal with King Kamsa, who was a terrible demon, who was harassing the residents of Vrindavan. And then from Mathura, they proceeded to Dvaraka, and established their capital there. And they lived as royal princes, and according to the social system called varnashrama-dharma, people who act as rules and administrators – kshatriya, they enter grihastha ashram. So they set the example and entered grihastha ashrama. And they appeared to have children, although they did not really have children, the way ordinary parents have ordinary children. But Lord Krishna was concerned that if His family members continued to survive that they would claim some special rights, or some special privileges because they were His descendants. So he arranged a special pastime by which his direct descendants appeared to quarrel amongst themselves, and thus they destroyed the whole dynasty coming from Krishna. But it is explained that what really was happening is that Krishna wanted to end hHs lineage, so that in the future no one could claim any special position, on the basis of being born in that lineage. And the other side of it, is that Krishna is winding up His pastime on earth, and His so-called children and grandchildren are actually His eternal associates. So he needed to create some occasion by which they could also finish their pastimes at earth at the same time, and accompany him. So certainly they are very powerful and spiritual. But by this particular pastime, Krishna arranged for all of them to go back to Godhead, and not leave any descendants. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:16:48–00:17:01]

Giriraj Swami: There is a lineage from Lord Nityananda—Nityānanda-vaṁśa, and unfortunately they do claim to have special positions, because they are descendants from Lord Nityananda-Balarama. But in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, we don’t actually accept qualification by birth, we accept qualification by one’s qualities and behavior. And in fact, the descendants in the Nityānanda-vaṁśa, they actually claim that unless you are initiated by someone in the family of Lord Nityananda, you are not connected and you cannot progress. But our acharyas, the Gosvamis and others, they won’t accept the system of seminal succession; they accept disciplic succession.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:18:26-00:19:15]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I was thinking of the verse by Rupa Gosvami that when someone is suffering from the disease called jaundice, the actual cure is sugar candy, in Ayurveda. But because of the disease, one tastes the candy as being bitter, one does not like the taste. But still on the doctor’s order we take it, and as we take it, gradually the disease is cured, and gradually we can taste the sugar candy for what it is, which is sweet, like nectar. So in the same way we conditioned souls are affected by the disease of ignorance or avidya. And the medicine to cure the disease is the chanting of the holy name. So even if we don’t have taste for it in the beginning, if we continue to chant then gradually the disease of ignorance will be cured, and we will be able to relish the actual sweetness of the holy name. But that is a good prayer—to always remain in the association of devotees, chanting the holy name. Good prayer to present to Lord Nityananda. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:20:50–00:21:14]

Giriraj Swami: Oh yes we want to hear and chant in the association of devotee; you wouldn’t say you are a servant. But there are many people out there who chant now, who aren’t devotees, and chanting with them, and hearing from them won’t have the same effect; won’t bring the desired results, so it is a good point. 

We will have ārati now?

Sri Sri Krishna-Balarama ki jaya

Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya

Sri Giri Govardhana ki jaya

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya