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KB 1970-1-14 / Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna
14 / Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna
Brahma said, "My dear Lord, You are the only worshipful
Supreme Lord, Personality of Godhead; therefore I am
offering my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You.
Your bodily features are of the color of clouds filled with
water. You are glittering with a silver electric aura emanating
from Your yellow garments.
"Let me offer my respectful repeated obeisances unto the son of
Maharaja Nanda who is standing before me with conchshell,
earrings and peacock feather on His head. His face is
beautiful; He is wearing a helmet, garlanded by forest
flowers, and He stands with a morsel of food in His hand. He is
decorated with cane and bugle, and He carries a buffalo horn
and flute. He stands before me with small lotus feet.
"My dear Lord, people may say that I am the master of all Vedic
knowledge, and I am supposed to be the creator of this universe,
but it has been proved now that I cannot understand Your
personality, even though You are present before me just like a
child. You are playing with Your boy friends, calves and
cows, which might imply that You do not even have sufficient
education. You are appearing just like a village boy, carrying
Your food in Your hand and searching for Your calves. And yet
there is so much difference between Your body and mine that I
cannot estimate the potency of Your body. As I have already
stated in the Brahma-samhita, Your body is not material."
In the Brahma-samhita it is stated that the body of the Lord is
all spiritual; there is no difference between the Lord's body
and His self. Each limb of His body can perform the actions of
all the others. The Lord can see with His hands, He can hear
with His eyes, He can accept offerings with His legs and He
can create with His mouth.
Brahma continued: "Your appearance as a cowherd child is for
the benefit of the devotees, and although I have committed
offenses at Your lotus feet by stealing away Your cows,
boys and calves, I can understand that You have
mercy upon me. That is Your transcendental quality; You
are very affectionate toward Your devotees. In spite of
Your affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of
Your bodily activities. It is to be understood that when I,
Lord Brahma, the supreme personality of this universe, cannot
estimate the child-like body of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, then what to speak of others? And if I cannot estimate
the spiritual potency of Your child-like body, then what
can I understand about Your transcendental pastimes? Therefore,
as it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, anyone who can understand a
little of the transcendental pastimes, appearance and
disappearance of the Lord becomes immediately eligible to enter
into the kingdom of God after quitting the material body. This
statement is also confirmed in the Vedas, and it is stated
simply: by understanding the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, one can overcome the chain of repeated birth and death.
I therefore recommend that people should not try to understand
You by their speculative knowledge.
"The best process of understanding You is to submissively give
up the speculative process and try to hear about You, either
from Yourself as You have given statements in the Bhagavad-gita
and many similar Vedic literatures, or from a realized devotee
who has taken shelter at Your lotus feet. One has to hear from
a devotee without speculation. One does not even need to change
his worldly position; he simply has to hear Your message.
Although You are not understandable by the material senses,
simply by hearing about You, one can gradually conquer the
nescience of misunderstanding. By Your own grace only, You
become revealed to a devotee. You are unconquerable by any
other means. Speculative knowledge without any trace of
devotional service is simply a useless waste of time in
search for You. Devotional service is so important that even a
little attempt can raise one to the highest perfectional
platform. One should not, therefore, neglect this auspicious
process of devotional service and take to the speculative
method. By the speculative method one may gain partial
knowledge of Your cosmic manifestation, but it is not possible
to understand You, the origin of everything. The attempt of
persons who are interested only in speculative knowledge is
simply wasted labor, like the labor of a person who attempts to
gain something by beating the empty husk of a rice paddy. A
little quantity of paddy can be husked by the grinding wheel,
and one can gain some grains of rice, but if the skin of the
paddy is already beaten by the grinding wheel, there is
no further gain in beating the husk. It
is simply useless labor.
"My dear Lord, there are many instances in the history of human
society where a person, after failing to achieve the
transcendental platform, engaged himself in devotional service
with his body, mind and words and thus attained the highest
perfectional state of entering into Your abode. The processes
of understanding You by speculation or mystic meditation are
all useless without devotional service. One should therefore
engage himself in Your devotional service even in his worldly
activities, and one should always keep himself near You by the
process of hearing and chanting Your transcendental glories.
Simply by being attached to hearing and chanting Your glories,
one can attain the highest perfectional stage and enter into
Your kingdom. If a person, therefore, always keeps in touch
with You by hearing and chanting Your glories and offers the
results of his work for Your satisfaction only, he very easily
and happily attains entrance into Your supreme abode. You are
realizable by persons who have cleansed their hearts of all
contamination. This cleansing of the heart is made possible by
chanting and hearing the glories of Your Lordship."
The Lord is all-pervading. As it is stated by Lord Krsna in the
Bhagavad-gita, "Everything is sustained by Me, but at the same
time I am not in everything." Since the Lord is all-pervading,
there is nothing existing without His knowledge. The all-
pervasive nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can
never be within the limited knowledge of a living entity;
therefore, a person who has attained steadiness of the mind by
fixing the mind on the lotus feet of the Lord is able to
understand the Supreme Lord to some extent. It is the business
of the mind to wander over varied subject matter for sense
gratification. Therefore only a person who engages the
senses always in the service of the Lord can control the mind
and be fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord. This concentration
of the mind upon the lotus feet of the Lord is called samadhi.
Until one reaches the stage of samadhi, or trance, he cannot
understand the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
There may be some philosophers or scientists who can study the
cosmic nature from atom to atom; they may be so advanced that
they can count the atomic composition of the cosmic atmosphere
or all the planets and stars in the sky, or even the shining
molecular parts of the sun or other stars and
luminaries in the sky. But it is not possible to count the
qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
As described in the beginning of Vedanta-sutra, the Supreme
Person is the origin of all qualities. He is generally called
nirguna. Nirguna means without qualities
. Guna means quality, and nir means without
. But impersonalists interpret this word nirguna as "
having no quality." Because they are unable to estimate the
qualities of the Lord in transcendental realization, they
conclude that the Supreme Lord has no qualities. But that is
actually not the position. The real position is that He is the
original source of all qualities. All qualities are emanating
constantly from Him. How, therefore, can a limited person count
the qualities of the Lord? One may estimate the qualities of
the Lord for one moment, but the next moment the qualities are
increased; so it is not possible to make an estimation of the
transcendental qualities of the Lord. He is therefore called
nirguna. His qualities cannot be estimated.
One should not uselessly labor in mental speculation to
estimate the Lord's qualities. There is no need of adopting the
speculative method or exercising the body to attain mystic yoga
perfection. One should simply understand that the distress and
happiness of this body are predestined; there is no need to try
to avoid the distress of this bodily existence or to attempt to
achieve happiness by different types of exercises. The best
course is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead
with body, mind and words and always be engaged in His service.
This transcendental labor is fruitful, but other attempts to
understand the Absolute Truth are never successful. Therefore
an intelligent man does not try to understand the Supreme
Person, Absolute Truth, by speculative or mystic power. Rather,
he engages in devotional service and depends on the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. He knows that whatever may happen to
the body is due to his past fruitive activities. If one lives
such a simple life in devotional service, then automatically he
can inherit the transcendental abode of the Lord. Actually,
every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and
a son of the Godhead. Each has the natural right to inherit and
share the transcendental pleasures of the Lord, but due to the
contact of matter, conditioned living entities have been
practically disinherited. If one adopts the simple method of
engaging himself in devotional service, automatically he
becomes eligible to become freed from the material
contamination and elevated to the transcendental position of
associating with the Supreme Lord.
Lord Brahma presented himself to Lord Krsna as the most
presumptuous living creature because he wanted to examine the
wonder of His personal power. He stole the boys and calves of
the Lord in order to see how the Lord would recover them. After
his maneuver, Lord Brahma admitted that his attempt was most
presumptuous, for he was attempting to test his energy before
the person of original energy. Coming to his senses, Lord
Brahma saw that although he was a very powerful living creature
in the estimation of all other living creatures within this
material world, in comparison to the
power and energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his
power was nothing. The scientists of the material world have
discovered wonders such as atomic weapons, and when tested in a
city or insignificant place on this planet, such powerful
weapons create so-called havoc, but if the atomic weapons are
tested on the sun, what is their significance? They are
insignificant there. Similarly, Brahma's stealing the calves
and boys from Sri Krsna may be a wonderful display of mystic
power, but when Sri Krsna exhibited His expansive power in so
many calves and boys and maintained them without effort, Brahma
could understand that his own power was insignificant.
Brahma addressed Lord Krsna as Acyuta because the Lord is never
forgetful of a little service rendered by His devotee. He is so
kind and affectionate towards His devotees that a little
service by them is accepted by Him as a great deal. Brahma has
certainly rendered much service to the Lord. As the supreme
personality in charge of this particular universe, he is,
without a doubt, a faithful servant of Krsna; therefore he
could appease Krsna. He asked that the Lord understand him as a
subordinate servant whose little mistake and impudence might be
excused. He admitted that he was puffed up by his powerful
position as Lord Brahma. Because he is the qualitative
incarnation of the mode of passion within this material world,
this was natural for him, and therefore he committed the
mistake. But after all,
Lord Krsna would kindly take compassion
upon His subordinate and excuse him for his gross mistake.
