residents of Vrndavana | The Hare Krishna Movement

Childhood Pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa

26 Oct 2013 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Damodara, KRSNA The Supreme Personality of Godhead Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta purport, Dhara, Drona, gopis, Krishna, krishna pastimes, Krsna, Krsna Book, Lord Balarama, Lord Damodara, Lord Krishna, month of Kartika, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja, residents of Vrndavana, SB 10.8, transcendental pleasure, Vision of the Universal Form

…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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Uddhava Visits Vṛndāvana

20 May 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna Consciousness, KRSNA The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Uddhava Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, bhagavad-gita, cowherd boys, cowherd men, devotional service, expert devotees, gopis, Krsna and Balarama, Krsna The Supreme Personality of Godhead, message of solace, residents of Vrndavana, Srila Prabhupada, Srimati Radharani, Uddhava, Uddhava Visits Vrndavana, Vrndavana, Yasoda, ye yatha mam prapadyante

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This is perhaps one of my favorite chapters in the Kṛṣṇa Book, and I find myself reading it again and again. There are many lessons one can take away from this chapter. With great pleasure we are posting the entire chapter in the hopes that one of our readers will become enlivened in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness as a result of reading it.

…As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante: Kṛṣṇa is very responsive. He responds in proportion to the devotee’s advancement in devotional service. The gopīs were thinking of Kṛṣṇa in separation twenty-four hours a day. Kṛṣṇa was also always thinking of the gopīs, mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja and the residents of Vṛndāvana, although He appeared to be away from them. He could understand how they were transcendentally aggrieved, and so He immediately wanted to send Uddhava to give them a message of solace.

Uddhava is described as the most exalted personality in the Vṛṣṇi dynasty, almost equal to Kṛṣṇa. He was a great friend, and on account of being the direct student of Bṛhaspati, the teacher and priest of the heavenly planets, he was very intelligent and sharp in decision. From the intellectual standpoint, he was highly qualified. Kṛṣṇa, being a very loving friend of Uddhava, wanted to send him to Vṛndāvana just to study the highly elevated ecstatic devotional service practiced there. Even if one is highly elevated in material education and is even the disciple of Bṛhaspati, he still has to learn from the gopīs and the residents of Vṛndāvana how to love Kṛṣṇa to the highest degree. Sending Uddhava to Vṛndāvana with a message to the residents of Vṛndāvana to pacify them was Kṛṣṇa’s special favor to Uddhava.

Lord Kṛṣṇa’s name is Hari, which means one who takes away all the distress from the surrendered souls. Lord Caitanya states that there cannot be, at any time, a worship as exalted as that realized by the gopīs. Being very anxious about the gopīs’ grief, Kṛṣṇa talked with Uddhava and politely requested him to go to Vṛndāvana. Shaking Uddhava’s hand with His own hands, He said, ”My dear gentle friend Uddhava, please go immediately to Vṛndāvana and try to pacify My father and mother, Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā-devī, and the gopīs. They are very much griefstricken, as if suffering from great ailments. Go and give them a message. I hope their ailments will be partially relieved. The gopīs are always absorbed in thoughts of Me. They have dedicated body, desire, life and soul to Me. I am anxious not only for the gopīs, but for anyone who sacrifices society, friendship, love and personal comforts for Me. It is My duty to protect such exalted devotees. The gopīs are the most dear. They are always thinking of Me in such a way that they remain overwhelmed and almost dead in anxiety due to separation from Me. They are keeping alive simply by thinking that I am returning to them very soon.“

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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.