Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu has explained scientifically the supreme position of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. He explains that the jiva-souls, who are finite parts and parcels of Krishna, share fifty qualities (gunas) with Krishna. Krishna is infinite and the jiva-souls are finite. The jiva-souls share fifty qualities with Krishna in a finite way, that is, fifty of Krishna’s qualities can be found within them to the extent that Krishna empowers them.
The demigods like Siva, Indra, Chandra, Vayu, Varun, and so on share fifty-five qualities with Krishna. Narayan and Krishna’s various Avatars share sixty qualities with Krishna. But Krishna has four special, extremely wonderful qualities that He alone possesses — qualities that Lord Narayan, Lord Visnu, Lord Rama, and so on do not possess. Because of these exceptional qualities, Krishna is the supreme worshippable Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srimad Bhagavatam says,
ete chamsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
«There are infinite forms and expansions of the Lord, but Krishna is Svayam Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original and topmost form of the Lord. Everything comes from Him.»
Srila Jiva Goswami explained that the word Bhagavan means bhajaniya-guna-visista: He who has the most worshippable and attractive qualities. Because Krishna has the most transcendental qualities, more than the demigods and all other forms of the Lord, He is supreme. Krishna’s Name, Form, Fame, and Pastimes are all supreme.
Krishna is the supreme, original form of the Lord, but for Pastimes and creation Krishna appears in a variety of forms.
om purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate
purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate
«Krishna is infinite. He has infinite forms, and His infinite forms are all infinite. If you subtract anything from the infinite it is still infinite. Krishna’s infinite character is always naturally full, and all of Krishna’s expansions are also full. And still Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the most worshippable, original Lord.»
The spiritual world where Krishna lives eternally is called Vaikunthaloka or Paravyoma Dham. There, infinite eternally manifest forms of Krishna live within Their own abodes. We cannot conceive of this with our mundane intelligence. The Lord lives in the spiritual world in infinite different forms, each with His own paraphernalia, associates, and abode. All these forms of the Lord are known as Visnu-tattva. Lord Narayan is an expansion of Krishna who lives with His consort Laksmi Devi in Vaikunthaloka and enjoys unlimited power and opulence as He is gloriously worshipped by His associates with great majesty eternally.
Vaikuntha means vigata kuntha yasmad: Vaikunthaloka has the power to appear anywhere; it is infinite and can immediately take a position within the finite realm by the Lord’s will. Narayan has many Avatars. Mahavisnu, the maintainer of the whole material creation, is an Avatar of Narayan; Garbhodakasayi Visnu, the maintainer of this universe, is an Avatar of Narayan; and Ksirodakasayi Visnu, the maintainer of every jiva-soul, is an Avatar of Narayan. These Purus-avatars expand down from Narayan to maintain the material creation.
There are also other types of Avatars that come down from Narayan. There are the Lila-avatars: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Vaman, Nrsimha, and so on. These forms of the Lord appear within the material universe but also have eternal abodes in Vaikunthaloka. There are also Yuga-avatars, forms of the Lord who distribute the dharma of an age; and Saktyaves-avatars, empowered jiva-souls who fulfil the Lord’s will. There are so many different types of Avatars that come down to this material world from Lord Narayan.
yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham
paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya cha duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge
«Whenever irreligion takes the place of religion and religion becomes disturbed, suppressed, or polluted, different forms of the Lord appear to rescue the conditioned jiva-souls and give nourishment to the sadhus. The Lord’s Avatars come to make peace in the world, re-establish the religion of the soul, and perform Their play for Their own purpose.»
The Lord does not only appear once in this world. He appears many, many times to fulfil His various purposes. Sometimes persons learn something about one form of the Lord and through that think they know everything about the Lord. The idea may come to them, «I am a Krishna-bhakta. I do not want to see the face of a Nrsimhadev-bhakta. I do not want to see the face of a Rama-bhakta.» This is not the proper understanding. It is a lack of real knowledge actually.
Really it is very good to praise other religions. By having respect for other religions we can make a proper comparative study of theism. That is very good. It is very good to know why we practise Krishna consciousness. There are so many demigods and so many forms of the Lord. We respect the son of God, his Father in Heaven, and everything. But why do we worship Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead? It is necessary to understand this.
