Salvation of Trṇāvarta
51
ship with the Supreme Lord, one becomes eligible to create friendship with the devotees. Mahārāja Parīkṣit recommended, from practical experience, that everyone try to hear about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. This  Krṣṇa  treatise is meant for that purpose, and the reader may take advantage in order to attain the ultimate goal of human life.
The Lord, out of His causeless mercy, descends on this material world and displays His activities just like an ordinary man. Unfortunately the impious entities or the atheistic class of men consider Krṣṇa to be an ordinary man like themselves, and so they deride Him. This is condemned in the  Bhagavad-gītā  by the Lord Himself when He says, “ Avajānanti mām mūḍhāḥ. ” The  mūḍhas , or the rascals, take Krṣṇa to be an ordinary man or a slightly more powerful man; out of their great misfortune, they cannot accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sometimes such unfortunate persons misrepresent themselves as incarnations of Krṣṇa without referring to the authorized scriptures.
When Krṣṇa grew up a little more, He began to turn Himself backside up; He did not merely lie down on His back. And another function was observed by Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja: Krṣṇa’s first birthday. They arranged for Krṣṇa’s birthday ceremony, which is still observed by all followers of the Vedic principles. (Krṣṇa’s birthday ceremony is observed in India by all Hindus, irrespective of different sectarian views.) All the cowherd men and women were invited to participate, and they arrived in jubilation. A nice band played, and the people assembled enjoyed it. All the learned  brāhmaṇas  were invited, and they chanted Vedic hymns for the good fortune of Krṣṇa. During the chanting of the Vedic hymns and playing of the bands, Krṣṇa was bathed by mother Yaśodā. This bathing ceremony is technically called  abhiṣeka , and even today this is observed in all the temples of Vrṇdāvana as Janmāṣṭamī Day or the birthday anniversary of Lord Krṣṇa.
On this occasion, mother Yaśodā arranged to distribute a large quantity of grains, and first-class cows decorated with golden ornaments were made ready to be given in charity to the learned, respectable  brāhmaṇas . Yaśodā took her bath and dressed herself nicely, and taking child Krṣṇa, duly dressed and bathed, on her lap, she sat down to hear the Vedic hymns chanted by the  brāhmaṇas . While listening to the chanting of the Vedic hymns, the child appeared to be falling asleep, and therefore mother Yaśodā very silently laid Him down on the bed. Being engaged in receiving all the friends, relatives and residents of Vrṇdāvana on that holy occasion, she forgot to feed the child milk. He was crying, being hungry, but mother Yaśodā could not hear Him cry because of the various noises. The child,