Intimate (SB cantos 10 - 12)

Expressions researched:
"intimate" |"intimately"

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.1.25, Purport:

Thus the Lord's potency, viṣṇu-māyā, has two features—āvaraṇikā and unmukha. When the Lord appeared, His potency came with Him and acted in different ways. She acted as yogamāyā with Yaśodā, Devakī and other intimate relations of the Lord, and she acted in a different way with Kaṁsa, Śālva and other asuras. By the order of Lord Kṛṣṇa, His potency yogamāyā came with Him and exhibited different activities according to the time and circumstances. Kāryārthe sambhaviṣyati. Yogamāyā acted differently to execute different purposes desired by the Lord. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.13), mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ. The mahātmās, who fully surrender to the lotus feet of the Lord, are directed by yogamāyā, whereas the durātmās, those who are devoid of devotional service, are directed by mahāmāyā.

SB 10.1.28, Translation:

Since that time, the city of Mathurā had been the capital of all the kings of the Yadu dynasty. The city and district of Mathurā are very intimately connected with Kṛṣṇa, for Lord Kṛṣṇa lives there eternally.

SB 10.1.28, Purport:

It is understood that Mathurā City is the transcendental abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa; it is not an ordinary material city, for it is eternally connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vṛndāvana is within the jurisdiction of Mathurā, and it still continues to exist. Because Mathurā and Vṛndāvana are intimately connected with Kṛṣṇa eternally, it is said that Lord Kṛṣṇa never leaves Vṛndāvana (vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati). At present, the place known as Vṛndāvana, in the district of Mathurā, continues its position as a transcendental place, and certainly anyone who goes there becomes transcendentally purified. Navadvīpa-dhāma is also intimately connected with Vrajabhūmi. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore says:

SB 10.1.28, Purport:

There are many devotees who vow never to leave Vṛndāvana and Mathurā. This is undoubtedly a good vow, but if one leaves Vṛndāvana, Mathurā or Navadvīpa-dhāma for the service of the Lord, he is not disconnected from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. At any rate, we must understand the transcendental importance of Mathurā-Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa-dhāma. Anyone who executes devotional service in these places certainly goes back home, back to Godhead, after giving up his body. Thus the words mathurā bhagavān yatra nityaṁ sannihito hariḥ are particularly important. A devotee should fully utilize this instruction to the best of his ability. Whenever the Supreme Lord personally appears, He appears in Mathurā because of His intimate connection with this place. Therefore although Mathurā and Vṛndāvana are situated on this planet earth, they are transcendental abodes of the Lord.

SB 10.1.41, Purport:

"Of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all."

The condition of the mind, which flickers between saṅkalpa and vikalpa, accepting something and rejecting it, is very important in transferring the soul to another material body at the time of death.

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ

tyajaty ante kalevaram

taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya

sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail." (BG 8.6) Therefore one must train the mind in the system of bhakti-yoga, as did Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, who kept himself always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18).

SB 10.2.6, Purport:

"Of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all." For the bhakti-yogī, a human body is guaranteed in his next existence, as stated by Lord Kṛṣṇa (śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41)). Yogamāyā is the spiritual potency of the Lord. Out of affection for His devotees, the Lord always stays in spiritual touch with them, although otherwise His māyā potency is so strong that she bewilders even exalted demigods like Brahmā. Therefore the Lord's potency is called yogamāyā. Since the Lord is Viśvātmā, He immediately ordered Yogamāyā to give protection to Devakī.

SB 10.3.53, Purport:

Nanda Mahārāja and Vasudeva were intimate friends, and so were their wives, Yaśodā and Devakī. Although their names were different, they were practically nondifferent personalities. The only difference is that Devakī was able to understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead had been born to her and had now changed into Kṛṣṇa, whereas Yaśodā was not able to understand what kind of child had been born to her. Yaśodā was such an advanced devotee that she never regarded Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but simply loved Him as her own child. Devakī, however, knew from the very beginning that although Kṛṣṇa was her son, He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Vṛndāvana, no one regarded Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When something very wonderful happened because of Kṛṣṇa's activities, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana—the cowherd men, the cowherd boys, Nanda Mahārāja, Yaśodā and the others—were surprised, but they never considered their son Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes they suggested that some great demigod had appeared there as Kṛṣṇa. In such an exalted status of devotional service, a devotee forgets the position of Kṛṣṇa and intensely loves the Supreme Personality of Godhead without understanding His position. This is called kevala-bhakti and is distinct from the stages of jñāna and jñānamayī bhakti.

