SRILA BV NARAYANA MAHARAJAS VISIT TO FRANCE

27 April - 5 May 1998

(by Sridam Sakha dasa)
April 27th, 1998
Toulouse in the south of France was the second stop in the European leg of Srila Maharaja's
world tour. This rustic rural retreat 50 kilometers southwest of Toulouse overlooks the snowcapped Pyrenes mountain ranges. The hills and fields were in full springtime bloom and dotted
throughout the valley are many small hamlets dating back to the Cathares people of the late 12th
Century. These people lived a simple vegetarian life, were familiar with the doctrine of
reincarnation and were in harmony with the elements. Unfortunately the Cathares were subjected
to ethnic cleansing by the ignorant religions of that period. However, despite such persecution,
the area retains a very vibrant peaceful energy and was a very apt location for Srila Maharaja's
sadhu sanga.
The mood was very jubilant as all the devotees reunited with the French Vaisnavas who had laid
on this excellent facility headed by Jayanta-krt and Sarva-darsi prabhus. There were devotees
from all over Europe; Holland, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, as well as
from further afield like America, Brazil and a healthy number of Australian devotees who, after
the Australasian tour felt inspired to drop everything and follow Srila Maharaja. Indeed this eight
days of hari-katha showed all the symptoms of being as dynamic and exciting as the previous
year.
Srila Maharaja spoke in both the morning and evening. The morning classes were more informal.
After his morning walk, Maharaja would come to the temple room where the devotees would be
nearing the climax of their morning bhajanas which have become well-known and appreciated
all throughout the tour. Starting with glorification of guru, vaisnavas and parampara, the
devotees glorified Gaura-Nityananda Prabhus and progressed to the bhajanas glorifying Krsna
and specifically those in glorification of Srimati Radhika and the gopis as the supermost servitors
of Vrajendranandana Krsna.
During one morning class, Maharaja established this speciality as he qualified the different
stages of dharma based on Caitanya Mahaprabhu's conversation with Raya Ramananda on the
banks of Godavari River. Raya Ramananda stated Bhagavad-gita (18.66) to abandon all varieties
of religion to which Caitanya Mahaprabhu dismissed as external. Maharaja explained that Krsna
has given the essence of all Upanisads to Arjuna, especially the sloka, mana-manah bhava mad
bhakta... that dharma can be categorized into four: namely; guhya jnana, guhyatar jnana,
guhyatam jnana, and sarva guhyatam jnana which are confidential knowledge, more confidential
knowledge, most confidential and supermost confidential knowledge. Guhya jnana, is atma
dharma. Confidential knowledge is classified as having that knowledge which discriminates
between matter and spirit, that I am not this body but I am part and parcel of Krsna, who is full
of knowledge, bliss and eternality and being his nitya-dasa, his eternal servant. When, with this
discrimination one performs dhyana-yoga of Paramatma, that knowledge is known as guhyatar
jnana, or more confidential knowledge. Knowledge of paramatma tattva is superior to brahma
tattva (guhya jnana). The Paramatma or Supersoul resides in the heart of each living entity and is
the size of a thumb. He has two qualities: namely form and jnana rupa bhava or perception in the
form of knowledge, which is not present in brahma tattva due to the fact that brahma tattva is
completely devoid of perception. The Paramatma is imbued with transcendental qualities, in the
Puranas it is stated santa garam bhujaga sayanam, i.e. He is peaceful and lying on His snake-bed.

