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<h1 class="menu-title">Nectar of Devotion - Part III</h1>
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Part One
Part Two
Part Four
Neutral Love of God
Srila Rupa Goswami offers his respectful prayers to the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead who is always so beautiful and for whom the pure devotees are always engaged in loving transcendental service.
This third division of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu describes the five primary kinds of devotional service-namely, neutrality, servitude, fraternity, parenthood and conjugal love.
These five items will be very elaborately explained here, and thus they have been figuratively described as the five waves on the western side of this ocean of nectar of devotion.
When one is actually able to maintain the transcendental position, his stage is called neutrality in devotional service.
Some great sages have attained this neutral position by practicing austerity, penance and meditation to control the senses.
Such sages are generally called mystic yogīs, and in most cases they are inclined to appreciate the spiritual pleasure of the impersonal feature of the absolute truth.
They are practically unaware of the transcendental pleasure derived from personal contact with the Supreme Godhead.
Actually the transcendental pleasure derived in association with the Supreme Person is far greater than the pleasure derived from impersonal Brahman realization, because of the direct meeting with the eternal form of the Lord.
Impersonalists do not directly derive the transcendental pleasure of association with the Lord by hearing of His pastimes.
As such, the impersonalists cannot derive any relishable transcendental pleasure from the topics of the Bhagavad-gītā, in which the Lord is personally talking with Arjuna.
The basic principle of their impersonal attitude does not allow them the transcendental pleasure which is relished by a devotee whose basic principle of understanding is the Supreme Person.
The impersonalistic commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā is therefore disastrous because, without understanding the transcendental pleasure of the Gītā, the impersonalist wants to interpret it in his own way.
If an impersonalist can, however, come in contact with a pure devotee, his transcendental position can be changed for greater elevation.
Great sages are therefore recommended to worship the form of the Lord in order to achieve that highest transcendental pleasure.
Without worshiping the arcā-vigraha, the form or Deity of the Lord, one cannot understand such literature as the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
For those great sages situated in the position of transcendental neutrality, the beginning should be to take shelter of Lord Viṣṇu, the four-handed eternal form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The mystic yogīs are therefore advised to meditate on the form of Lord Viṣṇu, as recommended by Kapila Muni in the sāṅkhya yoga system.
Unfortunately, many mystic yogīs try to meditate on something void, and as stated in the Gītā, the result is that they simply undergo trouble and do not achieve any tangible result.
When some great saintly persons who had undergone penances and austerities saw the four-handed transcendental form of Viṣṇu, they began to remark as follows: "This four-handed form of the Lord, manifested in a bluish color, is the reservoir of all pleasure and the center of our living force.
Actually, when we see this eternal form of Viṣṇu, we, along with many other paramahaṁsas, become immediately captivated by the beauty of the Lord." This appreciation of Lord Viṣṇu by saintly persons is an instance of situation in śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage of devotional service.
In the beginning, those who are aspiring for salvation try to get out of the material entanglement by performing painful austerities and penances, and ultimately they come to the impersonal status of spiritual realization.
At this brahma-bhūta stage of liberation from the material entanglement, the symptoms, as explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, are that one becomes joyous beyond any hankering or lamentation and gains a universal vision.
When the devotee is situated in the śānta-rasa, or neutral stage of devotional service, he appreciates the Viṣṇu form of the Lord.
Actually, all Vedic culture is aiming at understanding Lord Viṣṇu.
In the Ṛg Veda one mantra says that any advanced saintly person is always aspiring to be fixed in meditation upon the lotus feet of Viṣṇu.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that the foolish do not know that Viṣṇu is the ultimate goal of life.
According to the conclusion of all authoritative Vedic scriptures, when a person comes to the stage of appreciating Viṣṇu, he is at the beginning of devotional service.
If one cultivates devotional service further and further, under proper guidance, other features of devotional service will gradually become manifest.
At this stage of śānta-rasa, one can see Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer of even the demons.
The Lord is appreciated by such would-be devotees as the eternal transcendental form, the chief of all self-realized souls, the supersoul, the supreme Brahman, completely pacified, completely controlled and pure, merciful to the devotees and untouched by any material condition.
This appreciation of Lord Viṣṇu in awe and veneration by the saintly is to be understood as the sign that they are situated in the śānta-rasa, or neutral stage of devotional service.
This stage of śānta-rasa can be attained by the impersonalists only when they are in association with pure devotees.
Otherwise it is not possible.
After Brahman realization, when a liberated soul comes in contact with a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa and submissively accepts the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa without misinterpretation, he becomes situated in this neutral stage of devotional service.
The best example of saintly persons situated in the śānta- rasa are Sanaka, Sanātana, Sananda, and Sanat-kumāra, the Kumāra brothers.
These four saintly persons (known as Catuḥsana) were sons of Lord Brahmā.
After their birth, when they were ordered by their father to become householders and increase human society, they refused the order.
They said that they had already decided not to become entangled with family life; they would rather live as saintly brahmacārīs for their own perfection.
So these great saints have been living for millions of years now, but still they appear to be just like boys of four or five years.
Their complexions are very fair, there is an effulgence in their bodies, and they always travel naked.
These four saintly persons almost always remain together.
In one of the prayers of the Kumāra brothers, the declaration is made: "My Lord Mukunda [Kṛṣṇa, the giver of liberation], only so long as one does not happen to see Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge, appearing just like a newly-grown tāmala tree, with a bluish hue-only for so long can the impersonal feature of the absolute truth, known as Brahman, be very pleasing to a saintly person." The qualifications of a saintly person are described in the Bhaktirasāmṛta-sindhu as follows: A saintly person is one who understands fully that simply by discharging devotional service he can become confident of liberation.
He is always situated in the regulative principles of devotional life and at the same time aspires to be liberated from the material entanglement.
A saintly person thinks like this: "When shall I be able to live alone in the caves of the mountains? When shall I be dressed simply with undergarments? When shall I be satisfied by eating simply a little fruit and vegetables? When will it be possible for me to think always of the lotus feet of Mukunda, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence? When, in such a spiritual condition of life, shall I fully understand my days and nights to be insignificant moments in eternal time?" The devotees and self-realized persons who are engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord always maintain an ecstatic love for the Lord within their hearts.
Thus they are benefited by the rays of the ecstatic moon, and they are called saintly persons.
The impulse of a saintly person is to be engaged in the study of the Vedas, especially the Upaniṣadic portions, to always live in a place where there is no disturbance from the common people, to always think of the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa, to be ready to consider and understand the absolute truth, to always be prominent in exhibiting knowledge, to see the Supreme Lord in His universal form (viśva-rūpa), to associate always with learned devotees and to discuss the conclusion of the Vedas with similarly elevated persons.
All of these qualifications of a saintly person serve to raise him to the status of śānta-rasa.
In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu it is stated that all those who attended the pious meeting held by Lord Brahmā for the study of Vedic literature like the Upaniṣads became overwhelmed with ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, the chief of the Yadu dynasty.
Actually, the result of studying the Upaniṣads is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Negation of material existence is only one of the subjects of the Upaniṣads.
The next subject concerns becoming situated in the impersonal realization.
And then, after penetrating through the impersonal Brahman, when one comes to the platform of associating with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one reaches the ultimate goal in studying the Upaniṣads.
Those who are situated on the platform of śānta-rasa get their impetus for advancement in devotional service by smelling the tulasī offered at the lotus feet of the Lord, by hearing the sound of His conchshell, by seeing a sanctified place in some mountain or hill, by observing a forest like the ones in Vṛndāvana, by going to a place of pilgrimage, by visiting the course of the Ganges River, by being victorious over the dictations of bodily demands (i.e., eating, sleeping, mating and defending), by understanding the devastation of eternal time, and by constantly associating with devotees engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
All these different items are favorable in elevating saintly persons situated in śāntarasa to the advanced stage of devotional service.
In the Third Canto, 15th Chapter, 43rd verse of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, there is a statement by the four saintly persons known as Catuḥsana, headed by Sanaka-kumāra.
They went to visit the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha-loka in the spiritual sky, and when they bowed down before the Lord, the aroma of the tulasī, mixed with saffron, entered their nostrils and immediately attracted their minds.
Although these four saintly persons were always absorbed in the thought of impersonal Brahman, from association with the Lord and from smelling the tulasī leaves, the hairs on their bodies immediately stood up.
This shows that even a person who is situated in Brahman realization, if he is put into association with devotees in pure devotional service, will immediately become attracted to the personal feature of the Lord.
There are certain symptoms of great sages who are situated in śāntarasa devotional service, and these symptoms are exhibited as follows: they concentrate their eyesight on the tip of the nose, and they behave just like an avadhūta.
Avadhūta means a highly elevated mystic who does not care for any social, religious or Vedic conventions.
Another symptom is that such persons are very careful to step forward when giving speeches.
When they speak, they join together the forefinger and thumb.
(This is called the jṣāna-mudrā position.) They are not against the atheists, nor are they particularly inclined to the devotees.
Such persons give stress to liberation and detachment from the materialistic way of life.
They are always neutral and have no affection for nor misidentification with anything material.
They are always grave, but fully absorbed in thoughts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
These uncommon features develop in devotees who are situated in śānta-rasa.
Regarding concentration of the eyesight on the tip of the nose, there is a statement in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by a devotee who observed this being performed by a yogī.
He remarked, "This great sage is concentrating his eyesight on the tip of his nose, and from this it appears that he has already realized the eternal form of the Lord within himself." Sometimes a devotee in śānta-rasa yawns, stretches his limbs, instructs on devotional service, offers respectful obeisances unto the form of the Lord, offers nice prayers to the Lord and has a desire to give direct service with his body.
These are some of the common symptoms of the devotee who is situated in neutrality.
One devotee, after observing the yawning of another devotee, addressed him thus: "My dear mystic, I think that within your heart there is some ecstatic devotional love which is causing you to yawn." It is sometimes found that a devotee in the śāntarasa falls down on the ground, his hairs stand up on his body, and he trembles all over.
In this way, different symptoms of ecstatic trance are exhibited automatically by such devotees.
In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu it is said that when Lord Kṛṣṇa was blowing His conchshell known as Pāṣcajanya, many great sages who were living in the caves of the mountains immediately reacted, being awakened from their trance of meditation.
They immediately saw that the hairs of their bodies were standing.
Sometimes devotees in śānta-rasa become stunned, peaceful, jubilant, deliberate, reflective, anxious, dexterous and argumentative.
These symptoms indicate continuous ecstasy, or established emotion.
Once a great realized sage was lamenting that the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa was living in Dvārakā but that he was unable to take advantage of seeing Him.
After thinking this, the sage immediately became stunned.
He was thinking that he was simply wasting his time.
In other words, the sage lamented because the Supreme Personality of Godhead was personally present, and he still could not take advantage of this because of his meditation.
When a mystic is transcendental to all kinds of mental concoctions and is situated in Brahman, his state is called trance beyond the influence of the material conception of life.
In that stage, when one hears about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, there may be shivering in the body.
When a Brahman-realized devotee who has come to the stage of steady trance comes into contact with the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa, his transcendental pleasure increases millions of times.
One great sage once inquired from another, "My dear friend, do you think that after I perfect the eightfold yoga performance I shall be able to see the eternal form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" This enquiry from the sage is an instance of inquisitiveness in a devotee situated in the neutral stage of devotional service.
When Lord Kṛṣṇa, along with His elder brother Balarāma and sister Subhadrā, came to Kurukṣetra in a chariot on the occasion of a solar eclipse, many mystic yogīs also came.
When these mystic yogīs saw Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, they exclaimed that now that they had seen the excellent bodily effulgence of the Lord, they had almost forgotten the pleasure derived from impersonal Brahman realization.
In this connection one of the mystics approached Kṛṣṇa and said, "My dear Lord, You are always full with transcendental bliss, excelling all other spiritual positions.
And so, simply by seeing You from a distant place, I have come to the conclusion that there is no need of my being situated in the transcendental bliss of impersonal Brahman." When a great mystic was once awakened from his meditative trance by hearing the vibration of Kṛṣṇa's Pāṣcajanya conchshell, the mystic became overpowered.
So much so, in fact, that he began to bash his head on the ground, and with eyes full of tears of ecstatic love, he violated all the rules and regulations of his yoga performances.
Thus he at once neglected the process of Brahman realization.
Bilvamaṅgala Thākur, in his book Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta, says, "Let the impersonalists be engaged in the process of transcendental realization by worshiping the impersonal Brahman.
Although I was also initiated into that path of Brahman realization, I have now become misled by a naughty boy-one who is very cunning, who is very much attached to the gopīs and who has made me His maidservant.
So I have now forgotten the process of Brahman realization." Bilvamaṅgala Thākur was first spiritually initiated for impersonal realization of the absolute truth, but later on, by his association with Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, he became an experienced devotee.
The same thing happened to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who also reformed himself by the grace of the Lord and took to the path of devotional service, giving up the way of impersonal realization.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Bilvamaṅgala Thākur's giving up of the impersonal conception of the absolute truth and taking to devotional service are the best examples of devotees being situated in the neutral state.
According to some authorities, this condition cannot be accepted as one of the transcendental humors, or rasas, but Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that even if one does not accept it as a transcendental humor, one must still accept it as the beginning position of devotional service.
However, if one is not further raised to the platform of actual service to the Lord, he is not considered to be on the platform of transcendental mellow.
In this connection, in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Kṛṣṇa personally instructs Uddhava like this: "The state of being established in My personal form is called śānta-rasa, and without being situated in this position, no one can advance to actual pure devotional service." In other words, no one can be situated in the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead without being situated at least in śānta-rasa.
Transcendental Affection (Servitude)
The transcendental mellow of affection has been accepted by authorities like Śrīdhara Svāmī as a perfectional stage of devotion.
It is just above the humor of neutrality and is a requisite for the development of the serving humor.
In literature such as Nāma-kaumudī this state of existence is accepted as continual affection for or attraction to Kṛṣṇa.
Authorities like Śukadeva consider this stage of affection to be in the neutral stage, but in any case this affection is relished by the devotees in different transcendental tastes, and therefore the general name for this state is affection, or pure affection for Kṛṣṇa.
Devotees engaged in servitude are attached to Kṛṣṇa in the affection of reverence.
Some of the inhabitants of Gokula (Vṛndāvana as exhibited on earth) are attached to Kṛṣṇa on this platform of affection in reverence.
The inhabitants of Vṛndāvana used to say, "Kṛṣṇa is always manifest before us with a complexion like a blackish cloud.
He holds His wonderful flute in His lotus hands.
He is dressed in yellow silks and bedecked with a peacock feather on His head.
When Kṛṣṇa walks near Govardhan Hill with these personal features, all the inhabitants of the heavenly planets, as well as the inhabitants of this earth, feel transcendental bliss and consider themselves the eternal servants of the Lord." Sometimes the devotee becomes filled with the same awe and reverence by seeing a picture of Viṣṇu, who is dressed like Kṛṣṇa and who has a similar complexion.
The only difference is that Viṣṇu has four hands, in which He holds the conchshell, the disc, the club and the lotus flower.
Lord Viṣṇu is always decorated with many valuable jewels, such as the candrakānta stone and the sūryakānta stone.
In the Lalita-mādhava by Rūpa Gosvāmī there is the following statement by Dāruka, one of the servants of Kṛṣṇa: "Certainly Lord Viṣṇu is very beautiful with His necklace of kaustubha jewels, His four hands holding conchshell, disc, club and lotus flower, and His dazzlingly beautiful jewelry.
He is also very beautiful in His eternal position, riding upon the shoulder of Garuḍa.
But now the same Lord Viṣṇu is present as the enemy of Kaṁsa, and by His personal feature I am completely forgetting the opulence of Vaikuṇṭha." Another devotee once said, "This Supreme Personality of Godhead from whose bodily pores come millions of universes, permanently rising, who is the ocean of mercy, who is the owner of inconceivable energies, who is always equipped with all perfections, who is the origin of all incarnations, who is the attraction for all liberated persons-this very Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme controller, the supremely worshipable, all-cognizant, fully determined, fully opulent, the emblem of forgiveness, the protector of surrendered souls, munificent, true to His promise, expert, all-auspicious, powerful, religious, a strict follower of the scripture, the friend of the devotees, magnanimous, influential, grateful, reputable, respectable, full of all strength and submissive to pure love.
Surely He is the only shelter of devotees who are attracted to Him by the affection of servitorship." The devotees of the Lord in servitude are divided into four classes: appointed servants (such as Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, who are appointed to control over the material modes of passion and ignorance), devotees in servitude who are protected by the Lord, devotees who are always associates, and devotees who are simply following in the footsteps of the Lord.
