Why do you always chant Krsna’s names and glorify His virtues?

Sri Govinda-Vrndavana

from chapter one

1          One day Lord Brahma happily went to see his son Lord Siva at his asrama.

2          Brahma saw that Lord Siva, the master of the demigods, was meditating on Lord Krsna.  Lord Siva’s eyes were filled with tears and the hairs of his body was erect in ecstasy.

3          Overcome with love, and the hairs of his body also erect in ecstasy, Grandfather Brahma picked up Lord Siva and embraced him with both his arms.

4          Seeing Grandfather Brahma standing before him, Lord Siva, thinking Brahma worthy of great honour, fell like a stick to the ground.

5          Siva gave weary Brahma a comfortable seat, worshipped him with padya, arghya, madhuparka, and other offerings, welcomed him.

6-7       Pleased the great devotee Brahma said to him: why are you so overcome with love for glorious Krsna, the king of Vraja and the son of Nanda?  Does your heart no longer yearn after piety, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation?

8-9       Why do you always chant Krsna’s names and glorify His virtues?

            Hearing these words of his merciful spiritual master, Siva humbly bowed down and, yearning to attain Lord Krsna’s lotus feet, spoke many words.

10        Mad with love and bliss, Siva fell to the ground.  To revive him and pacify his heart, Brahma then told him a great secret in that secluded place.

11        Sri Brahma said: Because you are humble and virtuous and especially because you have offered all your love to Lord Krsna’s lotus feet, you are very dear to me.

12        You do not know Sri Radha, the queen of Vrndavana.  Please listen with an attentive heart, and I will tell Her secret.

13        Lord Krsna’s abode is the forest called Vrndavana.  It is splendid, beautiful, sweet like nectar, eternal, beyond the touch of the three modes of nature...

14        ...imperishable, desired by all, filled with limitless bliss, splendid like ten million blazing suns,...

15        ...the home of splendid liberated souls, secluded, never destroyed, limitless, free from old age, free from material wakefulness, dream and dreamless sleep, the true reality,...

16        ...opulent with beautiful forest groves, delightful in all seasons, wonderfully splendid and beautiful, eternal, an ocean of bliss,...

17        ...a place where no sun, moon, or fire shines, a place that cannot be fully described even in hundreds of millions of kalpas,...

18        ...delightful with four gates and great archways, carefully protected by Nanda, Sunanda, and other gatekeepers,...

19        ...filled with splendid gopis in the prime of youth, having in its midst a great, splendid, festive palace,...

20        ...a palace splendid with many jewels and a thousand ruby pillars, a palace having in its midst an eight petal lotus splendid like the rising sun.

21        In the centre of that beautiful and splendid lotus flower sits Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, with the goddess of fortune by His side.

22        Lord Krsna is dark like a blue lotus petal, splendid like ten million suns, young, graceful, and splendid,...

23        ...handsome with restless lotus eyes, gracefully curved eyebrows, teeth splendid like a jasmine garland, charming coral lips...

24        ...a smiling lotus face splendid like the full moon, earrings splendid like rising suns,...

25        ...glistening curly hair, a conchshell neck decorated with flower garland and golden necklace,..

26        ...decorated with a Kaustubha jewel and other beautiful ornaments splendid like ten million rising suns, dressed in yellow garments splendid like the rising sun,...

27        ...glorious with nails splendid like a host of moons, accompanied by blue, yellow, red, and white companions,...

28        ...decorated with many forest garlands, with limbs anointed with sandal paste, the king of expert skill in enjoying many pastimes, expert in the rasa-dance pastime,...

29        ...infallible, an ocean of handsomeness, and more handsome than ten million Kamadevas.  On His left side stands Goddess Radha, who is more dear than life to Him,...

30        ...who is splendid like gold, charming, decorated with a necklace of gold and silver, filled with all virtues, in the prime of youth,...

31        ...decorated with jewel earrings, beautiful curly black hair, Her limbs anointed with sandal paste and decorated with splendid flowers,...

32        ...Her beautiful hair decorated with mandara, ketaki, and jati flowers, Her eyebrows, nose and thighs all very beautiful, Her raised breasts very full,...

33        ...wonderfully opulent with many jewels, splendid like a golden lotus, Her smiling lotus face splendid like a full  moon,...

