The best respect we can offer to our Creator is to have a calm body — dama, and a quiet mind — shama. Our scriptures sometimes compare how and where we are living to a Bhava-atavi. Atavi means a jungle and Bhava means to become. One who is always restless — “I have to do this. I have to become this. I have to hear this. I have to say this.” Do we feel the Bhava-atavi? How do we get out of such a jungle? Since it’s not a physical jungle, we are free, we can get up and go for a walk, drive to another province. Bhava-aushadhi is a tonic, a medicine that changes bhava to bhaava. Bhaava means feeling, love, being. The more one knows about Bhagavan, the more one comes to love Bhagavan.
Do we love Bhagavan more as we flow through Bhagavata? That is the Bhava-aushadhi that we are ingesting. This is the best form of self love. The more we love Bhagavan, we will know who Bhagavan is — us.
- The sixth section of Shrimad Bhagavata has a focus on Poshana or Grace. We all need help, and the grace and guidance in our lives is that poshana. When we feel help, we start to help ourselves more.
- The seventh section focuses on uti or blueprints or vasanas. When we start to develop and better ourselves, we find more weaknesses. We become frustrated, tired. Vasanas are heavy and not to be taken lightly.
- The eighth section focuses on sad-dharma or greatness. If we need to relieve ourselves of these heavy vasanas, we cannot just work hard, but have to work smart which is more intentionally, more meaningfully and carefully.
- In the ninth section, the focus is nasha or destruction of those vasanas. When we work smarter, we feel lighter. When we are engaged in some conflict, but we keep our mind quiet, don’t we feel good that we did not get sucked into that negativity?
- The tenth section focuses on Ashraya because though we feel lighter, we are still unable to feel completely light. We cannot do this by ourselves, even after working hard, working smart. We have to surrender and ask Bhagavan for help for ashraya.
Our bodies are beautiful outside, but underneath all that skin and hair, there is a lot of ugliness. Externally Bhagavan is beautiful and inside as well, there is just loveliness. If Bhagavan Krishna is handsome, that is what He is, but who He is, is even more beautiful. Why is Bhagavan Krishna coming to us? When there is minimum compromise in humanity, the guru shishya parampara, noble people can correct that compromise. When there is maximum compromise, that is when Bhagavan needs to actively correct that compromise.
Bhagavan Krishna assumed endless relationships throughout his life, as a son, as a brother. As we come to know His relationships, our sadhana or ashraya is for us to feel that the relationships we have are manifestations of Bhagavan Krishna as well. This is an ideal way to live, picturing all the relationships we have as Bhagavan Krishna.
Continuing with Skanda ten, after Bhagavan Brahma heard the plea and saw the tears in the eyes of Mother Earth, who had come in the form of a cow, they all went to the milky ocean, where Bhagavan Narayana is. Rishi Shaunaka is asking Rishi Ugrashava about the play of Bhagavan Krishna, and he says that the same question was asked by Raja Parikshita to Rishi Shuka. Raja Parikshita, says ‘I have not eaten or drunk anything since coming here and don’t feel hunger or thirst, as I’m drinking up the Amrita of your teachings.’
We earlier explored that Bhagavan Krishna manifested to correct Dantavaktra and Shishupala. Jaya and Vijaya had been cursed to be born as them. That is one reason. Another is that Mother Earth has come to feel that Asuras or those who are vicious, have disguised themselves as leaders of countries and kingdoms, and they spread their vices to humans, to animals, to plants and stones. Mother Earth is feeling that and is hurt and miserable. So she comes to Bhagavan Brahma saying she cannot take it anymore and that she is dying. Bhagavan Brahma says that he cannot help her, so they go to Bhagavan Vishnu.
Bhagavan Vishnu tells them what is going to happen. Vasudeva and his wife Devaki, just celebrated their Vivaha (marriage) and are going from the bride’s village to the groom’s village and they are being escorted on this chariot and the charioteer is her brother Kamsa. As he is escorting them, Kamsa hears this ethereal voice which says ‘You fool, the woman you are escorting right now, her eighth child is going to kill you’. As soon as Kamsa hears this he jumps off his chariot, and drags Devaki by her hair onto the ground and takes his sword out. That is when Vasudeva begins a discourse on life and death. He says, death is born with the body and he uses a lovely comparison where we go from body to body to body. Once we are established in one body, we let go of the previous body. Vasudeva says that we are all born and we are all going to die, so please let Devaki go and Kamsa listens to this discourse and lets Devaki go.
So Vasudeva and Devaki go home and later have a child called Kirthiman. After the birth of this first child, Vasudeva brings Kirthiman to Kamsa and says we made this agreement that if you let us go, we would bring you our child. So Kamsa looks at the child and says, “No worries, you can take him back”. Then Rishi Narada comes and tells Kamsa, ‘You fool, this is the Creator Who is going to be born of them and you are treating them so lightly?. You surely, are going to die.’ So Kamsa instinctively goes into rage mode. Someone who is imbalanced, keeps fluctuating like that. Then he puts Vasudeva and Devaki in prison in separate cells, and he murders those first six children. When Devaki is pregnant with her seventh child, Bhagavan Narayana tells “Maya’, His creative power or shakti to take the foetus that is in Devaki and place it in Vasudeva’s other wife, Rohini, who is living in Vrajbhumi, in a lovely cowherd settlement. The leader there is Nanda. Bhagavan Narayana tells Maya that when this foetus is moved, that child will be called Sankarshana — one who is taken away well. He will be known as Rama, the one who makes everyone laugh and be happy and he will be strong so he will be known as Balarama.
