SB 10.9.1–12 – The Damodara Month and Damodara-lila

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. 

So in Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.9.1 and 2, Srila Prabhupada writes, “Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, quoting from the Vaishnava Toshani of Srila Sanatana Gosvami says that the incident of Krishna’s breaking the pot of yoghurt and being bound by mother Yasoda, took place on the Dīpāvalī Day or Dīpa-mālikā. Even today in India this festival is generally celebrated very gorgeously in the month of Kartik. Sorry, I forgot.

Devotee: It is too long for me but I will try to say whatever I remember.

Giriraj Swami: We are now in the month of Kartik or Damodara. It began on the full moon night and will continue until the next full moon. Damodara is the name for Krishna; dāma means rope and udara means belly. So dāmodara means one who is bound around the belly with rope. What happened was that mother Yasoda was nursing baby Krishna, when suddenly some milk on the fire began to boil over. So she set aside baby Krishna to attend to the milk on the fire, but Krishna was not yet satisfied with his mother’s milk, and when she left him he felt frustrated and angry. So to vent his anger and satisfy his desire, he broke a pot of butter that was hanging from a rafter on the ceiling. When mother Yasoda finished attending to the milk on the fire she came and saw that the butter pot had been broken, and she saw little footprints smeared with butter on the floor. Thus she understood that the mischief was the work of her son, baby Krishna.

According to Vedic literatures Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so how are we talking of Krishna as if He were a baby who got frustrated and angry and made mischief? The answer is that every soul or living entity has eternal love for Krishna within the heart, and this love for Krishna can be manifest in one of a number of relationships. The relationships we have in the material world are actually reflections of the relationships that devotees have with Krishna in the spiritual world. In the material world we have relationships of servant and master, of friends who are equals, of parents and children, and of husband and wife, or boyfriend and girlfriend. 

The relationships we have in the material world exist because originally they exist with Krishna in the spiritual world. Mother Yasoda has maternal love for Krishna and her desire to serve Krishna as His mother is so pure and powerful that Krishna, in order to reciprocate with her, plays the role of her son and thus allows her to serve Him as His mother. And when Krishna plays the role of mother Yasoda’s son, He identifies with the role so much that He actually feels as if she is His mother and He is her son.

So after Krishna did His mischief He knew that when His mother found out He would be in trouble, so He was anxiously looking here and there. And mother Yasoda, after putting down the milk that had been boiling over on the stove, found Krishna sitting on a wooden grinding mortar. And when Krishna saw her with a stick in her hand, He began to run away from her in fear.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, I think there is something wrong in the connection, we cannot get her well.

Giriraj Swami: Do we want another translator?

Devotee: Patita Pavana going to do it Maharaja, you can continue. She has come back; she says she will do it.

Giriraj Swami: So when Krishna saw mother Yasoda with a stick in her hand, He began to run away from her in fear. She didn’t really intend to strike him, but she felt that she needed to show the stick to enforce some discipline, because as his mother she wanted her son to be well behaved, so baby Krishna fled in fear. He was small and agile and she had a thin waist and a large body so he could escape her, but still she pursued him. Mother Yasoda perspired and became tired yet she was so determined and sincere in her desire to catch and train baby Krishna, that eventually Krishna felt compassion for her and allowed her to catch Him. 

After mother Yasoda caught Krishna, she thought that she should tie Him up, not as a cruel punishment but just to keep Him from getting into more trouble. So she took a length of rope and attempted to bind him around the waist but the rope was too short by the width of two fingers. So she got more rope and added it to the first length of rope, but still the rope was too short by two fingers. So she got more rope and added it, but still the rope was too short. Mother Yasoda became perplexed. Every morning she would dress little Krishna and tie His ornamental belt around His waist, and she knew how big His waist was, and how long the belt had to be. And the length of the ropes now was much longer but still the ropes could not reach around Krishna’s waist. Mother Yasoda was the wife of the King of the cowherd community and she had lots of ropes for various purposes, yet even after putting together all the ropes she could gather, still she couldn’t get it to fasten around baby Krishna’s belly. Then baby Krishna, in appreciation of His mother’s sincere desire and efforts to serve Him, took compassion on her and allowed her to bind Him. But actually he was bound not by her ropes but by her love. 

