Brahma’s Illusion (1/2)

Article: Brahma’s Illusion

by Srila B. R. Sridhar Maharaj

“Krishna is infinite; He is the wonderful wonder of wonders. As much as we search Him out, we will find no end to His wonders. Even Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe and the original guru of our sampradaya, was astonished by the wonders of Krishna.”

Lord Brahma

“I offer my prayers unto You, O praiseworthy Lord who are the child of the cowherd Nanda. Your complexion is the dark-blue color of a thundercloud and You are clad in silk garments that shine like lightning. Your charming face is adorned with gunja-mala ornaments, and Your hair is decorated with a peacock feather. You look beautiful wearing a garland of forest flowers, and that beauty is enhanced by the morsel of food in Your left hand. You carry a buffalo horn and a stick for herding cows tucked beneath Your left arm. You hold a flute and other emblems, and Your feet are as soft as a lotus.”

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, the ultimate cause of all harmony, is so wonderful that simply by approaching Him, we will be charmed by His ways. He is known as Urukrama, for His strides are wonderful, unthinkable, unknown, and unknowable. There is no end to His wonders. Ascaryavat pasyati kascid enam ascaryavad vadati tathaiva canyah: At every step towards Him, one feels wonder. We find no end to that feeling. Krsna is infinite; He is the wonderful wonder of wonders. As much as we search Him out, we will find no end to His wonders.

Even Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe and the original guru of our sampradaya, was astonished by the wonders of Krsna. Once when Krsna was living in Dvaraka, He heard that Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, had come to see Him. Krsna asked His messenger, “Which Brahma?” When the messenger put this question to Brahma, Brahma thought, “Are there other Brahmas also?

How is it possible?” He told the messenger, “You just inform Krsna that I am the father of the four Kumaras: the four-headed Brahma.” The messenger went to Krsna with the news. “Yes, show him in,” Krsna said, knowing Brahma’s temperament. Brahma went in, but he was astounded to see that so many Brahmas had gathered there from all of the universes in the creation.

There were hundred-headed, thousand-headed, million-headed Brahmas – all present there. Because the whole creation is based on Krsna’s hypnotism, the four-headed Brahma could see Krsna and all those other Brahmas, but the other Brahmas could not see each other. Each one of them saw only Krsna. Each one of them thought, “Krsna has come in my universe and called for me out of some necessity.”

But the Brahma of this universe could see everything because he had inquired, ‘Which Brahma?’ What is the meaning of ‘Which Brahma?’ Are there any other Brahmas? I wonder. ” In this way, Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, was baffled by the wonderful ways of Krsna. Previously, in Vrndavana, Brahma had also had some doubt about the position of the Lord. He thought, “Who is this cowherd boy?

His ways are very questionable. He moves in such a way that it appears that He does not care for anyone. He is within my brahmanda, my universe, but He does not care to know me. What is this attitude? Who is He? He is not Narayana. Only Narayana is above me. And I am a little accustomed to His ways and manners. But this boy is not Narayana. That anything can exist above Narayana is impossible. Then who is He?”

To test Krsna, Brahma took away the cowherd boys and calves accompanying Him and hid them in a cave. After a year he returned to see how life was continuing in Vrndavana, to see how Krsna was doing without His calves and cowherd boys. And he found that everything was as before. The Lord, surrounded by His cowherd boyfriends, was carrying His flute under His armpit and a morsel of food in His hand. He found everything going on as it had been.

Then Brahma began to think, “What is this? Have the calves and cowherd boys come back without my notice?” He again checked the cave where he had hid them and found that they were all there.

Then he thought, “How is this possible? I stole the calves and cowherd boys and hid them here and now that I have returned, I find they are all still here just as before.”

Finally, perplexed, he fell at Krsna’s lotus feet, praying, “My Lord, I could not recognize You. You have come to play such a plain and ordinary part, that of a cowherd boy. How can anyone believe that You hold an even greater position than that of Narayana? Please forgive whatever I have done.”

In many places in Srimad-Bhagavatam, we find Lord Brahma. the creator of the universe, being tested by Krsna. And still, Brahma is our gurudeva. He is the original guru of our line. That he could become bewildered is so perplexing and difficult to understand that Madhvacarya eliminated that section from the Srimad-Bhagavatam. He could not accept those two chapters of Srimad- Bhagavatam where Brahma was under illusion, where he had some misunderstanding about Krsna. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted everything in toto.

