Wonderful dancing of Krishna and Balaram
Excerpt from a lecture by HH Varsana Swami, Submitted by Manoj
The holy dham is to be respected as the expansion of the Lord Balaram, Who sets the scene for the pastimes. And what are the Lord's embellishments, decorations?Mother Yasoda comes into Krishna's bedroom, singing sweet songs about the loving pastimes that took place before and she wakes up Krishna. And then all the cowherd boys come and they assist in dressing Krishna. And to please Mother Yasoda, He puts on jewelery and fancy clothes, and the cows… they won't even give milk until they have darshan of Lord Krishna.And then what happens! Krishna goes to the forest. He takes off the fancy jewelery that Mother Yasodha put and that gets covered with the forest gifts. The flowers and the peacock feathers, the mango twigs, and Krishna decorates Himself … the Gopis see this about 20 miles away, premanjana churita bhakti vilocenena, with eyes anointed with the salve of love, they can clearly see what is going on 20 miles away. They say, why is He dressing so nice? How's He dressing … Like a dramatic actor. Somebody who is about to do a stage performance, a dramatic act, and they are suspended in rapt attention, from inside their houses 20 miles away or so. Why is He dressing so nicely ? Is He dressing to please the cowherd boys? Well, they are dressing Him, so that's not it. Is He dressing to please Mother Yasoda? Well, she already dressed Him. So who is He dressing to please?Who do young boys dress to please? Young girls … So the Gopis feel very happy.Nanda Maharaj, Mother Yasodha and the elders all follow Krishna upto the point where Krishna assures them with a look, we'll be alright … you can go back … we'll be well behaved … And then painfully they go back …And then as the acharyas explain, as soon as Nanda and Yasodha turn to go back, Krishna and the cowherd boys turn like baby elephants who just got released. So the cowherd boys are joking and talking. So when the devotees asked Prabhupada, what do the cowherd boys talk about … Prabhupada said, Non-sense, ofcourse. But it has all got one purpose and one center, and that is Krishna. Which creates harmony, and peace, and sweetness, through out all of creation. And carrying that message of peace through the process of sankirtan is the most benevolent activity and the only antidote to the hideous influence of cruelty. So when Krishna and the cowherd boys begin to play, naturally all the cows, the birds, the peacocks get into a very playful mood and the cowherd boys … they also like to fight. How do they fight? with nuclear missilens … No … with flowers. They launch flowers. Sometimes they play ball …And then Vrndavan forest is not a dull inert, inanimate forest, full of darkness. Everything is enlightened. So understanding Krishna's mood, it creates a stage. And one of the cowherd boys starts drawing out his design, how the stage should be, with a stick. Ok, this is the center stage for Krishna and Balaram, Who come on. Krishna like a sapphire, and Balaram like an emerald. And Krishna's bluish effulgence, cast a nice bluish hue all over the forest and Balaram, when He gets enlivened, He starts sparkling like lightning. And the cowherd boys decide, ok, the musicians can go on this side and the deer and the rabbits sit in front, creating an audience. And then Krishna and Balaram come on to the stage, bow down to the audience, to bhumi, to Goddess Saraswati, Goddess of music and dance, and then they begin to Dance. Krishna begins dancing like a peacock. And the earth planet is so blessed, that no where else in the universe does Krishna dance. No where else does He even appear and bless the planet with the emblems of His bear lotus feet. So Krishna begins to dance. And everyone begins to sing. Krishna then begins to adjust His clothing, in a very accentuated manner. And then Krishna begins tap dancing. Creating a musical rhythm. When Krishna and Balaram begin to dance, They become to attracted in mutual love for each other and everyone witnessing this lila become so filled with love for Krishna and Balaram that their natural response is to embrace and love one another. If we have love for Krishna, you cannot have enimity for anyone or anything …And then Krishna, begins playing His flute and this enlivens Balaram to start dancing in a way no one can imitate. When Balaram gets enlivened, How would you compare? He gets so enlivened that with one hand on the ground and His whole body pivoting in the air and His lotus feet, circling in the sky, that just enlivens Krishna to no end … so that Krishna cannot even contain His joy, and Krishna begins dancing which culminates in doing cart-wheels around Balaram, who is rotating on His hand, with His body in the air and Krishna is doing cartwheels circumumbulating Him While simultaneously playing His flute; While simultaneously taking the dust from Balaram's feet in the air and also Distributing that dust to everybody in the audience until finally all that anyone can say is WONDERFUL ! WONDERFUL ! And Krishna begins boasting … Can anyone in the world out-do us in dancing … And everyone say NO WAY … First there is the competition who is the best. And the cowherd boys to please Krishna, they dance the best. But finally Krishna and Balaram dance even better until finally everyone in the forest and the earth is so enthralled and the sound even penetrating the outer coverings of the universe reaching Vaikuntha, Lord Narayan begins smiling. And Lakshmi is asking, What is causing you so much pleasure?There is such a correlation between love and wonder that everyone is just enraptured by the dance. And then as Srila Prabhupada points out, Krishna and Balaram, not having undergone the hair cutting ceremony, everything is dancing … Their ear-rings, Their hair … Their garlands, Their ornaments, everything …If we have love there will be no room for malice in our hearts. It is not by hatred, or fighting that malice can be killed, but it is only by love is envy stilled. This is a lesson repeatedly emphasized in the life of Haridas Thakur. And the symptom of love is humility, service attitude. The expression is service. And who is the best servant - Krishna is the best everything. He is also the most humble. Because after this dance, theatrical performance, that enraptured and enchanted everyone, everyone is saying - Krishna, you're the best … And Krishna saying yeah, Iam the best … And Sridama comes and says, Hey Krishna, you know I got evidence that under the cloak of darkness you sneak out sometime and take dancing lessons from my older sister. Sridama is Radharani's brother … So you know, Krishna says, Yea … I was actually kind of presumptuous to proclaim that I am the supreme dancer when I've got my own teacher.Ofcourse, this is all so esoteric and above our heads we should understand that we don't have connection with anything spiritual, except by the Grace of our Spiritual Master, the supreme expression of love, kindness and mercy, who has come to redeem us from the plight of this world and save us from the viciousness that destroys everything and everyone in this world and teaching us how to sing and dance in sankirtan.Sankirtan has two meanings - everyone coming together to sing and dance; and also means everything being used in the missionary work of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to develop love for Krishna, which is the purpose of our chanting Hare Krishna. By one mantra Which consists of three names, Hare Krishna and Rama, we can derive our dormant Krishna consciousness and counteract all the evil tendencies of the age of Kali, perfect the human form of life, benefit all living entities, by assisting one another in the path back home, where everyone lives eternally, in perfect peace and harmony.
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