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, describing the story of mother Yasoda and Lord Damodara explains that Krishna cannot be caught by the greatest yogis, but still He allowed Himself to be caught by mother Yasoda. Krishna cannot be bound by any means, but still He allowed Himself to be bound by the ropes, by the love of mother Yasoda. Many learned scholars have commented on this pastime of Krishna. And Jiva Gosvami and Visvanatha Cakravarti have explained on the basis of this pastime how the Lord can be bound. Of course Lord Krishna Himself declares that He can be conquered only by the pure love of His devotees, and the pastime here demonstrates that He was indeed bound by such love. 

But what exactly is the process of developing pure love and binding Lord Krishna? There are two factors signified by the two fingers by which the rope was too short. One finger represents the devotee’s endeavor, pariśrama. In Krishna consciousness we have certain basic practices. The most essential of which is chanting the holy names of Krishna, while following certain basic principles of purity. As one is able, one should rise early in the morning and have a program similar to the program that devotees have in the temple. So part of the two fingers gap can be closed by the devotee’s endeavor, hard labor. And mother Yasoda showed such endeavor. She really tried her best to bind Krishna, to the extent that she might have put together miles and miles of rope, but still her effort alone was not enough. The other factor that allows the devotee to bind Krishna, is Krishna’s mercy. When Krishna was pleased with mother Yasoda’s endeavors, He allowed Himself to be bound and thus the other half of the gap, the second finger was closed; so there is pariśrama, mother Yasoda’s hard labor and kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, Krishna’s mercy 

Once a devotee told me that her brother, a Christian missionary, had challenged her. How will you go to the kingdom of God? She replied, “Well, I will go by chanting the holy names of God.” Then the brother said, “Oh, you think you can go by your own endeavor, by works? No! One cannot go by works; one can go only by grace.” And what her brother said is true, one cannot go by works alone. Works in this context means our spiritual practices or following the injunctions of the scriptures, the law. So we cannot expect to reach the kingdom of God without making any effort, just thinking I will wait for the grace of God. The conclusion we reach from the story of Lord Damodara from the instructions of the acharyas and of Lord Krishna Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā, is that we must work to the best of our ability but at the same time depend for our success on the mercy of the Lord. 

The acharyas have given two examples. One is of the mother monkey and the baby monkey. The baby monkey puts his little arms around his mother and holds on, and as the mother monkey is swinging and flying from tree to tree the baby monkey is in a precarious, dangerous position. The baby has just his little arms and he has to hold on to his mother for dear life as she swings from tree to tree. At any moment he could lose his grip and fall down. The other example is the mother cat and the kitten. The mother cat picks up the kitten in her mouth, and carries the kittens. The kitten really doesn’t have to do anything but just allows the mother to carry him or her to wherever the mother wants. 

In a broader context, the karmis, jnanis, and yogis are like little monkeys trying to hold on with their own strength, and so they are always in anxiety. They do not know if their strength will be sufficient for them to reach their destination. The devotees however are more like the kitten who need not worry. The kitten just surrenders to the mother and the mother picks up the kitten and carries it to the destination. 

Now if we look closely at the life of the devotee yes, ultimately the devotee is picked up by the grace of the Lord. But still the devotee makes every effort to serve the Lord, and then the Lord’s mercy allows the devotee to find the Lord. The Lord comes under the control of the devotee’s pure love. So if someone thinks he can, as they say, storm the gates of heaven, or reach God by one’s own endeavor that is not correct. But then again if someone says, “Well, I am just going to sit and pray to god to deliver me and I am not going to make any effort,” that also is not complete. We require both; pariśrama and kṛṣṇa-kṛpā.

The kingdom of God has different divisions or sections, and the highest, is Goloka Vrindavan, where the devotees’ love is completely spontaneous. There the devotees do not think Krishna is the Supreme Lord, therefore I must serve Him. Rather, they are spontaneously attracted to Krishna according to their particular mood of service. The youthful cowherd boys are attracted to Krishna as their friend. They are not thinking that he is God, they just love Him as their best friend. Similarly, mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja are not thinking that they have to serve Krishna because He is God. Rather they are thinking, “Oh, Krishna is our son, we have to nourish Him, and protect Him, and educate Him. And the young damsels of Vraja are spontaneously attracted to Krishna, because they see Him as a handsome young man, and want to make friends with Him. So the Dāmodarāṣṭakam says that mother Yasoda’s binding of Krishna by her ropes of love shows that Krishna is conquered only by pure love. 

itīdṛk sva-līlābhir ānanda-kuṇḍe
sva-ghoṣaṁ nimajjantam ākhyāpayantam 

“By such pastimes Lord Krishna is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy, and revealing to those devotees absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is conquered only by devotees whose pure love is imbued with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence to this Supreme Lord Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but by his devotee’s pure love, I offer my humble obeisances.”

