Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Nectar of Devotion

There are two kinds of devotees engaged in devotional service with awe and veneration — the Lord's subordinates and His sons. The servitors in the abode of Dvārakā always worship Krishna as the most respectable and revered Personality of Godhead. They are captivated by Krishna because of His superexcellent opulences. The members who always thought themselves protected by Krishna could readily convert their conviction into practical demonstration, because it was sometimes found that the sons of Krishna acted very unlawfully in various places but were nonetheless given full protection by Krishna and Balarāma.

Even Balarāma, the elder brother of Krishna, sometimes unknowingly offered respect to Him. Once when Krishna came before Lord Balarāma, Krishna was anxious to offer His respects to His elder brother, but at that time Balarāma's club was lowered down upon Krishna's lotus feet. In other words, the club in Balarāma's hand offered its own respects to Krishna. These feelings of subordination, as explained above, are sometimes manifested as anubhāva.

When demigods from the heavenly planets came to Śrī Krishna, all of Krishna's sons followed them, and Lord Brahmā sprinkled water from his kamandalu upon them. When the demigods came before Krishna, the sons, instead of sitting on golden chairs, sat down on the floor, which was covered with deerskin.

Sometimes the behavior of Krishna's sons appears similar to the behavior of His personal servants. For example, the sons used to offer their obeisances, they were silent, submissive and gentle, and they were always ready to carry out Krishna's orders, even at the risk of life. When present before Krishna, they bowed down on the ground. They were very silent and steady, and they used to restrain coughing and laughing before the Lord. Also, they never discussed Krishna's pastimes in conjugal love. In other words, devotees who are engaged in reverential devotional service should not discuss the conjugal love affairs of Krishna. No one should claim his eternal relationship with Krishna unless he is liberated. In the conditioned state of life, the devotees have to execute the prescribed duties as recommended in the codes of devotional service. When one is mature in devotional service and is a realized soul, he can know his own eternal relationship with Krishna. One should not artificially try to establish some relationship. In the premature stage it is sometimes found that a lusty, conditioned person will artificially try to establish some relationship with Krishna in conjugal love. The result of this is that one becomes prākrita-sahajiyā, or one who takes everything very cheaply. Although such persons may be very anxious to establish a relationship with Krishna in conjugal love, their conditioned life in the material world is still most abominable. A person who has actually established his relationship with Krishna can no longer act on the material plane, and his personal character cannot be criticized.

When Cupid came on one occasion to visit Lord Krishna, some devotee addressed him thus: "My dear Cupid, because you have been so fortunate as to have placed your eyesight on the lotus feet of Krishna, the drops of perspiration on your body have become frozen, and they resemble kantakī fruits [a kind of small fruit found in thorny bushes]." These are signs of ecstasy and veneration for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the princes of the Yadu dynasty heard the vibration of Krishna's Pāñcajanya conchshell, the hairs on their bodies immediately stood up in ecstatic jubilation. It seemed at that time that all the hairs on the bodies of the princes were dancing in ecstasy.

In addition to jubilation, there are sometimes symptoms of disappointment. Pradyumna once addressed Sāmba with these words: "My dear Sāmba, you are such a glorified personality! I have seen that once when you were playing on the ground, your body became covered with dust; yet our father, Lord Krishna, still took you up on His lap. But I am so unfortunate that I could never get such love from our father!" This statement is an example of disappointment in love.

To regard Krishna as one's superior is called reverential feeling, and when, in addition to this, a devotee feels that Krishna is his protector, his transcendental love for Krishna is increased, and his combined feelings are called reverential devotion. When this steady reverential devotion increases further, it is called love of Godhead in reverential devotion. Attraction and affection are two prominent symptoms of this stage. In this reverential devotional attitude, Pradyumna never talked to his father in a loud voice. In fact, he never so much as unlocked the lips of his mouth, nor did he ever show his face filled with tears. He would always glance only at the lotus feet of his father.

There is another example of steady and fixed love for Krishna in the instance of Arjuna's informing Him of the death of Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, who was also the nephew of Krishna. Abhimanyu was the son of Subhadrā, Krishna's younger sister. He was killed at the Battle of Kurukshetra by the combined efforts of all the commanders in King Duryodhana's army — namely Karna, Aśvatthāmā, Jayadratha, Bhīshma, Kripācārya and Dronācārya. In order to assure Krishna that there was no change of love on Subhadrā's part, Arjuna informed Him, "Although Abhimanyu was killed almost in Your presence, Subhadrā's love for You is not agitated at all, nor has it even slightly changed its original color."

The affection that Krishna has for His devotees was expressed by Him when He asked Pradyumna not to feel so bashful before Him. He addressed Pradyumna thus: "My dear boy, just give up your feeling of inferiority, and do not hang your neck. Just talk with Me in a clear voice, and do not shed tears. You may look straight at Me, and you may place your hands on My body without any hesitation. There is no need of exhibiting so much reverence before your father."

Pradyumna's attachment for Krishna was always exhibited by his action. Whenever he was ordered by his father to execute something, he would immediately execute the order, taking the task as nectarean even though it may have been poison. Similarly, whenever he would find something to be disapproved of by his father, he would immediately reject it as poison, even though it may have been nectarean.

Pradyumna's attachment in anxiety for Krishna was expressed when he said to his wife Rati, "The enemy, Śambara, is already killed. Now I am very anxious to see my father, who is my spiritual master and who always carries the conchshell known as Pāñcajanya." Pradyumna felt great separation from Krishna when He was absent from Dvārakā at the Battlefield of Kurukshetra. He said, "Since my father has left Dvārakā, I do not take much pleasure in practicing fighting, nor am I interested in any kind of sporting pastimes. And what need is there to speak of these things? I do not even wish to stay at Dvārakā in the absence of my father."

When Pradyumna came back home after killing Śambarāsura and saw his father, Krishna, before him, he at once became so overjoyed that he himself could not understand his joy on that occasion. This is an instance of success in separation. A similar satisfaction was observed when Krishna returned from the Battlefield of Kurukshetra to His home at Dvārakā. All of His sons were so overjoyed that out of ecstasy they repeatedly made many mistakes. These mistakes were a sign of complete satisfaction.

Every day Pradyumna looked over Krishna's lotus feet with tears in his eyes. These signs of reverential devotion on the part of Pradyumna may be described in the same way they have been described in the cases of other devotees.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness