Uddhava Visiting Vṛndāvana

Forty-sixth Chapter. Subject: "Uddhava Visiting Vrndavana."

When Nanda Maharaja returned to Vrndavana without Krsna and Balarama, only accompanied by the cowherds boys and men, it was certainly a very, very pathetic scene for all the gopis and mother Yasoda and Srimati Radharani and all other inhabitants of the residents of Vrndavana, and many devotees have tried to adjust how Krsna could be away from Vrndavana. According to expert opinion, Krsna, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, never goes even a step out of Vrndavana. He always remains there. Under this expert opinion, Krsna was actually not absent from Vrndavana, but He came back with Nanda Maharaja as promised by Him.

When He was going to Mathura on the chariot drawn by…, driven by Akrūra, at that time all the gopis were practically blocking the way, but Krsna assured them that He was coming back just after finishing the business in Mathura. They should not be so much overwhelmed. In this way, Krsna pacified them. But when He did not come back with Nanda Maharaja, it appears either He cheated them or He could not keep His promise. But expert devotees have decided that Krsna neither can be cheater nor can He break His promise. But Krsna, in His original identity, returned back with Nanda Maharaja and was staying with the gopis and mother Yasoda in a bhava expansion. In other words, Krsna and Balarama who remained in Mathura, They are not original Krsna and Balarama, but They are the expansions of Krsna and Balarama, namely Vasudeva and Sahkarsana. Real Krsna and Balarama was in Vrndavana in a bhava manifestation, whereas in Mathura the Krsna and Balarama was prabhava and vaibhava. This is the expert opinion of devotees of Krsna.

But externally when Nanda Maharaja was coming back, there was a discussion between him and Krsna and Balarama how they could be separated. But the conclusion was adopted by mutual agreement, because Vasudeva and Devaki happened to be the real father of Krsna and Balarama. They wanted to keep Them now on account of the death of Kamsa, the enemy. They were kept under the protection of Nanda Maharaja in Vrndavana for fear of Kamsa. Now naturally, the father and mother of Krsna would want Them to remain with them, specifically for the reformatory function such as to purify Them with sacred thread ceremony and to give Them education as the duty of the father.

Besides that, there are other consideration. Kamsa being killed by Krsna, all the friends of Krsna [Kamsa] outside Mathura, they were also planning to attack Mathura. In that sense, Krsna's presence was required. Krsna did not like that Vrndavana should be disturbed by the enemies like Dantavakra and Jarasandha, because if Krsna would have gone to Vrndavana, they would not only attack Mathura, but they would proceed up to Vrndavana, and the peaceful inhabitants of Vrndavana absorbed in Krsna thought would have been disturbed. So He decided to remain in Mathura, and Nanda Maharaja came back. But although they were feeling separation of Krsna, in that feeling, the bhava, the ecstasy, was that Krsna was always present with them by His lila, or pastimes.

Since Krsna departed from Vrndavana to Mathura, the inhabitants of Vrndavana, especially mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja, Srimati Radharani, the gopis and the cowherds boys, they were simply thinking of Krsna in every step. They were feeling that "Krsna was playing in this way here. Krsna was blowing His flute in this way here. Krsna was joking with us in this way. Krsna was embracing us like this way." So this lila-smarana, this lila-smarana association of Krsna is the most recommended factor by great devotees. Even Lord Caitanya, He was also enjoying this lila-smarana association of Krsna when He was at Puri. In other words, those who are on the most exalted position of devotional service and ecstasy, they can live with Krsna always by remembering His pastimes.

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has given us one transcendental literature of the name Krsna-bhavanamrta. Krsna-bhavanamrta. This Krsna-bhavanamrtam is full with Krsna's pastimes, and those who are in the elevated condition of devotional service, they always remain absorbed in Krsna thought by reading such book. Any book of Krsna-lila, even this book, Krsna, or Teachings of Lord Caitanya, they are actually solace for devotees who are feeling the separation of Krsna.

So the summary is that Krsna and Balarama did not come back to Vrndavana can be adjusted that They did not break Their promise, neither They were absent, but Their presence was necessary in Mathura. In this way, things were going on.

In the meantime, Uddhava, a cousin-brother of Krsna, He was the son of Vasudeva's brother and almost contemporary to Krsna, and his bodily feature was almost exactly resembling Krsna. He came to see Krsna from Dvaraka, and Krsna, after returning from His teacher's home, He was pleased to see Uddhava, who happened to be His most dear friend also. He wanted to send him to Vrndavana to send some message to the residents of Vrndavana on account of their deep feelings of separation.

