Nectar of Devotion
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter Twenty-six
Stimulation for Ecstatic Love
Some things which give impetus or stimulation to ecstatic love of Krsna are His transcendental qualities, His uncommon activities, His smiling features, His apparel and garlands, His flute, His buffalo horn, His leg bells, His conchshell, His footprints, His places of pastimes (such as Vrndavana), His favorite plant (tulasi), His devotee and the periodical occasions for remembering Him. One such occasion for remembrance is Ekadasi, which comes twice a month on the eleventh day of the moon, both waning and waxing. On that day all the devotees remain fasting throughout the night and continuously chant the glories of the Lord.
Krsna’s Transcendental Qualities,
His Uncommon Activities and His Smile
As far as Krsna’s transcendental qualities are concerned, they can be divided into three groups: qualities pertaining to His transcendental body, qualities pertaining to His transcendental speech and qualities pertaining to His transcendental mind.
Krsna’s age, His transcendental bodily features, His beauty and His mildness are qualities pertaining to His body. There is no difference between Krsna and His body, and therefore the transcendental features pertaining to His body are the same as Krsna Himself. But because these qualities stimulate the devotee’s ecstatic love, they have been analyzed as separate causes of that love. To be attracted by the qualities of Krsna means to be attracted by Krsna Himself, because there is no real distinction between Krsna and His qualities. Krsna’s name is also Krsna. Krsna’s fame is also Krsna. Krsna’s entourage is also Krsna. Krsna and everything related with Krsna which gives stimulation to love of Krsna are all Krsna, but for our understanding these items may be considered separately.
Krsna is the reservoir of all transcendental pleasure. Therefore, the impetuses to love of Krsna, although seemingly different, are not actually distinct from Krsna Himself. In the technical Sanskrit terms, such qualities as Krsna’s name and fame are accepted both as reservoirs of and as stimulation for love of Krsna.
Krsna’s age is considered in three periods: from His appearance day to the end of His fifth year is called kaumara, from the beginning of the sixth year up to the end of the tenth year is called pauganda, and from the eleventh to the end of the fifteenth year is called kaisora. After the beginning of the sixteenth year, Krsna is called a yauvana, or a youth, and this continues with no change.
As far as Krsna’s transcendental pastimes are concerned, they are mostly executed during the kaumara, pauganda and kaisora periods. His affectionate pastimes with His parents are executed during His kaumara age. His friendship with the cowherd boys is exhibited during the pauganda period. And His friendship with the gopis is exhibited during the age of kaisora. Krsna’s pastimes at Vrndavana are finished by the end of His fifteenth year, and then He is transferred to Mathura and Dvaraka, where all other pastimes are performed.
Srila Rupa Gosvami gives us a vivid description of Krsna as the reservoir of all pleasure in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Here are some parts of that description.
Krsna’s kaisora age may be divided into three parts. In the beginning of His kaisora age—that is, at the beginning of His eleventh year—the luster of His body becomes so bright that it becomes an impetus for ecstatic love. Similarly, there are reddish borders around His eyes, and a growth of soft hairs on His body. In describing this early stage of His kaisora age, Kundalata, one of the residents of Vrndavana, said to her friend, “My dear friend, I have just seen an extraordinary beauty appearing in the person of Krsna. His blackish bodily hue appears just like the indranila jewel. There are reddish signs on His eyes, and small soft hairs are coming out on His body. The appearance of these symptoms has made Him extraordinarily beautiful.”
In this connection, in the Tenth Canto, Twenty-first Chapter, verse 5, of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit, “My dear King, I shall try to describe how the minds of the gopis became absorbed in thought of Krsna. The gopis would meditate on Krsna’s dressing Himself just like a dancing actor and entering the forest of Vrndavana, marking the ground with His footprints. They meditated on Krsna’s having a helmet with a peacock feather and wearing earrings on His ears and yellow-gold colored garments covered with jewels and pearls. They also meditated on Krsna’s blowing His flute and on all the cowherd boys’ singing of the glories of the Lord.” That is the description of the meditation which the gopis used to perform.
Sometimes the gopis would think about His soft nails, His moving eyebrows and His teeth, which were catechu-colored from chewing pan. One description was given by a gopi to her friend: “My dear friend, just see how the enemy of Agha has assumed such wonderful features! His brows are just like the brows of Cupid, and they are moving just as though they were dancing. The tips of His nails are so soft—it is as if they were dried bamboo leaves. His teeth are reddish, and so it appears that He has assumed a feature of anger. Under the circumstances, where is the chance for a young girl not to be attracted by such beautiful features and not to be afraid of becoming a victim to such beauty?”
