SB 1.8.31 – Damodara-lila

Host: Yes, do you want the introduction in Spanish or in English?

Maharaja is a very special devotee, a special disciple of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. After a long and sincere search for a guru, he finally found the shelter of Srila Prabhupada. From the very beginning, he dedicated his whole life to serve him, 100 percent, without any reservation. Many times, we hear about surrendering to Krishna. So, Maharaja’s life is an example of a life surrendered to Krishna through his spiritual master. Today is a very special day, and we are very, very happy because, the last book from Maharaja has been released.

So today is a special day because the video from Maharaja’s last book has been presented. The video itself is very exciting. So the book, we are already excited, waiting for the books. I hope soon we will get it. It is a very special book with a lot of details and a lot of research. We can say it is a piece of history, and with the sweet touch of His Holiness. So I won’t say anymore, and I leave Maharaja to share his realization with all of us. I also feel very thankful and fortunate to be able to say these few words, introducing my guru Maharaja. I don’t have words to glorify him because if I am something, if I have, I am still alive because of his mercy.

So, thank you, Maharaja, for being with us in Spain. Hare Krishna, welcome to Malaga.

Co-Host: Thank you very much Prabhu for your presentation. It was wonderful. So now, we pass it on to His Holiness Giriraj Swami to give us this kind, time and association, and his words in his sweet words.

A very big warm welcome to His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jay!

Giriraj Swami: So I will begin by singing the maṅgalācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan. And then, because we have come to the end of the month of Damodara, I will speak about the dāmodara-līlā from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

[Prayers and kirtan]

So I will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Eight, “Prayers by Queen Kuntī,” Text Thirty-one.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 31

gopy ādade tvayi kṛtāgasi dāma tāvad
yā te daśāśru-kalilāñjana-sambhramākṣam
vaktraṁ ninīya bhaya-bhāvanayā sthitasya
sā māṁ vimohayati bhīr api yad bibheti

TRANSLATION

My dear Kṛṣṇa, Yaśodā took up a rope to bind You when You committed an offense, and Your perturbed eyes overflooded with tears, which washed the mascara from Your eyes. And You were afraid, though fear personified is afraid of You. This sight is bewildering to me.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Here is another explanation of the bewilderment created by the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the Supreme in all circumstances, as already explained. Here is a specific example of the Lord’s being the Supreme and at the same time a plaything in the presence of His pure devotee. The Lord’s pure devotee renders service unto the Lord out of unalloyed love only, and while discharging such devotional service the pure devotee forgets the position of the Supreme Lord. 

COMMENT

So, in Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan, yoga-māyā acts in such a way that the devotees forget that Krishna is God, and even Krishna Himself forgets that He is God. And thus, the pastimes in Vrindavan are called nara-līlā, human-like pastimes, because generally Krishna feels Himself to be a human being, not God. And the devotees also see Krishna as the all-attractive person but not God. Lord Krishna has two mayas, mahā-māyā and yoga-māyā. Mahā-māyā bewilders the conditioned souls and makes them forget Krishna, God, whereas yoga-māyā reveals the attractiveness of the Lord but makes the pure devotees forget that He is God.

PURPORT (continued)

The Supreme Lord also accepts the loving service of His devotees more relishably when the service is rendered spontaneously out of pure affection, without anything of reverential admiration. Generally the Lord is worshiped by the devotees in a reverential attitude, but the Lord is meticulously pleased when the devotee, out of pure affection and love, considers the Lord to be less important than himself. 

COMMENT

So, the Lord is always being praised and worshiped, but sometimes He also wants to be chastised. And who can chastise the Lord? Only a pure devotee who has unalloyed affection for the Lord. This is a very exalted position in devotional service. In our positions, we should approach the Lord with awe and reverence. Mother Yasoda is in the position of pure love, in which she can blame the Lord for breaking the butter pot and stealing butter. But in our positions, if we blame the Lord, for example, if we don’t like how our life is going in some respects, that is very bad for us to blame the Lord. In our position, we have to develop the mood of surrender to the Lord. And there are six divisions of surrender mentioned in shastra. Beginning with ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam, to accept whatever is favorable and reject whatever is unfavorable. So, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ, that means accept whatever is favorable, prātikūlyasya varjanam, reject whatever is unfavorable. rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso, to be convinced that Krishna will give one protection, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā, the acceptance of the Lord as one’s guardian or master, ātma-nikṣepa, which means with full self-surrender, and kārpaṇye, is humility. Saḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ, these are the six divisions of surrender. And Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport,

