The 64 Arts and Sciences

Krsna and Balarama with their teacher Sandipani Muni

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 45 of Kṛṣṇa Book, in which Srila Prabhupada describes that after hearing only once from the teacher, Sandipani Muni, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma learned all the arts and sciences.

…So Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are the source of all kinds of knowledge, but because They were playing like ordinary human boys, They set the example so that everyone would receive knowledge from the right source. Thus They agreed to take knowledge from a spiritual master.

After hearing only once from the teacher, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma learned all the arts and sciences. In sixty-four days and sixty-four nights They learned all the necessary arts that are required in human society. During daytime They took lessons on a subject from the teacher, and by nightfall, after having heard from the teacher, They were expert in that department of knowledge.

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Gopastami

Krishna Balarama and Cows

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Today on the Vaisnava Calender marks the day known as Gopastami or Gosthastami. On this day lord Sri Krishna became a qualified cowherd and took the cows out to Govardhana to graze. Previously He was the keeper of the calves. It was on this day that He became a gopa, or cowherd boy.

In this way, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, along with His elder brother Balarāma, passed the childhood age known as kaumāra and stepped into the age of paugaṇḍa, from the sixth year up to the tenth. At that time, all the cowherd men conferred and agreed to give those boys who had passed their fifth year charge of the cows in the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma traversed Vṛndāvana, purifying the land with Their footprints.

…When Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Their friends entered the village of Vṛndāvana, They played Their flutes, and the boys praised Their uncommon activities in the forest. Their faces were decorated with tilaka and smeared with the dust raised by the cows, and Kṛṣṇa’s head was decorated with a peacock feather. Both He and Balarāma played Their flutes, and the young gopīs were joyous to see Kṛṣṇa returning home. All the gopīs in Vṛndāvana remained very morose on account of Kṛṣṇa’s absence. All day they were thinking of Kṛṣṇa in the forest or of Him herding cows in the pasture. When they saw Kṛṣṇa returning, all their anxieties were immediately relieved, and they began to look at His face the way drones hover over the honey of the lotus flower. When Kṛṣṇa entered the village, the young gopīs smiled and laughed. Kṛṣṇa, while playing the flute, enjoyed the beautiful smiling faces of the gopīs. (from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Chapter 15)

To honor this day we are posting some further childhood pastimes of Sri Krishna from the Kṛṣṇa Book entitled “The Killing of Dhenukāsura”

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Childhood Pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa

Krishna eating dirt1

…continuing with our attempt to post Krsna’s childhood pastimes, throughout the duration of the “Month of Damodara”

…Another day, when Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were playing with Their friends, all the boys joined Balarāma and told mother Yaśodā that Kṛṣṇa had eaten clay. On hearing this, mother Yaśodā caught hold of Kṛṣṇa’s hand and said, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, why have You eaten earth in a solitary place? Just see, all Your friends including Balarāma are complaining about You.” Being afraid of His mother, Kṛṣṇa replied, “My dear mother, all these boys, including My elder brother Balarāma, are speaking lies against Me. I have never eaten clay. My elder brother Balarāma, while playing with Me today, became angry, and therefore He has joined with the other boys to complain against Me. They have all combined together to complain so you will be angry and chastise Me. If you think they are truthful, then you can look within My mouth to see whether I have taken clay or not.” His mother replied, “All right, if You have actually not taken any clay, then just open Your mouth. I shall see.”

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Childhood Pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa

Damodara pastimes1

…All the gopī friends of Yaśodā and Rohiṇī enjoyed the naughty childish activities of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in Vṛndāvana. In order to enjoy further transcendental bliss, they all assembled and went to mother Yaśodā to lodge complaints against the restless boys. When Kṛṣṇa was sitting before mother Yaśodā, all the elderly gopīs began to lodge complaints against Him so that Kṛṣṇa could hear. They said, “Dear Yaśodā, why don’t you restrict your naughty Kṛṣṇa? He comes to our houses along with Balarāma every morning and evening, and before the milking of the cows They let loose the calves, and the calves drink all the milk of the cows. So when we go to milk the cows, we find no milk, and we have to return with empty pots. If we warn Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma about doing this, They simply smile charmingly. (Krsna Book Chapter 8)

