Sevya and Sevak

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Rama Navami: appearance of Lord Rama
Siliguri, 21 April 2021, part 2
Translated from Bengali

Why is Lord Krishna called sampurna-bhagavan (complete form of the Lord, or Supreme Personality of Godhead)? Because all five spiritual relationships are found in His pastimes: santa-rasa (neutrality), dasya-rasa (servitude), sakhya-rasa (friendship), vatsalya-rasa (parenthood) and madhura-rasa (consorthood). Somebody can say, 'Oh, I am a devotee of Rama, I am not a devotee of Krishna.' This is not correct. Those who worship Lord Ramachandra worship Him in the mood of servitude (dasya-rasa), but those who worship Lord Krishna do worship Him only in serviture – they worship Him in any of the five moods. Somebody sees Krishna as their husband (madhura-rasa) and prays, 'May Krishna become my husband in my next life.' Somebody prays to get Krishna as their son (vatsalya-rasa). Somebody can see Krishna in the mood of a servant, 'Krishna is my Master, and I am His menial servant.' Somebody also worships Krishna in the neutral mood (santa-rasa). Prahlad Maharaj is an example of this mood. He always kept quiet and worshipped his Lord internally. Sachi Mata, Jagannath Misra, Yasoda Mayi and Nanda Maharaj are vatsalya-rasa devotees. Vraja-gopis are madhura-rasa devotees. So, all five moods can be found in the pastimes of Krishna, but you will not find this in the pastimes of Lord Rama.

You can see in the pastimes of Lord Rama that Laksman had to suffer very much. He actually cried. When Ramachandra told him, 'You must take Sita Devi to the forest, to Valmiki's ashram!' Laksman has to cross his own heart. He could not disobey His elder brother because if he did, it would be disrespectful. So, Laksman said to His brother, 'You can tell me to cross my heart, I can take this pain, but why do You tell Sita Devi to go to live in the forest? I have to do it because I cannot disobey Your order, but I have never felt greater pain that this.' As the result, He became Balaram (Krishna's elder brother) in Dvapar-yuga.

Three Lords ride in chariots during the Ratha-yatra festival: Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. Jagannath says, 'I will go first,' but Balaram disagrees, 'No, I will go first. You are younger, so You will do as I say!' Why does He do this? Balaram is the object of worship (sevya) and the performer of worship (sevak). Krishna and Balaram are one, but They become two to manifest Their pastimes. So, why does Balaram's chariot go first? He clears the road and makes sure that no obstacles, no danger comes in the way ('I will take care of all danger so that My Lord does not have to face any difficulty').

You know that Krishna plays the flute, but what does Balaram play? A horn. When Krishna plays the flute, it makes all gopis very happy and all cows come to the call, but when Balaram blows His horn, everyone begins to tremble and all demons flee, 'Oh no! Balaram is coming! Run for your life!' This is Balaram. He comes first to do service.

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