In a conversation between Jāmbavatī, one of Kṛṣṇa's wives, and Kālindī, her friend, Jāmbavatī enquired, "Who is this personality circumambulating our Kṛṣṇa?" Kālindī replied, "He is Ambikeya, the superintendent of all universal affairs." Then Jāmbavatī enquired, "Who is this personality who is trembling at the sight of Kṛṣṇa?" Kālindī replied, "He is Lord Śiva." Then Jāmbavatī enquired, "Who is the person offering prayers?" Kālindī replied, "He is Lord Brahmā." Jāmbavatī then asked, "Who is that person who has fallen on the ground and is offering respect to Kṛṣṇa?" Kālindī replied, "He is Indra, the King of heaven." Jāmbavatī next inquired, "Who is this person who has come with the demigods and is laughing with them?" Kālindī replied, "He is my elder brother, Yamarāja, the superintendent of death." This conversation offers a description of all the demigods, including Yamarāja, who are engaged in services appointed by the Lord.
They are called adhikṛta-devatā, or demigods appointed to particular types of departmental service.
One resident of Vṛndāvana once told Lord Kṛṣṇa, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, O pleasure of Vṛndāvana! Being afraid of this material existence, we have taken shelter of You, for You can completely protect us! We are well aware of Your greatness.
As such, we have given up our desire for liberation and have taken complete shelter under Your lotus feet.
Since we have heard about Your ever-increasing transcendental love, we have voluntarily engaged ourselves in Your transcendental service." This statement is by a devotee who is under the protection and shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Upon being chastised by Kṛṣṇa's constant kicking on his head, Kāliya, the black snake of the Yamunā, came to his senses and admitted, "My dear Lord, I have been so offensive unto You, but still You are so kind that You have marked my head with the impression of Your lotus feet." This also is an instance of one's taking shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
In the Aparādha-bhaṣjana a pure devotee expresses his feelings: "My dear Lord, I am ashamed to admit before You that I have carried out the orders of my masters named lust, anger, avarice, illusion and envy.
Sometimes I have carried out their orders in a way most abominable.
Yet in spite of my serving them so faithfully, they are neither satisfied nor are they kind enough to give me relief from their service.
They are not even ashamed of taking service from me in that way.
My dear Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, now I have come to my senses, and I am taking shelter of Your lotus feet.
Please engage me in Your service." This is another instance of surrendering and taking shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
There are many instances in the various Vedic writings of persons who were aspiring after liberation by speculative knowledge but gave up this process in order to take complete shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
Examples of such persons are the brāhmaṇas headed by Śaunaka in the forest of Naimiṣāraṇya.* Learned scholars accept them as devotees having complete wisdom.
There is a statement in the Hari-bhaktisudhodaya in which these great brāhmaṇas and sages, headed by Śaunaka Ṛṣi, told Sūta Gosvāmī: "My dear great soul, just see how wonderful it is! Although as human beings we are contaminated with so many taints of material existence, simply by our conversing with you about the Supreme Personality of Godhead we are now gradually decrying our desire for liberation." In Padyāvalī a devotee says, "Persons who are attached to speculative knowledge for self realization, who have decided that the supreme truth is beyond meditation and who have thus become situated in the mode of goodness-let them peacefully execute their engagement.
As for us, we are simply attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is by nature so pleasing, who possesses a complexion like a blackish cloud, who is dressed in yellow garments and who has beautiful lotus-like eyes.
We wish only to meditate upon Him." Those who are from the very beginning of their self realization attached to devotional service are called sevāniṣṭha.
Sevāniṣṭha means simply attached to devotional service.
The best examples of such devotees are Lord Śiva, King Indra, King Bahulāśva, King Ikṣvāku, Śrutadeva and Puṇḍarīka.
One devotee says: "My dear Lord, Your transcendental qualities attract even the liberated souls and carry them to the assembly of devotees where Your glories are constantly chanted.
Even great sages who are accustomed to live in solitary * These are the brāhmaṇas to whom Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was spoken by sūta Gosvāmi, as described in the author's Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Volume I, Chapter 1.
places are also attracted by the songs of Your glory.
And, observing all Your transcendental qualities, I have also become attracted and have decided to dedicate my life to Your loving service." In the city of Dvārakā the following devotees are known as Kṛṣṇa's close associates: Uddhava, Dāruka, Sātyaki, Śrutadeva, Satrājit, Nanda, Upananda and Bhadra.
All of these personalities remain with the Lord as His secretaries, but still they are sometimes engaged in His personal service.
Among the Kuru dynasty, Bhīṣma, Mahārāj Parīkṣit and Vidura are also known as close associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
It is said, "All the associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa have lustrous bodily features, and their eyes are just like lotus flowers.
They have sufficient power to defeat the strength of the demigods, and the specific feature of their persons is that they are always decorated with valuable ornaments." When Kṛṣṇa was in the capital Indraprastha, someone addressed Him thus: "My dear Lord, Your personal associates, headed by Uddhava, are always awaiting Your order by standing at the entrance gate of Dvārakā.
They are mostly looking on with tears in their eyes, and in the enthusiasm of their service they are not afraid even of the devastating fire generated by Lord Śiva.
They are souls simply surrendered unto Your lotus feet." Out of the many close associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava is considered the best.
The following is a description of him: "His body is blackish like the color of the Yamunā River, and it is similarly as cool.
He is always decorated with flower garlands first used by Lord Kṛṣṇa, and he is dressed with yellow silk clothing.
His two arms are just like the bolts of a door, his eyes are just like lotus flowers, and he is the most important devotee among all the associates.
Let us therefore offer our respectful obeisances unto Uddhava's lotus feet." Uddhava has described the transcendental qualities of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as follows: "Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is our master and worshipable Deity, who is the controller of Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā, the controller of the whole universe as well, accepts the controlling orders of Ugrasena, His grandfather.
He is the proprietor of millions of universes, but still He begged a little land from the ocean.
And although He is just like an ocean of wisdom, still He sometimes consults me.
He is so great and magnanimous, yet He is engaged in His different activities just like an ordinary person." Those who are constantly engaged in the personal service of the Lord are called anugas, or followers.
Examples of such followers are Sucandra, Maṇḍana, Stamba and Sutamba.
They are all inhabitants of the city of Dvārakā, and they are dressed and ornamented like the other associates.
The specific services entrusted to the anugas are varied.
Maṇḍana always bears the umbrella over the head of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Sucandra is engaged in fanning with the white cāmara bunch of hair, and Sutamba is engaged in supplying betel nuts.
All of them are great devotees, and they are always busy in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
As there are anugas in Dvārakā, so there are many anugas in Vṛndāvana also.
The names of the anugas in Vṛndāvana are as follows: Raktaka, Patraka, Patrī, Madhukaṇṭha, Madhuvrata, Rasāla, Suvilāsa, Premakanda, Marandaka, Ānanda, Candrahāsa, Payoda, Bakula, Rasada, and Śārada.
Descriptions of the bodily features of the anugas in Vṛndāvana are given in the following statement: "Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the constant associates of the son of Mahārāj Nanda.
They always stay in Vṛndāvana, and their bodies are decorated with garlands of pearls and with bangles and bracelets of gold.
Their colors are like black bees and the golden moon, and they are dressed just to suit their particular special bodily features.
Their specific duties can be understood from a statement by Mother Yaśodā, who said, 'Bakula, please cleanse the yellowish dress of Kṛṣṇa.
Vārida, you just flavor the bathing water with aguru scent.
And Rasāla, you just prepare the betel nuts.
You can all see that Kṛṣṇa is approaching.
There is dust overhead, and the cows can be seen very distinctly.'" Amongst all the anugas, Raktaka is considered to be the chief.
The description of his bodily features is as follows: "He wears yellow clothing, and his bodily color is just like newly- grown grass.
He is very expert in singing and is always engaged in the service of the son of Mahārāj Nanda.
Let us all become the followers of Raktaka in offering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa!" An example of the attachment felt by Raktaka toward Lord Kṛṣṇa can be understood from his statement to Rasada: "Just hear me! Please place me so that I may always be engaged in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who has now become famous as the lifter of the Govardhan Hill." The devotees of Kṛṣṇa engaged in His personal service are always very cautious because they know that becoming personal servitors of Lord Kṛṣṇa is not an ordinary thing.
A person who offers respect even to the ants engaged in the service of the Lord becomes eternally happy, so what is there to say of one who offers Kṛṣṇa direct service? Raktaka once said within himself, "Not only is Kṛṣṇa my worshipable and servable Lord, but also the girl friends of Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs, are equally worshipable and servable by me.
And not only the gopīs, but anyone who is engaged in the service for the Lord is also worshipable and servable by me.
I know that I must be very careful not to become overly proud that I am one of the servitors and devotees of the Lord." From this statement one can understand that the pure devotees, those who are actually engaged in the service of the Lord, are always very cautious and are never overly proud of their service.
This mentality of the direct servitor of Kṛṣṇa is called dhurya.
According to expert analytical studies of the direct associates of the Lord, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has divided these into three classes-namely, dhurya, dhīra and vīra.
Raktaka is classified among the dhurya, or those who are always attached to serve the most beloved gopīs.
One dhīra associate of Kṛṣṇa is the son of Satyabhāmā's nurse.
Satyabhāmā is one of the queens of Lord Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā, and when she was married to Kṛṣṇa, the son of her nurse was allowed to go with her because they had lived together from childhood as brother and sister.
So this gentleman, the son of Satyabhāmā's nurse, used to live with Kṛṣṇa as His brother-in-law, and sometimes as brother-in-law he used to play jokes with Kṛṣṇa.
He once addressed Kṛṣṇa in this way: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, I never tried to gain the favor of the goddess of fortune, who is married to You, but still I am so fortunate that I am considered one of the members of Your house, the brother of Satyabhāmā." This same person once expressed his pride, declaring, "Lord Baladeva may be a great enemy of Pralambāsura, but I have nothing to worry about from Him.
And as far as Pradyumna is concerned, I have nothing to take from him, because he is simply a boy.
Therefore I do not expect anything from anyone else.
I simply expect the favorable glance of Kṛṣṇa upon me, and so I am not even afraid of Satyabhāmā, who is so dear to Kṛṣṇa." In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 20th Chapter, 25th verse, King Pṛthu addresses the Lord, saying, "My dear Lord, it may happen that the goddess of fortune becomes dissatisfied with my work, or I may even have some misunderstanding with her, but I will not mind this, because I have full confidence in You.
You are always causelessly merciful to Your servants, and You consider even their menial service to be very much advanced.
So I have confidence that You will accept my humble service, although it is not worthy of being recognized.
My dear Lord, You are self-sufficient.
You can do anything You like without the help of anyone else.
So even if the goddess of fortune is not satisfied with me, I know You will always accept my service anyway." Devotees attached to the transcendental loving service of the Lord may be described either as surrendered souls, as souls advanced in devotional knowledge, or as souls completely engaged in the transcendental loving service.
Such devotees are called, respectively, neophyte, perfect and eternally perfect.
Impetuses for Kṛṣṇa's Service
The causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa, the dust of His lotus feet, His prasādam and association with His devotees are some impetuses toward a devotee's engagement in transcendental loving service to the Lord.
Kṛṣṇa exhibited His causeless mercy when He was present at the departure of Grandfather Bhīṣma.
During the Battle of Kurukṣetra, Bhīṣmadeva, the grandfather of Arjuna, was lying on a bed of arrows before departing from this mortal world.
When Lord Kṛṣṇa, Mahārāj Yudhiṣṭhira and the other Pāṇḍavas approached Bhīṣmadeva, he was very grateful to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and he addressed the brāhmaṇa military commander Kṛpācārya thus: "My dear Kṛpācārya, just see the wonderful causeless mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa! I am most unfortunate.
I have no qualifications.
I was opposing Kṛṣṇa's most intimate friend, Arjuna-I even tried to kill him! I have so many disqualifications, and yet the Lord is still so kind that He has come to see me at the last point of my life.
He is worshipable by all great sages, but still He is so merciful that He has come to see an abominable person like me." Sometimes the vibration of Lord Kṛṣṇa's flute, His bugling, His smiling, His footmarks on the ground, the transcendental fragrance of His body and the appearance of a new cloud in the sky also become impetuses for ecstatic love of Him.
In the Vidagdha-mādhava there is the following statement: "When Kṛṣṇa was playing on His flute, Baladeva very anxiously declared, 'Just see how, after hearing the transcendental sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute, Indra the King of heaven is crying in his heavenly kingdom! And from his teardrops falling on the ground, Vṛndāvana appears to have become a celestial residence for the demigods.'" Ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, which is known as anubhāva, is symptomized by the following signs: one becomes engaged exclusively in the service of the Lord, being attentive to carry out the orders of the Lord faithfully; one becomes undisturbed and non-envious in full transcendental loving service to the Lord; and one makes friendship with the devotees of the Lord who are situated in faithful service to Him.
All of these symptoms are called anubhāva, ecstatic love.
The first symptom of anubhāva, or engagement in a particular type of service, is exemplified by Dāruka, a servant of Kṛṣṇa who used to fan Kṛṣṇa with a cāmara, a bunch of hair.
When he was engaged in such service, he was filled with ecstatic love, and the symptoms of ecstatic love became manifest in his body.
But Dāruka was so serious about his service that he checked all of these manifestations of ecstatic love and considered them hindrances to his engagement.
He did not care very much for these manifestations, although they automatically developed.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 86th Chapter, 27th verse, there is a statement of how Śrutadeva, a brāhmaṇa from the country called Mithilā in northern India, would become so overpowered with joy as soon as he saw Kṛṣṇa that immediately after bowing to the Lord's lotus feet, he would stand up and began to dance, raising his two arms above his head.
One of the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa once addressed Him in this manner: "My dear Lord, although You are not a professional dancer, by Your dancing You have so astonished us that we can understand that You are personally the master of all dancing.
Certainly You must have learned this dancing art directly from the goddess of love." When a devotee dances in ecstatic love, there are manifestations of symptoms which are called sāttvika.
Sāttvika means that they are from the transcendental platform.
They are not symptoms of material emotions; they come from the soul proper.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 85th Chapter, 30th verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells Mahārāj Parīkṣit that after surrendering everything unto the lotus feet of Vāmanadeva, Bali Mahārāj immediately caught hold of the lotus feet of the Lord and pressed them to his heart.
Being overwhelmed with joy, he manifested all the symptoms of ecstatic love, with tears in his eyes and a faltering voice.
In such expressions of ecstatic love there are many other subsidiary symptoms, such as jubilation, withering, silence, disappointment, moroseness, reverence, thoughtfulness, remembrance, doubtfulness, confidence, eagerness, indifference, restlessness, impudence, shyness, inertness, illusion, madness, ghastliness, contemplation, dreaming, disease and signs of death.
When a devotee meets Kṛṣṇa, there are symptoms of jubilation, pride and perseverance, and when he is feeling great separation from Kṛṣṇa, the symptoms of ghastliness, disease and the signs of death become prominent.
It is stated in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11th Chapter, 4th verse, that when Lord Kṛṣṇa returned from the battlefield of Kurukṣetra to His home at Dvārakā, all the residents of Dvārakā began to talk with Him, as a child talks lovingly to his father after the father's return from foreign countries.
This is an example of jubilation.
When Bahulāśva, the King of Mithilā, saw Kṛṣṇa at his palace, he decided to offer his respects by bowing down before Him at least a hundred times, but he was so overcome by feelings of love that, after bowing down only once, he forgot his position and could not rise up again.
In the Skanda Purāṇa a devotee tells Lord Kṛṣṇa: "My dear Lord, as the sun evaporates all the water on the ground by its scorching heat, so my mental state has dried away the luster of my face and body, due to separation from You." This is an example of withering in ecstatic love.
An expression of disappointment was made by Indra, the King of heaven.
When he saw the sungod, he told him, "My dear sungod, your sunshine is very glorious because it reaches unto the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the master of the Yadu dynasty.
I have thousands of eyes, but they have proved to be useless because not even for a moment are they able to see the lotus feet of the Lord." Reverential devotion for the Lord gradually increases and transforms itself into ecstatic love, then affection and then attachment.
In the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 38th Chapter, 5th verse, Akrūra says: "Because I am going to see Lord Kṛṣṇa today, all symptoms of inauspiciousness have already been killed.
My life is now successful because I shall be able to offer my respects unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead!" Another devotee in ecstatic reverential affection once said, "When will that glorious day in my life come when it will be possible for me to go to the bank of the Yamunā and see Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa playing there as a cowherd boy?" When there is no diminishing of this ecstatic love and when it is freed from all kinds of doubt, that stage is called steady love for Kṛṣṇa.
