Appearance of Lord Krishna

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Saint Petersburg, Russia
14 August 2009

মূকং করোতি বাচালং পঙ্গুং লঙ্ঘয়তে গিরিম্ ।
যৎকৃপা তমহং বন্দে শ্রীগুরুং দীনতারণম্ ॥

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim
yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

গুর্ব্বাভীষ্টসুপূরকং গুরুগণৈরাশীষসংভূষিতং
চিন্ত্যাচিন্ত্যসমস্তবেদনিপুণং শ্রীরূপপন্থানুগম্ ।
গোবিন্দাভিধমুজ্জ্বলং বরতনুং ভক্ত্যন্বিতং সুন্দরং
বন্দে বিশ্বগুরুঞ্চ দিব্যভগবৎ-প্রম্­ণো হি বীজপ্রদম্ ॥

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam
chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam
govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram
vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev’s associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.

Today is a very nice day—we are together and we are celebrating, making a festival with the devotees. This day today is called Sri Janmastami, the appearance day of Sri Krishna.

This festival is celebrated all over the world, and you heard that even in Nabadwip Dham many people do not know about Krishna consciousness, do not know about Rupa Goswami's line, but they know Krishna and they fast the whole day and night for Krishna. I heard that two thousand people have come today to our temple, and most of them are local people, not our disciples or devotees of our temple. Unmarried girls also like Krishna, and in Nabadwip they all fast the whole day and night for Krishna, they do not even drink any water today. And at twelve o'clock, one o'clock at night (Indian time), thousands and thousands of people will come to take prasadam there. And I am praying to all devotees: follow Krishna consciousness, chant the Holy Name. People come on this day and they are getting some sukriti through that. Here too, if there had been no temple here, if Radha Madhav had not appeared here, we would not have been able to come here. But so many devotees from so many corners of the country have gathered together today and are celebrating Janmastami, they are very fortunate.

You know how Krishna appeared on this day. It is written in Srimad Bhagavatam and I do not want to tell it in great detail. Krishna was born on this day at midnight.

Once, Kamsa Maharaj got some news (daiva-vani) from the heaven saying that his sister's eighth son would come and kill him, so he put his sister Devaki and his brother-in-law Vasudev into jail. Devaki said, "Brother, you know that it is the eighth child, it is so far from now, now it is too early, why are you putting us into jail now?" but he did not listen to her. He put them into jail and as soon as Devaki and Vasudev got a child, he killed them all one by one. Devaki cried so much, but Kamsa did not listen.

Finally, when Krishna appeared, He appeared with four hands like Vishnu, and Vasudev and Devaki paid many obeisances to Him, and thought in vatsalya-rasa (with parental affection), "Now Kamsa will come, he will kill Him! How will we protect Him? Kamsa will come any time now!" At that time, there also appeared one child, a daughter, in the house of Yasoda Mayi and Nanda Maharaj, and to protect Krishna Vasudev took Him to Yasoda's house and changed the children—he took Yasoda's daughter and left his son Krishna there.

Then, Kamsa saw his sister had got a beautiful girl and was going to kill her. Devaki asked her brother, "Please, she is a girl, she cannot kill you! Why are you doing this?" but he did not listen to her. He crushed the child against the wall, but the girl went up into the air and some sound came, "You think you have killed Him, but He is living now in Vrindavan, Nandalay..."

After that, you have heard that so many things happened. Kamsa tried to kill Krishna so many times, he sent so many demons, but Krishna finished them all.

Then, Krishna was sitting once in Imlitala, Vrindavan. (If you go to Vrindavan you can see near our temple there is a tamarind tree.) Krishna sat under that tamarind tree and suddenly saw His reflection in the Yamuna. He thought, "Oh, how beautiful I am! Why does Radharani cry seeing My beauty? Why does She always chant My Name? I want to know what kind of taste She always gets! I will come as a devotee, in Her form!" And Bhagavan Sri Krishna came in this age of Kali as Radha-Krishna's combined form—as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, taking the same colour as Srimati Radhika...

Gauranga Mahaprabhu came and always told everybody,

জীব জাগ, জীব জাগ, গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া-পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

He always went house to house, urging, "'Krsna' bole sange chalo! Say, 'Krishna!' Take Krishna! Serve Krishna!" He took the form of a devotee and personally taught us. He taught Sanatan Goswami, He taught Rupa Goswami. If He had not taught them, we would not have been able to know anything. That is why we must know Sanatan-siksa and Rupa-siksa (teachings of Rupa and teachings of Sanatan). If we read about it in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, we will know everything about the conception of Krishna consciousness.

— ‹ ÷ › —

Additional reading:

• Rupa-siksa • Sanatan-siksa • Rupa- and Sanatan-siksa (.epub file for offline reading)

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