VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Chapter 65
Lord Balarâma in Vrindâvana and the Stream Divided
This chapter relates how Lord Balarāma went to Gokula, enjoyed the company of the cowherd girls and dragged the Yamunā River.
One day Lord Balarāma went to Gokula to see His relatives and friends. When He arrived there, the elder gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa's parents, Nanda and Yaśodā, who had all been in great anxiety for a long time, embraced Him and blessed Him. Lord Balarāma offered appropriate respects and greetings to each of His worshipable elders according to age, friendship and family relation. After Gokula's residents and Lord Balarāma had inquired about each other's welfare, the Lord rested from His journey.
In a short while the young gopīs came to Lord Balarāma and questioned Him about Kṛṣṇa's well-being. They asked, "Does Kṛṣṇa still remember His parents and friends, and will He be coming to Gokula to visit them? For Kṛṣṇa's sake we gave up everything — even our fathers, mothers and other relatives — but now He has abandoned us. How could we help but put our faith in Kṛṣṇa's words after seeing His sweetly smiling face and thus being overwhelmed by the urges of Cupid? Still, if Kṛṣṇa can spend His days in separation from us, why can't we tolerate separation from Him? So there is no reason to keep talking about Him." In this manner the gopīs remembered Śrī Kṛṣṇa's charming talks, enchanting glances, playful gestures and loving embraces, and as a result they began to cry. Lord Balarāma consoled them by conveying the attractive messages Kṛṣṇa had given Him for them.
Lord Balarāma stayed in Gokula for two months, sporting with the gopīs in the groves on the Yamunā's shore. The demigods who witnessed these pastimes played kettledrums in the heavens and showered down flower petals, while the celestial sages recited Balarāma's glories.
One day Lord Balarāma became intoxicated by drinking some vāruṇī liquor and began wandering about the forest in the company of the gopīs. He called out to the Yamunā, "Come near so I and the gopīs can enjoy sporting in your waters." But the Yamunā ignored His command. Lord Balarāma then started to pull the Yamunā with the end of His plow, splitting her into hundreds of tributaries. Trembling out of fright, the goddess Yamunā appeared, fell down at Lord Balarāma's feet and prayed for forgiveness. The Lord let her go and then entered her waters with His girlfriends to sport for some time. When they rose from the water, the goddess Kānti presented Lord Balarāma with beautiful ornaments, clothing and garlands. Even today the Yamunā River flows through the many channels cut by Lord Baladeva's plow, the signs of His having subdued her.
While Lord Balarāma played, His mind became enchanted by the gopīs' pastimes. Thus the many nights He spent in their company seemed to Him like a single night.
10.65.1
suhṛd-didṛkṣur utkaṇṭhaḥ
(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'O best of the Kurus, the Supreme Lord Balarâma mounted [one day] His chariot eager to see His friends and traveled to Nanda's cowherd village.
Lord Balarāma's journey to Śrī Vṛndāvana is also described in the Hari-vaḿśa (Viṣṇu-parva 46.10):
kasyacid atha kālasya
kṛṣṇasyānumate sthitaḥ
"Remembering the deep friendship He once enjoyed with the cowherd folk, Lord Rāma went alone to Vraja, having taken Lord Kṛṣṇa's permission." The simple residents of Vṛndāvana were aggrieved that Lord Kṛṣṇa had gone to live elsewhere, so Lord Balarāma went there to console them.Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura addresses the question of why Lord Kṛṣṇa, the great ocean of pure love, did not also go to Vraja. In explanation the ācārya provides the following two verses:
preyasīḥ prema-vikhyātāḥ
līlādhīnatvam īyuṣaḥ
"The Yadus thought, 'The Lord's beloved girlfriends are famous for their pure, ecstatic love, and His parents are extremely affectionate toward Him. Lord Kṛṣṇa is controlled by pure love, so if He goes to see them, how will He be able to leave them and come back to us?' With this in mind, the Yadus prevented Lord Hari from going, knowing that He becomes subservient to the pastimes in which He reciprocates the ever-increasing love of the inhabitants of Vraja."10.65.2
pariṣvaktaś cirotkaṇṭhair
rāmo 'bhivādya pitarāv
āśīrbhir abhinanditaḥ
(2) By the gopas and gopîs, who for a long time had missed Him indeed, was Râma embraced and offering His respects to His parents was He joyfully greeted with prayers:
the following verse regarding this situation:
nityānanda-svarūpo 'pi
prema-tapto vrajaukasām
"Let us repeatedly glorify Lord Balarāma. Although He is the original personality of eternal bliss, Nityānanda, He felt pained by His love for the residents of Vraja, and thus He went to see them, even at the cost of leaving Lord Kṛṣṇa."10.65.3
sānujo jagad-īśvaraḥ
ity āropyāńkam ālińgya
(3) 'O descendant of Das'ârha, please always protect us together with Your younger brother, the Lord of the Universe', and saying this pulling Him close on their laps embraced they Him wetting Him with the water from their eyes.
