Vasudeva said: My Lord, You are the Supreme Person, beyond material existence, and you are the Super soul. Your form can be perceived by transcendental knowledge, by which you can be understood as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I now understand your position perfectly.
Within Vasudeva’s heart, affection for his son and knowledge of the Supreme Lord’s transcendental nature both awakened. In the beginning Vasudeva thought, “Such a beautiful child has been born, but now Kaḿsa will come and kill Him.” But when he understood that this was not an ordinary child but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he became fearless. Regarding his son as the Supreme Lord, wonderful in everything, he began offering prayers appropriate for the Supreme Lord completely free from fear of Kaḿsa’s atrocities, he accepted the child simultaneously as an object of affection and as an object of worship by prayers.
Vasudev and Devaki such exalted unmotivated devotees of the Lord for the sake of showing compassion to the human race and for the sake of giving pleasure to Krsna, the Supreme Lord and only object of their true affection, they were willing to undergo such unimaginable forms of difficulties. One may ask that after that prophecy came from that sky that the eighth son of Vasudev would be the cause of death of Kamsa that atrocious king and dictator and after Kamsa imprisoned Vasudev and Devaki where they had no way to run and nowhere to hide and after they saw how each son one after another right before their eyes was smashed against the rock by Kamsa until it was mercilessly slaughtered. Why did they continue to have children? We know the body of an infant child how frail and soft and delicate every limb is and yet Kamsa he had this strength of 10,000 elephants, Kamsa was so powerful that he traveled throughout the universe and he challenged every demon, this is described in Garga Samhita, he went to each and every demon’s abode and challenged them that “if you cannot me defeat in battle you must surrender and be my obedient servant to the day you die”. And he was so powerful that with his strong arms he absolutely defeated every one of the demon, Agasura, Putana, Bowmasura, all the demons until they were just at the verge of death and when he was about to take their life from them, he made them make a vow that they would obediently serve him and give their life for him on all cause. Thus he became the king of all the demons in the universe and he conquered even the demigods, such a powerful person, so cruel and yet an innocent infant child just born who hasn’t even hardly sucked the milk from his mother he would with all his strength dash them against the rock until they were dead. Now you know a mother and father how attached they are to their baby children. Generally when a mother is in her maternity and the nurse or the midwives or the doctors are around, her husband is just pacing back and forth worrying like anything, “what will it be, will it live, and will it be alright”. Such an attachment is natural. And for the mother, the mother when she sees that little child it is the object of all of her affection that is natural. And the first child Kirtiman was slaughtered before their eyes, why do they have another child, when they knew it would attain same destiny and another and another. Because they understood in their heart of hearts that the Supreme Personality of Godhead was going to appear as their eighth son, they understood that the Lord would destroy Kamsa and thus ultimately free all living entities from the pains of persecution and injustice. So for the sake of bringing Krsna into the world they were willing to endure prison, persecution and the death of their own children. It was because they were willing to make such a sacrifice of their own interest for Krsna’s pleasure that Krsna chose to appear within their lives. Krsna took birth from them because of this qualification. And similarly when we are willing to make such a selfless sacrifice in our own way for the pleasure of the Lord, Krsna will also take birth from our hearts and he will appear in his most beautiful and wonderful divine form before us.
It is explained here that when Krsna appeared, he didn’t appear like an ordinary child, after six children were killed, we will discuss that on Sunday evening, the mystery of those six children, then the seventh child was Lord Balaram, we discussed last week on Balaramji’s appearance day. Balaramji appeared within the womb of Devaki and by the potency of Yoga Maya He appeared in the womb of Devaki, he was transferred to the womb of Rohini in Gokula and thus he appeared just after Krsna appeared in Mathura but when he appeared, he simply manifested from inside of the womb to the outside of the womb in His beautiful majestic Vaikunta form of Lord Narayan. He was wearing beautiful golden helmet and loving flower garlands with beautiful buzzing bees swarming around it, He had the Vaidurya stone on a golden necklace. He was bedecked with all sorts of golden jewelry, armlets, ankle bells. He had a beautiful Dhoti that was dazzling the color of lightning. He had Srivats marking His wonderous chest and His beautiful lotus eyes, and transcendental smiling face glanced upon the forms of Vasudev and Devaki. When He infinite light to the darkness of that prison at midnight. And the whole material nature which is acting on Krsna’s direction began to rejoice and celebrate the appearance of the Lord. It is explained that generally the Lotus flowers and other flowers they bud during the day time and they close at night but although Krsna appeared at midnight in the entire universe every single flower of every origin began to blossom like it never blossom before in the midnight hour. And although He appeared during the rainy season, it is explained that at that time all the weather became just like spring just not too hot, not too cold, fragrant, delightful scented breezes and it is explained that although Krsna appeared the eighth day of the moon, Astami. The moon appeared more full that it had ever been seen before. How is that? Because Krsna appeared in the Yadu dynasty who the original king of the Yadu dynasty is the Soma, the moon god, so to celebrate this great occasion that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has appearing within his dynasty, Soma, he appeared miraculously in his four form just to give beautiful benevolent rays of moon light to celebrate the occasion of Krsna’s appearance.
