How Krishna’s stealing the garments of the gopis is not immoral but trans-moral
(Below is an unedited transcript of this lecture)
SB.10.22.9-12:How Krishna’s stealing the garments of the Gopis is not immoral but trans-moral
Translation10.22.9:Taking the girls garment he quickly climbed the top of the kadamb tree than he laugh loudly and his companions also laugh he address the girl jokingly .
Purport 10.22.
Lecture:
Hare Krishna
Today morning we are coming to a very exalted part of this 10th canto Srimad bhagavatam where krishna is taking the first step with reciprocating the love of his top most devotee the Gopis prior to this in 21chapter which talked about the Gopis glorifying the flute of krishna .so the Gopis expression of logging for krishna was reported but now krishna reciprocating with them being reported over here.
We will discuss the pastimes in 3 part :
1st part: metaphorical implications of what is been talk
2nd part: what the Acharya say about his specific pastime
3rd part: how the principle is applied in our lives
Then we will discuss few minutes on Gundicha marjan that is the scared day today.
So at first glance this activity a person coming a stealing the clothe of someone and forcing them to come in unclothing state in front of him seems to be scandalous and the idea that somebody can worship such a person as GOD can seem barbaric and unformed life and said this was the primary reaction of western conquers of India .when westerns came to India they primarily came in Britisher came through Bengal conquered Bengal first then they conquered rest of the country since Bengal they encountered two primary form of worship that was one of the Krishna and other of Kali and they found kali worship to be deprived because of it is brutal and krishna worship is to be deprived because it was immoral and in this way there are books and books of invective ,invective means biting criticism written by these Christian missionary and some of them have said that the whole culture of the Hindus seems to be the worst perversity that the human imagination could have described in the name of religion .so their criticism where very bitty and it was at that time yesterday we discussed yesterday was the appearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur .so Bhaktiviod Thakur moved at such time then the traditional culture of India was intersecting with and it was challenged by the western culture with its predominantly Christian value .Now currently western culture has not much Christianity left in it .But at that time it was predominantly Christian and in that age of European history that is called as the Age of Victorian Morality .so in the age of Victory Morality everything was people where doing all sort of illicit things privately but under the rein of Queen Victoria the idea that the public morality should be maintained was very strongly emphasized and it is a such a time when they encountered this kind of pastimes of Krishna .they came with very severe criticism .so when Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was trying to reestablish Krishna Consciousness then he faced such inimical forces and he wrote a essay called “The Bhagavatam” and in that Bhagavatam that was like one of his formative foundational intellectual books work on which he built books later like “Krishna Samhita” “Caitany Sikshamrit” and “Jaiba Dharma” .so in the Bhagavad he said that the modern mind will face three primary obstacle in understanding the Bhagavat . so the first obstacle is the chronological and the cosmological details which will seem to be mythological .in the fifth canto it was described the chronological and cosmological details ,thousands of year millions of the years of the life span of being like Brahma and Universal’s such vast dimension such gigantic mountain it all seems mythology .so if a book talk about such mythology ,how can it have some useful .so that might be one reason because of which the modern mind may reject the Bhagavad and then here anticipated that don’t bother about that ,that is not the important message of the Bhagavatam ,the primary message of the Bhagavatam is the message of LOVE trying to understand the cosmology of the world through the Bhagavatam is like trying to understand or trying to draw the map of America by studying srila Prabhupada’s Lilamrita .The Lilamrita described how Prabhupadaa went to various places in America but the purpose of the book is not geography .Similarly Bhagavatam is not a cosmological book off course by studying other relevant books of the Sastra devotees are endeavoring to built a planetarium in Mayapur but the planetarium cosmology is not the primary message of the Bhagavatam .So Bhaktivinoda Thakur say put that aside in fact he said that the 5th canto is put their so that the faith less can be obstructed from reaching the confidential pastimes of the krishna 10th canto. the second obstacle he said is the complexity of thought know the 3rd canto talk about Sankhya the 2nd canto talk about Virata Rupa the 11th canto talk about elaborate philosophy of Udhava Gita ,so the philosophies are complex and then he very intelligently tickle the false egos of his reader by saying ya if it is difficult then it should stimulate your sense of challenge and then if the ancient could come off with such thoughts then you are modern you should be more developed. surely you should be able to