34        ...decorated with necklaces, rings, bracelets, and armlets, holding a camara splendid like the moon,...

35-36   ...and filled with all virtues delights Her master, the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead.  Accompanied by many liberated souls engaged in dancing and other pastimes, the Supreme Personality of Godhead enjoys pastimes with eternal Goddess Radha.

            Hearing these words of Lord Brahma, Lord Siva respectfully said:

37        Lord Krsna lived at the end of Dvapara-yuga.  Why, then, is it said that He is eternal?

            Thinking for a moment, Brahma told Siva the following explanation from the Puranas:

38-39   The spiritual world is beyond the understanding of the mind and words.  The truth of it is hidden from the Vedas.  When the material world is destroyed and the manifest enters the unmanifest, then the imperishable spiritual world remains unchanged.  The all-pervading and all-blissful spiritual world is called Vaikunthaloka.

40        The spiritual world is beyond the reach of the modes of material nature.  It has neither beginning nor end.  It is eternal and imperishable.  It is the supreme abode described in the Vedas.

41        The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than the greatest, eternally resides in that spiritual world.  Once, pleased with the Vedas’ prayers, the Supreme Personality of Godhead said to them, ‘I am pleased’.  At that time the Vedas revealed the desire that was in their heart.

42        The Vedas said: We know of the Lord’s Narayana forms, but we do not know of the infallible Lord in His original form, filled with transcendental qualities.

43        We recite the word ‘Brahman’.  We know Brahman, which has no qualities, and which is beyond the mind and words, but we do not know what is beyond Brahman.

44        The great sages of ancient times say Your original form is filled with bliss.  O Lord, if You wish to give a boon to us, please show us that form.

45        Hearing these words, the Lord showed to them His original form, a form beyond the world of matter, a form eternal, imperishable, and filled with spiritual bliss.

46        He showed them the forest called Vrndavana, a forest filled with many trees and Kamadhenu cows, a forest opulent with many beautiful forest groves, a forest served by the pleasures of spring.

47        In that place was a hill named Govardhana, a beautiful hill filled with clear streams, beautiful caves, graceful birds, and many jewels and minerals.

48        In that place was the Yamuna, the best of rivers.  Both its banks were studded with jewels.  It was filled with many swans and lotus flowers.

49        In that place were many gopis intoxicated by tasting the nectar of many kinds of rasa dances.  In the midst of them stood the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead,...

50        ...eternally youthful, His form eternal and filled with eternal bliss, His hair gracefully curly, His crown a graceful and splendid peacock feather,...

51        ...His splendid forehead decorated with sandal tilaka and curly locks of hair, shark earrings swinging on His cheeks,...

52        ...His eyes blossoming lotus flowers, His gracefully smiling face a lotus flower, His teeth a garland of jasmine flowers, His charming lips coral,...

53        ...decorated with a Kaustubha jewel splendid like a rising sun, His limbs anointed with sandal, aguru, musk and kunkuma,...

54        ...dressed in yellow garments, a tinkling belt at His hips, His nails splendid like autumn moonlight,...

55        ...His associates black, yellow, red and white, His form always playing in a nectar ocean of eternally blissful rasa-dance pastimes,...

56        ...an ocean of handsomeness, and more handsome than ten million Kamadevas.  After revealing His original form, Lord Krsna, who was splendid like a moon shining in Vrndavana, spoke the following words.

58        Lord Krsna, who is splendid like a moon shining in Vrndavana, said: The form that you have just seen is eternal, transcendental, splendid, perfect, complete, pure, peaceful, eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss,...

59        ...and its eyes are graceful like palasa flowers blossoming in the full  moon’s light.  No other form is better than this form of Mine.  The Vedas say this form is the first cause of all causes.

60        O Vedas, this form is the supreme reality.  It is eternal, spiritual, blissful, auspicious, and all pervading.  It has neither beginning, middle nor end.

61        This handsome and graceful dark form is splendid and transcendental.  It is beyond the touch of the illusory material world.  It is beyond the knowledge of the Vedas.

62        It is splendid and handsome.  It charms the heart.  It is beyond the world of the three modes.  It is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss.  Only by devotional service can one understand it in truth.

