Abode of Highest Pastimes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 28 June 2020, part 8

Question: Vrindavan is a village, and Dvaraka is a city, but still Vrindavan is superior to Dvaraka. Why is Vrindavan superior aspiration than other conceptions?

Because Krishna's real pastimes, what is called Vraja-lila, madhurya-lila (sweet, ecstatic pastimes), are happening in Vrindavan. That is why Vrindavan, Radha Kunda, Govardhan are the highest places. It is said in the scriptures, "Mathura is higher than Dvaraka, Vrindavan is higher than Mathura, Govardhan is higher than Vrindavan, and Radha Kunda is higher than Govardhan." This is the position of things.

When we say "Krishna's pastimes," we do not mean only His general pastimes—Vrindavan is the place of madhurya-lila, the place of Vraja-lila. We find in Srimad Bhagavatam also that Uddhav Maharaj said, "I want to be a blade of grass in Vrindavan, then I will get all the gopis' footdust on my head." In another way, Vrindavan is also the highest place because all the Vraja-gopis, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaj experience the feeling of separation there. This is different from any other place.

There is Vraja-Krishna, Mathuresh Krishna, Dvarakesh Krishna. They are not the same. Moreover, Vrindavan-Krishna never leaves Vrindavan. We see that Krishna goes to Dvaraka, Mathura, but Krishna actually never leaves Vrindavan. He Himself also said it, "I never leave Vrindavan." Therefore, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaj always think about Krishna, and Krishna is always in their hearts. Those pastimes of separation are going on there...

That is why Vrindavan is considered the highest (srestha) place; that is why all the goswamis stayed there. Whether it is a village or a city, this is not a question. Actually, now Vrindavan has also become a city—there are so many buildings there now. Vrindavan is made of dvadas-vana (twelve forests, or groves), but where have all the forests gone now? When we come to Vrindavan, we sometimes visit Belvan, other than that, there are only two forests left in Vrindavan—only Nikunjavan and Nidhuvan. All other forests have turned into buildings now—everything has become concrete, stone...

We also see that village people's hearts are often very simple. Somebody lives in a city, in a big apartment in a twenty-storey building, and there are fifty-sixty other families living there, but they do not even know who lives beside them; people have no contact with each other. Villages are not like that. In a village, everybody knows each other from two-three kilometres around them. So, whether Vrindavan is a village or a town, it does not matter. What matters is that Vrindavan is the highest place because, firstly, our guru-varga has said so, and, secondly, because we can see what pastimes go on in Vrindavan. Vrindavan pastimes of Krishna are different from Krishna's pastimes in Dvaraka. Dasya-rasa (servitude), sakhya-rasa (friendship), vatsalya-rasa (parenthood), and madhura-rasa (consorthood) always exist exclusively in Vrindavan Dham.

Are there any other questions from anybody?

Question: How can we recognise pride in ourselves?

Scriptures describe what is called pride. If somebody is very beautiful, they think, "I am very beautiful"; if somebody has much money, they think, "I am very rich," etc. There are so many egoistic people in this world, you can see that yourself. When you come to this practising life and if you can practise the line of Vaishnavism, then you can easily recognise pride. If you think about it carefully yourself, you can easily see what bad elements you have, and pride is one of these elements. It is easy to understand what our bad qualities are, what bad things we do, but if we do not try to understand it, that is another question. We must try to understand it. If we have some bad quality but we cannot see it ourselves, that means that we have some ego—ego prevents us from seeing our own faults.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.

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