In this stage all expressions of unhappiness by the devotee are called anubhāva, or ecstatic loving symptoms.
The symptom of ecstatic affection with reverence felt by Bali Mahārāj is expressed as follows: "My dear Lord, You have simultaneously punished me and showed me Your causeless mercy.
My conclusion is that when I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet I shall never be disturbed in any condition of life.
Whether You give me the opportunity to enjoy all the yogic perfections, or You put me into the most abominable condition of hellish life, I shall never be disturbed." Kṛṣṇa Himself, after seeing Bali Mahārāj, told Uddhava, "My dear friend, how can I express the glorious characteristics of Bali Mahārāj, the son of Virocana? Although the King of the suras [demigods] was cursed by this son of Virocana, and although I cheated him in My incarnation as Vāmana, taking away his dominions throughout the universe, and although I still criticized him for not fulfilling his promise, I have just now seen him in his kingdom, and he feelingly expressed his love for me."* When such a feeling of love becomes intensified, it is called affection.
- Bali was a king of the demons who waged war against the demigods and nearly conquered the universe.
When the demigods prayed for help, the Lord appeared as Vāmanadeva, a dwarf brāhmaṇa,and asked Bali or three paces of land.
Bali agreed, and Vāmana covered all the worlds with His first two steps.
Then He demanded to know where His third pace was to be.
Bali offered his own had beneath the Lord's foot and thus became a mahājana, or great devotee.
In the affectional stage no one can bear separation from Kṛṣṇa even for a moment.
One devotee told Dāruka, the servant of Kṛṣṇa: "My dear Dāruka, when you become like wood because of your separation from Kṛṣṇa, it is not so wonderful.
Whenever any devotee sees Kṛṣṇa, his eyes become filled with water, and in separation any devotee like you would become stunned, standing just like a wooden doll.
That is not a very wonderful thing." There is a statement about Uddhava's symptoms of love.
When he saw Lord Kṛṣṇa his eyes filled with tears and created a river which flowed down toward the sea of Kṛṣṇa to offer tribute, as a wife offers tribute to her husband.
When his body erupted with goose-pimples, he appeared like the kadamba flower, and when he began to offer prayers, he appeared completely distinct from all other devotees.
When affection is symptomized by direct happiness and distress, that is called attraction.
In such an attracted state of ecstatic love, one can face all kinds of disadvantages calmly.
Even at the risk of death such a devotee is never bereft of the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
A glorious example of this ecstatic love was exhibited by King Parīkṣit when he was at the point of death.
Although he was bereft of his entire kingdom, which spread over all the world, and although he was accepting not even a drop of water in the seven days remaining to him, because he was engaged in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he was not in the least distressed.
On the contrary, he was feeling direct transcendental ecstatic joy in association with Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
One devotee has confidently expressed this opinion: "If a drop of Lord Kṛṣṇa's mercy can be bestowed upon me, then I shall feel completely carefree, even in the midst of a fire or an ocean.
But if I become bereft of His causeless mercy, then even if I became the King of Dvārakā, I would be simply an object for pinpricks." Devotees such as Mahārāj Parīkṣit and Uddhava are all situated in ecstatic attraction on the basis of affection, and in that state of affection a feeling of friendship becomes manifest.
When Uddhava was freed from all material contamination, he saw the Lord, and his throat became choked up, and he could not speak.
By the movements of his eyebrows alone he was embracing the Lord.
Such ecstatic love has been divided by great scholars into two groups-addition and subtraction.
If a devotee is not directly associated with the Lord, it is called subtraction.
In this state of love, one is constantly fixed with his mind at the lotus feet of the Lord.
A devotee in this state becomes very eager to learn of the transcendental qualities of the Lord.
The most important business of such a devotee is attaining the association of the Lord.
In the Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa there is a statement about King Ikṣvāku which illustrates this state of ecstatic love.
Because of his great affection for Kṛṣṇa, King Ikṣvāku became greatly attached to the black cloud, the black deer, the deer's black eyes and to the lotus flower, which is always compared to the eyes of the Lord.
In the Tenth Canto, 38th Chapter, 9th verse of the Bhāgavatam, Akrūra thinks, "Since the Lord has now appeared to diminish the great burden of the world and is now visible to everyone's eyes in His personal transcendental body, when we see Him before us, is that not the ultimate perfection of our eyes?" In other words, Akrūra realized that the perfection of the eyes is fulfilled when one is able to see Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore, when Lord Kṛṣṇa was visible on the earth by direct appearance, everyone who saw Him surely attained perfection of sight.
In the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta written by Bilvamaṅgala Thākur there is this expression of eagerness in ecstatic love: "How miserable it is, my dear Kṛṣṇa, O friend of the hopeless! O merciful Lord, how can I pass these thankless days without seeing You?" A similar sentiment was expressed by Uddhava when he wrote a letter to Kṛṣṇa and said, "My dear Supreme King of Braja, You are the vision of nectar for the eyes, and without seeing Your lotus feet and the effulgence of Your body, my mind is always morose.
I cannot perceive any peace under any circumstance.
Besides that, I am feeling every moment's separation to be like the duration of many, many long years." In the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta it is also said, "My dear Lord, You are the ocean of mercy.
With my arms placed upon my head, I am bowing down before You with all humility and sincerity.
I am praying unto You, my Lord.
Would You be pleased just to sprinkle a little of the water of Your glance upon me? That will be a great satisfaction." A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "When even Śaśiśekhara [Lord Śiva] is unable to see You, what chance is there for me, who am lower than an ordinary worm? I have only committed misdeeds.
I know that I am not at all fit to offer my prayers to You, but because You are known as Dīnabandhu, the friend of the fallen, I humbly pray that You will kindly purify me by the beams of Your transcendental glance.
If I become thoroughly bathed by Your merciful glance, then I may be saved.
Therefore, my Lord, I am requesting You to please bestow upon me Your merciful glance." Chapter Separation 38.
Indifference and
Indifference and Separation
The great devotee Uddhava once wrote a letter to Kṛṣṇa: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, I have just finished the study of all kinds of philosophical books and Vedic verses about the goal of life, and so now I have a little reputation for my studies.
But still, in spite of my reputation, my knowledge is condemned, because although enjoying the effulgence of Vedic knowledge, I could not appreciate the effulgence emanating from the nails of Your toes.
Therefore, the sooner my pride and Vedic knowledge are finished, the better it will be!" This is an example of indifference.
Another devotee very anxiously expressed himself thusly: "My mind is very flickering, so I cannot concentrate it upon Your lotus feet.
And seeing this inefficiency in myself I become ashamed, and the whole night I am unable to sleep because I am exasperated by my great inability." In the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta Bilvamaṅgala Thākur has explained his restlessness as follows: "My dear Lord, Your naughtiness in boyhood is the most wonderful thing in the three worlds.
And You Yourself know what this naughtiness is.
As such, You can very easily understand my flickering mind.
This is known to You and myself.
Therefore, I am simply yearning to know how I can fix my mind on Your lotus feet." Another devotee expressed his impudence by saying: "My dear Lord, without considering my lowly position, I must confess to You that my eyes are just like black wasps, desiring to hover at Your lotus feet." In the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4th Chapter, 27th verse, the great sage Nārada informs Mahārāj Yudhiṣṭhira about Prahlāda Mahārāj, who was a devotee from the very beginning of his life.
The proof of Prahlāda's natural devotion is that even when he was a small child he did not play with his playmates, but was always eager to preach the glories of the Lord.
Instead of joining in their sportive acrobatic feats, he remained as an inactive child because he was always in trance, meditating on Kṛṣṇa.
As such, there was no possibility of his being touched by the external world.
The following statement is about a brāhmaṇa devotee: "This brāhmaṇa is very expert in all kinds of activities, but I do not know why he is looking up without moving his eyes.
It appears that his body is fixed motionless just like a doll's.
In this condition, I can guess that he has been captivated by the transcendental beauty of that expert flute-player, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and, being attached to Him, he is simply staring at the black cloud, remembering the bodily hue of Śrī Kṛṣṇa." This is an example of how a devotee can become inert due to ecstatic love.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Seventh Canto, 4th Chapter, 30th verse, Prahlāda Mahārāj says that even in his childhood, when he was loudly speaking the glories of the Lord, he used to dance just like a shameless madman.
And sometimes, being fully absorbed in thought on the pastimes of the Lord, he used to imitate such pastimes.
This is an instance of a devotee's being almost like a madman.
Similarly, it is said that the great sage Nārada was so ecstatically in love with Kṛṣṇa that he would sometimes dance naked, and sometimes his whole body would become stunned.
Sometimes he would laugh very loudly, sometimes he would cry very loudly, sometimes he would remain silent, and sometimes he would appear to be suffering from some disease, although he had no disease.
This is another instance of becoming like a madman in the ecstasy of devotion.
In the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya it is stated that when Prahlāda Mahārāj was thinking himself unfit to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he immersed himself in great distress, in an ocean of unhappiness.
As such, he used to shed tears and lie down on the floor as though unconscious.
The students of a great devotee once talked amongst themselves in this way: "My dear Godbrothers, our spiritual master, after seeing the lotus feet of the Lord, has thrown himself into the fire of lamentation, and because of this fire the water of his life has almost dried away.
Let us now pour the nectar of the holy name through his ears, and by our doing so the swan of his life may again show signs of life." When Lord Kṛṣṇa went to the city of Śoṇitapura to fight with Bali's son Bāṇa and to cut off all his hands, Uddhava, being separated from Kṛṣṇa and thinking of His fight, was almost completely stunned into unconsciousness.
When a devotee is fully in love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there may be the following symptoms due to his feelings of separation from the Lord: feverish condition of the body, withering of the body, lack of sleep, nonattachment, inertness, appearing diseased, madness, unconsciousness and sometimes death.
As far as the feverish condition of the body is concerned, Uddhava once told Nārada, "My dear great sage, the lotus flower that is a friend of the sun may be a cause of distress for us; and the fire in the ocean may cause us some burning sensation; and Indīvara, the friend of a demon, may distress us in various ways- we do not mind.
But the most regrettable factor is that all of them remind us of Kṛṣṇa, and this is giving us too much distress!" This is an instance of the feverish condition which is due to being separated from Kṛṣṇa.
Some of the devotees who went to see Kṛṣṇa at Dvārakā and were detained at the door said: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, O friend of the Pāṇḍus, as the swan loves to dive into the water amongst the lily flowers and would die if he were taken from the water, so we only wish to be with You.
Our limbs are being shrunken and faded because You have been taken away from us." The King of Bahulā, although very comfortably situated in his palace, began to think the nights very long and distressing because of his separation from Kṛṣṇa.
King Yudhiṣṭhira once said, "Kṛṣṇa, the chariot driver of Arjuna, is the only relative of mine within the three worlds.
Therefore, my mind is becoming maddened day and night with separation from His lotus feet, and I do not know how to situate myself or where I shall go to attain any steadiness of mind." This is another example of lack of sleep.
Some of the cowherd friends of Kṛṣṇa said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, O enemy of the Mura demon, just think of Your personal servant Raktaka.
Simply because he saw a peacock feather he is now closing his eyes and is no longer attentive to pasturing the cows.
Rather, he has left them in a faraway pasture and has not even bothered to use his stick to control them." This is an instance of mental imbalance due to separation from Kṛṣṇa.
When Lord Kṛṣṇa went to the capital of King Yudhiṣṭhira, Uddhava was so afflicted by the fire of separation from Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the perspiring water from his enflamed body and the tears from his eyes poured from him, and in this way he became completely stunned.
When Śrī Kṛṣṇa left the city of Dvārakā to seek out the Syamantaka jewel, He was late returning home.
Uddhava became so afflicted that the symptoms of disease became manifest on his body.
Actually, due to his excessive ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava became known in Dvārakā as crazy.
To his great fortune, on that day Uddhava's reputation as a crazy fellow was firmly established.
Uddhava's craziness was practically proved when he went to Raivataka Hill to minutely observe the congested black clouds.
In his disturbed condition, he began to pray to these clouds, and he expressed his jubilation by bowing down before them.
Uddhava informed Kṛṣṇa, "My dear leader of the Yadu dynasty, Your servants in Vṛndāvana cannot sleep at night thinking of You, so now they are all lying down on the bank of the Yamunā almost paralyzed.
And it appears that they are almost dead because their breathing is very slow." This is an instance of becoming unconscious due to separation from Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa was once informed, "You are the life and soul of all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana.
So because You have left Vṛndāvana, all of the servitors of Your lotus feet there are suffering.
It is as if the lakes filled with lotus flowers have dried up from the scorching heat of separation from You." In the example given here, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana are compared to lakes filled with lotus flowers, and because of the scorching heat of separation from Kṛṣṇa, the lakes-along with the lotus flowers of their lives-are being burned up.
And the swans in the lakes, who are compared to the vitality of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, are no longer desiring to live in that lake.
In other words, because of the scorching heat, the swans are leaving the lakes.
This metaphor is used to describe the condition of the devotees separated from Kṛṣṇa.
Ways of Meeting Kṛṣṇa
When Kṛṣṇa and His devotees meet, it is technically called yoga, or linking up with the Lord.
Such meetings between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees can be divided into three classes-namely, perfection, satisfaction, and steadiness.
When the devotee meets with Kṛṣṇa in great eagerness, that state of meeting is called perfection.
In the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta, Bilvamaṅgala Thākur describes how Kṛṣṇa meets His devotee-with peacock feather on His head, with marakata jewels on His chest, with His ever enchanting smile, His restless eyes and His very delicate body.
In the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 38th Chapter, 31st verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "My dear King, as soon as Akrūra the chariot driver saw Lord Kṛṣṇa and His elder brother Balarāma in Vṛndāvana, he immediately got down from the chariot and, being greatly afflicted by affection for the transcendental Lord, fell down upon His lotus feet to offer respectful obeisances." These are some of the instances of perfectional meetings with Kṛṣṇa.
When a devotee meets Kṛṣṇa after long separation, it is called satisfaction.
In the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11th Chapter, 9th verse, it is stated that when Lord Kṛṣṇa returned to His capital, Dvārakā, the inhabitants began to say, "My dear Lord, if You remain in foreign countries for so long, we shall certainly be bereft of seeing Your smiling face! And observing Your face, we, Your eternal servitors, become greatly satisfied.
All the anxieties of our existence are immediately mitigated.
If we cannot see You because You are long absent from Dvārakā, then it will be impossible for us to live anymore." This is an instance of satisfaction in meeting Kṛṣṇa after long separation.
Kṛṣṇa's personal servant, Dāruka, seeing Kṛṣṇa at the door of Dvārakā, forgot to offer Him respects with folded hands.
When a devotee is ultimately situated in association with Kṛṣṇa, his position is called steadiness in devotional service.
This steady position in devotional service is explained in the book known as Haṁsadūta.
It is described there how Akrūra, who was considered by the gopīs to be terror personified, would talk with Kṛṣṇa about the activities of the Kuru dynasty.
A similar steady position was held by Uddhava, the disciple of Bṛhaspati.
He would always massage the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa while kneeling down on the ground before Him.
When a devotee is engaged in the service of the Lord, it is called the attainment of yoga.
The English equivalent to the word "yoga" is "linking up." So actual linking up with Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, begins when the devotee renders service unto Him.
Devotees situated in the transcendental rasa of servitorship render their particular service whenever there is an opportunity.
Sometimes they sit down in front of Kṛṣṇa to receive orders.
Some persons are reluctant to accept this level of devotional service as actual bhakti-yoga, and in some of the Purāṇas also this servitorship in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is not accepted as the actual bhakti-yoga system.
But in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it has been clearly indicated that the servitor relationship with Kṛṣṇa is the actual beginning of yoga realization.
In the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3rd Chapter, 33rd verse, it is stated that when devotees are engaged in the discharge of bhaktiyoga, sometimes they cry from thinking of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes they laugh, sometimes they become jubilant, and sometimes they talk in very uncommon ways.
Sometimes they dance, sometimes they sing, sometimes they are actually engaged in the service of the Lord, and sometimes they sit down silently as if absorbed in trance.
Similarly, in the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Chapter 28, Prahlāda Mahārāj says to his friends: "My dear friends, as soon as pure devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa hear of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, who is the eternal reservoir of pastimes, or hear about His transcendental qualities they become overpowered with jubilation.
Ecstatic symptoms are manifested in their bodies.
They shed tears, talk falteringly, glorify the Lord in a loud voice and chant and dance in ecstasy.