…continuing with our attempt to post Krsna’s childhood pastimes, throughout the duration of the “Month of Damodara”

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The Gopīs’ Feelings of Separation

Gopis feelings of Separation

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We were discussing the other night with some friends, that the mood of Lord Caitanya was love in separation, and that this should also be our mood as devotees. George Harrison understood this mood, and in his song “My Sweet Lord” we find in his lyrics:

My sweet Lord
Hmm, my Lord
Hmm, my Lord
I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you, Lord, but it takes so long, my Lord …

I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you, Lord, that it won’t take long, my Lord …

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Srila Prabhupada has described this very nicely throughout all his writings, and in the Caitanya-caritmrta we find:

“O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from My eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.” This is the perfectional stage of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and eating the fruit of love of Godhead, as exhibited by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One should not artificially imitate this stage, but if one is serious and sincerely follows the regulative principles and chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the time will come when these symptoms will appear. Tears will fill his eyes, he will be unable to chant distinctly the mahā-mantra, and his heart will throb in ecstasy. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that one should not imitate this, but a devotee should long for the day to come when such symptoms of trance will automatically appear in his body. (Purport Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 9.51)

This is all but and introduction to one of the very best, sweetest, chapters in the KRSNA Book “The Gopīs’ Feelings of Separation” which we have posted here in its entirety.

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Reading Krsna Book With Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada in Rose Garden

Reading Krsna Book With Prabhupada
from; Interview with Ramesvara Prabhu on Book Changes 1979

There’s a few more early incidents that I can remember. In Los Angeles on one of those early visits, probably ’73, we used to read the Krsna Book to Prabhupada every evening, he would sit in his garden. And it was just the most wonderful, intimate association with Prabhupada. And I used to marvel at the way Prabhupada would sit and listen to the Krsna Book. His head was looking up very erect, the way he was holding his body, and very grave, serious, sober look on his face. Very intense. Although it was so personal and ecstatic and informal, to just be with a handful of devotees reading the Krsna Book to Prabhupada, Prabhupada was showing us how to actually become absorbed in hearing of God. It wasn’t that…he was not in a light mood. He was in a heavy mood, like a great transcendental aristocrat. I’ll never forget how serious, how he was looking, so formal. Even though the mood was so informal. In that way he was showing us how to hear the Krsna Book.

for full interview; Interview with Ramesvara Prabhu on Book Changes

Lord Balarama Rasayatra & Sri Krishna Vasanta Rasa

Rasa lila

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Today the Vaisnava Calender marks two auspicious occasions; Sri Krishna Vasanta Rasa (Lord Krishna’s Springtime Rasa-lila), and also Lord Balarama Rasayatra (Balarama’s rasa dance with the gopis of Vrndavan). In honor we post a very nice chapter from Krsna Book entitled “Lord Balarāma Visits Vṛndāvana”.

…Lord Balarāma could, of course, understand the ecstatic feelings of the gopīs, and therefore He wanted to pacify them. He was expert in presenting an appeal, and thus, treating the gopīs very respectfully, He began to narrate the stories of Kṛṣṇa so tactfully that the gopīs became satisfied. In order to keep the gopīs in Vṛndāvana satisfied, Lord Balarāma stayed there continually for two months, namely the months of Caitra (March-April) and Vaiśākha (April-May). For those two months He kept Himself among the gopīs, and He passed every night with them in the forest of Vṛndāvana in order to satisfy their desire for conjugal love. Thus Balarāma also enjoyed the rāsa dance with the gopīs during those two months. Since the season was springtime, the breeze on the bank of the Yamunā was blowing very mildly, carrying the aroma of different flowers, especially of the flower known as kaumudī. Moonlight filled the sky and spread everywhere, and thus the banks of the Yamunā appeared to be very bright and pleasing, and Lord Balarāma enjoyed the company of the gopīs there.

