#308 Bhakti – The transformative love of the Gopis for Sri Krishna (Bhagavatam)
Sharad Ritu had set in. The nights were filled with the perfume of the jasmines and the season made Krishna remember the promise he had given to the gopis on the day he had taken away their garments on the banks of the Yamuna early in the morning one day, during the month of Marghashirsha.
The Lord who is the refuge of all beings, of all things, animate and inanimate, made up his mind to make his devotees happy. The night of the full moon was fast approaching. On the night which He had decided on, the moon, the king of the stars, rose in the east. The east was red with the soft rays of the rising moon. He was like a lover who, after a long absence, caresses the face of his beloved, wiping her tears. Even so, he assuaged the fatigue of the people with his cool light.
Krishna went to the banks of the Yamuna. The sands were silvery and golden with light of the newly risen moon and the moon itself looked like a huge orange globe. It was as beautiful as the face of Lakshmi. The forest nearby was bathed in the light of the moon. Krishna took up his flute, placed it on his lips and breathed softly into it.
The notes of music which came from the river bank far away reached the houses in Brindavan and they reached the ears of the young gopis who were thinking of Krishna and only Krishna. In their hearts there was place for no other thought. The music was maddening and they could not resist it. Each one of them wanted to go where Krishna was, and their madness was so intense that they did not even pause to think. They rushed out of their houses and with their earrings swinging in harmony with their thoughts, they ran fast towards the banks of Yamuna.
One of the girls was milking the cow when she heard the divine music and she left her cow as it was, dropped the vessel into which she was milking and rushed out of the house. Some of them were watching the milk which they had placed on the fire and they did not wait to see if the milk boiled over: they rushed out. One woman left the pot with the rice boiling on the oven and did not bother about what happened to it. While serving food to the elders one girl heard the music of Krishna’s flute and she ran out not caring what they thought of her.
The women forgot their husbands, their elders, their children, their duties and their everything: the only desire in their minds was to be with Krishna. They even forgot to dress themselves beautifully. One girl had not finished applying the collyrium to her eye and another was half way through placing a string of flowers in her hair. With
her looks all awry, she ran too. The people at home tried to stop them and ask them where they were going but the gopis paid no heed to their questions or to their restraining hands.
There were some who had been successfully restrained by the people at home and these women thought only of Krishna. With their minds set on Krishna they went into a deep trance-like state wherein their sins became destroyed because of their devotion to Krishna and they attained Moksha. It is said that when a man performs acts which are good and collects punya, he reaches the punyalokas; and when his papa is accumulated he gets a papajanma: meaning that of birds or animals. If, however, there is a mixture of punya and papa he is then thinking on the Lord and their punya was lost since they thought of the Lord as their lover and so, left as they were with neither papa nor punya they reached Moksha.
After listening to the words of Suka King Parikshit asked him: “My lord, my mind is assailed with a doubt. You tell me that these women attained moksha because they loved Krishna. But they did not worship him as Parabrahman but they loved him as they would a lover who can grant them sensual pleasure. How can their love be rewarded with Moksha? Krishna to them was a Jarapurusha and not a god. He was very handsome and desirable and they were eager to have him. How can you call their love by the name Devotion? Bhakti? Please, elucidate this mystery to me.”
Suka said: “Have you not heard that when a man drinks nectar even if he is under the impression that it is poison, he does not become affected by the poison but benefits by the nectar? Even so, the gopis, no doubt, thought of Krishna as an earthly lover. But the fact that Krishna was the Parabrahman changed this love into Bhakti and they attained salvation. Have I not told you how Shishupala hated the Lord and he attained Moksha in spite of this hatred because the object of his hatred was the Paramatman and he had been thinking incessantly on the Lord. Even so, the gopis, by thinking on the Lord all the time, became released from the bondage called Karma.