These ecstasies are always there, but sometimes they overcome all limits, and the symptoms become manifest to all." In the process of surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead there are six items: to accept everything which is favorable for devotional service, to reject everything which is unfavorable for devotional service, to believe that Kṛṣṇa will always give protection, to identify oneself with Kṛṣṇa's devotees, to always feel inability without the help of Kṛṣṇa, and to always think oneself inferior to Kṛṣṇa, even though one may have full capacity to perform something on his own.
When one is substantially convinced that he is always protected by Kṛṣṇa in all circumstances, that feeling is called reverential devotion.
Reverential devotion is executed in relation with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and with His other protected devotees.
When Kṛṣṇa was residing in Dvārakā, some of the elderly members of the Yadu family would occasionally put some important matter before Him.
At such a time, Kṛṣṇa would carefully give attention to those matters.
And if there were some humorous topics mentioned, Kṛṣṇa would immediately respond with a smiling face.
Sometimes when Kṛṣṇa was executing His duties in the assembly known as Sudharmā, He would ask the elderly members for good advice.
By such activities He is manifest as the supreme spiritual master, the supreme executive head, the superior intelligence, the supreme power, protector and maintainer.
Reverential Devotion of Sons and Other Subordinates
True reverential devotion is exhibited by persons who think themselves subordinate to Kṛṣṇa and by persons who think themselves sons of Kṛṣṇa.
The best examples of this subordination are Sāraṇa, Gada and Subhadrā.
They were all members of the Yadu dynasty, and they used to always think themselves protected by Kṛṣṇa.
Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's sons, such as Pradyumna, Cārudeṣṇa, and Sāmba, felt the same way.
Kṛṣṇa had many sons in Dvārakā.
He begot ten sons by each of His 16,108 queens, and all of these sons, headed by Pradyumna, Cārudeṣṇa and Sāmba, used to think themselves always protected by Kṛṣṇa.
When Kṛṣṇa's sons dined with Him, they would sometimes open their mouths for Kṛṣṇa to feed them.
Sometimes when Kṛṣṇa would pat one of His sons, the son would sit on Kṛṣṇa's lap, and while Kṛṣṇa was blessing the son's head by smelling it, the others would shed tears, thinking how many pious activities he must have performed in his previous life.
Out of Kṛṣṇa's many sons, Pradyumna, a son of Kṛṣṇa's chief queen, Rukmiṇī, is considered the leader.
Pradyumna's bodily features resembled Kṛṣṇa's exactly.
Pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa glorify Pradyumna because he is so fortunate: like father like son.
There is a description in the Hari-vaṁśa of Pradyumna's activities when he kidnapped Prabhāvatī.
Pradyumna addressed Prabhāvatī at that time and said: "My dear Prabhāvatī, just look at the head of our family, Śrī Kṛṣṇa: He is Viṣṇu Himself, the supreme driver of Garuḍa, and He is our supreme master.
Because we have become so proud and confident of His protecting us, we sometimes do not even care about fighting with Tripurāri [Lord Śiva]." There are two kinds of devotees engaged in devotional service with awe and veneration, and the servitors in the abode of Dvārakā always worship Kṛṣṇa as the most respectable and revered Personality of Godhead.
They are captivated by Kṛṣṇa because of His super-excellent opulences.
The members who always thought themselves protected by Kṛṣṇa could readily convert their conviction into practical demonstration, because it was sometimes found that the sons of Kṛṣṇa acted very unlawfully in various places.
Nonetheless they were given full protection by Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.
Even Balarāma, the elder brother of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes unknowingly offered respect to Him.
Once when Kṛṣṇa came before Lord Balarāma, He was anxious to offer His respects to His elder brother, but at that time Balarāma's club was lowered down upon Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet.
In other words, the club in Balarāma's hand offered its own respects to Kṛṣṇa.
These feelings of subordination, as explained above, are sometimes manifested as anubhāva.
When demigods from the heavenly planets came to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, all of Kṛṣṇa's sons followed them, and Lord Brahmā sprinkled water from his kamaṇḍalu upon them.
When the demigods came before Kṛṣṇa, instead of sitting on golden chairs, the sons sat down on the floor, which was covered with deerskin.
Sometimes the behavior of Kṛṣṇa's sons appears similar to the behavior of His personal servants.
For example, the sons used to offer their obeisances, they were silent, submissive and gentle, and they were always ready to carry out Kṛṣṇa's orders, even at the risk of life.
When present before Kṛṣṇa, they bowed down on the ground.
They were very silent and steady, and they used to restrain coughing and laughing before the Lord.
Also, they never discussed Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in conjugal love.
In other words, devotees who are engaged in reverential devotional service should not discuss the conjugal love affairs of Kṛṣṇa.
No one should claim his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa unless he is liberated.
In the conditioned state of life, the devotees have to execute the prescribed duties as recommended in the codes of devotional service.
When one is mature in devotional service and is a realized soul, he can know his own eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
One should not artificially try to establish some relationship.
In the premature stage it is sometimes found that a lusty, conditioned person will artificially try to establish some relationship with Kṛṣṇa in conjugal love.
The result of this is that one becomes prakṛtasahajiyā, or one who takes everything very cheaply.
Although such persons may be very anxious to establish a relationship with Kṛṣṇa in conjugal love, their conditioned life in the material world is still most abominable.
A person who has actually established his relationship with Kṛṣṇa can no longer act on the material plane, and his personal character cannot be criticized.
When Cupid came on one occasion to visit Lord Kṛṣṇa, some devotee addressed him thus: "My dear Cupid, because you have been so fortunate as to have placed your eyesight on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the drops of perspiration on your body have become frozen, and they resemble kaṇṭaki fruits [a kind of small fruit found in thorny bushes]." These are signs of ecstasy and veneration unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
When the princes of the Yadu dynasty heard the vibration of Kṛṣṇa's Pāṣcajanya conchshell, the hairs on their bodies immediately stood up in ecstatic jubilation.
It seemed at that time that all the hairs on the bodies of the princes were dancing in ecstasy.
In addition to jubilation, there are sometimes symptoms of disappointment.
Pradyumna once addressed Sāmba with these words: "My dear Sāmba, you are such a glorified personality! I have seen that once when you were playing on the ground, your body became covered with dust; yet, our father, Lord Kṛṣṇa, still took you up on His lap.
But I am so unfortunate that I could never get such love from our father!" This statement is an example of disappointment in love.
To regard Kṛṣṇa as one's superior is called reverential feeling, and when, in addition to this, a devotee feels that Kṛṣṇa is his protector, his transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa is increased, and his combined feelings are called reverential devotion.
When this steady reverential devotion increases further, it is called love of Godhead in reverential devotion.
Attraction and affection are two prominent symptoms of this stage.
In this reverential devotional attitude, Pradyumna never talked to his father in a loud voice.
In fact, he never so much as unlocked the lips of his mouth, nor did he ever show his face filled with tears.
He would always glance only at the lotus feet of his father.
There is another example of steady and fixed love for Kṛṣṇa in the instance of Arjuna's informing Him of the death of Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, who was also the nephew of Kṛṣṇa.
Abhimanyu was the son of Subhadrā, Kṛṣṇa's younger sister.
He was killed at the Battle of Kurukṣetra by the combined efforts of all the commanders in King Duryodhana's army-namely, Karṇa, Aśvatthāmā, Jayadratha, Bhīṣma, Kṛpācārya and Droṇācārya.
In order to assure Kṛṣṇa that there was no change of love on Subhadrā's part, Arjuna informed Him: "Although Abhimanyu was killed almost in Your presence, Subhadrā's love for You is not agitated at all, nor has it even slightly changed its original color." The affection that Kṛṣṇa has for His devotees was expressed by Himself when He asked Pradyumna not to feel so bashful before Him.
He addressed Pradyumna thus: "My dear boy, just give up your inferiority complex, and do not hang your neck.
Just talk with Me in a clear voice, and do not shed tears.
You can look straight at Me, and you can place your hands on My body without any hesitation.
There is no need of exhibiting so much reverence before your father." Pradyumna's attachment for Kṛṣṇa was always exhibited by his action.
Whenever he was ordered by his father to execute something, he would immediately execute the order, taking the task as nectarean even though it may have been poison.
Similarly, whenever he would find something to be disapproved of by his father, he would immediately reject it as poison, even though it may have been nectarean.
Pradyumna's attachment in anxiety for Kṛṣṇa was expressed when he said to his wife Rati: "The enemy, Śambara, is already killed.
Now I am very anxious to see my father, who is my spiritual master and who always carries the conchshell known as Pāṣcajanya." Pradyumna felt great separation from Kṛṣṇa when He was absent from Dvārakā at the battlefield of Kurukṣetra.
He said, "Since my father has left Dvārakā, I do not take much pleasure in practicing fighting, nor am I interested in any kind of sporting pastimes.
And what need is there to speak of these things? I do not even wish to stay at Dvārakā in the absence of my father." When Pradyumna came back home after killing the Śambarāsura, and as soon as he saw his father, Kṛṣṇa, before him, he became so overjoyed that he himself could not understand his joy on that occasion.
This is an instance of success in separation.
A similar satisfaction was observed when Kṛṣṇa returned from the battlefield of Kurukṣetra to His home at Dvārakā.
All of His sons were so overjoyed that, out of ecstasy, they repeatedly made many mistakes.
These mistakes were a sign of complete satisfaction.
Every day Pradyumna looked over Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet with tears in his eyes.
These signs of reverential devotion on the part of Pradyumna can be described in the same way they have been described in the case of other devotees.
Fraternal Devotion
When a devotee is permanently situated in devotional service, and by different symptoms of ecstasy he has developed and matured a fraternal mellow or flavor in relationship with the Personality of Godhead, his feeling is called fraternal love of Godhead.
The impetus for such fraternal love of God is God Himself.
When one is liberated and discovers his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, the Lord Himself becomes the impetus for increasing fraternal love.
The eternal associates of the Lord in Vṛndāvana have described this as follows: "The Lord, Hari, whose bodily hue is like the indranīla jewel, whose smiling is as beautiful as the kunda flower, whose silk dress is as yellow as golden autumn foliage, whose chest is beautified with garlands of flowers and who is always playing upon His flute-this enemy of the Agha demon is always attracting our hearts by wandering about Vṛndāvana." There are similar statements of fraternal love expressed outside the jurisdiction of Vṛndāvana.
When the sons of Pāṇḍu, headed by Mahārāj Yudhiṣṭhira, saw Kṛṣṇa in His fourhanded form on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, holding His conchshell, disc, club and lotus flower, they completely forgot themselves and became merged in the ocean of nectarean happiness.
This shows how the sons of Pāṇḍu-King Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva-were all caught up in fraternal love for Kṛṣṇa.
Sometimes the different names, forms, paraphernalia and transcendental qualities provoke fraternal love: For instance, Kṛṣṇa's nice dress, the all-auspicious symptoms on His body, His strongly- built body, His knowledge of different languages, His learned teachings in the Bhagavad- gītā, His uncommon genius in all fields of endeavor, His exhibition of expert knowledge, His mercy, His chivalry, His behavior as a conjugal lover, His intelligence, His forgiveness, His attraction for all kinds of men, His opulence and His happiness-all provoke fraternal love.
The impetus to fraternal love upon seeing the associates of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana is also very natural, for their personal bodily features, their qualities and dress are all equal to Kṛṣṇa's.
These associates are always happy in their service to Kṛṣṇa, and they are generally known as vayasyas, or friends of the same age.
The vayasyas are fully confident of protection by Kṛṣṇa.
Devotees sometimes pray: "Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the vayasyas of Kṛṣṇa, who are firmly convinced of Kṛṣṇa's friendship and protection and whose devotion to Kṛṣṇa is ever-fixed.
They are fearless, and on a level equal with Kṛṣṇa they discharge their transcendental loving devotional service." Such eternal vayasyas are also found beyond the jurisdiction of Vṛndāvana, in places such as Dvārakā and Hastināpura.
Except for Vṛndāvana, all the places of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are called puras (towns).
Mathurā and Hastināpura, the capital of the Kurus, are both puras.
Personalities like Arjuna, Bhīma, Draupadī and Śrīdāmā Brāhmaṇa are counted among Kṛṣṇa's fraternal devotees in the puras.
How the sons of Pāṇḍu, the Pāṇḍavas, enjoy Kṛṣṇa's association is described as follows: "When Śrī Kṛṣṇa arrived in Indraprastha, the capital of the Kurus, Mahārāj Yudhiṣṭhira immediately came out to smell the flavor of Kṛṣṇa's head." It is the Vedic custom that superiors smell the heads of their subordinates when the subordinates offer respect to the superior by touching his feet.
Similarly, Arjuna and Bhīma embraced Kṛṣṇa with great jubilation, and the two younger brothers, namely Nakula and Sahadeva, touched the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa with tears in their eyes and offered their respects.
In this way all the five Pāṇḍava brothers enjoyed the fraternal friendship of Kṛṣṇa in transcendental mellow.
Of the five Pāṇḍavas, Arjuna is the most intimately connected with Kṛṣṇa.
He has a nice bow in his hand which is called Gāṇḍīva.
His thighs are compared with the trunks of elephants, and his eyes are always reddish.
When Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are together on a chariot, they become celestial beauties, pleasing to the eyes of everyone.
It is said that once Arjuna was lying in his bed with his head upon Kṛṣṇa's lap and was talking and joking with Kṛṣṇa in great relaxation and was enjoying Kṛṣṇa's company with smiling and great satisfaction.
As far as the vayasyas (friends) in Vṛndāvana are concerned, they become greatly distressed when they cannot see Kṛṣṇa even for a moment.
There is the following prayer by a devotee for the vayasyas in Vṛndāvana: "All glories to Kṛṣṇa's vayasyas, who are just like Kṛṣṇa in their age, qualities, pastimes, dress and beauty.
They are accustomed to playing on their flutes made of palm leaves, and they all have buffalohorn bugles ornamented like Kṛṣṇa's with jewels such as indranīla and with gold and coral.
They are always jubilant like Kṛṣṇa.
May these glorious companions of Kṛṣṇa always protect us!" The vayasyas in Vṛndāvana are in such intimate friendship with Kṛṣṇa that sometimes they think themselves as good as Kṛṣṇa.
Here is an instance of such friendly feeling: When Kṛṣṇa was holding up Govardhan Hill with His left hand, the vayasyas said, "My dear friend, You have been standing for the last seven days and nights without any rest.
This is very troublesome for us because we see that You have undertaken a severely laborious task.
We think, therefore, that You need not continue to stand in that way holding the hill.
You can just transfer it onto Sudāmā's hand.
We are very much aggrieved to see You in this position.
If you think that Sudāmā is not able to support Govardhan Hill, then at least You should change hands.
Instead of supporting it with Your left hand, please transfer it to Your right hand, so that we can give Your left hand a massage." This is an instance of intimacy, showing how much the vayasyas considered themselves to be equal to Kṛṣṇa.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 12th Chapter, 10th verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "My dear King, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the learned transcendentalist, He is the supreme happiness for the impersonalist, He is the supreme worshipable Deity for the devotee, and He is just like an ordinary boy to one who is under the spell of māyā.
And just imagine-these cowherd boys are now playing with the Supreme Person as though they are on an equal level! By this anyone can understand that these boys must have accumulated heaps of the results of pious activities to enable them to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in such intimate friendship." There is a description of Kṛṣṇa's feeling for His vayasyas in Vṛndāvana.
He once said to Balarāma, "My dear brother, when My companions were being devoured by the Aghāsura, hot tears poured down from My eyes.
And as they were washing My cheeks, My dear elder brother, for at least one moment I completely lost Myself." Within Gokula, Kṛṣṇa's vayasyas are generally divided into four groups: 1) well-wishers, 2) friends, 3) confidential friends and 4) intimate friends.
Kṛṣṇa's well-wisher friends are a little bit older than Kṛṣṇa, and they have some parental affection for Him.
Because of their being older than Kṛṣṇa they always try to protect Him from any harm.
As such, they sometimes bear weapons so that they can chastise any mischievous persons who want to do harm to Kṛṣṇa.
Counted among the well-wisher friends are Subhadra,* Maṇḍalībhadra, Bhadravardhana, Gobhaṭa, Yakṣa, Indrabhaṭa, Bhadrāṅga, Vīrabhadra, Mahāguṇa, Vijaya and Balabhadra.
They are older than Kṛṣṇa and are always thinking of His welfare.
One of the elderly friends said, "My dear Maṇḍalībhadra, why are you wielding a shining sword as though you were running toward Ariṣṭāsura to kill him? My dear Baladeva, why are You unnecessarily bearing that heavy plow? My dear Vijaya, don't be unnecessarily agitated.
