Nectar of Devotion
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter Twenty-three
Krsna’s Personality
Srila Rupa Gosvami states that although Lord Krsna is the reservoir of unlimited pleasure and the greatest leader of all, He is still dependent upon His devotees in three ways. According to the emotional status of the devotee, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is appreciated in three ways: as the most perfect, as very perfect and as perfect. When He exhibits Himself in fullness, He is appreciated by great learned scholars as most perfect. When He exhibits Himself in lesser degrees, He is called very perfect. And when He exhibits still less, He is called perfect. This means that Krsna is appreciated for three degrees of perfection. These three degrees of perfection are especially exhibited as follows: when He is in Goloka Vrndavana His transcendental qualities are exhibited as most perfect, when He is in Dvaraka He exhibits His qualities as very perfect, and when He is in Mathura He exhibits His qualities as perfect.
Krsna’s personality is analyzed as dhirodatta, dhira-lalita, dhira-prasanta and dhiroddhata. If one asks how a personality can be beheld in four quite opposing ways, the answer is that the Lord is the reservoir of all transcendental qualities and activities. Therefore, His different aspects can be analyzed according to the exhibition of His limitless variety of pastimes, and as such there is no contradiction.
Dhirodatta
A dhirodatta is a person who is naturally very grave, gentle, forgiving, merciful, determined, humble, highly qualified, chivalrous and physically attractive.
In this connection, the following statement given by Indra, the King of heaven, is very significant: “My dear Lord, I admit that I have committed great offenses unto You, but I cannot express my feelings of regret, being bewildered at seeing Your extraordinary chivalrous spirit, Your endeavor to protect Your devotees, Your determination, Your steadiness in lifting the great hill of Govardhana, Your beautiful bodily features and Your astonishing characteristic of being pleased simply by accepting the prayers of Your devotees and offenders.”
The above statement by the King of heaven is an exact corroboration of Krsna’s being dhirodatta. Many learned scholars have agreed to also accept Lord Ramacandra as dhirodatta, but all of Lord Ramacandra’s qualities are also included in the character of Lord Krsna.
Dhira-lalita
A person is called dhira-lalita if he is naturally very funny, always in full youthfulness, expert in joking and free from all anxieties. Such a dhira-lalita personality is generally found to be domesticated and very submissive to his lover. This dhira-lalita trait in the personality of Krsna is described by Yajna-patni, the wife of one of the brahmanas who were performing sacrifices in Vrndavana. She tells her friends, “One day Srimati Radharani, accompanied by Her associates, was taking rest in Her garden, and at that time Lord Sri Krsna arrived in that assembly. After sitting down, He began to narrate very impudently about His previous night’s pastimes with Radharani. While He was speaking in that way, Radharani became very embarrassed. She was feeling ashamed and was absorbed in thought, and Krsna took the opportunity to mark Her breasts with different kinds of tilaka. Krsna proved Himself to be very expert in that art.” In this way Krsna, as dhira-lalita, was enjoying His youthful proclivities in the company of the gopis.
Generally, those who are expert in writing drama choose to call Cupid the ideal dhira-lalita, but we can more perfectly find in the personality of Krsna all the characteristics of dhira-lalita.
Dhira-prasanta
A person who is very peaceful, forbearing, considerate and obliging is called dhira-prasanta. This dhira-prasanta trait of Krsna was exhibited in His dealings with the Pandavas. On account of the Pandavas’ faithful devotion to the Lord, He agreed to become their charioteer, their advisor, their friend, their messenger and sometimes their bodyguard. Such is an example of the result of devotional service toward Visnu. When Krsna was speaking to Maharaja Yudhisthira about religious principles, He demonstrated Himself to be a great learned scholar, but because He accepted the position of younger cousin to Yudhisthira, He was speaking in a very gentle tone which enhanced His beautiful bodily features. The movements of His eyes and the mode of His speech proved that He was very, very expert in giving moral instruction. Sometimes, Maharaja Yudhisthira is also accepted by learned scholars as dhira-prasanta.
Dhiroddhata
A person who is very envious, proud, easily angered, restless and complacent is called dhiroddhata by learned scholars. Such qualities were visible in the character of Lord Krsna, because when He was writing a letter to Kalayavana, Krsna addressed him as a sinful frog. In His letter Krsna advised Kalayavana that he should immediately go and find some dark well for his residence, because there was a black snake named Krsna who was very eager to devour all such sinful frogs. Krsna reminded Kalayavana that He could turn all the universes to ashes simply by looking at them.
The above statement by Krsna seems apparently to be of an envious nature, but according to different pastimes, places and times this quality is accepted as a great characteristic. Krsna’s dhiroddhata qualities have been accepted as great because Krsna uses them only to protect His devotees. In other words, even undesirable traits may also be used in the exchange of devotional service.
Sometimes Bhima, the second brother of the Pandavas, is also described as dhiroddhata.
Once, while fighting with a demon who was appearing as a deer, Krsna challenged him in this way: “I have come before you as a great elephant named Krsna. You must leave the battlefield, accepting defeat, or else there is death awaiting you.” This challenging spirit of Krsna’s is not contradictory to His sublime character; because He is the Supreme Being, everything is possible in His character.
There is a nice statement in the Kurma Purana about these contradictory traits of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is stated there that the Supreme Person is neither very fat nor very thin; He is always transcendental to material qualities, and yet His bodily luster is blackish. His eyes are reddish, He is all-powerful, and He is equipped with all different kinds of opulences. Contradictory traits in Krsna’s person are not at all surprising; one should not consider the characteristics of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be actually contradictory. One should try to understand the traits of Krsna from authorities and try to understand how these characteristics are employed by the supreme will of the Lord.
In the Maha-varaha Purana it is confirmed that the transcendental bodies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His expansions are all existing eternally. Such bodies are never material; they are completely spiritual and full of knowledge. They are reservoirs of all transcendental qualities. In the Visnu-yamala-tantra there is a statement that because the Personality of Godhead and His expanded bodies are always full of knowledge, bliss and eternity, they are always free from the eighteen kinds of material contaminations—illusion, fatigue, errors, roughness, material lust, restlessness, pride, envy, violence, disgrace, exhaustion, untruth, anger, hankering, dependence, desire to lord over the universe, seeing duality and cheating.
Regarding all of the above-mentioned statements, it is understood that the Maha-Visnu is the source of all incarnations in the material world. But because of His greater, extraordinary opulence, we can understand that the son of Nanda Maharaja is the source of the Maha-Visnu also. This is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita, wherein it is stated, “Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Govinda, whose partial representation is the Maha-Visnu.” The gigantic form of the Maha-Visnu is the source of generation for innumerable universes. Innumerable universes are coming out of His exhaling breath, and the same universes are going back in with His inhaling breath. This Maha-Visnu is also a plenary portion of a portion of Krsna.