By the grace of Sri Sri Radha Gokulanand, Nand Maharaj, Yashoda devi and Krishna-Balaram and by the grace of Kshetrapal Shivji, we have got the opportunity to take part in the celebration of Gokul-Mahavan Math festival. We have got the opportunity to have darsan of their lotus feet. This is the appearance place of our most worship-able Lord Nandnandan Krishna. But just by coming here what will happen? It is written in Chaitanya Charitamrit, ‘adyapi sei lila kare krishna-ray, kono kono bhagyavane dekhibare pai—Sri Krishna is performing all His pastimes even today but the fortunate one’s only could see them.’ How a fallen person like me can see them? I have material desires in my heart. It is been said, jaha kaam tahan nahi rama, ravi, rajni mile nahi ektham—as day and night cannot exist together, if a votary has material desires in his heart, Supreme Lord does not appear there. When we have the tendency for sense enjoyment then we associate with inferior things. Even if we go to dham, we cannot have the darsan of dham, we see it like an ordinary village. Dham darsan is possible only by the eyes filled with love and not by the eyes filled with lust. Wherever there is a presence of desires to satisfy our own senses and misconception of self there Supreme Lord, His holy abode, form, qualities and associates will never manifest. It is said, "kaam andhtam, prem nirmal Bhaskar" — lust is the form of highest darkness (ignorance) and love is the form of pure brightness (represents pure knowledge). Even by coming in the dham, the whole day I am engaged in sense gratification. How can any realization of Supreme Lord be possible? This is the topmost place, appearance place of our worship-able Lord, Sri Krishna. He appears in the sanctified heart. Shivaji, "vaishnavanam yatha sambho" — the topmost amongst all the vaishnava, has said, it comes in the fourth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, before Dhruva narration.

sattvam viśuddham vasudeva-śabditam
yad īyate tatra pumān apāvrtah
sattve ca tasmin bhagavān vāsudevo
hy adhokṣajo me namasā vidhīyate

I offer my obeisances to the Supreme Lord Vāsudev who manifests only in the sanctified pure heart which is called Vasudev.

Lord Vāsudev appears in Mathura accepting Vasudev as father. By the help of Yogamaya, Vasudev takes Him to Gokul from Mathura and brings Yogamaya (who appeared as the daughter of Yashodadevi) from Gokul. Vāsudev Sri Krishna appears accepting Vasudev and Devaki as His parents. Who is Vasudev? Sanctified pure heart devoid of any vanity is Vasudev. He would not descend in an impure heart, because an impure heart never wants Him, it has desires other than Krishna.

Supreme Lord has performed many pastimes here (in Gokul-Mahavan), by hearing which our heart will get purified. Tomorrow we will go to have darsan of Brahmand-ghat, but there we might not get enough time to speak about the ontological aspects of Sri Krishna. Lord performs the pastime of eating clay (earth) at Brahmand-ghat. There are some teachings to be accepted from that pastime. Yashoda mata has never seen Krishna as Supreme Lord, she always considers Him as her small child. She is serving Him in vraj-bhav.

One day all the cowherd boys approached Yashodadevi and complained, “Mother, Krishna is eating clay”

She replied, “No it is not possible. He cannot eat clay, if He does so He will get many diseases, you have got no knowledge. I do not trust you; let me ask Balaram.”

Balaram said, “Yes, Yes! He is eating clay.”

“How can He eat clay? Has He got no sense, no intelligence?”

Supreme Lord has got no intelligence! If you say to Yashodadevi, “It is not that Krishna has no intelligence; it is you who have got no knowledge about your son. Your son is Supreme Personality of Godhead.” You may give proof from various scriptures. In Srimad Bhagavat Gita Krishna Himself says (7.7),

mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva.

There is no one superior to Me. And nothing is separate from Me, everything rests upon Me, as different pearls are strung on a thread.

If you go on giving proofs, like

ishvarah paramah krishnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaha
anadir adir govindaha
sarva-karana-karanam

Krishna is the Supreme Godhead, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.

If you go to teach this to Yashodadevi, then you will not get Vraj-prem (The transcendental love of Vraj). Without the grace of Yashodadevi you will not get it. She never sees Krishna in His majestic aspect.

On hearing the same from Balaram, Yashodadevi runs to Krishna and asks Him, “Have you eaten clay?” Krishna does not open-up His mouth. She chastises Him, “Open your mouth. You have no knowledge. Is clay a thing to be eaten? I shall give you a slap.” Frightened by mother’s words Krishna opens up His mouth, and Yashodadevi behold the whole Brahmanda in His small mouth. What is the teaching behind this pastime? Externally, Krishna looks like a small boy but He is the master of infinite Brahmandas and Vaikunthas. If you do not believe, you do not have any understanding of Krishna-tatva (ontological aspects of Krishna). And if you do not know Krishna-tatva, what benefits will you get by circumambulating the Dham? One who does not have understanding of Krishna-tatva, he envisions Him confined in three dimensions of this world—length, breadth and height. But within a finite form, He is infinite. Rabindranath Tagore has also said, “simara madhye asim tumi—You are infinite within the finite.” This is His inconceivable power. But so called gyanis do not understand Him, they do not have that knowledge or intelligence.