My dear Bhadravardhana, there is no need to make these threatening motions.
If you will all look more closely you will see that it is only a thunder cloud upon Govardhana Hill; it is not the Ariṣṭāsura in the shape of a bull, as you have imagined." These older, well-wishing friends of Kṛṣṇa had imagined a large cloud to be the Ariṣṭāsura, appearing in the shape of a huge bull.
In the midst of their excitement one of them ascertained that it was actually only a cloud on Govardhan Hill.
He therefore informed the others not to take the trouble of worrying about Kṛṣṇa, because there was no present danger from Ariṣṭāsura.
- Not be confused with Kṛṣṇa's sister of the same name.
Amongst the well-wisher friends, Maṇḍalībhadra and Balabhadra are the chiefs.
Maṇḍalībhadra is described as follows: his complexion is yellowish, and his dress is very attractive.
He always carries a stick of various colors.
He wears a peacock feather on his head and always looks very beautiful.
Maṇḍalībhadra's attitude is revealed in this statement: "My dear friends, our beloved Kṛṣṇa is now very tired from working with the cows in the pasturing grounds and from traveling all over the forests.
I can see that He is very fatigued.
Let me massage His head silently while He is taking rest in His house.
And you, Subala-you just massage His thighs." One devotee described the personal beauty of Baladeva as follows: "Let me take shelter of the lotus feet of Balarāma, whose beauty is enhanced by the earrings touching his cheeks.
His face is decorated with tilaka made from kastūrī (musk), and His broad chest is decorated with a garland of guṣja (small conchshells).
His complexion is as white as an autumn cloud, He wears garments of blue color, and His voice is very grave.
His arms are very long, touching His thighs, and He has shown His great strength by killing the Pralamba demon.
Let me take shelter of this chivalrous Balarāma." Baladeva's affection for Kṛṣṇa is illustrated in this statement to Subala: "My dear friend, please inform Kṛṣṇa not to go to Kāliya's lake today.
Today is His birthday, and so I wish to go along with Mother Yaśodā to bathe Him.
Tell Him He should not leave the house today." This shows how Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa's elder brother, took care of Kṛṣṇa with parental love, within the scope of fraternal affection.
Friends who were younger than Kṛṣṇa, who were always attached to Him and who gave Him all kinds of service, are called ordinary friends, or, simply, friends.
Such ordinary friends are called sakhās, and the names of some sakhās are Viśāla, Vṛṣabha, Ojasvi, Devaprastha, Varūthapa, Maranda, Kusumāpīḍa, Maṇibandha and Karandhama.
All of these sakhā friends of Kṛṣṇa sought only to serve Him.
Sometimes some of them would rise early in the morning and immediately go to Kṛṣṇa's place and wait at the door to see Kṛṣṇa and * Balarāma and Baladeva are different names for the same expansion of Kṛṣṇa.
He is Kṛṣṇa elder brother.
to accompany Him to the pasturing grounds.
In the meantime, Kṛṣṇa would be dressed by Mother Yaśodā, and when she would see a boy standing at the door, she would call him: "Well, Viśāla, why are you standing there? Come here!" So with the permission of Mother Yaśodā, he would immediately enter the house.
And while Mother Yaśodā was dressing Kṛṣṇa, he would try to help put on Kṛṣṇa's ankle bells, and Kṛṣṇa would jokingly strike him with His flute.
Then Mother Yaśodā would call, "Kṛṣṇa, what is this? Why are You teasing Your friend?" And Kṛṣṇa would laugh, and the friend would also laugh.
These are some of the activities of Kṛṣṇa's sakhās.
Sometimes the sakhās would take care of the cows who were going hither and thither.
They would tell Kṛṣṇa, "Your cows were going off here and there," and Kṛṣṇa would thank them.
Sometimes when Kṛṣṇa and His sakhās went to the pasturing ground, Kaṁsa would send a demon to kill Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore, almost every day there was a fight with some different kind of demon.
After fighting with a demon, Kṛṣṇa would feel fatigued, the hairs on His head would be scattered, and the sakhās would immediately come and try to relieve Him in different ways.
Some friends would say, "My dear Viśāla, please take this fan of lotus leaves and fan Kṛṣṇa so that He may feel some comfort.
Varūthapa, you just brush the scattered hairs on Kṛṣṇa's head which have fallen upon His face.
Vṛṣabha, don't talk unnecessarily! Immediately massage Kṛṣṇa's body.
His arms have become tired from fighting and wrestling with that demon.
Oh, just see how our friend Kṛṣṇa has become tired!" These are some examples of the treatment given to Kṛṣṇa by the sakhās.
One of the sakhās, known as Devaprastha, is described as follows: he is very strong, a ready scholar, and is very expert in playing ball.
He wears a white dress, and he ties his hair into a bunch with a rope.
Whenever there is a fight between Kṛṣṇa and the demons, Devaprastha is the first to help, and he fights just like an elephant.
One of the gopīs once said to her friend, "My dear beautiful friend, when Kṛṣṇa, the son of Mahārāj Nanda, was taking rest within the cave of a hill, He was keeping His head on the arms of Śrīdāmā, and He was putting His left hand on Dāmā's chest.
Taking this opportunity, Devaprastha, out of his strong affection for Kṛṣṇa, immediately began to massage His legs." Such are the activities of Kṛṣṇa's friends out on the pasturing grounds.
The more confidential friends are called priya-sakhās and are almost Kṛṣṇa's age.
Because of their very confidential friendship, their behavior is only on the basis of pure friendship.
Other friends' behavior is on the ground of paternal love or servitude, but the basic principle of the confidential friends is simply friendship on an equal level.
Some confidential friends are as follows: Śrīdāmā, Sudāmā, Dāmā, Vasudāmā, Kiṅkiṇi, Stokakṛṣṇa, Aṁśu, Bhadrasena, Vilāsina, Puṇḍarīka, Viṭaṅka and Kalaviṅka.
By their various activities in different pastimes, all of these friends used to give transcendental pleasure to Kṛṣṇa.
The behavior of these confidential friends is described by a friend of Rādhārāṇī, who told Rādhārāṇī: "My dear graceful Rādhārāṇī, Your intimate friend, Kṛṣṇa, is also served by His intimate boyfriends.
Some of them cut jokes with Him in mild voices and please Him very much by this." For example, Kṛṣṇa had one brāhmaṇa friend whose name was Madhumaṅgala.
This boy would joke by playing the part of a greedy brāhmaṇa.
Whenever the friends ate, he would eat more than all others, especially lāḍḍus, of which he was very fond.
Then after eating more lāḍḍus than anyone else, Madhumaṅgala would still not be satisfied, and he would say to Kṛṣṇa, "If You give me one more lāḍḍu, then I shall be pleased to give You my blessings so that Your friend Rādhārāṇī will be very much pleased with You." The brāhmaṇas are supposed to give blessings to the vaiśyas (farming and merchant caste), and Kṛṣṇa presented Himself as the son of Mahārāj Nanda, a vaiśya; so the brāhmaṇa boy was right in giving blessings to Kṛṣṇa.
Thus Kṛṣṇa was very pleased by His friend's blessings, and He would supply him with more and more lāḍḍus.
Sometimes a confidential friend would come before Kṛṣṇa and embrace Him with great affection and love.
Another friend would then come up from the rear and cover Kṛṣṇa's eyes with his hands.
Kṛṣṇa would always feel very happy by such dealings with His confidential friends.
Out of all these confidential friends, Śrīdāmā is considered to be the chief.
Śrīdāmā used to put on a yellow-colored dress.
He would carry a buffalo horn, and his turban was of reddish, copper color.
His bodily complexion was blackish, and around his neck there was a nice garland.
He would always challenge Kṛṣṇa in joking friendship.
Let us pray to Śrīdāmā to bestow his mercy upon us! Sometimes Śrīdāmā used to address Kṛṣṇa: "Oh, You are so cruel that You left us alone on the bank of the Yamunā, and we were all mad from not seeing You there! Now it is our great fortune that we are able to see You here.
If You want to pacify us, You must embrace each one of us with Your arms.
But believe me, my dear friend, a moment's absence from You creates great havoc, not only for us but for the cows also.
Everything becomes disarranged, and we become mad after You." There are other friends who are still more confidential.
They are called priya-narmā, or intimate friends.
Counted among the priya- narmā friends are Subala, Arjuna, Gandharva, Vasanta and Ujjvala.
There was talk among the friends of Rādhārāṇī, the gopīs, about these most intimate friends.
One gopī addressed Rādhārāṇī thus:ly "My dear Kṛśāṅgī [delicate one], just see how Subala is whispering Your message into Kṛṣṇa's ear, how he is delivering the confidential letter of Śyāmādāsī silently into Kṛṣṇa's hand, how he is delivering the betel nuts prepared by Pālikā into Kṛṣṇa's mouth, and how he is decorating Kṛṣṇa with the garland prepared by Tārakā.
Did you know, my dear friend, that all these most intimate friends of Kṛṣṇa are always engaged in His service in this way?" Out of the many intimate priya- narmās, Subala and Ujjvala are considered to be the most prominent.
Subala's body is described as follows.
His complexion is just like molten gold.
He is very, very dear to Kṛṣṇa.
He always has a garland around his neck, and he wears yellow clothing.
His eyes are just like lotus flower petals, and he is so intelligent that by his talking and his moral instructions, all the other friends take the highest pleasure.
Let us all offer our respectful obeisances unto Kṛṣṇa's friend Subala! The degree of intimacy shared by Kṛṣṇa and Subala can be understood by the fact that the talks between them were so confidential that no one else could understand what they were saying.
The description of Ujjvala, another intimate friend, is given as follows.
Ujjvala always wears some garment of orange color, and the movements of his eyes are always very restless.
He likes to decorate himself with all kinds of flowers, his bodily hue is almost like Kṛṣṇa's, and on his neck there is always a necklace of pearls.
He is always very dear to Kṛṣṇa.
Let us all worship Ujjvala, the most intimate friend of Kṛṣṇa! About the confidential service of Ujjvala, this statement is to be found, addressed by Rādhārāṇī to one of Her friends: "My dear friend, it is impossible for Me to keep My prestige! I wanted to avoid talking to Kṛṣṇa anymore-but just see! There again is His friend, Ujjvala, coming to Me with his canvassing work.
His entreaties are so powerful that it is very difficult for a gopī to resist her love for Kṛṣṇa, even though she may be very bashful, devoted to her family duties and most faithful to her husband." The following is a statement by Ujjvala, showing his jubilant nature: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, O killer of Aghāsura, You have extended Your loving affairs so much that You can be compared to the great ocean, which is without limitations.
At the same time, the young girls of the world who are all searching after the perfect lover have become just like rivers running into this ocean.
Under the circumstances, all these rivers of young girls may try to divert their courses to some other place, but at the end they must come unto You." Amongst the groups of different friends of Kṛṣṇa, some are well-known from various scriptures, and some are well-known by popular tradition.
There are three divisions amongst Kṛṣṇa's friends: some are eternally in friendship with Kṛṣṇa, some are elevated demigods, and some are perfected devotees.
In all of these groups there are some who by nature are fixed in Kṛṣṇa's service and are always engaged in giving counsel; some of them are very fond of joking and naturally cause Kṛṣṇa to smile by their words; some of them are by nature very simple, and by their simplicity they please Lord Kṛṣṇa; some of them create wonderful situations by their activities, apparently against Kṛṣṇa; some of them are very talkative, always arguing with Kṛṣṇa and creating a debating atmosphere; and some of them are very gentle and give pleasure to Kṛṣṇa by their sweet words.
All of these friends are very intimate with Kṛṣṇa, and they show expertise in their different activities, their aim always being to please Kṛṣṇa.
Fraternal Loving
Affairs Kṛṣṇa's age, His beauty, His bugle, His flute, His conchshell and His pleasing attitude all provoke love in friendship for Him.
His exceptional joking abilities, exhibited sometimes by His pretending to be a royal prince, or even the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also give impetus to devotees developing love for Kṛṣṇa in friendship.
Learned scholars have divided Kṛṣṇa's age into three periods: the age up to five years is called kaumāra, the age from the sixth to the tenth year is called paugaṇḍa, and the age from the eleventh to fifteenth year is called kaiśora.
While Kṛṣṇa is spending His days as a cowherd boy, He is in the kaumāra and paugaṇḍa ages.
In the kaiśora age, when Kṛṣṇa appeared at Gokula, He acted as a cowherd boy, and then, when He was sixteen, He went to Mathurā to kill Kaṁsa.
The kaumāra age is just suitable for reciprocating the love of a child with Mother Yaśodā.
In the Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, 9th verse of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "My dear King, although Lord Kṛṣṇa is the supreme enjoyer and the beneficiary of all kinds of sacrificial ceremonies, He still used to eat with His cowherd boy friends.
This is because at that time He accepted the pastimes of an ordinary boy, keeping His flute under His arm and His bugle on the right side in His belt, along with His cane.
In His left hand He would hold a lump of rice paste with yogurt, and in His fingers would be pīlu, the king of fruits.
When He would thus sit amongst His friends, it would appear that He was the whorl of a lotus flower and that the friends surrounding Him were petals.
As they thus enjoyed joking amongst themselves, the denizens of heaven would become struck with wonder and would only stare at the scene." Kṛṣṇa's paugaṇḍa age can be further divided into three periods-namely, the beginning, middle and end.
In the beginning of the paugaṇḍa age there is a very nice reddish luster on His lips, His abdomen is very thin, and on His neck are circles like those on a conchshell.
Sometimes, some outside visitors would return to Vṛndāvana to see Kṛṣṇa and, upon seeing Him again, would exclaim, "My dear Mukunda, Your beauty is gradually increasing, just like the leaf on a banyan tree! My dear lotus-eyed one, Your neck is gradually manifesting circles like the conchshell.
And in the shining moonlight Your teeth and cheeks are competing with the padmarāga jewels in their beautiful arrangement.
I am sure that Your beautiful bodily development is now giving much pleasure to Your friends." At this age Kṛṣṇa was garlanded with various kinds of flowers.
He used to put on a silk dress, colored with various kinds of dye.
Such beautiful decorations are considered cosmetics for Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa would wear this dress when He used to go into the forest to tend the cows.
Sometimes He would wrestle there with His different friends, and sometimes they would dance all together in the forest.
These are some of the specific activities of the paugaṇḍa age.
The cowherd friends of Kṛṣṇa were so happy in His company that they expressed their transcendental feelings within themselves thus: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are always busy tending the cows which are scattered all over beautiful Vṛndāvana.
You have a beautiful garland, a small conchshell, a peacock feather on Your turban, yellow-colored silk cloth, decorations of karṇikāra flowers on Your ears and a mallīkā flower garland on Your chest.
Appearing so beautiful, when You pretend, just like an actor, to be fighting with us, You give us unlimited transcendental bliss." When Kṛṣṇa is more grown-up, in the middle age of paugaṇḍa, His nails become finely sharp, and His chubby cheeks become lustrous and round.
On the two sides of His waist above His belt there are three distinct lines of folded skin, called tribali.
The cowherd boy friends of Kṛṣṇa felt very proud of their association with Him.
At that time the tip of His nose defeated the beauty of sesame flowers, the luster of His cheeks defeated the glow of pearls, and the two sides of His body were exquisitely beautiful.
In this age Kṛṣṇa wore a silk dress that glittered like lightning, His head was decorated with a silk turban covered with gold lace, and in His hand He carried a stick about fifty-six inches long.* Seeing this exquisitely beautiful dress of Kṛṣṇa, one devotee addressed his friend in this manner: "My dear friend, just look at Kṛṣṇa! See how He is carrying in His hand a stick which is bound up and down with golden rings, how His turban with golden lace is showing such a beautiful luster, and how His dress is giving his friends the highest transcendental pleasure!" At the end of Kṛṣṇa's paugaṇḍa age, Kṛṣṇa's hair sometimes hangs down to His hips, and sometimes it becomes scattered.
In this age His two shoulders become higher and broader, and His face is always decorated with marks of tilaka.
When His beautiful hair scatters over His shoulders, it appears to be a goddess of fortune embracing Him, and this embracing is highly relished by His friends.
Subala once addressed Him in this way: "My dear Keśava, Your round turban, the lotus flower in Your hand, the vertical marks of tilaka on Your forehead, Your kuṅkum-flavored musk and all of Your beautiful bodily features are defeating me today, although I am usually stronger than You or any of our friends.
Since this is so, I do not know how these features of Your body can fail to defeat the pride of all the young girls of Vṛndāvana.