Lord Ramachandra is a very famous Avatar of the Lord who appeared in the Treta-yuga to re-establish the Vedic religion within the mundane world. Everywhere, everyone knows of Lord Ramachandra’s great character. All over India everyone is very enthusiastic to chant, «Jaya Rama!» His character is described in gist-form in Srimad Bhagavatam by Vedavyas, and in the Ramayana it is described in a grand way. There are so many stories about Lord Ramachandra’s great character, but the vital point of all of them is that He is Maryada Purusottam: He appeared to establish the Vedic religion, and His Pastimes were guided by the regulations of Vedic religion. All of His actions and His character were perfectly organised and moral. He set the example of the perfect practice of vidhi, the rules and regulations of the Vedic religion. His speciality was that He accepted only one wife (eka-patni-vrata-dharo).26 Through His character and example Lord Ramachandra re-established the Vedic dharma.
Lord Ramachandra’s character is so great, but it is completely different from Lord Krishna’s character. Lord Ramachandra is known as Maryada Purusottam, and Krishna is known as Lila Purusottam. Krishna’s Pastimes focus on love and play; for that reason Krishna is known as Lila Purusottam. When the Lord appears as Ramachandra He follows the rules of the Vedas perfectly, to the extreme. That is the character of Maryada Purusottam. But when Krishna appears to taste the love of His devotees, He sometimes does not follow the restrictions of the Vedic religion at all. Still, both Ramachandra and Krishna are Purusottam, forms of the Supreme Lord.
We must understand that Krishna is always the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He never loses His supreme position. Even if He does not follow the Vedic religion that He Himself establishes in the world in His other Avatars, He is still the Supreme Lord. We can understand this through the example of Bhismadev. Bhismadev had perfect moral character. It is beyond even doubt that Bhismadev could make any Vedic moral transgression. He was respected by everyone in the Vedic society as a Mahajan, a great, exemplary soul. Everyone everywhere knew of him and respected him. In large assemblies of kings, brahmans, and dignitaries, everyone would give first honour to Bhismadev. Everyone considered Bhismadev to have the highest dignity. But that Bhismadev gives full honour and obeisance to Krishna.
Once when Krishna came to an assembly of many great persons in which Bhismadev was the guest of honour, Bhismadev stood and said, «When Krishna is present here, He must receive first honour from everyone. He is more worshippable than anyone.» Then Bhismadev offered a flower to Krishna’s lotus feet in front of everyone. At that time Krishna had so many wives, so many girlfriends, and so many things. Through Bhismadev’s example everyone accepted that Krishna is Lord Krishna and He can do anything and everything.
There is a great difference between the worship of Narayan and His Avatars, and the worship of Krishna. There are so many religious teachings in the world. It is very rare to get Krishna consciousness.
The Vedic religion’s main teaching is that you must be pious; you must follow the rules and regulations (vidhi) of the Vedas for proper social and religious life. The Vedic religion teaches that if your character and behaviour is very clean then you can worship and satisfy the Lord. Respect is ninety per cent of Vedic worship. Vedic religion enables you to respectfully worship the Lord in His form as Rama, Nrsimha, Narayan, or otherwise. Through mantram and many instruments of worship you can offer your devotion from a distance to the Lord according to the proper rules and regulations.
The worship of Krishna is very different from the formal worship of Vedic religion. To worship Krishna you must offer pure love, affection, and the hankering of your transcendental soul. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught this process and mood of worship, which is known as raga-marg. The speciality of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s religion is love and affection. That is the only property used for worship in the line of Krishna consciousness. Through attachment to Krishna, love and affection for Him develop. Love and affection are most attractive to Krishna, and as one’s love and affection for Him grow more and more, Krishna becomes more and more satisfied. If someone has love and affection for Krishna, then anything and everything they do will be satisfying to Him. Any soul with that type of transcendental property is most fortunate. Persons who prefer vidhi-marg like to worship Lord Ramachandra, or Lord Narayan, or other Avatars of the Lord, but persons who prefer the mood of love and affection for the Lord, raga-marg, must be attracted to Krishna.
In this way we can understand Krishna to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead — Reality the Beautiful. Everything we desire we can find fully within Krishna. We want charm, beauty, love, affection, and ecstasy; we want success in our lives. All of these are fully present and alive within Krishna consciousness. All ecstatic activity is found in full in the Krishna conception. If we will try to search for a reason to serve and worship Krishna, then the answer will come that everything we need is fully manifested in an effulgent way in Krishna consciousness. In Krishna consciousness we will find everything that we need, so we must worship Krishna.