And Vasudev upon seeing his beautiful form of the Lord, it is explained here, he became fearless. Srila Prabhupad says- completely free from fear of Kamsa’s atrocities, he accepted the child simultaneously as an object of affection and as an object of worship by prayers.
Krsna sürya-sama mäyä haya andhakära yähän krsna, tähän nähi mäyära adhikära
That where there is Krsna there could be no darkness because Krsna is like the Sun and Maya is like the darkness of night. Fear is the prevalent misery of this world. There are four basic human tendencies which are also the tendencies of the lower species the animals, eating, sleeping, mating and fearing (defending). But of the four defending is most prominent because it is underlying all the others, it is the underlying misery that is all pervading within this material existence, practically whatever we do is motivated by fear of one form or another in this world. (Just like we are fearing that this microphone is not working properly). Material existence has entered this little). There is saying that you can tell where a person’s heart is by where he puts his money. Where is most of the money put in of every country in the world? Into defense, to building armies, building bombs and there are so many big, big hospitals being built. They are built because we fear disease and pain and most of the reason why people work today is not because they enjoy their work, they work because they fear that if they don’t work, they will suffer from starvation or no home from social disgrace and people the prime motivating force of marriage is fear of loneliness. If we really go down to the essence of all we do in the material sense fear is like an all pervading underlying element. We fear pain, we fear dishonor, we fear failure. We fear growing old, we fear getting diseased, we fear ultimately death. But however much we fear, we know it is coming, it may be coming slowly, it may be coming quickly, none of us know. But one realization that material nature gives us is the older we get the more we could feel the death is approaching quickly. And it is the great fear. How to overcome this fear? First we must understand the nature of fear, that fear is based on illusion because ultimately what is there to fear, there is no such thing as death, because as far as the body is concerned the body is just constituted by various material elements and chemicals and science has just discovered and the Shastras also have explained that matter cannot be destroyed it is transformed from one appearance to another, so your body is never dead in one sense it is always dead, because that has no consciousness but the elements of the body are never destroyed, they are just changed. Every seven years it is said that all the cells of your body have changed so that means you are constantly in the process of dying from that point of view, transformation. And at the time of death what happens to the cells and the chemicals of this body, if your body is buried, it doesn’t get destroyed, it just becomes transformed into earth and if is burnt it is transformed into ashes and it is fed to the vultures it is transformed into vulture stool or jackals stool, depending on circumstances, fish stool, yes, and as far as the soul, Krsna says in Gita:
– for the soul there is neither birth or death, nor does it have ever been or it ever ceased to be, the soul is birth less, deathless, it is primeval, immortal, it is not slain when the body is slain, it cannot be cut into pieces by any weapon, they cannot be withered by the wind, they cannot be burned by the fire, it is transcendental, it cannot be destroyed. So what is death? When the eternal, immortal soul identifies this body to be the self, the inevitable transformation of the energy of this body is feared because we think we are being lost. But actually it is just material nature in action and the soul is just observing it, what is there to fear? Nothing. But the illusion: Janasya mohaya maham a meti, that I am this body, that I am this mind and those things in relationship to this body and mind are mine that illusion is the root cause of all fear.
But Krsna, He is the light that dispels that illusion. And dispels all fear, all sufferings, all pain and brings about an awakening of all auspiciousness. Just as Krsna took birth in the darkness of midnight in a prison cell during the rainy season the most difficult times in the difficult place but when he appeared everything became full of light, the Brahmans who were not allowed to perform any sacrifice for a matter of years because Kamsa would not allow it, they were in complete anxiety because they could do no seva for humanity due to Kamsa’s atrocities. When Krsna appeared their sacrificial fires lit and their hearts became peaceful, they didn’t have to do anything separate, simply Krsna’s appearance makes everything auspicious.
