Wonderful dancing of Krishna and Balaram

Excerpt from a lecture by HH Varsana Swami

Submitted by Manoj

The holy dham is to be respected as the expansion of the Lord Balaram, Who sets the scene
for the pastimes. And what are the Lord's embellishments, decorations?

Mother Yasoda comes into Krishna's bedroom, singing sweet songs about the loving
pastimes that took place before and she wakes up Krishna. And then all the cowherd boys
come and they assist in dressing Krishna. And to please Mother Yasoda, He puts on jewelery
and fancy clothes, and the cows… they won't even give milk until they have darshan of Lord
Krishna.

And then what happens! Krishna goes to the forest. He takes off the fancy jewelery that
Mother Yasodha put and that gets covered with the forest gifts. The flowers and the peacock
feathers, the mango twigs, and Krishna decorates Himself … the Gopis see this about 20
miles away, premanjana churita bhakti vilocenena, with eyes anointed with the salve of love,
they can clearly see what is going on 20 miles away. 

They say, why is He dressing so nice? How's He dressing … Like a dramatic actor.
Somebody who is about to do a stage performance, a dramatic act, and they are suspended
in rapt attention, from inside their houses 20 miles away or so. Why is He dressing so nicely ?
Is He dressing to please the cowherd boys? Well, they are dressing Him, so that's not it. Is He
dressing to please Mother Yasoda? Well, she already dressed Him. So who is He dressing to
please?

Who do young boys dress to please? Young girls … So the Gopis feel very happy.

Nanda Maharaj, Mother Yasodha and the elders all follow Krishna upto the point where
Krishna assures them with a look, we'll be alright … you can go back … we'll be well behaved
… And then painfully they go back …

And then as the acharyas explain, as soon as Nanda and Yasodha turn to go back, Krishna
and the cowherd boys turn like baby elephants who just got released. So the cowherd boys
are joking and talking. So when the devotees asked Prabhupada, what do the cowherd boys
talk about … Prabhupada said, Non-sense, ofcourse. But it has all got one purpose and one
center, and that is Krishna. Which creates harmony, and peace, and sweetness, through out
all of creation. And carrying that message of peace through the process of sankirtan is the
most benevolent activity and the only antidote to the hideous influence of cruelty. 

So when Krishna and the cowherd boys begin to play, naturally all the cows, the birds, the
peacocks get into a very playful mood and the cowherd boys … they also like to fight. How do
they fight? with nuclear missilens … No … with flowers. They launch flowers. Sometimes they
play ball …

And then Vrndavan forest is not a dull inert, inanimate forest, full of darkness. Everything is
enlightened. So understanding Krishna's mood, it creates a stage. And one of the cowherd
boys starts drawing out his design, how the stage should be, with a stick. 

Ok, this is the center stage for Krishna and Balaram, Who come on. Krishna like a sapphire,
and Balaram like an emerald. And Krishna's bluish effulgence, cast a nice bluish hue all over
the forest and Balaram, when He gets enlivened, He starts sparkling like lightning. And the
cowherd boys decide, ok, the musicians can go on this side and the deer and the rabbits sit in
front, creating an audience. 

And then Krishna and Balaram come on to the stage, bow down to the audience, to bhumi, to
Goddess Saraswati, Goddess of music and dance, and then they begin to Dance. Krishna
begins dancing like a peacock. And the earth planet is so blessed, that no where else in the
universe does Krishna dance. No where else does He even appear and bless the planet with
the emblems of His bear lotus feet. So Krishna begins to dance. And everyone begins to
sing. 

Krishna then begins to adjust His clothing, in a very accentuated manner. And then Krishna
begins tap dancing. Creating a musical rhythm. When Krishna and Balaram begin to dance,
They become to attracted in mutual love for each other and everyone witnessing this lila
become so filled with love for Krishna and Balaram that their natural response is to embrace
and love one another. If we have love for Krishna, you cannot have enimity for anyone or
anything …

And then Krishna, begins playing His flute and this enlivens Balaram to start dancing in a way
no one can imitate. When Balaram gets enlivened, How would you compare? He gets so
enlivened that with one hand on the ground and His whole body pivoting in the air and His
lotus feet, circling in the sky, that just enlivens Krishna to no end … so that Krishna cannot
even contain His joy, and Krishna begins dancing which culminates in doing cart-wheels
around Balaram, who is rotating on His hand, with His body in the air and Krishna is doing
cartwheels circumumbulating Him While simultaneously playing His flute; While
simultaneously taking the dust from Balaram's feet in the air and also 
Distributing that dust to everybody in the audience until finally all that anyone can say is
WONDERFUL ! WONDERFUL ! And Krishna begins boasting … Can anyone in the world
out-do us in dancing … And everyone say NO WAY … First there is the competition who is
the best. And the cowherd boys to please Krishna, they dance the best. But finally Krishna
and Balaram dance even better until finally everyone in the forest and the earth is so
enthralled and the sound even penetrating the outer coverings of the universe reaching
Vaikuntha, Lord Narayan begins smiling. And Lakshmi is asking, What is causing you so
much pleasure?

There is such a correlation between love and wonder that everyone is just enraptured by the
dance. And then as Srila Prabhupada points out, Krishna and Balaram, not having undergone
the hair cutting ceremony, everything is dancing … Their ear-rings, Their hair … Their
garlands, Their ornaments, everything …

If we have love there will be no room for malice in our hearts. It is not by hatred, or fighting
that malice can be killed, but it is only by love is envy stilled. This is a lesson repeatedly
emphasized in the life of Haridas Thakur. And the symptom of love is humility, service
attitude. The expression is service. And who is the best servant - Krishna is the best
everything. He is also the most humble. Because after this dance, theatrical performance, that
enraptured and enchanted everyone, everyone is saying - Krishna, you're the best … And
Krishna saying yeah, Iam the best … And Sridama comes and says, Hey Krishna, you know I
got evidence that under the cloak of darkness you sneak out sometime and take dancing
lessons from my older sister. Sridama is Radharani's brother … So you know, Krishna says,
Yea … I was actually kind of presumptuous to proclaim that I am the supreme dancer when
I've got my own teacher.

Ofcourse, this is all so esoteric and above our heads we should understand that we don't
have connection with anything spiritual, except by the Grace of our Spiritual Master, the
supreme expression of love, kindness and mercy, who has come to redeem us from the plight
of this world and save us from the viciousness that destroys everything and everyone in this
world and teaching us how to sing and dance in sankirtan.

Sankirtan has two meanings - everyone coming together to sing and dance; and also means
everything being used in the missionary work of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu to develop love for Krishna, which is the purpose of our chanting Hare Krishna. 

By one mantra Which consists of three names, Hare Krishna and Rama, we can derive our
dormant Krishna consciousness and counteract all the evil tendencies of the age of Kali,
perfect the human form of life, benefit all living entities, by assisting one another in the path
back home, where everyone lives eternally, in perfect peace and harmony.