Krsna’s attractive features are also described by Vrnda, the gopi after whom Vrndavana was named. She told Krsna, “My dear Madhava, Your newly invented smile has so captivated the hearts of the gopis that they are simply unable to express themselves! As such, they have become bewildered and will not talk with others. All of these gopis have become so affected that it is as if they had offered three sprinkles of water upon their lives. In other words, they have given up all hope for their living condition.” According to the Indian system, when a person is dead there is a sprinkling of water on the body. Thus, the statement of Vrnda shows that the gopis were so enchanted by the beauty of Krsna that because they could not express their minds, they had decided to commit suicide.
When Krsna arrived at the age of thirteen to fourteen years, His two arms and chest assumed an unspeakable beauty, and His whole form became simply enchanting. When Krsna attained thirteen years of age, His two thighs were challenging the trunks of elephants, His rising chest was trying to come to peace talks with doors of jewels, and His two arms were minimizing the value of the bolts found on doors. Who can describe the wonderful beauty of these features of Krsna? The special beauty of Krsna’s body was His mild smiling, His restless eyes and His world enchanting songs. These are the special features of this age.
There is a statement in this connection that Krsna, on arriving at this age, manifested such beautiful bodily features that His restless eyes became the playthings of Cupid, and His mild smile resembled the newly grown lotus flower. The enchanting vibration of His songs became a great impediment to the young girls, who were supposed to remain chaste and faithful to their husbands.
At this age Krsna enjoyed the rasa-lila, exhibiting His power of joking with the cowherd girls and enjoying their company in the bushes of the gardens by the bank of the Yamuna.
In this connection there is the following statement: “Throughout the whole tract of land known as Vrndavana there were the footprints of Krsna and the gopis, and in some places peacock feathers were strewn about. In some places there were nice beddings in the bushes of the Vrndavana gardens, and in some places there were piles of dust due to the group-dancing of Govinda and the gopis.” These are some of the features which are due to the different pastimes invented by Sri Krsna in the place known as Vrndavana.
There is the following statement by one gopi, describing Krsna’s attractive feature during this age: “My dear friend, just see how all of a sudden in the sky of Krsna there is a powerful rising sun and how this rising sun is minimizing the rays of our chastity moon. Our attraction for Krsna is so intense that it is drying up the lotus flower of our discrimination, and we are losing our senses in deciding whether we shall continue as chaste women or be victimized by the beauty of Krsna. My dear friend, I think that we have lost all hope of life!”
In the kaisora age, beginning from the eleventh year and continuing up to the end of the fifteenth year, Krsna’s arms, legs and thighs became marked with three divisional lines. At that time Krsna’s chest challenged a hill of marakata jewels, His arms challenged pillars of the indranila jewel, the three lines of His waist challenged the waves of the River Yamuna, and His thighs challenged beautiful bananas. One gopi said, “With all these exquisite features of His body, Krsna is too extraordinarily beautiful, and therefore I am always thinking of Him to protect me, because He is the killer of all demons.”
The idea expressed in this statement is that the gopis were comparing their attraction for Krsna to an attack by demons; and to counteract their attraction for the beauty of Krsna, they were also turning to Krsna hopefully, because He is the killer of all kinds of demons. In other words, they were perplexed, because on one hand they were attracted by the beauty of Krsna, and on the other they needed Krsna to drive away the demon of such attraction.
This kaisora age can be translated as adolescence. At the end of this period all the gopis said, “Krsna is the killer of the attraction of Cupid, and as such He disturbs the patience of all newly married girls. Krsna’s bodily features have become so exquisite—it is as if they were all manifesting an artistic sense of the highest sort. His dancing eyes have dimmed the brilliance of the most expert dancer, and so there is no longer any comparison to the beauty of Krsna.” Learned scholars therefore describe the features of His body at this time as nava-yauvana, newly invented youthfulness. At this stage of Krsna’s bodily features, the conjugal love affairs with the gopis and similar pastimes become very prominent.
There are six features of conjugal love affairs, called peacemaking, picking a quarrel, going to meet one’s lover, sitting together, separation and support. Lord Krsna expanded an empire of these six features, of which He was the ruling prince. Somewhere He was picking quarrels with the young girls, somewhere He was scratching them with the nails of parrots, somewhere He was busy going to visit the gopis, and somewhere He was negotiating through cowherd friends to take shelter of the gopis.
