Alas how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He, Who granted the position of a mother a she demon Putna, although she was unfaithful, and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from  her breast

aho baki yam stana-kala-kutam

jighamsayayad apy asadhvi

lebhe gatim dhatry-ucitam tato nyam

kam va dayalum sarnam vrajema

PURPORT

Here is an example of the extreme mercy of the Lord, even to His enemy. It is said that a noble man accept the good qualities of a person of a doubtful character, just as one accepts nectar from stock of poison.  In His babyhood, He was administered deadly poison by Putna, a she- demon, who try to kill the wonderful baby. And because she was a demon, it was impossible for her to know that the Supreme Lord, even though playing the part of baby, was no one less than the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. His value as the Supreme Lord did not diminishes upon His becoming a baby to please His devotees Yasoda. The Lord may assume the form of a baby or shape other than that of human being, but it does not make the slightest difference, He has always the same Supreme. A living creature, however powerful, he may become by dint of severe penance can never become equal to the Supreme Lord.

Lord Krsna accepted the motherhood of Putana, because she pretended to be a affectionate mother, allowing Krsna to suck her breast. The Lord accepts the least qualification of the living entity and awards him the highest reward. That is the standard of His character Therefore, who but the Lord can be the ultimate shelter?

Radhanath Swami describes how Krishna is Supremely Merciful

Uddhava, the dear most friend of Lord Sri Krsna, of Yadu dynasty of Dwarka, in the ecstasy of transcendental separation from the Lord, is herein remembering Lord Sri Krsna, in the association of another great paramhamsa Vaisnava Vidura. When two great sincere devotees come together, naturally the most auspicious topics of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are shared amongst them.

mac-cittä mad-gata-präëä

bodhayantaù parasparam

kathayantaç ca mäà nityaà

tuñyanti ca ramanti ca (BG 10.9)

When the devotees come together they take great joy, in describing, the wonderful character, qualities, pastimes,  and names of the Supreme Lord.  This is the treasure of the hearts of all Vaisnavas, to hear & to chant the glories of Krsna.

And in the mood of separation, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has taught the most intensified and sweetest manifestation of Krsna comes into our heart. And in the same way, the six Gosvami of Vraja experienced and revealed to the world love of Krsna in the mood of separation. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we find in the pages Udhava enraptured  in separation from Krsna  associating with the Lord  from the core of his heart, in that spirit of loving remembrance. He is remembering, that beautiful leela, which took place in Sri Gokul Mahavana, where Krsna was appearing on this earth in the form of apparently helpless infant child. Kamsa understood, that the child that was meant to be the cause of his destruction, had been born somewhere. Due to evil association his mind became so perverted. Due to his egoistic attachment to this temporary life, he began to perform the cruelest, most inhuman activities. He ordered that, every baby child be killed.

 

Radhanath Swami cites the Deliverance of the Witch Putana

Putana was the sister of Bakasura. She was a mystic Yogi, but unfortunately she used her powers for the purpose of causing sorrow to others. She had the power to assume any form she so desired.  She was a witch, and her business was to kill baby children as a raksasi, she would take great pleasure in drinking their blood.

So she had assumed a form, which was so beautiful that she looked like a celestial maiden, a goddess, and when she came to mahavana, the resident of Vraja thought she was a very, very special person, who had come to give blessings to the newly born child, Gopal, because she looked so very special in her charming appearance. She was given, unrestricted entrance into the inner chamber of Mother Yashoda’s home. And there she saw the little infant Krsna resplendent with all   transcendental beauty, in-fact the very source and reservoir all beauty that exists.

When Putana saw baby Gopal she understood that this is a special child, perhaps the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  But in her delusion, although so very attractive, according to her propensity, she still has the conviction that she had the power to kill Him. She had smeared her breast with such a deadly type of poison that was sufficient to kill thousands of grown-up men.