As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, ye yatha mam prapadyante [Bg 4.11], Krsna is very, very responsive.

He responses in proportion to the advancement of devotional service of the Lord. As such, the gopis were thinking of Krsna twenty-four hours in separation. Similarly, Krsna was also thinking of the gopis and the residents of Vrndavana, mother Yasoda, Nanda, always, although He appeared to be away from them. So He could understand how much they are transcendentally aggrieved, and so immediately He wanted to send Uddhava to give them some message of solace.

This Uddhava is described as the most exalted personality in the Vrsni dynasty, almost equal to Krsna. He was a great friend, and on account of his being directly the student of Brhaspati, who happened to be the teacher and the priest in the heavenly planets, he was very, very intelligent and sharp decision. But in spite of his being highly qualified in so many ways from intellectual point of view, Krsna being a very, very loving friend of Uddhava, He wanted him to send…, to go to Vrndavana just to study the highly elevated ecstatic devotional service of the gopis and the residents of Vrndavana.

In other words, even if one is highly elevated in material education, just as to become the direct disciple of Brhaspati, still, how to love Krsna to the highest point one has to learn from the gopis and the residents of Vrndavana. So this was a special favor of Krsna towards Uddhava; therefore, He decided to send him to Vrndavana with some message to be delivered to the residents of Vrndavana so that they may be a little bit pacified.

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Krsna's name is Hari, which means one who takes away all the distress conditions of the surrendered souls. The gopis of Vrndavana were the exemplary [indistinct] of surrendered soul, so much so that Lord Caitanya accepts that there cannot be any better type of worshipment as it was conceived by the gopis. So Krsna, being very much anxious for their aggrievement, one day He talked with Uddhava and with great politeness He requested him to go to Vrndavana, shaking his hand with His hands, and He spoke as follows.

"My dear gentle friend Uddhava, please go to Vrndavana immediately and try to pacify My father and mother, Nanda Maharaja and Yasodadevi. And the gopis are very much aggrieved, so much so they are as if suffering from a great ailments. So if you go and give them some message, I hope their ailments may be partially relieved. The gopis are always absorbed in My thought. Their life and soul I am. They have dedicated their everything, including body and desire for Me. Not only the gopis; anyone who sacrifices everything, namely society, friendship, love, personal comforts, for him I am very much anxious, and it is My duty to protect such exalted devotee. To the gopis I am the dearest than the dearest, and they are always thinking of Me in such a way that they remain always overwhelmed in anxiety on account of separation from Me. On account of My separation, the gopis are living almost dead, but they are keeping their vitality. But still they are in living condition simply by thinking that I am returning back very soon."

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Thus being requested by Lord Krsna, Uddhava immediately carried His message to Gokula, where Nanda Maharaja was living, on his chariot. Thus he approached Vrndavana at the sunset of the day, when the cows were returning home from pasturing ground, and his chariot was covered by the dust raised by the hoofs of the cows. Uddhava saw in the blocks of the cows, the bulls were running after mating the mature cows, and other cows, being overladened with milk in their bags, were running after the calves to feed them with milk. Uddhava saw that the whole land of Vrndavana was full with white cows and their calves, and there was regular sound of milking. All the cows were thus engaged running here and there all over Gokula. Every residential house in Vrndavana were very much decorated for worshiping the sun-god, the fire-god, receiving guests, cows, the brahmanas, the demigods, and every home was illuminated with lights and incense in great sanctified position. All over Vrndavana there were nice gardens full with flowers and humming sound of the bees and birds, and the lakes were full with lotus flowers surrounded by ducks and swans.