What do we really need? We do not need awe or reverence; we need happiness. We need joy. We need beauty. We need love. We are searching for these qualities; birth after birth we are trying to search for these essential things. We need eternal existence, harmony, and the nectar of love, beauty, charm, and sweetness. If we search for these things, we will find that all of them are fully present in the Krishna conception. In no other God consciousness and in no other God conception are they fully present. The Ramachandra conception, the Narayan conception, the Baladev conception, all the other Avatars of Krishna — none of Them can give us the same rasa, the same ecstatic relationship with the Lord.27
Why do I say, «No other»? There is a reason. If you search within the Krishna conception, you will find the sonhood of Godhead — the supreme worshippable Lord manifest in a lovingly playful, youthful form surrounded by all five possible relationships (rasas) with the jiva-souls: santa [attachment], dasya [servitorship], sakhya [friendship], vatsalya [affectionate guardianship], and madhura [intimate love]. In other conceptions you may find relationships with God like the fatherhood of Godhead or servitorship to Godhead. We see that there are many other types of relationships with God. But according to rasa-vichar, the science of divine relationships, the sonhood of Godhead is the best.
The Supreme Lord’s position is that He is the supreme controller of everything. But if that Supreme Lord can also be controlled by love and affection, that is an even more glorious position. Why? A father bears the burden of maintaining his children. If a father has no guardian, he has to maintain himself and also bear the burden of maintaining his children. A master must maintain his servants. A friend must care for his friends. But a son can have everything; he can have all types of relationships. When a son has a guardian then he can even do wrong and still be protected. If the Absolute Lord performs His Pastimes in a youthful form, He can enjoy all possible relationships. He can have a father or guardian, and under their care He can simply play and enjoy. When the Lord assumes the form of a son, His Pastimes become the Sweet Absolute.
Krishna is known as Vrajendra Nandan, the son of the king of Vrndavan. Krishna has a father and guardian, so He Himself can play; He can be worry-free.28 That is the most worshippable Sweet Absolute Reality — where Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always playfully situated in the centre of everything.
When the Lord has the youthful form of a son, then all relationships are possible with Him. He can have a father, a mother, brothers, servants, friends, and girlfriends; He can have everything. As a son, Krishna can be served from every corner in all different types of loving, affectionate relationships (rasas), and He can give ecstasy and joy to the heart of everyone. That is full-fledged theism, and only in such a conception is all beauty, charm, and ecstasy beautifully playing. Krishna is the most beautiful and extremely merciful. So much charm, love, and harmony are existing within the ecstatic Lord of the Krishna conception.
So many different ecstatic feelings all merge together within Krishna consciousness. The jiva-souls feel unlimited happiness through that. It is inconceivable but still it comes to them, and the process is a very sweet process. Santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhura rasas are the five kinds of relationships with Krishna. All are ecstatic; all are filled with loveliness, happiness, sweetness, beauty, and everything. To describe these Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami use the word chamatkara [astonishing]. Because all rasas are manifest in full with only the divine form of Krishna, Krishna is described as the Akhila-rasamrta-murti: emporium of all rasa.
Srila Rupa Goswami has explained the four special, extremely wonderful qualities that Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaj, alone possesses — the qualities that Lord Narayan, Lord Visnu, Lord Rama, and so on do not possess. These are the qualities that distinguish Krishna as Svayam Bhagavan, the most worshippable personality of Godhead.
Sarvadbhuta-chamatkara-lila-kallola-varidhih
atulya-madhura-prema-mandita-priya-mandalah
tri-jagan-manasakarsi-murali-kala-kujitah
asamanordhva-rupa-sri-vismapita-characharah
Sarvadbhuta-chamatkara-lila-kallola-varidhih: the first quality is that the Pastimes of Bhagavan Sri Krishna are like an ocean filled with dancing waves that stun and astonish everyone.
Atulya-madhura-prema-mandita-priya-mandalah: the second quality is that in His Pastimes Krishna is always surrounded by His associates, the super sweet, sweet gopis, gopa-balakas, and other residents of Vrndavan Dham, whose hearts and souls have full, unequalled dedication to Him in five kinds of relationships led by madhura-rasa.
Tri-jagan-manasakarsi-murali-kala-kujitah: the third quality is that Krishna attracts the minds of everyone within the transcendental and mundane universes and enters the hearts of His devotees with the melodious vibration of His flute. Srila Guru Maharaj explained that Om and gayatri come from Krishna’s flute song and that when He plays the flute, Krishna sings the glories of Srimati Radharani (Radha-padam dhimahi).