“The Paramatma and the Pratyagatma are the same unpolluted truth. But the Avaranas, the endless Vasanas attached to the Atman during its many transits through the world of living, cover up the purity, screen it, veil it, and Brahman is not seen. But Krishna who was beyond the pale of the Vasanas, beyond the reach of the opposites, was the object of the devotion of these ignorant women and so, the fact that they did not know that he was the Paramatman; the fact that their love for him was sensual; neither of these in any way detracted from the fact that their Bhakti was for the Paramatma and so, they attained moksha.
“Those who have constant desire for him, constant anger against him, constant hatred towards him, constant love for him or any other kind of kinship are sure to attain salvation.”
Krishna saw all the gopis surrounding him, lost in the music of his magic flute. He looked at all of them and spoke sweet words. He said: “In the middle of the forest, at this time of the night you have all come here. What can I do to please you all? Please tell me the reason why you have come here in a group. It is late in the night and there may be dangerous animals lurking in the bushes. Please go back to your homes. It is not right that you should be here now. Your families will all be waiting for you. Go back before their anger swells up. You must have come to see the river in the moonlight. Look at the forest around you.
The beams of the silver moon have made it so very beautiful and the cool breeze which comes after caressing the waves of the river is indeed very soothing to the limbs. Now that you have stood here for a while, please do not delay but go back to your homes. Your husbands are waiting for you. Your children will be crying for your comforting arms around them. You will have to attend to your cows and calves. Why do you look accusingly at me? Have you, by any chance, come here to spend your time with me? I am pleased to know that it is so. All beings are full of love for me. But you should not forget where your duties lie.
Attending to your husbands and to your children should be your prime consideration. This love you have for me, for someone other than your husbands, is not good for any woman. It leads you away from heaven. It is futile and it brings a stigma to your name. It is a secret desire and, as such, the fear of being found out is always there. Please desist from this action. Go back home and remember the great devotion you have for me which is because you have been constantly hearing about my actions: by thinking on me: by singing about me and seeing me often. That devotion will not equal this love which is wrong. So, once again I am asking you, please go back to your homes”.
The gopis stood as though they had been carved out of stones. The words of Krishna were unwelcome and they were not pleasing to their ears. They felt frustrated and their faces faded like flowers. Their hearts were filled with sorrow and they cast their faces down. Sighs escaped their red lips and their eyes filled with tears. They stood silent and Krishna could see their tears glistening in the light of the moon. With soft, timid voices they began to talk in distinctly to Krishna who had spoken such harsh words to them.
Their tears were falling incessantly and they paid no heed to the fact that their kajal was all being erased: that their hair was all awry: that their garments had not been worn properly since they had been in such a hurry to reach the presence of Krishna. All these things were unheeded. All that they knew was that their quest was in vain and Krishna had spoken unkindly to them.
They all spoke together and one by one: “Krishna, it is not becoming of you that you should talk like this. We have abandoned everything and come to you for succour. Please do not cast us away. You talk so glibly about rules of conduct: that our place is our homes and that we should attend to our husbands, to our elders and to our children. You can keep your sermons to yourself. We came here not to listen to a discourse on how to conduct oneself: on how a woman should behave. We have come to you trusting that you will never abandon us.
“You ask us to be faithful to the home, to the husband and child: if all these do not grant you happiness what then, is the use of such a dharma? Learned men have said that abandoning these bondages, one should set one’s mind on the Eternal One. And we have also been told that you are the Eternal One who has assumed a human form. We know nothing of Shastras and the nuances of dharma. We have seen the learned ones thinking on you and saying that you are the path to Moksha. Be that as it may, we have come to you because we love you. We are doing only what the wise are doing. Krishna, remember, this love of ours for you has been there birth after birth: it must be, or else the intensity of our love cannot be explained.
“All these days we were absorbed in our household duties and were fairly happy and contented: or, so we thought until you came. You stole our hearts and ever since then we cannot become absorbed in the things which interested us before. It is very strange but true. Our eyes seek only for a sight of you. Our ears are ever waiting to hear the music of your anklets when you walk. You ask us to go back to our homes but our feet are firmly planted and they refuse to move away from here. We are aching for a smiling look from your eyes, for your music, for an embrace from you which will assuage this thirst for you.