SB 10.4.29, Purport:

The Vedic scripture Caṇḍī describes māyā, the energy of the Supreme Lord, as nidrā: durgā devī sarva-bhūteṣu nidrā-rūpeṇa samāsthitaḥ. The energy of Yogamāyā and Mahāmāyā keeps the living entities sleeping in this material world in the great darkness of ignorance. Yogamāyā, the goddess Durgā, kept Kaṁsa in darkness about Kṛṣṇa's birth and misled him to believe that his enemy Kṛṣṇa had been born elsewhere. Kṛṣṇa was born the son of Devakī, but according to the Lord's original plan, as prophesied to Brahmā, He went to Vṛndāvana to give pleasure to mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja and other intimate friends and devotees for eleven years. Then He would return to kill Kaṁsa. Because Kaṁsa did not know this, he believed Yogamāyā's statement that Kṛṣṇa was born elsewhere, not of Devakī.

SB 10.5 Summary:

As described in this chapter, Nanda Mahārāja very gorgeously performed the birth ceremony for his newborn child. Then he went to Kaṁsa to pay taxes due and met his intimate friend Vasudeva.

There was great jubilation all over Vṛndāvana due to Kṛṣṇa's birth. Everyone was overwhelmed with joy. Therefore the King of Vraja, Mahārāja Nanda, wanted to perform the birth ceremony for his child, and this he did. During this great festival, Nanda Mahārāja gave in charity to all present whatever they desired. After the festival, Nanda Mahārāja put the cowherd men in charge of protecting Gokula, and then he went to Mathurā to pay official taxes to Kaṁsa. In Mathurā, Nanda Mahārāja met Vasudeva. Nanda Mahārāja and Vasudeva were brothers, and Vasudeva praised Nanda Mahārāja's good fortune because he knew that Kṛṣṇa had accepted Nanda Mahārāja as His father. When Vasudeva inquired from Nanda Mahārāja about the welfare of the child, Nanda Mahārāja informed him all about Vṛndāvana, and Vasudeva was very much satisfied by this, although he expressed his grief because Devakī's many children had been killed by Kaṁsa.

SB 10.5.20, Purport:

Vasudeva and Nanda Mahārāja were so intimately connected that they lived like brothers. Furthermore, it is learned from the notes of Śrīpāda Madhvācārya that Vasudeva and Nanda Mahārāja were stepbrothers. Vasudeva's father, Śūrasena, married a vaiśya girl, and from her Nanda Mahārāja was born. Later, Nanda Mahārāja himself married a vaiśya girl, Yaśodā. Therefore his family is celebrated as a vaiśya family, and Kṛṣṇa, identifying Himself as their son, took charge of vaiśya activities (kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44)). Balarāma represents plowing the land for agriculture and therefore always carries in His hand a plow, whereas Kṛṣṇa tends cows and therefore carries a flute in His hand. Thus the two brothers represent kṛṣi-rakṣya and go-rakṣya.

SB 10.5.24, Translation:

It is also by good fortune that I am seeing you. Having obtained this opportunity, I feel as if I have taken birth again. Even though one is present in this world, to meet with intimate friends and dear relatives in this material world is extremely difficult.

SB 10.5.25, Translation and Purport:

Many planks and sticks, unable to stay together, are carried away by the force of a river's waves. Similarly, although we are intimately related with friends and family members, we are unable to stay together because of our varied past deeds and the waves of time.

Vasudeva was lamenting because he and Nanda Mahārāja could not live together. Yet how could they live together? Vasudeva warns that all of us, even if intimately related, are carried away by the waves of time according to the results of past karma.