Asamanordhva-rupa-sri-vismapita-characharah: the fourth quality is that the personal beauty (sri, saundarya) of Krishna’s divine form is beyond compare. All moving and nonmoving living entities are astonished and faint to behold the beauty of Krishna’s divine form.
Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu described Krishna’s four super-excellent qualities in this way. Among these four topmost qualities of Krishna the final quality of His supremely attractive form is the highest. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said, bhusanera bhusana anga. This means that nothing is more beautiful than Krishna’s transcendental form: Krishna’s form beautifies even the ornaments He wears — Krishna’s divine form is the ornament on His ornaments.
We hear definitively that even Krishna Himself is maddened by the beauty of His form. When Krishna stands in front of a mirror, He forgets Himself and attempts to embrace His image in the mirror. He becomes mugdha, melted and astonished, to see His divine form. Krishna showed this to be true by His appearance as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Krishna is the reservoir of all beauty, and He Himself becomes mad to see His beauty. That is the incomparable quality and qualification of Krishna. No one can compare with the beauty of Krishna’s divine form or the love and charm flowing throughout His Pastimes.29
Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu also expressed His own vision of Krishna’s divine form:
Smeram bhangi-traya-parichitam sachi-vistirna-drstim
vamsi-nyastadhara-kisalayam ujjvalam chandrakena
govindakhyam hari-tanum itah kesi-tirthopakanthe
ma preksisthas tava yadi sakhe bandhu-sange ’sti rangah
Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur explained this verse: «If you have any attachment to staying within your circle of friends and enjoying mundane life, do not go to Keshi Ghat to see Sri Govinda’s divine form, which is the reservoir of all beauty. If you see His divine form attractively bent in three places, His stunning eyes, and His face glowing in the moonshine as He plays His flute, you will become completely enchanted and you will not be able to leave. You will never be able to return to the so-called pleasures of material life. It may be better for you not to go there.»
Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu expressed his vision of Krishna in this verse. It is his own vision. When we hear this verse we can feel something, maybe 0.1 per cent of Srila Rupa Goswami’s divine realisation. We cannot actually conceive of it. Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu can express it and we can simply try to harmonise with his feelings.
Lord Brahma also saw the divine form of Krishna and expressed his vision with his verse:
isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam
In this first verse of Brahma-samhita we see the real form of Lord Krishna expressed. This verse describes Krishna’s aprakrta form, His supramundane form, in which He plays with the cows, cowherd boys, and gopis in His eternal abode of Vrndavan in five kinds of relationships. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami also described this form:
krsnera yateka khela sarvottama nara-lila
nara-vapu tahara svarupa
gopa-vesa, venu-kara nava-kisora, nata-vara
nara-lilara haya anurupa
krsnera madhura rupa, suna, sanatana
ye rupera eka kana dubaya saba tribhuvana
sarva prani kare akarsana30
[«The best of all of Krishna’s Pastimes are His human-like Pastimes. His human-like form is His original form. His cowherd boy dress, flute-playing, adolescence, and superb dancing perfectly suit His human-like Pastimes. How beautiful is Krishna’s human-like form? One drop of its beauty floods the whole of the three worlds and attracts every living entity within them.»]
Krishna’s original form is like that of a human, like that of our own relative. The human form is the Lord’s original form and is the Sweet Absolute. When this is understood, then we can harmonise everything with that Reality. Without this realisation it is very difficult to harmonise so much of our worldly experience. The Pastimes of Krishna can harmonise everything. Evam sva-chitte svata eva siddha (SB: 2.2.6): when Krishna’s transcendental Pastimes reveal themselves in our hearts we will understand everything perfectly.31
Krishna appeared in His human-like form here in this mundane world like the other Avatars, but Krishna’s divine human-like form, Reality the Beautiful, is eternally present in the spiritual realm of Goloka Vrndavan. In Srimad Bhagavad-gita Krishna said to Arjuna:
janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti so ’rjuna
«Arjuna, My birth and death in this world are not like the birth and death of ordinary human persons. I show Myself to be like them when I appear, but actually I existed before I appeared in this world and continue to exist after I disappear. My form and appearance are divyam [divine].»
Divyam means aprakrtam. Aprakrtam means that Lord Krishna’s divine form appears like an ordinary man’s form, but it is actually not made of anything mundane. Krishna’s form is a transcendental form which is perfect, positive, and eternally existent in Goloka Vrndavan, the highest plane within Vaikunthaloka. Anyone who understands Lord Krishna’s divine form and appearance in this way will be liberated from birth and death. It is necessary to properly understand that His appearance and disappearance are not like the birth and death of mankind. They are like the rising and setting of the sun. The sun does not die when it crosses the horizon. It simply disappears from our vision temporarily and then reappears later. Anyone who understands Krishna’s divine appearance and disappearance in this way is liberated and attains the service of Lord Krishna in the transcendental world.
Krishna gave this knowledge to the world in Srimad Bhagavad-gita. We must honour and worship everything about Lord Krishna as transcendental. There is nothing mundane about His Name, Form, Qualities, Pastimes, and Associates. The scriptures have cautioned us about this.
visnau sarvesvarese tad-itara-sama-dhir yasya va naraki sah
«If we think Sarvesvar Visnu, the Lord of everything, is an ordinary person, then our understanding will be imperfect and that will take us to a hellish condition.»
By the grace of the scriptures, our Gurus, and the sadhus, we must think: «The birth and death of Lord Krishna are not like that of an ordinary human. They are transcendental. Krishna’s form is transcendental and eternal. Isvarah Paramah Krsnah Sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the Creator of all creation, and He has an eternal divine form.»
Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu has explained step by step how the play of Sri Krishna the Sweet Absolute is supreme according to rasa-vichar, the science of spiritual relationships.
vaikunthaj janito vara madhu-puri tatrapi rasotsavad
vrndaranyam udara-pani-ramanat tatrapi govardhanah
radha-kundam ihapi gokula-pateh premamrtaplavanat
kuryad asya virajato giri-tate sevam viveki na kah
This verse is very famous. It is very small, but it fully describes the position and gist of all the Pastimes of Lord Krishna. Vaikuntha, the abode of Lord Narayan, is infinite. In His opulent Pastimes in Vaikunthaloka, Lord Narayan eternally exists as the worshippable Deity, and all His servitors serve Him there forever, from a respectful distance.
Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu explains that in Vaikuntha there is no janita, birth, of the Lord. This means that Lord Narayan has no mother or father. Thus Madhupuri — Mathura Vrndavan — is superior to Vaikunthaloka because there the Lord manifests His transcendental Pastimes of birth and childhood. When the Lord takes birth and plays as a boy, His Pastimes are more exalted and transcendentally glorious. Why? Because the full range of relationships are possible with Him.
Krishna’s Pastimes manifest the full range of relationships: santa [attachment], dasya [servitorship], sakhya [friendship], vatsalya [affectionate guardianship], and madhura [intimate love]. Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes also include birth, so His Pastimes are more elevated than those of Lord Narayan. But Krishna’s Pastimes have something more than Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes. That is parakiya-rasa, paramour love. Paramour love is found only within Lord Krishna’s Pastimes.
Lord Ramachandra’s nature and character is to always follow the Vedic religion. In Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes the full range of rasas are present, but their movement is controlled by the rulings of the Vedas. In Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes the full freedom of rasa does not show itself in an effulgent way. Up to dasya-rasa Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes are so nice. Dasya-rasa is firm and full in Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes. Sakhya-rasa, vatsalya-rasa, and madhura-rasa are suppressed in His Pastimes. Sita Devi is Ramachandra’s wife, but Her mood is, «I am a servant of Ramachandra.» The tendency of all of Ramachandra’s associates — His wife Sita Devi, His father Dasarath, His mother Kausalya, and so on — is to consider themselves servants of Ramachandra.
This means that the madhura-rasa in Lord Ramachandra’s Pastimes moves only according to the respectful mood taught in the Vedas. Lord Ramachandra set the example of Vedic dharma and accepted only one wife. His quality is that He has only one consort. Thus there is no opportunity for the jiva-souls to become consorts of Lord Ramachandra. He will not accept anyone else but Sita Devi as His wife. But the Lord is so beautiful and attractive that we hanker to see His beauty and naturally feel that we want to be His consort. As Ramachandra, the Lord will not accept us in that way; but as Krishna, the Lord will. Krishna is the form in which the Lord will accept us not only as His wives but as His paramour lovers. Krishna has 16,108 wives, and, more than that, He has millions of girlfriends.
Krishna is the emporium of all rasa; the full range of relationships are possible with Him. In Vrndavan, Krishna takes birth. He accepts service in vatsalya-rasa and tatrapi Rasotsavad: He sports in the paramour love of madhura-rasa in the Rasa-lila, His dancing Pastimes with His girlfriends. And when Krishna performs the Rasa-lila, He does not enjoy paramour love with only a small group: Krishna plays with millions of gopis in this way. Krishna has that capacity.