When Krsna looked at her, it is explained, He closed His eyes, and the Acarya explains in various ways why, may be, He closed His eyes. One is that he was just little baby, so it was natural that He was not yet able to properly see.  Another is: He descended in this world, vinäçäya ca duñkåtäm, to annihilate the demons. The demigods had called Him, headed by Lord Brahma, that the burden of the earth is too much. In-fact bhumidevi herself in the form a cow with tears in her eyes was pleading with the Lord, “Please descend. The burden of demoniac forces is causing so many calamities to everyone. And these demoniac rakshasas are so powerful, even the gods in the heavens cannot check their activities. Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself could protect us.”

So Krsna came to annihilate demons, and this was going to be His inauguration of demon killing in this particular incarnation. The first demon to be slain by the original Personality of Godhead when He appears in Gokul and the demon was a woman.

According to the sastra old people, women are not to be killed but He understood that beyond all such moral principles the protection of His devotees and establishment of dharma must be done. So He pretended to be an innocent child.  And Putna, in the mood, at least pretending to be in the mood of His own mother, lifted the child and put Him on her lap. She had the Supreme Personality of Godhead in her own arms. Just see what her good fortune was.

As aspiring devotees, we are performing so many austerities, giving up so many things that everyone in this world is trying to enjoy, chanting so many mantra, engaging in so much puja, just with the hope that someday, sometime Krsna will be pleased upon us.  And award us the pure unalloyed service of His devotees.

But Putna, she had Krsna whose body was like nectar as it is explained, and when the Gopis held Krsna in His baby form in their arms, His body was soft like butter. Just the touch of Him filled them in ecstasy. Just the sight of Him filled their hearts with infinite love. Putna had that same child in her arms. But because of her evil intentions, she could not experience anything but envy. ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàs tathaiva bhajämy aham: [Bg. 4.11]  As we approach Krsna, He rewards us accordingly.

Srila Prabhupada said Krsna is non-different than deity, if you approach the deity as a piece of wood, or stone, the deity will reveal Himself  to you as a piece of wood or stone. But if with great humility and sincerity, you approach the deity with the desire to please and serve, Krsna will reveal Himself, as the all level, all beautiful reservoirs of all sweet qualities, the Personality of Godhead, and fill your heart with transcendental love.

Similarly Krsna and His name. If we approach the holy name in a mood of being the humble servant of the servant of the servant, Krsna will reveal Himself through His name as the all attractive source of all bliss. But if we approach the holy name, as an ordinary sound vibration, we will hardly hear anything but ordinary sound vibrations through the name.

So Putana placed that most evil and deadly weapon in the form of a poison breast in the mouth of child Gopal. And Krsna being merciful to everyone Krsna says ‘I am equal to everyone. I have no envy. As you approach Me, I will reward you. So Krsna very lovingly began to suck her breast and as He sucked, a wonderful thing happened, He drank her milk. And then He drank the poison. And then He began to drink her very life force from her body. And as her life force was being dragged from her, she became too much inflicted with pain and suffering and fear. It was a terrible type of purification she was going through from her point of view.

And with all of her power she was trying to pull Krsna away from her. But Krsna effortlessly like a little baby, was just enjoying, drinking, and just holding on.  And soon she could no longer maintain her disguise and she assumed her original form which was eight miles in size. First she ran out of the  house of mother Yasoda, then she assumed massive gigantic raksasi form,  hideous to see, and with these gigantic hands, she was pulling Krsna. But Krsna  went on sucking, and sucking and sucking. She was crying out, screaming, “leave me child, leave me” and she fell to the to ground like  an earthquake. And there Krsna sucked the last trace of life from that body.

And the resident of Vrndavana saw this; they were shocked, they were amazed. Her belly looked like huge dried up lake, her fingers like bridges, and her breast like mountains. And Krsna was still just crawling around, effortlessly. Although all the resident of Vrndavana were in great fear, Krsna, so innocently was picked up by them. And they all began to think that Krsna He has been saved by the Supreme Lord. It must be because of our pious activities and then mother Yasoda began to perform various rituals to protect Him, by putting the cow dung and cow urine on various part of His body. And rubbing various auspicious ingredients with the tail of a cow, the cow is so sacred that everything coming from the body of a cow is all auspicious and invokes good fortune.  And Krsna, He enjoys very much, being bathed by the gifts that mother cow offers, whatever it may be.

Uddhava is remembering, ‘what is the extent of the causeless mercy of Lord Krsna that she came to kill Him  but because she assumed the form of a mother, Krsna only saw that. She was purified of all her evilness and went through some suffering due to that, for a few moments, but because she died in the very presence of Supreme Personality of Godhead in the mood of being His mother. Krsna accepted her as mother and He sent her back to the spiritual world to be the personal assistance of mother Yasoda in nursing Krsna. She achieved the form of liberation which only the greatest paramhamsa pure devotees can ever hope to expect, to be the mother of Lord eternally in the spiritual world.

What other manifestation of godhead and what other religious system has ever manifested such infinite causeless mercy.  Srila Prabhupada explains that the nature of the noble person is they always see the good qualities in anyone, however bad they may be. The quality of ignoble person is that they are always looking for the bad qualities in others, however good they may be. The fly is always seeking for the poison and abominable substance. And honeybee is always seeking the nectar. So we should learn very carefully from this example. We should always be looking and searching for the good qualities in everyone, even in our enemies. If you associate with good qualities, you develop good qualities. If you associate with anyone’s bad qualities by thinking about them, by speaking about them, and by that association, you will become endowed with all bad qualities.

And we see a person who is accustomed to finding faults, especially with Vaisnavas, such a person is generally, full of bad qualities, ‘black heart’. And a person, who is always looking for the good qualities in others even though they may have so many faults, because he is looking for the good qualities and speaking of the good qualities, such a person’s heart is like fresh lotus flower, with nectar, always giving pleasure to the Lord and to his very soul.

So Krsna, He is the Supreme embodiment of all good qualities. Even Lord Jesus Christ, when he was asked by the people around him about ‘what is love?”,  he said, “ It doesn’t take much for someone to love  his friends.  But if you want to love God, you have to also love your enemy. You have to see the Godliness even in your enemy. We can hate the disease but we should love the person as our own brother or sister, who may be infected by that disease, whatever it may be.

But Krsna as the reservoir of all opulence is herein manifesting the supreme degree of nobility and causeless mercy. And Udhava is ecstatically thinking in remembrance of this wonderful pastime. And this pastime is also very, very important. In fact this very verse is very important to the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu because it appears in Sri Caitanya Bhagavata and this particular verse manifested the most extreme ecstasy of love in one of Lord Caitanya’s most intimate and confidential associates.

Radhanath Swami Narrates the Pastime of Pundarika Vidyanidhi

One day, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was with His associates shortly after beginning harinama sankirtana movement in Sri Navadvip dham, was calling out, “Pundrik, Pundrik” in ecstatic love with tears filling His eyes. And the devotees were wondering, “Is He calling out the name of Krsna?, Is He calling out the name of someone we do not know?”. He explained, “soon a great person will be coming. You may not recognize him. But I am longing to see him.”

So Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, he came from the village which is now in east Bengal, Chittagong area. He was a very wealthy man. He would sometimes come to Navdvipa where he had a nice little house near the bank of the Ganges. Pundrik Vidhyanidhi was a great devotee of Mother Ganges. He worshipped her because he understood that she was emanating from the lotus feet of his beloved Lord Sri Krsna and she was very nectarine ambrosial flow of pure bhakti coming to this world to bestow bhakti upon all those who are fortunate to receive from her.

So Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, when he would see people in the Ganges washing their clothes and spitting and doing all these other things, he could not tolerate that. He would never go to the Ganges during the day when people were, in his eyes, acting so disrespectful to her. It would simply break his heart. So he would come very, very early morning of the hours and he would offers his loving obeisance to Mother Ganga and sip her water with great reverence and devotion and love.

