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No One Can Know the Plan of the Lord [Śrī Kṛṣṇa]

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 05:10 PM PDT

Bhishmadeva

Even a great fighter like Bhīṣma could not win the Battle of Kurukṣetra because the Lord wanted to show that vice cannot conquer virtue, regardless of who tries to execute it.

Srimad-Bhagavatam
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Canto 1″Creation”, Chapter 9, Text 16
The Passing Away of Bhismadeva in the Presence of Lord Krsna

na hy asya karhicid rājan
pumān veda vidhitsitam
yad vijijñāsayā yuktā
muhyanti kavayo ‘pi hi

na—never; hi—certainly; asya—His; karhicit—whatsoever; rājan—O King; pumān—anyone; veda—knows; vidhitsitam—plan; yat—which; vijijñāsayā—with exhaustive inquiries; yuktāḥ—being engaged; muhyanti—bewildered; kavayaḥ—great philosophers; api—even; hi—certainly.

O King, no one can know the plan of the Lord [Śrī Kṛṣṇa]. Even though great philosophers inquire exhaustively, they are bewildered.

The bewilderment of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira over his past sinful acts and the resultant sufferings, etc., is completely negated by the great authority Bhīṣma (one of the twelve authorized persons). Bhīṣma wanted to impress upon Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira that since time immemorial no one, including such demigods as Śiva and Brahmā, could ascertain the real plan of the Lord. So what can we understand about it? It is useless also to inquire about it. Even the exhaustive philosophical inquiries of sages cannot ascertain the plan of the Lord. The best policy is simply to abide by the orders of the Lord without argument. The sufferings of the Pāṇḍavas were never due to their past deeds. The Lord had to execute the plan of establishing the kingdom of virtue, and therefore His own devotees suffered temporarily in order to establish the conquest of virtue. Bhīṣmadeva was certainly satisfied by seeing the triumph of virtue, and he was glad to see King Yudhiṣṭhira on the throne, although he himself fought against him. Even a great fighter like Bhīṣma could not win the Battle of Kurukṣetra because the Lord wanted to show that vice cannot conquer virtue, regardless of who tries to execute it.

Bhīṣmadeva was a great devotee of the Lord, but he chose to fight against the Pāṇḍavas by the will of the Lord because the Lord wanted to show that a fighter like Bhīṣma cannot win on the wrong side.

Purport to Jaya Radha Madhava

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 03:29 PM PDT

Radha Madhava

Purport to Jaya Radha Madhava

(New York, July 20, 1971)
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

[Sings Jaya Radha-Madhava.] (song lyrics follow this post)

Srila Prabhupada:
So this is the original nature of Krsna. He is Radha-Madhava. He is the lover of Srimati Radharani. And kunja-vihari, always enjoying the company of the gopis within the bushes of Vrdavana forest. Radha-madhava kunja-vihari. So He’s not only lover of Radharani, but braja-jana-vallabha. The whole residents of Vrndavana, they love Krsna. They do not know anything else. They do not know whether Krsna is God, or not; neither they are very much harassed, that “I shall love Krsna if He is God.” “He may be God or He may be whatever He is. It doesn’t matter, but we love God, Krsna.” That’s all. That is called unnalloyed love. “If Krsna is God, then I shall love Him” — this is conditional love. This is not pure love. Krsna may be God or whatever He may be, but by His wonderful acts, the Vrajavasi, they are thinking, “Oh Krsna, He is very wonderful child, maybe some demigod. Maybe some demigod.” Because people are generally under impression that the demigods are all-powerful.

They’re powerful within this material world. But they do not know that Krsna is above all of them. Isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah [Bs. 5.1]. The highest demigod, Brahma, is giving his opinion, “The supreme controller is Krsna.”

