The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, the ultimate cause of all harmony, is so wonderful that simply by approaching Him, we will be charmed by His ways. He is known as Urukrama, for His strides are wonderful, unthinkable, unknown, and unknowable. There is no end to His wonders. Ascharyavat pasyati kaschid enam ascharyavad vadati tathaiva chanyah: at every step towards Him, one feels wonder. We find no end to that feeling. Krishna is infinite; He is the wonderful wonder of wonders. As much as we search Him out, we will find no end to His wonders.
Even Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe and the original Guru of our sampradaya, was astonished by the wonders of Krishna. Once when Krishna was living in Dvaraka, He heard that Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, had come to see Him. Krishna asked His messenger, «Which Brahma?» When the messenger put this question to Brahma, Brahma thought, «Are there other Brahmas also? How is it possible?» He told the messenger, «You just inform Krishna that I am the father of the four Kumaras: the four-headed Brahma.» The messenger went to Krishna with the news.
«Yes, show him in.» Krishna said, knowing Brahma’s temperament. Brahma went in, but he was astounded to see that so many Brahmas had gathered there from all of the universes in the creation. There were hundred-headed, thousand-headed, million-headed Brahmas — all present there. Because the whole creation is based on Krishna’s hypnotism, the four-headed Brahma could see Krishna and all those other Brahmas, but the other Brahmas could not see each other. Each one of them saw only Krishna. Each one of them thought, «Krishna has come in my universe and called for me out of some necessity.» But the Brahma of this universe could see everything because he had enquired, «‘Which Brahma?’ What is the meaning of ‘Which Brahma?’ Are there any other Brahmas? I wonder.…» In this way, Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, was baffled by the wonderful ways of Krishna.
Previously, in Vrndavan, Brahma had also had some doubt about the position of the Lord. He thought, «Who is this cowherd boy? His ways are very questionable. He moves in such a way that it appears that He does not care for anyone. He is within my brahmanda, my universe, but He does not care to know me. What is this attitude? Who is He? He is not Narayan. Only Narayan is above me. And I am a little accustomed to His ways and manners. But this boy is not Narayan. That anything can exist above Narayan is impossible. Then, who is He?»
To test Krishna, Brahma took away the cowherd boys and calves accompanying Him and hid them in a cave. After a year, he returned to see how life was continuing in Vrndavan, to see how Krishna was doing without His calves and cowherd boys. And he found that everything was as before. The Lord, surrounded by His cowherd boyfriends, was carrying His flute under His armpit and a morsel of food in His hand. He found everything going on as it had been.
Then, Brahma began to think, «What is this? Have the calves and cowherd boys come back without my notice?» He again checked the cave where he had hid them and found that they were all there. Then, he thought, «How is this possible? I stole the calves and cowherd boys and hid them here, and now that I have returned, I find they are all still here just as before.»
Finally, perplexed, he fell at Krishna’s lotus feet, praying, «My Lord, I could not recognise You. You have come to play such a plain and ordinary part, that of a cowherd boy. How can anyone believe that You hold an even greater position than that of Narayan? Please forgive whatever I have done.»
In many places in Srimad Bhagavatam, we find Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, being tested by Krishna. And still, Brahma is our Gurudev. He is the original Guru of our line. That he could become bewildered is so perplexing and difficult to understand that Madhva Acharya eliminated that section from the Srimad Bhagavatam.
He could not accept those two chapters of Srimad Bhagavatam where Brahma was under illusion, where he had some misunderstanding about Krishna. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted everything in total. This is a very peculiar thing. How can the original Guru of our sampradaya become bewildered about Krishna? It is achintya, inconceivable. Still, everything is intelligible through the philosophy of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva, «inconceivable oneness and difference». How can we accommodate that our original Guru becomes perplexed, not only once, but twice? That is lila, a divine Pastime. An example of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva is found in the way Krishna deals with His devotees. Krishna Himself is independent of everything. Still, sometimes He shows Himself to be completely subordinate to His servants and must do whatever they want Him to. Then again, sometimes He completely ignores them. These are the spontaneous Pastimes of the Sweet Absolute. Sometimes He shows absolute submission to Srimati Radharani, and again, sometimes He ignores Her. This is the very nature of Krishna’s lila.