19840606-Srimad-Bhagavatam.10.8.11-12-New-Vridavan-Literal-Version

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on June 6th, 1984 in New Vrindavan, in West Virginia. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10th Canto, Chapter 8, Verse 11-12. [Editors note: This lecture is actually given in New Orleans, Louisiana]

Jayapataka Swami:

śrī-śuka uvāca

Devotees: śrī-śuka uvāca Jayapataka Swami: evaṁ samprārthito vipraḥ

Devotees: evaṁ samprārthito vipraḥ

Jayapataka Swami: sva-cikīrṣitam eva tat

Devotees: sva-cikīrṣitam eva tat

Jayapataka Swami: cakāra nāma-karaṇaṁ

Devotees: cakāra nāma-karaṇaṁ

Jayapataka Swami: gūḍho rahasi bālayoḥ

Devotees: gūḍho rahasi bālayoḥ

Jayapataka Swami:

śrī-śuka uvāca

Devotees: śrī-śuka uvāca

Jayapataka Swami: evaṁ samprārthito vipraḥ

Devotees: evaṁ samprārthito vipraḥ

Jayapataka Swami: sva-cikīrṣitam eva tat

Devotees: sva-cikīrṣitam eva tat

Jayapataka Swami: cakāra nāma-karaṇaṁ

Devotees: cakāra nāma-karaṇaṁ

Jayapataka Swami: gūḍho rahasi bālayoḥ

Devotees: gūḍho rahasi bālayoḥ

Jayapataka Swami:

Translation: Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Having thus been especially requested by Nanda Mahārāja to do that which he already desired to do, Gargamuni performed the name-giving ceremony for Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in a solitary place.

No Purport.

Text 12:

śrī-garga uvāca

Devotees: śrī-garga uvāca

Jayapataka Swami: ayaṁ hi rohiṇī-putro

Devotees: ayaṁ hi rohiṇī-putro

Jayapataka Swami: ramayan suhṛdo guṇaiḥ

Devotees: ramayan suhṛdo guṇaiḥ

Jayapataka Swami: ākhyāsyate rāma iti

Devotees: ākhyāsyate rāma iti

Jayapataka Swami: balādhikyād balaṁ viduḥ

Devotees: balādhikyād balaṁ viduḥ

Jayapataka Swami: yadūnām apṛthag-bhāvāt

Devotees: yadūnām apṛthag-bhāvāt

Jayapataka Swami: saṅkarṣaṇam uśanty api

Devotees: saṅkarṣaṇam uśanty api

Jayapataka Swami:

Translation: Gargamuni said: This child, the son of Rohiṇī, will give all happiness to His relatives and friends by His transcendental qualities. Therefore He will be known as Rāma. And because He will manifest extraordinary bodily strength, He will also be known as Bala. Moreover, because He unites two families—Vasudeva's family and the family of Nanda Mahārāja—He will be known as Saṅkarṣaṇa.

Translation:

Gargamuni said:

Devotees: Gargamuni said:

Jayapataka Swami: child, the son of Rohiṇī

Devotees: child, the son of Rohiṇī

Jayapataka Swami: will give all happiness

Devotees: will give all happiness

Jayapataka Swami: to His relatives and friends

Devotees: to His relatives and friends

Jayapataka Swami: by His transcendental qualities

Devotees: by His transcendental qualities

Jayapataka Swami: Therefore He will be known as

Devotees: Therefore He will be known as

Jayapataka Swami: Rāma!

Devotees: Rāma!

Jayapataka Swami: And because He will manifest

Devotees: And because He will manifest

Jayapataka Swami: extraordinary bodily strength

Devotees: extraordinary bodily strength

Jayapataka Swami: He will also be known as Bala

Devotees: He will also be known as Bala

Jayapataka Swami: Moreover

Devotees: Moreover

Jayapataka Swami: because He unites two families

Devotees: because He unites two families

Jayapataka Swami: Vasudeva's family

Devotees: Vasudeva's family

Jayapataka Swami: and the family of Nanda Mahārāja

Devotees: and the family of Nanda Mahārāja

Jayapataka Swami: He will be known as Saṅkarṣaṇa.

