It was explained in the previous articles that when Shree Krishna takes avatar on the
earth, He maintains His supreme Divine status. He does not become a man, and He does not stop being God. Nevertheless, He is seen behaving like an ordinary child. He fusses when He wants to be fed, He loves to sit on His mother’s lap, He cries when His mother scolds Him, He enjoys playing new games with His friends, He is groggy when He wakes up in the morning, and He is jealous if His brother gets more attention than He does. How is it possible to both maintain His status as supreme God, and behave as an ordinary boy?
Five ways of loving God
The secret is in the eleventh shlok of the fourth chapter, which illustrates the amazing power of devotion. Shree Krishna says that He devotes Himself to a soul in whatever way they surrender to Him. What does this mean?
There are five main ways of feeling related to Shree Krishna: shant bhav (you are the subject and He is the king), dasya bhav (you are the servant and He is the master), sakhya bhav (you are friends), vatsalya bhav (you are the mother/father and He is your son), and madhurya bhav (He is your soul beloved).
When someone surrenders to Shree Krishna, they generally do so with one of the relational feelings described above. Accordingly, Shree Krishna accepts the feelings of His devotee, divinizes them, and reciprocates the feeling. In other words, however a devotee loves Him, He loves that devotee the same way in return.
As you can see, devotion – or bhakti – is an amazing thing. Bhakti is not only practiced by the devotee who wishes to attain God, but it is practiced by God, once the devotee has attained Him. God Himself is bound by the love of His devotee. So if someone loves Him as the supreme Lord (shant bhav), He naturally loves them as a king loves his loyal subject. If someone loves Him as their master (dasya bhav), He naturally loves them as His close and trusted servant. If someone loves Him as a friend (sakhya bhav), He naturally loves them as His dear and personal friend. If someone loves Him as their son (vatsalya bhav), He naturally loves them as His very own mother or father. And if someone loves Him as their beloved (madhurya bhav), He naturally loves them as His dearest one.
Because of this, Narad Ji has said “amrit swaroopa cha” when describing the characteristics of bhakti, which means that bhakti never ages, fades or expires. It lasts forever because once the devotee meets God, the bhav He has worshipped Him with is transformed into a Divine relationship which becomes the guiding force of all their interactions forever in the Divine world.
This force is a Divine power called Bhakti. It is Shree Krishna’s most intimate power, which is so great that it allows Him to behave as an ordinary boy, even though He is supreme God.
In other words, the power of Bhakti makes supreme God Shree Krishna behave according to our love for Him – and when this happens, His Divine status as the all-knowing, all-powerful God becomes secondary. This is when the true sweetness of His leelas is manifested, which is relished by both God realized Saints and aspiring devotees.
The greatness of the Brajwasis
The residents of Braj (the childhood home of Shree Krishna) were all God realized Saints who had worshipped Him according to one of the 5 relational feelings described above. His friends the Gwalbals are Saints of sakhya bhav; his mother Yashoda and father Nand baba are Saints of vatsalya bhav; and the Gopis are Saints of madhurya bhav.
Even the creator Brahma praised the greatness of the Gwalbals when he said “aho bhagyamaho bhagyam nand gop vrajaukasam, yanmitram paramanandam poornam brahm sanatanam” [Bhagwatam]. Brahma had been confused by seeing Bal Gopal having lunch with the Gwalbals in the forest in a very playful way. Shree Krishna was seated in the center of many concentric rings of Gwalbals, all of whom had brought food from home to share with Kanhaiya while out grazing the calves.
As Brahma watched from above while seated in his aerial chariot, little Kanhaiya joked, laughed and shared food with all of His friends. Brahma wondered how supreme God could behave in such an informal way. He did not understand the secret of Krishna’s leelas and the Divine power of Bhakti.
However, after surrendering to Shree Krishna, with His grace he was able to realize the greatness of what he was seeing. Then he spoke the above mentioned shlok which describes that the Gwalbals are not ordinary boys – they are eternal friends of supreme God, who have captured His heart with their devotion and thus have attained a level of closeness and informality with Him which cannot be imagined.
One might wonder if Shree Krishna is not just “play acting” when He is interacting with His friends? After all, He is God, so why would He feel the need to play or have fun? This will be answered in the next article.
Disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj
Swami Nikhilanand Ji is a Canadian born Hindu spiritual leader based in Austin, Texas. He is a sanyasi disciple and pracharak of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj.
Attracted to the teachings of Hinduism from a young age, Swamiji eventually let his deep spiritual longing lead him to India, where he was most fortunate to come under the guidance of Shree Kripaluji Maharaj. Thereafter, living in the ashrams of JKP, he extensively studied Hindi, the philosophy of the prime Sanskrit scriptures (Vedas, Darshan Shastras, Gita, Bhagwatam), and practiced meditation in the tradition of raganuga bhakti.
In 2003, he was given sanyas. Now, with the blessings of his Guruji, he offers satsang programs throughout America, engaging audiences with his clear explanations of Hindu philosophy coupled with inspired chanting of Sanskrit mantras and shlokas and charming nam sankirtan. His informative and compelling speeches provide practical insight into how to adopt the teachings of Sanatan Dharm into our daily lives, and inspire us to awaken our inner spiritual potential.
To stay in touch with Swami Nikhilanand Ji, like his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SwamiNikhilanand or follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/Swami_Nikhil.
Swami Nikhilanand
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