SB 10.9.21, Purport:

Therefore, the karmīs, jñānīs, yogīs and saintly persons are all seeking Kṛṣṇa. But by following in the footsteps of devotees who are in a direct relationship with Kṛṣṇa, especially the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, one can reach the supreme position of associating with Kṛṣṇa. As it is said, vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati: Kṛṣṇa does not leave Vṛndāvana even for a moment. The vṛndāvana-vāsīs—mother Yaśodā, Kṛṣṇa's friends and Kṛṣṇa's conjugal lovers, the younger gopīs with whom He dances—have very intimate relationships with Kṛṣṇa, and if one follows in the footsteps of these devotees, Kṛṣṇa is available. Although the nitya-siddha expansions of Kṛṣṇa always remain with Kṛṣṇa, if those engaged in sādhana-siddhi follow in the footsteps of Kṛṣṇa's nitya-siddha associates, such sādhana-siddhas also can easily attain Kṛṣṇa without difficulty. But there are those who are attached to bodily concepts of life. Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, for example, have very prestigious positions, and thus they have the sense of being very exalted īśvaras. In other words, because Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are guṇa-avatāras and have exalted positions, they have some small sense of being like Kṛṣṇa.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.21.3, Translation:

When the young ladies in the cowherd village of Vraja heard the song of Kṛṣṇa's flute, which arouses the influence of Cupid, some of them privately began describing Kṛṣṇa's qualities to their intimate friends.

SB 10.29.10-11, Translation:

For those gopīs who could not go to see Kṛṣṇa, intolerable separation from their beloved caused an intense agony that burned away all impious karma. By meditating upon Him they realized His embrace, and the ecstasy they then felt exhausted their material piety. Although Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Soul, these girls simply thought of Him as their male lover and associated with Him in that intimate mood. Thus their karmic bondage was nullified and they abandoned their gross material bodies.

SB 10.29.32, Translation:

Our dear Kṛṣṇa, as an expert in religion You have advised us that the proper religious duty for women is to faithfully serve their husbands, children and other relatives. We agree that this principle is valid, but actually this service should be rendered to You. After all, O Lord, You are the dearmost friend of all embodied souls. You are their most intimate relative and indeed their very Self.

SB 10.31.10, Translation:

Your smiles, Your sweet, loving glances, the intimate pastimes and confidential talks we enjoyed with You—all these are auspicious to meditate upon, and they touch our hearts. But at the same time, O deceiver, they very much agitate our minds.

SB 10.31.17, Translation:

Our minds are repeatedly bewildered as we think of the intimate conversations we had with You in secret, feel the rise of lust in our hearts and remember Your smiling face, Your loving glances and Your broad chest, the resting place of the goddess of fortune. Thus we experience the most severe hankering for You.

SB 10.33.14, Translation:

Having attained as their intimate lover Lord Acyuta, the exclusive consort of the goddess of fortune, the gopīs enjoyed great pleasure. They sang His glories as He held their necks with His arms.

SB 10.38.20, Translation:

Recognizing me as an intimate friend and relative, Kṛṣṇa will embrace me with His mighty arms, instantly sanctifying my body and diminishing to nil all my material bondage, which is due to fruitive activities.

SB 10.47.48, Translation:

Who can bear to give up intimate talks with Lord Uttamaḥśloka? Although He shows no interest in her, Goddess Śrī never moves from her place on His chest.

SB 10.74.48, Translation:

Thus Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of all masters of mystic yoga, saw to the successful execution of this great sacrifice on behalf of King Yudhiṣṭhira. Afterwards, the Lord stayed with His intimate friends for a few months at their earnest request.

SB 10.75.8, Translation:

After the priests, the prominent delegates, the greatly learned saints and the King's most intimate well-wishers had all been properly honored with pleasing words, auspicious offerings and various gifts as remuneration, and after the King of Cedi had entered the lotus feet of the Lord of the Sātvatas, the avabhṛtha bath was performed in the divine river Yamunā.