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The Gopīs Attracted by the Flute

The Gopis Attracted by the Flute

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…Kṛṣṇa was very expert in playing the flute, and the gopīs were captivated by the sound vibration, which was not only attractive to them, but to all living creatures who heard it. One of the gopīs told her friends, “The highest perfection of the eyes is to see Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma entering the forest and playing Their flutes and tending the cows with Their friends.”

Persons who are constantly engaged in the transcendental meditation of seeing Kṛṣṇa, internally and externally, by thinking of Him playing the flute and entering the Vṛndāvana forest, have really attained the perfection of samādhi. Samādhi (trance) means absorption of all the activities of the senses on a particular object, and the gopīs indicate that the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are the perfection of all meditation and samādhi. It is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that anyone who is always absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa is the topmost of all yogīs.

Kṛṣṇa, The Supreme Personality of Godhead 1970 Edition
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Vol. 1, Chapter 21

The Gopīs Attracted by the Flute

Kṛṣṇa was very pleased with the atmosphere of the forest where flowers bloomed and bees and drones hummed very jubilantly. While the birds, trees and branches were all looking very happy, Kṛṣṇa, tending the cows, accompanied by Śrī Balarāma and the cowherd boys, began to vibrate His transcendental flute. After hearing the vibration of the flute of Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs in Vṛndāvana remembered Him and began to talk amongst themselves about how nicely Kṛṣṇa was playing His flute. When the gopīs were describing the sweet vibration of Kṛṣṇa’s flute, they also remembered their pastimes with Him; thus their minds became disturbed, and they were unable to describe completely the beautiful vibrations. While discussing the transcendental vibration, they remembered also how Kṛṣṇa dressed, decorated with a peacock feather on His head, just like a dancing actor, and with blue flowers pushed over His ear. His garment glowed yellow-gold, and He was garlanded with a vaijayantī necklace. Dressed in such an attractive way, Kṛṣṇa filled up the holes of His flute with the nectar emanating from His lips. So they remembered Him, entering the forest of Vṛndāvana, which is always glorified by the footprints of Kṛṣṇa and His companions.

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Krishna Path; New Releases

KRSNA Book

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I am always glad to hear from my friend Prahlada-Nrsimha Prabhu over at Krishna Path because it usually means he has another book ready to be uploaded onto the Internet. For instance today this message arrived in our mailbox:

Haribol! We are very happy to announce that KrishnaPath.org has now completed the scanning of the original 1970 ISKCON Press edition (Volume one) of KRSNA The Supreme Personality of Godhead and is available for free download! We are working hard to get you the second volume as well. By your prayers and blessings the second volume KRSNA book will be ready and available for free download soon.

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Kṛṣṇa Rāsa-yātrā

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Today is a very auspicious day on the Vaisnave Calender, as it marks the end of Kartika, the end of Caturmasya, the Full Moon (Purnima) of the Month of Damodara, the Krsna Rasa-yatra, the Marriage of Tulasi & Salagrama, and the Appearance of Nimbarkacarya.

Just a word about Krsna Rasa-yatra from the Vaisnava Calendar …”The purnima or full moon of Damodara month is the second full moon of the autumn season, and rasa lila is again celebrated. This second rasa yatra is celebrated more in Bengal, whereas the first one is celebrated more in Vrndavana.

On this day one should perform full worship of Radha and Krsna with many flowers, and place them in a rasa mandapa surrounded by the gopis.”

In honor of all the auspiciousness, we are posting a chapter from Srila Prabhupada’s Kṛṣṇa Book entitled “The Rāsa Dance: Introduction”. Hare Krishna!

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Devastating Rainfall in Vṛndāvana

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On this very auspicious day, Govardhana-puja, we are reminded of Krsna’s lifting of Govardhana Hill, as told by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in chapter 25 of the Krsna Book.

…Kṛṣṇa has declared in the Bhagavad-gītā that the worshipers of the demigods are not very intelligent. He has also declared that one has to give up all kinds of worship and simply concentrate on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa’s invoking the anger of Indra and later on chastising him is a clear indication to His devotee that those who are engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness have no need to worship any demigod, even if it is found that the demigod has become angry. Kṛṣṇa gives His devotees all protection, and they should completely depend on His mercy.

Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Chapter 25

Devastating Rainfall in Vṛndāvana

When Indra understood that the sacrifice offered by the cowherd men in Vṛndāvana was stopped by Kṛṣṇa, he became angry, and he vented his anger upon the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, who were headed by Nanda Mahārāja, although Indra knew perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa was personally protecting them. As the director of different kinds of clouds, Indra called for the Sāṁvartaka. This cloud is invited when there is a need to devastate the whole cosmic manifestation. The Sāṁvartaka was ordered by Indra to go over Vṛndāvana and inundate the whole area with an extensive flood. Demonically, Indra thought himself to be the all-powerful supreme personality. When demons become very powerful, they defy the supreme controller, Personality of Godhead. Indra, though not a demon, was puffed up by his material position, and he wanted to challenge the supreme controller. He thought himself, at least for the time being, as powerful as Kṛṣṇa. Indra said, “Just see the impudence of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana! They are simply inhabitants of the forest, but being infatuated with their friend Kṛṣṇa, who is nothing but an ordinary human being, they have dared to defy the demigods.”

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Songs by the Gopīs

…The exemplary character of devotional service manifested by the devotees of Vṛndāvana is the purest type of devotion. It is enjoined in authoritative śāstra that devotional service must be ahaituka and apratihata. This means that devotional service to Kṛṣṇa cannot be checked by political or religious convention. The stage of devotional service is always transcendental. The gopīs particularly showed pure devotional service towards Kṛṣṇa, so much so that Kṛṣṇa Himself remained indebted to them. Lord Caitanya thus said that the devotional service manifested by the gopīs in Vṛndāvana excelled all other methods of approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Kṛṣṇa The Supreme Personality of Godhead 1970 Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Vol.1, Chapter 31

Songs by the Gopīs

One gopī said, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, ever since You took Your birth in this land of Vrajabhūmi, everything appears to be glorious. The land of Vṛndāvana has become glorious, and it is as if the goddess of fortune is personally always existing here. But it is only we who are very unhappy, because we are searching for You, but cannot see You with our greatest effort. Our life is completely dependent upon You; therefore we request that You again come to us.”

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Importance of Book Distribution

I am glad to hear that you are distributing nicely books and magazines. The more we sell books, the more we advance in Krishna Consciousness, and the more we help others to have solid information how they may take advantage of their human form of life and achieve the supreme perfection. So I want that you should now increase very greatly this selling of books and literatures. (S.P.L. to Kulasekhara 20/1/72)

One Krishna book sold means we go forward one step in our Krishna Consciousness. We should always remember this. (S.P.L. to Visnujana Maharaja 4th April 1971)

I am very glad to hear all the good news, especially that you want to sell books more and more. That is the best preaching work; each book sold means there is some practical effect of preaching, there is some tangible progress. So try to sell books as many as possible in your country, and in this way, so long you remain active but not for your personal sense-gratification, so long you remain active only satisfying Krishna’s senses, then this movement will be successful without any doubt. As soon as someone wants to satisfy his own senses, then he fails at everything. (S.P.L. to Kuruksetra 23/11/72)

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Lord Krsna’s Friend Sudama

…It is related that by his constant association with the Lord, Sudama had wiped away from his heart whatever contamination was remaining, and he was very shortly transferred to the eternal spiritual kingdom, which is the goal of all saintly persons in the perfectional stage of life. It is stated in the Krsna Book that whoever hears this history will become qualified like Sudama and will be transferred to the spiritual kingdom of Lord Krsna.

Lord Krsna’s Friend Sudama
Published in Back to Godhead Magizine 1971 Vol. 1, Number 49
By Satsvarupa dasa adhikari

The wonderful history of Krsna and His friend Sudama is told in its entirety in the Krsna Book, Volume II, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is kindly presenting to the western world the pastimes of Lord Krsna, which can act as a merciful shower upon the hearts of all of us. It is true that we have forgotten our eternal, blissful and loving relationships as servants of Krsna or God. The remedy to forgetfulness or ignorance of God is to hear about Him from the lips of His pure devotee. This is the view of authorized scriptures.

