Chir haran pastimes of Sree Krishna

Chir haran pastimes of Sree Krishna

One of the great Vaishnav Acharya Srila Bhakti Vedant Narayan Maharaj once explained the ‘chir haran’ pastimes of Sree Krishna, wherein He stole the clothes of Gopis when they were taking a dip in river Yamuna.

Although it may seem so, but this is not a deed of a material person overcome with lust, where a person filled with lust pulls a cloth of a girl. Pastimes of Sree Krishna are not like these because Sree Krishna has always offered adequate respect to women. For e.g. Demon Putna came to kill Him. She picked Him up like a mother and took Him in her lap like a mother. Although she wanted to kill Him by poisoning Him but she fed Him with her milk. Merciful Sree Krishna wondered to give her a position similar to His mother. So, Sree Krishna Who gave Putna a life in Vaikuntha similar to His mother, because she ‘only’ acted like a mother, how can He dis-respect any woman?

In the pastime of Chir-haran, Sree Krishna saved Draupadi from the assembly of men. He punished those who tried to de-robe her or bring defame to women, how He can show dis-respect to any woman?

Maharaj ji also said that Narakasur had held 16000 girls, women as captive to fulfil his desires. Sree Krishna killed him and released all those women. After He killed Narakasura, He said to all of them — You are now free to go back to your place of residence. I can arrange to drop you to the destination. All of them replied in unison — No, no. we cannot go anywhere. We are ready to become your servants, but cannot go back. No one will accept us. Please provide us Your shelter.

Sree Krishna out of His Causeless mercy, accepted their prayers and married them and made them queens. He gave each separate palace to live in.

Such were His pastimes with women, so how can He defame Gopis by taking away their clothes?

We must always go through the appearance pastimes of Sree Krishna which will reveal to us that Sree Krishna is not an ordinary human being. He is transcendental., He is Bhagavan.

Please go through the pastimes of Supreme Lord Sree Krishna, when He stole the clothes. Sree Krishna at that time was about 5 years old and Gopis were of 5 or maximum 6 years old. If we will move back in time, we may recall that, children of 5-6 years used to roam here and there without clothes. So, under these circumstances of a boy lift the clothes of girls, when they were bathing, nothing should be mis-interpreted from such pastime.

Since our minds are polluted, hence we always have polluted thoughts.

Once His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaj ‘Vishnupad’ was sitting on a stage with a sannyasi of Ramanuja sampradaya. During his lecture that sannyasi explained that Sree Krishna performed such pastime only to convey to worldly people that one must not bathe naked.

Hence one cannot understand pastimes of Sree Krishna, without understanding Sree Krishna.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Vedant Swami Maharaj (Founder – ISKCON)

Srila Bhakti Vedant Swami Maharaj

Our Most Revered Parampujyapada Parivajakacharya Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj came to USA and started kirtan. The ultimate goal is satisfaction of Sri Krishna. Krishna bestowed so much grace upon Srila Swami Maharaj. Our Paramgurudeva Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur ‘Prabhupad’, the Absolute Counterpart of the Supreme Lord, was the founder of Sri Gaudiya Math and Sri Chaitanya Math. He as the spiritual master of Paramapujyapad Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, imparted to him the power to preach all over the world.

Srila Swami Maharaj started on his life’s mission by praying for the grace of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and His personal associates. We have heard that he came alone, with no assistance from others. His Gurudeva had given him the order to spread the all-embracing, all-accommodating divine knowledge and love of God throughout the world. He travelled from India with great difficulty and eventually disembarked in Boston. I have heard that he came by ship and that this was the first place he came to in the USA.

When I was in Vrindavan at Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math with my revered Gurudeva Parampujyapada Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj, we heard that a godbrother of our Gurudeva, Parampujyapada Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, was staying at the Sri Sri Radha-Damodar temple. As he was a godbrother of our Gurudeva and a disciple of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur, he was naturally the object of great regard and reverence.

Thinking, “I shall go there and pay my obeisances to him,” I made my way to the Sri Sri Radha-Damodar temple. Upon meeting him, I offered my humble obeisances and he then began to speak. Showing me his writings, he said, “I want to publish a monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. Please go through my writings.” It was his order, I tried to go through it. When I had gone through the text he had given me, he said, “I have written other articles. You should also go through those.” After that I prayed out to him, “Will you not come to our Math? Our Gurudeva is there. Please come and see him.”

He immediately agreed, saying, “Yes, I will come tomorrow to see your Gurudeva.”

— His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj