Srimad Bhagavatam – day 621
The significance of head-bath
Head bath increases blood circulation. It leads to increase in intelligence and more importantly, in memory. There is a great misconception that head-bath causes common cold. To avoid catching a cold, ensure that you dry your hair immediately. Are you going to stand under the shower for a long time? No. barely for a moment or two you will be pouring water over your head. Thereafter, dry your hair quickly.
I am laying stress on head-bath because of its benefits. I have very long hair which I wash daily. Do I catch a cold? No. The trick lies in quickly drying the hair. Yashoda would give head-bath to little Krishna every single day. He had lovely black hair. She would diligently wash his hair daily, wipe it clean and then decorate it. To her, it was one of her most important daily activities. After all, she was blessed with the rarest fortune of personally offering services to the Lord! What more can be said of her fortune! It was the result of austerities performed in her many previous births.
Yashoda’s mind was tied with the rope called love. For this reason, she continued to call Krishna lovingly, even when he failed to respond to her calls. She considered the Lord, who was the ruler of the universe, as her son. The song ‘āḍidale Yashoda’ explains this explicitly. Towards the end of Dwapara Yuga, the Lord manifested as Krishna and made himself visible differently to different people. He became a relative for all in Gokula and Dwaraka. To one He was the son; to another He was the father; to yet another He was an uncle and so on. Everyone was His relative, some were close relatives while some were distant cousins.
To have the Supreme Lord as our relative is the greatest fortune! What merit we would have earned in our previous birth to obtain the Supreme Lord as a relative in this birth! Some devotees try to search if they are related to the Lord in some way or the other. Through this, devotion towards Him intensifies. We should search. As we begin to investigate, somewhere we will find some thread that connects us to Him. We should take great delight when our relationship with the Lord is established. We should celebrate. ‘O we are related to our God, or we are our Sadguru’s relatives’. This is also a form of pride, albeit a healthy one. Just as good and bad cholesterol exists within the body, pride can be classified as healthy and unhealthy.
When we eat junk food bad cholesterol increases. When we eat healthy food, good cholesterol increases. By avoiding junk and by increasing the intake of healthy food, we can increase good cholesterol in the body. Having Sadguru as a relative is akin to good cholesterol. It is immaterial if the relationship is a distant or near one, we should still take pride in it. If at all we are able to establish a family connection with Him, we should celebrate. Again and again we should offer Him obeisance. We should be ecstatic about it. ‘My Sadguru is now my family member. I belong to His family’.
Krishna was related to each and every member of that clan in Gokula. The millions of cowherds and their families were related to Him. Remembering this family connection, they would lovingly address him. They all prided in that fact that He was their relative.
Maharishi śuka continued,
“To Yashoda He was her son. She neared the boys, who were immersed in their games, and then forcibly holding the hands of both Krishna and Balarama took them home”.
Almost all the time, Krishna and Balarama were inseparable. Occasionally when the Lord wanted to perform a transcendental deed where He did not want Balarama’s presence, He would create a situation by which Balarama was forced to be temporarily separated from Him. For certain transcendental sports, Balarama would be by His side. Thereafter when Balarama returned, Krishna would appear to be saddened that He had to perform a miracle all alone without Balarama by his side. He was a perfect actor! Everything was a divine sport. Nevertheless, Balarama would be thrilled that at least His brother thought of him during his absence.
For instance, if Swamiji says to someone that He had remembered them earlier, they are ecstatic. There is no end to their happiness.
“Yashoda returned home with the boys in tow. They were then bathed and decked appropriately.
One morning Nanda and other elderly residents of Gokula spotted many inauspicious omens in the forests adjacent to Gokula. In addition, a few had seen inauspicious dreams. Everywhere around them they spotted inauspicious omens”.
Often people debate in TV programs about the authenticity of omens. The debates stretch for a couple of hours or more. Yet, in personal life when their tasks remain incomplete, they unhesitatingly blame it on inauspicious omens. ‘A cat crossed my path just as I was leaving. No wonder I could not complete the task successfully; or a crow was cawing this morning indicating some death’. When two persons are engaged in a serious conversation, if the lizard squeaks, then the person will conclude saying, ‘The lizard’s squeak indicates there is truth in my statement’. Or in other instances, if the bell rings when the person is speaking, he considers it to be a good omen. He considers it to be indicative of the truthfulness in his statements.
In this way, inauspicious and auspicious omens are innumerable. Debate on its authenticity keeps people engaged for hours.
In Gokula, people saw many inauspicious omens.
Narayana