Krishna is Supreme and everything is under His control, but as Vrajendra Nandan, in the play of the sonhood of Godhead, Krishna is worry-free and simply enjoys unlimitedly. That is the full-fledged theism found in Krishna consciousness. In His supreme divine form of Krishna the Lord shows His supreme nature through His capacity to enjoy.
raya kahe, — krsna haya ‘dhira-lalita’
nirantara kama-krida — yahara charita
This is a wonderful expression found within the Ramananda-samvad of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta. There Ramananda Ray says that Krishna’s nature is dhira-lalita, which means He is always in the beautiful ecstatic mood of srngara-rasa [madhura-rasa], and He has no job other than enjoying with the gopis. Nirantara, without ever stopping, Krishna playfully enjoys, spreads His Pastimes, and accepts the service of His beloved devotees.
This is the divine conception of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and He taught that it is the gist of Srimad Bhagavatam.
aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam
ramya kachid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita
srimad-bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pumartho mahan
sri-chaitanya-mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah nah parah
«The worshippable, desirable goal of our life is the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His divine form of Vrajendra Nandan Krishna, who is manifest in His abode of Vrndavan. All beauty, all charm, everything opulent, tasteful, and ecstatic is present within Krishna’s Vrndavan-lila. Everything is there in Vrndavan: Vrajesa Tanay Krishna and His full love-play. Service there, in the mood of the Vraja-vadhus, Krishna’s beloved girlfriends, is the supreme service, and that is our life’s goal, that type of ecstatic love for Lord Krishna.»
All beauty, ecstasy, and everything is present within the Krishna conception. Only Krishna can be our heart and soul. The full-fledged conception of Krishna consciousness is found in that Vrajendra Nandan Krishna conception, the sonhood of Godhead. A great devotee, Gunaraj Khan, wrote a book named Sri Krsna-vijay. It begins:
«nanda-nandana krsna — mora prana-natha»
ei vakye vikainu tara vamsera hata
«Nanda Nandan Krishna is my heart and soul.» Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev was deeply attracted to this conception, and after hearing Gunaraj Khan’s expression, Mahaprabhu was so charmed that He said, «I consider Myself a slave of a dog from the house of Gunaraj Khan.»
Raghupati Upadhyaya also described the sonhood of Godhead to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:
Srutim apare smrtim itare bharatam
anye bhajantu bhava-bhitah
aham iha nandam vande
yasyalinde param brahma
«Those who are very fearful of this mundane environment can be that way. They can worship the sruti, smrti, Mahabharata, Vedas, Vedanta, Upanisads, and so on. I do not want to go that way. I do not see that as my necessity. I feel that all I need is Krishna’s mercy. I know that Krishna plays in the courtyard of His father Nanda Maharaj, so I feel I will receive Krishna’s mercy through Nanda Maharaj. I feel that I need only to take the dust of Nanda Maharaj’s lotus feet on my head. By doing that I will surely receive Lord Krishna’s mercy.»
In his verse, Raghupati Upadhyaya describes Krishna as Parambrahma, the Supreme Absolute. Everyone already knows Krishna is Parambrahma: Brahma-samhita said it; Srimad Bhagavatam said it; and Krishna Himself said it everywhere in Srimad Bhagavad-gita. But who can conceive that that Krishna, who is Parambrahma, plays in the courtyard of His father Nanda Maharaj? Who can conceive that Mother Yasomati chastises Krishna with a stick? That is the inconceivable beauty of the Sweet Absolute Reality of the Krishna conception — the sonhood of Godhead.
Raghupati Upadhyaya later charmed Mahaprabhu with another verse. Krishna does not have only one kind of divine form; He has three, one for each of the environments where He engages in His Pastimes (Dvaraka, Mathura, and Vrndavan). The quality and qualification of Vrndavan Krishna, the youthful, playful Krishna, is supreme. Raghupati Upadhyaya said:
Syamam eva param rupam puri madhu-puri vara
vayah kaisorakam dhyeyam adya eva paro rasah
«The divine form of Syamasundar Krishna is the Lord’s supreme form; Mathura Vrndavan is the Lord’s supreme abode; Krishna’s youthful form is the supreme form of worship; and adi-rasa, madhura-rasa, is the supreme rasa.»