understand and just apply on yourself and be patient to understand .And the 3rd obstacle is the obstacle of immorality that the Bhagavatam ultimately center it builds of towards the worship of Krishna and when it is building of towards the worshiping of the Krishna the center piece of the Bhagavatam which is the 10th canto and the center piece of the 10th canto is the conjugal pastimes and they seems to blatantly immoral .so how can a book that is consider to be the Summum bonum the highest wisdom with in a tradition glorify something that so blatantly immoral .Bhaktivinoda Thakur turn this question around and says that if it obvious to us that this is immoral then the thinker who composed the Bhagavatam was it not obvious to them and let they described it in a book which condense the sexual attachment and sexual depravity throughout which just before the 10th canto now I am not repeating the Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s word I am just paraphrasing the argument over here and supplement it for the same Bhagavatam before it goes to the 10th canto has the 9th canto where the degrading power of lust demonstrated repeatedly and graphically not 1 not 2 but 3 pastimes .pastimes of Saubhari, pastime of Yayati and the pastime of pururaba and their also a pastime of Brihaspati very briefly mention .so in none of these case is sexual immorality glorified in fact it is strongly condemned and it described how people are degrading and how one should save one self from the attachment. So from the Bhagavatam itself the authors of the Bhagavatam now he is not present himself as the divine revelation coming from the god because that would be immediately dismiss by this people ok think objectively their definitely profundity in the Bhagavatam thought and the Bhagavatam is not the unaware of sexual morality and immorality .the same Bhagavatam condemned sexual morality in the previous canto ,so why would glorify in the next canto .then the question arise might this not be sexual morality ,might be something higher that is been talked here something that is dramatically different from our normal conception in this way he opens the mind of the people and present that lecture Bhaktivinoda Thakur gave marked turning point in his intellectual career as the representative of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the modern times. And since then many of the intellectual alights started taking Gaudiya Vaishnavism seriously and Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote prodigiously he wrote almost more than hundreds books and he built a virtual community of readers all around Bengal and Orissa who through his books got a proper understanding .so what is this proper understanding there is Bhaktivinoda Thakur realized there is a huge gap between the traditional mind and the contemporize mind, the traditional commentary are focusing on the rasikä aspect for example here Viswanath Chakravati Thakur in his commentary is talking about the inner feelings of the Gopis and the conversation that happened between Krishna and Gopis at that times this is all rasikä this already accept their nothing improper nothing immoral simply sweet and relishable but this is how traditional commentary accept not just moral they accept as relishable and then help us to relish it further but this sort of presentation will be largely incomprehensibly to the people who question the basic morality of the whole pastime. so he says that actually when they talk about God we have understand God incompletely so now this argument is does not give in Bhagavatam lecture goes in caitanya sikshamrit ,tatvabeg several of his other books and he goes on talking on the conception of the God that is there in the Abrahamic religion ,abrahamic religion are the western religion like Christianity Islam and the conception of the God that is given in the Vedic tradition .so the conception of the god given in the abrahamic religion i.e Christianity and Islamic is very limited there is not much positive description of the God and because of that often these religion focus on ethics and humanitarianism because they don’t have much transcendental substance to focus .so the Vedic scripture explain that if God is to be complete then his completeness means that everything that is present in the world is present in them .so in this world the most fundamental defining reality in a sense is the male female attraction that which makes in many ways the world to move .so now the question is where does this male female comes from ? that is largely unanswered question in abrahamic religion because their the conception of the God is limited so where does this come from there are two different approaches one is this attraction can degrade a person therefore it must be restricted within the sacred bound of the marriage but where does this attraction comes from there is no explanation for this .here in Bhagavad Gita indicate 16.1 that this world is the reflection of the spiritual world …
sloka 16.1 recites…
