(7/8) Caught!

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme
Translated into English from Bengali
17 February 2020, part 7

I told yesterday in a lecture that when Gopal was small, Kamsa sent the demoness Putana to Gokula to kill Gopal. Krishna knew everything, but when Putana came dressed up in a gopi's dress and showed the behaviour of a gopi, Krishna was very charmed to see it. So, when she took Him on her lap (intending to poison Him), Krishna gave her the place of His mother and drank her breast milk. She had smeared poison on her breast, but when Krishna began to drink her milk—He knew that to give her His mercy, He had to suck her life force out—He grasped her breast and sucked her milk so hard that Putana cried, "Leave me! Gopal, let me go! Let me go!" Gopal told her in His mind, "I do not catch anyone so easily, but if I do catch somebody, I do not let them go so easily!" Then, because He was taking Putana's life, He had to arrange for some place for her to die. He made her run out and flee to a field a little afar from the houses. There, Putana again assumed her enormous demoniac form, and everybody was astonished to hear the tremendous thud when she fell down, dead.

She had come to kill the Lord, but the Lord bestowed His mercy on her. How merciful He is! If somebody comes to kill us, we will kill the person to defend ourselves, but the Lord gave her mercy. This is Mahaprabhu's teachings—Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote: "Pratihimsa tyaji anye karaha palana (প্রতিহিংসা ত্যজি অন্যে করহ পালন): instead of ill-treating others, nurture them." So, bestowing His mercy on her, Gopal rescued Putana. You can say that He only killed her, how can we understand that she was rescued? When Putana died, she died in her demoniac form, so her body was enormous. The residents of Vrindavan cut her body into small pieces and arranged several pyres. When they put the pieces of her body on the pyres and began to burn them, the whole Vrindavan became filled with the fragrances of camphor and sandalwood, but when our bodies are burnt, does it smell of camphor and sandalwood? This is how it can be understood that Putana had been liberated.

Many of you have Srimad Bhagavad-gita at home and read it. The Lord explains to Arjuna karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, bhakti-yoga and many other yogas. But only when Arjuna said, "Prabhu, I have become Your disciple now. I will do whatever You say," did the Lord tell him His final word. A disciple (sisya, শিষ্য) is the one who is capable of being disciplined (sasan, শাসন). First, Arjuna said, "I will not fight", "I do not want all this happiness", but the Lord said that it was all illusion, "You are now a conditioned soul, bound by illusion, so you cannot understand anything." Even when Krishna showed His universal form, Arjuna still did not understand anything—he only became scared. When Krishna continued explaining and explaining more, then Arjuna finally understood it:

মন্মনা ভব মদ্ভক্তো মদ্­যাজী মাং নমস্কুরু ।
মামেবৈষ্যসি যুক্ত্বৈবমাত্মানং মৎপরায়ণঃ ॥

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi yuktvaivam, atmanam mat-parayanah

"Always think of Me, be My devotee, always worship Me and offer obeisances to Me. Thus offering yourself to Me and taking refuge in Me, you will come to Me."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.34)

যৎ করোষি ষদশ্নাসি যজ্জুহোষি দদাসি যৎ ।
যত্তপস্যসি কৌন্তেয় তৎ কুরুষ্ব মদর্পণম্ ॥

yat karosi yad asnasi, yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kurusva mad-arpanam

"O Kaunteya, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever vow you may keep-do everything as an offering unto Me."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.27)

When the battle was over and the Pandavas won the kingdom, Krishna came to His aunt, Kunti Devi, and said, "Pishima, your sons have got the kingdom now, they do not need to live in exile anymore. Now they can live happily, and you can also get some peace. My work has finished, so I am leaving for Dvaraka." What did Kunti Devi reply? She said, "Prabhu, You are going to Dvaraka, but without You, this kingdom is nothing. I do not need any royal happiness. If You are here, then I am happy to live in this kingdom, but if You are not here, I do not need it." The Lord was testing her to see if she would give Him up for royal happiness, but those who are intelligent will not give the Lord up. The Lord told Dhruva Maharaj also, "Here, take your throne and go!" But Dhruva Maharaj became shy, "Prabhu, I have made a mistake. I have been asking You for the throne, but I was wrong. Now that You have come, I do not need this throne anymore." This is what is said in the scriptures.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Bhajana-Siddhi
2) Ignorance Is No Excuse
3) Where There Is No Will There Is No Way
4) Mind Over Matter
5) Choice Is Yours
6) Load of Luggage
7) Caught!
8) Internal Poison