Balarama Purnima

Giriraj Swami: Krishna is the origin of everything. And the Brahma Samhita, and again other Vedic literature, explain that Krishna's first expansion is Balarama. The Brahma Samhita gives the example that if you have one candle, and from that one candle you light a second candle, and from the second candle you light a third candle, and so on, all of those candles will have the same candle power, that is the same flame, but still, there is one original candle, and the original candle is Krishna, and the first candle after Krishna is Balarama. 

So Balarama is considered the original spiritual master because He performs two functions that are performed by the spiritual master. One is He serves Krishna and the other is that He gives knowledge of Krishna. And in His desire to serve Krishna, He wants to serve Krishna in every possible way, and in terms of rasa, or transcendental mellows, or relationships, there is the mood of servitorship, and so sometimes Balarama acts like a servant of Krishna, of course, everyone ultimately is a servant of Krishna, but He is in the mood of being a servant of Krishna. Then He also serves Krishna in sākhya-rasa in the mood of a friend as a brother, as an equal, and because He is the older brother, He also serves Krishna in vātsalya-rasa, in the mood of parental affection. And then there is another rasa called mādhurya-rasa, and that can be, one can enter that relationship with Krishna only in the form of a female, of course, all of these forms are spiritual, it is not like a material female, or material male, and so Lord Balarama manifests Himself as Ananga Manjiri, the younger sister of Srimati Radharani, and in the form of the Ananga Manjiri He serves Krishna in mādhurya-rasa. So He wants to serve Krishna in every way. 

And it is described, maybe I will read it, it is actually nice to read a short verse and purport. The Tenth Canto, Part one. So there is a whole history behind the appearance of Balarama and Krishna in the material world 5000 years ago, and we can't discuss the whole history, although it is very interesting and I hope that on your own you can read that history, or on the occasion of Janmashtami also read that history or hear that history. But in brief, there was a very evil tyrant we could say named Kamsa, and he usurped the throne, and he put Vasudeva and Devaki in prison. Vasudeva and Devaki actually play the part of Krishna's parents, and usually Balarama's parents. So, Kamsa was so cruel that on the wedding day of his sister Devaki he heard an omen in the sky saying, "Fool! You are driving the chariot of Devaki." That was sort of the system after the marriage that, of course, the wife would go to stay with the husband. And so Kamsa was driving her chariot out of affection, but he heard this omen that the eighth child of Devaki would kill him, and he was such a cruel, selfish, egoistic, tyrant, that he was immediately ready to kill his own sister on the occasion of her wedding. So her husband Vasudeva pleaded on her behalf, gave different reasons, philosophical reasons, and moral reasons. And ultimately, he said, "You are not in danger from Devaki, you are in danger only from her eighth child. So spare her and I promise you that I will bring all of her children to you and you can kill them." So, Kamsa was pacified, but he kept them in prison, Vasudeva and Devaki, and one by one he killed the first six children of Devaki and Vasudeva. Such a cruel tyrant. So then it is very interesting what happens next, I would tell you to hold on to your seats because it is so amazing what happens but you are already seated. 

So this is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Two, "Prayers by the Demigods," Text Seven. Please repeat.

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

TEXT 7

gaccha devi vrajaṁ bhadre

gopa-gobhir alaṅkṛtam

rohiṇī vasudevasya

bhāryāste nanda-gokule

anyāś ca kaṁsa-saṁvignā

vivareṣu vasanti hi

COMMENT

So, Lord Krishna has an energy called Yoga maya who's very powerful, I mean there is Maha maya which is the material energy which basically keeps the conditioned souls in the material world, and then there is Yoga maya who's the spiritual energy of Krishna and she makes all the arrangements for Krishna’s pastimes. So...

TRANSLATION

The Lord ordered Yoga-māyā: O My potency, who are worshipable for the entire world and whose nature is to bestow good fortune upon all living entities, go to Vraja, where there live many cowherd men and their wives. In that very beautiful land, where many cows reside, Rohiṇī, the wife of Vasudeva, is living at the home of Nanda Mahārāja. Other wives of Vasudeva are also living there incognito because of fear of Kaṁsa. Please go there.

COMMENT

So Kamsa was such a horrible tyrant, and Vasudeva being a kshatriya in the royal order, he had more than one wife which was allowed then, and he could also maintain them, and protect them. So his other wives out of fear of Kamsa, some of them were sent to Vrindavan to take shelter there in hiding and to be free from possible harm by Kamsa.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Nanda-gokula, the residence of King Nanda, was itself very beautiful, and when Yoga-māyā was ordered to go there and encourage the devotees with fearlessness, it became even more beautiful and safe. Because Yoga-māyā had the ability to create such an atmosphere, the Lord ordered her to go to Nanda-gokula.

COMMENT

Text 8, and this is it.

TEXT 8

devakyā jaṭhare garbhaṁ

śeṣākhyaṁ dhāma māmakam

tat sannikṛṣya rohiṇyā

udare sanniveśaya

TRANSLATION

Within the womb of Devakī is My partial plenary expansion known as Saṅkarṣaṇa or Śeṣa. Without difficulty, transfer Him into the womb of Rohiṇī.

COMMENT

So Lord Balarama was already in the womb of Devaki, and Kamsa had already killed the first six sons. And so well, I will read further.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The first plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa is Baladeva, also known as Śeṣa. The Śeṣa incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead supports the entire universe, and the eternal mother of this incarnation is mother Rohiṇī. “Because I am going into the womb of Devakī,” the Lord told Yoga-māyā, “the Śeṣa incarnation has already gone there and made suitable arrangements so that I may live there. Now He should enter the womb of Rohiṇī, His eternal mother.”

COMMENT

So Lord Balarama, and specifically in the form of Śeṣā, makes all arrangements for the comforts of the Lord, of Krishna. So He entered the womb of Devaki and made all arrangements for Krishna to enter. Then Krishna ordered Yoga maya to transfer Balarama from the womb of Devaki in the prison of Kamsa to the womb of Rohini in Vrindavan. And so when Balarama was taken out of the womb of Devaki it appeared, this is all like very confidential and mysterious, it appeared that she had a miscarriage because she was pregnant and then there was no baby anymore. So...

PURPORT (continued)

In this connection.

COMMENT

This is Srila Prabhupada's purport.

PURPORT (continued)

One may ask how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is always situated transcendentally, could enter the womb of Devakī, which had previously been entered by the six asuras, the ṣaḍ-garbhas. 

COMMENT

So the previous six, who had been killed by Kamsa, they actually had a bit sort of bad history. So the question is, how could they, how could Krishna enter the womb that had been inhabited by these six living entities who had committed serious offenses in their past life?

PURPORT (continued)

Does this mean that the ṣaḍ-garbhāsuras were equal to the transcendental body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The following answer is given by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura.

The entire creation, as well as its individual parts, is an expansion of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, even though the Lord enters the material world, He does not do so. This is explained by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (9.4-5). . .

Symbolically, mother Devakī’s constant fear of Kaṁsa was purifying her. A pure devotee should always fear material association, and in this way the asuras of material association will be killed, as the ṣaḍ-garbhāsuras were killed by Kaṁsa. It is said that from the mind, Marīci appears. In other words, Marīci is an incarnation of the mind. Marīci has six sons: Kāma (lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (illusion), Mada (madness), and Mātsarya (envy). The Supreme Personality of Godhead appears in pure devotional service. This is confirmed in the Vedas: bhaktir evainaṁ darśayati. Only bhakti can bring one in contact with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared from the womb of Devakī, and therefore Devakī symbolically represents bhakti, and Kaṁsa symbolically represents material fear. When a pure devotee always fears material association, his real position of bhakti is manifested, and he naturally becomes uninterested in material enjoyment. When the six sons of Marīci are killed by such fear and one is freed from material contamination, within the womb of bhakti the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears. Thus the seventh pregnancy of Devakī signifies the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. After the six sons Kāma, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, and Mātsarya are killed, the Śeṣa incarnation creates a suitable situation for the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, when one awakens his natural Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Lord Kṛṣṇa appears. This is the explanation given by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura.

COMMENT

And then last verse, I won't read the purport, I will just...

TEXT 9

athāham aṁśa-bhāgena

devakyāḥ putratāṁ śubhe

prāpsyāmi tvaṁ yaśodāyāṁ

nanda-patnyāṁ bhaviṣyasi

TRANSLATION

O all-auspicious Yoga-māyā, I shall then appear with My full six opulences as the son of Devakī, and you will appear as the daughter of mother Yaśodā, the queen of Mahārāja Nanda.

