Butterfly and Govardhana Mustard

Hare Krsna. What deeds enacted in previous lives cause one to inhabit a butterfly body alighting upon a blossoming mustard plant in Vraja, near Govardhana Hill? Where will this soul go after his butterfly body returns to Vraja’s dust?

I cannot say, but one purport and one lecture of Srila Prabhupada indicates two deep lessons we can learn from a butterfly.

From a purport to the Bhagavad-gita: “One example often given is that of the caterpillar that thinks of becoming a butterfly and so is transformed into a butterfly in the same life. Similarly, if we constantly think of Krsna, it is certain that at the end of our lives we shall have the same bodily constitution as Krsna.” (Purport to Bg 8.8)

You see a butterfly,
how it is nicely painted.
You just see a duplicate
in both the wings.
Just like an artist
paint nicely,
it is painted.
So we think
it is coming
out of nothing.
This is our foolishness.

Here is,
that it is coming
out of the jnana-shakti.
But His jnana
is so wide
that simply
by His desire,
simply by His will,
it can be executed.

These are the things
to be studied.
Because we cannot see
something before our eyes,
that does not mean
there is no existence.

There is existence,
but we do not know
how one is working,
how one is working.

(From a lecture by Srila Prabhupada, New York, December 16, 1966)