Bhagavan Narayana is narrating this to Bhagavan Brahma, Mother Earth and to us. When all this manifested, one thought Devaki had a miscarriage and her seventh child died naturally. So now the eighth child has to be born, and where is Bhagavan Narayana first born? He was born in the mind of Vasudeva, and when He entered his mind, Vasudeva became brilliant. Imagine an entity that glows in the dark, and now imagine an entire being that glows in the dark. And he felt that presence and he nurtured that presence into the mind of Devaki. They are in separate cells, so there is no physical contact. She nurtured this presence inside her, and she started shining, but since she was in prison, no one saw how she was shining. One day Kamsa goes to see his sister, and sees that she is shining and is so scared of her that everywhere he looks, all he sees is Bhagavan Krishna. This is Vairi bhakti when one treats God as one’s enemy and thinks of Him all the time. Bhagavan Narayana shares all of this with Bhagavan Brahma and Mother Earth, and knowing that He will be becoming in an unhindered way, they all go back to their own abodes fearlessly.
Vedanta — The opposite of fear is faith. Where there is fear, there is no faith. Where there is faith, there should be no fear. How do we become more faithful? — When we come to know Bhagavan, which is exactly what we are doing. We too should feel fearless like Bhagavan Brahma and Mother Earth did, after they came to know the intention of Bhagavan Narayana.
Now let us get ready for the birth of Bhagavan Krishna. There are 3 lines in the Tenth skanda — 3rd Chapter — 8th verse:
niśīthe tama-udbhūte
jāyamāne janārdane
devakyāṁ deva-rūpiṇyāṁ
viṣṇuḥ sarva-guhā-śayaḥ
The English translation of this section, where Rishi Shuka is explaining to Raja Parikshita what Bhagavan’s birth was like. We are Raja Parikshita and Rishi Shuka is speaking to us.
“Now came the most auspicious and favorable time, when the star Rohini was ascendant and all the other stars and planets were in a beneficent or favorable disposition. Peaceful silence reigned in all quarters. The stars were shining clearly in the sky. All the villages, cowherd settlements, mining quarries, saw the dawn of a prosperous era. The rivers flowed with placid water, and the tanks were full of lotus blossoms, the woodlands were resonant with the chirping of fluttering birds, and the buzzing of bees from trees and creepers heavy laden with flowers. Soft blew the breeze, dust free and fragrant and gently glowed the fires in the sacrificial fires of the holy. Except the minds of evil ones like Kamsa, the minds of all good humans felt peace within. In the heavens, the kettledrums of the celestial sounded announcing the imminent birth of the Lord who has no birth. The Kinnaras and Gandharvas said, Sidhas and Charanas hymn, the Vidyadharas and Apsaras joyously danced, the munis and devas showered flowers with delight and the clouds roared gently in tune with the ocean. At such a time, in the pitch darkness of midnight, Maha-Vishnu the resident in the hearts of all, was born of the divinely beautiful Devaki, like the full moon rising on the Eastern Horizon. Lotus eyed, four armed, sporting the conch, mace and other weapons, with the luminous Srivatsa mark on his chest and the shining Kaustuba on his neck, wearing a yellow cloth and possessed of the majesty and grace of a heavy rain cloud with locks gleaming with the lustre of a diadem, and earrings studded with precious stones, bedecked with splendorous ornaments like bracelets, armlets and waist girdle. Such was the luminous form of the unique child that greeted Vasudeva’s vision.”
Shri Krishna Chandra Bhagavan Ki Jai!
When Bhagavan Rama as a young man had gone to Mithila with his brother, Sri Lakshmana and Rishi Vishvamitra, as they went to see Devi Sita, many many of the devis in Mithila saw Bhagavan Rama and wished that they could be married to Him. Even if they were married, they still wanted to be married to Him. When Bhagavan Rama was in the jungle, He interacted with many Rishis and Sadhus in the forest and they wanted Bhagavan Rama to search for them the way He was searching for Devi Sita. When Devi Sita was in Rishi Valmiki ji’s ashram and Bhagavan Rama engaged in yajnas, He needed to have His spouse beside Him and since Devi Sita was still alive, He would create idols or murthis of Her to facilitate those yajnas. He created a new idol for every yajna and placed them in a room in a loving way, and one day when He went into that room, all the idols said — When will You feel that we are real? In Bhagavan Krishna’s life, those Devis of Mithila, Rishis of the jungle, the idols of Devi Sita, they all were reborn as Gopis and Gopas.
We are those Gopis and Gopas. Why wouldn’t we be, because we can’t dance in such a flexible way? Why can’t Vivekji be Ugrashava and we be Rishi Shaunaka? Our Veda has only two subjects — Dharma which is our responsibility and Brahma which is Joy. With Bhagavan Krishna’s birth, that is the birth of Joy. And when Joy is born, all becomes dharmik. When one is independently joyous, responsibilities are naturally fulfilled. This is Bhaava, when we feel in our mind the presence of that Joy, we will become the most dedicated, the most dynamic being. We are stuck in Bhava-atavi and we are freeing ourselves through Bhava-aushadhi. This feeling is called Bhaava.
Discussion: Who is Bhagavan Krishna to you?
Vivekji’s thoughts: Vivekji shared that he always remembers the phrase ‘hide and reveal’. It’s as if He is hiding. When our mind is quiet, He reveals Himself, but He was always revealed, but we are hiding Him for us. When we can see Him, that is a reminder that He is there.