In this way, when Uddhava entered the house of Nanda Maharaja, he immediately received him as a representative of Vasudeva and offered him nice place and also sat down with him to ask him about the messages of Krsna and Balarama and other family members in Mathura. He could understand that Uddhava was great confidential friend of Krsna; therefore he must have had come there with some good messages. "My dear Uddhava, please tell me how my friend Vasudeva now enjoying life. He is now released from the internment of Kamsa, and he is now with his friends and children, Krsna and Balarama. He must be very, very happy, and let me know about him and his welfare. We are also very much happy that the Kamsa, the most sinful demon, is now killed. He was always envious to the family of the Yadus and his friends and relatives. Now on account of his own sinful reaction, he is dead and gone, along with his all brothers. Also please let us know whether Krsna is remembering His father, mother here, His friends and companions in Vrndavana. Does He like to remember His cows, His gopis, His Govardhana Hill, His pasturing ground in Vrndavana nowadays, or has He forgotten all these now? Is there any possibility of His coming back to see here His friends and relatives so that we can again see His beautiful face with raised nose and lotus-like eyes? We are simply remembering about Krsna, how He saved us from the forest fire, how He saved us from the great snake Kaliya in the Yamuna, how He saved us from so many other demons, and we simply think of Him how much obliged we are for His giving us protection from so many dangerous positions.

"My dear Uddhava, when we think of Krsna-about His beautiful face, eyes, and about His different activities here in Vrndavana-we become so much overwhelmed that actually all our other activities become stunted. We simply think of Krsna, how He used to smile, how He was looking upon us with grace, and thus we become standstill from any other activities. When we go on the banks of the Yamuna and other lakes of Vrndavana or we go near the Govardhana Parvat or the pasturing field, we see the impression of Krsna's footprints on the surface of the earth and immediately we remember Him, how He was playing in those places, because He was constantly visiting such places. In this way, when His appearance within our mind becomes manifest, we immediately become absorbed in thought of Krsna.

"We think, therefore, Krsna and Balarama may be some of the chief demigods in the heaven, and just to execute some particular duties on the earth They have appeared before us just like ordinary boys. And this was foretold by Gargamuni while making Krsna's horoscope some times back. Otherwise, how Krsna could kill Kamsa, who possessed the strength of ten thousand elephants? And besides him, there were other very strong wrestlers, as well as the giant elephant of the name Kuvalayapiḍa, and all these animals and demons were killed by Him exactly like the lion kills some ordinary animal. Oh, how wonderful it is that Krsna took in His one hand the very heavy and big bow exactly made of three palm trees jointly and He broke it very quickly, and how wonderful it is that continually for seven days He held up the Govardhana Hill in one hand. How wonderfully He has killed all the demons like Pralambasura, Dhenukasura, Aristasura, Trnavartasura, Bakasura, who were so strong that even the demigods in the higher planets were afraid of them, but still Krsna killed them as easily as anything."

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In this way, Nanda Maharaja, while he was describing the uncommon activities of Krsna before Uddhava, gradually he became so much overwhelmed with the thoughts that he could not speak anymore, but he remained stopped. And what to speak of mother Yasoda. She was sitting by the side of her husband and was hearing the pastimes of Krsna. She also, without expressing anything from the mouth, she was simply crying, and incessant torrents of tears were gliding down from her eyes and incessant torrents of milk was pouring down from her breasts.

When Uddhava saw Maharaja Nanda and Yasoda both extraordinarily overwhelmed with the thoughts of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and experienced their extraordinary affection for Krsna, he also became overwhelmed and began to speak as follows: "My dear mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja, you are most respectable amongst the human being, because nobody except you can fix up his mind in transcendental ecstasy like you."

Both Balarama and Krsna are the original Personalities of Godhead, from whom the cosmic manifestation has taken place. He is the chief amongst all other personalities. Both of Them are the material and effective causes of this material creation, and the material nature and its conductor, the purusa incarnation, they are all acting under Krsna and Balarama. By Their partial representation They are entered in the heart of all living entities, and They are the source of all knowledge. Krsna is the source of all knowledge and He is the source of all forgetfulness also. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, Fifteenth Chapter, wherein it is stated that "I am staying in everyone's heart. From Me one remembers and from Me one forgets. I am the original compiler of the Vedas, and I am the actual knower of the Vedas."

Krsna being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, if a person at the time of death, even for a moment, can fix up his pure mind upon Krsna, then immediately he becomes eligible to give up this material body and appear in his original, spiritual body, exactly like the sun rises with all illumination. And thus passing his life in this way, immediately he enters into the spiritual kingdom, Vaikuntha. This is the result of Krsna consciousness practice.