When Pundrik Vidhyanidhi came to Navadvip, nobody knew who he was, but Mukund Dutta as he was from the same area where Pundrik Vidyanidhi came from. So one day he told to Gadadhara, (they both were very young devotees), He said “Gadadhara Pandit, please come with me. There is a very, very great devotee, a pure Vaisnava. I would like you to meet Him.” And Gadadhara was always anxious to meet pure Vaisnavas. So he said, “yes, let us meet.”

So they came in to the house and Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, with great affection, humility greeted them. He offered them nice place to sit and served with very sweet hospitality. Mukund Dutta introduced Gadadhara Pandit and sweet words were exchanged but Gadadhara pandit became confused. Because although he was being introduced to such a great Vaisnava,Gadadhara Pandit was so detached from everything of this material world, and Pundrik Vidhyanidhi’s house was very opulent, quite luxurious, with all sorts of decorations. He was sitting on a very, very soft luxurious sitting place, nice pillows and canopy. And there were little gold, silver and brass boxes with various spices for him to chew and some one was fanning him, with nice camara and peacock fans. And he was wearing very, very costly silken clothes that only a very worldly person would want to wear and he had nice jewelry decorating himself.  And he had very, very beautiful hairs that were anointed with fine scented perfumed oils, and like this there were mirror around him and he was very handsome. He was the very embodiment of beauty.

And Gadadhara Pandit was thinking, what kind of Vaisnava will possibly live in such vanity, in such luxury. I do not understand why Mukund Dutta has brought me to this place. Now Mukund Dutta he understood the heart of Gadadhara Pandit. It is the nature of a great devotee to be very sensitive to the hearts and feeling of others. So he wanted to reveal to Gadadhara Pandit, what is the glory of the pure bhakti of Pundrik Vidhyanidhi?

So, he began to chant this particular verse as Udhava recites to Vidhura in Srimad-Bhagavatam: Alas how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He Who granted the position of a mother to a she-demon Putana although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast. Mukund Dutta chanted the shloka with such love that when the sound vibration, through the ear, entered the heart of  Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, he lost all control of his  inner ecstasy of  love and he could no longer contain himself.  Tears began to surge from his eyes uncontrollably. Within seconds his whole body and all of his cloths were soaked by those tears of love that were shooting from his eyes. His hair began to stand on end, his limbs began to tremble. He began to call out in choked-up voice in ecstatic love, “who but Krsna is so merciful. What other Lord can we take shelter of”. And crying out these words, he just went it in a trance that others can imitate but no one can experience other than someone of his stature.  His legs began to kick, his arms began to flying in all directions and his hairs got scattered. He began to roll here and there and everywhere. He started ripping apart all of his clothes. He started moving in such a way in ecstatic love that his whole body was like titan waves of ecstatic convulsion.

And as he was doing like this, everything in his house was breaking into pieces, his clothes were torn, all the fine sheets and pillows were ripped apart, everything was falling down and everything was scattered as he was calling out the names of Krsna in prayers. Devotees, his servants and ten other people tried to hold him down to pacify himBut it was impossible. The surge of ecstatic love manifesting from his body was uncontrollable even to him or to anyone else.

And in this way Mukund Dutta was chanting the glories of Lord Krsna, the killer of Putna. Pundrik Vidhyanidhi’s ecstatic trance increased moment after moment after moment, until it came to the point where it could no longer increase. At that point he fell unconscious and for many, many hours he just lay there.

And during that time Gadadhara Pandit turned to Mukund and said, “You are very merciful to me. You are my true friend because I was thinking offensively about this person. I was thinking he was an ordinary, worldly man but you have revealed within his heart is the Supreme treasure of Krsna prema”. He said, “In order to atone for the offense of my bad thoughts towards this great devotee, I would like to take initiation from him because I know that without taking initiation from a proper spiritual master, one cannot cross the ocean of birth and death and achieve the love of Krsna and I have not yet accepted a such a Guru.

