Day 9, August 1, Balaramavatara and Krishnavatara
We have spoken about the Balarama incarnation yesterday. He is removing our diseases and bestowing us with yoga. The incarnation of Krishna is one of bliss. He gave bliss to all, either children, elders, saints or knowledgeable. It is said that Sage Vysa described Krishna’s childhood in detail as Valmiki did not describe Rama’s childhood in detail. Krishna’s childhood leelas are of prime importance. These mischief keep happening in our houses also. Krishna’s childhood leelas are for the welfare of the worlds and there is lot of inner meaning associated with each leela of His. Today lets us talk about the Krishna leelas.
Since Balarama incarnation is part of Krishna incarnation let us talk about both incarnations simultaneously. The purpose of both incarnations is the same. In Rama incarnation, we have seen two incarnations of Lord Sri Hari, Parashurama and Sri Rama come face to face. Nevertheless, in Krishna- Balarama incarnation they are incarnated at same place and same house and as brothers. It is a bit strange. They showed how brotherhood, good relations between the relatives, affection in family is to be maintained.
According to Bhagavatam, the 7th incarnation is Rama, the8 th incarnation is Balarama and the 9th incarnation is Krishna. The number 9 is called a complete number because after nine, the numbers are repetitive like 10, 11, 12 etc. Krishna, being the ninth incarnation, is the embodiment of all the siddhis and energies. He is the form of Nava Durgas. Just as intellect gives new ideas, Sri Krishna gives us new encouragement and makes us walk forward in life. Remembering Krishna relieves you of all the sorrows and difficulties because He Himself has undergone lot of troubles, even though He knows everything, He observed everything for us and showed us many of His leelas. It is often said that Krishna attracts minds of beings because mind is never calm and rested. Mind is always on the move, just as the monkey jumps from one branch to another. A running mind can never be successful.
Krishna told Arjuna that if he wants to be successful, he must become like Hanuman. Arjuna grasped Krishna’s hint and won the war practicing it. Mind on the run cannot concentrate and hence cannot understand and ca speak anything. Mind concentration is the root of all victories. Krishna attracts mind. We are unknowingly in His control. Our mind and intellect are fully concentrating on Him and by doing so, we walk in right path, and are successful.
Just as field has to be ploughed to do agriculture, Krishna attracts us and churns the mind to remove the weeds – the bad thoughts in mind. The weeds do not let the good crops grow. Krishna removes such weed from the mind and intellect. We do not share our bad secrets with anyone. On the contrary, because we desire fame, we do extra marketing of a small good deed done by us. The common desire of all beings is that we should always be happy, fully knowledgeable and have good fame.
A sensible person never tells his secrets outside, but he should tell to himself his mistakes and search for the solutions. We do not attempt any such thing. In such cases, Krishna starts to plough our mind and intellect. By doing so, the weeds are removed and the auspicious Oudumbara tree grows there. He is called Krishna, because He removes the weeds from the mind, sows the seed for kalpa vruksha, waters it and makes it give fruits and blesses us with it. When we chant Krishna, these thoughts should flow in our mind. Chanting the name of Rama should give you bliss.
How do you get bliss? By seeing, by hearing and by experience… there are many ways. Bliss can come from anywhere. Krishna changes our life. With such changes, He corrects our life and gives bliss through this life. It is because of our parents, Sadguru and the merit of mahatmas that we are happy. There may be many ways available, but unless they show the way, we cannot walk. We are walking on the good path shown to us by them and we should never forget them. This is true for both materialistic and spiritual worlds. One should thank those people who have laid roads in pilgrimages when facilities did not exist. They ignored all the dangers like wild animals, health, and laid the roads and facilities like electricity. We must be very thankful to them.
Krishna has shown us the way by with the teachings of Bhagavatgita. Understanding Krishna’s birth and His leela are not possible. But understanding His words or speech is easy. His language is very simple and does not require explanation. That is why He is called Jagadguru and we are speaking about Him. On reading Bhagavatam, you get many doubts about Krishna. In such cases you must close the book and not read further. Never read His history with a doubtful mind on Him. His story is doubtful because His path, approach, and His life are like the footsteps of a fish in the water. Tracing them is not possible. Saints approach is always like that. Understanding them is not easy. Pray Krishna to clear the lingering doubts. All the spiritual paths come and converge in Nama smarana – chanting the divine names. Reading and listening to His story is doing His Nama smarana. In the devotional path, Nama smarana is the strongest tool. Listening to His glories in the form of His stories, is a form of His Nama smarana.
Krishna’s story starts with fear of death – the greatest fear of all fears. Fear makes you lose, even before you attempt to fight the battle. Do not be scared is easier said than done. When we possess energy, we lose fear. We are not fearful when we have companion with us. Friends or relatives can only say I am with you, but physically being with you all times is not feasible. We have brought no companion along with us when born on the earth. Sadguru and God Who possess energy beyond your comprehension, are always with you all the time, and they walk with you. When we have firm belief in our mind that Sadguru or God is with us, then there is no reason to be fearful.
