Mother Bhumi is the presiding deity of the earth planet. She is a demigoddess.
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When They were small children, Krishna and Balarama often broke the pots the elder gopis (cowherd women) kept the freshly churned butter in. They ate the butter, and when They couldn’t eat any more, They gave the rest to the monkeys. By naughty pastimes such as these, They kept the residents of the village of Vrindavan always delighted and immersed in ecstatic love for Them.
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Radha and Krishna like to go alone into the forest groves for Their intimate loving pastimes. Radha is Krishna’s eternal consort, and His topmost devotee. Her love for Him is so strong and pure that She conquers and controls Him, and He wants to taste that love as She feels it. He knows everything, but He does not know how it feels to love Him. He only knows that Her happiness in loving Him is even greater that His happiness, so He desires to be a devotee of Himself to feel that happiness.
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In the first chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, we find Krishna and Arjuna in a war chariot, about to plunge into a great battle. The battle is a holy one, for establishing a righteous king against demonic forces. Battle lines are formed; warriors are ready, and commanders on both sides blow their conchshells as a prelude to the fight. The conchshells of the enemy side have made a tumultuous sound, but the transcendental conchshells of the righteous side, especially those of Krishna and Arjuna, shatter the hearts of the enemy.
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Krishna’s childhood on earth was spent in the cowherd village of Vrindavan. Although both Krishna and Balarama His brother were born into a royal family, for safety from the envious King Kamsa, They were raised secretly in Vrindavan, and played with the other cowherd boys as equals. The real reason for this arrangement in Krishna’s pastime was so that He could demonstrate on earth, for the encouragement of His devotees, His eternal pastimes in the eternal spiritual world where He is always a cowherd boy. There He is always playing with His cowherd boy friends and girlfriends and all the residents of the village and all the animals. His pure devotees, upon hearing of these pastimes, aspire to go there also and engage eternally in loving devotional service to Krishna.
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One night in autumn when the moon was at its brightest, the flowers were blooming and the breeze was blowing just right, Krishna went into the forest and played His flute. All the Gopis heard the sound of His flute and could not restrain themselves from rushing out of their homes, the married ones even leaving their husbands and babies behind, to go to Krishna in the forest. There He teased them at first, saying that they should be at home like proper girls and women, even though He was the one who had called them. They did not like His teasing, and scolded Him. He smilingly relented, and walked with them deeper into the forest. They all enjoyed loving exchanges, and eventually began the rasa dance in which Krishna expanded Himself to as many forms of Himself as there were gopis so that each gopi could feel He was with her alone.
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Satyabhama, one of Krishna’s wives when He became a prince in the city, became jealous of another one who had a parijata flower from the heavenly planets. Krishna promised Satyabhama a whole parijata tree.
At the same time, Krishna was informed by a messenger of a demon named Bhaumasura who had kidnapped 16,100 princesses from around the universe.
He decided to rescue the princesses, and to get the parijata flower in the same trip. He called for His carrier Garuda, a great transcendental bird who usually carries Him in His four-armed form of Vishnu. Garuda arrived, and, with Satyabhama accompanying Him, Krishna flew off to rescue the princesses first.
Here we see Him attacking the army of Bhaumasura. Garuda fought also, tormenting the elephants with his talons and beak.
After a great battle, Krishna killed Bhaumasura and released the princesses. Upon seeing His beauty, all of the 16,100 princesses fell in love with Him and wanted to marry Him. Actually, in that culture, rules regarding the purity of women were so strict that these girls, having been kidnapped, were unmarriageable. But Krishna is transcendental to such rules, and He knew of the love in their hearts, so He simply expanded Himself into 16,100 forms and married them all Himself.
But first, after arranging for their travel to His city of Dwaraka, Krishna took Satyabhama on another ride up to the heavenly planets where He let her choose her own parijata tree. The demigods, so possessive of their position, forgot that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They attacked to defend their tree, but after a good skirmish, Krishna defeated them and they offered obeisances and surrendered their parijata tree.
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This is an older painting of Krishna with His gopi girlfriends. The gopis love Krishna the most. Our idea of romance is but a mundane perverted imitation of this pure selfless love. They only want to make Krishna happy, but the paradox is that the more they try to please Krishna, the happier they themselves become.
The dearmost of all the Gopis is Radharani, here pictured standing next to Krishna.
The gopis do not get jealous of one another; rather, they encourage one another in loving Krishna because the aim is only to make Krishna happy.
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Once, when Krishna was about seven years old, the men of the cowherd village were planning a sacrifice to honor the demigod Indra, who sends rain. Krishna is always the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whether acting as a little boy or not, and He did not really like this idea. Why should these fortunate people, who had Krishna Himself in their very midst, offer a sacrifice to a mere demigod, whose only power was to give material help?