Some of the gopis addressed Him thus: “Dear Krsna, because of Your adolescent age, You have just become the spiritual master of these young girls, and You are teaching them to whisper among themselves. You are teaching them to offer solemn prayers, as well as training them to cheat their husbands and to join You in the gardens at night, without caring for the instructions of their superiors. You are enthusing them by the vibration of Your enchanting flute; and, as their teacher, You are teaching them all the intricacies of loving affairs.”
It is said that even when Krsna was a boy of five He manifested such youthful energies, but learned scholars do not explain them because of the absence of suitable age. Krsna was beautiful because every part of His body was perfectly arranged without any defect. Such perfect bodily features of Krsna are described as follows: “My dear enemy of Kamsa, Your broad eyes, Your rising chest, Your two pillarlike arms and the thin middle portion of Your body are always enchanting to every lotus-eyed beautiful girl.” The ornaments on the body of Krsna were not actually enhancing His beauty, but just the reverse—the ornaments were beautified by Krsna.
A person is called mild when he cannot even bear the touch of the most soft thing. It is described that every part of Krsna’s body was so soft that even at the touch of newly grown leaves, the color of the touched part of His skin would change. At this kaisora age, Krsna’s endeavors were always bent toward arranging the rasa dance, as well as toward killing the demons in the forest of Vrndavana. While Krsna was engaged in enjoyment with the boys and girls within the forest of Vrndavana, Kamsa used to send his associates to kill Krsna, and Krsna would show His prowess by killing them.
Krsna’s Apparel and Garlands
Generally, there are four kinds of garments on the body of Krsna: His shirt, turban, belt and wearing garments. In Vrndavana, He used to put on reddish garments, with a golden shirt on His body and an orange-colored turban on His head. The different kinds of belts, combined with His enchanting smile, used to always increase the transcendental bliss of His associates. This dress of Krsna is described as gorgeous. As a baby elephant is sometimes dressed in colorful clothing, so Krsna’s gorgeousness was manifested by decoration with such colorful clothing on the different parts of His body.
Akalpa refers to the texture of Krsna’s hair, His nicely dressed body anointed with sandalwood pulp and decorated with flower garlands, His tilaka and His chewing pan. Krsna was decorated constantly in this akalpa process. Krsna’s hair was some times decorated with flowers placed on the middle of His head, or else it was reaching down to His back. In this way Krsna dressed His hair differently at different times. As for the ointment on His body, the pulp of sandalwood generally appeared to be white, and when it was mixed with saffron dye it appeared to be yellow.
Krsna used to put a vaijayanti garland around His neck. This vaijayanti garland is made of flowers of at least five different colors. Such a garland was always long enough to touch Krsna’s knees or feet. Besides this garland of flowers, there were other kinds of flower garlands too—sometimes decorating His head, sometimes hanging around His neck and chest. Artistic paintings with sandalwood pulp and colored sandalwood were also to be found on the body of Krsna.
One gopi addressed her friend and began to praise the bodily features of Krsna. She praised His blackish complexion, the reddish color of chewing pan enhancing His beauty hundreds of times, the curling hair on His head, the kumkum red spots on His body and the tilaka on His forehead.
His helmet, His earrings, His necklace, His four garments, the bangles on His head, the rings on His fingers, His ankle bells and His flute—these are the different features of Krsna’s ornaments. Krsna, the enemy of Agha, always looked beautiful with His incomparable helmet, His earrings made of diamonds, His necklace of pearls, His bangles, His embroidered garments and the beautiful rings on His fingers.
Krsna is sometimes called vana-mali. Vana means “forest,” and mali means “gardener,” so vana-mali refers to one who extensively uses flowers and garlands on different parts of His body. Krsna was dressed like this not only in Vrndavana but also on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. Seeing such colorful dress and the garlands of different flowers, some great sages prayed, “Lord Krsna was going to the Battlefield of Kuruksetra not to fight, but to grace all of the devotees with His presence.”
Krsna’s Flute
As far as His flute is concerned, it is said that the vibration of this wonderful instrument was able to break the meditation of the greatest sages. Krsna was thus challenging Cupid by advertising His transcendental glories all over the world.
