1 Gopi Gita text 1 Approaching rasa-lila – why & how?

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Hare Krishna I'm grateful and delighted to be here with all of you today and over the next few sessions as we prepare for Adhashyami we'll be discussing from the series of verses that are celebrated as the Gopi Gita so the Gopi Gita is basically a for the most beautiful and emotional compositions in our tradition so I'll be using this as a whiteboard to write and draw certain things and we will be the format we'll be taking is we'll try to take three or four verses in each session and when we're reciting the verse preferably instead of reciting the whole verse we just recite one line two three times and then go to the next line two three times and so what we will do is first we'll recite it a couple of times then we will discuss it and then we will reflect on it and we will sing it again so once first two times we can sing it then we discuss then maybe three four times each time we can sing then we can go to the next course so we'll try and cover the whole Gopi Gita in the next few sessions and before we start the Gopi Gita, I'd like to give some context So I'll talk about the context from three different perspectives Context is textual that is in the Bhagavatam. What is the place of the Gopi Gita? So we will Look at the textual that means in terms of the Bhagavatam Where does this prayer come? Then we'll look at it traditional That means we look at it under the Gaudiya Vaishnav Tradition what is the significance of this sermons of prayers? And then we look at it in terms of organization that within Skaan there has been some Reservation Reservation about studying these kind of subjects. We'll try to understand what the reservation is and How that can be addressed? So textual Let's begin the Srimad Bhagavatam Has how many cantos? 12 cantos So how many chapters? 335 chapters Then the Srimad Bhagavatam Now actually speaking when there are 335 chapters That is 10th canto has how many chapters? 19 chapters.

In fact the 10th canto is almost the one third of the Srimad Bhagavatam in terms of the verses and in terms of the the Length of the Section because some verses are smaller some verses are longer. So the 10th canto is By far the most important of the Bhagavatam. Of course, every section is important now within this 10th canto Broadly the first 40 chapters are about Vrindavan The next 10 chapters broadly are about Can you guess? Mathura yes Mathura and then After that It is about Well, it's more like based in Dwarka after that Krishna becomes a traveling preacher He becomes a international celebrity so he is Like say there's a head of state Then the head of state so the Indian head of state Indian prime minister Is a head of state of India, but if it's a globally influential figure Then a significant amount of time If you're traveling all over the world So like that if you consider from 50 to 90 barely less than 20 chapters Are only about 15 to 70 chapters are in Dwarka Krishna is based in Dwarka, but he has activities and adventures all over So now among the 10th in the 10th canto there is Considered to be one of the sweetest section is the Ras Panchadhyay Panchadhyay, what does that mean? Five chapters yes Panchadhyay so 29 to 33 so 29 30 31 32 33 so now Among these chapters basically There is a description of That pastime which is among the most iconic images of Krishna Whenever you think about Krishna, there are four or five pastime that are generally come to the mind One is Krishna stealing butter another is Krishna lifting over the hill And there is maybe Krishna with the cows So like that one of the iconic images is Krishna performing the Raas Leela So that is this particular section Now within that these five chapters these five chapters are actually considered Extremely important also extremely exalted And some of our acharyas have written books Explicating these five chapters Now when I'll be speaking I'll be at web talk from Anandanao Champu and Gopal Champu These two are books which have retold these pastimes with much more elaboration So apart from that also other books are there, but these are considered very important and now What happens in these chapters? Is basically the first chapter is Krishna calls the gopis so As we know that Krishna plays his flute And his flute is a call So it is a call for all living beings at that particular time it is a call for the gopis so In the gopis, they They leave everything and come to Krishna and then They come they have a conversation and after that it seems that the Rasa dance is about to begin That's what the preparation for that rasa dance is starts happening the gopis have some discussion And then what happens is Krishna disappears So Krishna disappears And the gopis are devastated And the gopis search Frantically for Krishna.