The divine youthful form of Krishna is the source of all rasa. All rasa comes from Him like Mana Sarovar, the lake in which the Ganges and all other sacred rivers are present. Krishna is known as rasabdhi, the ocean of rasa, the ocean of nectar. The jiva-souls are so fortunate because they are tiny and can swim in the nectarean ocean of Sri Krishna’s Pastimes.32
Rasa has five principal styles — santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, madhura — and seven kinds of secondary styles — hasya [laughter], adbhuta [wonder], vira [valour], karuna [sorrow], raudra [anger], bibhatsa [disgust], and bhay [fear]. In Krishna’s Pastimes all of these rasas swim together like baby fish happily playing together and kissing.
When time and fortune favourably come to us, we can enquire about rasa and our research will lead us to madhura-rasa. There are so many rasas but all rasas are present inside madhura-rasa. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explained:
akasadi guna yena para para bhute
eka-dui-tina-chari krame pancha prthivite
«As sky, air, fire, and water are present within earth, so all rasas — santa, dasya, sakhya, and vatsalya — are present within madhura-rasa.»
Madhura-rasa is the supreme ecstasy. It is sarva-rasa-samahara: the combined form of all rasas. We have heard that Krishna is the Akhila-rasamrta-murti — the emporium of all rasa — the concentrated form of all rasa, but, more than this general idea, we can understand that because all rasas are fully present within madhura-rasa, Krishna being described as the Akhila-rasamrta-murti means that He is Srngara-rasa murtiman: the concentrated form of madhura-rasa in paramour love.
All the scriptures have said this also, and that is a miracle! Vedavyas began the Vedanta-darsana with the sutras, «Athato Brahma jijnasa: search for Brahma», and «Janmady asya Yatah: He — Purnabrahma Krishna — is the source of everything». Then he wrote, «Anandamayo ’bhyasat: He, Krishna, is anandamaya, the Sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah: the embodiment of truth, consciousness, and ecstasy.» So the Vedanta-darsana begins by telling us, «Lord Krishna is anandamaya: He is the reservoir of all ecstasy, and we can find our full nourishment in Him.» Then Vedavyas said, raso vai Sah: «He is rasa; Krishna is rasa». So Krishna is the Creator of all creation (janmady asya Yatah), with rasa, with sweetness. In other words, it is Krishna the emporium of all rasa who is the Creator of all creation. This means that it is His manifestation — Krishna the Sweet Absolute’s manifestation — that is everywhere! It is the play of the Divine Couple, Radha-Krishna, that is the origin of everything; it is Radha-Krishna’s play that is overflooded all over the transcendental and material worlds. This is the real meaning of janmady asya Yatah, «That from which everything comes.» It is necessary for us to realise this and connect with it.
The play of Krishna, the supreme Powerful, with His supreme Power, Radharani, is eternally going on in Goloka Vrndavan, the highest plane within Vaikunthaloka. Krishna and His Power are nondifferent, Sasakti-saktiman, but Krishna divided Himself from His Power for the purpose of lila, Pastimes. He divided His Power from Himself for His own satisfaction and play. So the phrase ‘Supreme Personality of Godhead’ means Krishna the all-powerful with His Power (Radharani).
The Powerful and His Power are nondifferent. We cannot differentiate Them just as we cannot differentiate the sun from its heat and light. Krishna, the Powerful, is always depending upon His Power. Without His Power, the Powerful does not have His existence; He does not have His play. He is like a dry battery with no charge. We have heard Suka and Sari, the parrots of Vrndavan, debating:
Suka bali amara krsna giridhari chhila
sari bali amara radha sakti sancharila
Suka said, «My Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill.»
Sari replied, «It is only because Radharani gave Her power to Krishna that Krishna was powerful enough to lift Govardhan Hill.»
In this way we understand the position of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as Sasakti-saktiman: Krishna, the Powerful, who depends on His Power, Radharani.
The Divine Couple has been described very concisely and conclusively by Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami in a full-fledged way in the eighth chapter of the Madhya-lila of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta. There the full-fledged theism of Krishna consciousness is exposed. The position of Krishna and the position of Radharani has been fully described for us. There Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev asked Ramananda Ray many questions, and the supreme conclusion of worship of the Divine Couple Sri Sri Radha-Krishna was revealed. Srila Svarup Damodar has explained this concisely for us,
radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmad
ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha-bhedam gatau tau
«Radha-Krishna are One, but They divided Themselves for Their divine play in madhura-rasa-lila.»
