What makes Krishna special?

• The goal  of the Bhagavatam is to glorify Krishna. This is important because Krishna is a special form of the Supreme Lord. That is why in the list of avatars given by Suta Goswami, he says Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam - the original Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna.

• We may ask that why is Krishna superior to other forms of God because God is equal. Just like the example of a moon. The moon is one but sometimes its half moon, small moon (punima, amavasya etc) similarly the Lord will manifest a certain amount of qualities in every form so if we take all of these different form we will see that some will manifest less qulities and some manifest less qualities just like the moon sometimes will manifest less light and sometimes more light.

• It's not that Krishna created all other forms of the Lord, they were all eternal (like Narsimhadev, Lord Rama, Visnu etc) but  Krishna is purna bhagavan because He is manifesting all the qualities.

• What makes the beauty of Krishna special? It is the madhurya or sweetness in His form which makes Him special as it allows greater intimacy with devotees. Krishna's beauty becomes unrestricted and the form itself allows a greater relationship.

• The other forms of God will manifest dasya relationship (servitorship) and vatsalya rasa (in case of Lord Ramacandra) only. The pastimes of the Lord are madhurya.

- HH Bhanu Swami

What restricts our acts of pleasing Krishna?

vāco vegam manasa-krodha vegam

jihva-vegam udaropastha-vegam

etan vegan yo vishaheta dhiraḥ

sarvam apīmāḿ prithvim sa sisyat

Nectar of Instruction Verse 1

TRANSLATION

A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.- Power of the Tongue or Speech - It can either keep us in the material world or can take us back to the spiritual world. If it uses for material vibrations then it creates bondage and if used for chanting then can take towards liberation.

- The mind and tongue are intimately related because whatever impressions we have in the mind, the same will come in our speech.

- Manasa here means the mind filled with kama and desires and Krodha refers negative or hatred.
So these are the things Krishnan is telling us to create - iccha dvesa samutthena : The desire and hatred held in the mind make us to go through the materail universe. So the mind impells us to enjoy and for that we use our senses. The desire comes from the mind. Therefore the mind is generating us to do more activities in the world and increases desire for enjoyment. We don't like things which frustrate our happiness and the desire is that everything is for my enjoyment. But bhakti means only desiring happiness for Krishna. So if we indulge in all these things for our pleasue then how can we do bhakti? Because bhakti means only Krishna. Therefore it is necessary to control the mind. However Krishna is very merciful and He first tells that okay atleast start a little with faith. So he gives us sadhana bhakti which is still not pure but Krishna accepts it. With practice this sadhana bhakti can take us out of this iccha dvesa.

We should not be that we do our devotional service and then continue with what we want to do. That's why we have the 4 regulative principles which help us to control.

- The tongue is very difficult to control and simply by eating we can land up in Maya. It's because eating involves taste however whatever may taste nice will not be necessarily good for our spiritual or material advancement. It may look nice but it can be harmful for us. Your body is made up of what you eat and the food is also characteristised by the qualities of the gunas. So by changing one's food can change his mode of nature.

- Taking prasadam is an anga of bhakti. We can control jihva vegam by taking prasadam which is spiritual food and is purified and develops our attrcation for Krishna and distaste for material things. So again tongue is very crucial.

- Belly (Udara) : There is an urge to fill the belly is very harmful because the gunas keep going in and then it's affecting our mind.

- Upastha (Urges of the genitals): This is the real bondage and it keeps us attached to this material world. Like grha, ksetra, suta-apti.

- The best way is to do selfless service (devotional service) then the heart opens up and the mental body will also develop by process of bhakti. The peace of mind also comes by service by which one can focus on Krishna.

- Definition of Bhava is the heart becomes softenend and Prema bhakti means the heart becomes melted. Bhakti is not understood by intelligence but by taste.

- If one can simply control the senses, it does not make you a devotee however it is essential that we do control and not purposefully indulge in material pleasures as this will restrict our acts of pleasing Krishna.

(Explained by HH Bhanu Swami)

Posted by Jyoti to http://www.gloriouskrishna.blogspot.com/

If we want Honey, Bee Stings will Follow!

There is a story from the Mahabharata where in there was once a Brahmana who woke up one day and suddenly found himself in a desert and he did not know what to do. The desert was dry, hot, no water, no shelter and no trees. He was therefore forced to look around and he had to survive. Then, as he was wondering what to do next, he saw on the horizon what looked to be like a forest. He became very excited and with logic he understood that there must be trees, fruits and water there in the forest.

After a while he reached the forest and was excited that now I'll get some happiness. But when he got close he saw that it was a huge forest surrounded by a wall. He walked and looked for a gateway but there was no entrance. So, it was a very high wall and he was rather reluctant to climb the wall. However with great effort he tried to climb the wall. He managed to get to the top of the wall and he saw a huge forest with no way out. But he thought being in the forest is better than being in the desert knowing there is no way out.