This is a very peculiar thing. How can the original guru of our sampradaya become bewildered about Krsna? It is acintya, inconceivable. Still, everything is intelligible through the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, “inconceivable oneness and difference.” How can we accommodate that our original guru becomes perplexed, not only once, but twice? That is lila, a divine pastime.

An example of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva is found in the way Krsna deals with His devotees. Krsna Himself is independent of everything. Still, sometimes He shows Himself to be completely subordinate to His servants and must do whatever they want Him to. Then again, sometimes He completely ignores them. These are the spontaneous pastimes of the Sweet Absolute. Sometimes He shows absolute submission to Srimati Radharani, and again, sometimes He ignores Her. This is the very nature of Krsna’s lila.

Crooked Pastimes

Rupa Goswami has supplied a verse from his Ujjvala-nilamani as the basis of the proper understanding of krsna-lila. When we think about the pastimes of the absolute, we, the finite, will have to wear this armor: aher iva gatih premnah svabhava-kutila bhavet. We must understand that Krsna’s pastimes are naturally crooked, just like the movement of a snake. A snake cannot move in a straight line; he moves in a zig-zag way.

The waves that flow from the absolute move in the same way. That characteristic of krsna-lila is always maintained above everything else. Krsna can never be ruled by any law. With this initial consideration we should approach any study of the absolute. We must always keep in mind that He is absolute, and we are infinitesimal. He is adhoksaja, transcendental, beyond the world of our experience.

Once I asked our Prabhupada, “Why is there a difference between Sanatana and Rupa in their conception of the final part of krsna-lila? Sanatana closed his summary of Krsna’s pastimes in his Krsna-lila-stava in Mathura, and Rupa took it another step towards Dvaraka in his Lalita-madhava. He wrote two plays dealing with krsna-lila: one about Dvaraka and one about Vrndavana.

Vidagdha-madhava takes place in Vrndavana; Lalita-madhava takes place in Dvaraka. But Sanatana Goswami liked to complete Krsna’s pastimes in Mathura.

According to Sanatana Goswami, after a long separation between Krsna and His family and friends, like a wheel the pastime moves from Mathura again to Vrndavana. After Krsna has gone to Mathura, the residents of Vrndavana, overwhelmed by separation, begin to think, “Krsna has been gone for such a long time. Nanda and Yasoda have lost their child!”

The separation intensifies and develops further until they begin to think, “Oh, Nanda and Yasoda have no child!” Then they think, “They must have a child,” and begin to pray for the appearance of Krsna. Then Krsna appears as the son of Nanda and Yasoda. The cycle is complete and everyone is happy thinking, “Oh yes, Yasoda has got a child.” In this way Krsna’s pastimes again begin developing in Vrndavana and move to Mathura, where He kills Kamsa.

In his Krsna-lila-stava, his summary of krsna-lila, Sanatana Goswami did not take Krsna into Dvaraka from Mathura Mandala. But Rupa Goswami, in his play Lalita-madhava, showed the parallels between krsna-lila in Vrndavana and krsna-lila in Dvaraka. And so, in his Lalita-madhava,

Rupa Goswami draws a parallel between Lalita as Jambavati, Radharani as Satyabhama, and Candravali as Rukmini. In this way, he shows the transformation between Vrndavana and Dvaraka.

Beyond Experience

I asked Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada about this difference between Rupa and Sanatana. He simply said, “It is adhoksaja, beyond our understanding. So krsna-lila is “un- understandable” (acintya). Everything is not bound to come within our fist. The Supreme Lord has “All Rights Reserved.” This must be understood if we at all want to be in connection with that plane of reality.

So Srimad-Bhagavatam says: jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva: It is a defect to want to understand everything about divinity. Knowledge may be a qualification here in this world, but in relation to the transcendental truth of the highest order, the tendency to want to know everything is a disqualification.

We want to know the value of everything. We want to have the key to everything in our possession. But this is really a bar to progress. If we assert ourselves in this way, we rather lose what confidence we might have in divinity, and there will be some delay in extending the key to us. If a servant, upon getting employment in the master’s house, is very eager to be entrusted with the house keys, then the master will suspect him. So to want to know everything is a type of disease, it is an enemy to our progress.

This is, of course, difficult to accept. But still, it is true. Surrender is everything. What cultivation of knowledge do we find in the gopis – the most exalted devotees of Krsna? What was their acquaintance with scripture? Nothing.

What we understand to be “standard purity,” what we think to be knowledge – all these things are disqualifications in giving pleasure to the absolute. An example of how our misconceived standards of “purity” and “chastity” are a disqualification can be seen in the following story.