Those who are yogis can meditate on Paramatma because He has these qualities. Knowledge of
atma tattva and paramatma tattva together is known then as more confidential knowledge. Most
confidential knowledge is bhagavat tattva, Krsna svayam Bhagavan is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. To worship and serve this feature of the Lord is sarva guhyatam jnana, most
confidential knowledge. Supermost confidential knowledge is to serve Vrajendranandana
Syamasundara, especially under the guidance of the gopis. Service of the gopis is the topmost
example of the words mana manah bhava mad bhakto.
If one is not able to perform this kind of devotion, then for him, it is said mad bhakto, become
my devotee and perform navada bhakti, that is the nine limbs of bhakti. Arjuna presented his
inability to follow even this form of bhakti especially because he is engaged in the battlefield of
Kuruksetra. So Krsna says to do my arcana, or worship Me, because you cannot give your mind,
so if you cannot especially give your heart and mind, then externally you should offer me
incense, ghee-wick etc. because you cannot serve like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami.
Maharaja stressed at this point that we should understand very clearly the difference between
worship and manasi seva. When one is perfectly qualified in arcana, then only by the mercy of
some advanced devotee will be able to one gain entrance in this process of bhajana (manasi seva)
with a purified heart. This is only possible when there is realization of one's eternal form then
one can perform that internal service through the medium of the perfected spiritual form which is
manasi seva. If you cannot do this arcana then Krsna says, do namas kuru, offer obeisances unto
Me and then you will be free from the cycle of birth and death forever. So according to our stage
we should perform the different levels of bhakti.
In the remaining three days, Srila Maharaja spoke on the main theme of his classes which was
that on our own, we have no power to control our minds but by regularly hearing hari katha, the
mind will come under control. For three days Srila Maharaja spoke continuously describing in
great detail Damodara lila.
Mother Yasoda had left Krsna asleep and was some distance away churning butter out of ear
shot so as not to wake baby Krsna. When Krsna woke, he would stretch out his arm trying to
locate mother Yasoda. Not finding her he began to cry a little, increasing in volume as Yasoda
Ma did not respond due to her distance from Him. Tears mixed with the kajul around his eyes
and ran down his chest and belly. After repeated unsuccessful attempts, Krsna used his belly to
slide off the bed and went to mother Yasoda and stopped her from churning the butter. Yasoda
lovingly gave Krsna her breast milk. On seeing Yasoda satisfying Krsna with breast milk, the
milk that Yasoda was preparing on the stove concluded that, due to the love of Mother Yasoda
there would be an unlimited supply of milk was available to baby Krsna, and that if she was
unable to be used in the service of Krsna, then she would give up her life by jumping into the
fire. Yasoda, seeing the milk boiling over attempted to put Krsna down but Krsna tightened His
grip on His mother with arms and legs as well as with His lips. Srila Maharaja pointed out that
although Putana could not free herself from Krsna's tight clasping on her breast, mother Yasoda
easily pulled Krsna away. Krsna became angry and thinking that the milk is there to serve Him
and not that He should serve the milk, so for this action of mother Yasoda, Krsna decided to
break the pot of yogurt. The top part of that yogurt pot was very thick and Krsna couldn't break
it, but with a little pestle, he pierced a hole in the bottom, and that would cause more yogurt to
flow out. Seeing the yogurt pouring out, Krsna was pleased and encouraged the yogurt: Oh,
very good! However, within a few moments, fear came upon Him as mother Yasoda would
soon find out, so He hid in another room. When mother Yasoda saw the broken pot, she
wondered where Krsna was and quickly spotted a set of footprints in the yogurt leading to
another room. There, Krsna was freely distributing butter from a pot to the monkeys and crows.
Seeing the crows the monkeys fled, Krsna noticed mother Yasoda approaching so He quickly ran