Lord Brahma realized his actual position. He is certainly the
supreme teacher of this universe, in charge of the production
of material nature consisting of complete material
elements, false ego, sky, air, fire, water and earth. Such a
universe may be gigantic, but it can be measured, just as we
measure our body as seven cubits. Generally everyone's personal
bodily measurement is calculated to be seven cubits of his hand.
This particular universe may appear as a very gigantic body,
but it is nothing but the measurement of seven cubits for Lord
Brahma. Aside from this universe, there are unlimited other
universes which are outside the jurisdiction of this particular
Lord Brahma. Just as innumerable atomic infinitesimal fragments
pass through the holes of a screened window, so millions and
trillions of universes in their seedling form are coming out
from the bodily pores of Maha-Visnu, and that Maha-Visnu is but
a part of the plenary expansion of Krsna. Under these
circumstances, although Lord Brahma is the supreme creature
within this universe, what is his importance in the presence of
Lord Krsna?
Lord Brahma therefore compared himself to a little child within
the womb of his mother. If the child within the womb plays with
his hands and legs, and while playing touches the body of the
mother, is the mother offended with the child? Of course she
isn't. Similarly, Lord Brahma may be a very great personality,
and yet not only Brahma but everything that be is existing
within the womb of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord'
s energy is all-pervading; there is no place in the creation
where it is not acting. Everything is existing
within the energy of the Lord, so the Brahma of this universe
or the Brahmas of the many other millions and trillions of
universes are existing within the energy of the Lord; therefore
the Lord is considered to be the mother, and everything
existing within the womb of the mother is considered to be the
child. And the good mother is never offended with the child,
even if he touches the body of the mother by kicking his legs.
Lord Brahma then admitted that his birth was from the lotus
flower which blossomed from the navel of Narayana after the
dissolution of the three worlds, or three planetary systems,
known as Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka and Svarloka. The universe is
divided into three divisions, namely Svarga, Martya and Patala.
These three planetary systems are merged into water at the time
of dissolution. At that time Narayana, the plenary portion of
Krsna, lies down on the water and gradually a lotus stem grows
from His navel, and from that lotus flower, Brahma is born. It
is naturally concluded that the mother of Brahma is Narayana.
Because the Lord is the resting place of all the living
entities after the dissolution of the universe, He is called
Narayana. The word nara means the aggregate total of all living
entities, and ayana means the resting place. The form of
Garbhodakasayi Visnu is called Narayana because He rests
Himself on that water. In addition, He is the resting place of
all living creatures. Besides that, Narayana is also present in
everyone's heart, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita. In
that sense, also, He is Narayana, as ayana means the
source of knowledge as well as the resting place. It is also
confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that remembrance of the
living entity is due to the presence of the Supersoul within
the heart. After changing the body, a living creature forgets
everything of his past life, but because Narayana the
Supersoul is present within his heart, he is reminded by Him
to act according to his past desire. Lord Brahma wanted to
prove that Krsna is the original Narayana, that He is the
source of Narayana, and that Narayana is not an exhibition of
the external energy, maya, but is an expansion of spiritual
energy. The activities of the external energy or maya are
exhibited after the creation of this cosmic world, and the
original spiritual energy of Narayana was acting before the
creation. So the expansions of Narayana
, from Krsna to
Garbhodakasayi Visnu, from Garbhodakasayi Visnu to
Ksirodakasayi Visnu, and from Ksirodakasayi Visnu to everyone's
heart, are manifestations of His
spiritual energy. They are not conducted by the material energy;
therefore they are not temporary. Anything conducted by the
material energy is temporary, but everything executed by the
spiritual energy is eternal.
Lord Brahma reconfirmed his statement establishing Krsna as the
original Narayana. He said that the gigantic universal
body is still resting on the water known as Garbhodaka. He
spoke as follows: "This gigantic body of the universe is
another manifestation of Your energy. On account of His resting
on the water, this universal form is also Narayana, and we are
all within the womb of this Narayana form. I see Your different
Narayana forms everywhere. I can see You on the water, I can
feel You within my heart, and I can also see You before me now.
You are the original Narayana.
"My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have proved that You are
the supreme controller of maya. You remain within the cosmic
manifestation, and yet the whole creation is within You. This
fact has already been proved by You when You exhibited the
whole universal creation within Your mouth before Your mother
Yasoda. By Your inconceivable potency of yogamaya, You can
make such things effective without external help.
"My dear Lord Krsna, the whole cosmic manifestation that we are
visualizing at present is all within Your body. Yet I am seeing
You outside, and You are also seeing me outside. How can such
things happen without being influenced by Your inconceivable
energy?"
Lord Brahma stressed herein that without accepting the
inconceivable energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one
cannot explain things as they are. He continued: "My dear Lord,
leaving aside all other things and just considering today's
happenings -- what I have seen -- are they not all due to Your
inconceivable energies? First of all I saw You alone;
thereafter You expanded Yourself as Your friends,
the calves and all the existence of Vrndavana; then I saw
You and all the boys as four-handed Visnus, and They
were being worshiped by all elements and all demigods,
including myself. Again They all became cowherd boys, and You
remained alone as You were before. Does this not mean that You
are the Supreme Lord Narayana, the origin of everything, and
from You everything emanates, and again everything
enters unto You, and You remain the same as before?"
"Persons who are unaware of Your inconceivable energy cannot
understand that You alone expand Yourself as the creator
Brahma, maintainer Visnu, and annihilator Siva.
Persons who are not in awareness of things as they are
contemplate that I, Brahma, am the creator, Visnu is the
maintainer, and Lord Siva is the annihilator. Actually, You are
alone everything -- creator, maintainer, and annihilator.
Similarly, You expand Yourself in different incarnations; among
the demigods You incarnate as Vamanadeva, among the great sages
You incarnate as Parasurama, among the human beings You appear
as Yourself, as Lord Krsna, or Lord Rama, among the animals
You appear as the boar incarnation, and among the aquatics You
appear as the incarnation of fish. And yet You have
no appearance; You are always eternal. Your
appearance and disappearance are made possible by Your
inconceivable energy just to give protection to the faithful
devotees and to annihilate the demons. O my Lord, O
all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul,
controller of all mystic powers, no one can appreciate Your
transcendental pastimes as they are exhibited within these
three worlds. No one can estimate how You have expanded Your
yogamaya and Your incarnation and how You act by Your
transcendental energy. My dear Lord, this whole cosmic
manifestation is just like a flashing dream, and its temporary
existence simply disturbs the mind. As a result, we are full of
anxiety in this existence; to live within this material world
means simply to suffer and to be full of all miseries. And yet
this temporary existence of the material world appears to be
pleasing and dear on account of its having evolved from Your
body, which is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge.
"My conclusion is, therefore, that You are the Supreme Soul,
Absolute Truth, and the supreme original person; and
although You
have expanded Yourself in so many Visnu forms, or in
living entities and energies, by Your inconceivable
transcendental potencies, You are the supreme one without a
second, You are the supreme Supersoul. The innumerable living
entities are simply like sparks of the original fire. Your
Lordship, the conception of the Supersoul as impersonal is
wrongly accepted because I see that You are the original person.
A person with a poor fund of knowledge may think that,
because You are the son of Maharaja Nanda, You are not the
original person, that You are born just like a human being.
They are mistaken. You are the actual original person; that is
my conclusion. In spite of Your being the son of Nanda, You are
the original person, and there is no doubt about it. You are
the Absolute Truth, and You are not of this material darkness.
You are the source of the original brahmajyoti as well as
the material luminaries. Your
transcendental effulgence is identical with brahmajyoti
. As it is described in the Brahma-samhita, the
brahmajyoti is nothing but Your personal bodily
effulgence. There are many Visnu incarnations and incarnations
of Your different qualities, but all those incarnations are not
on the same level. You are the original lamp. Other
incarnations may possess the same candle power as the
original lamp, but the original lamp is the beginning of all
light. And because You are not one of the creations of this
material world, even after the annihilation of this world, Your
existence as You will continue.
"Because You are the original person, You are therefore
described in the Gopala-tapani (the Vedic Upanisad), as well as
in the Brahma-samhita, as govindam adi-purusam. Govinda is the
original person, the cause of all causes. In the Bhagavad-gita
also it is stated that You are the source of the Brahman
effulgence. No one should conclude that Your body is like an
ordinary material body. Your body is aksara, indestructible.
The material body is always full of threefold miseries, but
Your body is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha: full of being,
bliss, knowledge and eternality. You are also niranjana because
Your pastimes, as the little son of mother Yasoda or the Lord
of the gopis, are never contaminated by the material qualities.
And although You exhibited Yourself in so many cowherd boys,
calves and cows, Your transcendental potency is not reduced.
You are always complete. As it is described in the Vedic
literature, even if the complete is taken away from the
complete -- Supreme Absolute Truth -- it yet remains the
complete, Supreme Absolute Truth. And although many expansions
from the complete are visible, the complete is one without a
second. Since all Your pastimes are spiritual, there is no
possibility of their being contaminated by the material modes
of nature. When You place Yourself subordinate to Your
father and mother, Nanda and Yasoda, You are not reduced in
Your potency; this is an expression of Your loving attitude
for Your devotees. There is no other competitor or second
identity than Yourself. A person with a poor fund of
knowledge concludes that Your pastimes and appearance are
simply material designations. You are transcendental to both
nescience and knowledge, as it is confirmed in the Gopala-
tapani. You are the original amrta (
nectar of immortality), indestructible. As it is confirmed in
the Vedas, amrtam sasvatam brahme. Brahman is the eternal, the
supreme origin of everything, who has no birth or death.
