6: Krishna, the Supreme Absolute Truth
The Supreme Lord and His abode
What makes Krishna unique?
isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah
sarva-karana-karanam
"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has a spiritual form of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. He is the origin of all and He has no other origin, for He is the primeval cause of all causes." (Brahma-samhita)
Krishna is the original source of everything in existence: all energies, all Vishnu-tattva expansions, all living beings. Everything everywhere that expands from Him, is a part of Him. He is the supreme object of worship, the supreme master, the supreme friend, the supreme lover.
Krishna is known as the son of Nanda and Yasoda. He is renowned for playing His flute and wearing a peacock feather on His hair. He always appears as a fresh youth and He is called Syama because His bodily hue is like the blackish-blue monsoon clouds.
Govinda means the giver of pleasure to the cows or the senses. He plays as a cowherd boy in the forests of Vrndavana and enjoys conjugal pastimes with the beautiful cowherd damsels, especially with His internal pleasure potency, Radharani. The crown-jewel among His wonderful varieties of pastimes is the rasa-lila dance.
His devotees' love for Him is the most exalted anywhere in the universe. He can attract all living entities by playing His flute. His name means the all-attractive one. The exquisite beauty of His form cannot be rivaled by any one in the creation.
Radharani and Her expansions
Radharani is Krishna's supreme and eternal consort. She expands Herself into innumerable forms for the Lords pleasure. All the gopis, the queens of Dvaraka and the Laksmis consorts of Vishnu or Narayana, are all expansions of Radharani.
The Four Dhams or abodes of the Lord
Knowing these four realms or abodes gives one an overview of the sum totality of existence (summum bonum).
Devi-dham: The abode of Mayadevi; the material world
- Where the living entities go when they give up the desire to serve Krishna and desire to enjoy separately from the Lord
- Meant for fulfilling the living entity's desires and rehabilitation
- A temporal place of illusory enjoyment and constant suffering
- Conditioned by birth, old age, disease and death
- The knowledge of the living entity is covered by ignorance and illusion
- False ego makes the living entity identify with the material body
- A place of duality and relativity
Mahesa-dham: Lord Siva's abode in the Viraja River (Causal Ocean) between the material and spiritual worlds.
- A marginal place between Devi-dham and Hari-dham
- Not part of the spiritual world, nor the material world
- No opportunity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- For impersonalists who want to merge into the Transcendence
- For liberated souls who have not realised the opulence of Hari-dhama
- The destination of nirvana, the Buddha philosophy
- System of jnana-yoga makes one eligible to enter there
Vaikuntha-dham (Hari-dham): the spiritual world
- Means "free from anxiety" (Vai-free from; kuntha-anxiety)
- Unlimited planets, each being unlimited with a Vishnu-tattva expansion of the Lord.
- Once having gone there, we never return to the material world
- Ever-increasing pleasure and love
- No artificial lighting — everything is self-illuminating
- Ever-fresh, youthful, eternal, immortal
- Each planet is predominated by a particular expansion of Narayana
- Everyone and everything there is perfect
- Everything is made of pure consciousness
- Kama-dhenu cows, Kalpa-vrksa wish-fulfilling trees
- Described in Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.12-24
Krishnaloka or Goloka-dham
- The supreme spiritual planet in Vaikuntha
- It is like the whorl of a lotus flower (other planets are the petals)
- Three divisions: Vrndavana, Mathura, Dvaraka
- It emanates the bright rays of effulgence (brahmajyoti) throughout the entire spiritual world.
- Krishna performs wonderful pastimes there and reveals His sweetness.
- Every step is a dance, every word is a song
Being the abode of the original Supreme Personality, Goloka-dham displays special features not found anywhere else in Vaikuntha. Among them are the especially sweet relationships (rasas) Krishna has with His devotees there.
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