Sometimes devotees also talk like that. One day a person, disciple of our Math told me, “You are Bhagavan?” Am I Bhagavan? Who can be called as Bhagavan? 'Bhag', 'van'—one who is the possessor of the potencies. Which kind of the potencies? Not one or two but whatever potencies you can think of and those which even you cannot think of, He is the possessor of all those potencies. He is sarva-shakti-man—All-powerful. Supreme Lord Krishna has lifted Goverdhan. Previously, Govardhan was sixty-four miles long but because of the curse of Pulastya Muni, He is only of seven miles now. He would diminish in size everyday according to the measure of one sesame seed and later He would disappear from this earth planet. Lord Krishna can lift such a huge Govardhan mountain. He is All-powerful. That person told me I am Bhagavan; I cannot even lift a small stone, what kind of Bhagavan am I? He was not even feeling ashamed to talk like that.

Once devas (demigods) and asuras (demons) cooperatively set out to churn the ocean of milk, Kshirsagar, being desirous to get the nectar of immortality, amrita. They decided to use Mandara-parvat (Mandar Mountain) as the churning rod. They have got the pride that they can do anything. All of a sudden, Mandara Mountain began to sink in the Kshirsagar. That time Supreme Lord came to their rescue and lifted the Mountain on His back (shell) taking the form of a tortoise. He then ordered them to start the churning again. Although, He held such a big Mountain on His back, He did not feel any inconvenience. On the contrary, when demigods and demons rotated Mandara Mountain on His back, He accepted the rolling of the Mountain as a means of scratching His body and thus He felt a pleasing sensation and fell asleep, just like a child on scratching his back falls asleep. Supreme Lord can lift a huge Mandara Mountain on His back without any inconvenience. And what kind of Supreme Lord I am, leave aside Mandara mountain, I cannot even bare a small stone on my back. And that person was calling me Bhagavan. A jiva cannot be Supreme Lord; he is of Supreme Lord, by Supreme Lord and for Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord is Infinite Absolute Entity (vibhu), while jivas are the absolute infinitesimal or spiritual atomic parts (anu) of the marginal potency of the Absolute like the particle of the ray of the sun, which is distinct from Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. So there is always going to be difference between Supreme Lord and the jivas. Supreme Lord is full in Himself (purn), All-powerful, Omnipotent and Jivas are atomic parts of His potency. Supreme Lord is the controller of Maya (illusory potency) while Jivas are controlled by Maya. Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad Gita (7.14), daivi hy esa gun-mayi mama maya duratyaya, mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te—My illusory potency consisting of three primeval qualities (satva, rajah and tamah) is divine and it is extremely difficult to crossover, only one who has taken absolute shelter unto Me will get delivered.’

This material world gets created, maintained and annihilated by My illusory potency, Maya. The illusory potency of Supreme Lord gives tremendous sufferings to the jivas while they are in the womb of their mother, they stay in this word and at the time of leaving their body. Supreme Lord says, “It is My illusory potency, the divine energy of mine, jivas cannot crossover it by their own ability, but those who surrender unto Me, can easily crossover it. Whoever he may be, a brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra, antyaj (who does not even fall in the four categories) or even an animal like Gajendra.” He does not differentiate, ye prapadyante te taranti, whoever takes His shelter, He will rescue him. He is the controller of all the potencies so He can rescue. Person like me who is under the control of maya, how can I recue anybody?

Nandnadan Krishna is the Supreme Lord Himself. In Dwarka, He resides with His majestic aspects (aiswarya bhav). There He expands as primary quadruple, Vasudev, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. In Dwarka, depending upon the pastime, sometimes He exhibits the mood of sweetness (gaurabha madhurya bhav). But in Vraja, He is purely in the mood of sweetness. In Vaikuntha, He is in Narayan with full of His majestic aspects. Narayan, also has expansions in the form of secondary quadruple, Vasudev, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Sankarshan in Dwarka is primary Shankarshan (mul Shankarshan) and Sankarshan in Viakuntha is called Mahasankarshan. Both are expansions of Balaram who resides in Vraja in the form of a cowherd boy. In Dwarika He is as primary Shankarshan, in the form of a kshatriya (warrior class).