"In the Upanisads it is stated that the Supreme Brahman is as
effulgent as the sun and is the origin of everything, and
anyone who can understand that original person becomes
liberated from the material conditional life. Anyone who can
simply be attached to You by devotional service can know Your
actual position, Your birth, appearance, disappearance and
activities. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, simply by
understanding Your constitutional position, appearance and
disappearance, one can be immediately elevated to the spiritual
kingdom after quitting this present body. Therefore to cross
over the ocean of material nescience, an intelligent person
takes shelter of Your lotus feet and is easily transferred to
the spiritual world. "There are many so-called meditators who
do not know that You are the Supreme Soul. As stated in the
Bhagavad-gita, You are the Supreme Soul present in everyone's
heart. Therefore there is no necessity of one's meditating on
something beyond You. One who is always absorbed in meditation
on Your original form of Krsna easily crosses over the ocean of
material nescience. But persons who do not know that You are
the Supreme Soul remain within this material world in spite of
their so-called meditation. If, by the association of Your
devotees, a person comes to the knowledge that Lord Krsna is
the original Supersoul, then it is possible for him to cross
over the ocean of material ignorance. For instance, a person
becomes transcendental to the mistake of thinking a rope is a
snake; as soon as one understands that the rope is not a snake,
he is liberated from fear. For one who understands You,
therefore, through Your personal teachings, as stated in the
Bhagavad-gita, or through Your pure devotees, as stated in the
Srimad-Bhagavatam and all Vedic literatures -- that You are the
ultimate goal of understanding -- he need no more fear this
material existence.
"So-called liberation and bondage have no meaning for a person
who is already engaged in Your devotional service, just as a
person who knows that the rope is not
a snake is unafraid. A devotee knows that this material world
belongs to You, and he therefore engages everything in Your
transcendental loving service. Thus there is no bondage for him.
For a person who is already situated in the sun planet, there
is no question of the appearance or disappearance of the sun in
the name of day or night. It is also said that You, Krsna, are
just like the sun, and maya is like darkness. When the sun
is present, there is no question of darkness; so, for those who
are always in Your presence,
there is no question of bondage or liberation. They are already
liberated. On the other hand, persons who falsely think
themselves to be liberated without taking shelter of Your lotus
feet, fall down because their intelligence is not pure.
"If one therefore thinks that the Supersoul is something
different from Your personality and thus searches out the
Supersoul somewhere else, in the forest or in the caves of the
Himalayas, his condition is very lamentable.
"
Your
teachings in the Bhagavad-gita are that one
should give up all other processes of self- realization and
simply surrender unto You, for that is complete. Because You
are supreme in everything, those who are
searching after the Brahman effulgence are also searching after
You. And those who are searching after Supersoul realization
are also searching after You. You have stated in the Bhagavad-
gita that You Yourself, by Your partial representation as the
Supersoul, have entered into this material cosmic manifestation.
You are present in everyone's heart and there is no need to
search out the Supersoul anywhere else. If someone does so, he
is simply in ignorance. One who is transcendental to such a
position understands that You are unlimited; You are both
within and without. Your presence is everywhere.
Instead of searching for the Supersoul anywhere else, a devotee
only concentrates his mind on You within. Actually one who is
liberated from the material concept of life can search for You;
others cannot. The simile of thinking the rope to be a snake
is applicable only to those who are still in ignorance of You.
Actually the existence of a snake besides
the rope is only within the mind. The existence
of maya, similarly, is only within the mind. Maya is nothing
but ignorance of Your personality. When one forgets Your
personality, that is the conditional state of maya. Therefore
one who is fixed upon You both internally and externally is not
illusioned.
"One who has attained a little devotional service can
understand Your glories. Even one striving for Brahman
realization or Paramatma realization cannot understand the
different features of Your personality unless he treads
the devotional path.
One may be the spiritual master of many impersonalists, or he
may go to the forest or to a cave or mountain and meditate
as a hermit for many, many years, but he cannot understand Your
glories without being favored by a slight degree of devotional
service. Brahman realization or Paramatma realization are also
not possible even after one searches for many, many years
unless one is touched by the wonderful effect of devotional
service.
"My dear Lord, I pray that I may be so fortunate
that, in this life or in another life, wherever I may take my
birth, I may be counted as one of Your devotees. Wherever I may
be, I pray that I may be engaged in Your devotional service. I
do not even care what form of life I get in the future, because
I can see that even in the form of cows and calves or cowherd
boys, the devotees are so fortunate to be always engaged in
Your transcendental loving service and association. Therefore I
wish to be one of them instead of such an exalted person as I
am now, for I am full of ignorance. The gopis and cows of
Vrndavana are so fortunate that they have been able to supply
their breast milk to You. Persons who are engaged in performing
great sacrifices and offering many valuable goats in the
sacrifice cannot attain the perfection of understanding You,
but simply by devotional service these innocent village women
and cows are all able to satisfy You with their milk. You have
drunk their milk to satisfaction, yet You are never satisfied
by those engaged in performing sacrifices. I am simply
surprised, therefore, with the fortunate position of Maharaja
Nanda, mother Yasoda and the cowherd men and gopis, because You,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, are
existing here as their most intimate lovable object. My dear
Lord, no one can actually appreciate the good fortune of these
residents of Vrndavana. We are all demigods, controlling
deities of the various senses of the living entities, and we
are proud of enjoying such privileges, but actually there is no
comparison between our position and the position of these
fortunate residents of Vrndavana because they are actually
relishing Your presence and enjoying Your association by dint
of their activities. We may be proud of being
controllers of the senses, but here the residents of Vrndavana
are so transcendental that they are not under our control.
Actually they are enjoying the senses through service to You.
I shall therefore consider myself fortunate to be given a
chance to take birth in this land of Vrndavana in any of my
future lives.
"My dear Lord, I am therefore not interested in either material
opulences or liberation. I am most humbly praying at Your lotus
feet for You to please give me any sort of birth within this
Vrndavana forest so that I may be able to be favored by the
dust of the feet of some of the devotees of Vrndavana. If I am
given the chance to grow just as the humble grass in
this land, that will be a glorious birth for me. But if I am
not so fortunate to take birth within the forest of Vrndavana,
I beg to be allowed to take birth outside the immediate area of
Vrndavana so that when the devotees go out they will walk over
me. Even that would be a great fortune for me. I am just
aspiring for a birth in which I will be smeared by the dust of
the devotees' feet
.
It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that the purpose of Vedic
knowledge is to find Krsna. And it is said in the Brahma-
samhita that it is very difficult to find Krsna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, by systematic reading of the Vedic
literature. But He is very easily available through the mercy
of a pure devotee. The pure devotees of Vrndavana are fortunate
because they can see Mukunda (Lord Krsna) all the time. This
word "mukunda" can be understood in two ways. Muk means
liberation. Lord Krsna can give liberation and therefore
transcendental bliss. The word also refers to His smiling face,
which is just like the kunda flower. Mukha also means face.
The kunda flower is very beautiful, and it appears to be
smiling. Thus the comparison is made.
The difference between the pure devotees of Vrndavana and
other devotees is that the residents of Vrndavana
have no other desire but to be associated with Krsna. Krsna,
being very kind to His devotees, fulfills their desire; because
they always want Krsna's association, the Lord is always
prepared to give it to them. The devotees of Vrndavana are also
spontaneous lovers. They do not follow the regulative
principles. They are not required to strictly follow regulative
principles because they are already naturally developed in
transcendental love for Krsna. Regulative principles are
required for persons who have not achieved the position of
transcendental love. Brahma is also a devotee of the Lord, but
he is subject to follow the regulative
principles. He prays to Krsna to give him the chance to take
birth in Vrndavana so that he might be elevated to the platform
of spontaneous love.
Lord Brahma continued: "My Lord, sometimes I am puzzled as to
how Your Lordship will be able to repay, in gratitude, the
devotional service of these residents of Vrndavana. Although I
know that You are the supreme source of all benediction, I am
puzzled to know how You will be able to repay all the service
that You are receiving from these residents of Vrndavana. I
think of how You are so kind, so magnanimous, that even Putana,
who came to cheat You by dressing herself as a very
affectionate mother, was awarded liberation and the actual post
of a mother. And other demons belonging to the same family,
such as Aghasura and Bakasura, were also favored with
liberation. Under the circumstances, I am
puzzled. These residents of Vrndavana have given You everything
-- their bodies, their minds, their love, their homes
. Everything is being utilized for Your purpose. So
how will You be able to repay their debt? You have
already given Yourself to Putana! I surmise that You shall ever
remain a debtor to the residents of Vrndavana, being unable to
repay their loving service. My Lord, I can understand that the
superexcellent service of the residents
of Vrndavana is due to their spontaneously engaging all natural
instincts in Your service. It is said that attachment
for material objects and home is due to illusion, which makes a
living entity conditioned in the material world. But this is
only the case for persons who are not in Krsna conscious. In
the case of the residents of Vrndavana, such obstructions, as
attachment to hearth and home, are nonexistent. Because their
attachment has been converted unto You, and their home has
been converted into a temple because You are
always there, and because they have forgotten everything for
Your sake, there is no impediment. For a Krsna conscious person,
there is no such thing as impediments in
hearth and home. Nor is there illusion.
