Remembering Right Things

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 18 October 2020, part 4

Question: Do you have a favourite pastime of Krishna? Could you tell us that pastime?

Krishna has so many pastimes. You can remember the pastimes when Krishna bestowed His mercy on Kaliya-nag. Kaliya-nag means false ego (Kaliya-nag had so much ego)—in this pastimes, Krishna demolished this ego.

It happened so that Kaliya-nag came to live in a place near the bank of the Yaamuna, and while he was there, there were so many problems because of him—he spread so much poison all over Vrindavan and many birds, cows, etc. could not come close to the Yamuna; so many birds had died because of his poison.

In the meantime, Krishna had performed so many pastimes with His friends (He had killed Aghasur, Bakasur, etc.) so many things had happened in Vrindavan, and all Krishna's friends (Sridam, Sudam, Vasudam, Madhumangal, Subal, and others) would come home and tell their mothers, "Mother, Krishna did this today!", "Mother, Krishna did that today!" They told so many things to their mothers, but their mothers simply said, "You are telling us all this, but we cannot believe it. Tell Krishna to show us one of His pastimes, then we can believe it." So, Krishna decided to do just that.

One day, Krishna went to graze the cows alone (Balaram did not come with Him), and that was the day when this Kaliya-daman lila happened. Before Krishna reached the place where Kaliya-nag lived, first Krishna's friends went there and they all fell down dead. Krishna came there and rescued them all, gave them life. Then, He decided to do away with Kaliya-nag. But how was it possible?

Krishna jumped into the water and started splashing forcefully creating a lot of disturbance for Kaliya-nag. Kaliya-nag thought, "I am living quietly in a corner of the Yamuna, not disturbing anyone—who is disturbing me?" He saw a little boy splashing in the water, and he could not recognise who this boy was. What did Kaliya-nag do then? He coiled his tail around Krishna—he gripped Krishna so tight that Krishna showed that He had lost His senses. He was floating in the water and suddenly, although the sky was clear, so many clouds came, there was lightning, thunderbolt, etc. So many things started happening.

Then, everybody heard that Krishna seemed to have died, and so many Vraja gopis, Vraja gopas, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaj—they all came there and were about to jump into the Yamuna, but Balaram stopped them. Balaram knew everything, so He protected everybody saying, "Do not jump! Do not jump! Krishna will wake up! He will come out just now." They waited, waited, and finally Krishna started expanding His body until He got free from the bondage of Kaliya-nag's tail. Then, Krishna at once jumped onto one of the trees and then on the head of Kaliya-nag—He started smashing Kaliya-nag's head with His feet until Kaliya-nag began to vomit blood. Seeing that Kaliya-nag was about to die, Kaliya-nag's wives came out and prayed to Lord Krishna not to kill him. They begged, "Prabhu, what You did is very good. You have smashed his ego, it has taught him a good lesson, and it was necessary, but we request You to please not kill him completely otherwise we will become widows." Krishna listened to their prayer, "All right, I will not kill him, but I have a condition." What condition is it? "He has to leave this place because all the Yamuna, all the Vraja basis (all Vrindavan residents) are very disturbed by him. He has to go to Ramanak-dwip [an island near Fiji]." Kaliya-nag said, "How will I go there? Garuda lives there, he will eat me!" Krishna said, "Do not worry. He will not touch you. Garuda is My devotee. Show him your head—I have left My footprints on your head—and he will not eat you. You can stay there safely."

After Kaliya-nag left, Mother Yasoda took Krishna on her lap (Krishna was shaking having spent so many hours in the cold water of the Yamuna) and carried Him to the highest place in Vrindavan, Dvadasatila Hill. (Later, Madan Mohan's temple was established there, and the Deity of Madan Mohan was worshipped by Srila Sanatan Goswami.) Mother Yasoda thought that since it was the highest place, the sun would heat there more, but when she brought Krishna there, the sun became so strong, twelve times stronger, to warm Lord Krishna that all Vrindavan basis could not tolerate the heat. There started a wild forest fire. Seeing that all the Vraja basis were suffering too much from the fire, do you know what Krishna did? He ate all fire! After that, overwhlemed by vatsalya-rasa, Mother Yasoda brought some hot milk for Lord Krishna, for her son, and when Krishna took a sip, He said, "Ugh! It is very hot! I cannot drink it!" Mother Yasoda was amazed, "I saw just a few minutes ago how You ate all fire, and now You are saying You cannot tolerate that the milk is hot?!" Krishna said, "Have you seen that, mom? Do not tell anybody!"

Such was the pastime...

Question: I have seen that the Deity of Radha-Raman in Vrindavan does not have the flute, is there a pastime about it? Why is it so?

Yes, there is a pastime, but it is extremely high things. How am I to discuss such things in public? Radha-Raman is the highest and very sweet name and His pastimes have to do with the highest things. It is conjugal love, paramour love, it is too high. Radha-Raman is Krishna who always pleases Srimati Radharani—when He is busy pleasing Srimati Radharani, how will He play the flute? But we should not listen to this because our mind, our body are always involved with lust, involved with so much lust, anger, greed, ego, etc. How will we be able to digest such pastimes? It is very difficult to digest. When you see a girl, you cannot see she is your mother—when you see a beautiful girl, you always think, "Oh, I can make her my girlfriend!" Then, how can we listen to such things? Even Lord Siva cannot control himself...

I also want to say that devotees always want to come and participate in the kirtans. You can practise kirtans, play the mridanga, but you finish the evening arati in the evening and close the door. This is not a temple life. You cannot stay in the temple like rats and cockroaches—always staying in your room and coming out only to take prasadam. Gurudev did not go there to make the temple, but he instructed me to make it there, and there is a good number of devotees living there, but now they are not getting a chance to chant the Holy Name, they are not getting a chance to sing kirtans. Not only that, you always offer the bhog at 10:30 a.m., but it is necessary to offer bhog at 12-12:30, then put the Deities to rest and wake Them up again at 4 p.m., open the temple. It is necessary to keep proper times. Devotees can come, they can chant, pay obeisance. Give chance to devotees.

First practise chanting the Holy Name, concentrate your mind on service, and when you come to the highest position in your worship (bhajan), then you can ask such questions. Do you understand? I do not want to answer such questions. Gurudev did not speak about such things. These are sweet, intimate pastimes of Srimati Radharani and Krishna, they are not for everybody. Mahaprabhu had three and a half devotees who were qualified to hear such things. Mahaprabhu did not express everything in front of everyone—not even in front of Haridas Thakur, Advaita Prabhu or Nityananda Prabhu. He expressed deepest separation only with three devotees (Svarup Damodar, Ray Ramananda, Sikhi Mahiti) and a half (Sikhi Mahiti's sister, Srimati Madhavi Devi).

So, we must first practise Krishna consciousness, practise properly, chant the Holy Name, because our heart, our mind is always busy with nonsense things.

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