Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Day 5: Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s Birth in Gokula and Śrī Rādhā’s Appearance — Yaśodā-nandana, the Causes of the Līlā, Bhartṛhari’s Necklace, Pūtanā’s Liberation, the Glories of Vraja and Nārada’s Stava-rāja
•Rādhā’s Birthday Today: After praṇāmas to the guru-varga, Gurudeva announces that on this fifth day he will describe Śrī Rādhā’s birth. His own Gurudeva used to say that Rādhā’s birth should be celebrated a hundred times more joyfully than Kṛṣṇa’s, for She alone is our worshipful goddess. Śukadeva spoke sambandha-tattva in Cantos One to Nine and prema, the prayojana, in the Tenth; with some hundred and eight commentaries available, the class follows Jīva Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī, giving only a bird’s-eye view.
•Appearance in Mathurā, Birth in Gokula: In Kaṁsa’s prison Kṛṣṇa only appeared (Śrī Rāmacaritamānasa, Bāla-kāṇḍa 192), as Nṛsiṁha appeared from a pillar; His birth-pastime, as a human infant, is in Gokula, where Nanda rejoiced at the birth of his own son, ātmaja (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.5.1). Mahāprabhu knew Him only as Yaśodā-nandana Śyāmasundara (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya 7.85). Accept the gopīs’ word and the guru-varga’s conception rather than every speaker’s, or one ends in doubt.
•Eternal Parents: Pṛśni and Sutapā received the Lord as son in three births: Pṛśnigarbha, Vāmana, and Kṛṣṇa as son of Devakī and Vasudeva. Nanda and Yaśodā are His eternal parents in the most complete dhāma, Vṛndāvana; Dvārakā is complete and Mathurā more complete. The Lord manifests His dhāma and associates out of mercy, and bhavet is an injunction: one must hear such pastimes (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.36). Droṇa and Dharā, blessed by Brahmā through Yogamāyā, entered Nanda and Yaśodā; Viśvanātha Cakravartī reads the gopīs’ na khalu gopikā-nandano bhavān in both contrary and compliant moods (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.31.4). Like family members, the Vrajavāsīs share Kṛṣṇa’s joys and sorrows; Nanda rejoices at his son’s birth (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.5.1), and Parīkṣit asks what Nanda and Yaśodā did to earn such fortune (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.46).
•The Causes of the Līlā: His Gurudeva would invite paṇḍitas in Gokula after Nandotsava to discuss these commentaries. The principal cause of Kṛṣṇa’s descent is to relish prema-rasa and spread rāga-mārga bhakti (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.15–16); He performs varied pastimes for His devotees’ delight (Padma Purāṇa) and pastimes unknown in Vaikuṇṭha (Ādi 4.28), and Yogamāyā arranges the gopīs’ paramour mood (Ādi 4.29–30; Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.29.1). Even Garga’s “nārāyaṇa-samo guṇaiḥ” and the lifting of Govardhana do not shake the Vrajavāsīs’ intimate, worldly love. Of the four rasas, mādhurya is supreme (Ādi 4.42), and what the world calls love is kāma (Ādi 4.165).
•Bhartṛhari’s Necklace: A wedding necklace, “the symbol of our love”, passed from Bhartṛhari’s queen to the minister and on to a dancing girl, and came back to the king; seeing where worldly love goes, he wrote on vairāgya and renounced. A glittering “jewel” sold to a Vṛndāvana speaker for fifteen thousand rupees was glass. Such prema, once united, knows no separation (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 2.43); kṛṣṇa-prema is eternal and awakens in a heart purified by hearing (Madhya 22.107); the fruit of hearing the Bhāgavata is connection with the Lord.
•Sanātana-dharma: Marriage is a bond of trust, and the vivāha-mantra, “tava hṛdayaṁ mama hṛdayaṁ”, teaches this oneness of hearts. Never give up sanātana-dharma; follow good conduct and vidhi, which leads into rāga-mārga (Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Kalyāṇa-kalpataru), become fixed in sva-dharma (Bhagavad-gītā 3.35; Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 8.58), and gradually attain vraja-bhāva. The Lord descends to protect dharma (Bhagavad-gītā 4.8).
•Earth’s Burden and the White Hair: Pṛthvī as a cow went with the devas to Brahmā and the ocean of milk; the Lord placed a white hair and a black hair, Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa. In a story, a pujārī who wore the king’s garland was saved when Ṭhākurajī grew a white hair to keep his word. Pūtanā was Bali’s daughter Ratnāvalī. Like an alāta-cakra, the pastimes go on from one universe to another, and Śukadeva points at them as if present, etāḥ (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.21.11), as Uddhava also says (10.47.58).
•Gopī-bhāva and Bhārata: Śūrpaṇakhā became Kubjā; the Daṇḍakāraṇya sages were born as gopīs; Lakṣmī could not enter the rāsa without taking birth in a gopa’s home and following Rādhā. Vṛndāvana is the most blessed place on earth. Gurudeva speaks of pride in Bhārata and sanātana-dharma, of two English devotees who immersed their father’s ashes in the Gaṅgā and Yamunā, and of the Gaṅgā, which delivered Sagara’s sons and is never polluted. Keep Gaṅgā water at home; tulasī wood at cremation and in the Dāmodara lamps is glorious. Behind every demon’s liberation lies a sage’s mercy, as with the Yamalārjunas and Aghāsura.
•The Glories of Vraja
•Rādhā’s Appearance
•Nārada’s Stava-rāja