SB 2.7.26 – Balarama Purnima

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Two, Chapter Seven, “Scheduled Incarnations,”

TEXT 26

bhūmeḥ suretara-varūtha-vimarditāyāḥ

kleśa-vyayāya kalayā sita-kṛṣṇa-keśaḥ

jātaḥ kariṣyati janānupalakṣya-mārgaḥ

karmāṇi cātma-mahimopanibandhanāni

TRANSLATION

When the world is overburdened by the fighting strength of kings who have no faith in God, the Lord, just to diminish the distress of the world, descends with His plenary portion. The Lord comes in His original form, with beautiful black hair. And just to expand His transcendental glories, He acts extraordinarily. No one can properly estimate how great He is.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This verse is especially describing the appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa and His immediate expansion, Lord Baladeva. Both Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Baladeva are one Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is omnipotent, and He expands Himself in innumerable forms and energies, and the whole unit is known as the one Supreme Brahman. Such extensions of the Lord are divided into two divisions, namely personal and differential. The personal expansions are called the viṣṇu-tattvas, and the differential expansions are called the jīva-tattvas. And in such expansional activity, Lord Baladeva is the first personal expansion of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, as well as in the Mahābhārata, both Kṛṣṇa and Baladeva are mentioned as having beautiful black hair, even in Their advanced age. The Lord is called anupalakṣya-mārgaḥ or, in still more technical Vedic terms, avāṅ-manasā gocaraḥ: one who is never to be seen or realized by the limited sense perception of the people in general. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.25) it is said by the Lord, nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ. In other words, He reserves the right of not being exposed to anyone and everyone. Only the bona fide devotees can know Him by His specific symptoms, and out of many, many such symptoms, one symptom is mentioned here in this verse, that the Lord is sita-kṛṣṇa-keśaḥ, or one who is observed always with beautiful black hair. Both Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Baladeva have such hair on Their heads, and thus even in advanced age They appeared like young boys sixteen years old. That is the particular symptom of the Personality of Godhead. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that although He is the oldest personality among all living entities, He always looks like a new, youthful boy. That is the characteristic of a spiritual body. The material body is symptomized by birth, death, old age and diseases, but the spiritual body is conspicuous by the absence of those symptoms. Living entities who reside in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas in eternal life and bliss have the same type of spiritual body, without being affected by any signs of old age. It is described in the Bhāgavatam (Canto Six) that the party of Viṣṇudūtas who came to deliver Ajāmila from the clutches of the party of Yamarāja appeared like youthful boys, corroborating the description in this verse. It is ascertained thus that the spiritual bodies in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas, either of the Lord or of the other inhabitants, are completely distinct from the material bodies of this world. Therefore, when the Lord descends from that world to this world, He descends in His spiritual body of ātma-māyā, or internal potency, without any touch of the bahiraṅgā-māyā, or external, material energy. The allegation that the impersonal Brahman appears in this material world by accepting a material body is quite absurd. Therefore the Lord, when He comes here, has not a material body, but a spiritual body. The impersonal brahmajyoti is only the glaring effulgence of the body of the Lord, and there is no difference in quality between the body of the Lord and the impersonal ray of the Lord, called brahmajyoti.

Now the question is why the Lord, who is omnipotent, comes here to diminish the burden created upon the world by the unscrupulous kingly order. Certainly the Lord does not need to come here personally for such purposes, but He actually descends to exhibit His transcendental activities in order to encourage His pure devotees, who want to enjoy life by chanting the glories of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.13–14) it is stated that the mahātmās, great devotees of the Lord, take pleasure in chanting of the activities of the Lord. All Vedic literatures are meant for turning one’s attention towards the Lord and His transcendental activities. Thus the activities of the Lord, in His dealings with worldly people, create a subject matter for discussion by His pure devotees.