When I am so defeated by this beauty, what chance is there for those who are naturally very simple and flexible?" At this age Kṛṣṇa took pleasure in whispering into the ears of His friends, and the subject of His talks was the beauty of the gopīs, who were just tarrying before them.
Subala once addressed Kṛṣṇa thus: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are very cunning.
You can understand the thoughts of others; therefore I am whispering within Your ear that all these five gopīs, who are most beautiful, have been attracted by Your dress.
And I believe that Cupid has entrusted them with the responsibility of conquering You." In other words, the beauty of the gopīs was capable of conquering Kṛṣṇa, although Kṛṣṇa is the conqueror of all universes.
- The specific pastimes in this period took palace in the forest known as Bhāṇḍīravana.
This Bhāṇḍīravana, along with eleven other vanas, or forests is still existing in the Vṛndāvana area, and devotees who circumambulate the whole area of Vṛndāvana can know the beauty of these forests even today.
The symptoms of the kaiśora age are already described, and it is at this age that devotees generally most appreciate Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa with Rādhārāṇī is worshiped as Kiśora-kiśorī.
Kṛṣṇa does not increase His age that although He is the oldest personality and has innumerable different forms, His original form is always youthful.
In the pictures of Kṛṣṇa on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra we can see that He is youthful, although at that time He was old enough to have sons, grandsons and great grandsons.
The cowherd boy friends of Kṛṣṇa once said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You need not decorate Your body with so many ornaments.
Your transcendental features are themselves so beautiful that You do not require any ornamentation." At this age, whenever Kṛṣṇa begins to vibrate His flute early in the morning, all of His friends immediately get up from bed just to join Him in going to the pasturing grounds.
One of the friends once said, "My dear cowherd friends, the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute from above Govardhan Hill is telling us that we need not go to search Him out on the bank of the Yamunā." Pārvatī, the wife of Lord Śiva, told her husband: "My dear Paṣcamukha [five-faced], just look at the Pāṇḍavas! After hearing the sound of Kṛṣṇa's conchshell known as Pāṣcajanya, they have regained their strength and are just like lions." At this age, Kṛṣṇa once dressed Himself up exactly like Rādhārāṇī, just to create fun among His friends.
He put on golden earrings; and because He was blackish, He smeared the pulp of kuṅkum all over His body in order to become as fair as She.
By seeing this dress, Kṛṣṇa's friend Subala became very astonished.
Kṛṣṇa sometimes played with His intimate friends by engaging in fighting or wrestling with their arms, sometimes by playing ball, sometimes by playing chess, sometimes by carrying one another on the shoulders, and sometimes by exhibiting their expertness at whirling logs.
And the cowherd friends used to please Kṛṣṇa by sitting together with Him on coaches or on swings, by lying together on their beds, by joking together and by swimming in the pool.
All these activities are called anubhāva.
Whenever all the friends would assemble in the company of Kṛṣṇa, they would immediately engage in all these functions, especially in dancing together.
Regarding their wrestling, one friend once asked Kṛṣṇa, "My dear friend, O killer of the Agha demon, You are very proudly wandering among Your friends trying to exhibit Your arms as very strong.
Is it that You are envious of me? I know that You cannot defeat me in wrestling, and I also know that You were sitting idly for a long time because You were hopeless of defeating me." All the friends were very daring and would risk any difficulty, because they were confident that Kṛṣṇa would help them to be victorious in all adventures.
They used to sit together and advise one another what to do, sometimes inducing one another to be engaged in welfare work.
Sometimes they would offer betel nuts to one another, decorate one another's faces with tilaka or smear pulp of candana on one another's bodies.
Sometimes, for the sake of amusement, they used to decorate their faces in strange ways.
Another business of the friends was that each of them wanted to defeat Kṛṣṇa.
Sometimes they used to snatch His clothing or snatch away the flowers from His hands.
Sometimes one would try to induce another to decorate his body for him, and failing this, they were always ready to fight, challenging one another to combat in wrestling.
These were some of the general activities of Kṛṣṇa and His friends.
Another important pastime of the friends of Kṛṣṇa was that they served as messengers to and from the gopīs; they introduced the gopīs to Kṛṣṇa and canvassed for Kṛṣṇa.
When the gopīs were in disagreement with Kṛṣṇa, these friends would support Kṛṣṇa's side in His presence-but when Kṛṣṇa was not present, they would support the side of the gopīs.
In this way, sometimes supporting one side, sometimes the other, they would talk very privately, with much whispering in the ears, although none of the business was very serious.
The servants of Kṛṣṇa were sometimes engaged in collecting flowers, decorating His body with valuable ornaments and trinkets, dancing before Him, singing, helping Him herd the cows, massaging His body, preparing flower garlands and sometimes fanning His body.
These were some of the primary duties of the servants of Kṛṣṇa.
The friends and servants of Kṛṣṇa were combined together in serving Him, and all of their activities are known as anubhāva.
When Kṛṣṇa came out from the Yamunā after chastising the Kāliyanāga, Śrīdāmā wanted to embrace Him first, but he could not raise his arms because of his great feeling of respect.
When Kṛṣṇa used to play on His flute, it appeared just like the roaring of clouds in the sky during the constellation of Svāti.
According to Vedic astronomical calculation, if there is rain during the constellation of the Svāti star, any rain falling on the sea will produce pearls, and rain falling on a serpent will produce jewels.
Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa's flute roared like a thundercloud under the Svāti constellation, the resulting perspiration on Śrīdāmā's body appeared to be just like pearls.
When Kṛṣṇa and Subala were embracing one another, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī became a little envious, and hiding Her hot temperament She said, "My dear Subala, you are very fortunate, because even in the presence of superiors you and Kṛṣṇa have no hesitation in putting your arms on each other's shoulders.
I think it must be admitted that in your previous lives you have succeeded in many kinds of austerities." The idea is that although Rādhārāṇī was accustomed to put Her arms on Kṛṣṇa's shoulders, it was not possible for Her to do such a thing in the presence of Her superiors, whereas Subala could do so freely.
Rādhārāṇī therefore praised his good fortune.
When Kṛṣṇa entered the lake of Kāliya, His intimate friends became so perturbed that their bodily colors faded, and they all produced horrible gurgling sounds.
At that time all of them fell down on the ground as if they were unconscious.
Similarly, when there was a forest fire all of Kṛṣṇa's friends neglected their own protection and surrounded Kṛṣṇa on all sides to protect Him from the flames.
This behavior of the friends toward Kṛṣṇa is described by thoughtful poets as vyabhicārī.
In vyabhicārī ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa there is sometimes madness, dexterity, fear, laziness, jubilation, pride, dizziness, meditation, disease, forgetfulness and humbleness.
These are some of the common symptoms in the stage of vyabhicārī ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.
When there are dealings between Kṛṣṇa and His friends which are completely devoid of any feelings of respect, and they all treat one another on an equal level, such ecstatic love in friendship is called sthāyī.
When one is situated in this confidential friendly relationship with Kṛṣṇa, one shows symptoms of love such as attraction, affection, affinity and attachment.
An example of sthāyī was exhibited when Arjuna* told Akrūra: "My dear son of Gāndinī, please ask Kṛṣṇa when I shall be able to embrace Him in my arms." When there is full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa's superiority and yet in dealings with Him on friendly terms respectfulness is completely absent, that stage is called affection.
There is one brilliant example of this affection.
When the demigods, headed by Lord Śiva, were offering respectful prayers to Kṛṣṇa, describing the glorious opulences of the Lord, Arjuna* stood before Him with his hand on His shoulders and brushed the dust from His peacock feather.
When the Pāṇḍavas were banished by Duryodhana and forced to live incognito in the forest, no one could trace out where they were staying.
At that time, the great sage Nārada met Lord Kṛṣṇa and said, "My dear Mukunda, although You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the allpowerful person, by making friendship with You the Pāṇḍavas have become bereft of their legitimate right to the kingdom of the world-and, moreover, they are now living in the forest incognito.
Sometimes they must work as ordinary laborers in someone else's house.
These symptoms appear to be very inauspicious materially, but the beauty is that the Pāṇḍavas have not lost their faith and love for You, in spite of all these tribulations.
In fact, they are always thinking of You and chanting Your name in ecstatic friendship." Another example of acute affection for Kṛṣṇa is given in the 10th Canto, 15th Chapter, 15th verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In the pasturing ground Kṛṣṇa felt a little tired and wanted to take rest, so He laid down on the ground.
At that time, many cowherd boys assembled there and with great affection began to sing suitable songs so that Kṛṣṇa would rest very nicely.
There is a nice example of the friendship between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra.
When the fighting was going on, Aśvatthāmā, the son of Droṇācārya, unceremoniously attacked Kṛṣṇa, although according to the prevailing rules of chivalry one's chariot driver should never be attacked by the enemy.
But Aśvatthāmā * This Arjuna, living in Vṛndāvana, is different from the friend of the same name to whom Bhagavad-gītā was spoken.
behaved heinously in so many ways that he did not hesitate to attack Kṛṣṇa's body, although Kṛṣṇa was acting only as charioteer for Arjuna.
When Arjuna saw that Aśvatthāmā was releasing various kinds of arrows to hurt Kṛṣṇa, he immediately stood in front of Kṛṣṇa to intercept all of them.
At that time, although Arjuna was being harmed by those arrows, he felt an ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, and the arrows appeared to him like showers of flowers.
There is another instance of ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa in friendship: Once when a cowherd boy named Vṛṣabha was collecting flowers from the forest to prepare a garland to be offered to Kṛṣṇa, the sun reached its zenith, and although the sunshine was scorching hot, Vṛṣabha felt it as the moonshine.
That is the way of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord: When devotees are put into great difficulties-even like the Pāṇḍavas, as described above-they feel all their miserable conditions as great facilities for serving the Lord.
Another instance of Arjuna's friendship with Kṛṣṇa is described by Nārada, who reminded Kṛṣṇa, "When Arjuna was learning the art of shooting arrows, he could not see You for so many days.
But when You arrived there, he stopped all His activities and immediately embraced You." This means that even though Arjuna was engaged in learning about the military art, he had not forgotten Kṛṣṇa for a moment, and as soon as there was an opportunity to see Kṛṣṇa, he immediately embraced Him.
One servant of Kṛṣṇa named Patrī once addressed Him like this: "My dear Lord, You protected the cowherd boys from the hunger of the Aghāsura demon, and You protected them from the poisonous affects of the Kāliya snake.
And You also saved them from the fierce forest fire.
But I am suffering from Your separation, which is more severe than the hunger of Aghāsura, the poison of Lake Kāliya, and the burning of the forest fire.
So why should You not protect me from the pangs of separation?" Another friend once told Kṛṣṇa: "My dear enemy of Kaṁsa, since You have left us, the heat of separation has become extraordinary.
And this heat is felt more severely when we understand that in Bhāṇḍīravana You are being refreshed by the waves of the cooling river known as Bhānūtanayā [Rādhārāṇī]." The purport is that when Kṛṣṇa was engaged with Rādhārāṇī, the cowherd boys headed by Subala were feeling great separation, and that was unbearable for them.
Another friend addressed Kṛṣṇa thus: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, O killer of Aghāsura, when You left Vṛndāvana to kill King Kaṁsa in Mathurā, all the cowherd boys became bereft of their four bhūtas [the elements of earth, water, fire and space].
And the fifth bhūta, the air, was flowing very rapidly within their nostrils." When Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā to kill King Kaṁsa, all the cowherd boys became so afflicted by the separation that they almost died.
When a person is dead it is said that he has given up the five elements, known as bhūtas, as the body again mixes with the five elements from which it was prepared.
In this case, although the four elements of earth, water, fire and ether were already gone, the remaining element, air, was still very prominent and was blowing through their nostrils furiously.
In other words, after Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, they were always anxious about what would happen in His fight with King Kaṁsa.
Another friend once informed Kṛṣṇa, "When one of Your friends was feeling much separation from You, there were tears covering his lotus eyes, and so the black drones of sleep became discouraged from entering his eyes and left that place." When there is a lotus flower, the black drones fly into it to collect honey.
The eyes of Kṛṣṇa's friend are compared to the lotus flower, and because they were full of tears the black drones of sleep could not collect honey from his lotus eyes and therefore left the place.
In other words, because he was too much afflicted, his eyes were full of tears, and he could not sleep.
This is an example of staying up at night because of separation from Kṛṣṇa.
An example of helplessness is described in the following statement: "Due to Kṛṣṇa's departure from Vṛndāvana to Mathurā, Kṛṣṇa's dearest cowherd boys felt as mentally light as possible.
They were like fragments of cotton, lighter than the air, and were all floating in the air without any shelter." In other words, the minds of the cowherd boys became almost vacant on account of Kṛṣṇa's separation, and they are compared with fragments of cotton floating in the air without any shelter.
An example of impatience was also shown by the cowherd boys when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā.
Out of the sorrow of separation, all these boys forgot to take care of their cowherding and tried to forget all the melodious songs they used to sing in the pasturing ground.
At last they had no desire to live anymore, being separated from Kṛṣṇa.
An example of stillness was described by a friend of Kṛṣṇa, who informed Him in Mathurā that all the cowherd boys had become just like leafless trees on the tops of hills.
They appeared almost naked, skinny and frail, and did not carry any fruits or flowers.
He informed Kṛṣṇa that all the cowherd boys residing in Vṛndāvana were as still as the trees at the tops of hills.
Sometimes they felt diseased from their separation from Kṛṣṇa, and being so greatly disappointed, they were aimlessly wandering on the banks of the Yamunā.
There is also an example of madness caused by separation from Kṛṣṇa.
When Kṛṣṇa was absent from Vṛndāvana, all the cowherd boys became bewildered, and having given up all kinds of activities, they appeared to be mad and forgot all their regular business.
They were sometimes lying down on the ground, sometimes rolling in the dust, sometimes laughing and sometimes running very swiftly.
All of these symptoms gave them the appearance of madmen.
One friend of Kṛṣṇa's criticized Him by saying, "My dear Lord, You have become the King of Mathurā after killing Kaṁsa, and that is very good news for us.
But at Vṛndāvana all the residents have become blind from their continuous crying over Your absence.
They are full only of anxieties and are not cheered at all by Your becoming the King of Mathurā." Sometimes there were also signs of death caused by separation from Kṛṣṇa.
Once Kṛṣṇa was told: "My dear enemy of Kaṁsa, because of their separation from You, the cowherd boys are suffering too much, and they are now lying down in the valleys, breathing only slightly.
In order to sympathize with the boys' regrettable condition, even the forest friends, the deer, are shedding tears." In the Mathurā-khaṇḍa chapter of the Skanda Purāṇa, there is a description of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, surrounded by all the cowherd boys, always engaged in taking care of the cows and calves.
When Kṛṣṇa was met by Arjuna at a potter's shop in the city of Drupadanagara, because of the similarity of their bodily features they made intimate friendship.
This is an instance of friendship caused by the attraction of similar bodies.
In the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 71st Chapter, 25th verse, it is stated that when Kṛṣṇa arrived in the city of Indraprastha, Bhīma was so overwhelmed with joy that, with tears in his eyes and a smiling face, he immediately embraced his maternal cousin.
Following him were his young brothers Nakula and Sahadeva, along with Arjuna, and they all became so overwhelmed at seeing Kṛṣṇa that with full satisfaction they embraced the Lord, who is known as Acyuta (the infallible).
There is a similar statement about the cowherd boys of Vṛndāvana.
When Kṛṣṇa was on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, all the cowherd boys came to see Him, wearing jeweled earrings in their ears.
Becoming so greatly overjoyed, they extended their arms and embraced Kṛṣṇa as their old friend.
These are instances of full satisfaction in friendship with Kṛṣṇa.
In the Tenth Canto, 12th Chapter, 11th verse of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam it is stated that even after undergoing severe penances and austerities and performing the yogic principles, the great mystic yogīs can hardly become eligible to achieve the dust of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, but the same Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is easily available to the vision of the residents of Vṛndāvana.
This means there is no comparison to these devotees' great fortune.
The friendly relationship of the cowherd boys with Kṛṣṇa is a particular type of spiritual ecstasy almost similar to the ecstasy of conjugal love.
It is very difficult to explain this ecstasy of loving affairs between the cowherd boys and Kṛṣṇa.
Great expert devotees like Rūpa Gosvāmī and others express their astonishment at the inconceivable feelings which are in Kṛṣṇa and His cowherd boy friends.
This particular type of ecstatic love shared between Kṛṣṇa and His confidential friends further develops into parental love, and on from there it may develop into conjugal love, the most exalted humor or mellow of ecstatic love between Lord Kṛṣṇa and His devotees.