They just can't find him anywhere Anandanao Champu describes That they go deep into the forest of Vrindavan And the forest is so thick and dark over there That they can't even see their own hand in front of them And then they decide That we cannot find Krishna like this So they can't retrace their path And they come back to the banks of the Yamuna And they sit down in the banks And they sit in a circle And they are envisioning as if Krishna is there in the middle And they are all offering prayers to Krishna So Gopiji is prayers Calling Krishna to return So that is the Gopi Geetha, so this is the gopis Emotion is at its most intense They have left everything to come to Krishna And now Krishna has left them And is it their fault? Is it Krishna's fault? What happened? How did something like this happen? What are they meant to do in such a time? It is the agony and the despair and the longing and the hopelessness And the unbearability of their situation that is poured out through their hearts when they sing the Gopi Geetha Now After the Gopi Geetha is sung Krishna reappears Now when Krishna reappears On one side the gopis are delighted On other side the gopis are Enraged It's like say Our child has disappeared Maybe a child there's some argument the child threw a tantrum and child ran away from home Now we are in anxiety. Is my child safe? Is my child okay? Where is he? Where is he? And then when we find our child On one side we are relieved that you are safe Other side you are angry. How could you run away like this? How could you put me in such a situation? So the gopis are partly delighted partly enraged And at that time they have a conversation with Krishna where they Try to they are Indirectly trying to criticize Krishna on one side say if we are if we are chastising our child They're also afraid a child should not run away again So they're afraid that Krishna should not disappear again So they try to understand that they're trying to on one side Criticize Krishna express their anger, but also trying to understand what happened Why did Krishna have to disappear like that? Did Krishna not value their love? Did Krishna abandon them? and then Krishna speaks his heart So there is that celebrated verse Krishna says I cannot repay the debt that you have that I owe to you for the kind of love that you have displayed And we will see that What what is the significance of that statement of Krishna as we move through the Gopi Gita And then the last chapter is the actual rasa dance and when this rasa dance Is a majestic performance of love And then that ends Then the gopis return back home And they return back home and it's described that Krishna had arranged for expansions of the gopis To be there at home So none of their family members were actually upset That they had gone away And in this way Krishna protects their family situation protects their dharma And then there is the phalashruti the phalashruti Is what is the blessing we got from there? And that phalashruti is also very significant That phalashruti is that Who hear that person who hear this past times two things will happen which is ultimately the purpose of life That bhakti will increase And kama will decrease That vikriditam this krida this play one who hears this before then Shraddhan mitho anushrunayatavarnayetyaha One hears or describes these past times Then systematically with proper understanding based on the shastra guru sadhu shastra based on the parampara then anushrunayatavarnayetyaha bhaktim param bhagwati pratilabdhikamam So the bhakti in the heart will increase and rudrogam asva apahinothya chirin dheerasa Rudroga is material attachment That will go away In one sense.

This is a consistent theme of the shramad bhagavatam There are many verses which say the most auspicious thing for a living being Is to increase the attachment to the lord and to increase the detachment from the world So That this that is the phala of this pastime also And how this phala manifests through the study of discussion of this pastime we will Move forward as we discuss, but this is the broad textual context now within this chapter 31 And just complete this textual context with two more points we have one by one the verses go forward Now generally speaking when we look at the structure of thought Say if you want to know the bhagavad-gita chapters So then we can say okay this chapter has these three sections and then this Section flows into the section this way this section flows into this in this way So normally we might consider that it's each is a unit of thought And it is building towards a point This is considered to be a linear structure However The gopigit structure is not linear It could be analyzed in that way At from whatever I have studied the best way I have found to understand The gopigit is to see it as not as linear but as directed to one point It's not exactly circular. What does that mean? That each of these verses is actually Essentially one call that call is please return Krishna has disappeared from the gopis and Each verse Is actually a call to krishna to return Please come back krishna Please return now sometimes That call is explicit Sometimes that call is implicit most of the times. In fact, it's implicit sometimes it is In explicit where this charudarishaya is your beautiful form, please show that form to us oneself But most of the times this call is implicit So implicit means that when two people are very close to each other at that time They don't necessarily have to speak words explicitly to convey the point Say if we have some guests coming to our home the guest is close to us.

We like them we value them And we have prepared nice food for them And they come an hour late Now we are happy that they have come but Still we are unhappy that they came late and then We may not directly ask. Oh, why did you come so late? You kept us waiting for so long We might just indirectly say Oh the prasad has become cold So now if they are dumb and they don't get the point you say can't you eat it I say I feel like eating you now So it's not a matter of eating the food It's like hitting right so the idea is that when something is conveyed indirectly The other person needs to have the intelligence to understand what is being said so there is There is literal speech and there is non-literal implication of the speech And our language is filled with such non-literal statements So the gopis do sometimes call out to krishna to come But they are Indirectly expressing the plight of their heart they are voicing their memories And thus they are explicit expressing their longing for krishna so now This is that so each so we will look at each verse as a call for krishna to return We see how that is a call And then one last point is we saw it was gopya uchhu So what does this mean it is? The gopis spoke. It's not gopi but gopya.