After so many hours, Pundrik Vidhyanidhi finally came to his external consciousness and he looked around and saw the great chaotic mess he had created. He was actually feeling little embarrassed . He looked at Gadadhara Pandit and greeted them, with great humility. He was the very reservoir of humility. All great souls who are endowed with a real treasure of an advance spiritual realization must be decorated with this quality of utter humility.

Pride can not exist in the heart, false pride, of someone who truly loves Krsna. It is not possible. So at that time Mukund explained that this Gadadhara Pandit from his very birth he never ever considered enjoying material sense gratification. He is so completely detached from any of pleasures of this world. From his earliest days he was always engrossed in worshipping Radha and Krsna, serving their devotees and chanting the holy names. Now the same Gadadhara wants to take initiation from you. And Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, overwhelmed with love for Gadadhara Pandit, replied, that after many, many births of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead can one ever get a disciple of the quality of Gadadhara Pandit.

So they fixed the particular date for initiation ceremony and Gadadhara Pandit surrendered his life and soul to the lotus feet of his Gurudev. Meanwhile, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that night, soon after that, was with His devotees, having nice kirtana, discussing Krsna katha and Pundrik Vidhyanidhi in a very humble way came to that place.  Upon seeing the beautiful form of Sri Gaur Sundra , hearing Him chant the holy name and discussing the leela of Lord, he fell in ecstatic love.

And when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw His eternal associate Pundrik Vidhyanidhi, they embraced, they showered each other with their love and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept Pundrik Vidhyanidhi always close by Him. He explained, He used to call him bapu, father. He would always address him as father.  And those great acaryas have revealed to us Pundrik Vidhyanidhi’s eternal position in the spiritual world as Maharaj Vrshabhanu, the eternal father of Srimati Radharani. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the mood of Radharani loved him and served him as father. So in this way, this most wonderful, wonderful connection was made.

CONCLUSION

So we find what type of ecstatic love awakens in the heart of the devotees when they hear beautiful slokas of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Unfortunately what is our position?  We hear the sloka and we think very nice. Nice shloka. Quite interesting. Krsna liberated Putna, very interesting subject matter.  In-fact some of us are sleeping as the verses are being recited. But this is the power of the verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam because the verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam are the very literary incarnation of Krsna Himself and Srimad-Bhagavatam has descended simply to awaken the love of Krsna in the hearts of all those who recite in the mood of His loving servant.

Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is Adi Purusa and He is the original svyam Bhagavan. All the qualities of all the incarnations are most perfectly manifested in Krsna. He is all attractive. He is Raas Bihari and He enjoys the sweetest, the most ecstatic loving exchanges with His devotees that no other manifestation of Godhead has ever revealed. In the dasya rasa, in the Santa rasa, He is showing the sweetest love for His servants. In sakhya rasa, He is exchanging love affairs with His friends that no other incarnation has manifested.  When we read about the Lord of the Old Testament or Lord of the New Testament or the Lord of Quran, we find a very great powerful, fearful God who punishes the wicked and rewards the pious. And He is worshipped with great reverence and attention. ‘Fear God’. That is model of the western religion: Fear God.

And Lord Narayan, Lord Rama and Lord Nrsimha; we don’t see so many sakhyas with Lord Nrsimha dev. He has many servants, worshippers and as far as playing with Him and everything, He doesn’t have that leela in this way. All the manifestations of God in vaikuntha are worshipped with great reverence.

But Krsna, just to intensify the intimacy of love as Rasbihari, rasaraja, becomes the friend. they play together in the pasture grounds of Vraja.  Sometime they dance, sometime they fight, sometime they argue,   but it is all just exchanges of ecstatic love. In-fact Krsna explains when the personified Veda and all the great mahan Pandit chant the various sloka glorifying the supreme, I do not derive even one drop of pleasure compare to the ocean of pleasure I receive when my friends, the cowherd boys chastise me and argue with me. What to speak of when mother Yasoda punish me? what to speak of the Gopis, when they find faults with Him. Because it is with such intimate love, in Vatsalya rasa, where Krsna takes the form of the helpless child to be loved by Yasoda and Nanda, and Madhurya Rasa where all of the conception of Krsna being supreme is overwhelmed by the pure love of the damsels of Vraja. So, in this way we taste the sweetness of nectar of the unique position of Krsna.