Devotees: He will be known as Saṅkarṣaṇa.

Jayapataka Swami:

PURPORT

Baladeva was actually the son of Devakī, but He was transferred from Devakī's womb to that of Rohiṇī. This fact was not disclosed. According to a statement in the Hari-vaṁśa:

pratyuvāca tato rāmaḥ

sarvāṁs tān abhitaḥ sthitān

yādaveṣv api sarveṣu

bhavanto mama vallabhāḥ

Gargamuni did disclose to Nanda Mahārāja that Balarāma would be known as Saṅkarṣaṇa because of uniting two families—the yadu-vaṁśa and the vaṁśa of Nanda Mahārāja—one of which was known as kṣatriya and the other as vaiśya. Both families had the original forefather, the only difference being that Nanda Mahārāja was born of a vaiśya wife whereas Vasudeva was born of a kṣatriya wife. Later, Nanda Mahārāja married a vaiśya wife, and Vasudeva married a kṣatriya wife. So although the families of Nanda Mahārāja and Vasudeva both came from the same father, they were divided as kṣatriya and vaiśya. Now Baladeva united them, and therefore He was known as Saṅkarṣaṇa.

Thus end the Translation and Purports of Verse… this is Text number 11 and 12, Chapter 8, Canto 10 of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, by His Divine Grace, Srila Abhaycarana Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the matter of Lord Krishna Shows The Universal Form.

Here the description of the naming Balarama, Krishna’s older brother is given. Balarama, because He’s older brother, therefore He’s being named first. Thereafter, Krishna gets named. The name they give Krishna is?

Bhakta Tim?

Bhakta Tim: I don’t know.

Jayapataka Swami: You don’t know? What do you think?

Bhakta Tim: Lord Caitanya?

Jayapataka Swami: No. Anyone knows what name they gave?

Reply: Vasudeva?

Reply: Nanda-nandana?

Reply: Krishna?

Jayapataka Swami: (applauds) (Laughter)

Comment: Tricky.

Jayapataka Swami: The name He was given was Krishna.

That’s why we call Him Krishna. Because He was given idānīṁ kṛṣṇatāṁ gataḥ. So Krishna, the name Krishna was given to Him by Garga… but of course, that name always existed, and Garga Muni knew that this was Krishna and Balarama, as will be described later. So, Rama means He gives happiness. He’s the Supreme enjoyer, but when we serve the Lord who’s the Supreme enjoyer, not only do… does… actually we become happy. This is the… the wonderful secret, that by serving the Lord who is the Supreme Enjoyer, we actually become happy.
By serving our own whimsical desires, our own uh, material inclinations, we simply become miserable. But, by serving the uh… the desires of the Lord, then we become happy. So, the method of getting transcendental happiness is serving the lotus feet of Lord Balarama. No one can approach Krishna without the mercy of Balarama. No one can approach Lord Caitanya without the mercy of uh, Lord Nityananda Prabhu. So, of course, they’re very merciful, so… but we should not try to jump over. That’s why the guru is considered to be the representative of Balarama, or Nityananda, and to approach the Lord, we cannot jump over the guru. We have to go through the guru-parampara. In this way, approaching Balarama, or Nityananda Prabhu, thereby achieving the shelter of Lord Krishna, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Also, because Lord Balarama has got extrodinary bodily strength… He has all transce… not only bodily strength… of course he’s saying this for Nanda Maharaja, but actually Lord Balarama, He’s the first expansion of Krishna. There’s no difference between Krishna and Balarama. Basically, they have everything exactly the same, potential the same, pastimes except Krishna is original. He is the original, and Balarama is His first expansion. Krishna is black. Balarama is whitish. Transcendentally white. So, that Krishna and Balarama, they are glorified by… by Jayadeva as together. They appeared at the same time. The original personality and His original expansion. Narayana expansions, the Maha-Visnus expansions, these are all coming from Lord Balarama. So, Balarama, He is the source of all spiritual strength. He is the… by His uh… in His form of Sankarsana, in His form, He is maintaining all of the uh, material uh, and spiritual universes. They’re all being held up by a fraction of the strength of Lord Balarama.

