KKS DAILY NECTAR
Xmas Day 2005 Sweden
Putana came and Putana is trying to kill Krishna on the order of Kamsa but Krishna He accept it, He accepted her offering of milk from her breasts and He also accepted the poison and He also took her life air as He was sucking. It is described Krishna was holding on to her breast with both His hands, Krishna was sucking out her life force, it was very painful, the child was very strong she coundn’t pull Him off so it is said then Putana , it describes that Putana became very big but because Krishna arranged that the house of Nanda Maharaja not be destroyed Putana ran outside of the house and in that way the house was not destroyed and in fact Putana became very huge, she became 20km long but because of the pain she was running and she crashed finally to the ground just outside of Vrndavana in the middle of the orchard in the favourite fruit orchard of Kamsa and smashed all the trees there! As it is described so in that way Krishna took care of everything all at once because otherwise Putana would have destroyed the house of Nanada Maharaja by becoming so big ….that would not have been very very nice, these were Krishna’s pastimes just starting , everything was under control.
It is said that the Acharyas they again and again expressed their amazement for the reward that Putanda got…Putana was delivered and because she had offered her breasts it was taken as devotional service and Krishna was disregarding the poison and therefore Putana attained the spiritual world. Putana went back to Godhead to Goloka Vrndavana where Putana got the position of a nurse of Krishna in assisting role she was not directly nursing Krishna but she was one one of those assistance that was getting everything ready for the morning for Krishna’s dressing, Krishna’s bathing and everything Krishna required ……….so it is most amazing that a demon was getting such a reward, such an inconceivable reward ...So it is said that Krishna in general when He kills a demon He gives some special mercy, a little extra mercy not just the general mercy which every demon gets that they will attain Brahman and become free from material contamination and attain Brahman and merge into Brahman but He also gives a little extra and in the case of Putana He gave so much. And Putana being the mother, the mother is like the first guru because the mother is teaching everything “No no! Do this …no no…That is bad..no no this u should do, no that is what you should not do.”
So Putana came as a mother but instead of acting as a proper teacher, as a proper protector Putana instead betrayed Krishna ..so in that way Putana is the original false guru…..this is considered to be the most heionous offense. The fasle guru is attaining hellish planets is going to the darkest hells but somehow or other Putana also did devotional service … so here we get an insight how the guru disciple relationship should be like that …like there should be the same trust as a child has in his mother. Whenever a mother says that’s it… they have to accept it so whatever the Spiritual master is saying that should be accepted.
It is very difficult to be a disciple because in this age we have all lost our trust in our mothers in our fathers .. we may love them but trust is another thing…Who could be what his mother wants him to be ?! ………We love mum but we can’t be what mum wants us to be that’s out of the question that’s not possible!
So it is the age where all of our trust has been broken: The trust in our parents has been broken, the trust in our teachers has been broken the trusts in our authorities has been broken , it’s so difficult to trust: therefore it is difficult to surrender…….. . we have also become accustomed to being our own authority to do what we want and we do what we want ……..so somehow or other to be a disciple is very difficult but that is what Krishna wants and Krishna arranges like that and Krishna Himself accepts a Spirtual master. Sandipa Muni is compared to a mountain, it is said that Krishna is like the ocean of transcendental knowledge and from that ocean of unlimited knowledge a cloud came and that cloud was going through the sky and then it got stuck on the mountain of Sandipa Muni and there it stayed all that knowledge and from that cloud water came and rivers came from the mountains and in this way Sandipani Muni gave whatever he received from Krishna back to Krishna and in that way Krishna very quickly… Krishna and Balalarama very quickly, when they were eleven years old They left Vrndavana to go to Sandipani Muni ashram and they very very quickly learned everyday they learned a new art , there were many arts , even the art of playing water pots, whatever that art is you maybe wondering ..of course I have heard water pots being played in the train between Mayapur and Calcutta , the local artist making his bread and butter and it was quite melodious actually , they played rhythms on them and they were covered in different ways to makes notes out of it … so Krishna was very expert in playing water pots, that musical skill, He was not only expert in playing water pots, but Krishna was also expert in playing water because when Krishna jumped in the water to fight Kaliya then Krishna first made music in the water … I don’t know exactly how he did it but it was very beautiful ..but Kaliya didn’t like it !
Krishna plays like that ..He is showing that He is going to already….He gives some preview of what is coming ……… dancing on the hoods of Kaliya if we read…sanskrit………. when Krishna danced on the hoods of Kaliya the residents of Vrndavana they were overwherlmed …Nanda and Yasoda they were still so much shocked that Krishna had been all that time in the coils of Kaliya that they could not even see, not even see Krishna dancing, they were that shocked and others when they saw Krishna dancing they were so overwhelmed that they could not believe it , the cowherd boys they had just been dead you know , they had been dead and then they had been revived because before when Krishna came all the cowherd boys and the cows were dead and Krishna put them back to life , they were shocked: we were dead and now we are back alive and so on and therefore Krishna took advantage of the situation that His parents were not clear in the head , that the cowherd boys were tired, and to invite the gopis on the hood of Kaliya and He had a whole rasa dance there on the hoods of Kaliya so it is described.