It is a plural So does that mean that all the gopis? Had memorized the gopi gita and they were all reciting it in chorus Ha ha ha Say like when we have govindamadi purusham So it is a recording is going on and we are going along with the recording, but the recording stops and we sing it ourselves So is it that the gopis are all singing it in chorus? No It is the gopiyas Actually, there is a very beautiful Harmony of the individual and the collective over here All the gopis want krishna to come back And while each gopi All the gopis want krishna to come back, but each gopi is speaking one one verse and now jiva swami goes into analysis of the characters Of each of the gopis and then he surmises Surmises means he infers he arrives at the conclusion which verse is spoken by which gopi That's quite a esoteric subject which we don't go into because each of the gopi has their individual personality and their backstory and their particular flavor of the relationship with krishna And based on that particular flavor of the relationship They will They are expressing their emotions Just like if somebody in a family has a heart attack and then Now everybody is in anxiety and everybody is free And now, but each person say if the husband has a heart attack, then the wife Is expressing her emotions particularly if that person is a child of someone the mother will be expressing emotions Particularly the father will be expressing emotions particularly the child will be expressing emotions in particular The siblings will be expressing emotions particularly a family may be expressing emotions particularly now in this case there are, each of them has a different flavor of the relationship. Now when the Gopis all have the same flavor of Madhurya, but at the same time each Gopi is an individual. So basically Bhakti has this mystical capacity to bring, to preserve the individual while also maintaining the collect.

There is always this fear that if I become a part of a group, I will lose my individuality. But if I try to emphasize my individuality, then I won't be able to belong to a group. So this Gopya Uchu, that plural, now this is not unprecedented in the Bhagavatam.

Say for example, sometimes it is Rushya Uchu, Devata Uchu it is said. Like that theme comes, the Devatas offer prayers. Now sometimes in the Bhagavatam it is said, for example, after Narasimha Dev appears, it describes the different Devatas.

Brahma says this prayer, Shiva says this prayer, like that. But sometimes it is the Devatas are said to say collectively offering prayers. So there is individual and collective at different times in the Bhagavatam.

So in this case the Gopis are offering collective prayers, but it's each prayer by one one Gopi and that Gopi is expressing her heart while also expressing the collect, while also representing the group as a collective. So this is the textual context. Now from the textual context, if we look at the particular words that we discussed, Jayati te dhikam, the Gopis are saying that Krishna, this place Jayati, it's much more become glorious.

Jayati is glory, te adhikam, even more. Janmanavraja, that once you were born in Vrindav. This is one, this verse is one of the pramanas that Jiva Goswami uses to highlight the point that Krishna was born in Vrindav.

Normally the understanding is Krishna was born in Mathura, but Krishna also was born in Vrindavan. So janmanavraja. So the mood over here is that all this land of Vrindavan, it is glorious and it has become even more glorious now that you have appeared, Janmanavraja.

And what is the pramana, what is the substantiation for the point that this place has become even more glorious? That they are saying Shrayanta Indira Shashvadhrati. So Indira is another name for the goddess of fortune, Lakshmi Devi. So that goddess of fortune has come and started staying over here and not just staying over here, Shashvadhrati.

Shashvad is shashvad, constantly, perpetually. So now many places are sometimes in history blessed by the goddess of fortune. They become extremely powerful, extremely prosperous and that place becomes sensational when it is that prosperous.

But the nature of history is that what is prosperous at one time, its prosperity soon declines. It doesn't last for long. So Lakshmi Devi is known as Chanchara.

Just about a month or so I was in UK and UK at one time was the superpower of the world and it is a small country but extremely powerful. Now, of course, at a basic level UK is still well to do but there is a lot of anxiety over there. The geopolitical stature of UK has fallen substantially.

Even on the first grade power, it is not even a second grade power. It is becoming almost like a third grade power. I was talking with some devotees in Britain and so I was in England for some time and I went to Scotland for some time.

So most of the devotees in the Western countries that we have are mostly Indians but there are also some non-Indians. There is one devotee who was a British devotee, English devotee basically. So he is very actively involved in the politics or at least he was interested in the politics of UK.

