View source for Sukadeva Gosvami says, "It is just like when the Deity is washed during the performance of the abhiseka ceremony"

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[[Category:Sukadeva Gosvami Says]]
[[Category:Just Like]]
[[Category:Deity]]
[[Category:Wash]]
[[Category:During]]
[[Category:Performance]]
[[Category:Abhiseka]]
[[Category:Ceremony]]
[[Category:The Nectar of Devotion Chapter 43 - Parenthood]]
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<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
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<h3>Nectar of Devotion</h3>
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In the Lalita-mādhava, compiled by Rūpa Gosvāmī, Kṛṣṇa is addressed as follows: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, when You are engaged in herding the animals, the dust caused by the hooves of the calves and cows covers Your nice face and artistic tilaka, and You appear very dusty. But when You return home, the milk flowing out of the breasts of Your mother washes Your face of its dust covering, and it appears that You are purified by this milk. It is just like when the Deity is washed during the performance of the abhiṣeka ceremony.
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[[Vanisource:NOD 43 (1970)|Nectar of Devotion, 43]]
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In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 10.13.33|Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, verse 39]], Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "My dear King, as soon as the elderly gopīs saw their sons coming, there was an inexpressible sign of parental love, and all of them became absorbed in affection. At first they were planning to chastise their sons for stealing butter, but as soon as the sons came before their eyes, they lost all of their angry attitudes and became overwhelmed with affection. They began to embrace their sons and smell their heads. While doing this, they became almost mad after their children." In their childhood pastimes, all these cowherd boys joined with Kṛṣṇa in stealing butter. But rather than become angry, Mother Yaśodā became wet from the milk flowing out of her breasts. Out of her affection for Kṛṣṇa, she began to smell His head repeatedly.

The general activities of all the mothers of the cowherd boys were to kiss them, to embrace them, to call them by their names and sometimes to mildly chastise them for their stealing habits. These manifestations of parental love are called sāttvika ecstasy, wherein manifestations of eight kinds of ecstatic symptoms are visible in full. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 10.13.22|Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, 19th verse]], Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: "All the mothers of the cowherd boys were illusioned by the covering influence of the yoga-māyā potency of the Personality of Godhead, and as soon as they heard the flute-playing of their boys, they immediately stood up and mentally embraced their sons, who had been created by the direct internal potency of Kṛṣṇa. Accepting them as their born sons, they lifted them into their arms and began to embrace them, resting the children's bodies upon their own. The emotions created by this incident were sweeter than nectar turned into a palatable intoxicant, and the milk flowing out of their breasts was immediately drunk up by the children."

In the Lalita-mādhava, compiled by Rūpa Gosvāmī, Kṛṣṇa is addressed as follows: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, when You are engaged in herding the animals, the dust caused by the hooves of the calves and cows covers Your nice face and artistic tilaka, and You appear very dusty. But when You return home, the milk flowing out of the breasts of Your mother washes Your face of its dust covering, and it appears that You are purified by this milk. It is just like when the Deity is washed during the performance of the abhiṣeka ceremony." It is the custom in the temples of Deities that if there have been some impure activities, the Deity has to be washed with milk. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He was washed by the milk from the breast of Mother Yaśodā, which purified Him from the dust covering.

Sometimes there are examples of Mother Yaśodā's becoming stunned in ecstasy. This was exhibited when she saw her son lifting Govardhan Hill. When Kṛṣṇa was standing, raising the hill, Mother Yaśodā hesitated to embrace Him and became stunned. The dangerous position that Kṛṣṇa had accepted by lifting the hill brought tears to her eyes. And with her eyes filled with tears she could not see Kṛṣṇa anymore, and because her throat was choked up by anxiety she could not even instruct Kṛṣṇa as to what He should do in that position. This is a symptom of becoming stunned in ecstatic love.

Mother Yaśodā sometimes enjoyed transcendental ecstasy in happiness when her child was saved from a dangerous situation, such as being attacked by Pūtanā or some other demon. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 10.17.19|10th Canto, 17th Chapter, 15th verse]] Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that Mother Yaśodā felt very, very fortunate when she got back her lost child. She immediately placed Him on her lap and began to embrace Him again and again. While she was thus embracing her son repeatedly, torrents of tears fell from her eyes, and she was unable to express her transcendental joy. It is stated in the Vidagdha-mādhava of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, the touch of Your mother is so pleasing and cooling that it surpasses the cooling capacity of the pulp of sandalwood and of bright moonshine mixed with the pulp of uśīra root." (Uśīra is a kind of root which when soaked with water has a very, very cooling effect. It is especially used in the scorching heat of the sun.)

The parental love of Mother Yaśodā for Kṛṣṇa steadily increases, and her love and ecstasy are sometimes described as intense affection and sometimes as overwhelming attachment. An example of attachment for Kṛṣṇa with overwhelming affection is given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, [[Vanisource:SB 10.6.43|Tenth Canto, 6th Chapter, 27th verse]], where Śukadeva Gosvāmī addresses Mahārāj Parīkṣit in this way: "My dear King, when magnanimous Nanda Mahārāj returned from a tour, he began to smell the head of his son, and he was merged in the ecstasy of parental love." A similar statement is there in connection with Mother Yaśodā when she was too anxious to hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute, expecting Him back from the pasturing ground. Because she thought that it was getting very late, her anxiety to hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute became doubled, and milk began to flow out from her breast. In that condition she was sometimes going within the house, sometimes coming out of the house. She was constantly looking to see if Govinda was coming back along the road. When many very great sages were offering prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa, glorifying His activities, the Queen of Gokula, Mother Yaśodā, entered the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, wetting the lower part of her sari with the milk flowing from her breast. This entrance of Mother Yaśodā at Kurukṣetra was not during the Battle of Kurukṣetra. At other times Kṛṣṇa went to Kurukṣetra from His paternal home (Dvārakā) during the solar eclipse, and at these times the residents of Vṛndāvana also went to see Him there.

When Kṛṣṇa arrived at Kurukṣetra in pilgrimage, all the people assembled there began to say that Kṛṣṇa the son of Devakī had arrived. At that time Devakī, just like an affectionate mother, began to pat Kṛṣṇa's face. And again when people cried that Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva, had come, both King Nanda and Mother Yaśodā became overwhelmed with affection and expressed their great pleasure.

When Mother Yaśodā, the Queen of Gokula, was going to see her son Kṛṣṇa at Kurukṣetra, one of her friends began to address her thus: "My dear Queen, the milk flowing out of your breast-mountain has already whitened the River Ganges, and the tears from your eyes, mixed with black mascara, have already blackened the color of the Yamunā. And as you are standing just between the two rivers, I think there is no need for your anxiety to see your son's face. Your parental affection has already been exhibited to Him by these two rivers!"

The same friend of Mother Yaśodā addressed Kṛṣṇa as follows: "My dear Mukunda, if Mother Yaśodā, the Queen of Gokula, is forced to stand on fire, but is allowed to see Your lotus face, then this fire will appear to her as the Himalayan Mountains: full of ice. In the same way, if she is allowed to stay in the ocean of nectar, but is not allowed to see the lotus face of Your Grace, then even this ocean of nectar will appear to her as an ocean of arsenic poison." Let the anxiety of Mother Yaśodā of Braja, always expecting to see the lotus face of Kṛṣṇa, be glorified all over the universe!
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