And similarly, it is explained by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Srimad Bhagavat – kali kale nama rupe Krsna avatar – that Krsna appeared in the Dvapara Yuga as the beautiful son of Devaki and Vasudev – Devakinandana, later Yasoda nandana, Nanda nandana. But in this Kali Yuga the Lord appears within the sound vibration of His Holy name.
And in the Holy name of Krsna all the power and the glory all the opulences of Krsna are present. All of the beauty and the sweetness that Krsna revealed in His divine Lila is present within His name. All of the power and strength to protect the devotees is contained within His name, all of the wealth and fortune that Krsna manifested in Dwaraka, in Vaikunta and beyond is within His name. All of the knowledge that Krsna spoke in Bhagavad Gita and in all Vedic Shastras are fully contained within the sound of His name, all of the renunciation, all of the qualities of detachment from the sources of misery in this world are contained within the name of Krsna.
aishwaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasaha sriyaha jnanaha vairagyasya caiva shannaama bhaga itingana
And Krsna is appearing within his name but why when we chant the Holy names of the Lord, we are not freed from all fears, we are not experiencing the sublime and divine awakening that Vasudev experienced. Vasudev explains in his lecture or in his prayers to the Lord that: Krsna it is not really surprising that you have appeared in this jail cell because actually you are everywhere. Someone may ask how is that God the Supreme Absolute Truth, the cause of all causes, the source of everything appeared within the womb of a woman but the fact is He is in the womb of everyone, He is also within the every hair on your head, He is within every atom and between every atom, Krsna is personally present. The expansion of Kshirodaksayi Vishnu, the Paramatma is everywhere, is all pervading personally. So what is the difficult for Krsna, He is simply manifesting Himself to our vision. But Krsna reveals Himself only to those who have devotion.
For one’s whose eyes are decorated with the cosmetic of pure devotion. Krsna in his beautiful form of Shyamsundar can be seen can be worshipped and can be loved with all one’s heart and all one’s soul. But it is also said:
Because whatever condition one may be in material conditioning, Krsna is so pure that He purifies us if we simply remember Him. When we chant the Holy name of the Lord attentively in the mood of service and humility we remember Krsna and to the degree we are in that mood of service to that degree we can remember Krsna with quality and as we remember Krsna gradually we become purified, until that day will come when we can understand Rupa Gosvami’s sublime prayer that: I do not understand, I cannot fathom, the Supreme glory of the Holy name of Krsna, when those two syllables Krsna, when they dance upon my tongue, the sweetness is so unlimitedly satisfying and insatiable that I desire many, many, many tongues to taste it. And when that name enters into the holes of my ears, I desire millions and billions and trillions and quadrillions I desire infinite ears, so I could just drink through aural reception the unlimited sweet taste of Krsna and when that name enters into the courtyard of my heart, it conquers my mind and my senses, they become emerged to any material desire, they spontaneously simply surrender at His Lotus feet. Krsna has appeared within His name by His causeless divine mercy just as he appeared within the prison cell of Kamsa, He is appearing within the now prison cell of our heart because factually our heart is like a prison cell. The soul is eternally free and liberated but our heart is imprisoned by the ahankar in all direction it is surrounded by the bars of ahankar. By the bars and the chains of lust, attachment, greed, pride, envy and illusion, our heart is like a prison house for the soul. But when we sincerely chant his Holy name, He appears and He frees us, frees us from the shackle of birth and death, gives light in the darkness of our lives, liberates us from all fears and gives us the loving service of His devotees. So this Krsna Consciousness movement is the movement which brings about the awakening of Krsna Consciousness within our hearts, it gives us all the opportunity to be part of Krsna’s transcendental pastimes –
Krsna says that the of nature His appearance and activities in this world are transcendental. So let us allow Krsna to take birth within our own hearts, within our own minds, our own lives by very, very carefully and strictly following the principles of Krsna Consciousness, by making sacrifice for the benefit of others, by preaching Krsna Consciousness and by chanting his Holy names, this is the perfection of human existence. Thank you very much. Loudly and sincerely chant his holy name
These devotees like to chant His names.
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