Vivekji started with some insights from a recent Camp — Free from Frustration. Since we have limited opportunities for release, now that Gyms are closing, socialising is limited, travel to work is limited, and since we don’t know how to be introverted, we just feel frustration. Frustration is an effect of lack of control, and when that effect deepens, it becomes anger. The part of life which is a part of us that is most out of control is our mind. So three icons to help control the mind are:

1. Rope — Philosophy being to Concentrate that a rope is tied between our head and our hands. And our hands are the director, and wherever our hands go, our head should be there. This is short term.
2. QuickSand — Philosophically it means to Collaborate or ask for help. What is true about quicksand is that we cannot get out of it by ourselves. Saying Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namo Narayanaya are all ways of asking for help. This is mid-term.
3. Post Office — Philosophically it means Contemplate. At this time, everything that is coming into the Post Office is scrutinized. Our mind should be like the post office in that every thought that goes through our mind, we should know about it. We should be an Observer. The sublest ego is one that observes and not the one that separates or identifies. When we have a negative or disempowering thought, we should let that thought go. Anything that is virtuous or empowering, we should keep it in our mind. This is long-term.

Perspective is only defined as looking. However, whatever we are looking at, we tend to feel also. A perspective of flowing through Shrimad Bhagavata is Jnana. Our focus is then on creation — it emerges, exists and ends in the Creator. Our perspective from creation finally becomes the Creator. This perspective requires thus three levels of focus — the emergence, the existence and the ending of creation.

Another perspective is that of Bhakti. Herethe perspective is that — All Belongs to Bhagavan or the Creator. Then we just have to focus on the Creator and not get lost in creation. So All belongs to Bhagavan, and that includes yourself which means then there is nothing to renounce. Only if we don’t belong to Bhagavan, do we need to renounce X, Y, Z. And finally, the fulfillment of ‘All belongs to Bhagavan’ is ‘All is Bhagavan’.

Right now, in Bhagavata, we are immersed in Bhagavan Krishna’s leela. All that Bhagavan Krishna did, does, is doing, is most intentional. When He teased the Gopis, it was so they would look at Him more. If we look at Him more, we will feel Him more. Lose ourselves more, that is Bhakti.

10:9:12 — Rishi Shuka is sharing with Raja Parikshita or sharing with us the intention or naughtiness of Bhagavan Krishna. Devi Yashoda has a stick in her hand, and is about to punish Bhagavan Krshna. And what does Bhagavan Krishna do? He starts to feel fear and starts to cry. So she puts the stick down and thinks of an alternate way to punish Him.

Devi Yashoda is home and churning milk and singing Bhagavan’s name. And Bhagavan Krshna, watching her, crawls into her lap with a hungry look so she starts to nurse Him. While this is happening, she is also boiling milk, which starts to boil over so she puts Bhagavan down on the ground to attend to the milk. So Bhagavan is frustrated and angry and He breaks the vessel that she is making butter in and starts crying more, the kajal in His eyes dripping down His face. But none of it is real as it is just Him being naughty or His leela. Then he runs outside and climbs on top of a mortar and pestle. Devi Yashoda comes outside and is also frustrated and angry. So she goes to get a rope to try to tie Bhagavan Krshna to that mortar. It was a big rope, but the rope is two fingers short. So she gets more rope to extend it, but again it is two fingers short. So she goes inside and outside again and again and again until there is nothing left in her home to extend this rope and her peers are watching this and laughing. And when she has no more rope, she too starts laughing. Then Bhagavan Krshna starts laughing and allows himself to be tied to that mortar.

She goes back inside to tend to her work, and Bhagavan Krshna is tied to this larger mortar. Then He starts to crawl and jump and in doing so, this mortar gets stuck between two Arjuna trees which are large and strong. He pulls the mortar through them and the trees fall. Then everyone comes running and the kids watching tell them that Bhagavan Krshna did this, but all the adults dismiss what is said.

Vedanta: Raja Ambarisha is known as a Maha Bhagavata just like Rishi Prahlada. A Maha Bhagavata is one whose every action, word and thought is directed towards Bhagavan. Bhagavan then starts to flow through them and starts to do their work. And in Raja Ambarisha’s case, Bhagavan Narayana had given him the protection of the Sudarshana Chakra. What that Chakra was doing was fulfilling Raja Ambrisha’s responsibilities as a King and a husband so that all of his resources could be devoted to Bhagavan.

• Devi Yashoda similarly was able to do so much work as she was always singing while she was churning, laughing when things didn’t go her way. If we choose Bhagavan, we will become more efficient, effective and enlightened. So her singing while she was working is very vedantic.
  
• When the milk is boiling, she puts Bhagavan Krshna down. What is the point of Bhakti? It is to be with Bhagavan. So her putting Bhagavan on the ground was the becoming or the postponing. The fulfillment of our life is to be with Bhagavan, not to focus on that which is inert. Bhagavan is sentient, our Spirit is sentient, and everything that is Not Bhagavan or our Spirit is inert. Actually that is not even a priority. When we are in nature and being happy in that moment, what do we want to do in that experience? Nothing, right? Why do we need to become something else in that experience? Keep being.
  