so by giving the metaphor upside down banyan tree the Bhagavad Gita indicates that this world is a reflection of the spiritual world and a reflection contains that which is fundamentally present for the reality now it is not that everything that is present in the reflection in all in detail must be present in the reality because when the reflection is their there may be beautiful mango that may reflected but there are waves in the river and that mango may be distorted and the shape of the mango may get perverted but essentially that distortion and perversion won’t happen if there is nothing in the original .if there is no mango only then the image won’t disturbed. So the mail female attraction is present in the world then it must be there in the spiritual world .now off course this male female attraction perverted it becomes distorted in many ugly ways in this world and that is due to affect of the 3 mode .the 3 modes are like the waves which shake the reflection and that’s way things get distorted over here but in their originality the male female attraction is present in the spiritual world. so how is that present
Radha Krishna eka atma dui deha dhari
Cc describes that Radha Krishna are one person, “eka atma dui deha dhari” they are one soul who manifested in two and for what purpose “any ho vilas kari” for the sake of performing pastimes for the sake of relishing love .so the Vedic conception of God not limited to the male divinity the Vedic conception of God is completed and that sway God is to be understood both male and female .you know in the modern and post modern circle it is very fashionable ,Is God male or female ,so write an article long ago in the “Times of India ” in the speaking tree column I wrote before we can understand whether God is male or female we have understand that we are neither male nor female ,we are Soul as long as we assumes that we are male or female we try to inscribe our gender on God .The Bhagavad Gita start by telling us we are not his body so our bodily gender is nothing to do with our spiritual identity . so beyond that so where does our bodily gender the dualities of polarity come from it comes from the reality of spiritual world and that is God himself manifest in the two forms .so we have Radha Krishna , Sita Ram ,Laxmi Narayan so there are different forms where God manifest as a divine couple .Now both the members of the divine couple is God although they are God in identity but they are not God in personality .it is one person who manifest in different personalities .so Radharani is God but she is God in identity but not in personality she has a female form she has a female mood and in that way she reciprocate love with Krishna .So Krishna is God and Radharani is God as his topmost devotee not only that the intimate associates of the Radharani the confidential Sakhis are the expansions of the Radharani called as the “parä kaya bhuya”,it means the expansions of the Radharani in other form kaya is body parä means another there is a yogic siddhi called “parä kaya pravesh” that means the soul can enter in to another body ,so parä kaya is another body .”parä kaya bhuya” means Radharani for the sake of expanding her service to krishna manifest herself in many female forms .Now those Gopis are not exactly the same tattva as Radharani they are not the supreme lord ,they are actually the devotees of the supreme lord. But actually they are the expansions of the Radharani .Now from one point of view logically we can understand that God is complete, the spiritual world is complete then the male female dualities polarities that is there in this world must be present in the spiritual world also but then the next question comes of what is the nature of the male female relationship in the spiritual world ? so now as I said earlier first of all understand that we are not this body otherwise we will apply our bodily conception on the absolute truth .so the Bhagavatam talks about the Madhurya lila in the 10th canto and before that it describes the loving reciprocation between krishna and his devotee, krishna in various forms and various devotee in multiple ways. There were renunciate who were great devotee, there was king who in the verge of the death, there is son who gives instruction to his mother and there is small child who goes to forest and there is small child who had a demoniac father and there is a king of heaven and there is king of the demon both of are now devotee .so in this way the Bhagavatam gives a wide a variety in the gamete of the human divine relationship and all these emphasis is that whether the person is born in a demonic family ,the most antithetical you see if you have to the picture of devotees .Now we have in first canto Kunti devi you know she is a gentle, sweet ,elderly , motherly lady and she is offering prayers to Krishna and from the material point of view she is telling let my thoughts flow towards you and in the 6th canto the same prayers offered let my thoughts flow only towards you by a person who is externally entirely different and that is bitrasur is the opposite to the motherly, gently, carrying Kunti devi .Now he is having bald head glaring eyes gigantic form even he walk the soldiers of Devata crushed under it and when he laughs people tremble. so externally he is the antithesis of what we would be consider to be devotee .but from that heart also under that external heart that is filled with the same love for krishna that is present in the heart of the Kunti devi .so by this dramatic difference in the form of the devotee the Bhagavatam urges us to go beyond externals to not look at externals but to focus on the internal motions and by all the dramatic difference in the forms of the devotees .so their positions are radically difference but the disposition are