Here pure love means not just without any material motivation but without any conception that Krishna is the Supreme Lord, and without any attraction for the opulence of the other section of the kingdom of God called Vaikuntha. In Vaikuntha, the Lord’s opulence is prominent. Only in Goloka-Vrindavan do the devotees have such pure love that they forget that Krishna is God. And thus they are not bound by any restrictions or barriers thinking, “Oh, Krishna is God; He is so great and I am so small,” and thus they can treat him as an equal; as a friend, or even as their dependent, as their son or pupil. 

So yes, Srila Prabhupada said, “The impersonalists want to become one with God but the devotees can become greater than God.” They can bring God under their control by their pure love, thus the achievement of the impersonalists cannot be compared to the achievement of the devotees. The devotees relish ecstatic love for God and the happiness they experience in their loving relationships with God is millions and trillions of times greater than the happiness the impersonalists enjoy if they merge and become one with the effulgence of God. And the mystery or the charm is that one can develop one’s pure love, which is already there within one’s heart, just by intensely chanting the holy names. So beautiful, so pleasant, so congenial, just chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And as Prabhupada said, you chant and when you feel tired you take a little prasāda. Hare Krishna.

So again my dear devotees, I thank you for joining us in this auspicious month of Damodara to hear about the beautiful pastimes of Lord Damodara and mother Yasoda.

And now, if any of you have any questions or comments, any reflections, you can raise your hands. I see Rasa Sundari dasi has raised her virtual hand.

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to you. Thank you for this nice class, very inspiring. I always wondered because it is actually the pastime of mother Yasoda and Krishna, so why do we normally also sing Jaya Radha-Damodara, so where Radha comes into play? I would like to know.

Giriraj Swami: Well there is a pastime in which Lord Brahma performed the marriage of Radha and Krishna. Of course, it was just for fun or for play, they were never actually married but in this pastime, Radharani and Krishna, you could say they were bound around their waist and in our marriage ceremony is also the bride and groom tie their cloth together, so in that so-called marriage, Krishna’s waist was bound by cloth to Radharani and so we have Radha-Damodara.

Narottama Vilasa dasa?

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. So when mother Yasoda binds Krishna, it happens for one day. So why is it that we offer the lamb for the whole month for them? 

Giriraj Swami: Well, because that is the instruction in the shastra. This is stated in Sri Hari-bhakti-viläsa 2.16.198—In the month of Kartik one should worship Lord Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as Dāmodarāṣṭakam, which was spoken by the sage Satyavrata and which attracts Lord Damodara. So that is the injunction; to daily recite the prayer known as Dāmodarāṣṭakam for the entire month.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, I have a question, can I? Thank you so much for your wonderful, wonderful lecture. Just today I was transcribing one lecture of yours on japa, in which you mentioned how in the beginning, a devotee when he comes new initially he feels the ecstasy; and he feels the ecstasy because Krishna is reciprocating with him, whereas there could be devotees who could be chanting for a long, long time and they don’t get that ecstasy. So it is exactly what you said in the lecture today, how with our karma we cannot get Krishna, it is only Krishna’s mercy. So I got this realization, so nice.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, when we chant japa we are attempting to bind, well, the holy name Krishna, the holy name in our consciousness, and in that effort we require two elements to be successful. One is pariśrama, our endeavors and the other is kṛṣṇa-kṛpā, Krishna’s mercy.

Devotee: Maharaja, there is one question on the chat by Kajal Srivastava. I don’t know whether she would like to ask herself or should I read out the question.

Giriraj Swami: Well if she is on the Zoom it would be more personal if she did it herself.

Devotee: So can I ask Kajal Srivastava to connect her mike and ask the question directly.