So in this way Krishna’s pastimes are going deeper and deeper and deeper and this is important. There is always a new detail like we hear that Krishna appeared in the jail of Mathura in a four handed form with a helmet and yellow dhoti and Kaustaba gem and everything that we hear but then we read ( ina book ) by Rupa Goswami that Krishna also appeared as the son of Yasoda….. Krishna appeared simultaneously as the Son of Devaki and of the Son of Yasoda and when Vasudeva bought Krishna across the river to Mathura and and at that time Yasoda she had given birth to both a boy and a girl…….. she had twins ….and when Vasudeva put Krishna there then the Krishna that Vasudeva bought from Mathura became one with the son of Yasoda.. so there was one boy there and then Vasydava took the girl and Kamsa of course tried smashing the girl against the wall and she became Durga and like that… so Krishna actually appeared both in Mathura and in Vrndavana so this feat is only known to the intimate devotees not to the general public , Krishna was actually the real son of Yasoda , only a very few know that … so like this if we go deeper and deeper into the pastimes of Krishna there is always more to find out , so this is actually the essence.
Before I was a devotee I had two books one was the Bhagavad Gita and I used to read that while smoking my cigaretes and I was throwing the ashes on the pages thinking “yes yes iknow this iknow all this ..” because I had been in India and I knew about reincarnation, karma “ Yes yes yes …I know all this” and then …but the Krishna book , I was thinking this Krishna book I can’t read it you know because because I was thinking there is no excitement in this book you know : everytime a demon comes and 1 2 3 Krishna fights and boom and dead!( crowd laughs)…..
W0hat kind of book is this ?! There is no plot, I was used to Agagthie Christie or something like that and you look at some thriller, you want to reach on the last page and you can’t tell who is the killer and you have to know it , you can’t go to bed until I know, I have to know , I think I should just look on the last page ! and the tension is too much …………….there was no tension in this book, it doesn’t have a plot it is unreadable so when I at one point when to the temple , I had been in a temple in India for some time , then I left aggain so I started smoking cigarettes again and I went to the temple in Amsterdam and thought now I am going to smoke my very last cigarette that I ever smoke in my life and I was taking the train to the temple and I smoked two then there was still a walk from the train station to the temple so I smoked the very very last, so I smoked in the very very last and then I took a big big puff and I was standing on the door step and threw it all away and rang the door bell and they opened the door and I said I want to move into the temple ( Maharaja does sound effects of the smoke blowing from his mouth), he said Are you sure?!( crowd laughs).
I said yes I am sure , ok ok sit down on this chair and here is a magazine Back to Godhead and you can read that and I said I have already read that ..he said doesn’t matter we devotes we can read it all the time again and again… so I was there and I was reading the Back to Godhead and after 20 minutes I saw that devotee and he sais just stay there and so ok I stayed I kept on reading my back to Godhead so for hours I was reading the same back to Godhead and actually as I was reading it I was beginning to get a lot of realisations finding out more and more details….i was reading the same thing again and again and seeing each time another detail that I had missed ….so I was actually realising that there and there reading these stories of Krishna again and again actually gives a deeper and deeper insight , hearing them again and again gives us deeper and deeper insight into these stories…hearing them again and again , there is more and more understanding and in this way we turn over the same stories again Putana Putana Putana that story again Putana we are hearing this but there are always new details always something special and sometimes it’s just a small thing but just to hear how she also got the mercy of Krishna ..is a great encouragement …because if we look at it very carefully …Putana was mixed, she had some demoniac qualities and she did devotional service !...Sounds familiar doesn’t it!!!
Mixed just like us – she was bit of a demon and she was bit of a devotee at the same time and that’s intereting because we have this problem also ….then we see what happened to her…she somehow or other …Krishna only saw the service ….so this is very reassuring because so many times we are doubting …am I ever going to make it …I am like not so pure, I’m so fallen , am I a devotee or a demon .?.ok we know that book Satsvarupa Maharaja wrote: Am I a devotee or a demon …it is a classical title! That is a really good title. Everyone could identify with that title .. Am I a devotee or a demon …that’s the big question … Krishna protects the devotee but am I a devotee? Right? So many times we ask these time of questions ..but we see that Krishna simply sees the devotional service and disregards the poison…..What reassurance!!
So we may hear this story so many times and you may not think about it so deeply and you may not realise the full depth of it all ….So we discuss again and again , in this way little by little our appreciation for Krishna is increasing and increasing …our appreciation for the mercy of Krishna is increasing , the qualities of Krishna is increasing and our hope that we too can go back to Godhead is becoming stronger therefore we become stronger in our spiritual life.... Then we can actually do it.