There are three kinds of flutes used by Krsna. One is called venu, one is called murali, and the third is called vamsi. Venu is very small, not more than six inches long, with six holes for whistling. Murali is about eighteen inches long with a hole at the end and four holes on the body of the flute. This kind of flute produces a very enchanting sound. The vamsi flute is about fifteen inches long, with nine holes on its body. Krsna used to play on these three flutes occasionally when they were needed. Krsna has a longer vamsi, which is called mahananda, or sammohini. When it is still longer it is called akarsini. When it is even longer it is called anandini. The anandini flute is very pleasing to the cowherd boys and is technically named vamsuli. These flutes were sometimes bedecked with jewels. Sometimes they were made of marble and sometimes of hollow bamboo. When the flute is made of jewels it is called sammohini. When made of gold, it is called akarsini.
Krsna’s Buffalo Horn
Krsna used a buffalo horn as a bugling instrument. This instrument was always highly polished and circled with gold bands, and on the middle there was a hole. Regarding these instruments, there is a metaphorical statement about a gopi named Taravali. It is said that Taravali was bitten by the most venomous snake of Krsna’s flute. Then, in order to neutralize the poisonous effect, she drank the milk produced by the buffalo horn in the hand of Krsna. But instead of decreasing the poisonous effect, it increased it a thousand times. The gopi was thus put into the most miserable poisoned condition.
The Attraction of Krsna’s Leg Bells
A certain gopi once stated to her friend, “My dear friend, when I heard the sound of the leg bells of Sri Krsna, I immediately started to go out of the house to see Him. But most regrettably, my superiors were present just before me at that time, and I could not go out.”
Krsna’s Conchshell
Krsna’s conchshell is known as Pancajanya. This Pancajanya conch is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gita. Krsna sounded it before the Battle of Kuruksetra. It is said that when Lord Krsna blows on His transcendental conchshell, the wives of the demons become subject to abortions, and the wives of the demigods become blessed with all auspiciousness. In this way, the sound of Krsna’s conchshell used to vibrate and circulate all over the world.
Krsna’s Footprints
It is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam that when Akrura, who drove Krsna from Vrndavana to Mathura, saw the footprints of Krsna on the land of Vrndavana, his ecstatic love for Krsna increased so much that the hairs on his body stood up. His eyes became overflooded with tears, and in such ecstasy he jumped out of the chariot and fell down on the ground and began to chant, “How wonderful this is! How wonderful this is!”
Similar feelings were expressed by the gopis when they were going to the bank of the Yamuna and saw Krsna’s footprints in the dust. When Krsna walked on the ground of Vrndavana, the marks of His sole (flag, thunderbolt, fish, a rod for controlling elephants, and a lotus flower) would be imprinted upon the dust of the land. The gopis became overwhelmed simply at seeing those marks on the ground.
Krsna’s Places of Pastimes
One devotee has exclaimed, “Oh, I have not as yet visited the wonderful places where the pastimes of the Lord were performed. But simply by hearing the name of Mathura I have become overwhelmed with joy!”
Krsna’s Favorite Plant: Tulasi
Lord Krsna is very fond of tulasi leaves and buds. Because tulasi buds are usually offered up to the lotus feet of Krsna, a devotee once prayed to the tulasi buds to give him some information about the lotus feet of the Lord. The devotee expected that the tulasi buds would know something about the glories of Lord Sri Krsna’s lotus feet.
Krsna’s Devotees
One may sometimes become overwhelmed with joy by seeing a devotee of the Lord. When Dhruva Maharaja saw two associates of Narayana approaching him, he immediately stood up out of sincere respect and devotion and remained before them with folded hands; but because of his ecstatic love, he could hardly offer them a proper reception.
There is a statement by a gopi who addressed Subala, a friend of Krsna: “My dear Subala, I know that Krsna is your friend and that you always enjoy smiling and joking with Him. The other day I saw you both standing together. You were keeping your hand upon Krsna’s shoulder, and both of you were joyfully smiling. When I saw the two of you standing like that in the distance, my eyes at once became overflooded with tears.”
Special Days for Remembering Krsna
There are many statements about the festive days in connection with Krsna’s different activities. One of these festive days is Janmastami, the day of Krsna’s birth. This Janmastami day is the most opulent festival day for the devotees, and it is still observed with great pomp in every Hindu house in India. Sometimes even the devotees of other religious groups take advantage of this auspicious day and enjoy the performance of the ceremony of Janmastami. Ecstatic love for Krsna is also aroused on the days of Ekadasi, which are other festive days in connection with Krsna.