"I can also understand that Your appearance as a small cowherd
boy, a child of the cowherd men, is not at all a material
activity. You are so much obliged by their affection that You
are here to enthuse them with more loving service by Your
transcendental presence. In Vrndavana there is no distinction
between material and spiritual because everything is dedicated
to Your loving service. My dear Lord, Your Vrndavana pastimes
are simply to enthuse Your devotees. If someone takes Your
Vrndavana pastimes to be material, he will be misled.
"My dear Lord Krsna, those who deride You, claiming that You
have a material body like an ordinary man, are described in the
Bhagavad-gita as demonic and less intelligent. You are always
transcendental. The nondevotees are cheated because they
consider You to be a material creation. Actually, You have
assumed this body, which resembles that of an ordinary
cowherd boy, simply to increase the devotion and transcendental
bliss of Your devotees.
"My dear Lord, I have nothing to say about people who advertise
that they have already realized God or that by their
realization they have themselves become God. But as far as I am
concerned, I admit frankly that for me it is not possible to
realize You by my body, mind or speech. What can I say about
You, or how can I realize You by my senses? I cannot even think
of You perfectly with my mind, which is the master of the
senses. Your qualities, Your activities and Your body cannot be
conceived by any person within this material world. Only by
Your mercy can one understand, to some extent, what You are. My
dear Lord, You are the Supreme Lord of all creation, although I
sometimes falsely think that I am the master of this universe.
I may be master of this universe, but there are innumerable
universes, and there are innumerable Brahmas also who
preside over these universes. But actually You are the master
of them all. As the Supersoul in everyone's heart, You know
everything. Please, therefore accept me as Your surrendered
servant. I hope that You will excuse me for
disturbing You in Your pastimes with Your
friends and calves. Now if You will kindly allow me, I will
immediately leave so You can enjoy Your friends and calves
without my presence.
"My dear Lord Krsna, Your very name suggests that You are all-
attractive. The attraction of the sun and the moon are all due
to You. By the attraction of the sun, You are beautifying the
very existence of the Yadu dynasty. With the attraction of the
moon, You are enhancing the potency of the land, the demigods,
the brahmanas, the cows and the oceans. Because of Your supreme
attraction, demons like Kamsa and others are annihilated.
Therefore it is my deliberate conclusion that You are the only
worshipable Deity within the creation. Accept my humble
obeisances until the annihilation of this material world. As
long as there is sunshine within this material world, kindly
accept my humble obeisances."
In this way, Brahma, the master of this universe, after
offering humble and respectful obeisances unto the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and circumambulating Him three times,
was ready to return to his abode known as Brahmaloka. By His
gesture, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gave him permission
to return. As soon as Brahma left, Lord Sri Krsna immediately
appeared as He had on the very day the cows and cowherd boys
had vanished.
Krsna
had left His friends on the bank
of the Yamuna while they were engaged in lunch, and although He
returned exactly one year later, the cowherd boys thought that
He had returned within a second. That is the way of Krsna's
different energies and activities. It is stated in the Bhagavad-
gita that Krsna Himself is residing in everyone's heart, and He
causes both remembrance and forgetfulness. All living entities
are controlled by the supreme energy of the Lord, and sometimes
they remember and sometimes they forget their constitutional
position. His friends, being controlled in such a way, could
not understand that for one whole year they were absent from
the Yamuna bank and were under the spell of Brahma's illusion.
When Krsna appeared before the boys, they thought, "Krsna has
returned within a minute." They began to laugh, thinking that
Krsna was not willing to leave their lunchtime company. They
were very jubilant and invited Him, "Dear friend Krsna, You
have come back so quickly! All right, we have not as yet begun
our lunch, not even taken one morsel of food. So please come
and join us and let us eat together." Krsna smiled and
accepted their invitation, and He began to enjoy the lunchtime
company of His friends. While eating, Krsna was thinking, "
These boys believe that I have come back within a second, but
they do not know that for the last year I have been involved
with the mystic activities of Lord Brahma."
After finishing their lunch, Krsna and His friends and calves
began to return to their Vrajabhumi homes. While passing, they
enjoyed seeing the dead carcass of Aghasura in the shape of a
gigantic serpent. When Krsna returned home to Vrajabhumi, He
was seen by all the inhabitants of Vrndavana. He was wearing a
peacock feather in His helmet, which was also decorated with
forest flowers. Krsna was also garlanded with flowers and
painted with different colored minerals collected from the
caves of Govardhana Hill. Govardhana Hill is always famous for
supplying natural red dyes, and Krsna and His friends painted
their bodies with them. Each of them had a bugle made of
buffalo horn and a stick and a flute, and each called his
respective calves by their particular names. They
were so proud of Krsna's wonderful activities that, while
entering the village, they all sang His glories. All the gopis
in Vrndavana saw beautiful Krsna entering the village. The boys
composed nice songs describing how they were saved from being
swallowed by the great serpent and how the serpent was killed.
Some described Krsna as the son of Yasoda, and others as the
son of Nanda Maharaja. "He is so wonderful that He saved us
from the clutches of the great serpent and killed him," they
said. But little did they know that one year had passed since
the killing of Aghasura.
In this regard, Maharaja Pariksit asked Sukadeva Gosvami how
the inhabitants of Vrndavana suddenly developed so much love
for Krsna, although Krsna was not a member of any of their
families. Maharaja Pariksit enquired, "During the absence of
the original cowherd boys, when Krsna expanded Himself, why is
it that the boys' parents became more loving toward Him than
toward their own sons? Also, why did the cows become so loving
toward the calves, more than toward their own calves?"
Sukadeva Gosvami told Maharaja Pariksit that every living
entity is actually most attached to his own self. Outward
paraphernalia such as home, family, friends, country, society,
wealth, opulence, reputation, etc., are all only
secondary in pleasing the living entity. They please only
because they bring pleasure to the self. For this reason, one
is self-centered and is attached to his body and self more than
he is to relatives like wife, children, and friends. If there
is some immediate danger to one's own person, he first of all
takes care of himself, then others. That is natural. That means,
more than anything else, he loves his own self
. The next important object of affection, after
his own self, is his material body. A person who has no
information of the spirit soul is very much attached to his
material body, so much so that even in old age he wants to
preserve the body in so many artificial ways, thinking that his
old and broken body can be saved. Everyone is working hard day
and night just to give pleasure to his own self, under either
the bodily or spiritual concept of life. We are attached to
material possessions because they give pleasure to the senses
or to the body. The attachment to the body is there only
because the "I," the spirit soul, is within the body. Similarly,
when one is further advanced, he knows that the spirit soul is
pleasing because it is part and parcel of Krsna. Ultimately, it
is Krsna who is pleasing and all-attractive. He is the
Supersoul of everything. And in order to give us this
information, Krsna descends and tells us that the all-
attractive center is He Himself. Without being an expansion of
Krsna, nothing can be attractive.
Whatever is attractive within the cosmic manifestation is due
to Krsna. Krsna is therefore the reservoir of all pleasure. The
active principle of everything is Krsna, and highly elevated
transcendentalists see everything in connection with Him. In
the Caitanya-caritamrta it is stated that a
mahabhagavata, or highly advanced devotee, sees Krsna
as the active principle in all movable and immovable living
entities. Therefore he sees everything within this cosmic
manifestation in relation to Krsna. For the fortunate person
who has taken shelter of Krsna as everything, liberation is
already there. He is no longer in the material world. This is
also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: Whoever is engaged in the
devotional service of Krsna is already on the brahma-bhuta
or spiritual platform. The very name Krsna suggests
piety and liberation. Anyone who takes shelter of the lotus
feet of Krsna enters the boat for crossing over the ocean of
nescience. For him, this vast expansion of the material
manifestation becomes as insignificant as a
hoofprint. Krsna is the center of all great souls, and He is
the shelter of the material worlds.
For one who is on the platform of Krsna consciousness,
Vaikuntha, or the spiritual world, is not far away. He does not
live within the material world where there is danger at every
step. In this way Krsna consciousness was fully explained by
Sukadeva Gosvami to Maharaja Pariksit. Sukadeva Gosvami even
recited to the king the statements and prayers of Lord
Brahma. These descriptions of Lord Krsna's pastimes with His
cowherd boys, His eating with them on the bank of the Yamuna
and Lord Brahma's prayers unto Him, are all transcendental
subject matters. Anyone who hears, recites or chants them
surely gets all his spiritual desires fulfilled. Thus Krsna's
childhood appearance, His sporting with Balarama
in Vrndavana, was described.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Fourteenth Chapter
of Krsna, "Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna."
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KB 14: Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna
Brahma said, "My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable
Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead; therefore I am
offering my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You.
Your bodily features are the color of clouds filled with
water. You are glittering with a silver electric aura emanating
from Your yellow garments.