• What is the significance of the two finger gap in the rope that Shri Yashoda was trying to tie around Bhagavan Krshna? Two is a sign of dvaita or plurality. Finally, Shri Yashoda surrenders that dvaita and this is shown by her laughing and in that laughing, Bhagavan Krshna allows Himself to be tied. And Him having a rope around his waist, is where one of His popular names comes from — Damodara, literally meaning One who has a rope tied around His stomach. The vedantic meaning is — Dama-Udara, meaning to have a calm and a controlled body. So if we want to tie Bhagavan Krshna, we have to be Dama-Udara, meaning have a calm or controlled body. The one who cannot control their propensity for taste and sex is like a dog.
  
• It is shared that the Arjuna trees were the two sons of Kubera who were cursed by Rishi Narada. But what is built into a shaap (curse) is a ushaap or a blessing. Kubera’s sons were touched by Bhagavan Krshna. So even though they were cursed to become trees, they were blessed by the touch of God or Infinity.
  
• The last Vedantic insight is when the trees were brought down by Bhagavan Krshna, the adults dismissed the story of the kids. This is a sign or indication of lack of trust in Bhagavan. Do we follow everything that Bhagavan said in the Bhagavad Gita? Are we focusing on the effort and not the result? Satyam Param Dhimahi — that most of our thoughts should be going towards the truth — are we dismissing that or trusting that?

10:11:36 — Rishi Shuka is telling Raja Parikshita about how Bhagavan Krshna and His family and friends shifted from Gokula to Vrindavana. Vrindavana is a most pleasant place with the Govardana Parvata, a hill, and the Yamuna river which is beautiful and pure. Everyone revelled in Vrindavana. The reason they left Gokula is that they felt that it was cursed. Putana, Shakata, Trinaavarta came and now these trees came crashing. They thought they needed to shift their context, and started moving towards Vrindavana.

And as they are leaving, there is a beautiful, last memory of Bhagavan Krshna. There was a Devi in Gokula who sold fruits, and every time she passed by, little Bhagavan Krshna would take a handful of grains and run to the fruit seller. In His excitement, He would open His hands and most of the grain would fall on the ground and by the time He would reach her, there would only be one grain in each hand. This Devi was so great that she would fill up His small little hands with as much fruit as He could hold, and every time she checked her money purse, she would find so many jewels there. It was almost as if for every fruit she gave she got a jewel back, but it wasn’t for an exchange. It just happened like that.

Now they are all living in Vrindavana and Bhagavan Krshna is getting older. He is old enough to not just play with the cows, but to also tend to them. So one day, as they were tending to these cows, Vatsa asura arrives there in the form of a calf, and this Vatsa Asura is trying to come closer and closer to Bhagavan Krshna to hurt Him, bite Him, kick Him and kill him. When he got close enough to lift his legs to kick Bhagavan Krshna, Bhagavan held the legs and started spinning this Asura around and destroyed him. And all the Gopis and Gopas were astounded as they didn’t realise that this was an Asura, but not astounded because they trusted Bhagavan Krshna. They were with Bhagavan.

Vedanta:

• The adults decide to leave Gokula to go to Vrindavana. What this shows is that we give more power to context than content. Context goes with you. If you are a cranky person, you can go to an all-inclusive resort paid by someone else in the Mayan Riviera and still find deficiency in that experience. If we have quietude of mind, then we are happy. We should always invest in our content as that decides our context.
  
• Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem about this Devi selling fruit. He personifies the person who is struggling. “I’m walking in the desert and I’m dying. I’m dying out of hunger and thirst. And I’m thinking about You (the Creator). And all of a sudden, I see a shine in the distance and as the shining comes closer, I see a horse. And I see a king and feel to myself that all of my problems are clear now. And when that horse and King stop in front of me, I’m waiting for them to offer water and food and wealth and instead, that king extends his bare hands and says, “What do you have for me?”. And I reach into my pouch of belongings and find the smallest kernel of corn and place that into his hand reluctantly, with frustration. He holds it tightly, puts it near his heart and takes off. When I finally arrive home, angry and bitter, I dump out the contents of my sack and find a piece of gold the exact size of that kernel of corn and I curse myself for having given so little.” We give a little bit and Bhagavan multiplies it by a Sahasranama or a thousand. If you see Bhagavan Krshna, it was His intention to give everything to her and she reciprocated that.
  
• Now about Vrindavana. Nature is most natural. Nature is Being. And this is why Vrindavana, Govardana, Yamuna are described as Just Being. So try to be in nature more. Where is Vrindavana? It is wherever we want it to be. We should try to Be in Nature.
  
• Vatsa Asura is the icon for Attachment. Logic of this is that we tend to project Shobha, Sukha, Sampurna. Shoba means beauty, Sukha means easy going, and Sampurna means completion. We have a vasana to project onto articles, beings and circumstances — beauty and pleasure. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nothing is intrinsically pleasurable. And Sampurna is completion, and we feel that if we have this, we will be complete. When we project these three S’s, we naturally become attached to that entity. That is why this Asura came as a Vatsa — beautiful, pleasurable — as in this calf won’t hurt me, and completion with the feeling that we will be complete being close to this calf. This attachment can also be looked at as identification. When we identify with an article, being, circumstance or even our own body, we lose objectivity. Identity causes us to lose objectivity and this in turn makes us lose our ability for Vichara. We don’t inquire into that ABC or how we feel. Only Bhagavan Krshna knew that this calf was an Asura as everyone else was projecting the greatness of that calf. When we do not engage in Vichara, we become possessive — attachment, identity, possessiveness. When that possessiveness tries to kick us, we should hold onto Bhagavan and Bhagavan Krshna will get rid of that possessiveness.

Notes by Prashanti Gogineni