When Krsna descends from His eternal abode in the spiritual world and appears to this mundane world, as He did 5,000 years ago, He engages with others just as if He were an ordinary human being. Although He is unborn, He appears to have a mother and father. In the village of Vrndavana Krsna plays as a cowherd boy. He enacts these pastimes for His own transcendental pleasure and to attract all the suffering living entities back home, back to Godhead. Sudama was among those devotees who were childhood friends with Krsna, and Sudama was also His intimate school friend.

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Remembering Srila Prabhupada 


Remembering Srila Prabhupada 
By Vyasasana das

     I think we all remember very clearly where we were and what we were doing the day Srila Prabhupada first entered our lives.  Many of the older devotees remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, or where they were when “The Beatles” appeared on the Ed Sullivan show.  But our remembrance of Srila Prabhupada will outlive any mundane event in our lives, as our relationship with our Srila Prabhupada is an eternal relationship. 

     I meet my spiritual master in an unlikely place, in the Chicago O’Hare airport.  I was walking through the airport just wandering aimlessly, when I was approached by a sankirtan devotee.  He said “hey, you into George Harrison?”  I replied “sure I just saw him in concert last night”.  So he said, ”take this book and give it a read, its really far-out!”   To make a long story short I took the book, the Krishna Book, and found a place to sit down and read.  I couldn’t even make out some of the words it was like a foreign language.  I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words like Srila Vyasadeva or Srimati Radharani.  I didn’t have a clue what the book was about.  But I fell in love with the picture on the cover instantly, and when I turned the book over in my hands I saw the most beautiful sight in this material world, a picture of my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada. 

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Krishna Nectar

Krishna Nectar
From; KRSNA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead – 1970 Edition
By; His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter23

Delivering the Wives of the Brahmanas Who Performed Sacrifices

The brāhmaṇas’ wives saw Kṛṣṇa putting on a garment glittering like gold. He wore a nice garland of forest flowers and a peacock feather on His head. He was also painted with the minerals found in Vṛndāvana, and He looked exactly like a dancing actor on a theatrical stage. They saw Him keeping one hand on the shoulder of His friend, and in His other hand, He was holding a lotus flower. His ears were decorated with lilies, He wore marks of tilaka, and He was smiling charmingly. With their very eyes, the wives of the brāhmaṇas saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, of whom they had heard so much, who was so dear to them, and in whom their minds were always absorbed. Now they saw Him eye to eye and face to face, and Kṛṣṇa entered within their hearts through their eyes.

…”For a long time the wives had been anxious to see Kṛṣṇa. However, when they were preparing to leave home to go see Him, their husbands, fathers, sons and relatives asked them not to go. But the wives did not comply. When a devotee is called by the attraction of Kṛṣṇa, he does not care for bodily ties. The women entered the forest of Vṛndāvana on the bank of the Yamunā, which was verdant with vegetation and newly grown vines and flowers. Within that forest, they saw Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma engaged in tending the cows, along with Their very affectionate boy friends.

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Why Not Just Print Prabhupada’s Original Books

Why Not Just Print Prabhupada’s Original Books
By Sriman Locanananda Prabhu

Srila Prabhupada said that our purpose was unity, and even though the legal documents seem to create a workable arrangement by which both editions of his books can be made available, the true potency of the Hare Krishna movement will be manifested when the deviation is removed and we are all distributing the same Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the same Krishna Book and the same Teachings of Lord Caitanya, just as we all chant the same Mahamantra, offer obeisances to the same spiritual master and worship the same Supreme Personality of Godhead

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Srila Prabhupada’s Original Krishna Book Now On-Line

Srila Prabhupada’s Original Krishna Book Now On-Line
by Madhudvisa dasa 

We have the great pleasure of announcing Srila Prabhupada’s original Krishna Book is now available for reading on the internet at http://www.krsnabook.com Reading Krishna Book is very important and we simply present a few quotes from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on the necessity and great spiritual benefits of reading Krishna Book.

Prabhupada: Yes. If you read Krishna book and if you believe, then you see Krishna. He’s not different from the book. (N98:760427CC.AUC)

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