Home

 

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!

Sri Baladeva is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.  In his vaibhava-prakasa feature, Lord Krishna manifests Himself as Balarama. The first expansion of the unlimited forms of Krishna is Balaram or Baladeva.

The Balarama feature is as good as Krishna Himself, the only difference being that the bodily hue of Krishna is dark and that of Balarama is fair. In many ways, Sri Balarama can be understood as the alter-ego of Krishna.

These two Lords, Krishna and Balarama, are each the seed and womb of the universe, the Creator and His Creative potency.

Lord Balarama is constantly serving Lord Krishna in every respect. In all of Krishna’s incarnations and pastimes Lord Balarama is always present serving Krishna in different forms and manifestations. In Rama-lila, Balarama serves Lord Ramacandra as His younger brother, Lakshman.

In Kali-yuga, Sri Balarama spreads the Sankirtan movement of Sri Chaitanya as Prabhu Nityananda. Lord Balarama serves Sri Krishna in all the five rasas (mellows), from shanta to vatsalya rasa.

In shanta rasa Lord Balarama fulfils Sri Krishna’s desire for blissful transcendental pastimes by expanding Himself as the holy dhama of Vraja Mandala. All of Krishna’s personal possessions such as His crown, bed, clothes, throne, ornaments and chariot, etc., and any other object that Krishna utilises are all expansions of Lord Balarama. Such is His desire to serve His beloved Lord.

As Krishna’s cowherd friend and elder brother in sakhya rasa, Sri Balarama sometimes accepts service from Krsna after defeating Him in a wrestling match. But generally, Balarama‘s fraternal feelings are mixed with servitude (dasya rasa) and parental affection (vatsalya rasa).

In the mood or vatsalya rasa, Sri Balarama sometimes protects Krsna as a parent or chastises Him as the elder brother. Once Lord Balarama told Subala, “My dear friend, please inform Krsna not to go to Kaliya lake today. Today is Krsna’s birthday, and so I wish to go along with Mother Yasoda to bathe Him. Tell Krsna He should not leave the house today!”

Sri Balarama is guru-tattva – He is the original Gurudeva and one’s Guru is to be considered as the manifestation of Sri Balarama.

Yogamaya transferred Ananta Sesa (Balarama) from the womb of Devaki to the womb of Rohini. Seven months later during the most auspicious moment in Sravana month, Rohini gave birth to Lord Balarama.
His complexion was fair and He looked effulgent like the full moon. His eyes were brilliant like lightning flashes and his hair was the color of a new cloud yet brilliant like the sun. Such extraordinary beauty prevailed because He was none other than the Lord Sankarsana.

Though He was extremely beautiful, everyone was anxious because He was mute and inactive. No one could get Him to make a sound or move. Once when Yasoda was pregnant, she picked Him up and carefully placed Him on her lap next to her heart where Krishna was residing, Balarama immediately began to laugh and play like a blissful child. But when Yasoda would set Him down, again he would become inactive. He remained in this condition until the appearance of His younger brother.

During their formative years Balarama and his younger brother Krishna acted just like normal cowherd boys except for the extraordinary activities played out for the enjoyment and salvation of jivas in the material world. Krishna and his brother Balarama passed the childhood age known as kaumara and stepped into the age known as paugunda, from the sixth year up to the tenth.

At that time all the cowherd men agreed to give the boys who had passed their fifth year charge of the cows in the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Krishna and Balarama traversed Vrndavana, purifying the land with Their footprints. In Vrindavan, Lord Balarama delivered two demons Dhenukasura and Pralambasura.

An ancient Vraja-bhajan says that all the obstacles represented by the demons that Balarama killed can be removed by the efforts of the devotee himself. Denukasura represents the bad mentality that carries heavy loads. Pralambasura represents lust, greed and desire for prestige and position. One should pray to Sri Baldeva to remove these obstacles from one’s path of devotional sadhana.

When Krishna moved to Mathura, Lord Balarama also accompanied Him.  After both the Brothers had delivered Kamsa and Chanura, and released their parents and other relations from imprisonment, they went together to their Guru Sandipani’s ashram to complete their education.

Although the elder brother, Balarama always deferred to Krishna. Quick to anger, Krishna was the only one who could reason with and pacify Sri Balarama once aroused. On many occasions, Krishna used Balarama’s strength and anger strategically.

Lord Baldeva’s weapons of choice are His plow and club. His is also known as Haladhar – the wielder of the plow. Lord Balarama’s divine spouses are Varuni and Revati.

During that time, there were three men who were reputed to possess the strength of 10,000 elephants: Balarama, Bhima and Duryodhana. Lord Balarama was the instructor to both Duryodhana and Bhima in the art fight with the mace (gadaa). In this, He was a bit partial to Duryodhana because of his superior technique than Bhima, who was more inclined to use his brute strength.

There came a time when it became inevitable that the two rival factions of the Kuru dynasty were going to war. Lord Balarama, sorely distressed at the fratricidal conflict and not wanting to take sides, decided to go on a pilgrimage.

He returned on the last day of the battle to witness the mace duel between Bhima and Duryodhana, where He was very angry to see Bhima strike Duryodhana below the waist. He was about to kill Bhima, when Krishna intervened and explained the situation and pacified Him.

The funereal ceremony of Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna and Subhadra, was performed by Balarama, as He was the maternal uncle.

Due to the curse on the Yadu dynasty that they would themselves be the cause of their own destruction, thirty-six years after the battle of Kurukshetra, Lord Balarama took part in the drunken brawl that caused the destruction of the rest of the Yadus. 

Witnessing the senseless slaughter of His people, He realized it was all Krishna’s will and that the end of their manifestation was at hand.  He then sat on the edge of the sea at Prabhas and went into deep meditation and in a blinding flash of white light, He disappeared.

It is impossible to recount the glories of Sri Balarama which are infinite. Suffice to say that no one can approach the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna without the favour of Sri Balarama.


Sri Baladeva Prabhu ki Jai !!


Jai Sri Radhey


Jai Guru