Question: While reading Krishna Book I read that Garuda, a pure devotee of Lord Vishnu, used to visit Vrindavana and would eat fish from Yamuna River. I also read that every living entity in Vrindavan is a devotee of Lord Krishna. It follows that the fishes were also devotees of the Lord. How can we understand this act of Garuda? My doubt is that in Vrindavan, especially when Lord Krishna was personally present, all living beings (including fishes) in Vrindavan were in their spiritual form. How can living being in spiritual form be killed?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
There are several assumptions built into your question, and multiple parts to the question as well.
For example, demons were sent by Kamsa into Vrndavan, so it is not a fact that every living entity who enters into Vrndavan must be considered a devotee, manifesting his eternal spiritual form.
Fish, snakes etc. are recommended natural food for those with bird forms (Garuda is a very large bird), just as grains, milk, fruits, vegetables etc. are recommended natural diet for those with a human form. So there was no offense on Garuda’s part. [You may want to read the following sections from the Srimad Bhagavatam in connection with this question:
S.B. 10.17.9 and S.B. 8.6.39.
Becoming the food of Garuda, the Lord’s eternal associate, must not be equated with a mundane death in the jaws of a predator. For that matter, all of the residents of Vrndavan would eat something daily, not only Garuda. Their eating is not like our eating, nor are their bodies like our bodies. Consider: where are all the bodies of all of the residents of Vrndavan, from the time of Krishna’s lila there? These forms were manifest to assist Krishna in performing His lila. Even the demigods were requested to descend to earth to take birth for the purpose of assisting Him in His pastimes. Even demons were in contact with Krishna in Vrndavan, Mathura and Dwaraka.
In addressing the second part of your question, it is worth noting that not all of the devotees in Vrindavan are nitya-siddha (eternally liberated souls in spiritual forms), even during Lord Krishna’s manifest pastimes. Highly purified devotees, who are ready to enter the spiritual world, first get an opportunity to take birth where the Lord is performing His lila and get trained by His eternal associates in the ways of serving Krishna. When they become perfected in such association, they become eligible to enter the Lord’s nitya-lila in the spiritual world. For example, we hear of some gopis who were forcibly restrained from going to Krishna during the rasa-lila; being unable to bear the separation, they quit their bodies. They belong to this category of devotees, and being completely purified by such intense feelings of separation they attained the spiritual world.
Finally, although this is not directly concerning this particular question re. Garuda’s eating of fish, you may wish to recall that all of the associates who participated in the Lord’s earthly pastimes eventually left the planet under the pretext of apparent death or killing (as when the entire Yadu dynasty was annihilated in a fratricidal war). This is to be understood as the Lord’s lila, for these liberated associates can never be killed in the higher sense of things, as your question aludes. I hope this sheds some light on your questions.