So, also we can get spiritual strength for serving Lord Krishna from Lord Balarama. In Kali-yuga in His incarnation as Lord Nityananda, the… someone may say, “How is Krishna and Balarama brothers?” How are they brothers?

(inaudible)

Reply: Because they have the same father.

Jayapataka Swami: Anything else?

Reply: (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: Same father.

Reply: Same grandfather.

Jayapataka Swami: Same grandfa… If you have the same father, you have the same grandfather, too. You’re saying they’re not the same father?

Reply: Rohini-suta.

Reply: Same mother also. They were transferred.

Jayapataka Swami: Right, same mother, same father. Rohini is another wife of lord Vasudeva… of King Vasudeva, but actually, it describes here, Baladeva was originally in the womb of Devaki. He prepared everything for Krishna coming, and then He transferred over to Rohini, and they thought that uh, Devaki had a miscarriage then. So, actually, He was first in the womb of Devaki, so in that sense also, the same mother, and Vasudeva in either case, is the same father. So actually, here, Prabhupada mentions that:

Baladeva was actually the son of Devakī, but He was transferred from Devakī's womb to that of Rohiṇī. This fact was not disclosed.

Everyone should listen to these Purports, you see. A lot of little… in one sentence there, so many secret information has been revealed. Now Nanda Maharaja was also of course as brother… half-brother with Vasudeva. So, Nanda-Maharaja, in that sense, Krishna was also a brother, but a cousin-brother, from Nanada Maharaja’s point of view, with Balarama. But uh, in uh… even today in India, if you ask somebody uh, actually they’ll come and say,

“Here. He’s uh… he’s my brother.”

“You just mean he lives in the same village? That kind of brother?”

“No no. My own real brother. Blood brother. My own brother… my own father’s brother’s wife’s brother’s son. My own brother.” (Laughter) If it’s your cousin-brother… because it’s joint families, they all live together, if it’s your own cousin, what we consider first cousin, that’s full on brother. No difference. In some of the families, there’s fifty people live together. Say the father has five brothers. They all have their wives. And all… each of them have five kids, ten kids, they can… some of them fifty-five family members all live in one big compound, and they call the uh… the children, they’re… “This is my father, and he’s my…” the older uncle than my father is called jetha, and the younger is called kaka. But they call them all as children, and sometimes they even forget that who’s… “Which is mine? Which is the brothers and sisters.” It merges, so close.

Of course, here in the West, family life is already broken up. There it’s very natural that if the father leaves, the older brother, whoever the oldest brother is, alive, he takes charge of the whole family. Nobody [break] unless he approves of it, and that’s what has kept Vedic tradition, everything very strong for so long is this very strong family. Now, the Indian Government by… they charge more taxes on joint Hindu families since the past twenty-five years than they do on individual families, so by economic force, people are being split apart. In this way, the government can spread socialism and other things. Because the strong Hindu family unit was so powerful that nobody could break it, so then Kali-yuga is breaking it.

But any case, Krishna and Balarama from everybody’s angle of vision, either they had real transcendental vision or… Vasudeva’s vision, or from Nanda Maharaja’s vision, they’re all… Krishna and Balarama are both brothers, and that same relationship was maintained between Lord Nityananda and uh, Lord Caitanya, that They accepted Each other as practically like brothers. Lord Nit… [break] …appeared before Lord Caitanya; He was older. These are all allowed for transcendental pastimes to be exchanged.

