Lord Krishna's Vrindavana Pastimes Part-2
Lord Krishna's Vrindavana pastimes lecture was given in 7 series.
The 1st series dealt mostly on Sri Advaita Acarya because the class on Lord Krisna's
Vrindavana pastimes was begun on the appearance day of Advaita Acarya.
The 2
nd
series begins with Lord Krishna's Vrindavana pastimes as transcribed below.
The recording starts with reference to earlier description.
His Holiness Bhakti Caru Maharaja began the class referring to what he has mentioned
earlier.
So as I mentioned earlier, that this class will look into the compilations or collections of
different pastimes from different puranas. Mainly, a lot of Krishna's pastimes have been
described in Brahma Vaivarta Purana and also in Harivamsa.
These are two of the Puranas which describe quite extensively Krishna's pastimes.
Brahma Vaivarta Purana has one section called Krishna Khanda which deals extensively
with Krishna's pastimes.Rupa Goswami and Jiva Gowsami also dealt with Krishna'a
pastimes quite extensively.
Jiva Goswami in his Gopal Sampur describes about Krishna's pastimes. And Rupa
Goswami in his Vidharta Madhav and Lalita Madhav, the two dramas, dealt with
Krishna's pastimes quite extensively. These two are based on Krishna's pastimes.
Besides that there are other dramas also such as Danakeli Kaumudi by Rupa Goswami
and Danakeli Cintamani by Raghunath Das Goswami. Sometimes we find that there are
certain contradictions. Like in Brahma Vaivarta Purana the description is that Radharani
actually appeared from the sacrificial fire. But in Lalita Madhava, Rupa Goswami
described that Radharani was born as the daughter of Vindhya Mountain. There is also a
very interesting story.
You all know that Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya Mountain is the wife of Lord Shiva.
There is another Mountain called Vindhya. Vindhya Mountain became upset about that.
He became envious. So he wanted to have a daughter who is better than the Himalayan's
daughter. Or he wanted to have a son in-law who is greater than Lord Shiva. So he
performed great sacrifices and as a result of that he got the benediction that his daughter
will be married to someone who is even greater than Lord Shiva. That daughter of
Vindhya is Radha. He actually got two daughters. One is Radha and another is Chandra.
Radharani and Chandravali are actually the daughters of Vindhya Mountain. When they
were just babies Putana wanted to kill them. When Putana was flying away with these
two daughters of Vindhya Mountain Brahmanas started chanting mantras that killed the
witchcraft. So Putana's life was in danger. So then Putana dropped these two children in
order to save her own life. These two children fell in the Januma River. They began
floating down the river and the king Vrsvabanu got one daughter that is Radha and the
king Chandrabhanu got the other daughter, that is Chandravali.
Now there is an apparent contradiction between Rupa Goswami's descriptions here, and
the descriptions given in other Puranas. When Bhakti Sidhanta Saraswati was asked,
'why there are such contradictions in the scriptures?' his answers to that were; 'Kalpa
jnana'. We have to understand that in different kalpas, the pastimes take place in different
names. So when we see some apparent contradictions in the scriptures we have to
understand that they are actually narrating the pastimes from different kalpas. The details
would differ but the underline principle is the same. And what is the ultimate objective of
the scriptures? The ultimate objectives of the scriptures are to encourage us to become
Krishna consciousness, to inspire us to become Krishna conscious. That is the ultimate
objective and Krishna's pastimes are like a play. Krishna's pastimes are known as Lila.
Lila means pastimes. Pastimes means the activities that are just done out of their own
will, out of sweet will. It can be compared to a drama on the stage. Like somebody may
play a role of a king on the stage but he may not actually be a king. Somebody may act as
a villain on the stage but actually he may not be a villain but a saintly person. This way
Krishna's pastimes are like acts in live, acts on the stage. But what is the objective of that
act or drama? The objective is to bring us closer to Krishna, make us attractive to
Krishna. To make us Krishna conscious.