63        Now you have seen My world.  No world is greater than it.  O Vedas, I am pleased with you.  You may ask a boon, whatever your hearts desire.

64        The Vedas said: Now that we have seen Your form more handsome than ten million Kamadevas, our hearts have become filled with amorous desires.  We yearn to become beautiful gopis.

65        We wish to become like the gopis of Your world, who think of You as their lover and worship You with amorous desires.

66        The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Although this boon is very rare and difficult to attain, I will grant it.  You will become like them.

67        When a new Brahma is born to create the material worlds and a new Sarasvata-kalpa arrives, you will all become gopis.

68        On the earth, in the land of Bharata, in My circle of Mathura, I will personally appear.  You will meet Me there in the rasa-dance circle.

69        Thinking of Me as your lover, you will attain passionate, supreme love for Me.  In this way you will attain perfection.

70        After hearing these words the Vedas became fixed in meditation on the Supreme Lord’s transcendental form.  When the proper time came according to His words, they all became gopis in Vraja.

71        Thus in order to give this boon to the Vedas, Lord Krsna, the master of all masters, came within the view of the world at the end of Dvapara-yuga.

72        In this way Lord Krsna, the moonlight of whose toenails is the Impersonal Brahman described in the Vedas, appeared in Vrndavana as the son of Nanda.

73        Then, greedy to taste the honey  in the lotus flower of Lord Krsnacandra’s feet, and his eyes filled with tears, Siva spoke the following words:

74        O Lord, O spiritual master of the wise, we are Vaisnavas.  Again and again we drink the sacred nectar of the descriptions of Lord Krsna.

75        O Lord, O master of the demigods, O master of the worlds, O master of the universe, O father, please tell me the gopis’ auspicious names.

76        Please kindly tell me the name of Lord Krsna’s noble hearted elder brother and the names and activities of all the Lord’s personal associates.

77        Sri Brahma said: Excellent.  Your question is excellent.  It is very pleasing to the Lord.  You are naturally very saintly.  You are devoted to Lord Krsna’s lotus feet.

78        O fortunate and glorious one, I heard these names, names hidden even from the Vedas, directly from the mouth of Lord Krsna, whose navel is graceful like a lotus flower.

79        Lord Brahma said: One day, as I was happily walking in the abode of Maha-Vaikuntha, I saw a blissful form that filled My eyes with wonder.

80        This was an eight-armed form of Lord Maha-Visnu, an eternal and handsome form decorated with precious jewels, seated on a throne, His smiling eyes graceful and charming,...

81        ...and His handsome dark form splendid like ten million suns, cooling like ten million moons, and gracefully dressed in yellow garments.

82        At His left side was the great goddess Maha-Laksmi.  Seeing this form, which had graceful eyebrows, a happily smiling face,...

83        Agitated and my eyes filled with tears of great love, I bowed before Him again and again.  I said, ‘I bow before You.’

84        Extending His cooling lotus hand, the affectionate Lord picked me up, embraced me, and welcomed me.

85        Again and again I heard Him say, ‘Welcome.  Welcome.  O deva, you are very kind to me.’

86        Then the Personality of Godhead told me of Lord Krsna’s wonderful and eternal pastimes, which are the most charming and beautiful, which are an ocean of spiritual bliss, which are beyond the mode of material goodness.

87        Lord Maha-Visnu said: The foolish people do not understand the eternal truth of Lord Krsna, the moonlight of whose toes is the impersonal Brahman described in the Vedas.

88        His beautiful abode is the forest called Vrndavana, a forest that is the eternal spiritual reality, that is beyond the modes of matter, that is an ocean of spiritual bliss,...

89        ...that is eternal nectar, that is the greatest of all spiritual bliss, that is the bliss of transcendental mellows, that is the greatest bliss, that is the origin of eternal bliss,...

90        ...that is limitless and blissful, the abode of the bliss of spiritual love, that is the place where all the gopis sing the auspicious glories of Lord Krsna,...

91        ...that is filled with kalpa-druma trees and the melodious singing of birds, that is splendid like a host of suns, moons, and blazing fires, that is eternal and imperishable,...

92        ...that is immeasurable, charming, free of old age, the goal of the Vedas, the origin of transcendental bliss, filled with many flower gardens,...