: "Nanda and Yaśodā prayed to Śrī Balarāma, 'May You, along with Your younger brother, protect us.' Thus they expressed their respect for the fact that He is the elder brother, and they also showed how much they considered Him their own son."
10.65.4-6
yaviṣṭhair abhivanditaḥ
samupetyātha gopālān
pṛṣṭāś cānāmayaḿ sveṣu
sannyastākhila-rādhasaḥ
(4-6) Next He headed for the elderly cowherds whom He, taking their hands, greeted with smiles. After having offered Him a comfortable seat so that He could rest a bit and such, gathered they, who had dedicated their all and everything to the service of their lotus-eyed Krishna, around Him and asked they Him, with voices faltering of their love, questions relating to the welfare o 10.65.7
f their beloved ones.(7) 'O Balarâma are all our relatives well? Do all of You, wives, children and all, still remember us, o Râma?
10.65.8
(8) To our fortune was the sinful Kamsa killed and were our relatives freed; thank God found they shelter in a fortress [Dvârakâ] and were our enemies killed and conquered!'
10.65.9
gopyo hasantyaḥ papracchū
rāma-sandarśanādṛtāḥ
kaccid āste sukhaḿ kṛṣṇaḥ
(9) Honored to see Râma in their midst asked the gopîs with a smile: 'Is Krishna, the darling of the city women, living happily?
According to the ācāryas, Lord Kṛṣṇa's beloved girlfriends were smiling with divine madness, since they were feeling extreme unhappiness in separation from their beloved Kṛṣṇa. Lord Rāma deeply respected their great love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, His younger brother, and thus the term rāma-sandarśanādṛtāḥ carries the meaning that Balarāma honored the gopīs, as well as the given meaning, that they honored Him.
10.65.10
apy asau mātaraḿ draṣṭuḿ
sakṛd apy āgamiṣyati
(10) Does He still think of His folk, His [foster] father and His mother; will He ever come to visit His mother Himself and does He with His mighty arms remember our enduring service?
the gopīs would render service to Lord Kṛṣṇa by stringing flower garlands, skillfully using perfumes, and constructing fans, beds and canopies out of flower petals. By these simple acts of love, the gopīs rendered the greatest service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
10.65.11-12
(11-12) For His sake have we, o Lord, detached ourselves from those who are so difficult to give up: our mothers, fathers, brothers, husbands, children and sisters, o descendant of Das'ârha. With Him suddenly rejecting us and leaving, has He broken with the friendship, but what woman wouldn't believe in Him now she's again being addressed?
10.65.13
smitāvalokocchvasita-smarāturāḥ
(13) In what way could those smart city women put faith in the words of Him who so easily has His heart elsewhere and breaks off the contact? They are mistaken about His eloquence and nice smiles because they factually are motivated by lust!
some gopīs speak the first two lines of this verse, and others reply in the second two lines.
10.65.14
kathāḥ kathayatāparāḥ
yāty asmābhir vinā kālo
(14) But why woud we dilate about Him any longer o gopîs, let's talk about other things; if He wants to pass His time without us, will we do likewise [in trying to live without Him being present. See also 10.47: 47].'
that the gopīs here subtly indicate that Lord Kṛṣṇa spends His time happily without them whereas they are most unhappy without their Lord. This is the difference between Him and them. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī adds the following commentary: "Considering themselves different from other women, the gopīs thought as follows: 'If other women are together with their lovers, they live, and if they are separated, they die. But we neither live nor die. This is the fate Providence has written on our foreheads. What remedy can we find?" '
10.65.15
iti prahasitaḿ śaurer
(15) Thus speaking of the laughter, the conversations, the attractive glances and remembering the gait and the loving embrace of S'auri, the women cried.