“One who is fully surrendered is qualified with the six following characteristics: (1) The devotee has to accept everything that is favorable for the rendering of transcendental loving service to the Lord. (2) He must reject everything unfavorable to the Lord’s service. This is also called renunciation. (3) A devotee must be firmly convinced that Kṛṣṇa will give him protection. No one else can actually give one protection, and being firmly convinced of this is called faith. This kind of faith is different from the faith of an impersonalist who wants to merge into the Brahman effulgence in order to benefit by cessation of repeated birth and death. A devotee wants to remain always in the Lord’s service. In this way, Kṛṣṇa is merciful to His devotee and gives him all protection from the dangers found on the path of devotional service. (4) The devotee should accept Kṛṣṇa as his supreme maintainer and master. He should not think that he is being protected by a demigod. He should depend only on Kṛṣṇa, considering Him the only protector. The devotee must be firmly convinced that within the three worlds he has no protector or maintainer other than Kṛṣṇa. (5) Self-surrender means remembering that one’s activities and desires are not independent. The devotee is completely dependent on Kṛṣṇa, and he acts and thinks as Kṛṣṇa desires. (6) The devotee is meek and humble”

So, these are the qualities of surrender, Śaraṇāgati, that we have to develop. But Mother Yasoda’s position is so exalted that while we are cultivating the mood that Krishna is our only protector and maintainer, she thinks that Krishna is dependent on her, and that she is Krishna’s protector and maintainer. But that is the mood in terms of the līlā or pastimes. But actually, all the residents of Vrindavan are fully surrendered to Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

The Supreme Lord also accepts the loving service of His devotees more relishably when the service is rendered spontaneously out of pure affection, without anything of reverential admiration. Generally the Lord is worshiped by the devotees in a reverential attitude, but the Lord is meticulously pleased when the devotee, out of pure affection and love, considers the Lord to be less important than himself. The Lord’s pastimes in the original abode of Goloka Vṛndāvana are exchanged in that spirit. The friends of Kṛṣṇa consider Him one of them. They do not consider Him to be of reverential importance. The parents of the Lord (who are all pure devotees) consider Him a child only. The Lord accepts the chastisements of the parents more cheerfully than the prayers of the Vedic hymns. Similarly, He accepts the reproaches of His fiancees more palatably than the Vedic hymns. 

COMMENT

In this section of the purport, Srila Prabhupada is running parallel to a section in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā Chapter Four. I will just read the translations to save time. In Text Seventeen, Lord Krishna explains, “All the universe is filled with the conception of My majesty, but love weakened by the sense of majesty does not satisfy Me. If a devotee regards Me as the Supreme Lord and himself as a subordinate, I do not become subservient to his love, nor can it control Me.” But again, in our position, we have to regard Krishna as the Supreme Lord and ourselves as subordinate because we are coming from the category of rebellious conditioned souls who want to be God or take the place of God. So for us, it is essential to recognize that Krishna is God and we are subordinate to Him and we have to consider ourselves as subordinate and dependent. But on the platform of pure love, Krishna likes to be treated like a human being. In Ādi-līlā Chapter Four, Text Twenty-one and Twenty-two he says:

“If one cherishes pure loving devotion to Me, thinking of Me as his son, his friend or his beloved, regarding himself as great and considering Me his equal or inferior, I become subordinate to him.

Then in Text Twenty-four he says:

“Mother sometimes binds Me as her son. She nourishes and protects Me, thinking Me utterly helpless.

So this refers to the dāmodara-līlā.

“Mother sometimes binds Me as her son. She nourishes and protects Me, thinking Me utterly helpless.”

“My friends climb on My shoulders in pure friendship, saying, ‘What kind of big man are You? You and I are equal.’” 

“If My beloved consort reproaches Me in a sulky mood, that steals My mind from the reverent hymns of the Vedas.”

