Sri Sri Raga-Vartma-Chandrika (Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipad)

TEXT 3:

madhuryadikam nirupate. mahaisvaryasya dyotane vadyotane ca naralilatvanatikramo madhuryam. yatha putana pranaharitve’pi stana cushana lakshana narabalalilatvam eva. maha kathora sakata sphotane’py ati sukumara carana traimasikyottana-sayi bala-lilatvam. maha dirgha damasakya bandhatve’pi matri bhiti vaiklavyam. brahma baladevadi mohane’pi sarvajnatve’pi vatsa-carana lilatvam. tatha aisvarya sattva eva tasyadyotane dadhi payas cauryam gopa-stri lampatyadikam. aisvarya rahita kevala naralilatvena maugdhyam eva madhuryam ityukteh krida capala prakrita narabalakeshv api maugdhyam madhuryam iti tatha na nirvacyam.

Then the characteristics of sweetness are defined. Sweetness is there when the human feeling is never violated, regardless of whether Krishna shows His divine prowess or not. For example, when baby-Krishna killed the witch Putana, He was playing a human child by sucking her breast. Although He smashed the very hard and gross cart-demon, He did so by kicking it with His tender foot soles while manifesting Himself as a baby of only three months, lying flat on His back. Although He could not be bound by mother Yasoda even with the longest rope, He also showed great fear of Her. Although He bewildered Lord Brahma and Balarama (by showing innumerable Vishnu-expansions of Himself) with His omniscience, He also tended the calves and cows. He stole the milk and curd from the cowherd women in an unseen way and He made love with many gopis while displaying His divine prowess (expanding Himself into as many Krishnas as there were gopis). If performance of merely human pastimes with much bewilderment and without any display of prowess is called sweetness, then the bewilderment of an ordinary naughty and playful child would also be called sweetness. Therefore this kind of definition of sweetness is not proper.

Kripa-kanika Vyakhya by Radhakund Mahanta Srila Ananta das Babaji:

First the blessed author defines the characteristics of Sri Krishna’s sweetness. Because Sri Krishna simultaneously displays both matchless sweetness and prowess during His pastimes He is called the Original Personality of Godhead by the Mahapurana Srimad Bhagavata. Although all the forms of the Lord are completely transcendental, they are called either amsa (particle) or amsi (original), bhagavan or svayam bhagavan according to their display of prowess. sakter vaktis tathavyaktis taratamyasya karanam (Laghu Bhagavatamritam).
In Srimad Bhagavata Sri Krishna has been established the Origin (amsi) of all forms of God in the verse ete camsa kalah pumsah krishnas tu bhagavan svayam.
This verse is the crownjewel of all verses, since it clearly establishes Sri Krishna’s status as the Original Godhead. Bhagavan Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasadeva has used this verse as a solemn declaration (pratijna-vakya).
With the help of this verse greatly realized saints like Sridhara Svamipada have established Sri Krishna-tattva as the Supreme Truth.
According to the Gosvamis this verse is the paribhasha (a definition which is applicable throughout) used for delineating the basic truth of Srimad Bhagavata.
The sentence or definition that explains the targeted thing by extending its power over the entire scripture is called paribhasha by the scriptures.

Even if this paribhasha is mentioned only once in the entire book, millions of other statements are regulated by it.
This verse is also mentioned only once in Srimad Bhagavata, but since this sloka clearly reveals its own siddhanta (philosophical conclusion) it is considered fully independent. All the other statements are subservient to it. Like a great king this great verse proudly makes its victory flag fly over the heads of all the different other verses. Srimat Rupa Gosvami has said: This Original Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is again manifest as most complete in Vraja, more complete in Mathura and complete in Dvaraka.

krishnasya purnatamata vyaktabhud gokulantare
purnata purnatarata dvaraka mathuradishu (B.R.S. 2.1.223)

Therefore we can find the topmost manifestation of Sri Krishna’s prowess and sweetness in Vraja. Within His pastimes the feelings of the Lord’s sweetness and prowess are fully revealed. Therefore when one wants to seek out the Lord’s prowess and sweetness one must enter into His pastimes. Without experiencing the flavours of the Lord’s pastimes He cannot be understood. Sri Krishna’s pastimes in Vraja are human-like, and these human like pastimes are the best of all.

krishnera yoteko khela,
sarvottama naralila,
naravapu tahara svarupa
gopa vesa venukara,
nava kisora natavara,
nara lilara hoy anurupa (C.C.)