"Let me offer my respectful repeated obeisances unto the son of
Maharaja Nanda, who is standing before me with conchshell
earrings and a peacock feather on His head. His face is
beautiful; He is wearing a helmet and is garlanded by forest
flowers, and He stands with a morsel of food in His hand. He is
decorated with a cane, a buffalo-horn
bugle and a flute. He stands before me with small lotus feet.
"My dear Lord, people may say that I am the master of all Vedic
knowledge, and I am supposed to be the creator of this universe,
but it has been proved now that I cannot understand You
, who are present before me just like a
child. You are playing with Your boyfriends and
calves, which might imply that You do not even have sufficient
education. You are appearing just like a village boy, carrying
Your food in Your hand and searching for Your calves. And yet
there is so much difference between Your body and mine that I
cannot estimate the potency of Your body. As I have already
stated in the Brahma-samhita, Your body is not material."
In the Brahma-samhita it is stated that the body of the Lord is
all-spiritual; there is no difference between the Lord's body
and His self. Each limb of His body can perform the actions of
all the others. The Lord can see with His hands, He can hear
with His eyes, He can accept offerings with His legs, and He
can create with His mouth.
Brahma continued: "Your appearance as a cowherd child is for
the benefit of the devotees, and although I have committed
an offense at Your lotus feet by stealing away Your
boys and calves, I can understand that You have bestowed Your
mercy upon me. This shows Your transcendental quality of
being very affectionate toward Your devotees. But in spite of
Your great affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of
Your bodily activities. It is to be understood that when I,
Lord Brahma, the supreme personality of this universe, cannot
estimate the childlike body of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, then what to speak of others? And if I cannot estimate
the spiritual potency of Your childlike body, then what
can I understand about Your transcendental pastimes? Therefore,
as it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, anyone who can understand a
little of the transcendental pastimes, appearance and
disappearance of the Lord becomes immediately eligible to enter
into the kingdom of God after quitting the material body. This
statement is confirmed in the Vedas, where it is stated
: Simply by understanding the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, one can overcome the chain of repeated birth and death.
I therefore recommend that people should not try to understand
You by their speculative knowledge.
"The best process for understanding You is to submissively give
up the speculative process and try to hear about You, either
from Yourself as You have given statements in the Bhagavad-gita
and many similar Vedic scriptures, or from a realized devotee
who has taken shelter at Your lotus feet. One has to hear from
a devotee without speculation. One does not even need to change
his worldly position; he simply has to hear Your message.
Although You are not understandable by the material senses,
simply by hearing about You one can gradually conquer the
nescience of misunderstanding. By Your own grace only, You
become revealed to a devotee. You are unconquerable by any
other means. Speculative knowledge without any trace of
devotional service is simply a useless waste of time in the
search for You. Devotional service is so important that even a
little attempt can raise one to the highest perfectional
platform. One should not, therefore, neglect this auspicious
process of devotional service and take to the speculative
method. By the speculative method one may gain partial
knowledge of Your cosmic manifestation, but it is not possible
to understand You, the origin of everything. The attempt of
persons who are interested only in speculative knowledge is
simply wasted labor, like the labor of a person who attempts to
gain something by beating an empty husk of rice paddy. A
little quantity of paddy can be husked by the grinding wheel,
and one can gain some grains of rice, but if the skin of the
paddy has already been beaten by the grinding wheel, there is
no further gain in beating even a huge quantity of the husk. It
is simply useless labor.
"My dear Lord, there are many instances in the history of human
society where a person, after failing to achieve the
transcendental platform, engaged himself in devotional service
with his body, mind and words and thus attained the highest
perfectional state of entering into Your abode. The processes
of understanding You by speculation or mystic meditation are
all useless without devotional service. One should therefore
engage himself in Your devotional service even in his worldly
activities, and one should always keep himself near You by the
process of hearing and chanting Your transcendental glories.
Simply by being attached to hearing and chanting Your glories,
one can attain the highest perfectional stage of entering into
Your kingdom. If a person, therefore, always keeps in touch
with You by hearing and chanting Your glories and offers the
results of his work for Your satisfaction only, he very easily
and happily attains entrance into Your supreme abode. You are
realizable by persons who have cleansed their hearts of all
contamination. This cleansing of the heart is made possible by
chanting and hearing the glories of Your Lordship."
The Lord is all-pervading. As it is stated by Lord Krsna in the
Bhagavad-gita, "Everything is sustained by Me, but at the same
time I am not in everything." Since the Lord is all-pervading,
there is nothing existing without His knowledge. The all-
pervasive nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can
never be within the limited knowledge of a living entity;
therefore, a person who has attained steadiness of the mind by
fixing the mind on the lotus feet of the Lord is able to
understand the Supreme Lord to some extent. It is the business
of the mind to wander over varied subject matter for sense
gratification. Therefore only a person who always engages the
senses in the service of the Lord can control the mind
and be fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord. This concentration
of the mind upon the lotus feet of the Lord is called samadhi.
Until one reaches the stage of samadhi, or trance, he cannot
understand the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
There may be some philosophers or scientists who can study the
cosmic nature from atom to atom; they may be so advanced that
they can count the atomic composition of the cosmic atmosphere
or all the planets and stars in the sky, or even the shining
molecular particles of the sun or of the stars and other
luminaries in the sky. But it is not possible to count the
qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
As described in the beginning of the Vedanta-sutra, the Supreme
Person is the origin of all qualities. He is generally called
nirguna. Nirguna means "whose qualities are beyond
estimation." Guna means "quality," and nir means "beyond
estimation." But impersonalists interpret this word nirguna as "
having no quality." Because they are unable to estimate the
qualities of the Lord in transcendental realization, they
conclude that the Supreme Lord has no qualities. But that is
actually not the position. The real position is that He is the
original source of all qualities. All qualities are emanating
constantly from Him. How, therefore, can a limited person count
the qualities of the Lord? One may estimate the qualities of
the Lord at one moment, but the next moment the qualities have
increased; so it is not possible to make an estimation of the
transcendental qualities of the Lord. He is therefore called
nirguna.
One should not uselessly labor in mental speculation to
estimate the Lord's qualities. There is no need of adopting the
speculative method or exercising the body to attain mystic yoga
perfection. One should simply understand that the distress and
happiness of this body are predestined; there is no need to try
to avoid the distress of this bodily existence or to attempt to
achieve happiness by different types of exercises. The best
course is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead
with body, mind and words and always be engaged in His service.
This transcendental labor is fruitful, but other attempts to
understand the Absolute Truth are never successful. Therefore
an intelligent man does not try to understand the
Absolute Truth by speculative or mystic power. Rather,
he engages in devotional service and depends on the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. He knows that whatever may happen to
the body is due to his past fruitive activities. If one lives
such a simple life in devotional service, then automatically he
inherits the transcendental abode of the Lord. Actually,
every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and
a son of the Godhead. Each has the natural right to inherit and
share the transcendental pleasures of the Lord, but due to the
contact of matter, conditioned living entities have been
practically disinherited. If one adopts the simple method of
engaging himself in devotional service, automatically he
becomes eligible to be freed from material
contamination and elevated to the transcendental position of
associating with the Supreme Lord.
Lord Brahma presented himself to Lord Krsna as the most
presumptuous living creature because he wanted to examine the
wonder of His personal power. He stole the boys and calves of
the Lord in order to see how the Lord would recover them. Now
Lord Brahma admitted that his attempt was most
presumptuous, for he was attempting to test his energy before
the person of original energy. Coming to his senses, Lord
Brahma saw that although he was a very powerful living creature
in the estimation of all other living creatures within this
material world, his power was nothing in comparison with the
power and energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
. The scientists of the material world have
invented wonders such as atomic weapons, and when tested in a
city or some insignificant place on this planet, such powerful
weapons create so-called havoc, but if the atomic weapons are
tested on the sun, what is their significance? They are
insignificant there. Similarly, Brahma's stealing of the calves
and boys from Sri Krsna may be a wonderful display of mystic
power, but when Sri Krsna exhibited His expansive power in so
many calves and boys and maintained them without effort, Brahma
could understand that his own power was insignificant.
Brahma addressed Lord Krsna as Acyuta because the Lord is never
forgetful of a little service rendered by His devotee. He is so
kind and affectionate toward His devotees that a little
service by them is accepted by Him as a great deal. Brahma has
certainly rendered much service to the Lord. As the supreme
personality in charge of this particular universe, he is,
without a doubt, a faithful servant of Krsna; therefore he
could appease Krsna. He asked that the Lord understand him as a
subordinate servant whose little mistake and impudence might be
excused. He admitted that he was puffed up by his powerful
position as Lord Brahma. Because he is the qualitative
incarnation of the mode of passion within this material world,
this was natural for him, and therefore he committed the
mistake. But Lord Brahma hoped that since he was, after all,
Lord Krsna's subordinate, the Lord would kindly take compassion
upon him and excuse him for his gross mistake.
Lord Brahma realized his actual position. He is certainly the
supreme teacher of this universe, in charge of the production
of material nature, consisting of the complete material
energy, false ego, sky, air, fire, water and earth. Such a
universe may be gigantic, but it can be measured, just as we
measure our body as seven spans. Generally everyone's personal
bodily measurement is calculated to be seven spans of his hand.
This particular universe may appear as a very gigantic body,
but it is nothing but the measurement of seven spans for Lord
Brahma. Aside from this universe, there are unlimited other
universes which are outside the jurisdiction of this particular
Lord Brahma. Just as innumerable atomic infinitesimal fragments
pass through the holes of a screened window, so millions and
trillions of universes in their seedling form are coming out
from the bodily pores of Maha-Visnu, and that Maha-Visnu is but
a part of a part of the plenary expansion of Krsna. Under these
circumstances, although Lord Brahma is the supreme creature
within this universe, what is his importance in the presence of
Lord Krsna?
Lord Brahma therefore compared himself to a little child within
the womb of his mother. If the child within the womb plays with
his hands and legs, and while playing touches the body of the
mother, is the mother offended with the child? Of course she
isn't. Similarly, Lord Brahma may be a very great personality,
and yet not only Brahma but everything that be is existing
within the womb of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord'
s energy is all-pervading: there is no place in the creation
where it is not acting. Since everything is existing
within the energy of the Lord, the Brahma of this universe
and the Brahmas of the many other millions and trillions of
universes are existing within the energy of the Lord; therefore
the Lord is considered to be the mother, and everything
existing within the womb of the mother is considered to be the
child. And the good mother is never offended with the child,
even if he touches the body of the mother by kicking his legs.
Lord Brahma then said that his birth was from the lotus
flower which blossomed from the navel of Narayana after the
dissolution of the three worlds, or three planetary systems,
known as Bhurloka, Bhuvarloka and Svarloka. The universe is
divided into three divisions, namely Svarga, Martya and Patala.
These three planetary systems are merged into water at the time
of dissolution. At that time Narayana, a plenary portion of
Krsna, lies down on the water, and gradually a lotus stem grows
from His navel, and from that lotus flower, Brahma is born. It
is naturally concluded that the mother of Brahma is Narayana.
Because the Lord is the resting place of all the living
entities after the dissolution of the universe, He is called
Narayana. The word nara means the aggregate total of all living
entities, and ayana means the resting place. The form of
Garbhodakasayi Visnu is called Narayana because He rests
Himself on that water. In addition, He is the resting place of
all living creatures. Besides that, Narayana is also present in
everyone's heart, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita. In
that sense, also, the Lord is Narayana, as ayana means the
source of knowledge as well as the resting place. It is also
confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that the remembrance of the
living entity is due to the presence of the Supersoul within
the heart. After changing the body, a living creature forgets
everything of his past life, but because Narayana, the
Supersoul, is present within his heart, he is reminded by Him
to act according to his past desire. Lord Brahma wanted to
prove that Krsna is the original Narayana, that He is the
source of Narayana, and that Narayana is not an exhibition of
the external energy, maya, but is an expansion of spiritual
energy. The activities of the external energy, or maya, are
exhibited after the creation of this cosmic world, and the
original spiritual energy of Narayana was acting before the
creation. So the expansions of Narayana -- from Narayana to
Karanodakasayi Visnu, from Karanodakasayi Visnu to
Garbhodakasayi Visnu, from Garbhodakasayi Visnu to
Ksirodakasayi Visnu, and from Ksirodakasayi Visnu to everyone's
heart -- are actually Krsna's expansions, manifestations of His
spiritual energy. They are not conducted by the material energy;
therefore they are not temporary. Anything conducted by the
material energy is temporary, but everything executed by the
spiritual energy is eternal.
Lord Brahma reconfirmed his statement establishing Krsna as the
original Narayana. He said that the Lord's gigantic universal
form is resting on the water known as Garbhodaka. He
spoke as follows: "This gigantic universal form is
another manifestation of Your energy. On account of His resting
on the water, this universal form is also Narayana, and we are
all within the womb of this Narayana form. I see Your different
Narayana forms everywhere. I can see You on the water, I can
feel You within my heart, and I can also see You before me now.
You are the original Narayana.
"My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have proved that You are
the supreme controller of maya. You remain within the cosmic
manifestation, and yet the whole creation is within You. This
fact has already been proved by You when You exhibited the
whole universal creation within Your mouth before Your mother,
Yasoda. By Your inconceivable potency of yogamaya, You can
effect such things without external help.
"My dear Lord Krsna, the whole cosmic manifestation that we are
visualizing at present is all within Your body. Yet I am seeing
You outside, and You are also seeing me outside. How can such
things happen without being influenced by Your inconceivable
energy?"
Lord Brahma stressed herein that without accepting the
inconceivable energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one
cannot explain things as they are. He continued: "My dear Lord,
leaving aside all other things and just considering today's
happenings -- what I have seen -- are they not all due to Your
inconceivable energies? First of all I saw You alone;
thereafter You expanded Yourself as Your cowherd boyfriends,
the calves and the whole existence of Vrndavana; then I saw
You and all the boys and calves as four-handed Visnus, and They
were being worshiped by all elements and all demigods,
including myself. Again They were all wound up, and You
remained alone, as You were before. Does this not mean that You
are the Supreme Lord Narayana, the origin of everything, that
everything emanates from You and again
enters into You, leaving You the same as before?
"Persons who are unaware of Your inconceivable energy cannot
understand that You alone expand Yourself as the creator (
Brahma), the maintainer (Visnu) and the annihilator (Siva).
Persons who are not in awareness of things as they are
contemplate that I, Brahma, am the creator, Visnu is the
maintainer, and Lord Siva is the annihilator. Actually, You
alone are everything -- creator, maintainer and annihilator.
Similarly, You expand Yourself in different incarnations: among
the demigods You incarnate as Vamanadeva, among the great sages
You incarnate as Parasurama, among the human beings You appear
as Yourself, Lord Krsna, or as Lord Rama, among the animals
You appear as the boar incarnation, and among the aquatics You
appear as the fish incarnation. And yet You have
no appearance or disappearance: You are always eternal. Your
appearance and disappearance are made possible by Your
inconceivable energy just to give protection to the faithful
devotees and to annihilate the faithless demons. O my Lord, O
all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul,
controller of all mystic powers, no one can appreciate Your
transcendental pastimes as they are exhibited within these
three worlds. No one can estimate how You have expanded Your
yogamaya and Your incarnations and how You act by Your
transcendental energy. My dear Lord, this whole cosmic
manifestation is just like a flashing dream, and its temporary
existence simply disturbs the mind. As a result, we are full of
anxiety in this existence; to live within this material world
means simply to suffer and to be full of all miseries. And yet
this temporary existence of the material world appears to be
pleasing and dear on account of its having evolved from Your
body, which is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge.
"My conclusion is, therefore, that You are the Supreme Soul,
the Absolute Truth, and the supreme original person; and
although by Your inconceivable transcendental potencies You
have expanded Yourself in so many Visnu forms, and also in the
living entities and other
energies, You are the supreme one without a
second, the supreme Supersoul. The innumerable living
entities are simply like sparks of the original fire, Your
Lordship. The conception of the Supersoul as impersonal is
wrong, because I see that You are the original person.
Persons with a poor fund of knowledge may think that
because You are the son of Maharaja Nanda You are not the
original person, that You are born just like a human being.
They are mistaken. You are the actual original person; that is
my conclusion. In spite of Your being the son of Nanda, You are
the original person, and there is no doubt about it. You are
the Absolute Truth, and You are not of this material darkness.
You are the source of the original brahma-jyoti as well as
the material luminaries -- the sun, moon and stars. Your
transcendental effulgence is identical with the brahma-
jyoti. As it is described in the Brahma-samhita, the
brahma-jyoti is nothing but Your personal bodily
effulgence. There are many Visnu incarnations and incarnations
of Your different qualities, but all those incarnations are not
on the same level. You are the original lamp. Other
incarnations may possess the same candlepower as the
original lamp, but the original lamp is the beginning of all
light. And because You are not one of the creations of this
material world, even after the annihilation of this world, Your
existence as You are will continue.
"Because You are the original person, You are
described in the Gopala-tapani Upanisad, as well as
in the Brahma-samhita, as govindam adi-purusam. Govinda is the
original person, the cause of all causes. In the Bhagavad-gita
also it is stated that You are the source of the Brahman
effulgence. No one should conclude that Your body is like an
ordinary material body. Your body is aksara, indestructible.
The material body is always full of threefold miseries, but
Your body is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha: [Bs. 5.1] full of
bliss, knowledge and eternality. You are also niranjana because
Your pastimes, as the little son of Mother Yasoda or the lover
of the gopis, are never contaminated by the material qualities.
And although You exhibited Yourself as so many cowherd boys
and calves, Your transcendental potency was not reduced.
You are always complete. As it is described in the Vedic
literature, even if the complete is taken away from the
complete -- the Supreme Absolute Truth -- it remains the
complete Supreme Absolute Truth. And although many expansions
from the complete are visible, the complete is one without a
second. Since all Your pastimes are spiritual, there is no
possibility of their being contaminated by the material modes
of nature. When You place Yourself as subordinate to Your
father and mother, Nanda and Yasoda, You are not reduced in
Your potency; this is an expression of Your loving attitude
toward Your devotees. There is no second
identity to compete with You. A person with a poor fund of
knowledge concludes that Your appearance and pastimes are
simply material designations. You are transcendental to both
nescience and knowledge, as it is confirmed in the Gopala-
tapani Upanisad. You are the original amrta (indestructible
nectar of immortality). As confirmed in
the Vedas, amrtam sasvatam brahma. Brahman is the eternal, the
supreme origin of everything, who has no birth or death.