So what Srila Prabhupada is saying here in the purport very closely parallels that section in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

PURPORT (continued)

When Lord Kṛṣṇa was present in this material world to manifest His eternal pastimes of the transcendental realm of Goloka Vṛndāvana as an attraction for the people in general, He displayed a unique picture of subordination before His foster mother, Yaśodā. The Lord, in His naturally childish playful activities, used to spoil the stocked butter of mother Yaśodā by breaking the pots and distributing the contents to His friends and playmates, including the celebrated monkeys of Vṛndāvana, who took advantage of the Lord’s munificence. Mother Yaśodā saw this, and out of her pure love she wanted to make a show of punishment for her transcendental child. She took a rope and threatened the Lord that she would tie Him up, as is generally done in the ordinary household.

COMMENT

Speaking on this verse, Srila Prabhupada said that in India, it was the custom that if the child was too naughty, causing too much mischief and misbehaving, the mother would tie the child, just like Mother Yasoda tied Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

Seeing the rope in the hands of mother Yaśodā, the Lord bowed down His head and began to weep just like a child, and tears rolled down His cheeks, washing off the black ointment smeared about His beautiful eyes.

COMMENT

So, Lord Krishna is Bhagavān. He is full in six opulences: knowledge, strength, beauty, fame, renunciation, and wealth. Which opulence is Krishna manifesting here? Srila Prabhupada says He is manifesting the opulence of beauty.

PURPORT (continued)

This picture of the Lord is adored by Kuntīdevī because she is conscious of the Lord’s supreme position. He is feared often by fear personified, yet He is afraid of His mother, who wanted to punish Him just in an ordinary manner. Kuntī was conscious of the exalted position of Kṛṣṇa, whereas Yaśodā was not. Therefore Yaśodā’s position was more exalted than Kuntī’s. Mother Yaśodā got the Lord as her child, and the Lord made her forget altogether that her child was the Lord Himself. If mother Yaśodā had been conscious of the exalted position of the Lord, she would certainly have hesitated to punish the Lord. But she was made to forget this situation because the Lord wanted to make a complete gesture of childishness before the affectionate Yaśodā.

COMMENT

Now, one of the most crucial elements of this pastime was Mother Yasoda binding Krishna around the belly with ropes. In fact, “dāmo” means “rope,” and “udara” means “belly” or “abdomen.” So, the name Damodara means “Krishna who is bound around the waist by ropes.” It is described in the Tenth Canto, Chapter Nine, called “Mother Yaśodā Binds Kṛṣṇa,” that the ropes were always two fingers’ width too short, no matter how many ropes Mother Yasoda added, it was always two fingers too short, and this was very bewildering. But eventually, He agreed to be bound. The verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam mentions two words in Sanskrit: pariśrama which means “hard labor,” and kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, which means Krishna’s mercy.” The translation explains that Krishna, seeing Mother Yasoda’s hard labor, became compassionate towards her and allowed her to bind Him. Our acharyas explain that the width of two fingers or two inches was covered by this combination, one was pariśrama, endeavor, hard labor, and the other was kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, Krishna’s mercy. So, for us to be successful in devotional service, we need both of those elements: pariśrama, our personal endeavor and kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, Krishna’s mercy. If we think, I won’t do anything, I will just pray for Krishna’s mercy, that is not sufficient. And if we think I will be successful by my own endeavors, I don’t need Krishna’s mercy, that is also wrong. So by that combination of personal endeavor and Krishna’s mercy, we can be successful. We can bind Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

This exchange of love between the mother and the son was performed in a natural way, and Kuntī, remembering the scene, was bewildered, and she could do nothing but praise the transcendental maternal love. Indirectly mother Yaśodā is praised for her unique position of love, for she could control even the all-powerful Lord as her beloved child.

COMMENT

And so Mother Yasoda is glorified as the greatest devotee. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.9.20 says,

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

“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.”

So yes, I will just read that last sentence again in the purport.

“Indirectly, Mother Yasoda is praised for her unique position of love, where she could control even the all-powerful Lord as her beloved child.”

Coming back to that verse that I just read, SB 10.9.20, in the purport says,

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

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. This is the super most exalted position. And thus, Krishna became completely subordinate to her.

COMMENT

Yasoda-Damodara ki jaya!

Grahtha-raja Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya!

Damodara-līlā ki jaya!