Then he was expecting that now I can get some peace. When he entered the forest, he saw big trees, thick grasses and as he was trying to get inside, he saw animals like snakes, scorpions, tigers, leopards and all the creatures were very hungry. When they saw the Brahmana, they began to chase him. Then the mosquitoes and bugs were biting him, bigger animals were running behind him, he was getting scratched by the thorns, he was getting tired also. It was a worse situation and he had to keep running. Finally he tripped and fell and he was entangled and was hanging upside down a tree. He was trapped. At the bottom of the tree was a well where there was a big snake. He somehow climbed up the tree and there were black and white rats.

He was wondering what to do. Then there was a bee hive and everytime he moved a little bit, The bees would come out and sting all over his body. Then the Brahmana who was trapped in pain, misery, was hopeless started SMILING. Why is he smiling?

He is smiling because every now and then from the bee hive a drop of honey falls into his mouth and he forgets the situation.

So, the story is symbolic. The brahmana is the spirit soul who finds himself trapped in the material world and once he is in the material universe it is very difficult to get out of it and we cannot trace out the beginning or the end. Like that the forest (material universe) is surrounded by high walls. But the forest (material universe) "looks" very nice but when we actually start experiencing the material world, we understand that it's not a safe place.

The animals represent the sickness, anger, conflicts, problems, no money, food and then we get afflicted and then we have to keep working to avoid all this (running through the forest). Hanging upside down represents getting trapped in a material body and once we get trapped, we have a life span set for us and every second that life span gets shorter. The black and white rats represnt the night and days who are nibbling on the branch which is holding him and then he falls into the well which is death. In the meantime we are in this body, somehow we foget our situation  and we think it is very nice in this world, because we get some sort of pleasure, honey or little sweetness which makes us foregt the hopelessness from this world. So when we get pleasure, the pain is also there. We get karma with everhything we do which represents the bee stings.

So Vidura says this is not a very intelligent way of living. We are eternal soul and once we realize that then the pleasure and pain are no longer significant. The goal of life is not avoiding pain and getting happiness. The goal of life is to understand that we are spiritual beings beyond the pains and pleasure having an eternal realtionship with the Supreme Lord. We have to therefore build that relationship and then we get eternal happiness.

This is the solution to the problem. We have to practice to get to that position and by the practice of Bhakti we can withdraw from the bodily attachments and get more involved with our relationship of Krishna. The main process is to chant the names of Krishna.

This helps us to establish our relation with the Supreme Lord and when that is established - the whole concept of living changes.

- HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj (2002-05-19)

What's special about Krishna?

The goal of the Bhagavatam is to glorify Krishna. This is important because Krishna is a special form of the Supreme Lord. That is why in the list of avatars given by Suta Goswami, he says Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam - the original Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna.

We may ask that why is Krishna superior to other forms of God because God is equal. Just like the example of a moon. The moon is one but sometimes its half moon, small moon (punima, amavasya etc) similarly the Lord will manifest a certain amount of qualities in every form so if we take all of these different forms we will see that some will manifest less qulities and some manifest less qualities just like the moon sometimes will manifest less light and sometimes more light.

It's not that other forms of the Lord are created and destroyed, they are all eternal (like Narsimhadev, Lord Rama, Visnu etc) but Krishna is purna bhagavan because He is manifesting all the 64 qualities.

What makes the beauty of Krishna special? It is the madhurya or sweetness in His form which makes Him special as it allows greater intimacy with devotees. Krishna's beauty is unrestricted and the form itself allows a greater relationship. The other forms of God will manifest dasya relationship (servitorship) and vatsalya rasa  but Krishna has billions of sakhya rasa friends, vatsalya rasa, madhurya rasa and all are intimately connected with Krishna.Then is Krishna's madhurya flute. He has a very sweet flute and when He plays it, everyone who hears it gets madhurya prema. So in this way Krishna has these remarkable qualities which are very sweet not manifested in any other forms of the Lord and therefore He is put in the position of svayam bhagavan.

Beacuse He is manifesting such sweet qualities, that's why this form and qualities are very suitable for people of Kali-yuga. Because the people are always distracted in material enjoyment, are unintelligent absorbed in material things, they need some powerful attraction to pull them out of Maya. That's why Narada Muni told Vedavyasa to tell people to worship Krishna because telling them to worship devatas and gradually advance

from tamo guna to rajo guna to sattva guna (ignorance - passion - goodness) is difficult and that's why Vedavyasa wrote Bhagavatam in such a way that the pastimes of Krishna become prominment.

The only way we will understand why Krishna is swayam bhagavan is by appreciating His extra qualities and by appreciating His pastimes with His devotees. By hearing the pastimes of Krishna, we can appreciate the extraordinary qualities of Krishna. One of the main angas of Bhakti is to relish the Srimad Bhagavatam in association of devotees as this will attract us to Krishna. By that attraction we will lose our absorption in the material world. That is the mood of Narada Muni while giving advise to Veda-vyasa.

Even the atmaramas become attracted to Krishna. When Sukadeva heard about the qualities of Krishna, he forgot all about Brahman or impersonal realization. He was an impersonalist but he became an exalted devotee of the Lord. So exalted that he surpasses Vedavyasa. So when Bhagavatm comes out from the mouth of Sukadeva it becomes very sweet becuase His realization is very high.

- HH Bhanu Swami (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1 Lecture)