entirely similar .the social cultural even religious position are different Britrasur is a demon ,Indra is a Devata but the disposition are similar in fact Britrasur’s disposition is far greater in terms of the devotional intensity and fidelity and so by taking us beyond this externals the Bhagavatam then brings us in the 10th canto to the pastimes of krishna with Gopis .so before we understand the pastimes of the krishna and Gopis we have to understand this is not just the male and female this is God and his devotee .so from the point of view of Sukadeva Goswami he is not seeing the Gopis primarily as a female he is seeing Gopis a devotee and for him Krishna is not a male , not female and male the way we see in the material world ,Krishna is God .so when Sukadeva Goswami describing how Krishna embraces the Gopis for him essentially there is no difference in between Krishna embracing the Gopis and Narsimha dev embracing Prahlad or Lord Ram embracing Hanuman because essentially it is reciprocation of the Love between the devotee and the Lord .So till we develops the vision we see the Gopis not as a female but as a devotee first a foremost we see krishna not as a male but as a God .9th cantos of Bhagavatam helps us to see this substance of devotion in all the multiplicity of the human divine relationships. Only when we be able to see this substance of devotion then it reveals the transcendental form of devotion .so now when I say focus on the substance of devotion that does not mean the Gopis female form and Krishna’s male form are unimportant ,they are important but they are important in a transcendental sense not in a material sense .so from the material perspective whatever perception we gain by externals we see a tender hearted elderly lady we see ferocious brutal demon our perceptions are different. But go beyond the material perception do this spiritual substance that is the devotion in the heart. Once we have gone to the substance of devotion then the Bhagavatam reveals the higher reality. that higher reality is that devotion is not that a substance ,devotion has also its transcendental form and those transcendental form are five. They are the 5 Rasas. Santa, Däsya, Batsalya, Sakhya and Madhurya. Among these Madhurya to be considered is highest. So why Madhurya is is highest? Because Krishna arranged that is top most devotee serve in the Madhurya bhav. Actually the characteristics of the Santa rasa which is below even däsya in the transcendental hierarchy
The characteristics of the Santa rasa is complete detachment from matter and complete attachment to the God .so the male female attraction is rejected even in the Santa rasa, the male female attraction as we know in the material world. But at the transcendental level there is reciprocation of the love and for the reciprocation of the love ,there are appropriate form .so the Madhurya rasa is highest and the devotee who serve krishna in the Madhurya rasa is highest of the all devotee. in the caitanya Caritamrita Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami contrast between prema and kama and he gives a quite proactive definition of prema he says
“Atma indrye priti bancha tare bole Kama “
That the desire for satisfying one’s own senses is Lust. Now we would say that ok if selfishness is lust than Love will be selflessness .Now there is normal common understanding but the Bhagavatam caitanya Caritamrita taking us far beyond common sense. They are taking us to the transcendental sense. And gives what is the definition of Love?
“Krishne indrye priti icchä tare prema Naam”
The desire to satisfy senses of Krishna is prema .now it is significant in this definition itself Krishna däsa Kaviraj Goswami says Krishna has Senses. And satisfying the senses of Krishna is Love. Quite proactive definition normally we say Love means selflessness .lust is selfish and love is selflessness that is fine .that is lust self centered love is not self centered. But the Bhagavatam goes beyond this selfless to reveals the highest summit of selflessness and the highest summit of selflessness is god centered. And god as revealed in the Bhagavatam is not just as abstract concept, god is a person and as person he has senses. He has eyes, he has ears, he has tongue .when Radharani cooks for Krishna through the cooking she is offering her love to Krishna .so
Krisne indrye priti icchä tare prema naam”
So desire to satisfy senses of Krishna that is called Love .so Radharani wants to cook the best food for krishna and satisfy the tongue of krishna .similarly krishna has eyes and the Gopis are themselves exclusively beautiful and they want to decorate themselves beautifully for the pleasure of the krishna .so that something which is entirely transcendental .but the point is transcendence is not just some amorphous pious face ,transcendence is living loving reality ,where there are individual with forms. so krishna has a form Radharani has a form ,Gopis have form .so now the way reality is constitute in this world gives indication of the reality of spiritual world. The female as it manifested in the material world is best suited to the service to the male form which is not a male sobernistic idea but if there is a proper loving relation, than the male female relation is based on the mutual service but the service the male offer to female and the female offer to male is different. So the female form best suited to