So now, if there is time, we can take question and comments from the devotees who are on the Zoom call.

Host: There is quite ample of time because it is still early over here in Spain, in Europe. So I think they can ask questions.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja. I have a question. This dāmodara-līlā is based on vātsalya-rasa between Mother Yasoda and Krishna. So, at the end of the Dāmodarāṣṭakam, we always chant “Jaya Radha-Damodara,” so I wanted to know what role Radharani has in this pastime.

Giriraj Swami: Well, there is actually another dāmodara-līlā in which Krishna got married to Srimati Radharani. As part of the marriage ceremony, I think they, the couple ties their cloth to each other. So Krishna’s belly had that cloth around it in His marriage ceremony with Srimati Radharani. And there is a very interesting and esoteric and elaborate explanation of this by a very scholarly devotee named Hari Parshad dasa. And he raises this question: Where is Radharani during this pastime? And he says that when Krishna was crying, Radharani was there between the streams of His tears. And I think what he explained was that, a word for tears or crying is “dhara,” so on either side there was “dhara,” D-H-A-R-A-D-H-A-R-A, and in the middle of that you get R-A-D-H-A there.

Devotee: Thank you so much. It is such a so wonderful, so beautiful. I never heard this.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, it is very special. Yes, the Dhara is here and the Dhara is there, and then Radha.

Are there any other questions or comments? By the way, as far as possible, I would like the devotees on Zoom to put on your cameras so I can see. It is more personal.

Host: There is a question from Param Dham. He wants to make a question.

Param Dham Prabhu: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. I would like to know, what is the difference, the six principles of surrender, between the second and the third one. I know clearly what is the difference between these two.

Giriraj Swami: I think you probably mean between the third and the fourth. So the third is rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso, which means one must be firmly convinced that Krishna will give him protection and being convinced of this is called faith. And four is goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā, which means the devotee should accept Krishna as his supreme maintainer and master. So, the two are actually very close. One is being protected and the other is being maintained. So, they are close, but there is a bit of a difference. One is protection and the other is maintenance. They are similar, but for our surrender to be complete, we should have both of course. But you still have to go on saṅkīrtana. [Laughter]

Param Dham Prabhu: With your blessing, may be it is possible.

Giriraj Swami: You have to make your effort and then depend on Krishna’s mercy.

Param Dham Prabhu: Okay, thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Can I ask a question?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Daṇḍavat-praṇāmās. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to you. Thank you very much for this lovely class and thank you very much, first of all for giving us this opportunity to hear you once again. It is so nice to hear directly from you. My question is, in the starting, you mentioned that due to yoga-māyā’s influence, Lord Krishna also forgot that he was Krishna, he was a God. But how is yoga-māyā influencing Krishna? Because yoga-māyā is Lord’s external potency, if my understanding, is correct. So how is the Lord influenced by yoga-māyā’s shakti?

Giriraj Swami: Okay, it is a good question. So you made a mistake in what you said. It was probably an accident, but yoga-māyā is not the Lord’s external potency. mahā-māyā is the Lord’s external potency and yoga-māyā is a part of the Lord’s internal or spiritual potency. And by her influence, Krishna and His devotees in Vraja-līlā, forget that Krishna is God. And because of yoga-māyā, the devotees are able to have these wonderful intimate exchanges with Krishna. But sometimes Krishna needs to know that He is God. For example, when there was a forest fire, and Krishna swallowed it. So if Krishna was thinking He is just an ordinary human being, He never could have swallowed the forest fire. So when required for intimate loving exchanges, yoga-māyā makes Krishna forget He is God. But when Krishna needs to know He is God, especially to protect His devotees, then she allows Him to remember that He is God. For example, when Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill and held it above with just the tip of the little finger on His left hand, He knew that He was God. But His mother, Yasoda, didn’t know He was God. So she was telling all the vrajavāsīs, “Don’t go under the hill. He is just a small child. He is going to drop it. Don’t go there.”

Well, if there are no more questions or comments, we can end. And I would suggest we conclude with Vaishnava praṇāma. So I will say in English, then Ganga can say in Spanish, and then we will all say in Sanskrit.

Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto all the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. Who are just like desire trees who can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca 

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Ananta-kotivaishnava-vrinda ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!