Parenthood
When ecstatic love develops into the relationship of parenthood and becomes steadily established, the relationship is called vātsalya-rasa.
The exhibition of this vātsalya-rasa standard of devotional service can be found in the dealings of Kṛṣṇa with His devotees who represent themselves as superior personalities like father, mother, teacher, etc.
Learned scholars have described the impetuses of parental love for Kṛṣṇa, existing in the elderly personalities who are in relation with Him, as follows: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose bodily complexion is just like a bluish, new-grown lotus flower, whose body is very delicate and whose lotus eyes are surrounded by scattered hair as black as bees, was walking on the streets of Vṛndāvana when Mother Yaśodā, the beloved wife of Nanda Mahārāj, saw Him.
Immediately the milk began to flow from her breasts, soaking her body." Some specific provocations for parental love of Kṛṣṇa are listed as His blackish bodily hue, which is very attractive and pleasing to see, His all-auspicious bodily features, His mildness, His sweet words, His simplicity, His shyness, His humility, His constant readiness to offer respect to the elderly, and His charity.
All of these qualities are considered ecstatic provocations for parental love.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 8th Chapter, 35th verse, it is stated by Śukadeva Gosvāmī that Mother Yaśodā accepted Lord Kṛṣṇa as her son, although He is accepted in the Vedas as the King of heaven, in the Upaniṣads as the impersonal Brahman and in philosophy as the supreme male.
By the yogīs he is accepted as the supersoul and by the devotees as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Once Mother Yaśodā addressed one of her friends in this way: "Nanda Mahārāj, the leader of the cowherdsmen, worshiped Lord Viṣṇu along with me, and as a result of this worshiping Kṛṣṇa has been saved from the clutches of Pūtanā and other demons.
The twin arjuna trees were, of course, broken due to a strong wind, and although Kṛṣṇa appeared to have lifted Govardhan Hill along with Balarāma, I think that Nanda Mahārāj actually held the mountain.
Otherwise how could it have been possible for a little boy to lift such a great hill?" This is another example of ecstasy in parental love.
This kind of parental love is generated in a devotee out of his conviction, in love, that he himself is superior to Kṛṣṇa and that without being taken care of by such devotee Kṛṣṇa could not possibly live.
One devotee therefore prayed to the parents of Lord Kṛṣṇa as follows: "Let me take shelter of the elderly parental devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
They are always anxious to serve Kṛṣṇa and to maintain Him, and they are always so kind to Him.
Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto them for being so kind to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the parent of the whole universe!" There is a similar prayer by a brāhmaṇa who says, "Let others worship the Vedas and the Upaniṣads, and let others worship the Mahābhārata if they are afraid of material existence and want to become liberated from that condition.
But as far as I am concerned, I wish only to worship Mahārāj Nanda, because the supreme absolute Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is crawling in his courtyard as his own child." Following is a list of respectful personalities who enjoy parental affection toward Kṛṣṇa: 1) Mother Yaśodā, the Queen of Braja, 2) Mahārāj Nanda, the King of Braja, 3) Mother Rohiṇī, the mother of Balarāma, 4) all the elderly gopīs whose sons were taken away by Lord Brahmā, 5) Devakī, the wife of Vasudeva, 6) the other fifteen wives of Vasudeva, 7) Kuntī, the mother of Arjuna, 8) Vasudeva, the real father of Kṛṣṇa, and 9) Sāndīpani Muni, Kṛṣṇa's teacher.
All these are considered respectable elderly personalities with parental love for Kṛṣṇa.
This list is in order of superior importance, and thus we can see that Mother Yaśodā and Mahārāj Nanda are considered to be the supermost of all elderly personalities.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 9th Chapter, 2nd verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives Mahārāj Parīkṣit a description of the form and beauty of Mother Yaśodā.
He says, "My dear King, the wide hips of Mother Yaśodā were surrounded by silk and linen clothes, and her breasts were flowing with milk because of her affection.
When she was churning butter and tightly holding the rope, the bangles on her hands and the earrings on her ears were moving, and from the nice decoration in her hair the flowers were slackening and falling down.
Due to her excessive labor, there were drops of perspiration on her face." There is another description of Mother Yaśodā in a devotee's prayer: "Let me be given protection by Mother Yaśodā, whose curly hairs are bound with thread, whose hair is very brightly beautified by the vermilion placed in the part and whose bodily frame derides all her ornaments.
Her eyes are always engaged in seeing the face of Kṛṣṇa, and thus they are always filled with tears.
She has a complexion like the bluish lotus flower, which is enhanced in beauty by her dressing herself with many colorful garments.
Let her merciful glance fall on all of us so that we may be protected from the clutches of māyā and smoothly progress in our devotional service!" There is the following description of Mother Yaśodā's affection for Kṛṣṇa: After rising early in the morning, Mother Yaśodā first of all offered her breast milk to Kṛṣṇa, and then she began to chant various mantras for His protection.
Then she would decorate His forehead very nicely and bind His arms with protective talismans.
By all of these activities, it is definitely understood that she is the emblem of all maternal affection for Kṛṣṇa.
The description of Nanda Mahārāj's bodily features is as follows.
The hairs on his head are generally black, but some of them are gray.
His garments are of greenish color, like the new-grown leaves of a banyan tree.
His belly is fatty, his complexion is exactly like the full moon, and he has a beautiful moustache.
When Kṛṣṇa was a baby, one day He was walking in the courtyard, capturing the finger of His father, and because He could not walk steadily He appeared to be almost falling down.
While Nanda Mahārāj was giving protection to His transcendental son in this way, all of a sudden there were drops of tears in his eyes, and he became overwhelmed with joy.
Let us all offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of King Nanda! Childhood age, childish dress, movements by the child, sweet words spoken by the child, nice smiling and various forms of childish play are considered provocations for increasing the parental love for Kṛṣṇa.
The childhood ages of Kṛṣṇa are divided into three periods: the beginning of kaumāra age, the middle of kaumāra age and the end of kaumāra age.
During the beginning and middle of the kaumāra age, Kṛṣṇa's thighs are fatty, and the inner part of His eyes are whitish.
There are signs of teeth coming out, and He is very mild and gentle.
He is described as follows: "When Kṛṣṇa had only three or four teeth coming out of His gums, His thighs were fatty, His body was very, very short, and He began to enhance the parental love of Nanda Mahārāj and Mother Yaśodā with the activities of His childish body.
He was sometimes stepping with His legs again and again, sometimes crying, sometimes smiling, sometimes sucking His thumb and sometimes lying down flat.
These are some of the different activities of the child Kṛṣṇa.
When Kṛṣṇa was lying down flat, sometimes sucking the toes of His feet, sometimes throwing His legs upwards, sometimes crying and sometimes smiling, Mother Yaśodā, seeing her son in such pastimes, did not show any sign of restricting Him, but rather began to watch her child with eagerness, enjoying these childhood pastimes." In the beginning of Kṛṣṇa's kaumāra age, there were the nails of tigers set in a golden necklace about His neck.
There was protective tilaka on His forehead, black mascara around His eyes and silk thread around His waist.
These are the descriptions of Kṛṣṇa's dress at the beginning of the kaumāra age.
When Nanda Mahārāj saw the beauty of child Kṛṣṇa with tiger nails on His chest, a complexion like the new-grown tāmala tree, beautifully decorated tilaka made with cow's urine, arm decorations of nice silk thread and silk clothes tied around His waist-when Nanda Mahārāj saw his child like this, he never became satiated by the child's beauty.
In the middle kaumāra age, the upper portion of Kṛṣṇa's hair falls around His eyes.
Sometimes He is covered with cloth around the lower part of His body, and sometimes He is completely naked.
Sometimes He tries to walk, taking step by step, and sometimes He talks very sweetly, in broken language.
These were some of the symptoms of His middle kaumāra age.
He is thus described when Mother Yaśodā once saw Him in His middle kaumāra age: His scattered hairs were touching His eyebrows, and His eyes were restless, but He could not express His feelings with proper words; still, when He was talking, it was so nice and sweet to hear.
When Mother Yaśodā looked at His little ears and saw Him naked, trying to run very quickly with His little legs, she was merged into the ocean of nectar.
Kṛṣṇa's ornaments at this age are a pearl hanging from the septum of His nose, butter on His lotus-like palms, and some small bells hanging from His waist.
It is stated that when Mother Yaśodā saw that the child was moving, ringing the bells on His waist, smiling at her with a pearl between His nostrils and with butter on His hands, she became wonderfully pleased to see her little child in that fashion.
While Kṛṣṇa was in the middle of His kaumāra age, His waist became thinner, His chest became broader, and His head was decorated with His curly hairs, resembling the falling of the wings of a crow.
These wonderful features of Kṛṣṇa's body never failed to astonish Mother Yaśodā.
At the end of His kaumāra age, Kṛṣṇa carried a small stick in His hand, His clothing was a little longer, and He had a knot around His waist, resembling the hood of a snake.
In that dress He used to take care of the calves near the house, and sometimes He played with cowherd boys of about the same age.
He had a slender flute and a buffalo horn bugle, and sometimes He played on a flute made from the leaves of trees.
These are some of the symptoms of the end of Kṛṣṇa's kaumāra age.
When Kṛṣṇa was a little grown up and was taking care of the small calves, He would often go near the forest.
And when He was a little bit late returning home, Nanda Mahārāj would immediately get up on the candraśālikā (a small shed built on the roof for getting a bird's-eye view all around), and he would watch for Him.
Worrying about the late arrival of his little son, Nanda Mahārāj would remain on the candraśālikā until he could indicate to his wife that Kṛṣṇa, surrounded by His little cowherd friends, was coming back with the calves.
Nanda Mahārāj would point out the peacock feather on his child's head and would inform his beloved wife how the child was pleasing his eyes.
Mother Yaśodā then addressed Nanda Mahārāj, "See my dear son, whose eyes are white, who has a turban on His head, a wrapper on His body and leg bells which tinkle very sweetly on His feet.
He is coming near, along with His surabhi calves, and just see how He is wandering upon the sacred land of Vṛndāvana!" Similarly, Mahārāj Nanda addressed his wife, "My dear Yaśodā, just look at your offspring, Kṛṣṇa! See His blackish bodily luster, His eyes tinged with red color, His broad chest and His nice golden necklace! How wonderful He looks, and how He is increasing my transcendental bliss more and more!" When Kṛṣṇa, the beloved son of Nanda Mahārāj, steps into His kaiśora age, although He becomes more beautiful, His parents still consider Him as being in the paugaṇḍa age-even though He is between the ages of ten and fifteen.
When Kṛṣṇa is in His paugaṇḍa age, some of His servants also accept Him as being in the kaiśora age.
When Kṛṣṇa performs His childish pastimes, His general practice is to break the milk and yogurt pots, throw the yogurt in the courtyard and steal the cream from the milk.
Sometimes He breaks the churning rod, and sometimes He throws butter on the fire.
In this way, He increases the transcendental pleasure of His Mother Yaśodā.
In this connection Mother Yaśodā once told Mukharā, her maidservant,"Just look at Kṛṣṇa looking stealthily toward all sides and slowly stepping forward from the bushes.
It appears that He is coming just to steal the butter.
Don't expose yourself or He may understand that we are looking towards Him.
I want to enjoy the sight of His eyebrows moving in this cunning way, and I want to see His fearful eyes and beautiful face." In enjoying Kṛṣṇa's attitude of stealing butter very stealthily, Mother Yaśodā experienced the ecstasy of maternal love by smelling His head, sometimes patting His body with her hand, sometimes offering blessings, sometimes ordering Him, sometimes gazing at Him, sometimes maintaining and sometimes giving Him good instructions not to become a thief.
Such activities are in maternal ecstatic love.
An important point to be observed in this connection is that the childish propensity of stealing is there even in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore this propensity is not artificial.
However, in the spiritual relationship there is no inebriety to this stealing propensity, as there is in the material world.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, verse 39, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "My dear King, as soon as the elderly gopīs saw their sons coming, there was an inexpressible sign of parental love, and all of them became absorbed in affection.
At first they were planning to chastise their sons for stealing butter, but as soon as the sons came before their eyes, they lost all of their angry attitudes and became overwhelmed with affection.
They began to embrace their sons and smell their heads.
While doing this, they became almost mad after their children." In their childhood pastimes, all these cowherd boys joined with Kṛṣṇa in stealing butter.
But rather than become angry, Mother Yaśodā became wet from the milk flowing out of her breasts.
Out of her affection for Kṛṣṇa, she began to smell His head repeatedly.
The general activities of all the mothers of the cowherd boys were to kiss them, to embrace them, to call them by their names and sometimes to mildly chastise them for their stealing habits.
These manifestations of parental love are called sāttvika ecstasy, wherein manifestations of eight kinds of ecstatic symptoms are visible in full.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, 19th verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "All the mothers of the cowherd boys were illusioned by the covering influence of the yoga-māyā potency of the Personality of Godhead, and as soon as they heard the flute- playing of their boys, they immediately stood up and mentally embraced their sons, who had been created by the direct internal potency of Kṛṣṇa.
Accepting them as their born sons, they lifted them into their arms and began to embrace them, resting the children's bodies upon their own.
The emotions created by this incident were sweeter than nectar turned into a palatable intoxicant, and the milk flowing out of their breasts was immediately drunk up by the children." In the Lalita-mādhava, compiled by Rūpa Gosvāmī, Kṛṣṇa is addressed as follows: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, when You are engaged in herding the animals, the dust caused by the hooves of the calves and cows covers Your nice face and artistic tilaka, and You appear very dusty.
But when You return home, the milk flowing out of the breasts of Your mother washes Your face of its dust covering, and it appears that You are purified by this milk.
It is just like when the Deity is washed during the performance of the abhiṣeka ceremony." It is the custom in the temples of Deities that if there have been some impure activities, the Deity has to be washed with milk.
Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He was washed by the milk from the breast of Mother Yaśodā, which purified Him from the dust covering.
Sometimes there are examples of Mother Yaśodā's becoming stunned in ecstasy.
This was exhibited when she saw her son lifting Govardhan Hill.
When Kṛṣṇa was standing, raising the hill, Mother Yaśodā hesitated to embrace Him and became stunned.
The dangerous position that Kṛṣṇa had accepted by lifting the hill brought tears to her eyes.
And with her eyes filled with tears she could not see Kṛṣṇa anymore, and because her throat was choked up by anxiety she could not even instruct Kṛṣṇa as to what He should do in that position.
This is a symptom of becoming stunned in ecstatic love.
Mother Yaśodā sometimes enjoyed transcendental ecstasy in happiness when her child was saved from a dangerous situation, such as being attacked by Pūtanā or some other demon.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10th Canto, 17th Chapter, 15th verse Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that Mother Yaśodā felt very, very fortunate when she got back her lost child.
She immediately placed Him on her lap and began to embrace Him again and again.
While she was thus embracing her son repeatedly, torrents of tears fell from her eyes, and she was unable to express her transcendental joy.
It is stated in the Vidagdha-mādhava of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, the touch of Your mother is so pleasing and cooling that it surpasses the cooling capacity of the pulp of sandalwood and of bright moonshine mixed with the pulp of uśīra root." (Uśīra is a kind of root which when soaked with water has a very, very cooling effect.
It is especially used in the scorching heat of the sun.) The parental love of Mother Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa steadily increases, and her love and ecstasy are sometimes described as intense affection and sometimes as overwhelming attachment.
An example of attachment for Kṛṣṇa with overwhelming affection is given in the Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 6th Chapter, 27th verse, where Śukadeva Gosvāmī addresses Mahārāj Parīkṣit in this way: "My dear King, when magnanimous Nanda Mahārāj returned from a tour, he began to smell the head of his son, and he was merged in the ecstasy of parental love." A similar statement is there in connection with Mother Yaśodā when she was too anxious to hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute, expecting Him back from the pasturing ground.
Because she thought that it was getting very late, her anxiety to hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute became doubled, and milk began to flow out from her breast.
In that condition she was sometimes going within the house, sometimes coming out of the house.
She was constantly looking to see if Govinda was coming back along the road.
When many very great sages were offering prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa, glorifying His activities, the Queen of Gokula, Mother Yaśodā, entered the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, wetting the lower part of her sari with the milk flowing from her breast.
This entrance of Mother Yaśodā at Kurukṣetra was not during the Battle of Kurukṣetra.
At other times Kṛṣṇa went to Kurukṣetra from His paternal home (Dvārakā) during the solar eclipse, and at these times the residents of Vṛndāvana also went to see Him there.
When Kṛṣṇa arrived at Kurukṣetra in pilgrimage, all the people assembled there began to say that Kṛṣṇa the son of Devakī had arrived.