COMMENT

So this one verse contains the whole philosophy of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which in turn is the conclusion of all Vedic knowledge. Every word is full of meaning that is relevant to us. I first had a glimpse of how the whole philosophy can be contained in a few words, when some friend brought me a copy of Time Magazine in Bombay in about 1975 or 1976. And in Time Magazine then, there was a section called People in which they had a paragraph or two about famous people. And that issue had a paragraph about Srila Prabhupada when he visited Hong Kong, the same trip Hong Kong and the Philippines. And the article began with the sentence, “There is trouble stirring in Nirvana.” And it continued that when Swami Bhaktivedanta, the world leader of the Hare Krishna movement, was asked what he thought about guru Maharaja Ji. He replied, “He claims that he is God but we have to consider whether he is God or dog. Krishna is God.” And he said, “He is cheating the people, but when he meets Krishna he will realize that Krishna is a bigger cheat than he is, and he will lose everything.” So I thought about that and I won’t try to unpack it here because it is the whole philosophy of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And it came to be as Prabhupada predicted. There are many details in the story but this guru Maharaja Ji who was accepted as God, fell in love with his American secretary and married her, which very much upset his mother in India. And thereafter there was a full color picture on the cover of The Illustrated Weekly of India, which is a very famous weekly magazine, and the article described that guru Maharaja Ji’s mother had appointed him as Bhagavān, as God. But since he went ahead and got married to his American secretary without her permission, she removed him as God and placed her other son as God.

Now this sounds ludicrous but sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. And it is because people are so ignorant. We don’t know how fortunate we are. We have this knowledge from Srila Prabhupada so we can understand very clearly viṣṇu-tattva, jīva-tattva, who is God, who is a direct expansion, and who is a living entity. But ordinary people, they are totally bewildered. There are so many people who think as they say, “I am God, you are God, everyone is God, we just have to realize it.” The people of India are very pious, but they can be misled. And Srila Prabhupada, he said that in India there is some God loitering on the street corner in every town and people are so foolish. He gave the example; this is a true example. There was a man in Calcutta who could imitate the barking of dogs, different types of dogs. And he would sell tickets and people would come and hear him. And Srila Prabhupada said that a real dog is available to anyone who wants but they would rather to hear; you can hear a dog bark very easily without paying anything, but people will pay good money to hear an imitation dog bark. So in the same way, the real God is available; Radha and Krishna, Krishna-Balarama, the real God is available. But people want to go to some imitation God.

So this verse includes the phrase, sita-kṛṣṇa-keśaḥ, beautiful black hair. And Srila Prabhupada invoked this idea in relation to another imitation god who was in Pune. There is a history behind all of these personalities, but he had a philosophy that you should gratify your senses as much as you want. And then after gratifying your senses without any limit, you will become detached. Srila Prabhupada said if that were the case then the pig should become the greatest sannyasi. So what happened was that, even westerners, everyone really is pretty ignorant unless they come in touch with pure devotees. So many westerners were also coming to his ashram, and they were having free sex because that was the philosophy there. And you would be surprised, many Indian gentlemen, who appeared to be gentlemen, they would go there on the weekend and engage in that sadhana. So the wife of one of our life members came to Srila Prabhupada and complained that every weekend her husband goes to Pune to the ashram, and he engages in the activities there and it is destroying their family life. And she said she wasn’t the only one, she knows many other ladies and their husbands are doing it and this man, this so-called god, is ruining their families. And Prabhupada said, “Don’t worry, I will go to Pune and I will personally drive him out.”

Now this sounds like a very bold statement, but the words of a pure devotee have great potency just like his prediction about guru Maharaja Ji. And Srila Prabhupada did not go personally. He left us in his physical form in November of 1977, and I believe in January of 1978 we had the first Bombay Ratha-yatra. And it was such a success and the devotees were so enlivened and we had all the paraphernalia, so they thought, Let’s go to Pune and we would do it in Pune. So they went; they set up a camp. We didn’t have a temple there yet and the newspapers, they like controversy, so they went to this so-called Bhagavān and said “The Hare Krishna people have come here, what do you have to say about them?” And he said, “They are being fooled by their guru.” You will see what happens; he was blaspheming, really blaspheming Srila Prabhupada. “They don’t know anything; he is just bluffing them and they are following him.” And then they go to the ISKCON devotees, “So and so said this, what do you have to say?” And so it is going back and forth and it is building up in the newspaper. I will explain why I am mentioning this. He was afflicted by a disease. It was such a disease that his whole this body, skin, was tortured and he could not take any heat at all. So they had to build like an underground accommodation for him and he also lost his ability to speak. Something affected it and then eventually they left Pune. And ironically when it was time for the Ratha-yatra, and I came and the other devotees came from Bombay, his followers approached us if we would like to buy their ashram.