"In the Upanisads it is stated that the Supreme Brahman is as
effulgent as the sun and is the origin of everything, and that
anyone who can understand that original person becomes
liberated from material, conditioned life. Anyone who can
simply be attached to You by devotional service can know Your
actual position, birth, appearance, disappearance and
activities. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, simply by
understanding Your constitutional position, appearance and
disappearance, one can be immediately elevated to the spiritual
kingdom after quitting this present body. Therefore to cross
over the ocean of material nescience, an intelligent person
takes shelter of Your lotus feet and is easily transferred to
the spiritual world.
"There are many so-called meditators who do not know that You
are the Supreme Soul. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, You are
the Supreme Soul present in everyone's heart. Therefore there
is no necessity of one's meditating on something beyond You.
One who is always absorbed in meditation on Your original form
of Krsna easily crosses over the ocean of material nescience.
But persons who do not know that You are the Supreme Soul
remain within this material world in spite of their so-called
meditation. If, by the association of Your devotees, a person
comes to the knowledge that Lord Krsna is the original
Supersoul, then it is possible for him to cross over the ocean
of material ignorance. For instance, when a person mistakes a
rope for a snake he is filled with fear, but as soon as he
understands that the rope is not a snake, he is liberated from
fear. If one understands You, therefore, through Your personal
teachings, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita, or through the
teachings of Your pure devotees, as stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam
and all other Vedic scriptures -- if one realizes that You are
the ultimate goal of understanding -- he need no longer fear
this material existence.
"So-called liberation and bondage have no meaning for a person
who is already engaged in Your devotional service, just as a
rope is not fearful to a person who knows that it is not
a snake. A devotee knows that this material world
belongs to You, and he therefore engages everything in Your
transcendental loving service. Thus there is no bondage for him.
For a person who is already situated in the sun planet, there
is no question of the appearance or disappearance of the sun in
the name of day or night. It is also said that You, Krsna, are
just like the sun, and that maya is like darkness. When the sun
is present, there is no question of darkness; so, for those who
always remain in Your presence by engaging in Your service,
there is no question of bondage or liberation. They are already
liberated. On the other hand, persons who falsely think
themselves to be liberated without taking shelter of Your lotus
feet fall down because their intelligence is not pure.
"If one therefore thinks that the Supersoul is something
different from Your personality and thus searches out the
Supersoul or the Supreme Brahman somewhere else, in the forest
or in the caves of the Himalayas, his condition is very
lamentable. Your teachings in the Bhagavad-gita are that one
should give up all other processes of self-realization and
simply surrender unto You, for that is complete. Because You
are the Supreme in every respect, those who are
searching after the Brahman effulgence are also searching after
You. And those who are searching after Supersoul realization
are also searching after You. You state in the Bhagavad-
gita that You Yourself, by Your partial representation as the
Supersoul, have entered into this material cosmic manifestation.
You are present in everyone's heart, and there is no need to
search out the Supersoul anywhere else. If someone does so, he
is simply in ignorance. One who is transcendental to such a
position understands that You are unlimited; You are both
within and without. Therefore Your presence is everywhere.
Instead of searching for the Supersoul anywhere else, a devotee
only concentrates his mind on You within. Actually, one who is
liberated from the material concept of life can search for You;
others cannot. The example of thinking the rope to be a snake
is applicable only to those who are still in ignorance of You.
Actually, when one mistakes a rope for a snake, the
existence of the snake is only within the mind. The existence
of maya, similarly, is only within the mind. Maya is nothing
but ignorance of Your personality. When one forgets Your
personality, that is the conditioned state of maya. Therefore
one who is fixed upon You both internally and externally is not
illusioned.
"One who has attained a little result of devotional service can
understand Your glories. Even one striving for Brahman
realization or Paramatma realization cannot understand these
features of Your personality unless You bestow on
him the result of at least a slight bit of devotional service.
One may be the spiritual master of many impersonalists, or he
may go to the forest or to a mountain cave and meditate
as a hermit for many, many years, but he cannot understand Your
glories without being favored by a slight degree of devotional
service. Brahman realization or Paramatma realization are also
not possible even after one searches for many, many years
unless one is touched by the wonderful effect of devotional
service.
"Therefore, my dear Lord, I pray that I may be so fortunate
that in this life or in another life, wherever I may take my
birth, I may be counted as one of Your devotees. Wherever I may
be, I pray that I may be engaged in Your devotional service. I
do not even care what form of life I get in the future, because
I can see that even in the form of cows and calves or cowherd
boys, the devotees are so fortunate to be always engaged in
Your transcendental loving service and association. Therefore I
wish to be one of them instead of such an exalted person as I
am now, for I am full of ignorance. The gopis and cows of
Vrndavana are so fortunate that they have been able to supply
their breast milk to You. Persons who are engaged in performing
great sacrifices and offering many valuable goats in
sacrifice cannot attain the perfection of understanding You,
but simply by devotional service these innocent village women
and cows are all able to satisfy You with their milk. You have
drunk their milk to satisfaction, yet You are never satisfied
as much by those engaged in performing sacrifices. I am simply
surprised, therefore, with the fortunate position of Maharaja
Nanda, Mother Yasoda and the cowherd men and gopis, because You,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, are
existing here as their most intimate lovable object. My dear
Lord, no one can actually appreciate the good fortune of these
residents of Vrndavana. We are all demigods, controlling
deities of the various senses of the living entities, and we
are proud of enjoying such privileges, but actually there is no
comparison between our position and the position of these
fortunate residents of Vrndavana because they are actually
relishing Your presence and enjoying Your association by dint
of their sensory activities. We may be proud of being
controllers of the senses, but here the residents of Vrndavana
are so transcendental that they are not under our control.
Actually they are enjoying their senses through service to You.
I shall therefore consider myself fortunate to be given a
chance to take birth in this land of Vrndavana in any of my
future lives.
"My dear Lord, I am therefore not interested in either material
opulences or liberation. I am most humbly praying at Your lotus
feet for You to please give me any sort of birth within this
Vrndavana forest so that I may be able to be favored by the
dust of the feet of some of the devotees of Vrndavana. If I am
given the chance to grow as a humble blade of grass in
this land, that would be a glorious birth for me. But if I am
not so fortunate to take birth within the forest of Vrndavana,
I beg to be allowed to take birth outside the immediate area of
Vrndavana so that when the devotees go out they will walk over
me. Even that would be a great fortune for me. I am just
aspiring for a birth in which I will be smeared by the dust of
the devotees' feet, because I can see that everyone here is
simply full of Krsna consciousness. No one here knows anything
but the lotus feet of Krsna, or Mukunda, for which the Vedas
themselves are searching."
It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that the purpose of Vedic
knowledge is to find Krsna. And it is said in the Brahma-
samhita that it is very difficult to find Krsna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, by systematic reading of the Vedic
literature. But He is very easily available through the mercy
of a pure devotee. The pure devotees of Vrndavana are fortunate
because they can see Mukunda (Lord Krsna) all the time. This
word mukunda can be understood in two ways. Muk means
liberation. Lord Krsna can give liberation and therefore
transcendental bliss. The word also refers to His smiling face,
which is just like the kunda flower. Mukha means "face."
The kunda flower is very beautiful, and it appears to be
smiling. Thus the comparison is made.
The difference between the pure devotees of Vrndavana and
devotees in other places is that the residents of Vrndavana
have no other desire but to be associated with Krsna. Krsna,
being very kind to His devotees, fulfills their desire; because
they always want Krsna's association, the Lord is always
prepared to give it to them. The devotees of Vrndavana are also
spontaneous lovers. They
are not required to strictly follow regulative
principles because they are already naturally developed in
transcendental love for Krsna. Regulative principles are
required for persons who have not achieved such a position of
spontaneous love. Brahma is also a devotee of the Lord, but
he is an ordinary devotee subject to following regulative
principles. He prays to Krsna to give him the chance to take
birth in Vrndavana so that he might be elevated to the platform
of spontaneous love.
Lord Brahma continued: "My Lord, sometimes I am puzzled as to
how Your Lordship will be able to repay, in gratitude, the
devotional service of these residents of Vrndavana. Although I
know that You are the supreme source of all benediction, I am
puzzled to know how You will be able to repay all the service
that You are receiving from these residents of Vrndavana. I
think of how You are so kind, so magnanimous, that even Putana,
who came to cheat You by dressing herself as a very
affectionate mother, was awarded liberation and the actual post
of a mother. And other demons belonging to the same family,
such as Aghasura and Bakasura, were also favored with
liberation and achieved You. Under the circumstances, I am
puzzled. These residents of Vrndavana have given You everything
-- their bodies, their minds, their love, their homes, their
possessions. Everything is being utilized for Your purpose. So
how will You be able to repay Your debt to them? You have
already given Yourself to Putana! I surmise that You shall ever
remain a debtor to the residents of Vrndavana, being unable to
repay their loving service. My Lord, I can understand that the
superexcellent quality of the service rendered by the residents
of Vrndavana is due to their spontaneously engaging all natural
instincts in Your loving service. It is said that attachment
for material objects and home is due to illusion, which makes a
living entity conditioned in the material world. But this is
only the case for persons who are not Krsna conscious. In
the case of the residents of Vrndavana, such obstructions as
attachment to hearth and home are nonexistent. Because their
attachment has been directed unto You and their homes have
been converted into temples by Your constant
presence there, and because they have forgotten everything for
Your sake, there is no impediment. For a Krsna conscious person,
there is no such thing as impediments due to attachment for
hearth and home. Nor is there illusion.