“Once our minds have been led towards your feet, they can think of nothing else and every action of ours is guided only by the thoughts of you. Please look kindly on us. We are your slaves. Tell us, which woman, after seeing you and your handsomeness, your smiling eyes, your face, your broad chest and your long and lovely arms: which woman, we say, is able to resist you? Please have compassion on us, our condition and accept our love.”
Krishna smiled kindly on them and accepted their offering. Krishna who was the incarnation of Narayana, who was the Lord of lords, who was the Eternal One, who was the Parabrahman, who had no desires to be fulfilled, pretended to be an ordinary human being and allowed the gopis to make love to him. Krishna looked like the moon surrounded by the stars. He sang with them, he danced with them. With the fragrance of the Vaijayantimala filling the air, with his hair flying in the breeze, he played with the women as though he were enjoying it all immensely. After a while, the gopis were so full of Krishna that they thought that Krishna belonged to them and to them only.
Each one of the gopis thought to herself : “This Krishna has fallen in love with me and he loves no one else. He belongs to me and only to me.” Pride found a corner in the heart of every one of them. Krishna had to teach them a lesson and he suddenly vanished from their presence.
Despair seized them when they realised that Krishna was really not to be found anywhere. Their love had reached the Unmattaavastha, meaning, they were almost bereft of reason. They sang songs praising him and recounting his many deeds and his exploits ever since he was born. The gopis wandered in the forest looking for Krishna. They asked the trees if they knew where Krishna was: “O Ashwattha tree, O banyan tree, did you, by any chance, see our Krishna who has stolen our hearts? Ashoka, Punnaga, Champaka, did you by any chance see Krishna? He was with us and in our foolishness we thought we owned him and so, to punish, us, he has gone away and left us lamenting. Tell us if you saw him. Tulasi, Mallika, Malati, did any of you see our Krishna?” And so they kept on moaning and weeping and looking for the Lord.
They suddenly saw Krishna’s footprints and they seemed to be fresh. At once they tried to track him down. They went some distance and found, to their dismay, the footprints of a woman alongside. Burning with jealousy they spoke to each other: “Look! Some woman has been dearer to Krishna than all of us. Look at the way the prints are twining with each other. She has been clinging to him all the way. And look, suddenly her footprints are not seen at all! And Krishna’s have sunk deep into the earth and that means the woman, whoever she may be, has asked Krishna to carry her and he has been doing so. Come, let us go further and see where this leads us. Look at the flowers from the creepers scattered here. Krishna must have plucked flowers for her. Fortunate indeed is this gopi who has claimed such privileges from him! He has been sitting here and he has dressed her hair with the flowers.”
The gopi who had gone alone with Krishna was also later filled with pride since she told herself: “Krishna loves me most. He has left all the others behind and come with me. He carried me in his arms and he dressed my hair with flowers. He loves me and only me. I said ‘I am tired’ and at once, without a frown he raised me and held me in his arms. He then asked me to cling to his back. When I was thrilled with the thought that I was one with Krishna he dropped me and vanished. Where are you? Where have you gone, Krishna?” The gopis who were going in search of Krishna found her and she told them how she too had been abandoned.
They all came back to the banks of the Yamuna and, with tears in their eyes and with sobs punctuating their words they sang the praises of Krishna and prayed to him to come back to them.
Krishna knew that they were now rid of their pride and he appeared in their midst. Dressed in his favourite yellow silk, with the garland of wild flowers tossing on his chest, with the fish shaped earrings glinting in the moonlight, with the peacock’s feather dancing amongst his lovely curls Krishna appeared in their midst. They stood up with great joy and rushed towards him. They all tried to embrace him, to hold his hands, to place their heads on his shoulders, to stay as close to him as they could. They were like Mumukshus who had attained Kaivalya: like the Samsarins who had found one who was proficient in Brahma Vidya, who could lead them out of the morass in which they had been caught up: like the Vishva and Tejasa which had reached the Sushupti stage: that is, when the waking state and the dream state have passed, the Atman reaches the Sushupti state, the deep sleep state, with a sigh of relief, because this is the state where the opposites go to sleep, where there are no feelings, where there is nothing but peace, dreamless, thoughtless, agitationless peace: the state just short of Turiya.
