Krishna Narayana

Addressing Yashoda and Nanda, Uddhava said, “The Supreme Lord creates all these universes, sustains them all and then, absorbs them into himself. To a person who is seated on a vigorously rotating wheel, the Earth appears to rotate”.

To a person seated in a moving train, it appears as if the trees and other stationary objects are moving. It is illusion.

“Likewise, when the mind is totally absorbed in the action, the Self, which has attained oneness with the mind, falsely considers itself to be the doer of the action”.

Here the Self has attained oneness with the mind. This is known as tādātmya.

“Yuvayor eva naivāyam ātmajo bhagavān hariḥ

sarveṣām ātmajo hy ātmā pitā mātā sa īśvaraḥ

The Supreme Lord Hari is certainly not only your son. He is the son, Self, father and mother to everyone in the universe”.

The Supreme Lord is the father, mother, Self for every living entity in the creation.

“That which is seen and that which is heard; the incidents pertaining to the past, present or future; the objects irrespective of whether they are big or small- nothing can have any existence without the presence of the Supreme Lord. He is everything. This is the Supreme Truth”.

The Supreme Essence is contained in everything. All incidents that have taken place in the past, the present incident as well as the future incident are Him alone.

“In this way, Uddhava, the messenger of Krishna, spent the entire night explaining these truths to Yashoda and Nanda. Soon it was dawn. The Gopikas, who arose from bed during the early hours, lit the lamps all over the house and decorated the entrances to their homes with Rangoli designs. They were then busily engaged in churning curd.

When the Gopikas, whose hands were filled with bangles, began to vigorously churn the curd, their breasts, chains, hips began to move. Their cheeks glowed due to the reflection of the glowing earrings and their faces illumined due to the Kumkum adorning their forehead”.

These descriptions are being given in Bhagavatam so as to take the reader/ listener to Brindavan. When you close your eyes, your mind should be in Brindavan and you should be able to picturize this scene. We should be able to hear the sound generated when the curd is being churned vigorously. We should be able to smell the curd and butter.

“The precious stones contained in the ornaments illumined further due to the presence of the lamps, causing the Gopikas to illumine even more radiantly. These lotus-eyed women were loudly singing the glories of Srikrishna as they churned the curd to obtain butter.

Their loud singing combined with the sound generated due to churning and touched the skies. It reverberated in all directions driving away all forms of inauspiciousness”.

If we churn curd in the right manner, the sound generated travels up to the skies and drives away inauspiciousness. However, we no longer churn curd using the churning rod as in the past. We put the yoghurt in the mixie jar and churn it. The harsh sounds generated spoils our ears. If at all curd is churned in the traditional manner in any home, it becomes breaking news.

Churning curd the traditional way has a deep significance. It implies the sins are being churned. When butter is obtained through this traditional churning, the butter-milk develops a special taste. The butter-milk obtained from churning in a mixie lacks this special taste. The ladies were engrossed in these activities even prior Sunrise.

It is said that not waking up from bed prior Sunrise is a sin. We should be up from bed before 6 AM. Sleeping after that is sinful.

“The Sun rose in the east. The cowherds of Brindavan noticed the golden chariot standing outside Nanda’s home and were astonished. ‘Whom does it belong to’- they asked one another”.

Uddhava’s arrival had gone unnoticed as it was a little after Sunset. Very few were aware of his arrival. Hence noticing this chariot they were perplexed.

“Could it be possible that Akrūra, the attendant of Kamsa, has arrived here once again?’ the Gopikas thought angrily.”

The Gopikas were angered that Akrūra had returned again to their land. They were ready to finish him off.

“He is the one who took away the lotus-eyed Krishna from here to Mathura. His deed was despicable. Why has he come again? Does he plan to offer oblations to his departed king using our flesh?

Even as the ladies were discussing thus amongst themselves, Uddhava completed bathing and other rituals and approached them all”.

With this, the forty-sixth chapter of the tenth canto comes to an end.

Krishna Narayana