The uh, devotees, when they do sankirtana, they should meditate on the lotus feet of Balarama and Krishna, of Nitai-Gaura, to get special strength. When there’s a difficulty, then they can take shelter and chant the holy names and uh, pray that they can get more uh, strength for serving the lotus feet. This is a special meaning also of Baladeva, Balarama. Krishna uh… Narottama dasa Thakura prayed hā hā prabhu nityānanda premānanda-sukhī kṛpāvalokaṇa koro āmi baḍo duḥkhī, that “Lord Nityananda, You are filled with transcendental ecstasies. I’m always in a miserable material uh, suffering mentality. Please have Your mercy upon me, that I can uh, just… immediately because I’m so unfortunate.”

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa

kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma

rāma rāma hare hare

Question?

Question: If Krishna and Balarama are both born of the same father, why is it that Krishna is sometimes said to be a Vaisya, and Balarama to be a Ksatriya?

Jayapataka Swami: Because everyone thought that Krishna was born from Nanda Maharaja, and it explains here that Nanda Maharaja married that uh… as uh, Lokanatha was explaining, that they have the same grandfather, from that relationship. Nanda Maharaja and Vasudeva were born from the same father. They’re brothers, but Nanda Maharaja’s mother was a Vaisya. In previous… Because a King, or any… they can marry any good woman, no matter what particular background she had. She had obviously a Vaisya background.

So Nanda Maharaja, he could’ve gone either way, with a Ksatriya father and a Vaisya mother, he could’ve become a Vaisya, or he could’ve become a Ksatriya. He had a choice; you know, or he could… you know, higher… he has to do a lot of austerities to become a Brahmana. But, he took up the occupation of a Vaisya, and he married a Vaisya wife, and so from practical point of view, everyone thought that Krishna was the son of Nanda, and that’s the way He was brought up and everything, so He was called… you know, acted like a Vaisya, but uh, Rohini is the wife of Vasudeva, but she was in exile.

So, she was tak… she took shelter in Nanda Maharaja’s house and Baladeva was known right from the beginning as the son of Vasudeva and Rohini, and so, He was a Ksatriya, but He also played like a cowherd boy. His plow… always carries His plow. kṛṣi-go-rakṣya davici vāṇi (?)

One more?

Question: So you said that Rohini was… she took shelter in the… Nanda Maharaja’s house. So was she… (inaudible) …or Vasudeva’s?

Jayapataka Swami: Vasudeva’s in the prison.

Reply: He’s still, even after the birth… (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: His situation was not very favorable.

Reply: So she stayed with… she stayed in the house of Nanda Maharaja.

Jayapataka Swami: She remained for quite some time in the… with Nanda Maharaja because of the dangerous political situation with the Ksatriya King. It was dangerous for Krishna and Balarama, so for Balarama’s interest, she stayed away. To protect her offspring, she remained separate, to protect uh, Balarama, her life. It wasn’t… Vasudeva and Devaki’s situation was somewhat difficult.

(inaudible)

Question: What are the social rules for marriage of one caste and another? I understand there’s a lot of restriction, a woman, who she can marry, below or above her caste, and for a man also.

Jayapataka Swami: Well, in Krishna consciousness, it’s not that applicable.

Reply: Because I mean in traditional Varnasrama, there’s… (inaudible) …marriage.

Jayapataka Swami: Normally a woman could marry up, but normally wasn’t thought good if the woman marry down, or if the man married up, but, you know, it did happen sometimes. Pratiloma and… there’s two names for it. So, the woman uh, marrying uh, you know, a hu… a man marrying a woman from a tradition… a lower tradition, wasn’t considered to be a as you know… it was… it was to some extent acceptable, but the offspring would be watched to see, you know, what qualities they had… to see you know. They were considered p… they were considered to be pratiloma offspring, or whatever.

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa

kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma

rāma rāma hare hare

I’m going off to Atlanta today. We want to try to increase their service as far as possi…

[break]

hare kṛṣṇa

Devotees: hare kṛṣṇa

Jayapataka Swami: Jaya Sri Sri Radha Radhakanta, Jaya Jagannatha Subhadra Balarama ki,

Devotees: Jaya!

---

Transcribed by Jagannatha dasa Brahmacari.