The night had advanced far, now. The moon whose white beams silvered the surroundings had now reached the zenith. The flowers had all blossomed and the air was laden with their perfume. The night had dissolved in the silver light of the moon and the river Yamuna, dark in colour, seemed to become golden like her elder sister, Ganga. The sands on the banks of the river were touched by the waves from Yamuna and the music of it was intoxicating.
Krishna led the gopis to the sands and they sat there talking to him, drinking him with their eyes. One of the gopis said: “Krishna, I have a doubt which you must clear for me.” Krishna smiled and silently asked her to proceed with her question. She said: “In this world, there are different types of love and different types of lovers. Some people are capable only of returning the love given to them. There are others who behave in the opposite way. They give love without expecting love in return. Even if they are not loved, they love others since it is their nature to do so. There is a third category of people who, even when they are loved, do not return the affection shown to them; nor are they affected if they are not loved by others. Krishna please tell us which of these types is the best and why.”
Krishna’s face took on a serious look and he answered them after a while. He said: “The first type you spoke about: those who love and expect love in return are, in my opinion, selfish, bent on their own comfort and happiness. The two people who make up this pair are similar. They have no affection in their hearts, no source of happiness and neither is there Dharma in their behaviour. It is useful to love and to be loved and that is just for their own good. There is nothing unselfish or noble about such beings.
“The second type you spoke of: those who love though there is no love given in return: their love is like that of parents for their children. Such people are very compassionate. They will be very kind and they will make good friends, full of affection as they are.
“There is, you said, another type of people who are different from both these.
They are incapable of returning the love that is offered to them. What then, about the situation when no love is offered to them! These people can be divided into four groups, four types.
“Atmaramas, that is to say, people who are self-contained whose only joy is to revel in the realisation of the Brahman: they neither want love from others nor are they desirous of giving it.
The second type are the Aptakamas: that is, those whose every desire has been satisfied: whose hearts do not hanker after anything. Such people have no need of others and their love and hence, they are indifferent.
The third type is persons who are ungrateful: who do not have it in them to give anything but who take from others.
The fourth type is called ‘Gurudrohi’. Such a person is one who has betrayed the affection which elders have for him and who behaves disrespectfully towards them.
“As for me, even when love is showered on me, sometimes I do not return it. The reason is because I want them to love me more: to become more devoted to me: to think on me and only me: to become my Bhaktas. Take, for instance, a very poor man who has found wealth suddenly. If, after having it with him he loses it, his pain will be more than when he was poor, and his thoughts will be more intense about wealth: wealth which he had found only to lose it. Even so, I vanished from your sight because I wanted to know how dear I am to you and how indispensable. Your devotion to me has become more now when you went through the agony of losing me for a while. You had abandoned all that you had, till now considered dear to you.
You ought not to find fault with me, your beloved.
To make your Bhakti more firm I did what I did. I will now tell you how touched I am by your love and your unselfish—nay—selfless devotion to me. I will never forget how much you love me.
As a matter of fact I cannot even through the long life of a heavenly being (36000 human years) repay my duty to you, whose connection with me is absolutely free from blemish. You who have fixed your mind on Me completely breaking free from the bondage that bound you to your home and which cannot be easily broken. Hence let your love for me be repaid by your own goodness”
Strangely enough, when they heard the words of Krishna the gopis found themselves chastened of their sensual love for Krishna and their only wish was to be with Krishna for ever.
RASA KRIDA
Krishna suggested that they should dance the Rasa. The gopis stood in a circle and between two gopis was found a Krishna. Each one thought that he was holding only her hand. They sang all together. And they danced.
With silk garment flying in the breeze, with his blue form decked with sandal paste, with his garland of flowers tossing on his beautiful chest, with his golden earrings striking against his cheeks whenever he moved, with his smile charming all around him, Krishna danced the Rasa with the innocent gopis of Brindavan on that moonlit night on the banks of Yamuna.