So Prabhupada’s words came true; and this is the Lord’s mercy. Of course one message from the story is how calamitous vaiṣṇava-aparādha is; offending a pure devotee. Even if the pure devotee doesn’t take offense, Krishna and Balarama take offense, and They punish the offender. And that is actually very beneficial, both for the offender so that he stops offenses, and to give protection to the devotees. So offenders are warned that if they do blaspheme devotees or worse than that, attack them, they will be severely punished. And so the idea is that we should not hesitate to surrender to God; to Krishna-Balarama because They will protect us and engage us in divine service.

Now this verse describes Krishna and Balarama in the same terms. And there is a verse in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that says that other than their bodily construction, of course their bodies are spiritual, there is no difference between Krishna and Balarama. And the fact is that the Lord reciprocates with devotees as they surrender to Him. The Lord will, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante, whatever relationship you want to have with the Lord, He will reciprocate. If you want to serve Him, if you want Him to be your master, He will be the perfect master. If you want Him to be your friend, He will be the best friend. If you want Him to be your child, He will be the most wonderful child and if you want Him to be your lover, He will be the perfect eternal lover. And the same applies to whatever form. Here generally in our life, we want to have a relationship with Krishna in Vrindavan; Krishna and Balarama. But still sometimes there can be a little, say; discussions among devotees, differences of opinion on shastra. It is all very purifying and enlightening and that is why the Lord appears; to create a subject matter for us to discuss, so we don’t have to discuss the movie stars or cricket players or whatever your particular modern politicians.

So at the Ardha Khumba-mela in Allahabad in 1971, two of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples had a difference of opinion on philosophy. Madhudvisa Prabhu said that there is no difference between Krishna and Balarama, except that Krishna is black and Balarama is white. And our godsister, Yamuna devi said, “No! There is a difference, there is another difference because Krishna is the only enjoyer of Radharani.” So they were going back and forth, and finally Tamal Krishna Goswami brought the matter to Srila Prabhupada. And he repeated the arguments that there is no difference between Krishna and Balarama only that Krishna is black and Balarama is white. Prabhupada said, “Yes, he is right.” And then Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “But Yamuna devi says that there is another difference because Krishna is the only enjoyer of Radharani.” And Prabhupada said “Yes, she is right.” And Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “But Srila Prabhupada, they are saying different things; they both can’t be right.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, you are right.” So then Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “Well then, who is right?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “You decide.”

So the idea is that on the material plain, when we are in ignorance identifying with the body and false ego there are differences. And Krishna or Balarama, may take action to chastise the demons which is for their interest. But ultimately, Krishna’s goal, and Prabhupada’s desire also, is that everyone should go back home back to Godhead and then all of these differences are reconciled in love. Krishna loves everyone in the spiritual world; He loves us now but we are covered, we don’t realize it. But when we become uncovered by bhakti-yoga, especially saṅkīrtana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, then we realize our love for Krishna and we can feel His love for us. And then our desires are satisfied and our relationships are harmonized. So this is a very beautiful philosophy. It is a very beautiful process and we can actually experience it. I think of so many of the devotees here; they have been practicing Krishna consciousness for forty years or more and why do they continue? Because they are feeling something; they are experiencing something. Our mother Ishani did this beautiful sour outfit for Lord Jagannatha and Lord Baladeva. She was up until three in the morning. That means she is experiencing some reciprocation with the Lord, and we also feel it when devotees see the Lord decorated so gorgeously we also feel her efforts are were successful because the Lord was pleased and because of His pleasure, we also feel pleasure in having His darshan.

So whatever the topic is, that is always likely just a drop out of the ocean. There is so much; in one talk Srila Prabhupada gave in Los Angeles, he was saying “Don’t waste time; if you have time, chant Hare Krishna.” And he said “We have so many books; you could spend your whole life studying these books and never come to the end.” So we have so much engagement and so we should give our hearts to Krishna and Balarama and Their associates; give ourselves fully to this process that They have given us and They will reciprocate and our lives will be completely successful and sublime.

Hare Krishna.