In the leela (Divine pastime) of Shree Krishna (the Supreme Divine Personality) grazing the cows with the gwalbals (cowherd boys), he (Brahma) saw them taking a break, having lunch, and he understood in his brain that Krishna is Bhagwan (God). So then why did he get confused? Because Bhagwan was eating in such an informal way with the gwalbals. None of us here may have eaten that way in our life. Some of you may have. Meaning, stealing from each other’s thali (plate), eating something and saying,
“Oh, this is so good! Kanha (affectionate name for Krishna), have some!”
Giving your jūṭhā (half-eaten food) to Bhagwan! You may do it to each other, right? In a very intimate setting, just the family. So we do that kind of thing. But Bhagwan? No, no! There are big rules in Vedas (eternal Divine scriptures)!
You have to do proper yagya (ritual sacrifice) and proper puja (worship) and offer with mantra, and you can’t have tasted it. It has to be according to all these rules and regulations. And Brahma (the creator deity) is witnessing that gwalbals are feeding Krishna their own jūṭhā (leftover food).
And Krishna, even if they’re not giving it, He’s grabbing it out of their mouths!
“That one looks good! Give me that rasgulla (Indian sweet)!”
And He eats a half-eaten rasgulla out of His friend’s mouth. Brahma thought,
“What is happening here? Maybe He’s not Bhagwan!”
See, this is our mind. Our mind is very dangerous. The second it feels even an iota of doubt, our mind says,
“No, no, no, there’s no such thing as God!”
It is so ready to make big mistakes like that. This is why we can’t allow our mind to intellectualize Shree Krishna’s leelas. We have to take them with love and faith.
So look at Brahma’s situation. He just started doubting, “Oh, is Krishna really God?”
Why? Just because He was eating informally with the sakhas (cowherd friends)? Yes! Brahma didn’t know that because of the love of the sakhas, Shree Krishna forgets He is God. And that’s a higher status than being God. He is still God, but now He is in a higher status where He is drowned in the sakhya ras (the devotional mood of friendship) of His Divine friends, the gwalbals.