The sky was crowded with all the denizens of the heavens who had assembled there to see the Rasa Krida. The heavenly instruments made sweet music and the Gandharvas sang the praises of the Lord. The tempo of the dance grew faster and the noise of the anklets on the feet of the women, of their bangles and their bracelets was growing too. Krishna looked like an immense sapphire set in a circlet of gold. The celestial damsels were full of jealousy for the gopis on the earth who had the unique good fortune of having the Lord all for themselves. The moon and the planets stopped in their tracks watching the beauty of the Rasa and so, the night was longer than other nights.
Krishna then entered the waters of the Yamuna with the crowd of gopis following him. They swam in the river and they played there for a long time.
King Parikshit intervened once again and said: “My lord, still I am not convinced by your arguments. How could Krishna, the sampurna avatara of Bhagavan Narayana Himself, who had been born on the earth for the sole purpose of establishing Dharma: who was meant to set an example to others so that they could follow him: how could he do this? How could he make love to the wives of other men? How could he behave like a jara to the gopis and make them unfaithful to their husbands?
You told me earlier that since he is an Aptakarma he has no desires and so these revels meant nothing to him. But then, the act was wrong. It was not Dharma.”
Shuka said:
” Violation of Dharma can be exhibited by people who are mighty. Just like no paapa comes to fire, who consumes everything including even impure substances such as corpses and filth, a mighty person is not touched.
However if someone is not as powerful as an Avataara and is bound by karma should never even deliberately attempt this even mentally, for he who does so will meet his ruin, just like anyone other than Rudra if had swallowed the poison churned by the ocean would have died. Teachings of powerful people may be followed on certain occasions only which is consistent with one’s own learning.
For wise beings like Krishna there is no personal gain to be achieved here through Dharma nor any harm comes to them through any other karma. Then how could paapa come to the one is the Supreme Ruler of all creatures – sub human beings, humans and devas? How could there be any bondage for Bhagavan who manifested into an Avataara when there is no bondage for the ones who are content by contemplating on his lotus feet, and when there is no bondage for those who have surrendered all their karma unto Bhagavan?
He who is Antaryami, the indweller not only of the gopis and their husbands but all embodied jivas, who is the Sakshi, Witness of all, playfully assumed a form in this world of matter. Having assumed a human form in order to shower his grace on different beings, Bhagavan playfully indulges in play like the Rasa Krida, hearing which people are drawn to him.
You are looking at it like an ordinary human being does. Viewed thus it may appear wrong. But it is not Adharma. If it had been an ordinary human being who had done it then it would have been considered wrong. But here, the love of the women for Krishna was Bhakti for the Lord which everyone has. Their Bhakti was rewarded in the only manner which could be understood by them: that was physically. But that does not, in any way, detract from the truth that anyone who is a Bhakta of the Lord will find Sayujya with him. Is that not what we desire? A woman, if she is devoted to the Lord and thinks of him night and day, cannot be accused of being unfaithful to her husband if, in the end, she reaches Him. It is not Adharma.
“The gopis, on the other hand, were so devoted to Krishna that he decided to reward them even on this earth and so he granted them oneness with him on that moonlit night. It seems like a lustful revel but it was only the utmost realisation of Bhakti that the gopis experienced.”
The long, long night came to an end and the east showed signs of the red tint which indicated that Aruna was on his way. Krishna made the unwilling gopis go home and when they went home they found that no one blamed them for staying away for the whole night. The people at home, because of the yogic power of Krishna, were unaware of the absence of their women and soon the night became, to each one of them, beautiful memory which they re-lived again and again in their minds.
And this scene narrated in the Bhagavatam is now etched in our minds to which we will return again and again like a bhakta returns to her Bhagavan again and again.
Such is the glory of Sanatana Dharma where you can relate to Bhagavan in any way, especially as a lover and that love is rewarded.
Jai Sri Krishna!
(Excerpted from Srimad Bhagavatam by Kamala Subramaniam)