"The gopīs thought, 'The Kṛṣṇa moon, after piercing our hearts with the darts of His nectarean laughter, went away. So how will the city women not die when He does the same to them?' Overwhelmed with these thoughts, the young cowherd girls began to cry, even in the presence of Śrī Baladeva."
10.65.16
sańkarṣaṇas tāḥ kṛṣṇasya
nānānunaya-kovidaḥ
(16) Sankarshana, the Supreme Lord, being an expert in different kinds of conciliation, consoled them with Krishna's confidential messages that touched their hearts.
the following verse from Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa (5.24.20), which describes the messages Lord Balarāma brought from Kṛṣṇa for the gopīs:
sandeśaiḥ sāma-madhuraiḥ
prema-garbhair agarvitaiḥ
rāmeṇāśvāsitā gopyaḥ
kṛṣṇasyāti-manoharaiḥ
"Lord Balarāma consoled the gopīs by giving them Lord Kṛṣṇa's most charming messages, which expressed sweet conciliation, which were inspired by His pure love for them, and which were without a tinge of pride." Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī also comments that the use of the name Sańkarṣaṇa here implies that Balarāma attracted Lord Kṛṣṇa to appear in His mind and in this way showed Śrī Kṛṣṇa to the gopīs. Thus Balarāma consoled Śrī Kṛṣṇa's beloved girlfriends.hat Lord Kṛṣṇa sent various messages. Some instructed the gopīs in transcendental knowledge, others were conciliatory, and still others revealed the Lord's power. Besides its given meaning, the word hṛdayaḿ-gamaiḥ also indicates that these messages were confidential.
10.65.17
(17) Râma then resided there for the two months of Madhu and Mâdhava [the first two of the vernal equinox], during which He also during the nights brought [amorous] delight to the gopîs [see also 10.15: 8].
the gopīs who enjoyed conjugal affairs with Śrī Balarāma during His visit to Gokula had not taken part in Śrī Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance, being too young at the time. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī confirms this statement by quoting a phrase from the Bhāgavatam (10.15.8) — gopyo 'ntareṇa bhujayoḥ — which indicates that there are particular gopīs who act as Lord Balarāma's girlfriends. Furthermore, Jīva Gosvāmī states that during the Holī festivities celebrated when Kṛṣṇa killed Śańkhacūḍa, the gopīs Lord
10.65.18
yamunopavane reme
(18) In a grove near the Yamunâ [known as S'rîrâma-ghaththa] with by the wind carried the fragrance of kumuda [night-blooming] lotuses, enjoyed He it, bathing in the light of the full moon, to be served by the many women.
that Lord Balarāma's conjugal pastimes took place in a small forest alongside the Yamunā, a place known as Śrīrāma-ghaṭṭa, which is far from the site of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance.
10.65.19
sva-gandhenādhyavāsayat
(19) Sent by Varuna flowed from the hollow of a tree the divine [intoxicating spirit] Vârunî that with its aroma made the entire forest even more fragrant.
that Vāruṇī is a liquor distilled from honey. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī adds that the goddess Vāruṇī, the daughter of Varuṇa, is the presiding deity of that particular divine liquor. The ācārya also quotes the following statement from Śrī Hari-vaḿśa: samīpaḿ preṣitā pitrā varuṇena tavānagha. Here the goddess Vāruṇī says to Lord Balarāma: "My father, Varuṇa, has sent me to You, O sinless one."
10.65.20
vāyunopahṛtaḿ balaḥ
āghrāyopagatas tatra
(20) Balarâma, smelling the fragrance of that honey flow carried over by the wind, sought the place where it could be found and drank from it together with the women.
10.65.21
upagīyamāno gandharvair
(21) Kettledrums resounded in the sky, the Gandharvas with joy rained down flowers and the sages praised Râma for His heroic deeds.
10.65.22
nedur dundubhayo vyomni
vavṛṣuḥ kusumair mudā
(22) As the singers of heaven sang the glory enjoyed He, beautified by the circle of young women, just like Indra's bull elephant in a herd of females.
10.65.23
upagīyamāna-carito
vanitābhir halāyudha
(23) With His pastimes being sung by the women wandered Halâyudha [Balarâma as 'armed with the plow'] through the forest inebriated with his eyes heavy of the intoxication.