Sometime people ask us, “Why you worship Krsna? Why don’t you worship all the gods? What’s wrong with this god and that god and other gods? Why you are so fixed on Krsna?” I think we have all heard these comments coming from our friends, or relatives and people we meet. This verse explains why only Krsna. Because, there is no one as merciful as Krsna. There is no one so willing to open His heart to give pleasure to His devotees and receive the pleasure of devotees than Krsna. And therefore we understand that by worshipping Krsna automatically all of the various expansions, all of the various incarnations, all of the various Devtas are fully satisfied, simply by worshipping Krsna.

We were discussing last night that even Maha-Vishnu wanted to have darsan of Krsna. He had stolen one Brahmin’s. One Brahmin he had children to his wife and as soon as the birth took place the child would die. So the Brahmin was very upset.  Because in those days the king has such powers, that he actually, his pious acts and the way he perform yajna and protected the citizens, unnatural things never happens. So the Brahmin accused Maharaj Ugrasena, “How is this happening? Father is supposed to die before the son and all my sons are dying before me. You are a useless king, you are useless, and your Krsna is useless, everything is useless. You can’t save my son.” When Arjuna heard this he became very enthusiastic to protect the dignity  of Ugresena, the king of the yadu and Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  He said I will personally protect your next son. you do not fear. He will survive. Death personified will be defeated by me.

So the mother was in the maternity ward. Arjuna was, with his mighty Gandiva bows, standing right outside, so that any of the messenger of the death may come will be stopped by him.  And the wife gave birth and the child died. Arjuna was thinking, how is this possible. And he vowed that, “I will find out”, and he actually vowed he would enter into fire, he would commit suicide, if he did not protect the child. So he decided to search for the child. He went all over the universe. He went to Yamraja. Yamraja said, “I didn’t take him”. He went to so many places. He couldn’t find the child. But Krsna knows everything, so ultimately Krsna took on the chariot Arjuna, throughout the universe, beyond the universe, and he actually went through the all of the eight covering of the universe, earth, water, air, fire ether, mind, intelligence and ego, then he penetrated to the spiritual world, entered into the causal ocean and there they saw the massive gigantic form of Maha-Vishnu from whom all the universe comes out of His body like tiny little bubbles. Each universe is smaller than a single pore of His body.

So Arjuna was standing before Maha-Vishnu and when Maha-Vishnu saw Krsna, He offered His obeisance. And He said, “yes I have the son of Brahmin. I took the son of Brahmin, because I wanted to have dashan of Krsna. The longing of my heart was to see the beauty of Krsna.  So I have made all these arrangements, so that Krsna would come before Me. Maha-Vishnu is the source of all other incarnation coming to this world.  So we should understand who is Krsna? We should not think that everyone has their god to worship, so do we.

We accept all religions. We are not sectarian. Any proper form of God that there is revealed through authorize scriptures, we honor and respect, as well as their devotees. But still, we should understand the unique supreme transcendental position of Krsna and we should chant His holy name and we should maintain exclusive devotion to Krsna. When we see the other forms of the Lord of the other form of the religions, we understand that this is my Krsna, partially expanding Himself to show mercy to these people, but it is Krsna. Whatever we see, whoever we see, we should increase our love for Krsna. Why?

Alas how shall I take shelter one more merciful than He who granted the position of a mother a she demon Putna although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast.

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is that same original Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, coming to give to the world this realization of love for Himself through the chanting of the holy names.

(Hare Krsna)

Question

We see that Putna tried to kill Krsna. She was given the highest position but she was killed and then given the highest postion. But in the pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityanand Prabhu was going to be killed by Madhai but he was delivered without being killed.  So is Nityananad Prabhu is actually more merciful than Krsna?