Karanodkashayi Mahavishnu is the expansion of Mahasankarshan. Karanodasayi Mahavishu thought, “Ekoham bahusyam: I am one, I shall become many.” then He glanced upon the inert matter and infinite brahmandas got manifested. Karanodkasayi Mahavishnu expands Himself as second Purusha-avatar-Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and enters into all the universes. He is not the cause of Krishna, Krishna is the root cause of all the purush-avataras and everything.

avincyante-maha-saktih koti-brahmanda-vigrah,
avatari-bijam, hatari-gati-dayakah
atmarama-ganakarsity amī kṛṣṇe kilādbhutāḥ
(CC Madhya 23.81)

The Lord possesses inconceivable supreme power, He generates innumerable universes from His body, He is the original source of all incarnations, He bestows salvation upon enemies He kills, and He has the ability to attract exalted persons who are satisfied in themselves. Although these qualities are present in Narayan, the dominating Deity of the Vaikuntha planets, they are even more wonderfully present in Krishna.

atmaramas ca munayo nirgrantha apy urukrame
kurvanty ahaitukim bhaktim ittham-bhuta-guno harih
(SB 1.7.10)

The liberated souls, who are established on the path of self-realization, though free from all kinds of material bondage, they are also attracted by Krishna’s transcendental qualities.

If the qualities of the Lord would have been material or made up of three modes of material nature, could they attract the self-realized liberated souls?

Sukadev Goswami was fully established in Brahman conception by his birth itself. As soon as he came out form the womb of his mother, renouncing everything he started running towards forest and his father (Vedavyas Muni) ran behind him calling, “Oh! Son of mine! Oh! Son of mine!” He had the highest position amongst all the yogis and gyanis. And he says to Parikshit Maharaj, “I was fully established in Brahmanand (the bliss of Brahman) which is not obtainable even by performing penance for thousands of years. And krishna-lila-rasamrit (nectar in the mellows of Krishna’s pastime) is such that, even a person like me got attracted and bound by that sweetness. So for the next seven days you should listen to Krishna-katha (subjects related to Krishna) only.”

There were many stalwarts risi-munis present there like Atri, Chavan, Brigu, Angira, Narad, Viswamitra, Vedavyas, even Lord Parshuram, Agashya who drank the full ocean. It was not the assembly of ordinary people. But nobody dared to oppose his opinion. Why was that? Because Sukadev Goswami is topmost amongst all the yogis and gyanis, also he is Mahabhagavat. Who can oppose him?

Supreme Lord is performing His pastime of playing with sakhas here. Who can have darshan of it? It is possible only through the eyes filled with love. Our Sanatan Goswami had darshan of those pastimes here at Raman-reti. He saw a distinct boy playing here in Raman-reti. We cannot have that darshan. This is transcendental land. How can we have darshan of transcendental realm with our material eyes? By the material eyes we can see only material things. To obtain the transcendental vision we need the grace of Nand Maharaj and Yashodadevi. Therefore, Mahaprabhu praised the words of Raghupati Upadhyay a lot. He met him at Vallabh Bhatta’s place at Prayag (Allahabad).

srutim apare smṛtim itare
bharatam anye bhajantu bhava-bhitah
aham iha nandam vande
yasyalinde param brahma
(Caitanya-caritamṛta, Madhya-lila 19.96, quoted in Padyavali 126)

Those who are afraid of material existence may worship the sruti (gyani), smṛti (karmi) or Mahabharata, but I pay my obeisances to Nanda Maharaja because Sri Krishna, the Param Brahman, becomes trapped by the love of Sri Nanda and crawls around as a baby in his courtyard.

The Lord has killed Putana there. What is the significance of the pastime of killing of Putana. The fountain head of all the Gaudiya Mathas, Srila Sachidanand Bhaktivinod Thakur has written the implication of that pastime. Accepting Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, appeared our Paramgurudev, Nityalila-pravistha 108 Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur in Jagannath Puri. It is written by Vyāsadeva in the Padma-Purāṇa, ‘hy utkale purusottamāt’, the pure message of devotion to Sree Krishna would spread out of Jagannāth Purī. When he was a baby of six months, it was the time of the Ratha-yātra festival; that year Sree Jagannāthdev stopped for three days in front of Sree Bhaktivinode Ṭhākur’s house. Those three days, Srila Thakur performed incessant kirtans day and night. The he brought the six month baby to have darshan of Jagannathdev. Jagannathdev blessed the baby with His garland. He was been given the dust of lotus feet of Lord Jagannathdev and then after only Jagannathdev started His onward journey. That transcendental personality preached the message of Krishna-bhakti throughout the entire world. Bhaktivinod Thakur is his father, who wrote the implication for the pastime of killing of Putana. Who is called Putana? Putana is kapatata—deceitfulness. Externally, she showed affection for the new born babies of Gokul Mahavan but she had bad intensions of killing them by making them suck her poisoned breast. She took the form of a beautiful lady by the power of her illusory ability and came to the house of Nand Maharaj. I will not speak the pastime today. We know that Krishna killed Putana. What does Putana signify? It represents deceitfulness. We serve the Supreme Lord for getting material benefits, for sensual enjoyments or for liberation. We do not serve Him for His satisfaction; we want dharma—piety; artha—wealth; kama—fulfilment of desires; moksha—salvation. This is deceitfulness. Till the time we have desire for enjoyment we cannot get Supreme Lord. Because of the desires of jivas, other than the service of Supreme Lord, He created so many brahmandas and so many different species. Can you even create an aunt? He says, “You are not the enjoyer. But still you have the desires to enjoy? Then go to the non-eternal world and enjoy.” Even the capacity to enjoy is not there in jivas. It is also given by Him only. You speak from your heart, “I do not want anything else except You.” You do not have that courage to speak so from your heart. Nandnandan Krishna has come accepting the mood of Radharani as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and giving us instructions, “It is not good to have desires other than the service of Me. You do not blame Me unnecessarily. You speak from your heart, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye, mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi —I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire to enjoy beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want Your (Krishna’s) causeless devotional service in my life birth after birth.”