10.65.24-25
sragvy eka-kuṇḍalo matto
anāgatāḿ halāgreṇa
kupito vicakarṣa ha
(24-25) With flowers, with one earring, mad with joy and carrying His Vaijayantî garland and with His smiling, lotuslike face covered by beads of perspiration like it were snowflakes, called He for the Yamunâ with the purpose to play in the water, but when the river thereupon ignored His drunken words, was she by Him angrily with the tip of His plow dragged because she didn't come:
10.65.26
(26) 'You sinful one do not come, being called by Me, and because you, in disrespect of Me, are moving about as you like, will I, dividing you with My plow in a hundred little streams, make you come!'
10.65.27
(27) Yamunâ thus chided, afraid fallen at His feet, o King, spoke trembling to the Yadu descendant the words [*]:
the goddess who appeared before Lord Balarāma is an expansion of Śrīmatī Kālindī, one of Lord Kṛṣṇa's queens in Dvārakā. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī calls her a "shadow" of Kālindī, and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī confirms that she is an expansion of Kālindī, not Kālindī herself. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī also gives evidence from Śrī Hari-vaḿśa — in the statement pratyuvācārṇava-vadhūm — that Goddess Yamunā is the wife of the ocean. The Hari-vaḿśa therefore also refers to her as sāgarāńganā.
10.65.28
yasyaikāḿśena vidhṛtā
(28) 'Râma, Râma, o mighty armed one, what do I know about the prowess of You by whose single portion [of S'esha] the earth is sustained, o Master of the Universe?
The phrase ekāḿśena ("with a single portion") refers to the Lord's expansion as Śeṣa. This is confirmed by the ācāryas.
10.65.29
(29) Please, o Lord Supreme, let me go, I have surrendered, I wasn't aware of Your status as the Supreme Personality, o Soul of the Universe so compassionate with Your devotees!'
10.65.30
tato vyamuñcad yamunāḿ
kareṇubhir ivebha-rāṭ
(30) Thus entreated released Balarâma, the Supreme Lord, the Yamunâ and then submerged Himself with the women in the water like He was the king of the elephants with his wives.
10.65.31
uttīrṇāyāsītāmbare
bhūṣaṇāni mahārhāṇi
(31) Having played as He wanted emerging from the water presented Kânti ['the female beauty, the brightness of the moon', a name of Lakshmî] Him a set of blue garments, most valuable ornaments and a splendid necklace.
from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa to show that the Goddess Kānti mentioned here is actually Lakṣmī, the goddess of fortune:
varuṇa-prahitā cāsmai
"Sent by Varuna, Goddess Lakṣmī then presented Him with a garland of unfading lotuses and a pair of garments colored blue like the ocean."
The great Bhāgavatam commentator Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī also quotes the following statement from Śrī Hari-vaḿśa, spoken by Goddess Lakṣmī to Lord Balarāma:
jātarūpa-mayaḿ caikaḿ
devemāḿ pratigṛhṇīṣva
"O Lord, please accept as divine ornaments for Your ears this single gold earring studded with diamonds and this primeval lotus called Padma. Kindly accept them, for this act of adornment is traditional."10.65.32
reye sv-alańkṛto lipto
(32) Dressing up with the blue clothes and putting on the golden necklace appeared He, excellently ornamented and anointed, as resplendent as great lord Indra's elephant.
Anointed with sandalwood paste and other pure, fragrant substances, Balarāma resembled Airāvata, the great elephant of Lord Indra.
10.65.33
yamunākṛṣṭa-vartmanā
balasyānanta-vīryasya
(33) Even today are, o King, the currents of the Yamunâ the way they are drawn by Balarâma in His unlimited potency, seen as evidence of His prowess.
10.65.34
ekeva ramato vraje
rāmasyākṣipta-cittasya
(34) Thus passed for Râma, who in His mind was enchanted by the exquisite women of the cow-community, all the nights that He enjoyed in Vraja, like a single one.'
Lord Balarāma was enchanted by the charming pastimes of the beautiful young ladies of Vraja. Thus each night was a completely new experience, and all the nights passed as if they were a single night.
Thus end of the Tenth Canto, Sixty-fifth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Lord Balarāma Visits Vṛndāvana."
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