the service to the male and this is because there is a transcendental reality among all the various ways and in the various form that the devotee serve krishna in the transcendental realm the reality is that the female form is best suited to serve the supreme male that is Krishna .so those devotee who are most exulted and who are most selfless those devotee are having the form to serve most facilities to krishna .so the Gopis are able to serve krishna through all is senses Gopis sing for krishna , Gopis cook for Krishna , Gopis dance for krishna the Gopis serve krishna in every possible way and they have such a desire to love krishna ,Now before we look at this pastime where apparently krishna is doing something immoral we have to look at the selfless of Gopis. earlier we have discuss how even in the preliminary level lust is selfish and love is selfless,so the selflessness of the love of the Gopis is seen by how to relieve krishna from the headache for one moment they are ready to go to the hell for eternity .so that reveals how the Gopis heart is situated at the pinnacle of devotion ,they are situated at the topmost devotional level. one we are understand the Gopis are supremely divinely selfless then we can understand how krishna gives them the topmost facility to serve him ,and the topmost facility is the female form. now when I say krishna gives the female form it does not mean Gopis are separated in the female form the Gopis are eternally having a female form but we talk about causality in transcendental realm the cause and its effect that is not to indicate a time sequence that is to understand the philosophical principle .we say Radha Krishna two and they became one that is Caitanya Mahaprabhu and that is not the time that Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t exists. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is eternal, but when we talk about the Krishna wanting to understand the love of Radharani and becoming Caitanya Mahaprabhu that is not the time sequential sense that is philosophical expository sense .the point of explaining the philosophical principle. so it is now Gopis are here in the female form and the soul take the female form that may happen for some sädhana siddhas Gopis the Krishna sandharv analyze it elaborately but the intimate associates of the krishna the confidential Sakhis they are all eternal ,eternally they have the female form and they have the devotion and they serve Krishna with the highest devotion .so it is this supreme devotion that is being manifested here in this world so now we have to look into this pastime so in it full context .i will look in to this context in 3 way
What comes before and after in the Bhagavatam?
What comes in the broader panel in the Vedic lila?
And then what the Acharya are explaining?
So if we look at this What are the Gopis doing .in the “Anand Champu” Kavikarna pur explains that Radharani is not among these Gopis .These Gopis who have worshiped Katyayani to get Krishna as their husband ,Danya sakhi one of the sakhi ,she the leader of one of the large group of sakhi ,they were young unmarried Gopis ,so Radharani she worships Surya ,she does not worships Katyayani .Off course she doesn’t disrespect Katyayani but she primarily worships Surya
“Padma bandhu radhikaya” Radhikastakam says
So the Danya Sakhis other they actually are great devotee the intensity indeed the desperation to achieve Krishna is seen how they are ready to adopt anything and everything to attain Krishna and what is that anything and everything they are doing the sever vrat to Katyayani .so what is this Vrat every morning early in the morning they would wake up and go to the Yamuna and bath in the freezing cold water of the yamuna and in this way they want to please Katyayani and by Pleasing Katyayani they want to attain Krishna .They want to Krishna as their lord and this is described that Katyayani comes to them this pastimes happens after month long vrat just before the last day the penultimate day Katyayani appears to the them and tells them actually your devotion to Krishna is very great and Krishna is my lord also and you will surely attain Krishna and then to fill the desire of Gopis who are his great devotee and to fulfill the word of the Katyayani who is also his devotee. Krishna performs such pastimes .And in this pastime Srila Prabhupada emphasizes a philosophical principle the philosophical principle is that in the Vedic culture the chastity of the female very much value and anybody violating the chastity is consider very brutal and is punished .so when Krishna steals the clothes of the Gopis what does this represent ,Now if it is just some normal lusty activity then a man who want to abuse a women they were not steal the clothe and stand there .the Man will do much more thing .But in the Vedic culture the principle is only when the women is married to man and they are united in the dharma then the woman can be unclothe in front of the man .o when Krishna is stealing the garment of the Gopis and seeing them unclothed essentially he is accepting their desire he be their lord .he is accepting them as is wives. So here the emphasizes is not on what the lust mind is conjure on hearing this the emphasize on accepting the devotional intent of the Gopis, and Krishna accept this .Some people ask how can you worship a God who is lusty ,Krishna were something lust in the ordinary