So he was telling me that overall for the British politicians, for the British, every country has its national pride. That's not a bad thing because whatever we belong to, we need to feel healthy and happy about belonging to that. But one of the bitterest pills for them to swallow was two things.

India exceeded Britain in economy and then an Indian became a Prime Minister of Britain. So the head of state of Britain. So two things happening simultaneously, it was very difficult for the British people to swallow it.

So this is an example of a country might be very powerful at one time. So the fortune of Lakshmidevi that is there but it is not. It is chanchala.

It is there for some time but after some time, before the British came to India, what happened was India was extremely prosperous. So although there was Islamic invasion of India and there was some amount of religious intolerance but the key difference between British and Islamic rule was that many of the Muslims decided to make India their home when the conquerors came. And when they came, because they wanted to make India their home, they didn't destroy the prosperity of India.

They may have wanted to convert Indians to their particular way of living but they didn't destroy the prosperity of India. Now for the British, they considered going to India like a sentence to Kala Pani. India is such a hot, sweaty country and the people are so uncivilized according to their way of civilization.

So they would consider any officer who is posted in India, that person has got a punishment. So their whole focus was let's plunder the wealth of India and get the wealth of India as much as possible out from here to there. So basically what happened is the prosperity that is there, it comes, it goes.

So India was very prosperous and now slowly the prosperity is recovering. I met one devotee in Africa. He said there is a saying in Africa that when the British, especially Christian missionaries came to Britain, Africa, when they came initially they had the Bibles and we had the land.

Now we have the Bibles and they have the land. So basically power shifted. So Lakshmi is Chanchala.

But what the Gopis are saying over here is Shashvatatra. That Lakshmi has become Urchala. She is here.

She is longing to be a part of Krishna Vela. There is a place in Vrindavan where there is a temple. Lakshmi Devi is performing austerities to enter into Vrindavan.

So we won't go into that story. But the theme over here is, the point we are discussing is that the Gopis are calling to Krishna. Please return.

So the mood over here is Krishna, once you came, Vrindavan has become even more glorious and the sign of this glory is that the goddess of fortune stays here permanently and yet if the goddess of fortune is here, why has this misfortune befallen us? How is the misfortune that we are bereaved, we are deprived, we are no longer having the fortune of being with you, that we have been abandoned by you. How can this be? And they are saying that and we are not just incidental residents of Vrindavan whom you might abandon. They are saying basically our hearts and our lives are devoted to you.

Our lives are devoted to you. Our eyes are searching for you. Daita is beloved.

Drishyatam. We are constantly searching for you everywhere. And it's not just that we are searching for you so that we find you and get something from you.

Generally we search for someone when we need something from them. But they are saying that Krishna, we have come here to serve you. We have come to offer ourselves to you.

So we are searching for you in one sense, not to take anything from you but to offer ourselves to you. Toi dhruta servas, to am vichini vati. So not only our eyes are devoted to looking for you, we are also running around searching for you.

When our lives are devoted to you, when you have made all of this Vrindavan fortunate, we are the residents of Vrindavan who are devoted to you. How can you have made us unfortunate like that? How did you, O Krishna, abandon us like this? Please don't abandon us. This is not becoming for you.

Please return. So here they are talking from the perspective of Krishna's relationship with Vrindavan. This is a place which is your place.

How can we be unfortunate in such a place? So if somebody is known to be a very charitable person and like Prabhupada said that he wanted that ten males around our temples, nobody should go hungry. So now if somebody is famous for something like that, that they are very charitable and they make sure that anybody needs, especially in their vicinity, that particular locality are taken care of. Then the question comes up, okay, but then this person has such a great need.

How do we deal with this? So they are saying that this is a fortune-filling zone. But then how is it that there is no fortune in our life? Please bring the fortune back. So please return.

So that's the theme of this particular verse. So that's from the textual perspective. Now the traditional and the institutional perspective is mentioned briefly.

From the traditional perspective, the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition is specifically Krishna in the mood of Radharani. That is Radha Bhava Divti Suvalitam Navami Krishna Suvalitam. So it is Krishna has taken the disposition and the complexion of Srimati Radharani.

So basically what is that? It is Krishna in the mood of Radharani in separation from Krishna. So Divyon Madh. The Goswami has also described that sometimes they are just madly searching for Krishna.

