- BB 3.5.51-54 ~ Narada speaks to Gopa Kumar in Dwaraka
BB 3.5.51
Çré Närada said: My dear young cowherd, surely you have always been a curious boy, and so you are even now. Haven’t I explained all this to you before?
COMMENTARY
Like Närada, Gopa-kumära has his own peculiar ways; he dresses and acts like a cowherd boy regardless of where he is. Moreover, it seems curious to Närada that Gopa-kumära still doubts the ability of powerful devotees of the Lord to expand themselves into multiple forms, especially since Närada has explained this truth scientifically and Gopa-kumära has seen tangible evidence of it with his own eyes. Gopa-kumära may insist that he is honestly confused and not simply trying to make some game of expressing doubt, but Närada reasserts that Gopa-kumära, however briefly, has already heard him elucidate the subject.
BB 3.5.52
Just as the one Personality of Godhead Çré Kåñëa exists in many forms and many places, so also do we, His servants.
BB 3.5.53
So it is with all of us—Çré Garuòa and other attendants, devotees like Çrémän Hanumän, and our friend Uddhava, and others too, like these Yädavas.
COMMENTARY
Devotees like Garuòa and Çeña are associates of the Lord of Vaikuëöha, whereas Hanumän, Jämbavän, and others are servants of Lord Rämacandra. Hanumän sings the glories of Lord Räma in the Kimpuruña-loka of the Bhüloka region and simultaneously in the Ayodhyä of Vaikuëöha. And Uddhava, whom Gopa-kumära can see right before him, is simultaneously one of the principal companions of Kåñëa in Dvärakä on earth, along with the Yädavas, the Päëòavas, and others. Considering the topic too confidential to bring up just now, Närada chooses not to mention Kåñëa’s devotees in Çré Goloka.
BB 3.5.54
All the Lord’s personal associates are at His hand like playthings. They are always fully dedicated to His service. Each assumes a variety of forms yet stays essentially one, just like the Lord Himself.
COMMENTARY
As Çré Kåñëacandra, the original Supreme Person, expands Himself into innumerable forms of Godhead, when required for service to the Lord His eternal associates can also expand themselves into many forms. Perpetually dedicated to worshiping Him, they are willing instruments in the enactment of His pleasure pastimes. Whatever gives the Lord happiness is also their satisfaction. So when He expands Himself and His abode into all sorts of forms, they accompany Him in suitably corresponding forms. Gopa-kumära should therefore not be amazed that Närada appears in more than one place at once for the service of the Lord.
2. Morning Walk — April 10, 1974, Bombay
Prabhupäda: …Kåñëa may have another devotee like them. If there is another universe, why not another couple? There is everything another. Because we are limited, we want to make Kåñëa always limited. How it can be? We should always remember Kåñëa’s inconceivable omnipotency. [break] …know how many thousands of couple are there because Kåñëa’s, that birth is going on every moment. Therefore, it is called nitya-lélä, in this universe immediately born, that that birth, that pastime, is again immediately manifested in another universe. He has grown old two days; so the same form again in another universe. The same example. Just like 6:30 AM on the sun, solar calculation, immediately in another country, 6:30 AM. Is it not?
Mahäàsa: Yes.
Giriräja: [break] …the position of being Kåñëa’s parents or hearing Bhagavad-gétä or being a cowherd boyfriend, can be filled by different living entities qualified in the different universes.
Prabhupäda: Yes.
Satsvarüpa: But that makes them sound like they are posts instead of individuals. I thought you once said that Arjuna, he always stays in the material universes. He’s a person and he always travels with Kåñëa, not that it’s a post.
Prabhupäda: Everyone, all the associates of Kåñëa, like Kåñëa. [break]
Giriräja: Right now Kåñëa is in so many different universes.
Prabhupäda: Yes.
Giriräja: And He is having the same pastimes.
Prabhupäda: Yes.
Giriräja: And in each universe there is an Arjuna.
Prabhupäda: Everything.
Giriräja: Everything. So is it the same living soul, Arjuna, in each universe, or a different living being may be taking that position?
Prabhupäda: Take it for granted, different. What is the wrong there? After all, everyone is Kåñëa’s expansion. Änanda cinmäyä-rasa-pratibhävitäbhiù [Bs. 5.37]. We are also expansion. (aside:) Hare Kåñëa. But still, we have got individuality. Kåñëa proved it—I explained that in Våndävana when everything was stolen by Brahmä. Again another batch of cows and calves and cowherd boys. (aside:) Hare Kåñëa. Immediately. What is the difficulty for Kåñëa? Is it clear or not? You wanted to clarify. Is it clear or not?
Satsvarüpa: Yes, you said the answer is that it’s different persons, not just one Arjuna, not just one Yaçodä.
Prabhupäda: Just like I have got hundred branches. Each branch I have got a set of my sitting room, of my books and everything. And wherever I go I see the same place. If it is possible for an ordinary man to have a hundred sets of the same thing, why not for Kåñëa?
Giriräja: So in each branch you have a different cook, different president, different treasurer…
Prabhupäda: But the set is there, what I want. The set is there.
Giriräja: Yes. Now in the case of Jaya and Vijaya, who fell down and took the role of demons, after three births as demons, they were supposed to go back to the spiritual world. So after the three births in this universe, were the same pastimes going on in other universes?
Prabhupäda: Yes, why not? Whenever Kåñëa desires that He is to fight with somebody, another must prepare himself for fighting, becomes His enemy. Because in the Vaikuëöha world there is no chance of fighting, therefore He sends His devotees to become His enemy and there He fights.
Giriräja: So other living entities would play the part of Rävaëa in other universes?
Prabhupäda: Why not? Or any other way.
Mahäàsa: We cannot actually conceive of all these things.
Prabhupäda: Yes. The conclusion is that Kåñëa being the reservoir of all pleasure, so the pleasure of fighting is there. So He can exhibit anywhere. [break] That is the understanding of Kåñëa. As soon as we limit Kåñëa like one of us, or little bigger than me, then I become doctor frog. (aside:) Don’t come near. Why don’t you tell them? [break]
Giriräja: “…Vasudeva attempted to take His son from the delivery room, and exactly at that time, a daughter was born of Nanda and Yaçodä. She was Yogamäyä, the internal potency of the Lord. By the influence of His internal potency, Yogamäyä, all the residents of Kaàsa’s palace, especially the doorkeepers, were overwhelmed with deep sleep and all the palace doors opened although they were barred and shackled with iron chains. The night was very dark, but as soon as Vasudeva took Kåñëa on His lap and went out, he could see everything just as in the sunlight.” [break]