Who will have such faith? Only those who are in spiritual path have such belief. Your devotion benefits you. Only you benefit out of it and not the world. It is an illusion that the world benefits from your devotion. When we are devoted, we will have faith that our Sadguru, our favorite God is walking with us. Then we do not complain about loneliness. Only those who do not complain about loneliness will win the fear of death. No other person can win the fear of death.
Demon Kamsa was not having the above confidence so he was fearful. A person with good and sensible intellect will not be worried about the things which are always true. For example, death, the flow of river flow etc are ever true. Even Brahma has to abide to them. We are just humans.
To make us cautions of the extreme wavering nature of the mind, the stories are told in an interesting way. We must pray to God to give a message in a subtle way to control our mind. Kalanemi has reborn as Kamsa. He loves his sister very much. He searched for a good husband and married her to Vasudeva. The announcement from the sky that the 8th progeny of Vasudeva will be your death, changed Kamsa’s behavior towards his sister in a minute. In a second, he was ready to kill his sister. Does anyone kill their sister?
The stories are told for us as a lesson that the mind is very unstable and can make us do many bad sins. We should be very careful in such moments. In the circumstances of loss of money, life, and self-respect, we forget everything, and in such situations selfishness strongly prevails in mind. He could not think that his sister has just got married and for the couple’s progeny there is time, and meanwhile let her live. Devotion teaches us many ideas that are beneficial to us. The benefit meted out to society by devotion is unparalleled to any other tool that society benefits. I have no doubt in my mind that society badly needs devotion. The faith that Sadguru is in your heart, makes you stop doing many prohibitory deeds. Else, there is no stopping the atrocities meted out to others. Devotional feeling in society will cut the evils in society largely. This is the difference between the devotee and non-devotee. We have to pay for our deeds. Pondered over your inner consciousness will gift you guilt to repent in respect of the past mistakes you have done.
It is very difficult to change or make a stubborn person understand a point. Maybe you can kill a tiger with your arm strength, maybe you can grab a snake by his neck, and win the brahma- rakshasa in battle, but to change the stubborn person mind is not possible. Maybe by doing something, there are no diseases in this world. We can force the tongue to eat the bitter things, we may break the sharp knife, maybe we can run through the sharp fences, maybe we shut the mouth of the all-time bad word speaking people, but we cannot change the stubborn by telling him knowledgeable things.
Kamsa is very stubborn. When the king has demon qualities, then the minister will be tigers, harming his subjects and the servants will become the wild dogs. Just as the kings, so are his subjects. This message is for us. We are the kings of our house. As the king is, so are the subjects. This story teaches us management skills. Vasudeva pleaded not to kill his wife. I will give you my progeny as soon as they are born. Upon this promise of Vasudeva, Kamsa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva. After Devaki conceived seven children, Kamsa killed all of them one by one.
Balarama incarnated as the 8th child. Balarama has always four plans in place for any work. We must learn this from Balarama. God will have four plans in place to run the creation. These four plans are Pradyumna, Anirudha, Sankarshana, and Vasudeva. This Sankarshana energy entered as Balarama in Devaki’s womb. Meanwhile Devaki mata was pregnant with Balarama, God was pondering over the fact that Devaki is losing all the children. “This is an inauspicious and sin. Whatever maybe the reason, I have to do something for stopping this.” He thought of installation of snake images done with her hands. He calls Yoga Maya and tells her to take this child in the womb, and put him in Nanda gokulam, in womb of Vasudeva’s second wife Rohini. Being changed from one womb to another, the child got the name Sankarshana. Sankarshana is none other than Adishesa.
Jai bolo Balarama swami ki jai
In Kamsa’s kingdom, they thought that Devaki Devi has lost the child in the womb. Next, Devaki mata was pregnant for the 9th time. The child born now is Sri Krishna. Vasudeva takes the child, crosses the Yamuna River, deposits the child near Yashodha mata, and brings the girl child – Vishnu Maya from there, and deposits her near Devaki mata. Kamsa comes in and is surprised to see a girl child. Nevertheless he is so scared of his death that he went forward and tried to kill the girl child. He banged the girl child to the floor. She flew up into the sky and appeared in sky as Durga mata with 18 hands. She tells Kamsa that the child, his death, has already taken birth in Nandagopa vrajam.
Jai bolo Sri Krishna paramatma ki jai
When Durga mata told about Krishna’s birth, then the incarnation of Krishna became complete.
Now Kamsa sends a search party to Gokulam. Nice lullabies were sung to Krishna when He was put in a cradle. The entire episode of Krishna’s childhood is very voluminous. When we hear these stories, it feels that Krishna is roaming in our house. That is the glory of Krishna. For the couples who have no children, they should read Krishna’s history. Garga maharishi coined the names of both the brothers secretly in a cow shed. The elder one is named Balarama because he is strong, and the younger one is called Krishna because he attracts and gives bliss to all.