Answer

Yes, the same mercy but delivered in an even more magnanimous form.

Is there any other question?

Question

How can we stop seeing the faults in others?

Answer

If you stop seeing faults in other, you become very dear to Krsna. Rupa Goswami explains, the quality of a great devotee is he no longer has any propensity to criticize others. Of course, sometime Srila Prabhupada called people rascal and bogus, nonsense, but he was not criticizing. He was like a medical doctor with a pure compassion, diagnosing their disease and with love he was actually trying to protect us from contracting the disease. But there is no false ego. It was only a desire, a humble desire to serve. But generally, when we find faults in others, it is due to false ego.  Due to our competitive nature, we want to show ourselves very good and in order to that other must appears very bad.

But Bhakti Siddhaanta Sarasvati Thakura explains that the only reason we have tendency to find faults in others is because we are honeycombed with so many tens and thousands of faults ourselves. The world is mirror of our own mind. What’s inside you, is outside also. If you have a good heart, you will see  that good reflects everywhere. If you have a black heart you will see blackness reflected everywhere.

Because we have so many faults ourselves we will see our own faults reflected in others. So, how to give up this tendency? First of all, we have to be extremely attentive and careful to tolerate that urge which is the destroyer of our spiritual life.  We may be seeing faults in others, especially devotees. These devotees are very dear to Krsna, especially. If we see faults in them, we should somehow or other tolerate and not speak it because as soon as you speak it, you commit an aparadha and that aparadha will very severely check your spiritual progress, severely. So that is the first thing. So while you’re checking it, while you’re tolerating it, while you’re not allowing yourself to speak it, you should, actually, with your good intelligence, take shelter of Krsna and His name and take shelter of the proper philosophy by which we can understand what’s really happening. Even if the fault is true because the person is trying to be Krsna conscious, Krsna doesn’t consider. Krsna sees the good they are doing.  Krsna saw the good in Putna and we are seeing the faults in devotees, who are trying to give their life to devotional service. So, we should understand that. We should try to find out our own faults and leave others alone. That is an austerity. It is a necessary austerity and with the same mouth that drinks the poison of faults finding in other Vaisnavas, we should drink the nectar of glorifying those Vaisnavas. That is the pure austerity. When you see faults in other devotee you should speak their glories. If you perform that austerity you will go back to godhead.  This is our guarantee. If you cannot, you will remain in this world in anxiety. So we must overcome it by tolerating the urge to find faultsand by glorifying the vaisnavas, seeing and speaking their good in vaisnavas and performing our sadhana in this mood of hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord.

When we taste the nectar of shravanam kirtana Vishnu, we taste the nectar of hearing and chanting the glories of Krsna and His devotees then the rubbish of fault finding becomes so unpalatable. We must strive to experience the higher taste, keep ourselves engaged in the higher taste of Hari Katha and  Hari Kirtana.

Question

You explained that every syllable of Bhagavatam it is said, Prabhupada quotes that every syllable of Bhagavatam is non- different from Krsna. How can we understand that because like the ordinary alphabet are there, same alphabets composed Srimad-Bhagavatam but yet it is transcendental. How is it?  I could not understand that every syllable is non-different from Krsna; every word is non-different from Krsna.

Answer

Yes because Krsna is wonderful and He has inconceivable potency. Same thing you may say that the deity is the same marble that the floor is made out from. So what is the difference between floor and the deity? The difference is Krsna entered into the deity to receive your love to manifest Himself. Similarly, you may say that the name Krsna is made of same alphabetical letters like so many other people’s names.  But the difference is that Krsna has manifested Himself by His inconceivable potency within the deity of that name, .In the same way Srimad-Bhagavatam, in every syllable of Bhagavatam although it may appear to you as ordinary alphabetical letter, Krsna has manifested like a murti of Krsna in sound vibrations. Krsna has manifested Himself. Sri Ved Vyasa by prana pratishtha he installed Krsna within every syllable of Bhagavatam and He is there to accept your worship and reveal the highest truth to every soul.