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Please accept my most respectful obeisances. Happy dāmodara Kartik. 

Giriraj Swami: Thank you; same to you.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, you mentioned that how it is very important to do endeavors as well as receive Krishna’s mercy. So my question is sometime our family members are not favorable to Bhakti so what can I do to make them perform endeavors as well as receive mercy, so that they can get motivated to do devotional services?

Giriraj Swami: Generally, it is hard for children to instruct their parents. The parents think it should be the other way around, that they instruct their children. Once I happen to be with Srila Prabhupada in his room in Los Angeles when Hridayananda Maharaja and his mother came to meet Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Your son is very intelligent.” And the mother said, “Yes, Howard always was a good student.” Then Srila Prabhupada said that although generally the mother doesn’t like to take instruction from the son, but we have the example in the Vedic scriptures of Kapila and Devahuti. Devahuti was the mother but she still took instruction from her son. But as far as your parents, I mean my general advice to devotees whose parents are not really devotees, is that they should just be very nice and they should be happy. If the parents see that the child is happy and is also dealing nicely with them and with others, then they will think, Krishna consciousness is good. Of course you can pray for them; I will also pray for them. There is only so much you could do with parents.

Devotee: Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: Or if they can meet some senior, mature devotees, they might take it from someone else but probably not from you.

Are there any other questions or comments? Yes, Ganga.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, the topic today is like a seminar of japa for these time of Kartik and we are trying to do our efforts to get better our japa here, but we need your mercy that for us without mercy, your mercy that you also pray for us that we can chant better, the holy name of Krishna. Please pray for us.

Giriraj Swami: I will pray for you.

Devotee: Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Are there any other questions or comments?

Devotee: There is one hand raised. Jason has raised his hand; Jason can you connect your mic and speak?

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. All glorious to you and Srila Prabhupada. I was thinking about you today during the lecture because of the devotee’s endeavor and Krishna’s mercy, and I hope that someday I can get Krishna’s mercy through you. And in order to do that I would like to let you know that I have been reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. So if it pleases you, please I guess let me know how I can please you.

Giriraj Swami: I am glad to hear that you are reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. Yes, our efforts include not only chanting but also reading, so please continue.

Devotee: Okay, thank you Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Chandrika Priya? [Unintelligible 01:26:57]

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to divine grace. Thank you for the very nice class, guru Maharaja. I was just wondering about Ajamila actually, because he unwillingly chanted the holy names of the Lord. So he took the names of the Lord when his son was named Narayana, but he got the mercy at the point where the young duttas were going to come to take him, so how does the endeavor and the grace how is it. It is not so clear to me in that pastime, please help.

Giriraj Swami: So what you described is correct. At the time of death Ajamila, who was very sinful, called out to his son who was named Narayana. And because he called the holy name of Narayana, the agents of Narayana, the Vishnu dutas, they came. But our acharyas explained that although he was chanting the name of Narayana to indicate his son, but when he did so he remembered the original Narayana whom he had served and worshipped in his earlier days. But that chanting was considered offenseless, namabhasa, because he didn’t commit sins with the idea that he will chant and then become free from the reaction, so it was not offensive. But he had not reached the stage of pure chanting, sudanam, and so after this incident Ajamila went to Haridwar, and he did sincere intense sadhana. And when he was fully qualified he saw the same Vishnu dutas coming to take him back to Godhead. So for him to achieve his ultimate success and final destination, Ajamila did need to engage in proper sadhana, pariśrama, and then he got Krishna’s mercy.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja, that was wonderful.

Devotee: Maharaja, Hare Krishna. I would like to share something if it is okay.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Just last week we had a program in on Sunday feast and we were giving a lecture on Kartik month, the importance of Kartik month and Krishna being a butter thief. So there was one lady who came for the first time, she was a Spanish lady, and after the class she told me this saying. I don’t know how coincidentally this morning something came to me and I somehow got to read some pastime about Krishna as a buttered thief, and I was inquisitive. How can God be a butter thief, how He rubs butter? So then I came to this temple and I precisely again hear the same story about the butter thief. So then I explained to her some things about Krishna being God, He is not actually robbing. He is a proprietor he is the owner of everything, so he cannot be robbing. But then I gave her a book and then coincidentally she opened the book and the first page that opened was the story of a butter thief. She is saying, “What is this?” All throughout the day she was just finding the same concepts of reading about a butter thief. She is saying is it any relations to why is it happening? I said, “He is giving you the causeless mercy today. Although you have made effort to come to the temple now he is giving you the causeless mercy.” She was very happy at least.