“Of all of Krishna’s pastimes His humanlike pastimes, wherein He appears in His original human form dressed as an adolescent, expertly dancing cowherd boy having a flute in His hand, are the best of all.” In the pastimes that are just filled with prowess, awe and reverence will arise and sweetness will not be relished, and again in the solely human pastimes gravity and seriousness will be lost – one will start considering it just a mundane event. Therefore, wherever the God-like feelings and humanlike feelings keep each other in honour and continue creating all kinds amazing flavours, taking shelter of opposing natures, there the flavours of sweet pastimes can be truly relished. Hence the blessed author defines the characteristics of sweetness by saying –
“The great prowess may or may not be manifest, when the feelings of the humanlike pastimes are not even slightly violated it is called madhurya. The blessed author then gives examples from different pastimes.

In the pastime of killing Putana it is seen that the Putana-witch gave the Krishna-baby her breast, which was smeared with instantly lethal poison, to suck and that Sri Krishna began to suck it just like an ordinary baby. Sri Krishna’s godly power of destroying demons took away Putana’s life, but this did not even slightly violate Sri Krishna’s ignorant baby-pastimes. When Sri Krishna’s inconceivable conflicting powers thus simultaneously display great prowess and the beauty of such human like pastimes – this is madhurya.

In the same way, during the Sakatasura-vadha-lila, the three month old baby Sri Krishna was lying in a cradle under a great cart on the occasion of His autthanika parva. The greatly powerful demon tried to crush Sri Krishna under the great weight of the cart, but the omniscient baby Krishna, knowing through His almight what the demon’s plan was, began to cry and kick around with His arms and legs in the mood of a child, because He wanted to suck His mother’s breast. As soon as His tender toes touched the huge, hard cart it tumbled over on the strength of His inconceivable divine potency and fell apart, thus accomplishing the act of killing the Sakatasura in an unseen way.

Similarly, during the Dama-bandhana pastime mother Yasoda tried, but failed to bind Sri Krishna to a very long rope; every time the rope was two fingers too short. In Sri Krishna’s waist the vibhuta-sakti (power of God) became manifest and made it impossible for Him to get bound up. Again, on the strength of the acintya sakti, Krishna’s inconceivable potency, His waist was bound by a string of waist bells. While Sri Krishna thus displayed His inconceivable divine prowess by being endless on the one hand and slender on the other hand, He began to cry out of fear of His mother’s punishment.

In the Brahma Vimohana-lila Lord Brahma, who had kidnapped Sri Krishna’s boyfriends and calves, became bewildered by Sri Krishna’s deluding potency, while at the same time Sri Krishna was helplessly wandering from forest to forest in search of His calves and cowherd boyfriends, all on His own. Finally, on the strength of His omniscience, He understood that it was all the work of Brahma and He assumed the forms of all the innumerable calves and cowherd boys Himself, thus relishing the sweet motherly love of the cows and cowherd women of Vraja for a whole year. At the end of this pastime, even Sri Baladeva, Who is non-different from Sri Krishna Himself, was bewildered by seeing that the Vrajavasi cow herders and cows began to love their own sons and calves more than before. And even then the sweet pastime of herding the calves was manifest. Here there was a great sweetness, which did not violate the human like pastimes, even though there was a simultaneous manifestation of limitless prowess.

Then again, in His naughty childhood sports Sri Krishna went from house to house with His cowherd boyfriends to steal the cowherd women’s yoghurt and butter, and He showed excessive attachment to women in His adolescence. Although no prowess was manifest during these pastimes it was there without a doubt, because prowess is His natural innate property. shad-vidha aisvarya krishnera ciccakti vikara (C.C.) “The six kinds of opulences are transformations of Krishna’s transcendental potency.” Hence the prowess never disappears from Sri Krishna’s constitutional form. If purely human pastimes with all ignorance and not any display of prowess would be called madhurya, then the ignorance of an ordinary mundane naughty and playful child would also be called madhurya. In short, without prowess and the innate characteristics of Godhead madhurya cannot be accomplished. (3)

 

TEXT 4:

aisvaryam tu naralilatvasyanapekshitatve sati isvaratvavishkarah. yatha mata pitarau prati aisvaryam darsayitva – etad vam darsitam rupam prag janma smaranaya me. nanyatha mad bhavam jnanam martya lingena jayate. ityuktam. yatha arjunam prati pasya me yogam aisvaram ityuktva aisvaryam darsitam. vraje’pi brahmanam prati manju mahima darsane parah sahasra catur bhujatvadikam apiti.

That manifestation of God that does not depend on human-like feelings and is only revealing majestic, divine manifestations, is called aisvarya (prowess). When Krishna showed such aisvarya to His parents Vasudeva and Devaki, He told them (S.B. 10.3.44): “I showed you this four-armed form of Mine so that you can remember My previous birth. Simply by seeing Me as a human child you would not get this realization.” Sri Krishna told Arjuna (in Bhagavad Gita 9.5): “Behold My majestic form!” and showed him His prowess, and in His Vrindavana-pastimes He showed Brahma His thousand four-armed forms while he witnessed His sweet and beautiful pastimes in Vraja.