Question

One devotee has asked me further question. If we find fault it becomes offensive. But sometimes we see that these faults are factual, like, some devotee may be, say sleeping  nine hours a day, they take offense when we correct them, what should we do?

Answer

If a devotee is sleeping nine hours a day. So you are asking whether you should glorify him  for sleeping nine hours a day.  Such a great soul, sleeps nine hours day, he is in Samadhi.  No, you should try to help him. But it shouldn’t be in a mood of finding faults. If you are pointing out the difficulties of somebody, that somebody is having, in a mood of serving them, that is not fault finding. Fault finding means ‘I am the enjoyer’. You are in the enjoying spirit. you are enjoying being a controller.  But if you are actually in the mood of a humble servant and genuinely trying to help that devotee in spiritual life then you should tell that devotee, “sleeping nine hours is not very good Prabhu. Better that you wake up and chant Hare Krsna.  I am your servant. I am humbly requesting you.”

Or if you are temple manager, you may say, “As your humble servant I must say to you that if you want to stay in this asrama, kindly get up for mangla aarti.” That is not fault finding. That is trying to protect the standard of the asrama in the mood of service. There is a difference between gossip and being a compassionate servant.

Question

Krsna killed Putna and she was sent to the spiritual world but Yasoda and Krsna were here in this Bhauma Vrndavana, so where Putna is like and Krsna there also in spiritual world.

Answer

Krsna never leaves Goloka Vrndavana. it’s not that He leaves Goloka Vrndavana to come to this   world.  Because within the cosmic manifestation there are innumerable universes, and in every universe Krsna comes once in a day of Brahma at the time of Vivasvan Manu period. So at any given point of time, Krsna is actually in millions of different universes. Right now, Krsna is in so many universes and as soon He finishes one pastime in one universe, He is performing that pastime in another universe. And yet He never leave His original form Goloka Vrndavana. He simply by His inconceivable potency, Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana, expands Himself in His original form. And when He expands Himself, everyone of those expansions are fully endowed with the original quality of Krsna. There is no difference.

So mother Yasoda also expands herself along with Krsna by His inconceivable potency. Mother Yasoda is not an ordinary Jiva. She is actually a part of Krsna’s pleasure potency as Sri Radha Rani.

So these wonderful, wonderful pastimes of the Lord are taking place in so many places. And they are eternally taking places in the spiritual world.  So, when Putna was liberated she went  to the assistance of mother Yasoda as nurse. And the Gosvami Vaisnava   scriptures also explains: What her name is? What service she performs in the spiritual world Putna. Of course she is not Putna any more. This is Krsna’s mercy.

Question 6

Putna’s position is that she wanted to kill Krsna, and if we compare with Aghasura, he also wanted to kill Krsna and Aghasura happed to be the brother of Putna, so how is it that Aghasura  attained only the Brahmjyoti, Putna got transcendental devotion, why this distinction..

Because Aghasura they didn’t give Krsna the milk from his breast.  He did not disguise. He did not appear like a mother. He appeared like a huge cave to devour Krsna. But Putna actually assumed and performed the role in the service of mother. She just had the wrong intentions. So Krsna removed the wrong intentions and accepted the mood of form of a role of mother and made her His mother. That is Krsna. These are subtleties of best. If you are going to be a demon, better to understand these subtleties. You should know that in this world the demons are so insignificant and useless that Krsna doesn’t bother. But Putna was a very great demon, so Krsna took personal interest in her. Some people say that if I’ll have so much sense gratification and burn myself out and become detached, but very risky business.  Because you may not in this life get so much that you become so burn out to become detached. It is almost impossible. So similarly people may think that  I will become such a demon that Krsna will  kill me and I will get liberated. but that is not possible for such a demon.  You’ll just become such a demon that you’ll  get  destroyed by own karmic own reaction and go to hell.

So better you become a nice devotee, give up sense gratification and chant hare Krsna

Thank you very much

 

Written by

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.

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About Me

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.