Karthik - Damodar leela (Damodara - rope) udara - belly.

Kartik month - take opportunity to light the lamp and also say the damodar prayers. Last week we spoke about Sharad poornima past times, he chose this month to perform a lot of nice leelas.

Damodarastakam prayers

1. The first verse of the prayers -

"1) To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed--to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances."

So, what is happening over here - how did this past time begin? In the SB it is explained that Krishna is glorified in the 14 worlds as makhan chor - butter thief. He loved the past times to into the homes of the neighborhood gopis and steal butter. He is the propritor of the entire world so why did he have to steal the butter - but he was doing it to give pleasure to the devotees - so he can steal their love and hence we was doing the leela. But mother yashoda started thinking that maybe my butter is not as good as all the other gopis as they are always complaining about krisna stealing. So she decided to make the best butter.

So she got the best 1000 cows and the milk and grass they eat, the by product was given to 100 cows and the milk from them was fed to the top 10 cows and then milk from these top 10 cows was used to make yogurt and then from yogurt she make makkan butter for Krsna. To make the best butter for Krsna. This is the best medidation of the devotee. Mood of the devotee - always give the best to Krsna - give something to krisna - no - but the best of best of Krsna.

Example how many people used to donate cars to NV - but a devotee doesn't think like that - let me give the best to Krsna. Let me give the brand new car so that is the best car to Krsna. Similarly Yoshoda mata wanted to give the best. and similarly, devotee feels my body is young, fresh - let me offer my body to the service of Krsna - what ever skills Krsna has given me, use it his fullest service, not waste time. He thinks, let me give it to Krns because I want to give the best to Krsna. That is what Yashoda maya wanted to do for Krsna.

So every morning, Yashoda mata would churn the butter every morning and it was hanging from the ceiling and have a rope to churn the rod - using left hand and right hand to churn the yogurt. Because the rod is churned in both directions (to and fro) the taste is the best (traditional science) - churning this yogurt to butter for Krsna.

As she was doing this, she was gokula rani, nanda patni - the queen of Gokula. She had decorated her hair, nice bangles etc. Acharyas say - everyday while churning she would compose beautiful songs of the Krsna's yesterday;s leelas. This is devotional service. Prabhupada says - this way while doing work everyday, think about krisna, hear about krisha - so 24*7 you are always thinking and hearing and talking about Krsna.

While she was singing the song, the bangles were rubbing against each other and they sounded like kartals. The entire mood of Vraja were surcharged in the mood of Vrindavan. Each devotee there is engaged like that. As she was churning like that the flowers on her head felt, why are we created  burden on her head, we should be on her feet and everything in vraja is alive. Acharyas give commentary like this.

So, during this time, baby Krsna wakes up and as he waked up, he is searching for his mother as he is hungry. and he pulls on her sari saying - I'm hungry, please take care of me, please nurse me, serve me. Now, she is absorbed in feeding and serving krsna by feeding her own milk.

Krsna is an expert in extracting the love from his devotees heart. But we have to follow his plan only then he will do. Then Mother yashoda saw the milk on the stove boiling - acharyas explained that the milk seeing mother feeding her milk, what is the use of us, we should just jump into the fire. Seeing this mother Yashoda puts Krsna down (direct service vs indirect service) to go check on the milk. In our real life too, we will get sometime more than one opportunity where we need to decide - what service is better and then we need to take the help of gurus.

Seeing this Krsna was angry and he said I will now create a prank. So then he jumped on the grinding mortar and then pulled the pot of butter from the rafters and broke the pot. Thne he called the monkeys to feed them. Why? Because monkeys are also devotees - because no matter where you are, if you are a pure devotee of the lord then - he will take care of you. Be a servant of the Krsna and just serve. Just engage in his service - automatically we get the property of Krsna. Krsna is telling the monkeys that when I appeared as Lord Rama you all helped me so much now enjoy this best butter. Krsna is thinking mother Yashoda is going to be angry and this will be fun.

Seeing her come, the monkeys run away and Krsna also runs away. She sees that the pot is broken and butter is falling on the ground. So she tracked Krsna with his butter foot prints and she sees Krsna in another room where he is feeding butter to the monkeys. But now Krsna is going to be caught and he runs and mother yashoda also runs behind him. This is the verse we are discussing today. His form is eternal blissful and full of knowledge. This Krsna has appeared in Gokula. This Krsna is running - his shark shaped earings are going to and fro. Shining earings (lasat kundale) - Yashoda bhiyolula madam - out of fear of mother Yashoda. Why is he running? Who is Krsna - he is the supreme lord but even he is scared (leela) He is truly scared of mother yashoda. How is this possible - his yoga shakti is so powerful - he forgets that he is God and he only remembers that he is the child of mother Yashoda - if not the past times are not going to be real. He is scared of mother Yashoda. This is what happens with a devotee - Krsna gives up he is God and then Krsna wants to please his devotee - he becomes the servant of the devotee.

Even though he was running, mother Yashoda caught him as she was running with greater speed. Same time, another demon was trying to catch him, or so many important yogis are trying to catch Krsna but they cannot even when travelling at the speed of mind no body can catch Krsna -Krnsa is not a cheap thing, but here we see mother Yashoda is catching him effortlessly. as he is the __ of the devotee. This is Braja. This is enough to bring us to Vrindavan dham - we should meditate on this and make the month of Kartik successful. Another past time where Radha binds him with a rope and he is hence called Radha Damodara.

Significance of offering the lamp in month of Karthika - Lamp signifies the offering of love. When we are offering lamp - through that lamp we are offering our love, our heart our life to Krsna. Similarly, offering anything to Krsna is like offering our heart and love to Krsna. Point is with complete devotion and love to offer to Krsna.