Putana | The Hare Krishna Movement

Practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

26 Nov 2012 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna Consciousness, Krsna Consciousness, Krsna Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System, Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Aghasura, chanting Hare Krishna, childhood pastimes of Krsna, churning butter, Krishna consciousness, Mother Yasoda, poetical song, practicing Krsna consciousness at home, Putana, Sakatasura, sankirtan, Trnavarta

…While churning the butter, mother Yaśodā was singing about the childhood activities of Kṛṣṇa. It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember something constantly, he would transform it into poetry or have this done by a professional poet. It appears that mother Yaśodā did not want to forget Kṛṣṇa’s activities at any time. Therefore she poeticized all of Kṛṣṇa’s childhood activities, such as the killing of Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta, and while churning the butter, she sang about these activities in poetical form. This should be the practice of persons eager to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious twenty-four hours a day. This incident shows how Kṛṣṇa conscious mother Yaśodā was. To stay in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should follow such persons. (SB 10.9.1-2)

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Beyond the Senses

02 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Krishna, Teachings of Queen Kunti Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, asuras, Krsna, Nrsimha, Putana, Rama, residents of Vrndavana, Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam, Teachings of Queen Kunti, Varaha

…Krishna is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such authoritative personalities as Vyāsa, Devala, Asita, Nārada, Madhva, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Jīva Gosvāmī, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, and all other authorities of the line. He Himself has declared as much in many places of the authentic literatures. And yet there is a class of men with demoniac mentality who are always reluctant to accept the Lord as the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is partially due to their poor fund of knowledge and partially due to their stubborn obstinacy, which results from various misdeeds in the past and present. Such persons could not recognize Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa even when He was present before them.

Teachings of Queen Kunti
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 2, Beyond the Senses

māyā-javanikācchannam
ajñādhokṣajam avyayam
na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā
nato nāṭya-dharo yathā

Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, You are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized. —Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.19

In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa affirms that less intelligent persons mistake Him to be an ordinary man like us, and thus they deride Him. The same is confirmed herein by Queen Kuntī.

The less intelligent persons are those who rebel against the authority of the Lord. Such persons are known as asuras. The asuras cannot recognize the Lord’s authority. When the Lord Himself appears among us, as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, or in His original form as Kṛṣṇa, He performs many wonderful acts which are humanly impossible. As we shall find in the Tenth Canto of this great literature, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa exhibited His humanly impossible activities even from the days of His lying on the lap of His mother. He killed the Pūtanā witch, although she smeared her breast with poison just to kill the Lord. The Lord sucked her breast like a natural baby, and He sucked out her very life also. Similarly, He lifted the Govardhana Hill, just as a boy picks up a frog’s umbrella, and stood several days continuously just to give protection to the residents of Vṛndāvana.

Wonderful Kṛṣṇa

06 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in KRSNA The Supreme Personality of Godhead Tags: Bakasura, Dhhhenukasura, Govardhana Hill, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna' childhood pastimes, Krsna The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramatma, Putana, Sri Damodarastakam, Trnavarta

“O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for liberation, nor eternal life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon. My only prayer is that Your childhood pastimes may constantly appear in my mind. O Lord, I do not even want to know Your feature of Paramatma. I simply wish that Your childhood pastimes may ever be enacted in my heart.” (Sri Damodarastakam, verse 4)

KRSNA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead – 1970 Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Vol 1, Chapter 26

Wonderful Kṛṣṇa

Without understanding the intricacies of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and without knowing His uncommon spiritual opulences, the innocent cowherd boys and men of Vṛndāvana began to discuss the wonderful activities of Kṛṣṇa which surpass the activities of all men.

One of them said, “My dear friends, considering His wonderful activities, how is it possible that such an uncommon boy would come and live with us in Vṛndāvana? It is really not possible. Just imagine! He is now only seven years old! How was it possible for Him to lift Govardhana Hill in one hand and hold it up just like the king of elephants holds a lotus flower? To lift a lotus flower is a most insignificant thing for an elephant, and similarly Kṛṣṇa lifted Govardhana Hill without exertion. When He was simply a small baby and could not even see properly, He killed a great demon, Pūtanā. While sucking her breast, He also sucked out her life-air. Kṛṣṇa killed the Pūtanā demon exactly as eternal time kills a living creature in due course. When He was only three months old, He was sleeping underneath a hand-driven cart. Being hungry for His mother’s breast, He began to cry and throw His legs upwards. And from the kicking of His small feet the cart immediately broke apart and fell to pieces. When He was only one year old, He was carried away by the Tṛṇāvarta demon disguised as a whirlwind, and although He was taken very high in the sky, He simply hung on the neck of the demon and forced him to fall from the sky and immediately die. Once His mother, being disturbed by His stealing butter, tied Him to a wooden mortar, and the child pushed it towards a pair of trees known as yamala arjuna and caused them to fall. Once, when He was engaged in tending the calves in the forest along with His elder brother, Balarāma, a demon named Bakāsura appeared, and Kṛṣṇa at once bifurcated the demon’s beaks. When the demon known as Vatsāsura entered among the calves tended by Kṛṣṇa with a desire to kill Him, He immediately detected the demon, killed him, and threw him into a tree. When Kṛṣṇa, along with His brother, Balarāma, entered the Tālavana forest, the demon known as Dhenukāsura, in the shape of an ass, attacked Them and was immediately killed by Balarāma, who caught his hind legs and threw him in a palm tree. Although the Dhenukāsura demon was assisted by his cohorts, also in the shape of asses, all were killed, and the Tālavana forest was then open for the use of the animals and inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. When Pralambāsura entered amongst His cowherd boy friends, He caused his death by Balarāma. Thereafter, Kṛṣṇa saved His friends and cows from the severe forest fire, and He chastised the Kāliya serpent in the lake of Yamunā and forced him to leave the vicinity of the Yamunā River; He thereby made the water of the Yamunā poisonless.”

