yadyapi jagannatha karena dvarakaya vihara
sahaja prakata kare parama udara
tathapi vatsara-madhye haya eka-bara
vrndavana dekhite tanra utkanha apara
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila 14.117–18)
[“Although Lord Jagannatha enjoys His pastimes in Dvaraka-dhama and naturally manifests sublime liberality there, still, once a year He becomes unlimitedly eager to see Vrndavana.”]
Why did Krsna leave Vrndavana? Ultimately He did so to please and pacify the gopis. It is said that He leaves Vrndavana and comes to Mathura and Dvaraka because He cannot forget the devotees there – or anywhere else. He must support and nourish them. The next question would then be: after leaving why did He not return, at least for a visit. One answer is that there is no fort in Vrndavana. If Krsna had returned to Vrndavana, and Jarasandha had come to know that He was really the son of Nanda and Yasoda rather than that of Vasudeva and Devaki, Jarasandha would have attacked Vrndavana and it would have been ruined. Nanda Baba was a cowherd, a gopa, not a warrior, and there were no soldiers in Vrndavana. Jarasandha would therefore have destroyed all of Vrndavana and then imprisoned Yasoda and Nanda Baba, as Kamsa had imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki.
This is a reason, but it is external. Someone may say, “At least Krsna should go to Vrndavana from time to time, and then He should return quickly.” But Krsna has so many enemies, and all of them would come to know that He has many friends in Vrndavana. They would think, “They should be attacked, and they should be finished.” This is another reason He did not return there, but it is also external.
Someone may say, “Krsna was able to take all His associates of Mathurapuri to Dvaraka in one night, in just a minute. He had abundant grand palaces built there, not only for each of His queens, but also for all His associates such as Akrura and Uddhava, as well as for Vasudeva and Devaki. There were so many thousands and millions of Mathuravasis. They went to sleep in Mathura, and in the morning they saw that they were in Dvaraka. This was very wonderful, and it shows that Krsna can do anything He likes. Similarly, in one night He can take to Dvaraka all His associates from Vrndavana, such as Radhika, Lalita, Visakha, and all the other sakhis, as well as all cowherd boys like Sridama, Stoka-krsna, Lavanga, and Arjuna. He can take His mother and father, Yasoda-maiya and Nanda Baba, and all the other Vrajavasis as well. Is there any harm in that? If all the Mathuravasis can be there, the Vrajavasis can be there as well.”
But how will Vrnda-devi go there? Will Govardhana go there? This is a very confidential topic. There will be a conflict between aisvarya-bhava and madhurya-bhava. What will Krsna say? Will He say, “I am the son of Vasudeva and Devaki,” or “I am the son of Nanda and Yasoda”? This contradiction of mellows would create a very difficult situation for Krsna. Will He play His flute? Will He wear His peacock feather there? Will He go cowherding with His friends in Dvaraka? Can He tell others, “I am the son of Nanda Baba and Yasoda”?
By the constitutional nature of aisvarya and madhurya, they cannot exist together. If you become an actual madhyama adhikari and hear all these topics in good association, you will realize something about the meaning of aisvarya-bhava, and of the madhurya-bhava in Vrndavana. Then you can become one-pointed in your devotion to Vrajendra-nandana. Vrndavana cannot go to Dvaraka, and Dvaraka can never go to Vrndavana. They are opposites, and the attempt to combine them is called rasa-abhasa, contradiction of mellows.
You should know what is aisvarya and what is the constitutional nature of madhurya-rasa. In Dvaraka there is always opulence, and everyone there knows that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes He is four-handed and He can do anything. He can bring a dead person back to life, and He Himself has no death and no birth.
In Vrndavana, on the other hand, there is always madhurya-bhava. Krsna has taken birth from the womb of Mother Yasoda, and He is quite helpless. As a baby, He cannot turn over without His mother’s help. Sometimes He becomes angry, and He is always hungry. And when hungry, He steals butter from here and there.
And Krsna may tell lies. He will say, “Mother, when have I stolen butter? I never steal. You send Me cowherding with My friends very early in the morning. I run here and there with the cows all day long, and when I return from cowherding in the evening, being very tired I take My meal and then go to sleep. So when have I stolen this butter? I have never done it.” Then, when He begins to weep, Mother Yasoda says, “Certainly You have stolen the butter.” Continuing to weep, Krsna replies, “Perhaps I am not your son, and that is why you are accusing Me of stealing butter. That is why. Maybe I should go away and live somewhere else.” Yasoda-maiya then begins to weep and her heart melts. She takes Krsna in her lap and says, “I know You have never stolen butter. You have never done so.” Krsna then tells her, “I have done it, Mother. I have done it.” Then both of them weep. This is the mood of madhurya. Mother Yasoda ties Krsna to a mortar. How would she be able to do this if she knew that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead?