Hey Radhe Vraja Devi ki Chalante. They are constantly searching in separation. So basically love in separation.

That is the defining flavor of Gaudiya Vaishnavas. That is not only love, is great love, but love in separation. And the Gopi Geet is within the Bhagavatam the highest expression of such love in separation.

So in fact we can say to some extent that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has taken on the mood of the Gopis. And of course that mood is similar in the sense that one is the Gopis are separated from Krishna. Right now they are searching for Krishna in Vrindavan.

They are not able to see him. The other is when Krishna has left Vrindavan and gone away. And the Gopis are devastated.

Will Krishna come back? Aideena Dayadranatha hei, Mathura Natha kadavanu, you see. You are the lord of the Dayadranath. You are the merciful lord of the fallen.

But now you have become Mathura Nath. You have left here and gone to Mathura. So how will we leave? How will we function? Similar mood is there in these verses.

So these prayers are very deeply resonant. They are deeply reflective of the mood of Kauravas. Now from an organizational perspective, basically Shri Prabhupada, there were two different strands of thought that were there in Prabhupada's presentation.

On one side Prabhupada wanted to protect from Sahajiyaism. We will discuss elaborately as we move forward what is Sahajiyaism in the future verses. But Sahajiyaism essentially is taking the spiritual very cheaply.

And that's why, especially not just the spiritual, but the devotional, especially the mood of the Gopis. Oh, you know, this is just like a male-female interaction. And not only taking it cheaply, some people imitate that.

So Prabhupada would say that is not Ras Neela, that is Raskal Neela. So Prabhupada wanted to protect us from Sahajiyaism. And especially from the time of Bhakti Sahastra Thakur, protecting us from Sahajiyaism has been a very important aspect.

That's why Prabhupada would say that at one level that one shouldn't jump into the 10th canto. It has to go systematically canto to canto. Now having said that, Prabhupada also wrote the Krishna book.

And the Krishna book is directly the 10th canto and Prabhupada wanted the Krishna book to be mass distributed. So the idea is that we don't want misunderstanding of Krishna on one side. But on other side, we also want people to have an understanding of Krishna.

So Prabhupada gave purports, not like words-wise purports, but Prabhupada inserted philosophical passages within the pastimes of Krishna so that his pastimes could be understood. So one side is that it protects from Sahajiyaism. This is so elevated, this is so exalted as to be inaccessible to us.

So that's one side of it. But other side of it is that he made it eminently accessible to us. That he did not edit out or skip the more esoteric parts.

He has included the Raj Panchayat. Now Prabhupada does something special in his translation of the Gopini which we'll discuss later in the Krishna book. But Prabhupada has made it accessible.

So basically one side we could say Prabhupada said that Sahajiyaism should not have it. The other is he wanted us to read it. So the balance is more like we access carefully.

Access with care. We want to learn about it. We want to grow in it.

So when in the pandemic I did many series of discussions. So I did a monk's podcast. Almost 200 episodes I had done.

So I had done one with Amarendra Prabhu and with Madhavanand Prabhu where we discussed several verses of the Raj Panchayat of the Gopiki basically. There the first podcast was basically about why we need to discuss it. So I won't go into all of it.

But the key point is that Krishna is our legacy. Krishna is our legacy. And it's our traditional legacy.

India is a society for Krishna consciousness. I was talking with one devotee. I just came from Vrindavan.

So I was talking with one devotee. And a very sincere devotee has been staying in Vrindavan. And he was telling me that I was introduced to Krishna Bhakti through ISKCON.

Now he is on the borderline. He goes to Gauri Amma. He goes to various other teachers.

He is an intelligent person, very intelligent person. So he was telling me that I feel that I came to know Krishna after I started hearing classes outside ISKCON. He says through ISKCON I was knowing the concept Krishna.

But I didn't come to know the person Krishna. Because we talk so much philosophy, we don't talk about the person. And talking about the person is not just knowing some stories.

Actually our Acharyas have given so much. When he spoke that it struck me also. I have been reading Shastra when I was editing books for Bhanu Maharaj in 2006-2007.

So that time I read Gopal Champu. At that time even the Acharya's books were considered. It was almost as if I was reading Acharya's books like a sinful activity.

So you should not be doing it. But I had the editing service. So I was reading that.