Giriraj Swami: Nice, very nice. Well if you see her again, you can tell her that she should pray to Krishna. And just as he steals butter he should also steal her heart. 

Devotee: I will tell her that. Thank you Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: Guru Maharaja can you hear me?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for this class. I have the opportunity to hear directly today. Usually services don’t allow, so I hear it from Facebook, that is also very nice. I just need to look at Giriraj Swami Zoom lecture worldwide [Unintelligible 01:35:41] so nicely and we have all the lectures there, so it is very inspiring. I hear you a lot about praying guru Maharaja, praying for others and in many cases we have to pray for others, for each other, and sometimes I get confused about this praying. How to perform the praying properly? We go in front of the deities, we offer a prayer or we think about the persons when we are chanting our japa, or how do you recommend, as you are a very expert prayer always praying for us, that you can enlighten us on this process.

Giriraj Swami: The prayer can be done anytime, in any circumstance; in front of the deities; the mood of the prayer can be infused in our japa, and depending on exactly what the prayer is, that mood can go into singing the Nṛsiṁha prayers. We should always be praying. In the discussions with Bob Cohen, who is now Brahma Tirtha Prabhu and Srila Prabhupada, Bob Cohen asked Srila Prabhupada, does Krishna knows our thoughts? And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, he knows all your thoughts.” And Bob Cohen asked, “Then what is the use of praying?” Srila Prabhupada replied. “Your business is to pray.”

Devotee: Thank you very much guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Malati dasi. We don’t hear you although you are not muted we don’t hear you. 

Devotee: There is no sound from you Malati.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. 

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to your Divine Grace. Guru Maharaja, we talk about endeavor and mercy but sometimes we see devotees, sometimes the endeavor is less but then they are showered with lots of mercy from the devotees and the Lord also. So is it the past karmas that endeavors are carried forward, or it is just this lifetime endevor which this lifetime endeavor is involved. I just wanted to clear this.

Giriraj Swami: According to the Mahābhārata, half is due to our activities in the present life and half is due to our activities in the past life.

Devotee: So guru Maharaja, it means if we have not done much of devotion last past lives, so this life we have to endeavor more to get the mercy. 

Giriraj Swami: We should always want to endeavor more. We should never feel satisfied that we are doing enough because Bhakti means to please Krishna, and we want to please Krishna more and more, so we endeavor more and more. Krishna consciousness is never a place where we reach and then we stop going further, no. But wherever we are we want to go further.

Devotee: Thank you, guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Are there any more questions or comments? If not, we can conclude with Vaishnava praṇāma.

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. They are full compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Devotee: Thank you very much guru Maharaja, we are so truly grateful to Lord Krishna and [Unintelligible 01:45:28] Srila Prabhupada. Today we had the opportunity to have a wonderful evening with your presence and have a marvelous discourse, there is so much of spiritual instructions that we will never be able to repay with any services we may do in tolerance of our lives. HH Giriraj Maharaja, ki jaya. 

Devotee: I think a lot more devotees could have joined but because it is the same time as Dāmodarāṣṭakam being in the temples, that is why. 

Giriraj Swami: A lot of devotees did join. 

Devotee: Yes, they did join but because in England and in Spain also, in our temple we do the Dāmodarāṣṭakam at this time, so that is why some devotees at the temple could not join.

Giriraj Swami: Well, they can go to Giriraj Swami worldwide lectures on Zoom. 

Devotee: Worldwide lectures on Zoom, and it is also being shared with Mayapur TV Espanol.

Giriraj Swami: Oh nice, thank you. So what happens next 

Devotee: You are the captain of the ship, you decide Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: It seems that we have completed our program so I guess we can end the Zoom, and we can continue with our endeavors in other ways.

Devotee: Maharaja, in our school times, our teachers use to say, until I don’t leave the class, you don’t leave the class, so you are the teacher; we will stay as long as you are here.

Giriraj Swami: Alright, I don’t want to leave also but I will leave, but we will be connected through service.

Hare Krishna.