Page 2: Our Lord's Beloved Power

"The most supreme form of Godhead is Krishna, who plays in His eternal divine Pastimes just like a human being, an ever-youthful cowherd boy of Vrndavan. He enacts His Pastimes, always playing His flute and dancing expertly."

Where the play of the Power and the Powerful is always manifest, that is called Vaikunthaloka, and there unlimited manifestations of the Lord are playing eternally. And where that play is supreme, where the principal manifestation of the Power and the Powerful is to be found, that place is called Goloka Vrndavan. There the Powerful is known by many Names: Krishna, Nandanandan, Yasodanandan, Syamasundar, Govinda and many more, and the Power is manifest fully as Srimati Radharani, and She also appears in many divine forms; the sakhis, the manjaris, and others, for the service of Krishna. It is said in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta:

krsnera yateka khela, sarvottama nara-lila,
nara-vapu tahara svarupa
gopa-vesa, venu-kara, nava-kisora, nata-vara,
nara-lilara haya anurupa
(Madhya-lila, 21.101)

"The most supreme form of Godhead is Krishna, who plays in His eternal divine Pastimes just like a human being, an ever-youthful cowherd boy of Vrndavan. He enacts His Pastimes, always playing His flute and dancing expertly."

The devotees here in this world, those who have received exclusive devotion through the mercy of the Power, they can see the Pastimes of Krishna, and they are distributing that to us through the Scriptures, through themselves and through their agents, the rsis, munis and sadhus. Sometimes Krishna Himself, with His full paraphernalia and associates, reveals Himself in this material world, and that is called lila. Lila means that which looks like our own activities, but it is not exactly that. Similar yet entirely different.

astavimsa chatur-yuge dvaparera sese
vrajera sahite haya krsnera prakase
(Chaitanya-charitamrta: Adi-lila, 3.10)

When Krishna appeared in the dwapara-yuga the Yugavatar Krishna, and the original Powerful Krishna, manifested in this mundane world in a combined way. In Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrndavan, Krishna manifested Himself in different ways. They are all eternal and transcendental but there is some difference. Acharyya Srila Rupa Goswami has explained this as purna, purnatara and purnatama - perfect, more perfect and most perfect, respectively. Those Pastimes begin with the janma-lila, the appearance of Lord Krishna. Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (4.9):

janma karmma cha me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna

"Those who can properly understand (vetti tattvatah) My birth and activities, they will never again be subject to the cycle of birth and death." So who can really understand that?

His birth and death are not the same as ours. They are like the rising and setting of the sun. Surya is rising and setting in the path of our vision, but he is not born at sunrise and does not die at sunset. Krishna's birth and death is something like that.

When the Power Herself, Srimati Radharani appears in this world, along with the Powerful Himself, Sri Krishna, She is fully replete with all beauty, all charm, all love, all affection and all harmony. And when Their play is moving in Vrndavan, the whole atmosphere - the plants, the trees, the earth, everything - is purna, perfect.

sriyah kantah kantah parama-purusah kalpa-taravo
druma bhumis chintamani-gana-mayi toyam amrtam
katha ganam natyam gamanam api vamsi priya-sakhi
chid-anandam jyotih param api tad asvadyam api cha
sa yatra ksirabdhih sravati surabhibhyas cha su-mahan
nimesardhakhyo va vrajati na hi yatrapi samayah
bhaje svetadvipam tam aham iha golokam iti yam
vidantas te santah ksiti-virala-charah katipaye
(Brahma-samhita: 5.56)

"That place where the divine Goddesses of Fortune are the beloved, and Krishna, the Supreme Male, is the only lover; all the trees are divine wish-fulfilling trees; the soil is made of transcendental gems and the water is nectar; where every word is a song, every movement is dancing, the flute is the dearmost companion, sunlight and moonlight are divine ecstasy, and all that be is divine and enjoyable; where a great ocean of milk eternally flows from the udders of billions of surabhi cows and the divine time is eternally present, never suffering the estrangement of past and future for even a split second … that supreme transcendental abode of Svetadwip do I adore. Practically no one in this world knows that place but for only a few pure devotees - and they know it as Goloka."

This is the explanation, but still we cannot conceive it entirely, so the sastra says it is achintya. When you enter into that transcendental abode, then you will feel and understand. Before that it will be astonishing to you.

Srimati Radharani appeared on this day five thousand years ago, and She played with Krishna in Vrndavan, manifesting full Paramour Love with Him. Srila Rupa Goswami, knowing that our vision is not very deep, has written that although Their play is like that of a man and woman, it is in fact completely different from this mundane nature. Some expression has been given in the Scriptures because there is no other way to express it, but what kind of love Srimati Radharani has for Krishna, and what kind of love Krishna has for Srimati Radharani - we cannot conceive of it.