Actually I felt by reading Gopal Champu I came to know Krishna. Of course we know Krishna to some extent whatever we know. But I also want to write fiction.

So there is a concept called character development. Character development means what? Not the development of our character. That is also one aspect of it.

But it is like if a novel is being written, if a movie is there, then when you see a character in different situations, if there is a character, how does the hero deal with the heroine? How does the hero deal with the parents? How does the hero deal with people in general? How does the character act in different situations? And then what are the emotions going on at that time? What are the thoughts going on inside the character? So then when we see a character in different places and especially we understand the inner dynamics of the character, the inner thoughts, then we understand that character. So basically we, if we look at the Krishna book, there are some places we say, we understand Krishna is thinking like this. We may read the Bhagavad Gita's verses, but if we look at Chakravarthi Paath, he says, okay, this time Krishna is thinking like this and Arjuna is thinking like this.

And that's why this verse comes after this verse. But then, oh, it's like a epiphany. It's like a bulb goes on.

Oh, this is like this. So basically, when we go into what Prabhupada has given us in terms of connecting us with the tradition, we go into the Acharya's writings, and especially many of them are written elaborately on the Gopi Geetha, then we come to know Krishna. And that is what Prabhupada ultimately wanted us.

Prabhupada wanted us, what will please us the most is if we love Krishna. And Prabhupada is going to say that if we don't know Krishna, how can we love Krishna? You talk about that with respect to the Christian tradition where they talk about love of God, but there is not much positive description of God. And that's why basically they have replaced Christ with Jesus or they treat Jesus just like God.

And many of their prayers are to Jesus because we need to have an accessible person. So while the Madhuri Rasa itself is very exalted, and that can lead to some misunderstandings, but this is the Rasa that is the closest to Krishna's heart. This is the relationship that is the most intimate for Krishna.

And through this, we can try to understand Krishna more and more. So that is what we'll be trying to do in our sessions. So as I mentioned, the first verse, it is a call by the Gopis to Krishna.

They say, generally speaking, we can make a request in different ways. And say, you know, please help me. That's one way of making a request.

But if we connect our request with something that is important for that person, then what happens is that becomes more relatable. Say, for example, if some devotee, their focus is on Buddhist. In our movement also we have different devotees.

Vaisheshika Prabhu is fully into Buddhist. So now if you want to invite him to some place, you can come here and do a Buddhist seminar. Then he will be eager to come.

But if you tell him, OK, can please come and give some general classes, he may or may not come. If you consider Adeshyam Prabhu, if you invite him somewhere, if there is youth preaching, his eyes will open wide. Yeah.

OK, you want to go there. OK, there are general congregational programs, he may or may not come. So basically when something is important for us, if we link it, if we link our request with something that is important for the other person, then that request has more weight.

That request has greater impact. So Vaisheshila Prabhupada would travel, especially as he became well known in the 70s. Then he would get invitations for many, many places to go to.

So how did Prabhupada decide which places to go to? So, yes, that was the two things where Prabhupada said, double the books, I'll come, not only come there, I'll stay at your place. So this book description was important for Prabhupada, he would go there. So especially where we had already established his concenters, Prabhupada would decide based on, in the Western world especially, where book description was happening the most.

In India, when he would get invitations, in India we didn't have so many temples at that time. So Prabhupada would decide where to go based primarily on who was organizing the program, who was inviting, whether that person was influential, whether that person was going to get a big crowd, whether that person could contribute to build a center over there, whether that person could help in some of the big projects that Prabhupada had. So Prabhupada basically, he got so many invitations, he had a mission.

And his mission was to, in one sense, establish the Krishna Consciousness Movement as a respectable and prestigious movement in India. That's why he wanted to have big, big temples and he knew that subsequently the movement will spread. So the point is that when devotees were invited, they would say, Prabhupada, if you come here, we will arrange a meeting with you, with the Chief Minister, with the High Court Justice, High Court Judge or this or that.

We'll organize these meetings and this person is there, this person is a big industrialist, that they are interested in something. This is a very important holy place. And then Prabhupada would plan to go over there.

So the Gopis are doing something like this, you are known as Brajendrananda, you are the lord of Vrindavan. So the Vrindavan, the reputation of Vrindavan is important for you. The reputation is so great that even the goddess of fortune has come and stayed over here.