So as the residents of Vrndavana, they love Krsna without any condition, similarly, Krsna also loves them without any condition. Vraja-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhari. When the inhabitants of Vrndavana were in danger because they stopped Indra-yajna and Indra became very angry, and he sent very great, powerful cloud and rained over Vrndavana incessantly for seven days, so when the inhabitants became very much disturbed, Krsna, although He was only seven years old boy, He saved them by lifting the Govardhana Hill. So He taught Indradeva, demigod, that “To stop your disturbance is the business of My little finger. That’s all.” So he came down to his knees. These things you’ll find in Krsna book. So as the Gopi-jana-vallabha, His only business is how to protect gopi-jana. So our Krsna consciousness movement is how to become one of the gopi-jana. Then Krsna will save us from any danger, even by lifting a hill or mountain. Krsna is so kind and so powerful. When Krsna lifted the hill, He did not practice some yoga system. And that is God. Although He was a child, He was playing like a child, He was dealing like a child, but when there was need, He was manifesting as God. That is Krsna. That is Krsna, not that He has to go and practice some yoga system. Then He becomes God. No. He’s not that type of God, not manufactured God. He’s God.

So gopi-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhari. And as a child, as beloved child of Yasoda, Yasoda-nandana,… Krsna likes to be a child of a devotee. He wants to be chastised from His devotee father and mother. Because everyone worships Him, nobody goes to chastise Him, so He takes pleasure when a devotee chastises Him. That is Krsna’s service. If Krsna takes pleasure being chastised, so the responsibility is taken by a devotee: “All right, I shall become Your father and chastise You.” When Krsna wants to fight, one of His devotees becomes Hiranyakasipu and fights with Him. So all activities of Krsna is with His devotees. He is… Therefore, to become associate of Krsna, to develop Krsna consciousness… Yasoda-nandana vraja-jana-vallabha, vraja-jana-ranjana. His only business is how to satisfy… As braja-jana’s business is how to satisfy Krsna, similarly, Krsna’s business is how to satisfy braja-jana. This is reciprocation of love. Yamuna-tira-vana-cari. Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is wandering on the banks of Yamuna to please the gopis, the cowherd boys, the birds, beasts, calves. They are not ordinary birds, beasts, calves or men. They are on the top of self-realization. Krta-punya-punjah. After many, many lives they got that position, to play with Krsna.

So our Krsna consciousness movement is so nice that everyone can go to Krsnaloka and become His associate, as a friend or so many other things, as a servant, as father, as mother. And Krsna is agreeable to any one of these propositions. These things are described very nicely in our Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So Krsna does not go even a step from Vrndavana. The original Krsna is Vrndavana. That is described in the Brahma-samhita,

cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambrahma-sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam (tam aham bhajami)
[Bs. 5.29]

Brahma is accepting the Supreme Personality of Govinda, Krsna in Vrndavana. Venum kvanantam: “He is engaged in playing flute.”

(venum kvanantam) aravinda-dalayataksam
barhavatamsam asitambuda-sundarangam
kandarpa-koti-kamaniya-visesa-sobham
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
[Bs. 5.30]

So take advantage of these books, this knowledge, and this prasadam, this chanting, and be happy and go to Krsna. So nice thing. All right.

Purport pasted from; http://www.bvml.org/ACBSP/ptjrm.htm

Jaya Radha Madhava

jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-bihārī
gopī-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī

Krsna is the lover of Radha. He displays many amorous pastimes in the groves of Vrndavana, He is the lover of the cowherd maidens of Vraja, and the holder of the great hill named Govardhana.

yaśodā-nandana braja-jana-rañjana
yāmuna-tīra-vana-cārī

He is the beloved son of mother Yasoda, the delighter of the inhabitants of Vraja, and He wanders in the forests along the banks of the River Yamuna!

Srila Prabhupada was very fond of this sort and sang it just before his lectures. In Allahabad and Gorakhpur Srila Prabhupada fell into a trance after singing the first two lines, and after some time he came back into external consciousness and said, “Now just chant Hare Krsna.” Srila Prabhupada said that this song is “a picture of Vrndavana. Everything is there–Srimati Radharani, Vrndavana, Govardhana, Yasoda, and all the cowherd boys.”

Pasted from http://kksongs.org/songs/j/jayaradhamadhava.html