Kripa-kanika Vyakhya:

While defining the characteristics of Sri Krishna’s prowess, the blessed author says: “The manifestation that transcends human like pastimes and only show the divine prowess is called aisvarya”. He also gives examples from the different pastimes. When Sri Krishna advented in the prison of King Kamsa as the son of Sri Vasudeva and Devaki He appeared with four arms holding a conch, a disc, a club and a lotus flower, He wore yellow robes, His luster shone like that of a fresh monsoon cloud, He was adorned with the Srivatsa and Kaustubha-ornaments, His crown and earrings were studded with lapis lazuli and He was further adorned with waist bells, armlets and bracelets. In this way there would be no doubt that the Supreme Lord had appeared as the son of Sri Vasudeva and Devaki. Both of them offered reverential prayers to Sri Hari and the Lord, being pleased with their prayers, told them that in his first birth Vasudeva had been the Prajapati named Sutapa and Devaki had been his wife Prisni. They had performed severe penances for 12,000 celestial years. The Lord had become pleased with these penances, that were aimed at pleasing God and when He offered them a boon they prayed to Him that they might get a son like Him. Since for them there was no one like the Lord in all the three worlds, He became their son, bearing the name of Prisni-garbha. In the second birth they took birth as Kasyapa and Aditi and the Lord became their son under the name Upendra. This was their third birth, and to make it clear to them that He had once more descended as their son He had appeared before them like this. If He had appeared before them like an ordinary child they would not have been able to understand that the Supreme Lord has descended again as their son. Since there was no relationship with humanlike pastimes here at all, but a sole display of majesty and prowess, this is called aisvarya.

After giving the example of Krishna’s display of prowess before Sri Vasudeva and Devaki, who were the parental lovers, the author gives the example of the prowess displayed before the eternal friend of the Lord Sri Arjuna. After telling Arjuna about His opulences in the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Arjuna revealed his desire to see the opulent form of the Lord in the beginning of the eleventh Chapter –

evam etad yathattha tvam atmanam paramesvara
drashtum icchami te rupam aisvaram purushottama
manyase yadi tac chakyam maya drashtum iti prabho
yogesvara tato me tvam darsayatmanam avyayam (11.3-4)

“O Supreme Lord! Whatever You have said about Yourself is certainly true. O Supreme Person! I desire to see this majestic form of Yours! O Lord! If You consider me qualified to behold this form, then, O king of yogis! Please show me this imperishable form of Yours!” Hearing Arjuna’s prayer, Sri Krishna said:

na tu mam sakyase drashtum anenaiva sva cakshusha
divyam dadami te cakshuh pasya me yogam aisvaram (11.8)

“O Arjuna! With these eyes of yours you will not be able to see this form of Mine, therefore I will give you divine eyes, through which you can behold My mystic opulence!” The gist of what the blessed author has written in his Sarartha Darsini Tika of this verse is that Sri Arjuna is the eternal associate of Sri Krishna, not an ordinary man who is bound by maya. Therefore the eyes through which he could relish Sri Krishna’s sweetness were never mundane, physical eyes. What is then the meaning of the Lord giving him divya or transcendental eyes, through which he could behold His majestic form? The blessed author says that in this connection some people say that Arjuna could not behold the majestic form with his elevated eyes, that could catch the sweetest transcendental feelings and through which he could relish Sri Krishna’s sweetness. Just as a tongue that is accustomed to relishing the best sandesa-sweets can never eat plain brown sugar again, similarly the Lord gave inferior eyes to Arjuna that were able to behold His majestic form. This is the true secret of the gift of ‘divine eyes’. Through these eyes the Lord showed Arjuna His enormous majestic nature – this is a revelation of prowess that is absolutely not depending on any kind of human feelings.

In the same way Lord Brahma wanted to see the sweet glories of Sri Krishna in Vraja, and to show him these glories Him the Lord displayed thousands and thousands of four-armed forms. In this connection it is described in Srimad Bhagavata –

tavat sarve vatsapalah pasyato’jasya tat kshanat
vyadrisyanta ghanasyamah pita kausheya vasasah
caturbhujah sankha cakra gada rajiva panayah
kiritinah kundalino harino vanamalinah (10.13.46-47)

“When Brahma was thus bewildered by his own deluding potency he looked again at the cowherd boys and the calves. Then he saw these innumerable calves and cowherd boys with complexions like fresh monsoon clouds, wearing yellow silken garments, having four arms wearing conches, clubs, lotus flowers and discs and being beautified by jewelled crowns, necklaces, earrings and garlands of forest flowers.” Lord Brahma worships Sri Krishna in His majestic feature, not in His Vraja-feature. He is Sri Krishna’s occupied servant, therefore it should be known that Sri Krishna transcended His human-like nature and showed Him all these opulences, just to fulfil his desires.