But within that Vrindavan, if we are abandoned, if we are bereft, we are in agony, what will happen to that reputation of Vrindavan? So therefore, you please return, please come back. So, Tvayi Dhrutha Sarvas Tvam Vichinmati. So basically, if you look at, so now Dhrishyatam, if you look at Daita Dhrishyatam, this mood of Daita Dhrishyatam is very similar to Jagannatha Swami Nayanapathagami Bhavathome.

And we sing that quite frequently at Jagannath Yatra. But the meaning is very beautiful over there. That there are two ways to be Krishna conscious.

One is to bring Krishna into our consciousness, which is a normal way we do. You know, we hear about Krishna, we think about Krishna. So it is like say, if we come, we come to the temple and we focus our eyes on Krishna.

We focus our eyes on Krishna. We look at the deities, we look at the various pictures. So that's one way.

But here the prayer is that this is Lord Jagannath who has come on the streets. That Lord has come to give mercy to everyone. So rather than saying that let my eyes go towards you, they are saying, the prayer is, may you come on the path of my eyes.

What that means is that actually may you always become visible to me wherever you are. May I always remember you. May I always see you everywhere.

The Lord is there everywhere, but we don't see him everywhere. The idea is when we are there with Jagannath, we are going to see him at that time. But may that sight remain with us all the time.

So similarly, we have been searching for you everywhere. Krishna, please become visible to us. Please appear on the path of our eyes.

Dikshu is a variant of Nisha. They are searching, searching, searching in all directions for you. We can't find out.

We are your devotees. And this mood of searching is a mood that comes in the Bhagavatam repeatedly. You know, right in the first canto itself, we have Narada as a boy seeing Krishna and then Krishna disappears.

And now in that case, he's not physically searching everywhere. He had seen Krishna in his heart. So he again sits down in meditation and he tries to see Krishna, but he just can't see Krishna.

So that seeing Krishna and then Krishna disappears. That is a repeated theme in the Bhagavatam. And then the devotee is desperately searching for Krishna.

So in the first canto that comes in the 10th canto also. So Drikshita Vakas. So we are your devotees.

We are searching for you. Twai Dhrutasavas. Twai Dhrutasavas has many different meanings.

It says we live for you. That's one meaning. But another meaning also is that we are maintaining our lives just for your sake.

It is said that after Krishna left, the Gopis had no heart to live. The Gopis could have just given up their lives. But the Gopis were thinking Krishna has promised we will come back.

I will come back. And if Krishna comes back and Krishna expects to see us and if we are not there, Krishna will feel bad. And no matter how terrible we feel, we don't want Krishna to feel bad.

That's why for Krishna's sake, we will maintain our lives. Twai Dhrutasavas. For you, we are sustaining our life.

It's saying that Krishna without you, it's impossible for us to live. Mahaprabhu would sometimes say that if I really had love for Krishna, then without being able to see Krishna, I should have died long ago. That I am maintaining my life without seeing Krishna, that indicates that I really don't have much love for Krishna.

So the Gopis are saying Twai Dhrutasavas Krishna. The pain of being without you is unbearable. But we are maintaining, we are tolerating that pain, we are enduring it because our lives are maintained.

Twai Dhrutasavas Tau Vichim Vate. And we are searching for you. We have been searching everywhere for you, not being able to find you.

Now Krishna, it is for you to return. You can decide. So one line, you can do 3-4 times and then we will stop it.

I discussed 4 main points. We discussed the Gopi Gita basically. First we discussed from a textual perspective, how this is at the heart of the Bhagavatam.

In the 10th Canto, in the Vraja Leela, where it is especially the Madhuri Ras, the Gopis are in separation. Then within the traditional perspective, we discussed very briefly about that. The mood of love in separation, that is the essence of the mood of Mahaprabhu, that is manifested here.

Then within the organizational perspective, we discussed how Prabhupada wanted us to access but with caution. That is what we will try to do in our series. And lastly, we discussed text 1, how they are connecting their prayer, the Gopis, please return with the glory of Vraja.

Krishna, you return to preserve the glory of Vraja. That is a place of fortune. How can we be unfortunate like this? So because we had to give some introduction, that's why we could not cover so many verses.

But generally we will try to cover 3 or 4 verses in future sessions. Thank you very much. Shri Krishna Bhagwan ki Jai! Shri Gopi Gita ki Jai! Shri Prabhupada ki Jai! Jai!