Killing the Demons within the Heart

29 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhaktivinoda Thakura Tags: Aghasura, Bakasura, Dhenukasura, false pride, Kaliya, Kesi, Nalakuvara and Manigriva, pseudo guru, Putana, Sakatasura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Trinavarta, Vatsaura

Killing the Demons within the Heart

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his Sri Caitanya Siksamrita describes the demons Krishna killed in His Vrndavana pastimes and the anarthas (unwanted things) with which they may be associated.

Putana (the witch) – the pseudo guru.

Sakatasura (the cart demon) – carrying the burden of a cart-load of old and new bad habits, lethargy and vanity.

Trinavarta (the whirlwind demon) – false pride which comes from material scholarship, which leads to bogus philosophies.

Deliverance of Nalakuvara and Manigriva (breaking the twin arjuna trees) – Arrogant pride which comes from puffed-up prestige, which is rooted in a madness for wealth.

Vatsasura (the calf demon) – a childish type of mentality which gives rise to a type of greediness which results in a wicked type of mischievousness.

Bakasura (stork demon) – Cunning duplicity, deceptiveness and false types of behavior.

Aghasura (the snake demon) – Cruelty and violence.

Brahma-vimohana Pastime (Lord Brahma steals the cowherd boys and calves) – mundane activities and speculative scholasticism.

Dhenukasura (the ass demon) – gross materialistic intelligence, ignorance of spiritual knowledge.

Kaliya (chastising the Kaliya serpent) – brutality and treachery.

Extinguishing the Forest Fire – inter-communal discord among Vaishnavas.

Pralambasura (killing the Pralamba demon) – lusty inclinations; desire for personal gain and honor.

Second Forest Fire – disturbance of religious principles and interference with religious people by those who are atheist.

Brahmanas Performing Sacrifice – indifference toward Krishna caused by pride because of one’s status (position) in varnasrama.

Overcoming the Pride of Indra – demigod worship, and the tendency to think “I am Supreme.”
Nanda Maharaja Captured by Varuna – thinking that spiritual life can be enhanced by intoxication.

Nanda Maharaja Swallowed by Vidyadhara (the snake) – rescuing the truth of Krishna consciousness from being swallowed by the impersonalists.

Sankhacuda (killing the conch-shell demon and getting the jewel that was stolen by him) – proneness toward acquiring name and fame, and desire for sensuous enjoyment, under the plea of devotion.

Aristasura (the bull demon) – pride arising from indulging in false religions invented by cheaters which causes neglect of devotional service (bhakti).

Kesi (the horse demon) – The feeling that “I am a great devotee and spiritual master.”

Vyomasura (the demon in the sky) – associating with thieves and other rascals, and with people who put themselves forward as avataras.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura says: “The devotee who worships the holy name should first petition the Lord for the strength to cast out all these unfavorable tendencies and should pray thus before Lord Hari on a daily basis. By doing this regularly, the devotee’s heart will eventually become purified. Sri Krishna has killed a number of demons which may arise in the kingdom of the heart, so in order to destroy these problems, a devotee must cry very humbly before the Lord and admit defeat then the Lord will nullify all contaminations.”

Pasted from: http://www.harekrsna.de/divine-message.htm

Without the self-realized soul at its head…

13 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Devotee's, Hansadutta das Tags: Hansadutta, pulpit, Putana, Srila Bhaktisiddanta, Srila Bhaktivinoda, Vani Vibhava

Without the self-realized soul at its head…
By Hansadutta Prabhu

“The heart has reasons that reason fails to understand.”—Blaise Pascal

When the Acharya comes, he gathers around him so many people, but they’re bringing their own baggage and cannot prevail. It seems to be the rule that a collection of disciples can go only so far before there’s an overwhelming of their past.

“O well-wisher of the devotees. May you obtain peace! The nature that the living entities have developed, according to their respective karma from birth after birth in this world, influences them to engage in fruitive activities. Until desires opposed to devotional service are destroyed from the heart, no amount of good instruction can bring any auspiciousness. Such instructions will simply come out of the ear-holes and will not enter into the heart. No amount of preaching to them or discussing devotional service will produce a good result because of their bad karma. Your discourses and discussions will therefore not yield any result. My order to you is that you should live at the place where I kept My dear Haridasa and where I loudly chanted the holy names of the Lord. You should constantly sing the glories of the holy names for the benefit of the fallen souls. As a result of the piety that people will achieve by hearing from you, and the faith they will develop, they will attain unduplicitious faith in pure devotional service in a future lifetime.”—Mahaprabhu to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur (Sri Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava)