In the previous episode, we had witnessed yet another significant message for our spiritual growth and progress, that Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is conveying through His divine “Krishna-Leelas”. We’ve in due course of yesterday’s episode how Bhagawan Bala-Krishna escaped from the punishment meted out to Him by Mother Yashoda. As His father, Nandagopa arrived at the house, he was shocked to see His darling child crying loud and being tied to the “Ural”. He immediately unties Bhagawan Krishna from the “Ural”, and with this, He gets the desired butter too, straight into His hands from His father! Upon seeing this, Mother Yashoda fumes with anger and frustration and this episode comes to an end. With this, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is free and what is His next move going to be? Is He going to keep quiet, or, is He going to play His pranks again? Let’s continue witnessing!
As Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is freed, He immediately sets out to meet His “girlfriends” in and around Gokula. As I had mentioned earlier as well, when we mean “girlfriends”, these people were ardent “Bhaktas” of Bhagawan Krishna. They were longing for His presence, not for fulfilling their physical needs, but for the divine spiritual experience of being with the “Paramatma” or the Supreme Bhagawan. In fact, we’ve also witnessed that the Devas (Celestial Beings) headed by Indra, had requested to spend time in unison with Bhagawan Vishnu, and when He incarnated as Bhagawan Krishna, He’s going to fulfill the request made by the Devas. This is the reason why the Devas incarnated in this world as the divine “Gopikas”, wherein they had obtained that divine opportunity to spend time with Bhagawan all alone.
Thus, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna sets out of His house again and the “Operation-butter” continues. While this happens on one side, He also goes house after house in Gokula to spend time with the young unmarried women there, who were yearning for His presence. As He visits each and every house, all the girls were angry with Him for the delay. Normally, it was a routine practice that Bhagawan Bala-Krishna spends around an hour with each girl every day. But because of today’s punishment, He’s a bit late and all His friends were sad. Bhagawan Bala-Krishna tries to convince them individually, explaining to all of them as to how Mother Yashoda had punished Him and that He wasn’t able to rush towards them. However, as it was already delayed, He wasn’t able to visit all the friends of His!
In fact, even when Bhagawan Bala-Krishna was tied up, He folded His hands as He was crying, isn’t it? The “Alwars” give a beautiful description to this act of Bhagawan Bala-Krishna. In fact, there are three descriptions here – Firstly, of course, it was a mistake of stealing butter on His part, and hence, He had to anyway ask for forgiveness. Secondly, it was a token of respect to His mother, that Bhagawan Bala-Krishna folded His hands and cried. It is because, Bhagawan Vishnu Himself was having a long-pending wish – Since He is a “Paramatma”, He doesn’t have a start or an end to His life. He’s a permanent entity. Since He’s permanent, He doesn’t have a mother or a father from whom He took birth. Thus, Bhagawan Vishnu was thinking within Himself for a long time – “Oh! How fortunate are the people in this world! They have their parents, to whom they can pay their obsteinence. However, I’m not that fortunate to have parents to do so!” Thus, when He got an opportunity to be born as a son to Mother Yashoda and Nandagopa, Bhagawan thus used this opportunity to fold hands and salute His parents! 🙂
These two descriptions aren’t that important anyways! The third description which the “Alwars” are giving here is of prominent significance – By tying Him to the “Ural”, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna wasn’t able to go to each of His friend’s places isn’t it? We’ve to also understand that the number of young women in and around Gokula were crossing five-hundred thousand (Five lakhs). Where is the time for Bhagwan Bala-Krishna to visit each of the five lakh people and give His divine darshan? Thus, by crying aloud and creating an alibi, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna made sure that all the five lakh people assembled in front of His house to enquire why their darling child was crying like this! With this, His work is minimised, isn’t it? 🙂 Rather than going individually to five lakh homes, if all the five lakh people come at a stretch to see Him, it becomes easy for Bhagawan to give His divine darshan to all the people at the same time, isn’t it? Hence, by folding His hands and crying, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna thanked Mother Yashoda for giving Him an opportunity to see all His five lakh ardent devotees of Gokula “under one roof”, so that He doesn’t need to keep going everywhere! 🙂
So for today, let us understand this important point and let us keep enjoying Bhagawan Bala-Krishna’s divine “Leelas” in a continuous manner. The reason why we’re spending so much time in each “Leela” is that, more than just the storyline, we’ve to understand the inner spiritual significance as to why Bhagawan Bala-Krishna performs them. Every act of Bhagawan is extremely significant, irrespective of any incarnation, isn’t it? Hence, let us spend our time today enjoying this segment of the divine “Krishna-Leela”! Stay tuned for the next episode for the continuation! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 