We say anything, externally, but Supreme Lord is bhava-grahi (he knows what is there in our heart) not bhasha-grahi (he does not consider what you speak from your mouth). If Supreme Lord comes to take us to His abode we will say, “I need to make my daughter marry, I have made a new house and not yet inaugurated.”

“Then why have you called Me?”

“I have these troubles. You please solve my problems.”

We are afraid of calling Him from the core of our heart. If someone calls Nandnandan Krishna from the core of his heart He will come at that very moment. Till the time we have desires for enjoyment and liberation, Supreme Lord will be unattainable. Those desires are signifying Putana which resides in the heart. If we take shelter of Supreme Lord, He will kill her. Those who give the teachings for worldly enjoyment and for liberation, they are also Putana. If you go to them, you will not get Supreme Lord. They will guide you in the opposite direction. Krishna kills that demon Putana. So take absolute shelter unto Krishna.

When Krishna completes His six months and the first time He turns to the side, Nandbaba and Yashodamata become blissful on seeing His doing so. They decide to celebrate parshva-parivartan-mahotsava—the celebration for Krishna changing His side while lying. They call everybody for the celebration and Prasadam. They will distribute cloths to everyone and will feed them will delicious food preparations. On seeing six months Gopal, everyone gets delighted. The brahmins make Him bath reciting the appropriate Mantras. And then Gopal falls asleep. Now there are so many guests at home so where to make Him to sleep? There lies one bed beneath a bullock-driven cart. They decide to make Him sleep on that bed. The bullock-driven cart is heavily loaded with utensils and many other things. Yashodamata makes Krishna sleep on that bed. And there comes one demon named ‘Sakatasur’. He enters in the dust which is there on the cart. That time Krishna wakes up and gets very much hungry. Out of hunger He starts crying. But there is so much noise there that Yashodamata could not listen to the crying baby. Krishna starts to kick His lotus feet just like an ordinary child. And while kicking, His feet’s toe touches to one of the wheel of the cart and it gets collapsed there itself. All the utensils and other things falls there with a great noise. And seeing that Yashodamata rushes to Him crying and calling, “Gopal, Gopal..” Everyone who has come there they also rush there. They take the utensils and others things aside and from beneath take Krishna out and give Him to Yashodamata. They do not know that Krishna has killed the demon, Sakatasur. Now here, what does Sakatasur signify? He represents the worldly knowledge which is actually ignorance because of which a person carries unnecessary burden like donkey. It is said,

jada-vidya jata, mayara vaibhava,
tomara bhajane badha
moha janamiya, anitya samsare,
jivake koraye gadha

(All sorts of material knowledge are variegated forms of your illusory energy which creates impediments on the path of your worship. Such knowledge creates attachment for these perishable worldly relations and makes an ass out of the living entity).

We carry the impressions of this birth as well as of our previous births that makes us forget our real identity. We consider this body to be the person and the bodily relations to be ours and engage in getting non-eternal material benefits. This ignorance is the demon Satakasur. Till the time we have these impressions, material desires, the bodily conception we will not get His love. And who will kill that demon? Krishna Himself will kill that demon. Yashodamata and Nandbaba invite some Brahmins to bless Krishna. Brahmins generally have the habit of awarding blessing to others.

One of Srila Gurudev disciple, a Kashmiri Pandit, also had blessed Srila Gurudev, when he we allowed to speak at Tejpur Math. We have to ask blessings from Guru, Vaishnava and Bhagavan. But not doing so, that Brahmin, started giving blessings to Gurudev at the beginning!

Nandbaba and Yashodamata ask those Brahmins to bless Krishna so that He gets long life!