SB 10.75.16, Translation:

Surrounded by guards, King Yudhiṣṭhira's queens came out on their chariots to see the fun, just as the demigods' wives appeared in the sky in celestial airplanes. As maternal cousins and intimate friends sprinkled the queens with liquids, the ladies' faces bloomed with shy smiles, enhancing the queens' splendid beauty.

SB 10.84.23, Translation:

Neither these kings nor even the Vṛṣṇis, who enjoy Your intimate association, know You as the Soul of all existence, the force of time and the supreme controller. For them You are covered by the curtain of Māyā.

SB 10.84.65, Translation:

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: His heart softened by feelings of intimate sympathy, Vasudeva wept. His eyes brimmed with tears as he remembered the friendship Nanda had shown him.

SB 10.87.29, Translation:

O eternally liberated, transcendental Lord, Your material energy causes the various moving and nonmoving species of life to appear by activating their material desires, but only when and if You sport with her by briefly glancing at her. You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, see no one as an intimate friend and no one as a stranger, just as the ethereal sky has no connection with perceptible qualities. In this sense You resemble a void.

SB 10.90.27, Translation:

And how could one possibly describe the great austerities that had been performed by the women who perfectly served Him, the spiritual master of the universe, in pure ecstatic love? Thinking of Him as their husband, they rendered such intimate services as massaging His feet.

SB 10.90.45, Translation:

Because Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Yādavas accepted Him as their ultimate authority. And among them, all those who were His intimate associates especially flourished.

SB 11.5.47, Translation:

My dear Vasudeva, you and your good wife Devakī have manifested great transcendental love for Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as your son. Indeed, you are always seeing the Lord, embracing Him, speaking with Him, resting with Him, sitting together with Him and taking your meals with Him. By such affectionate and intimate association with the Lord, undoubtedly both of you have completely purified your hearts. In other words, you are already perfect.

SB 11.12.13, Translation:

All those hundreds of thousands of gopīs, understanding Me to be their most charming lover and ardently desiring Me in that way, were unaware of My actual position. Yet by intimately associating with Me, the gopīs attained Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth.

SB 11.14.29, Translation:

Being conscious of the eternal self, one should give up association with women and those intimately associated with women. Sitting fearlessly in a solitary place, one should concentrate the mind on Me with great attention.

SB 11.14.30, Translation:

Of all kinds of suffering and bondage arising from various attachments, none is greater than the suffering and bondage arising from attachment to women and intimate contact with those attached to women.

SB 11.26.19-20, Translation:

One can never decide whose property the body actually is. Does it belong to one's parents, who have given birth to it, to one's wife, who gives it pleasure, or to one's employer, who orders the body around? Is it the property of the funeral fire or of the dogs and vultures who may ultimately devour it? Is it the property of the indwelling soul, who partakes in its happiness and distress, or does the body belong to intimate friends who encourage and help it? Although a man never definitely ascertains the proprietor of the body, he becomes most attached to it. The material body is a polluted material form heading toward a lowly destination, yet when a man stares at the face of a woman he thinks, "What a good-looking lady! What a charming nose she's got, and see her beautiful smile!"

SB 11.29.4, Translation:

My dear infallible Lord, it is not very astonishing that You intimately approach Your servants who have taken exclusive shelter of You. After all, during Your appearance as Lord Rāmacandra, even while great demigods like Brahmā were vying to place the effulgent tips of their helmets upon the cushion where Your lotus feet rested, You displayed special affection for monkeys such as Hanumān because they had taken exclusive shelter of You.

SB 11.30.19, Translation:

Thus bewildered, sons fought with fathers, brothers with brothers, nephews with paternal and maternal uncles, and grandsons with grandfathers. Friends fought with friends, and well-wishers with well-wishers. In this way intimate friends and relatives all killed one another.

SB 12.8.40, Translation:

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: O Almighty Lord, how can I possibly describe You? You awaken the vital air, which then impels the mind, senses and power of speech to act. This is true for all ordinary conditioned souls and even for great demigods like Brahmā and Śiva. So it is certainly true for me. Nevertheless, You become the intimate friend of those who worship You.