"I can also understand that Your appearance as a small cowherd
boy, a child of the cowherd men, is not at all a material
activity. You are so much obliged by their affection that You
are here to inspire them with more loving service by Your
transcendental presence. In Vrndavana there is no distinction
between material and spiritual because everything is dedicated
to Your loving service. My dear Lord, Your Vrndavana pastimes
are simply to inspire Your devotees. If someone takes Your
Vrndavana pastimes to be material, he will be misled.
"My dear Lord Krsna, those who deride You, claiming that You
have a material body like an ordinary man, are described in the
Bhagavad-gita as demoniac and less intelligent. You are always
transcendental. The nondevotees are cheated because they
consider You to be a material creation. Actually, You have
assumed this body, which exactly resembles that of an ordinary
cowherd boy, simply to increase the devotion and transcendental
bliss of Your devotees.
"My dear Lord, I have nothing to say about people who advertise
that they have already realized God or that by their
realization they have themselves become God. But as far as I am
concerned, I admit frankly that for me it is not possible to
realize You by my body, mind or speech. What can I say about
You, or how can I realize You by my senses? I cannot even think
of You perfectly with my mind, which is the master of the
senses. Your qualities, Your activities and Your body cannot be
conceived of by any person within this material world. Only by
Your mercy can one understand, to some extent, what You are. My
dear Lord, You are the Supreme Lord of all creation, although I
sometimes falsely think that I am the master of this universe.
I may be the master of this universe, but there are innumerable
universes, and there are also innumerable Brahmas who
preside over these universes. But actually You are the master
of them all. As the Supersoul in everyone's heart, You know
everything. Please, therefore, accept me as Your surrendered
servant. I hope that You will excuse me for committing the
great offense of disturbing You in Your pastimes with Your
friends and calves. Now if You will kindly allow me, I will
immediately leave so You can enjoy Your friends and calves
without my presence.
"My dear Lord Krsna, Your very name suggests that You are all-
attractive. The attraction of the sun and the moon are all due
to You. By the attraction of the sun, You are beautifying the
very existence of the Yadu dynasty. With the attraction of the
moon, You are enhancing the potency of the land, the demigods,
the brahmanas, the cows and the oceans. Because of Your supreme
attraction, demons like Kamsa and others are annihilated.
Therefore it is my deliberate conclusion that You are the only
worshipable Deity within the creation. Accept my humble
obeisances until the annihilation of this material world. As
long as there is sunshine within this material world, kindly
accept my humble obeisances."
In this way, Brahma, the master of this universe, after
offering humble and respectful obeisances unto the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and circumambulating Him three times,
was ready to return to his abode, known as Brahmaloka. By His
gesture, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gave him permission
to return.
As soon as Brahma left, Lord Sri Krsna immediately returned to
the bank of the Yamuna and rejoined His calves and cowherd
boyfriends, who were situated just as they had been on the very
day they had vanished. Krsna had left His friends on the bank
of the Yamuna while they were engaged in lunch, and although He
returned exactly one year later, the cowherd boys thought that
He had returned within a second. That is the way Krsna's
different energies act. It is stated in the Bhagavad-
gita that Krsna Himself is residing in everyone's heart, and He
causes both remembrance and forgetfulness. All living entities
are controlled by the supreme energy of the Lord, and sometimes
they remember and sometimes they forget their constitutional
position. His friends, being controlled in such a way, could
not understand that for one whole year they were absent from
the Yamuna's bank and were under the spell of Brahma's illusion.
When Krsna appeared before the boys, they thought, "Krsna has
returned within a minute." They began to laugh, thinking that
Krsna was not willing to leave their lunchtime company. They
were very jubilant and invited Him, "Dear friend Krsna, You
have come back so quickly! All right, we have not as yet begun
our lunch, not even taken one morsel of food. So please come
and join us, and let us eat together." Krsna smiled and
accepted their invitation, and He began to enjoy the lunchtime
company of His friends. While eating, Krsna was thinking, "
These boys believe that I have come back within a second, but
they do not know that for the last year I have been involved
with the mystic activities of Lord Brahma."
After finishing their lunch, Krsna and His friends and calves
began to return to their Vrajabhumi homes. While passing, they
enjoyed seeing the dead carcass of Aghasura in the shape of a
gigantic serpent. When Krsna returned home to Vrajabhumi, He
was seen by all the inhabitants of Vrndavana. He was wearing a
peacock feather in His helmet, which was also decorated with
forest flowers. Krsna was also garlanded with flowers and
painted with different colored minerals collected from the
caves of Govardhana Hill. Govardhana Hill is always famous for
supplying natural red oxides, and Krsna and His friends painted
their bodies with them. Each of them had a bugle made of
buffalo horn and a stick and a flute, and each called his
respective calves by their particular names. The cowherd boys
were so proud of Krsna's wonderful activities that, while
entering the village, they all sang His glories. All the gopis
in Vrndavana saw beautiful Krsna entering the village. The boys
composed nice songs describing how they were saved from being
swallowed by the great serpent and how the serpent was killed.
Some described Krsna as the son of Yasoda, and others as the
son of Nanda Maharaja. "He is so wonderful that He saved us
from the clutches of the great serpent and killed him," they
said. But little did they know that one year had passed since
the killing of Aghasura.
In this regard, Maharaja Pariksit asked Sukadeva Gosvami how
the inhabitants of Vrndavana suddenly developed so much love
for Krsna although He was not a member of any of their
families. Maharaja Pariksit inquired, "During the absence of
the original cowherd boys, when Krsna expanded Himself, why is
it that the boys' parents became more loving toward Him than
toward their own sons? Also, why did the cows become so loving
toward the calves, more than toward their own calves?"
Sukadeva Gosvami told Maharaja Pariksit that every living
entity is actually most attached to his own self. Outward
paraphernalia such as home, family, friends, country, society,
wealth, opulence and reputation are all only
secondary in pleasing the living entity. They please only
because they bring pleasure to the self. For this reason, one
is self-centered and is attached to his body and self more than
he is to relatives like wife, children and friends. If there
is some immediate danger to one's own person, he first of all
takes care of himself, then others. That is natural. That
means he loves his own self more than
anything else. The next important object of affection, after
his own self, is his material body. A person who has no
information of the spirit soul is very much attached to his
material body, so much so that even in old age he wants to
preserve the body in so many artificial ways, thinking that his
old and broken body can be saved. Everyone is working hard day
and night just to give pleasure to his own self, under either
the bodily or spiritual concept of life. We are attached to
material possessions because they give pleasure to the senses
or to the body. The attachment to the body is there only
because the "I," the spirit soul, is within the body. Similarly,
when one is further advanced, he knows that the spirit soul is
pleasing because it is part and parcel of Krsna. Ultimately, it
is Krsna who is pleasing and all-attractive. He is the
Supersoul of everything. And in order to give us this
information, Krsna descends and tells us that the all-
attractive center is He Himself. Without being an expansion of
Krsna, nothing can be attractive.
Whatever is attractive within the cosmic manifestation is due
to Krsna. Krsna is therefore the reservoir of all pleasure. The
active principle of everything is Krsna, and highly elevated
transcendentalists see everything in connection with Him. In
the Caitanya-caritamrta it is stated that a maha-
bhagavata, or highly advanced devotee, sees Krsna as the active
principle in all moving and nonmoving living entities.
Therefore he sees everything within this cosmic manifestation
in relation to Krsna. For the fortunate person who has taken
shelter of Krsna as everything, liberation is already there. He
is no longer in the material world. This is confirmed in
the Bhagavad-gita: Whoever is engaged in the devotional service
of Krsna is already on the brahma-bhuta, [SB 4.30.20] or
spiritual, platform. The very name Krsna suggests piety and
liberation. Anyone who takes shelter of the lotus feet of Krsna
enters the boat for crossing over the ocean of nescience. For
him, this vast expanse of the material manifestation becomes
as insignificant as the water in a calf's hoofprint. Krsna is
the shelter of all great souls, and He is also the shelter of
the material worlds. For one who is on the platform of Krsna
consciousness, Vaikuntha, or the spiritual world, is not far
away. He does not live within the material world, where there
is danger at every step.
In this way, Krsna consciousness was fully explained
to Maharaja Pariksit by Sukadeva Gosvami as
he recited to the King the statements and prayers of Lord
Brahma. These descriptions of Lord Krsna's pastimes with His
cowherd boys, His eating with them on the bank of the Yamuna,
and Lord Brahma's prayers unto Him are all transcendental
subject matters. Anyone who hears, recites or chants them
surely gets all his spiritual desires fulfilled. Thus Krsna's
childhood pastimes, His sporting with Balarama and the
cowherd boys in Vrndavana, were described.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Fourteenth Chapter
of Krsna, "Prayers Offered by Lord Brahma to Lord Krsna."
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