There is one point to note here. In Vrndavana, even if there is a manifestation of opulence, it does not disturb madhurya-bhava. There may be opulence, but the pastimes of Krsna still remain nara-vat, like those of a human boy. His pastimes there do not go beyond the human level. For example, Putana came and lifted Krsna in her arms and said, “My dear boy, my dear boy,” although she wanted to poison Him. He closed His eyes as if He were afraid of her, and did nothing more than simply suck the milk from her breast. How could He help it if she died? He never showed any large or wondrous form. He was like a child, a boy of only three months – but still she was killed. Although killing Putana was an act of the utmost spiritual opulence, it still remains a human-like pastime.
Before this pastime took place, Kamsa was engaged in conquering the world, and at one point he engaged in a ferocious battle with Putana. Putana was just about to defeat him in the battle, but Kamsa was an expert politician, so he told her, “Now I accept you as my sister. You can help me, and I will help you.” In this way they made an alliance. So Putana was very, very powerful; it would be extremely difficult to kill a demon like her, since even Kamsa could not defeat her. That is why Krsna’s killing her is an example of His opulence.
Also, Krsna lifted Govardhana and held him aloft for seven days on His finger, as an elephant would lift a lotus flower with its trunk. A man cannot do this, but Krsna did it; and He was smiling and sometimes playing His flute. He was in a dancing mood, in a threefold-bending position. All the cowherd boys held up their sticks and touched Govardhana, saying, “Oh, don’t fall – stay up there!” They were all thinking that they had lifted Govardhana. At the same time, Nanda Maharaja, who was a very exalted devotee of Narayana, prayed, “O Narayana, please do not allow this mountain to fall down.” And what can be said of the gopis? They are the very potency of Krsna Himself. Radhika looked strongly at Govardhana with a piercing sidelong glance and told him, “If you drop down, you will be burnt to ashes. You should remain aloft within My vision.” From everyone’s point of view, Krsna was not doing anything.
In this way, although lifting Govardhana was a very great opulence, Krsna did not assume a large or four-armed form. Whether there is opulence or no opulence, His pastimes are called madhurya if they are human-like. In Vrndavana, Krsna is the friend of all the gopas, He is the beloved of all the young gopis, and He is the son of all the elder gopis.
This atmosphere cannot exist in Dvaraka. There is only opulence there, and sometimes Krsna may assume a four-handed form or a universal form. He is bound to say, “I am the son of Vasudeva and Devaki.” He must. He will have to say, “I am a ksatriya,” whereas in Vrndavana He thinks, “I am a gopa.” How would He be able to reconcile this if all the gopis and gopas were to come to Dvaraka? The situation would be against the principle of rasa.
The Vrndavana mood will never come to Dvaraka. In Vrndavana, Krsna can carry His flute and wear a peacock feather, and He can manifest His beautiful threefold-bending form as manmatha-manmathah, the enchanter of Cupid. But He cannot do this in Dvaraka, nor can He perform rasa-lila there. What would all His queens think if He were to engage in rasa with the gopis on the shore of the ocean in Dvaraka? Thus, the gopis will never go to Dvaraka, and Krsna also never goes there in His original and complete feature. He goes there in another form, and that form is His manifestation. He will be Vasudeva there, for Krsna Himself cannot give up being Vrajendra-nandana Syamasundara. He cannot give up Vrndavana, even for a moment. Vrndavanam parityajya padam ekam na gacchati: Krsna never goes even a step outside Vrndavana.
Srila Jiva Gosvami and Srila Rupa Gosvami have quoted the Puranas to show that in Krsna’s last days, just after He defeated and killed Dantavakra, He left Dvaraka and went to Gokula, where He met all the Vrajavasis. Weeping bitterly, He embraced them all, and then He began playing with all the gopis and gopas. Then, some days later, He went to Goloka Vrndavana and took with Him His associates such as Nanda Baba, Yasoda, all the mothers, all the sakhis, all the sakhas, and also His Vrndavana-bhumi. Vrajendranandana Syamasundara thus entered His aprakata-lila (unmanifest pastimes), while He simultaneously returned to Dvaraka in His form as Vasudeva-Krsna. These are very secret truths.
Similarly, Jagannatha-deva comes to Vrndavana once a year. His queen, Vimala-devi (i.e. Laksmi-devi), represents Satyabhama, Rukmini, and all the other queens in Dvaraka. Jagannatha lives in Dvaraka for the entire year, but once a year He wants to go to Vrndavana, and He plays a trick in order to go there.
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