93        ...filled with airplanes and great walls made of suryakanta jewels, spiritual, filled with spiritual bliss, eternal, always free from all anxieties,...

94        ...Lord Krsna’s home, filled with the nectar of transcendental mellows, free from disease, a graceful city with four gates and many arches,...

95        ...carefully protected by Sunanda and other gopa associates of the Lord, surrounded by walls of gold and jewels, filled with many archways,...

96        ...filled with many splendidly beautiful women in the prime of youth, with many airplanes, and with many great mansions and palaces.

97        In the midst of that place is a great city that is Lord Krsna’s home.  In the midst of that city is a splendid palace that is the festive home of spiritual love.

98        In the midst of that palace is a beautiful throne charming like a great lotus flower, splendid like ten million suns, and worshipped by all the worlds.

99        In the midst of that throne is a splendid lotus flower, very beautiful and filled with light, and decorated with the kama-bija mantra.

100      Lord Govinda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose blissful and eternal form is dark like a monsoon cloud, sits there with the goddess of fortune by His side.

101      He is eternally youthful, an ocean of bliss for Sri Radha, the master of Vrndavana, the origin of transcendental bliss,...

102      ...and the hero expert in tasting the nectar of the bliss pastimes of love.  The coiling snakes of His eyebrows mean death for Kamadeva’s pride. 

103      His nose is decorated with a pearl, His graceful limbs anointed with sandal paste, and His form with a forest garland.  His graceful eyes are reddish.

104      He is decorated with sandal paste and glistening shark-earrings.  His conchshell neck is splendid with a necklace of many jewels.

105      He is decorated with a Kaustubha jewel and other jewels splendid like a hundred million rising suns.  He is dressed in beautiful yellow garments and a graceful belt adorns His splendid hips.

106      His nails are splendid like numberless moons.  He is accompanied by a host of black, white, yellow and red associates.

107      He is infallible, expert at many pastimes, expert at dancing, an ocean of handsomeness, and more handsome than a hundred million Kamadevas.

108      At His left side stays Goddess Radha, who is beautiful, fair, elegant, King Vrsabhanu’s daughter, and a newly blossoming flower that attracts the bumblebee of Lord Krsna’ heart,...

109      ...whose beautiful limbs are dressed in wonderful garments, whose beautiful hair is decorated with flowers, who is delighted to see Lord Krsna, who glances at Him from the corners of Her restless eyes,...

110      ...the coiling snake of whose eyebrows destroys Kamadeva’s pride, whose full pomegranate breasts attract the heart of Lord Krsna,...

111      ...whose happiness is in threefold bending Lord Krsna, who loves Lord Krsna, who is loved by Lord Krsna, whose hips are decorated with tinkling jewel-ornaments,...

112      ...who brings happiness to Lord Krsna’s eyes, who is the crowning garland of the gopis, who is dear to Lord Krsna, whose eyes are lotus flowers, who is a great lake of the nectar of transcendental pastimes,...

113      ...who plays in the waves of the nectar ocean of love for Krsna, who is a teenage girl dear to Lord Krsna, who wears the dark ornament that is Lord Krsna’s limbs...

114      ...whose splendid limbs are decorated with splendid garments, whose garment reaches to Her toes, who enjoys a festival of the nectar of transcendental mellows, whom Lord Krsna brings to a secluded place,...

115      ...who is worshipped by the virtuous goddess that rules the material world, who is eternal spiritual reality, who is beyond the touch of the modes of material nature, who will never die,...

116      ...who possesses all virtues, and who, taking a beautiful camara in her hand, a camara splendid like a hundred million moons, pleases Her master, the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead.

117      Within Lord Krsna’s palace reside ten thousand gopis, who are all splendid like ten million blazing fires, beautiful with lotus hands,...

118      ...virtuous and beautiful with moonlike faces.  Surrounded by them, Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, shines with great splendour.

119      Facing Lord Krsna, on a great throne sits Lord Balarama, who is eternally youthful, whose form brings bliss to the eyes,...

120      ...who sends hinted messages from the corners of His graceful, reddish, bending eyes, who is glorious like millions of millions of moons, who is a great ocean of handsomeness,...

121      ...whose glistening dark locks decorate on His left cheek, who is dressed in blue garments,...

