“’O naughty child, now try going from here, if you can.’ Having spoken thus, she returned to her household duties.” (Vishnu Purana, 5.6.15)

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यदि शक्नोषि गच्छ त्वम् अतिचञ्चलचेष्टित
इत्य् उक्त्वा च निजं कर्म सा चकार कुटुम्बिनी

yadi śaknoṣi gaccha tvam aticañcalaceṣṭita
ity uktvā ca nijaṃ karma sā cakāra kuṭumbinī

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada passes down the time-honored and eternal tradition of bhakti-yoga. This Sanskrit term is a more specific and specialized implementation of the broader concept known as sanatana-dharma. An analogous term is bhagavata-dharma. Bhagavad-bhakti is another way to describe the culture. The English translation intelligently applied and intentionally chosen is “Krishna consciousness.” The people who know the reality of different sides to the Almighty, how there is both an impersonal understanding and a personal presence that is fixed, want others to extract everything from the life experience. To live to the fullest involves understanding, connecting with, and remaining conscious of the single individual who programmed everything to begin with.

Everything necessary is accounted for through this connection. There is nothing missing. There are no gaps left to fill. There is no void that requires attention. If you are going straight to the source, who is already connected to everything, then there is nothing else to worry over. This is the meaning behind the recommendation to the bow-warrior named Arjuna, found in the concluding verses of the sacred Bhagavad-gita text.

सर्व-धर्मान् परित्यज्य
माम् एकं शरणं व्रज
अहं त्वां सर्व-पापेभ्यो
मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

How is this consciousness of Krishna implemented? Just what is the ideal picture? Who should be emulated? What respectable figures can serve as a sort of foundation from which to begin our practices? Are there established benchmarks to compare against, for gauging progress along the way? How do we know if we are actually Krishna conscious and not just fooling ourselves with another fad, another temporary interest that will later be set aside and completely forgotten?

At the foundation of the culture of Krishna consciousness is appreciation. This is at the foundation of the intelligent and honest human culture, in fact. The wise person realizes they are not the doer. They can make choices. They can reasonably expect certain outcomes to occur, but nothing is guaranteed. Something basic like waking up in the morning might be taken for granted, but there is always the chance for a misery of nature to interfere and create an ordeal. That nature must always give its sanction prior to any expected outcome.

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि
गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहङ्कार-विमूढात्मा
कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.27)

For our analysis, we take the discussion to the setting of Gokula-Vrindavana during ancient times. We have heard that the people living there embody Krishna consciousness. They are so set in the proper path that they are not even aware of a distinction. They are not intentionally practicing a certain religion or following a specific kind of yoga. They are always thinking of Krishna, which is one way to address the personal understanding of God. Not surprisingly, that constant connection with Krishna has appreciation from beginning to end.

1. The land

The land gives to the people. It provides for the human population. It is a miracle of nature, in fact, closely resembling the birth process. You plant a seed, provide sufficient water and sunlight, and there are fruits. They manifest when they are ready, at the appropriate time. In the same way, the seed enters the woman, creating an embryo in the womb, which delivers the human through the birthing process. The land in this context is like the greatest womb, since it continues to deliver, year after year, spanning centuries, feeding generations of mankind.

Goswami Tulsidas uses the land as a comparison for the potency of repeating the holy name of Rama. This is another way to address the same personal God. As there is every star in the sky and every seed already within the earth, everything that a person is looking to extract from religion [dharma] can be found in the chanting of the holy names.

जथा भूमि सब बीजमय नखत निवास अकास
रामनाम सब धरममय जानत तुलसीदास

jathā bhūmi saba bījamaya nakhata nivāsa akāsa
rāmanāma saba dharamamaya jānata tulasīdāsa

“Just as within the earth are found every kind of seed and within the sky live all the stars, Tulsidas knows that Shri Rama’s holy name is the reservoir of all dharma.” (Dohavali, 29)

2. The heavens

As the people of Vrindavana appreciate the land, they also understand that there are connected components involved in the production of food. The heavens are vital to the affair. Without sufficient rainfall, the land could not produce. The less intelligent will say that rain falls at random, that there is no visible coordinator in the heavens, as we know it. Science explains everything, you see. Science is the reason behind the various functions of nature.

In reality, science only recognizes; it does not explain. A person observes that there is rainfall, but nothing gets taken for granted. The people of Gokula-Vrindavana understand that there is intelligence at the source. The rain could not fall at random, since then the same randomness would produce rain from within the earth. There is coordination involved, and so the people appreciate the ones coordinating that mechanism vital to the continuation of the human population.

अन्नाद् भवन्ति भूतानि
पर्जन्याद् अन्न-सम्भवः
यज्ञाद् भवति पर्जन्यो
यज्ञः कर्म-समुद्भवः

annād bhavanti bhūtāni
parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ
yajñād bhavati parjanyo
yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ

“All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.14)

3. The cows

The criticism is that the people were too set in the past to know what was going on. They were worshiping cows. They had lost their minds. In reality, the worship is just another way of expressing appreciation. The cows produced so much, and with minimal supervision, at that. The cows simply eat from the ground. They produce the milk out of love, from seeing their children. Why would any honest person not appreciate that? Cows were everything to the people in that community.

4. The hills

The people extended their appreciation to the hills. This is because hills such as Govardhana were dear to the cows. A new style of worship even emerged, after the clever persuasion of the son of Yashoda and Nanda. He convinced the community to skip the yajna in honor of Indra one year and move everything towards Govardhana, instead.

“Prepare very nice foodstuffs of all descriptions from the grains and ghee collected for the yajna. Prepare rice, dahl, then halavah, pakora, puri and all kinds of milk preparations like sweet rice, sweetballs, sandesha, rasagulla and laddu and invite the learned brahmanas who can chant the Vedic hymns and offer oblations to the fire. The brahmanas should be given all kinds of grains in charity. Then decorate all the cows and feed them well.” (Krishna giving direction on the first Govardhana Puja, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume 1, Chapter 24)

5. The grinding mortar

The people of that town even appreciate a grinding mortar. This is used in the production of food, after the cows, the heavens, the hills, and the land have provided sufficiently. The mortar is an integral aspect of the economy, and so the people do not take it for granted.

Of course, there is an additional reason to appreciate the mortar. It was once used as a sort of anchor, to keep the naughty son in the home of Yashoda tied to one place. So that He wouldn’t move around and get into trouble. So that Yashoda could return to her household duties, which were for the benefit of the child all along. The person of whom we should be conscious, who is the object of worship in bhakti-yoga, was once tied to a mortar out of love from His mother. He earned the name Damodara from that interaction, and He has been worshiped in that vision ever since.

In Closing:

For keeping in place tried,
To that grinding mortar tied.

No more running here and there,
Of His presence securely aware.

Only after His sanction giving,
Saints in that vision living.

Because most appreciated of all,
The one as Krishna to call.

Categories: the five

Tags: cows, dailyprompt, krishna lila, life, poem, poems, poetry