As soon as we remember Krishna, the mind automatically gathers flute, peacock feather, leelas, and Bhagavatgita. However, He likes to be called as Navaneeta chora — butter thief. It says “I am all this” is the secret. This is sufficient to know His tattva. If you call anyone thief, will anyone respond? But here Krishna is happily responding. Navaneeta – butter just then came into existence. He is taking all the newly incurred sins of us. Hence, he is called Navaneeta chora. No bank other than Krishna takes the sins. He is a highly luminous fire that will burn all the sins.
One of the Krishna leelas:
In a house nearby, the relationship between mother-in- law and her daughter-in-law was a bit stormy. Krishna was angry that neither mother-in- law nor the daughter-in-law would feed Him with butter. He decided to teach them a lesson. He tied their plats of hair to each other, ran away from there, and started watching the happenings from a nearby distance. As soon as they woke up they pulled their head towards them with all their might. Krishna enjoyed this view. He said these are the consequences of not serving me with butter. If you want to be peaceful and happy always, remember Me. Krishna gave messages in subtle form in every play of His.
Leela no 2:
God has created mud to let water get absorbed inside it. Now we have done so much flooring that water is not being absorbed. This results in jala Pralayam – water dissolution. Balarama complained to his mother that Krishna has eaten mud. Mother calls Krishna and enquires “Krishna did you eat mud?”
Krishna speaks the first words in this incarnation: “na hum bhakshitavan amba” the ordinary meaning is “No, I did not eat mud.” The inner meaning: “na hum” means “mother, this is not my real form. See Paramatma in me. That is my real form.” Then He said “mother, you have just fed my stomach full. Why will I eat mud? If I were to be hungry, there is a possibility of eating mud.”
Mother was not confident that Krishna is telling the truth. Meanwhile a small particle of mud was hanging down Krishna’s lips. Mother Yashoda observed it. Krishna saw Yashoda observing it and He immediately, in a flash, licked the mud hanging to His lips and closed His mouth. Yashoda asks Krishna to open His mouth. Krishna opens His mouth. Yashoda sees all the galaxies in that mouth. She saw it in disbelief. She for a moment thought she is not Yashodha. “Maybe I have come to some other place.” This is very surprising! She then fainted. Krishna entertained His entire mother and all the villagers with His plays.
Children should be playful in childhood. Being serious is no point. But studying along with mischief is also a point. When we read the history of Sadguru or God we must inculcate few things taught and make them practice. Practicing some things we read in Sri Swamiji’s life history is highly appreciated. They told their life’s incidents for this very purpose. Krishna is playing with His mother via His leelas. He is increasing the affection of His mother on Him and giving her more happiness. Yashodha mother has a bag full of evil eye removing packets. She loved Krishna so much. Sri Swamiji has told many a time that to remove evil eye on children we must chant god names. Praying specific God to protect specific part of the body. The custom of removing evil eye has a lot of meaning. It acts as a protective shield to the child. You must play with your children and not with your mobile phone. Play with children and make them learn something. When you spend 10 minutes of time with children, you will forget the day’s strain. Bhagavatam started with fear of death for Parikshit and ended with complete peace of mind that was given by the childhood leelas of Krishna.
Leela 3:
Once Krishna was running and Yashoda was not able to catch Him. In fact, nobody can catch Him. But the love and affection of mother caught Him. He cannot be held even by Goddess Laxmi, Sanaka and other yogis and Vedas too, but He was caught by the love and affection of His mother. When we call Him with such love and affection, He comes to our house and stays here.
Lord Krishna removed the problems, diseases, and pains of Gopalas, Gopikas, animals and gave them bliss. Krishna is called Tribhangi Krishna. He has three slight bends in His body posture when He stands. One is at the ankles, one at the waist, and one at the neck. Hence, He is called Tribhangi Krishna. He looks like mother goddess, and He verily is Mother Goddess. As Krishna grows up, His story can be divided into 3 parts.
1 .Venu nadam- Flute Music
Once He starts playing His Flute, He goes into Trans. Until the playing of flute, He did so much of mischief. He immersed the Nanda Gokulam in His music and gave them bliss.
2. Time for killing of Kamsa.
Akrura comes and prays to kill Kamsa and Krishna agrees. Narada also played His part here. Krishna kills Kamsa. The major purpose of His incarnation is to kill Shishupala and Dantavaktra, lighten the weight of demons on earth, to finish unrighteousness, and establish righteousness. He reformed and made the earth pleasant with His divinity and plays. After killing Kamsa, He got His parents released from jail. His parents said “Krishna you are great and God.” Krishna ignored it and said whatever it is, I am your child. The ones who do not serve their parents, there is no salvation to them, and they will have very degraded future births.