122      ...whose ornaments of sapphires and other jewels are themselves decorated by the glory of His transcendental form, whose blue garments are tied by a belt at His splendid hips,...

123      ...whose glorious feet are decorated with blue anklets, and whose nails are splendid like ten million moons.

124      Lord Balarama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is surrounded by a hundred maidservants headed by Revati, shines with great splendour.

125      As Lord Krsna is glorious, so also are glorious Lord Balarama and the gopas Subahu, Subala, Sridama, Vasudama, Sudama Mahabala,...

126      ...Lavanga, Mahabahu, Stoka-krsna, Arjuna, Amsuka, Vrsabha, Vrsala, Jayamalava,...

127      ...Urjasvi, Subhaprastha, Vinodi, Varuthapa, Rasika, Madandha, Mahendra, Candrasekhara,...

128      ...Rasala, Rasandha, Rasanga, Mahabala, Suranga, Jayaranga, Ranga, Ananda-kandara,...

129      ...Nanda, Sunanda, Ananda, Cancala, Capalo, Bala, Syamala, Vimala, Lola, Kamala, Kamaleksana,...

130      ...Madhura, Rasandha, Madhava, Candrabandhava, Suratha Mahananda, Gandharva, Candrabandhava,...

131      ...Kandarpa, Kelidarpa, Rasendra, Sundara, Jaya, Mahendra, Sugandharva, Sarasendra, Kalalaya,...

132      ...Sumukha, Yasasindra, Sananda, Candrabhavana, Rasabhrnga, Rasalanga, Vilasa, Kelikanana,...

133      ...Ananta, Kelivan, Kama, Premabhrnga, Kalanidhi, Sabala, Nagara, Syama, Sukarma, Sarasa, Vidhi,...

134      ...Gauranga, Stoka-govinda, Devendra, Candramalaya, Syamanga, Paramananda, Rasanga, Candrayadava,...

135      ...Krsnanga, Stoka-dama, Vibhanga, Rasamanava, Premanga, Stoka-bahu, Hemanga, Jayayadava,...

136      ...Raktanga, Stoka-dama, Tribhanga, Sunagara, Pavanendra, Surendra, Surathendra, Jayadvrata,...

137      ...Sukhada, Mohana, Dama, Kelidama, Sumanmatha, Sucandra, Candraman, Indra, Vijaya, Jayasekhara,...

138      ...Upendra, Stoka-dama, Sujaya, Stoka-nagara, Vasanta, Sumanta, Rasavan, Rasakandara,...

139      ...Kamendra, Kamavan, Kama, Ajitendra, Candracancala, Dambha, Sudambha, Dambhika, Paradambha, Vidambhaka,...

140      ...Premadambha, Sugandhi, Sudambha, Dambhanayaka, Upananda, Carunanda, Rasananda, Vilocana,...

141      ...Jayananda, Premananda, Darpananda, Sumohana, Bhadrananda, Candrananda, Virananda, Sudhakara,...

142      ...Balananda, Bahunanda, Stokananda, Yasaskara, Upananda, Krsnananda, Gaurananda, Visarada,...

143      ...Syamananda, Damananda, Sukhananda, Priyamvada, Upakarsna, Kalakrsna, Bahukrsna, Sukhakara,...

144      ...Upasama, Rasastoka, Premadama, Jayaprada, Madhukantha, Vikuntha, Sudhakantha, Priyavrata,...

145      ...Rasakantha, Vaikuntha, Sukanda, Candrasundara, Kelikantha, Premakantha, Varakantha, Rasamvada,...

146      ...Jayakantha, Kalakantha, Amrtakantha, Kalakara, Nrtyakendra, Nrtyasakta, Nrtyaman, Nrtyasekhara,...

147      ...Nrtyaranga, Nrtyatunga, Nrtyananda, Suyodhana, Rasacandra, Kamacandra, Rupacandra, Vimohana,...

148      ...Kelicandra, Kelidarpa, Sudarpa, Darpanagara, Premendra, Premacandra, Premaranga, and many other gopas also.

149-150           Krsna and Balarama have many thousands and thousands of gopa friends.  Even if I had a billion kalpas to do it, I would not be able to describe all their forms, nature, qualities, and activities.