“’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

“Listen, I believe that hope is important. People should be able to dream big. I think the person who founded that tech company that invented so many of the gadgets everyone owns today said something to the effect that everything we see around us was built by someone who was no smarter than any of the rest of us. In other words, someone just had an idea and pursued it. They were not necessarily exceptionally qualified or skilled. They had a vision. They had the audacity to pursue that vision.

“In this regard, the stories passed forward in the Vedic tradition give an example of possibilities. It is reassuring to know that someone is watching. The innocent princess named Draupadi can finally let go. She does not have to fight by herself. She can surrender everything to a higher power, who will indeed save her during a moment of crisis. She was spared the embarrassment of being shown naked in an assembly. This was because Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, assumed the identity of the sari she was wearing. As Krishna is endless, or ananta, in that moment the sari took on the same property.

“Let me make one thing clear. I believe. I relish the opportunity to hear such stories. To someone like me, texts of epic length such as Mahabharata and Ramayana are not long enough. I will never grow tired of referencing events depicted within those pages. I am eternally grateful to the people who contributed to the published version, for the purpose of facilitating smriti across generations. Whether the people around us are kind, peaceful, honest, and level-headed or mean, petty, vindictive, and vengeful, we can find transcendence by consulting these books and simply remembering.

“The thing is, who else is going to believe? They take one look at a depiction of Hanuman holding a mountain, for instance, and relegate the identity to mythology. They will not believe that someone so young like Krishna could jump into a river and subdue a formidable serpent. Such a creature is itself commonly known only in fictional works, like comic books. Krishna lifting a hill and holding it over His head to protect His friends is way out of the ordinary. Does this not present a barrier for lifting others up? They need help. We all need help. I am just considering the best way to deliver that rescue.”

“For two hours Krishna remained like an ordinary child gripped in the coils of Kaliya, but when He saw that all the inhabitants of Gokula—including His mother and father, the gopis, the boys and the cows—were just on the point of death and that they had no shelter for salvation from imminent death, Krishna immediately freed Himself.” (Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume 1, Chapter 16)

Let us stop and think for a moment. These depictions relate to human-like individuals. Shri Krishna appears in this world in the dark of night, to the parents named Vasudeva and Devaki, who happened to be stuck in a prison. Shri Rama appears as the first male child to the king named Dasharatha, who is part of the esteemed Raghu dynasty. The birth of Krishna was preceded by prayers offered by the celestials to the womb of Devaki. The birth of Rama was preceded by a special religious ritual conducted by an expert priest named Rishya-shringa, after a chance meeting with Dasharatha.

Krishna is supposed to be identical to Vishnu, who is the source of men. Rama is supposed to be identical to Vishnu. This means that these appearances, of individuals known as the avatara, are not of ordinary men. Why, then, would we expect the subsequent deeds to be ordinary? Why should the activities and character, charitra, resemble anything else with which we are familiar? Rama Himself uses charitra as a barometer for qualifying membership into a particular social status. A person can take birth in a family of warriors, but they should live up to the standard through their behavior and characteristics.

कुलीनमकुलीनं वा वीरं पुरुषमानिनम्
चारित्रमेव व्याख्याति शुचिं वा यदि वाऽशुचिम्

kulīnamakulīnaṃ vā vīraṃ puruṣamāninam
cāritrameva vyākhyāti śuciṃ vā yadi vā’śucim

“It is certainly a person’s conduct which speaks to whether they are high-born or low-born, heroic or cowardly, or pure or impure.” (Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 109.4)

The behavior from Rama is so extraordinary that a saintly person like Goswami Tulsidas wants to remember in a steady, constant, and unbreaking meditation. The subsequent literary output appropriately receives the title Ramacharitmanasa. This is taking a dip in a lake that exists within the mind. That lake consists of the amazing things that Rama has said and done. Since Rama is God Himself, the trip does not have to end. Rama continues to do amazing things, as the passage of time only serves to increase His stature, which is inconceivably brilliant to begin with.

We are already familiar with the ordinary. We already experience mortality, which introduces limitations. We already suffer through duality. We already know how nature compels us to take rest at night, to eat at periodic intervals, and to tolerate the extremes in weather. We already know how man is fallible. By its very definition, the ordinary is that which we come to expect. The Supreme Lord is not ordinary, and so His deeds described in sacred texts have to be out of this world. That is how He stands out. This is one way to identify Him, in the manner of Arjuna being blessed with the proper eyes to witness the virat-rupa, which is like the avyakta-murtina, or the impersonal understanding of the Divine, coming to life.

न तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुमनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षु: पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम्

na tu māṁ śakyase draṣṭum
anenaiva sva-cakṣuṣā
divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ
paśya me yogam aiśvaram

“But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 11.8)

If a devotee were honest with you, they would admit that there is indeed one aspect to the descriptions of the Divine lila which is difficult to comprehend. Not in a young Krishna knocking down two large trees using a mortar, but rather in being bound to the mortar in the first place. How amazing must Yashoda be to have that special privilege, to address the origin of everything with taunting words? Who can accurately measure the mercy of someone who feels compelled to appear in the area of Gokula to accept the parental affection of Yashoda, who thinks only of the welfare of her son?

In Closing:

Of many amazing things done,
Just consider as Yashoda’s son.

Where in that courtyard to find,
Allowing her to bind.

Despite entire universe done,
In that special place to run.

For the power of devotion to know,
As only God could show.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, damodara, hare krishna, krishna lila, poem, poems, poetry