While we have got our living condition in this body and we are in healthy condition, in good modes of mind, if we practice Krsna consciousness simply by chanting the holy maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, then there is every possibility of fixing our mind upon Krsna at the time of death. And if that is done, then our life becomes successful, without any doubt. Similarly, if we keep our mind always absorbed in fruitive activities for material enjoyment, then naturally at the time of death we shall think of such activities and again be entered into a material conditioned body to suffer the threefold miseries of material existence. To remain therefore always absorbed in Krsna consciousness, if not to the standard of the inhabitants of Vrndavana as exhibited by Maharaja Nanda and Yasoda and other gopis, if we can simply follow their footsteps, even to the proportion of a minute portion, our life will surely become successful for entering into the spiritual kingdom, Vaikuntha.

"My dear mother Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja, you have thus fixed up your minds wholly and solely upon that Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, in His transcendental form-the cause of impersonal Brahma, because the Brahma effulgence is only bodily rays of Narayana. And because you are always compact in ecstasy in the thought of Krsna and Balarama, what else pious activity remain to be done by you? I have brought the message from Krsna that He would very soon come back again to Vrndavana and satisfy you both by His personal presence. Krsna promised that He would come back to Vrndavana after finishing the business in Mathura. That He will surely fulfill. I therefore request you both, who are the greatest amongst all fortunates, that you may not be very much aggrieved on account of Krsna's absence in Vrndavana. You are already perceiving His presence twenty-four hours, and still He will physically also come and see you very soon.

"Actually He is present everywhere and in everyone's heart, exactly like fire is there in every wood. Krsna being the Supersoul of every entity, for Him nobody is enemy or nobody is friend, nobody is equal to Him, nobody is lower than Him or higher than Him or equal to Him. As such, factually He has no father, mother, brother or relative, neither does He require any society, friendship and love. Nor He has got any material body like us. As such, He never appears or takes birth just like ordinary human being from father and mother. He does not appear in higher or lower grades of species of life like ordinary living entity, who are forced to take birth on account of their previous fruitive activities. Still, He appears by His internal potency just to give protection to His devotee.

"He is never influenced by the modes of material nature. Still, when He appears within this material world, it seems that He is also acting like a ordinary living entity under the spell of three modes of material nature. In fact, He is the overseer of this material creation, and without being affected by the material modes of nature, He creates, maintains and dissolves the whole cosmic manifestation. We wrongly think of Krsna and Balarama as if ordinary human being, exactly like a whirling man on account of his whirling position sees the whole world whirling round him.

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna is nobody's son, but He is actually everybody's father, mother and the supreme controller, without any doubt. Within this cosmic manifestation whatever is being experienced, whatever is not being experienced, whatever is already in existence or whatever is not in existence, or whatever will be in existence in future, whatever is the smallest and whatever is the biggest, everything has no separate existence without being supported by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As such, everything is resting in Him, but still He is out of touch of everything manifested."

Nanda and Uddhava thus passed the whole night talking about Krsna like this, and at the end of the night, early in the morning, the gopis prepared for mahgala-aratrika. Thus they lighted up their lamps and sprinkled over water mixed with yogurt. After finishing their mahgala-aratrika, immediately they engaged themselves in the business of churning butter from the yogurt. While the gopis were engaged in churning butter, the lamps reflected on the ornaments on the body became still more illuminated, and because they were pulling on the ropes fixed up in the churning rod, their arms, their earrings, their bangles in the hand, their breasts, everything was moving, and on account of kuhkuma powder being spread over their body, the luster of their face became compared with the rising sun in saffron color.

While churning the butter, they were also singing the glories of Krsna, and the two kinds of sound vibration mixed together were rising up to the sky and thus sanctifying the whole atmosphere. After this, immediately after the sunrise, as usual the gopis came to see Nanda Maharaja and Yasoda to offer their respect. But when they saw at the door the golden chariot of Uddhava, they began to inquire amongst themselves what was that chariot and to whom it belonged. Some of them inquired if Akrūra, who took away Krsna, had again come here. They were not very much pleased with Akrūra because, being engaged in the service of Kamsa, he took away Krsna, the lotus-eyed, carried to the city of Mathura. All the gopis conjectured that Akrūra might have come again to fulfill another cruel plan. But the y said, "We are now dead bodies without our supreme master, Krsna, and what further harm he can commit on these dead bodies?" While they were talking amongst themselves in this way, Uddhava also by this time finished his morning ablution and morning prayers, chanting etc., and came before them.

Next paragraph.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Forty-sixth Chapter of Krsna in the matter of "Uddhava Visiting Vrndavana."