COMMENT

So this is another mysterious feature of the appearance of Krishna and Balarama, that Krishna will appear as the eighth son of Devaki, but He has to be transferred from Kamsa's prison in Mathura to Vrindavan so that He is not subject to being killed by Kamsa or imprisoned by him. So, where is He going to go? So, Krishna ordered Yoga maya that she should take birth from the womb of Yasoda in Vrindavan, and then when Yoga maya takes birth as the daughter of Yasoda, Krishna's father, Vasudeva, will take Him from the prison house. This is also very mysterious, there is also Yoga maya, all the prison guards fell asleep, and so Vasudeva got out of prison and took the baby Krishna to Nanda Gokul, the cowherd village of Nanda. And Yasoda, who is so exhausted from her childbirth, she didn't even know if she gave birth to a male or a female, so Vasudeva took the female who was Yoga maya and left the male who was Krishna. Now, this also raises many interesting questions, but that Yoga maya is in a way it might seem like a very selfish thing to do like to trade your child for someone else's child so that your child is safe and the other child is at risk to be killed so you can save your child. 

Of course, the principle of bhakti is if you do anything and everything to please Krishna, that is another thing. But actually, Yoga maya could not be destroyed so when Vasudeva brought back Yoga maya and put her in the prison, and then in the morning Kamsa and everyone else thought, "Well, oh, Devaki gave birth to a daughter, didn't give birth to a son. Okay, well, we will kill the daughter then because we can't trust anyone." So when he picked the daughter to kill her, she flew out of his hands, and she said, "You fool!" And then that is another part of the story, but that, "You fool! I'm not the person who's going to kill you, the person who's going to kill you has already taken birth somewhere else." Now, this also has given rise to a very interesting discussion because Yoga maya says that, "The person who's going to kill you has already taken birth somewhere else." So Krishna, as far as we know up until now, didn't take birth somewhere else, He took birth there, but He was carried to Gokul. So what our acharyas, our learned Vaishnava scholars say, and there are other evidences, is that Yasoda actually gave birth to twins: one was Yoga maya, daughter, and one was the original Krishna. This is a little subtle because the Krishna born in Mathura is sort of like He is Krishna but just there is a little bit different from the original Krishna because the original Krishna never leaves Vrindavan. That is a simplified way of trying to explain it. But we will say that another Krishna, another Krishna, or that there is only one Krishna, but the same person in another manifestation took birth as the twin sister of Yoga maya.

So when Vasudeva, the father of Krishna Mathura, carried Krishna to Nanda Gokul, he exchanged that Krishna for the daughter who is Yoga maya, but that Krishna you could say combined with the Krishna who was already born in Nanda Gokul of Mother Yasoda, therefore, Yoga maya told Kamsa, "You fool! The person who is going to kill you has already taken birth somewhere else." And there is other evidence that indicates that Yasoda actually gave birth to twins, one was the daughter who Vasudeva brought back to Mathura and the other was Krishna who the Mathura Krishna you want to say combined with or entered into, merged.

So, it is tempting but I won't do it, but so now after a child is born, the parents call for an astrologer who tells the future of the child, and according to the future of the child, the astrologer will give a name that is suitable for that child's future. For example, there are so many examples, but so often the names in the scriptures describe characteristics of the person, and so you might think, "Well, it is just made up." It is like the person's symbolic because his name like Hiraṇyakaśipu it is like his name represents something about his character so he is not really a person but he just represents those qualities. But what was actually happening is the astrologer could tell what the baby's qualities would be, and then he would give names that would suit the qualities. 

So, because Nanda Maharaja was afraid that if he had some celebration Kamsa would become suspicious. So he did everything in secret, and so he had the astrologer, who was a great sage and devotee named Garga Muni, perform that astrological calculation in the cowshed like in secret. And he said that, "Your son," this is for Rohini's son, "Your son will be very strong and therefore his name will be Bala." Bala means strength. "And He will give pleasure to devotees, and so His name will be Rama. And so to combine His name is Balarama. But He will also be an instrument for bringing these two families together, the family of you know Rohini and Vasudeva in Mathura and the family of Nanda and Yasoda in Vrindavan. And so because He'll be instrumental in bringing these families together, His name will be Saṅkarṣaṇa. Saṅkarṣaṇa, well, He is one who attracts a karsana like Krishna, one who attracts so He brings these two families together." So that is how Lord Balarama got His names from Garga Rishi.