A Mystic Physician

In order to prove the supreme position of Srimati Radharani, one day, Krsna appeared to suddenly fall ill. As He lay sick, He came in another form, disguised as a physician, and said:

“O Yasoda, I have heard that your boy has caught some disease. Is it true? “Yes, yes, who are you?”

“I am a physician – a mystic physician. I would like to see your son. What is His disease?” “He fainted; perhaps He has a headache.”

Then Krsna in the dress of the physician told Mother Yasoda, “This is a very serious disease. I want to cure Him. But I can only do so if I can have some water brought in a porous pot. Some water should be brought from the Yamuna in a pot that has many holes in it. Only a chaste lady can do this. A chaste girl must bring some water in a porous pot. With the help of that I shall give some medicine to this boy, and He will come to consciousness immediately.”

Then Yasoda madly began to search Vrndavana for a chaste lady. Jatila and Kutila were Radharani’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Because they naturally preached that there was doubt or suspicion about the chastity of the other girls among the gopis, they themselves were generally considered to be chaste. So Yasoda appealed to one of them, Jatila, first. “Take this porous pot and fetch some water from the Yamuna.”

“How is it possible? To fetch water in a porous pot is impossible.” “No. The physician says that if one is really a chaste lady, then she can fetch water in a porous pot.”

Jatila could not avoid the mad request of Yasoda. Her request was so intense that she had to go. But she could not fetch water from the Yamuna because there were so many holes in the pot. Then Kutila was requested to fetch water in the pot, but she dared not venture to try it, seeing the attempt of her mother.

Still, Yasoda was so earnest in her request that Kutila also could not avoid the task. Yasoda couldn’t tolerate for a second that her son was in such a condition. And so her request was so intense that Kutila had to go. But she could not fetch water either, because there were so many holes in the waterpot that the water just poured through.

They were astonished, thinking, “What can we do? Among all the girls in Vraja, not a single chaste girl is to be found? What a horrible thing!” So Krsna, in the garb of a physician, singled out Radharani, saying: “I think that She is a chaste lady. Request Her to fetch the water.”

And at the request of Yasoda, Radharani could not avoid the task. She had to go fetch water, but She was thinking of Krsna: “If You come to My relief, then only it may be possible; otherwise it is impossible,” She prayed. Radharani dipped the porous pot in the water as Krsna touched the pot from within the water. And Radharani with great suspicion took the pot from the water and in great wonder She said, “The water is there!” She had taken some of Her maids, the sakhis, Her chief friends, with Her, and they were all astounded to find that She drew the water from the Yamuna.

The holes were there but still the water remained within the pot. So She brought the water to Yasoda and everyone was astounded. And that water with some fictitious medicine was given to the boy Krsna, and Krsna arose from His “unconscious” state.

This was a tactic by Krsna to show the position of Radharani, to show what chastity is. What is chastity? Ordinary “chastity” is not real chastity. Real purity, real chastity, is far above all relative considerations of chastity. And that is inconceivable, beyond our knowledge and reason, just as how a porous pot can contain water. It is a miracle.

But God works wonders. His ways are filled with miracles. We, should be prepared for that. We should be prepared that all the knowledge of this world, all our experience, will prove to be wrong. So it is said, jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva: Be clear of your past experiences, what you have drawn from the world of the senses, empiric knowledge (pratyaksa-jnana).

Your tendency will always be to try to push your way into the transcendental world on the strength of mundane knowledge. But this verse is saying, “You fallen people, your capital is the experience of this world, of the senses. But it won’t do, it won’t have any value in that higher plane. What is found there is a new thing, so approach that world with an open mind; understand that everything is possible with the infinite. All your expectations, your past experience, has no value. Why don’t you give up trying to dodge this point?”

The transcendental world is something quite new to us. It is very difficult to get out of this superstition of so-called “truth” here. But still it is necessary that we accept that anything and everything is possible with God. He is the master of impossibilities. Possibility and impossibility are found only in our dictionary, yet even Napoleon wanted to remove the word “impossible.” He said, “‘Impossible’ is a word in a fool’s dictionary.”

How are we to understand that the original guru of our sampradaya becomes bewildered? It is “impossible.” We must suspend our “knowledge” (jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva). We may take it that Krsna is playing hide and seek, perhaps, with Brahma, our gurudeva. It is like a game of hide and seek. Sometimes Krsna is defeating others and sometimes He is defeated.