CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Kṛṣṇa Rescues Nanda Mahārāja from the Abode of Varuṇa

Nanda Mahārāja was intent on breaking his fast during the Dvādaśī day, of which there remained only a few minutes. Thus he entered the water to bathe at an inauspicious time, before the first dawn light.

The servant of Varuṇa who arrested Nanda Mahārāja is stated here to be an asura, or demon, for obvious reasons. First, the servant was foolishly ignorant of Nanda Mahārāja’s position as the pastime father of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Also, Nanda Mahārāja’s intention was to carry out the injunctions of scripture; therefore Varuṇa’s servant should not have arrested Nanda on the technical grounds that he bathed in the Yamunā at an inauspicious time. Later in this chapter Varuṇa himself will say, ajānatā māmakena mūḍhena: “This was done by my ignorant servant, who is a fool.” This foolish servant did not understand the position of Kṛṣṇa or Nanda Mahārāja or devotional service to the Lord.

In conclusion, it is clear that Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to give His personal audience to Varuṇa and simultaneously accomplish other didactic purposes. Thus this wonderful pastime will now unfold.

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that when Nanda Mahārāja went to bathe in the river, he was accompanied by several cowherd men. When Nanda did not come out of the water, they began to cry out, and Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately came there. Understanding the situation, Śrī Kṛṣṇa entered the water and went to the court of the demigod Varuṇa, determined to free His father and the other cowherd men from fear of a mere demigod.

Varuṇa ecstatically exclaims here that since he has now seen the infinitely gorgeous body of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the trouble of assuming a material body has now been supremely justified. Indeed, the artha, the goal or real value of Varuṇa’s life, has now been achieved. Because Lord Kṛṣṇa’s form is transcendental, those who accept His lotus feet go beyond the boundary of material existence, and thus only the spiritually unaware would presume that the Lord’s lotus feet are material.

The word śrūyate is significant here. Śruti, or Vedic literature, consists of authorized statements made by the Lord Himself or His enlightened representatives. Thus neither the Lord nor recognized spiritual authorities would ever say that within the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, there is the fault of illusion. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī points out that the word brahmaṇe here indicates the Lord is full in Himself, and that the term paramātmane indicates He is the controller of all living entities.

Thus within the supreme being, complete in Himself and omnipotent, we do not find any jurisdiction of the material, illusory energy.

The word ayam, “this one here,” clearly indicates that Kṛṣṇa’s father, Nanda Mahārāja, was present as Varuṇa was speaking. In fact, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura states that Varuṇa had seated Śrī Nanda on a jeweled throne and had personally worshiped him out of respect.

Technically, Nanda Mahārāja was correct in entering the water just before sunrise. The following explanation is given by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in his commentary on the first verse of this chapter: After an especially short Ekādaśī, measuring only eighteen hours, about six hours of the lunar day in which the fast had to be broken, namely the Dvādaśī, had already expired before the dawn. Since at sunrise the proper time for breaking the fast would have passed, Nanda Mahārāja decided to enter the water at an otherwise inauspicious time.

Of course, Varuṇa’s servant should have been aware of these technical details, which are meant for strict followers of the Vedic rituals. Above and beyond that, Nanda Mahārāja was acting as the Supreme Lord’s father and was therefore a most sacred person, beyond the touch of insignificant cosmic bureaucrats like the foolish servant of Varuṇa.

In this pastime, Lord Kṛṣṇa gives a sublime demonstration of His position as the Supreme Lord of all lords. Varuṇa, the demigod of the seas, is most powerful, yet he was happy to worship even Lord Kṛṣṇa’s father, what to speak of Kṛṣṇa Himself.

The cowherd men were filled with excitement upon hearing how Kṛṣṇa had gone to the abode of Varuṇa to rescue His father. Suddenly realizing that they were in fact dealing with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they joyfully conjectured among themselves about their auspicious destination after finishing their present life.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has elaborately explained how this verse applies to the eternally liberated residents of Śrī Vṛndāvana, the Lord’s abode. One of the fundamental philosophical principles of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the distinction between two types of illusion, Yoga-māyā and Mahā-māyā, the spiritual and material states of existence, respectively. Although Kṛṣṇa is God, the omnipotent, omniscient Supreme Being, His intimate associates in the spiritual world love Him so much that they see Him as their beloved child, friend, lover and so on. So that their ecstatic love can transcend the boundaries of mere reverence, they forget that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme God of all the universes, and thus their pure, intimate love expands unlimitedly. One may consider their activities of treating Kṛṣṇa as a helpless child, a handsome boyfriend, or a playmate to be a manifestation of avidyā, ignorance of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s position as God, but the residents of Vṛndāvana are in fact ignoring the secondary majesty of Kṛṣṇa and focusing intensely on His infinite beauty, which is the essence of His existence.

In fact, describing Lord Kṛṣṇa as the supreme controller and God is almost a type of political analysis, referring as it does to a hierarchy of power and control. Such analysis of levels of power and hierarchies of rule is significant in a context in which one entity is not fully surrendered, in love, to a higher entity. In other words, control becomes visible, or is consciously felt as control, when there is resistance to that control. To cite a simple example: A pious, law-abiding citizen sees a policeman as a friend and well-wisher, whereas a criminal sees him as a threatening symbol of punishment. Those who are enthusiastic about government policies feel not that the government is controlling them but rather that it is helping them.

Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa is seen as a “controller,” and hence as “the Supreme God,” by those who are not fully enchanted by His beauty and pastimes. Those fully in love with Lord Kṛṣṇa focus on His sublime, attractive features and, because of the nature of their relationship with Him, do not much notice His controlling power.

A simple proof that the residents of Vraja have transcended lower states of God consciousness rather than failed to attain them is the fact that throughout the pastimes of the Lord they often “remember” that Kṛṣṇa is God. Usually they are astonished at this remembrance, having been fully absorbed in seeing Kṛṣṇa as their friend, lover and so on.

The word kāma is conventionally used to indicate a material desire, or else a spiritual desire so intense that it becomes somehow analogous to intense material desires. Still, the fundamental distinction remains: material desire is selfish and self-gratificatory; spiritual desire is free of selfishness, being wholly for the pleasure of the other, the Lord. Thus the residents of Vṛndāvana executed their daily activities solely for the pleasure of their beloved Kṛṣṇa.

It should be remembered that the entire purpose of Kṛṣṇa’s descent into this world is to attract living beings back home, back to Godhead. Two things are required for this: that His pastimes display the beauty of spiritual perfection, and that they somehow seem relevant and hence interesting to the conditioned souls of this world. The Bhāgavatam often states that Lord Kṛṣṇa plays just like a youthful actor, and He undoubtedly engages His eternal devotees in the dramatic presentation. Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa here muses to Himself that people in this world certainly do not know their ultimate destination, and with an obvious touch of the facetious He also thinks in this way about His own eternally liberated associates, who were playing in this world like ordinary members of a cowherd village.

Apart from the double meaning obviously present in this verse when it is applied to Kṛṣṇa’s liberated associates, Kṛṣṇa here makes an entirely direct and pointedly critical observation about ordinary people. When applied to conditioned souls who are actually wandering throughout the universe, His statement that people are acting out of ignorance and lust is not mitigated by any deeper, spiritual meaning. People in general are simply ignorant, and they do not seriously consider their ultimate destination. As usual, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is able to say many profound and complex things in a few simple words. How fortunate we are that God is not a dry field of energy, a transcendent, effulgent blob, or nothing at all — as various people would have it. In fact, He is the most wonderful Personality of Godhead, full of absolute personal qualities, and certainly whatever we can do, He can do better, as evidenced by His brilliant way of speaking.

It is clear from this verse that the Absolute Truth dwells in His own eternal abode. Everyone of us tries to live as comfortably as possible, surrounding ourselves with peace and beauty. How can we, in the name of “logic,” begrudge the Supreme Lord, our creator, the supremely beautiful and comfortable abode known by people in general as the kingdom of God?

In text 14 Lord Kṛṣṇa revealed to the residents of Vṛndāvana His own abode, the spiritual planet of Kṛṣṇaloka. This and innumerable other Vaikuṇṭha planets float in an infinite ocean of spiritual light called the brahmajyoti. That spiritual light is in fact the spiritual sky, which Kṛṣṇa also, quite naturally, revealed to the residents of Vṛndāvana. For example, if we want to show the moon to a child, we say, “Look up in the sky. See the moon over there in the sky.” Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa revealed the vast spiritual sky to the residents of Vṛndāvana, but as emphasized in text 14 and in the following text, 16, the actual destination of the Lord’s associates was His own spiritual planet.

The unlimited extension of spiritual light, called the brahmajyoti in text 15, is compared to a lake called Brahma-hrada. Lord Kṛṣṇa submerged the cowherd men in that lake in the sense that He submerged them in the awareness of the impersonal Brahman. But then, as indicated by the word uddhṛtāḥ, He lifted them up to a higher understanding, that of the Personality of Godhead in His own planet. As clearly stated here, dadṛśur brahmaṇo lokam: They saw, just as Akrūra did, the transcendental abode of the Absolute Truth.

The evolution of consciousness may be briefly summarized as follows: In ordinary consciousness we perceive and are attracted to the variety of material things. Rising to the first stage of spiritual consciousness, we transcend material variety and focus instead on the undifferentiated One, which lies behind and gives existence to the many. Finally, rising to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we find that the absolute, spiritual One contains its own eternal variety. In fact, since this world is a mere shadow of eternal existence, we would expect to find spiritual variety within the One, and indeed we do find it in the sacred text of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Astute readers may note that the pastime involving Akrūra takes place later in the Bhāgavatam, after the present affair with the cowherd men. The reason Śukadeva Gosvāmī says Akrūra saw Vaikuṇṭha purā, “previously,” is that all these incidents took place many years before the conversation between Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit.

Although the residents of Vṛndāvana considered themselves ordinary persons, Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted them to know of their extraordinary good fortune. Thus, within a lake in the Yamunā River the Lord showed them His personal abode. The cowherd men were amazed to see that the kingdom of God had exactly the same spiritual atmosphere as their own earthly Vṛndāvana and that, just as in their Vṛndāvana Lord Kṛṣṇa was personally present, in their unique vision He was present as the Lord of the spiritual world.

As Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura points out, these verses emphasize that Lord Kṛṣṇa did not merely show the cowherd men a sample Vaikuṇṭha planet but that He specifically revealed His Kṛṣṇaloka, the greatest of eternal abodes and the natural home of the residents of Vṛndāvana, who loved Kṛṣṇa more than anyone else did.