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Letter COM:2597383 (165 lines)

Internet: Sanjay Das <sanjayd (AT) za (DOT) bynx.com>

01-Sep-99 12:02

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Rajesh G Tralshawala [Rajesh.G.Tralshawala (AT) jci (DOT) com]

Wednesday, September 01, 1999 1:30 PM

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Subject:

 

 

The appearance of Sri Krishna

 

In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that Sri Krishna has unlimited

incarnations, like the countless waves in an ocean. Through these

incarnations Sri Krishna appears at different times and different places

to perform many pastimes. However only once in a day of Lord Brahma

(which lasts for 4,320 million of our years) does Sri Krishna descend in

His original form, and this happened 5,000 years ago. It is said that He

descends in His original form to only one place of all the millions of

planets in the material universe and that is Bhuvaraloka, our Earth

planet.

 

We are therefore extremely fortunate to have been born in the same kalpa

as Sri Krishna and on the same planet on which He performed His pastimes

just 5,000 years ago. We can to this day visit the birthsite of Sri

Krishna in Mathura about 90 miles south of New Delhi, India. We can also

go to Vraja, an area that includes Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul, Nandagram,

etc., where Sri Krishna performed His childhood pastimes with the

cowherd boys (gopas) and damsels (gopis). So holy is the land of Vraja,

that simply living there is considered to be the greatest of devotional

service, and if a devotee is fortunate to give up his body in this holy

land, he is assured of going back home, back to Godhead.

 

Krishna descended in an answer to the prayers by Bhudevi, Mother Earth

personified, to relieve her of the burden of innumerable asuras

(demons), who had taken birth as kings and were ruling tyrannically.

Actually Sri Krishna has nothing to do with non-devotees. They all

eventually destroy themselves by their own karmic reactions. But, Sri

Krishna always has the welfare of His devotees in His heart. Just as He

always resides in the hearts of His devotees, His devotees are always

there in His heart. and, it was to give protection to His devotees and

establish religiosity that Krishna descends. He comes to enjoy His

pastimes in the association of His devotees and give them the pleasure

of His own association.

 

When Krishna descended, every one knew He was the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, unlike His later descent as Caitanya Mahaprabhu about 500 years ago

 

which is called a ?gupta? (confidential) avatar, where in He came in the

guise of His own devotee and His identity was only known by a very few

intimate associates. However Sri Krishna came as the performer of

super human activities. When he was just a child of 6 months He killed

the powerful demoness Putna and as a boy of just 6 years old He lifted

the Govardhana hill on His little finger. But the people of Vraja were

so immersed in the love of Krishna, that they were never awed by His

opulences as God. For them He was their son or friend or master, and

that was all that mattered. The Gopis of Vraja were the highest of His

devotees who had crossed all stages of sadhna-vaidhi bhakti and reached

a stage where they knew nothing but the spontaneous love for Krishna.

Such a stage is very exalted and reached by a very few devotees.

 

It is impossible for non-devotees to even approach Sri Krishna. Many

people try to rationalize or worse, emulate the activities of Krishna.

Such people as destined to fall in the darkest of nescience. Even

elevated personalities like Lord Brahma cannot approach Sri Krishna by

dint of mental speculation. There is only one way to approach Him, and

that is in the mood of a devotee, one of complete surrender, love and

service. When Krishna is pleased with surrender of a devotee, He gives

him the benediction of pure devotional service by which the devotee

freed from the illusory energy of maya, transcends the glaring

effulgence of the impersonal Brahamajyoti emanating from Krishna and can

eternally associate with Him personally.

 

Just as the devotees of Krishna, covered by His internal spiritual

potency called Yogamaya, are able to relish His association; the demons

who were envious of Sri Krishna, come under His external, illusory

potency called Maya, and are never able to approach Him. Jarasandha with

his

army of millions of soldiers was defeated 17 times by Krishna and

Balarama alone, but he never accepted Their supremacy. Similarly Kamsa,

Shishupala, Shalva, Rukmi ? all had witnessed the transcendental

activities of Krishna, but out of their envy and pride they chose to be

illusioned and continued to plan to kill Krishna, till their own very end.

 

In Bhagavad Gita (4.9), Sri Krishna says ?One who knows the

transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon

leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but

attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna?. So Krishna is not without activity,

in fact He is sac-cit-andanda-vigraha - full of eternal truth, knowledge

and bliss in a personal form. But His activities are mysterious for

mundane people. In fact Sri Krishna Himself says ( BG 9.11) that ?Fools

deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My

transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be?.

 

So if we are serious about our spiritual lives, then we must hear and

read about the pastimes of Krishna from a self-realized, bona fide

source. Krishna katha is words spoken by Krishna (as in the Bhagavad

Gita), and words spoken about Krishna (as in Srimad Bhagavatam). Both

are transcendental and can liberate one from the cycle of birth and

death. However, just as milk that has been tasted by a serpent is

poison, Krishna katha delivered by materialistic people and professional

reciters is devastating to spiritual progress. We must therefore seek

out a self-realized spiritual master in a bona fide disciplic

succession, render service to him, inquire submissively from him, and

try and understand the glories of Sri Krishna from him.

 

Sri Krishna Janmashtmi, the appearance day of Sri Krishna is being

celebrated on September 3rd. This is the most auspicious of all

Vaishnava festivals. Celebrating this festival is highest form of

devotional service. One hears (sravanam) the pastimes of Sri Krishna,

sings His glories (kirtana), remembers Him (smaranam) and worships Him

(pujan, arcanam). The perfection of any one of these form of devotional

service can liberate a person from the material world and on this most

auspicious occasion, we have the special benediction of none else than

Sri Krishna Himself.

 

 

Sri Isopanisad

Mantra Six

TEXT

yas tu sarvani bhutany

atmany evanupasyati

sarva-bhutesu catmanam

tato na vijugupsate

 

TRANSLATION

He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all

living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord

within everything never hates anything or any being.

 

 

Mantra Seven

TEXT

yasmin sarvani bhutany

atmaivabhud vijanatah

tatra ko mohah kah soka

ekatvam anupasyatah

 

 

TRANSLATION

One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality

one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be

illusion or anxiety for him?

 

 

Mantra Eight

TEXT

sa paryagac chukram akayam avranam

asnaviram suddham apapa-viddham

kavir manisi paribhuh svayambhur

yathatathyato 'rthan vyadadhac chasvatibhyah samabhyah

 

TRANSLATION

Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality

of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without

veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has

been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.

(Text COM:2597383) --------