So, of course, we could continue, it is said that Ananta who has  unlimited heads is also an expansion of Balarama - unlimited heads, and unlimited mouths, and unlimited tongues - He can never come to the end of chanting the glories of the Lord, singing the glories of the Lord. So we won't, we can only do what we can within our limited time and other constraints. 

So I will end now, we already know that Abhay Charan Dasa is going to speak a little. Would his holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami like to speak? You defer to young Abhay Charan. 

Devotee: You want me to like say a pastime? Or what would you like? 

Giriraj Swami: I think a pastime sounds good.

Devotee: Okay. I remember what Prabhupada told me about Lord Balarama, He was going by the Yamuna river, and He wanted to drink water so He called the Yamuna river to come but she didn't come, and He called again, she still didn't come. And I know you all know how Lord Balarama carries a plow. 

Giriraj Swami: There it is, that is the big one, He was carrying a small one there.

Devotee: So, [Unintelligible 00:33:18] Balarama got a little angry obviously, transcendental anger, and He went to the Yamuna and started striking the Yamuna with His plow. So the Yamuna went in all different directions so realizing this the Yamuna finally came to Him, said, “I am sorry.” But she understood that He should be treated fairly and respected Him, and yeah.

Giriraj Swami: Very good, very good, very good. As we mentioned earlier, Lord Balarama likes to drink this Varuni beverage like honey, and when He drinks it, He appears to be intoxicated. So the Yamuna river thought that He was intoxicated, she didn't want to like you said she didn't respect Him, she didn't honor His command. And so yeah, He took His plow, and He was like creating all these rivulets, and she was in danger, so then she realized she had committed an offense, she made a mistake. And she admitted her fault and prayed for His forgiveness, and Lord Balarama forgave her, and then He enjoyed the pastimes in the Yamuna river.

Devotee: Isn't there one pastime where Balarama becomes a little bit lonely at this time? After Lord Brahma stole all of the cows and cowherd boys, even Balarama was a little, "How is this happening? That the cows are so attached? What is going on? And why are the mothers so attached? I mean why are the cows so attached to the calves now more so than before? And why are the mothers so much attached to the boys much more than they were before?" And then He finally figured out eventually that Krishna had expanded Himself into so many cows and so many cowherd boys, and then He… I just read that story about a month ago, and He was saying that "How is it possible?" Because Balarama, usually Balarama, when Krishna was kicking Kāliya or entered the river of Kāliya, everyone was thinking, "This is it, this is the end of Krishna," because there was no choice. But Balarama was just sitting there, Balarama had complete confidence that absolutely nothing could happen to Krishna. And when Krishna was lifting Govardhana Hill and He shook a little bit, Balarama knew that it wasn't going to come down, He knew what was going on. Everybody must know now because everybody's laughing, everybody else became a little nervous, Balarama He knew there was some side long glances going on. But in the case of Brahma's stealing of the cows and the cowherd boys, "How is this possible? Why is there so much more affection going on? Then He figured it out. Yeah, actually, ultimately figure it out." Would you like to expand on that? You are nodding as if there is something more.

Giriraj Swami: Oh no, [Unintelligible 00:37:30] really appreciated. I think [Unintelligible 00:37:42] has a lot to read and hear. None of these things are interpreted [Unintelligible 00:37:50].

Devotee: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: But it is good. [Unintelligible 00:37:55]. So, Kunti, what should we do now? 

Devotee: Kirtan and ārati.

Kunti devi dasi: [Unintelligible 00:38:12]. We can have a little kirtan maybe.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Devotee: And in the meantime [Unintelligible 00:38:32].

Giriraj Swami: You are going to lead the Nṛsiṁha prayers? 

Devotee: Krishna says to Nanda Maharaja that [Unintelligible 00:38:44] my partial plenary expansion. I was wondering just how Lord Krishna appears always as Mother Yasoda’s son, so does Lord Balarama also appear as Mother Rohini’s son always, same like Krishna in Mathura or?

Giriraj Swami: Oh, yeah, I noticed that, devakyā jaṭhare garbhaṁ śeṣākhyaṁ dhāma māmakam. Śeṣā is the partial plenary expansion, but Balarama is like full expansion. So, we will do some Hare Krishna Kirtan?

Devotee: Hare Krishna Kirtan [Unintelligible 00:40:07].