The clue to the whole of Radha-Krishna’s Pastimes is given here.
radha-krsna eka atma, dui deha dhari’
anyonye vilase rasa asvadana kari’
Srila Svarup Damodar said, «Radha-Krsna ekatma: Radha and Krishna are One, that is, Sasakti-saktiman, but They have divided into two forms for Their own divine play of paramour love.»
If you say that Krishna is saktiman [powerful], then His sakti [power], Radharani, is already with Him; otherwise He could not be saktiman. Various forms of Krishna sometimes appear in this mundane world, but if you will understand that the original Divine Form of Sri Krishna Himself is the cause of all causes, the Paramesvar, the Creator of all, who Himself has no creator, then you must see that it is Sasakti-saktiman Krishna — Sri Krishna with His sakti Radharani — that is behind everything (janmady asya Yatah).
Like his Vedanta-darsana, Vedavyas began Srimad Bhagavatam with the phrase janmady asya Yatah. By doing this he showed that Srimad Bhagavatam is a commentary on the Vedanta-darsana, though at the same time he also showed that Srimad Bhagavatam starts from the platform of madhura-rasa.
nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalam
suka-mukhad amrta-drava-samyutam
pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah
If we think of the Vedas as a kalpa-taru, a wish-fulfilling tree, then Srimad Bhagavatam is like their fruit. Galitam phalam means Srimad Bhagavatam is like a nicely ripened fruit without skin or seed. Its rasa, nectarean juice, is very sweet and palatable. It contains the gist of all transcendental ecstasy and all the Vedic scriptures. Pibata Bhagavatam rasam alayam: until death try to taste the Bhagavat’s rasa. Again and again it will be tasteful to you. You will always find new taste there — in the Divine Couple’s eternal Pastimes.
eka-patni-vrata-dharo rajarsi-charitah suchih
sva-dharmam grha-medhiyam siksayan svayam acharat
«Ramachandra, who had the pure character of a saintly king and adhered to the vow of having only one wife,taught the dharma of a house-holder by practising it Himself.»
yesam srisa-prasado ’pi mano hartum na saknuyat
siddhantatas tv abhede ’pi srisa-krsna-svarupayoh
rasenotkrsyate krsna-rupam esa rasa-sthitih
«Narayan’s grace cannot capture the hearts of Krishna’s devotees. Although Narayan and Krishna are theologically nondifferent, according to rasa, Krishna is superior. Krishna’s supremacy is established by rasa.»
dadhi-mathana-ninadais tyakta-nidrah prabhate
nibhrta-padam agaram ballavinam pravistah
mukha-kamala-samirair asu nirvapya dipan
kavalita-navanitah patu mam bala-krsnah
«Awakened in the morning by the sound of butter being churned, Bala Krishna soundlessly enters the homes of the gopis, quickly blows out their lamps with His lotus mouth, and devours their fresh butter. May He protect me.»
yan martya-lilaupayikam svayoga-
maya-balam darsayata grhitam
vismapanam svasya cha saubhagardheh
param padam bhusana-bhusanangam
«Sri Krishna showed the power of His divine energy and assumed His form suited for human-like Pastimes, which astonishes even Him, which is the ultimate abode of fortune (the ultimate expression of beauty, wealth, power, fame, knowledge, and detachment), and which is the ornament of His ornaments.»
30 «The best of all of Krishna’s Pastimes are His human-like Pastimes. His human-like form is His original form. His cowherd-boy dress, flute-playing, adolescence, and superb dancing perfectly suit His human-like Pastimes. Please hear of Krishna’s charming form. One drop of its beauty floods the whole of the three worlds and attracts every living entity within them.»
evam sva-chitte svata eva siddha
atma priyo ’rtho bhagavan anantah
tam nirvrto niyatartho bhajeta
samsara-hetuparamas cha yatra
«Joyfully and resolutely serve the Soul who is self-manifest within the heart, the beloved, absolute, worshippable, all-pervading Lord. Doing so eradicates the cause of one’s entanglement in worldly existence (ignorance).»
kam prati kathayitum ise samprati ko va pratitim ayatu
go-pati-tanaya-kunje gopa-vadhuti-vitam brahma
«Who can I tell, and who will believe, that the Absolute hunts the wives of cowherd men in the groves along the banks of the Yamuna?»
Here Raghupati Upadhyaya suggests to Sriman Mahaprabhu that by His appearance the gloryof madhura-rasa will be revealed to the world.