Using persuasive powers far beyond those of an ordinary boy, Krishna talked His father and the other men into simply offering the sacrifice to Govardhana Hill, which is an expansion of Krishna, and which is blessed daily by His lotus feet as well when Krishna and His friends herd the cows there.
The men agreed to do this, but when Indra looked down and saw that the sacrifice meant for him had been diverted by this “talkative little boy,” he called for the clouds that bring the rains of devastation. These are not ordinary clouds, and are very dangerous. The clouds came and poured water and hail upon the helpless village of Vrindavan, and as the land disappeared under flooding waters, the villagers appealed desperately to Krishna for help.
Krishna protected them by lifting Govardhana Hill and holding it aloft like an umbrella, balanced on the little finger of His left hand, for seven days while the entire village and all the cows and calves remained sheltered beneath. For seven days no one felt any fatigue, hunger, or thirst.
Finally Indra understood his mistake. He called off the clouds, and after the floodwaters receded, he met Krishna in a secluded place to offer his apology and his obeisances.
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The evil King Kamsa once sent his friend and ally, Keshi, to kill Krishna. Keshi had great powers, and he turned himself into a great and terrible horse. He galloped into the village of Vrindavan, his hooves thundering and his mane and tail flying. Everyone was terrified.
Krishna met him. Keshi at once recognized Krishna, and galloped full speed straight toward Him, intending to trample Him. Krishna, however, grabbed Keshi’s legs and threw the great horse a hundred yards. Keshi landed with a terrible thud, and was unconscious for a few moments, but he regained consciousness and got up to attack again.
This time he galloped toward Krishna with his mouth wide open and teeth bared, but Krishna shoved His fist deep into that mouth and flipped Keshi onto the ground. Krishna’s fist felt to Keshi like hot iron, and all his teeth fell out. Krishna swelled up His hand in Keshi’s mouth until it choked Keshi, and the great horse died. All the villagers congratulated Krishna, and the demigods watching above sent showers of flowers down upon Krishna.
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When Krishna grew up, He left the cowherd village of Vrindavan to take up His role as a great prince. He had not married as yet.
In another kingdom, the princess Rukmini was betrothed to marry a prince named Sisupala. But she did not want to marry him. She had heard of Krishna and, just by hearing of Him, she desired to marry Him. Actually, Rukmini is the Goddess of Fortune and is eternally married to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so she could not have married some ordinary prince. She secretly wrote a letter to Krishna asking Him to rescue her and marry her, and she sent the letter by way of a trusted brahmana.
When Krishna received the letter, He resolved to go and kidnap her immediately from the situation and take her back with him. He called for his driver, Daruka, to get His chariot and horses ready.
Krishna’s horses were very special horses. They could run with the speed of the mind, and were unusual colors: one was greenish, one was the color of a cloud, one was the color of ice, and one was the color of ashes.
The next morning Krishna arrived in the kingdom of Vidharba where Rukmini was anxiously waiting for Him. She had full faith that He would come, but her wedding to Sisupala had been set for that very day and all the arrangements were being made for the ceremony. As she walked from the temple of Goddess Durga, where she had gone to offer prayers as was the custom for a bride, she scanned the crowd of admiring princes, looking for Krishna. When she saw Him, she recognized Him at once as Krishna, and He swept her up into His chariot and triumphantly rode out of the city.
The frustrated would-be bridegroom, along with his soldiers and royal friends, all raced after Krishna’s chariot, and there was a battle, but Krishna won and took Rukmini home with Him to be His first wife.
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In the eternal spiritual world, as well as in the village of Vrandavan on earth, the animals are also pure devotees of Krishna, and love Him with all their hearts. He also feels great affection for them.
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Pancha tattva means “five truths.” These personalities are five aspects of the whole truth of God.
In the center is Lord Chaitanya, who is Krishna Himself disguised as a devotee. He came to earth 500 years ago to teach and spread pure love of God by chanting the holy names.
To our left, wearing blue, is Lord Nityananda, who is Balarama, Krishna’s brother and first expansion. He is considered to be the original spiritual master. He is also acting as a devotee, but it is not as much of a disguise since He does in fact worship Krishna even as Balarama.
To our far left is Advaita, with white hair and beard, who is an incarnation of Maha-Vishnu. He came to earth first, to call Krishna to come and save the fallen people.
To the right of Lord Chaitanya is Gadadhara. He is understood to be Krishna’s energy. In other words he is an expansion of Radharani. It is interesting that he is in a male form when Radharani is in a female form. The reason is that in this pastime, Krishna was to play the role of a sannyasi, a renounced monk, and no one in a female body would be allowed to be close to Him. Anyone who wanted to take part in this pastime as an intimate associate of Lord Chaitanya would have to be male.
To the far right is Srivas, who was a pure devotee of the Lord and assisted in the pastime of starting the massive movement of congregational chanting of the holy name.
They are five truths in this way: They are the Lord, His expansion, His incarnation, His energy, and His pure devotee. All together they are the complete understanding.