away. Yasoda chased Him and eventually upon catching Him rebuked Krsna calling Him a thief.
Krsna cheekily responded that He is no thief, nor in His dynasty was there any thief, yet perhaps
in mother Yasoda's lineage thieves were present. In order to reform baby Krsna, mother Yasoda
decided to tie Krsna to the grinding mortar. The rope was always two fingers too short, despite
tying all the ropes from the homes of Yasoda's sakhis. Finally, it was only by her love that Krsna
bestowed his mercy and allowed himself to be tied.
Krsna's little cowherd friends came to see Krsna, but upon seeing Him bound, feared that mother
Yasoda would also bind them. But finally, they approached Krsna and laughed to see him tied
up. They tried to untie him, but their attempts only tightened the rope. The cowherd boys, being
unable to untie Krsna, went out to play and Krsna crawled after them, pulling the grinding
mortar behind Him. Remembering the curse of Narada Muni, Krsna liberated the twin arjuna
trees, Nalakuvera and Manigriva. The tumultuous sound of the crashing trees brought all the
inhabitants of Vraja to the house of Mother Yasoda. Nanda Baba came and saw the scene and he
simply touched the knot and it immediately loosened. Srila Maharaja explained that sakhya and
dasya are unable to untie the knot of vatsalya-rasa. Actually Srila Maharaja said on a later
occasion, that only with great difficulty could Nanda Baba untie that knot of Mother Yasoda's
and that even Nanda Baba has no power to bind Krsna. Nanda Baba took Krsna to Brahmandaghata and gave Him laddhu and they took bath. As evening fell they returned home to find
Mother Yasoda motionless. It was late in the evening and due to Mother Yasoda's condition, no
meal had been prepared. Nanda Baba took Krsna to the goshala and milked a cow directly into
the mouth of Krsna, who lay underneath. Nanda Baba also gave misri to Krsna and reminded
Krsna who had freed Him that day and who had bound Him to the grinding mortar and who has
not cooked for You. So who's lap will You sit on tonight? Krsna said oh, tonight I will stay on
your lap. Then Rohini, who was present at the time, said, but what if Mother Yasoda dies? Krsna
immediately ran to Mother Yasoda, Oh Mata, Mata!!
In this way, Srila Maharaja captivated his audience in France, especially as he imitated Krsna's
cowherd friends' sidelong glances as they anxiously looked to see if Mother Yasoda was nearby.
Sriman Navadvipa prabhu has shared his realizations in connection with the speciality of Srila
Maharaja in presenting hari-katha. Krsnadasa Kaviraja in the second chapter of Caitanyacaritamrta offers pranamas to Caitanya Mahaprabhu in order to describe the truth concerning
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to establish Him as Bhagavan Sri Krsna and states that by the mercy of
Lord Caitanya even a child can cross the ocean of siddhanta (philosophical conclusions), which
is pervaded by many sharks and crocodiles. In the second sloka, Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami
prays for the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to manifest on his tongue and compares his
own tongue to a desert and compares Lord Caitanya's lila-katha to the celestial Ganga. A doubt is
raised at this point that if Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami is explaining the tattva of the Lord, why
in the next verse is he begging for the pastimes to manifest and not tattva-jnana to manifest on
his tongue? This indicates that if lila-katha manifests then only will the mercy come to describe
the tattva of Lord Caitanya. So there is a very close relation between tattva-jnana and lila-katha.
The desert-like tongue cannot describe lila-katha. They manifest of their accord. When they do
so the tongue can give up its desert-like quality of attachment for mundane topics. When the lila
of the Lord manifests then the confidential truths concerning His identity will be clearly
understood. And this is the connection between the tattva-jnana and hari-katha. If one
understands the purport behind the pastimes then he can draw out the conclusions. But to discuss
the conclusions devoid of the pastimes of the personal conception then it becomes dry jnana.
This speciality of the line of Rupa Gosvami is uttama-bhakti and uttama-bhakti is the purport of
Krsna's pastimes. He has given the most perfect definition of uttama-bhakti that is anyabhilasitasunyam....All the Gosvami's books are elaborations on this verse. Anukulyena means that which
is pleasing to Lord Krsna. So, in this regard, one may question whether Mother Yasoda's activity

of making Krsna angry by leaving Him to pay attention to the milk is within Rupa Gosvami's
definition of uttama-bhakti. Rupa Gosvami's definition includes pratikula, that is things
unfavorable, and Mother Yasoda is devoid of pratikula. When the wrestlers were in Kamsa's
arena they were pratikula because they wanted to kill Krsna. Although Krsna was pleased to
fight, they were pratikula. So we can see the definition is neither too broad nor too narrow.
Another purport from these pastimes is that higher than serving Krsna is to serve those things
related to Krsna, which in this case was the milk which needed attention, as it was boiling over.
Yasoda stopped attending to Krsna to serve that which was related to Krsna. In this connection
we can cite the example of Devaki who responded Padmavati, saying that she had performed
tapas to get Krsna as her son and she prayed to Him directly. But in the case of Yasoda and
Nanda, they prayed not to have Krsna has their son but prayed only for bhakti. So it is higher to
pray for bhakti than to pray for Krsna, because that sadhya or object is to have prema. Devaki
and Vasudeva prayed to Narayana but Yasoda and Nanda approached Brahma, the Lord's
devotee. To explain these points in lila is only possible for one who is tasting these pastimes and
Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains that lila-katha will not manifest on the desert-like tongue
by our own efforts.
Throughout these tours we have seen that hundreds of souls are coming and giving up their bad
habits and coming to take shelter of Srila Maharaja and his hari-katha. Fourteen devotees
received harinama and one diksa. After the eight days of hari-katha, Srila Maharaja left for
England, leaving the devotees ever grateful for the inundation of Krsna consciousness that Srila
Maharaja is freely distributing to those fortunate enough to come and hear.