At that time Devakī, just like an affectionate mother, began to pat Kṛṣṇa's face.
And again when people cried that Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva, had come, both King Nanda and Mother Yaśodā became overwhelmed with affection and expressed their great pleasure.
When Mother Yaśodā, the Queen of Gokula, was going to see her son Kṛṣṇa at Kurukṣetra, one of her friends began to address her thus: "My dear Queen, the milk flowing out of your breast- mountain has already whitened the River Ganges, and the tears from your eyes, mixed with black mascara, have already blackened the color of the Yamunā.
And as you are standing just between the two rivers, I think that there is no need for your anxiety to see your son's face.
Your parental affection has already been exhibited to Him by these two rivers!" The same friend of Mother Yaśodā addressed Kṛṣṇa as follows: "My dear Mukunda, if Mother Yaśodā, the Queen of Gokula, is forced to stand on fire, but is allowed to see Your lotus face, then this fire will appear to her as the Himalayan Mountains: full of ice.
In the same way, if she is allowed to stay in the ocean of nectar, but is not allowed to see the lotus face of Your Grace, then even this ocean of nectar will appear to her as an ocean of arsenic poison." Let the anxiety of Mother Yaśodā of Braja, always expecting to see the lotus face of Kṛṣṇa, be glorified all over the universe! A similar statement was given by Kuntīdevī to Akrūra: "My dear brother Akrūra, my nephew Mukunda is long absent from us.
Will you kindly tell Him that His Aunt Kuntī is sitting amongst the enemy and would like to know when she will be able to see His lotus face again?" In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 46th Chapter, 2nd verse, there is this statement: "When Uddhava was present at Vṛndāvana and was narrating the activities of Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā, Mother Yaśodā, while hearing this narration, began to pour milk from her breasts and shed tears from her eyes." Another incident demonstrating Yaśodā's extreme love for Kṛṣṇa occurred when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā, the kingdom of Kaṁsa.
In separation from Kṛṣṇa, Mother Yaśodā was looking at Kṛṣṇa's makeup utensils, and she fell down on the ground almost unconscious, with a great sound.
When she was rolling over on the ground, there were many scratches on her body, and in that piteous condition she began to cry, "O my dear son! My dear son!" And she slapped her breasts with her two hands.
This activity of Mother Yaśodā is explained by expert devotees as ecstatic love in separation.
Sometimes there are many other symptoms, such as great anxiety, lamentation, frustration, being stunned, humility, restlessness, madness and illusion.
As far as Mother Yaśodā's anxieties are concerned, when Kṛṣṇa was out of the house in the pasturing ground, a devotee once told her, "Yaśodā, I think your movements have been slackened, and I see that you are full of anxieties.
Your two eyes appear to be without any movement, and I feel in your breathing a kind of warmth which is bringing your breast milk to the boiling point.
All these conditions prove that out of separation from your son you have a severe headache." These are some of the symptoms of Mother Yaśodā's anxiety for Kṛṣṇa.
When Akrūra was present in Vṛndāvana and was narrating the activities of Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā, Mother Yaśodā was informed that Kṛṣṇa had married so many queens and was very busy there in His householder affairs.
Hearing this, Mother Yaśodā lamented how unfortunate she was that she could not get her son married just after passing His kaiśora age, and thus she could not receive both her son and daughter-in-law at her home.
She exclaimed, "My dear Akrūra, you are simply throwing thunderbolts on my head!" These are signs of lamentation on the part of Mother Yaśodā in separation from Kṛṣṇa.
Similarly, Mother Yaśodā felt frustration when she thought, "Although I have millions of cows, the milk of these cows could not satisfy Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore let a curse be on this milk! And I also am condemned because although I am so opulent in material prosperity, I am now unable to smell the head of my child and feed Him with my breast milk as I used to do when He was here in Vṛndāvana." This is a sign of frustration on the part of Mother Yaśodā in separation from Kṛṣṇa.
One friend of Kṛṣṇa's addressed Him thus: "My dear lotus-eyed one, when You were living in Gokula You were always bearing a stick in Your hand.
That stick is now lying idle in the house of Mother Yaśodā, and whenever she sees it she becomes motionless just like the stick." This is the sign of becoming stunned in separation from Kṛṣṇa.
In separation from Kṛṣṇa Mother Yaśodā became so humble that she prayed to the creator of the universe, Lord Brahmā, with tears in her eyes: "My dear creator, won't you kindly bring my dear son Kṛṣṇa back to me so that I can see Him at least for a moment?" Sometimes in restlessness like a madwoman Mother Yaśodā used to accuse Nanda Mahārāj, "What are you doing in the palace? You shameless man! Why do people call you the King of Braja? It is very astonishing that while being separated from your dear son Kṛṣṇa, you are still living within Vṛndāvana as a hard-hearted father!" Someone informed Kṛṣṇa about the madness of Mother Yaśodā in the following words: "In madness Mother Yaśodā has addressed the kadamba trees and inquired from them, 'Where is my son?' Similarly, she has addressed the birds and the drones and inquired from them as to whether Kṛṣṇa has passed before them, and she has inquired if they can say anything about You.
In this way, Mother Yaśodā in illusion was asking everybody about You, and she has been wandering all over Vṛndāvana." This is madness in separation from Kṛṣṇa.
When Nanda Mahārāj was accused by Mother Yaśodā of being "hardhearted," he replied, "My dear Yaśodā, why are you becoming so agitated? Kindly look more carefully.
Just see, your son Kṛṣṇa is standing before you! Don't become a madwoman like this.
Please keep my home peaceful." And Kṛṣṇa was informed by some friend that His father Nanda was also in illusion in this way, in separation from Him.
When all the wives of Vasudeva were present in the arena of Kaṁsa, they saw the most pleasing bodily features of Kṛṣṇa, and immediately, out of parental affection, milk began to flow from their breasts, and the lower parts of their saris became wet.
This symptom of ecstatic love is an example of the result of fulfillment of desire.
In the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11th Chapter, 25th verse, it is stated, "When Kṛṣṇa entered Dvārakā after finishing the Battle of Kurukṣetra, He first of all saw His mother and all His different stepmothers and offered His respectful obeisances unto their feet.
The mothers immediately took Kṛṣṇa upon their laps, and because of their parental affection, there was milk flowing out of their breasts.
So their breast milk, mixed with the water of tears, became the first offering to Kṛṣṇa.
This is one of the examples of being satisfied after a great separation.
There is a similar statement in the Lalita-mādhava: "How wonderful it is that Yaśodā, the wife of King Nanda, out of her parental affection for Kṛṣṇa, mixed her tears and the milk from her breasts and thus bathed her dear son Kṛṣṇa." In Vidagdha- mādhava, a devotee addresses Lord Kṛṣṇa as follows: "My dear Mukunda, just after seeing Your face full with the flavor of the lotus flower, and being attracted by the moonlight of Your face, Mother Yaśodā became so overjoyed in her affection that immediately from the nipples of her waterpot-like breasts, milk began to flow." She was thus constantly engaged in supplying milk to Kṛṣṇa after wetting the covering cloth over the jug.
These are some of the signs of parental love for Kṛṣṇa by His mother, father and elderly persons.
Symptoms of ecstatic love in parental affection are expressed when Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the son.
These constant transcendental emotions for Kṛṣṇa are called steady ecstasy in parental love.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī states herein that according to some learned scholars, the three kinds of transcendental mellow so far describednamely, servitude, fraternity and parental affection-are sometimes mixed up.
For example, the fraternal feelings of Balarāma are mixed with servitude and parental affection.
Similarly, King Yudhiṣṭhira's attraction for Kṛṣṇa is also mixed with parental affection and servitude.
Similarly, the transcendental mellow of Ugrasena, Kṛṣṇa's grandfather, is mixed with servitude and parental affection.
The affection of all the elderly gopīs in Vṛndāvana is a mixture of parental love, servitude and fraternity.
The affection of the sons of Mādrī, Nakula and Sahadeva, as well as the affection of sage Nārada, is a mixture of friendship and servitude.
The affection of Lord Śiva, Garuḍa and Uddhava is a mixture of servitude and fraternity.
Devotional Service in Conjugal Love
A pure devotee's attraction to Kṛṣṇa in conjugal love is called devotional service in conjugal love.
Although such conjugal feelings are not at all material, there is some similarity between this spiritual love and material activities.
Therefore, persons who are interested only in material activities are unable to understand this spiritual conjugal love, and these devotional reciprocations appear very mysterious to them.
Rūpa Gosvāmī therefore describes conjugal love very briefly.
The impetuses of conjugal love are Kṛṣṇa and His very dear consorts, such as Rādhārāṇī and Her immediate associates.
Lord Kṛṣṇa has no rival: no one is equal to Him, and no one is greater than Him.
His beauty is also without any rival, and because He excels all others in the pastimes of conjugal love, He is the original object of all conjugal love.
In the Gīta-govinda by Jayadeva Gosvāmī one gopī tells her friend: "Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure within this universe.
His body is as soft as the lotus flower.
And His free behavior with the gopīs, which appears exactly like a young boy's attraction to a young girl, is a subject matter of transcendental conjugal love." A pure devotee follows in the footsteps of the gopīs and worships the gopīs as follows: "Let me offer my respectful obeisances to all the young cowherd girls, whose bodily features are so attractive.
Simply by their beautiful attractive features they are worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa." Out of all the young gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the most prominent.
The beauty of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is described as follows: "Her eyes defeat the attractive features of the eyes of the cakorī bird.
When one sees the face of Rādhārāṇī, he immediately hates the beauty of the moon.
Her bodily complexion defeats the beauty of gold.
Thus, let us all look upon the transcendental beauty of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī." Kṛṣṇa's attraction for Rādhārāṇī is described by Kṛṣṇa Himself thus: "When I create some joking phrases in order to enjoy the beauty of Rādhārāṇī, Rādhārāṇī hears these joking words with great attention; but by Her bodily features and counter words She neglects Me.
And I even possess unlimited pleasure by Her neglect of Me, for She becomes so beautiful that She increases My pleasure one hundred times." A similar statement can be found in Gītagovinda, wherein it is said that when the enemy of Kaṁsa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, embraces Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, He immediately becomes entangled in a loving condition and gives up the company of all other gopīs.
In the Padyāvalī of Rūpa Gosvāmī it is stated that when the gopīs hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute, they immediately forget all rebukes offered by the elderly members of their families, their defamation and the harsh behavior of their husbands.
Their only thought is to go out in search of Kṛṣṇa.
When the gopīs meet Kṛṣṇa, the display of their exchanging glances as well as their joking and laughing behavior is called anubhāva, or sub-ecstasy in conjugal love.
In the Lalita-mādhava, Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that the movements of Kṛṣṇa's eyebrows are just like the Yamunā, and the smiling of Rādhārāṇī is just like the moonshine.
When the Yamunā and the moonshine come in contact on the bank of the river, the water tastes just like nectar, and drinking it gives great satisfaction.
It is as cooling as piles of snow.
Similarly, in the Padyāvalī, one constant companion of Rādhārāṇī says, "My dear moon-faced Rādhārāṇī, Your whole body appears to be very content, yet there are signs of tears in Your eyes.
Your speech is faltering, and Your chest is also heaving.
By all these signs I can understand that You must have heard the blowing of Kṛṣṇa's flute, and, as a result of this, Your heart is now melting." In the same Padyāvalī there is the following description, which is taken as a sign of frustration in conjugal love.
Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī said, "Dear Mr.
Cupid, please do not excite Me by throwing your arrows at My body.
Dear Mr.
Air, please do not arouse Me with the fragrance of flowers.
I am now bereft of Kṛṣṇa's loving attitude, so under the circumstances, what is the use of My sustaining this useless body? There is no need for such a body by any living entity." This is a sign of frustration in ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.
Similarly, in Dāna-keli-kaumudī, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, pointing to Kṛṣṇa, says, "This clever boy of the forest has the beauty of a bluish lotus flower, and He can attract all the young girls of the universe.
Now after giving Me a taste of His transcendental body, He has enthused Me, and it is more than I can tolerate.
I am now feeling like a female elephant who has been enthused by a male elephant!" This is an instance of jubilation in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṇa.
Steady ecstasy of conjugal love is the original cause of bodily enjoyment.
In the Padyāvalī this original cause of union is described when Rādhārāṇī tells one of Her constant companions: "My dear friend, who is this boy whose eyelids, dancing constantly, have increased the beauty of His face and attracted My desire for conjugal love? His ears are decorated with the buds of aśoka flowers, and He has dressed Himself in yellow robes.
By the sound of His flute, this boy has already made Me impatient." The conjugal love of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is never disturbed by any personal consideration.
The undisturbed nature of the conjugal love between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is described thus: "Just a little distance away from Kṛṣṇa was Mother Yaśodā, and Kṛṣṇa was surrounded by all of His friends.
In front of His eyes there was Candrāvalī, and, at the same time, on a chunk of stone in front of the entrance to Braja, there was standing the demon known as Vṛṣāsura.
But even in such circumstances, when Kṛṣṇa saw Rādhārāṇī standing just behind a bush of many creepers, immediately His beautiful eyebrows moved just like lightning towards Her." Another instance is described as follows: "On one side of the courtyard the dead body of Śaṅkhāsura was lying, surrounded by many jackals.
On another side were many learned brāhmaṇas who were all self-controlled.
They were offering nice prayers, which were as soothing as the cool breeze in summer.
In front of Kṛṣṇa, Lord Baladeva was standing, causing a cooling effect.
But even amidst all these different circumstances of soothing and disturbing effects, the lotus flower of ecstatic conjugal love that Kṛṣṇa felt for Rādhārāṇī could not wither." This love of Kṛṣṇa for Rādhārāṇī is often compared to a blooming lotus: the only difference is that Kṛṣṇa's love remains ever-increasingly beautiful.
Conjugal love is divided into two portions: vipralambha, or conjugal love in separation, and sambhoga, or conjugal love in direct contact.
Vipralambha, separation, has three sub-divisions known as 1) pūrvarāga, or preliminary attraction, 2) māna, or seeming anger, and 3) pravāsa, or separation by distance.
When the lover and the beloved have a distinct feeling of not meeting each other, that stage is called pūrva-rāga, or preliminary attraction.
In Padyāvalī Rādhārāṇī told Her companion, "My dear friend, I was just going to the bank of the Yamunā, and all of a sudden a very nice boy whose complexion is like a dark blue cloud became visible in front of My eyes.
He glanced over Me in a way that I cannot describe.
But since this has occurred, I am sorry that I can no longer engage My mind in the duties of My household affairs." This is an instance of preliminary attraction for Kṛṣṇa.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, 53rd Chapter, verse 2, Kṛṣṇa told the messenger brāhmaṇa who came from Rukmiṇī: "My dear brāhmaṇa, just like Rukmiṇī I cannot sleep at night, and My mind is always fixed on her.
I know that her brother Rukmī is against Me, and due to his persuasion, My marriage with her has been cancelled." This is another instance of preliminary attraction.
As far as māna, or anger, is concerned, there is the following incident described in Gīta-govinda: "When Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī saw Kṛṣṇa enjoying Himself in the company of several other gopīs, She became a little jealous because Her special prestige was being dimmed.
Therefore, She immediately left the scene and took shelter in a nice flower bush where the black drones were humming.
Then, hiding Herself behind the creepers, She began to express Her sorrow to one of Her consorts." This is an instance of a seeming disagreement.
An example of pravāsa, or being out of contact because of living in a distant place, is given in the Padyāvalī as follows: "Since the auspicious day when Kṛṣṇa left for Mathurā, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī has been pressing Her head on one of Her hands and constantly shedding tears.
Her face is always wet now, and therefore there is no chance of Her sleeping even for a moment." When the face becomes wet, the sleeping tendency is immediately removed.
So when Rādhārāṇī was always weeping for Kṛṣṇa because of His separation, there was no chance of Her getting any sleep for Herself.
In the prahlāda-saṁhitā Uddhava says, "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, painstricken due to being pierced by the arrows of Cupid, is always thinking of you [the gopīs], and He is not even accepting His regular lunch.
Nor is He getting any proper rest." When the lover and beloved come together and enjoy one another by direct contact, this stage is called sambhoga.
There is a statement in Padyāvalī as follows: "Kṛṣṇa embraced Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in such an expert manner that He appeared to be celebrating the dancing ceremony of the peacocks." Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī thus ends the fifth wave of his Ocean of the Nectar of Devotion.
He offers his respectful obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appeared as Gopāla, the eternal form of the Lord.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta summary study of the third division of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu in the matter of the five primary relationships with Kṛṣṇa.