sense and this pastime is called as a “vastraharan” and there is another vastraharan lila which talks in very negative terms. Now if Krishna is just a lust God than I also did the same thing you also do the same thing “No” their it is Adharmic Krishna miraculously comes and saves Draupati .So Krishna is the preserver of morality and here what is been talked about is transcendental morality and Krishna’s preservation of the morality is seen in the next chapter itself. The 23rd chapter Krishna’s reciprocation with “The Yagnic Brahaman Patni” and their what happens is the Yagnic Brahaman Patni when they hear that Krishna is hungry and wants food they had heard from Narada the glories of the Krishna and actually leaved everything and comes to Krishna and when they are going their husbands were actually opposing them the brahmana says How can you go ?We are performing the Sacrifices and in the sacrifice the husband and the wives have to be together and if you go away the sacrifice cannot be complete wait but they says Krishna has called we have to go .so even the Yagnic Brahaman Patni’s they also demonstrated the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita .What is the conclusion
“Sarv dharma parityeja mamek saranam braja …”
Give up all Varity of religion and surrender un to me .So there are some Hindus who can not digest this .I saw one edition of the Bhagavad Gita where they rendered as
“Sarv adharma parityeja mamek saranam braja”
They have put “a” before that how can got tell you give up adharma but the point is they are levels of the Dharma and for the sake of the higher dharma the lower dharma can be given up.so when the Gopis are appearing unclothed before Krishna .when the Gopis are leaving in night for meeting Krishna ,when the Yajnic Brahman patni are leaving to go to meet krishna ,they are not doing adharma ,they are demonstrating the supreme dharma that is
Sarva dharma parityeja mamke saranam braja…
So for a women the most cherished thing is her chastity but for the sake of krishna the Gopis demonstrate supreme renunciation by being able to renounce their chastity .so their morality ,immorality and there is transcendental immorality .Immorality is morality is given of because of the selfish passion. so when the ordinary male female relationship when somebody does something extra marital affairs that is immoral because one is giving up morality because up once own sensual selfish pleasure. but in the case of transcendental immorality morality is given of for the sake of krishna and that is glorious that means one is not attached to the bad of this work that is good. But one is ready to give up bad of this work that is good. We give up sinful activity because we are devoted to lord but to ready to give up even the good of this world for the sake god that is the supreme religion
“sarv dharm parityajya ” means give up all material things good and bad for the sake of god. So what is being demonstrated here is the topmost devotee are ready to sacrifice even their chastity this is nothing to do with immorality ,it is demonstrated transcendental morality .the supreme morality is being demonstrated here ,now we see in the next chapter when the yajnic Brahman patni do the same thing what does Krishna tell them ,krishna says that more important than my direct proximity is proximity through memory now you here about me speak about me here about me and that way you will feel presence of me in your heart and the yajnic Brahman patni protested ,krishna they says when the River leaves the mountain and flows down to the ocean and can the river go back to the mountain ,they says we have left everything and come to you ,how can we go back it is not possible .so kavi karna pur describe in “anandvrindavan champu” that krishna does not want to disrupt the social fabric and culture it has .so krishna is playing the role of being born in a vyasa family and the yajnic brahmana patni’s are brahmana and they are already married. So krishna does not want to disturbed the morality he accept the devotion principle but informs to go back. whereas Vrindavan is his sown home both the yajnic Brahman patni and Gopis do the sarva dharma pari tyeja but krishna does not allow the yajnic brahmana patni’s to complete the sarva dharma parityeja go back and follow dharma. But because Vrindavan is his own home and everyone in Vrindavan is his most intimate devotee he accept the sarva dharma parityeja of the Gopis. And what is being in the pastimes of the 22nd chapter will be completed in the chapter 29 to 33 in the ras panchdya.krishna here accept in the principle that I am your lord and you are all mu conjurer and he accept them and then he perform the rasa lila in the rasa panchadya of 29 to 33 chapter but their also krishna first emphasizes morality and then he says I am young boy and are young girls how can you come alone in night .had you come to see the beautiful forest? if that is so now go back .so the Gopis they get both embarrassed and irritate .they embarrassed because krishna is talking about morality it is generally considered the women to be consortium of morality in the sense woman teaches morality to the children .so for anybody to tell woman that she is been immorality when she is been offering that herself is ultimate humiliation but the Gopis were embarrassed and same time irritate krishna you only called us and now sending us
“Patni su tan maya bhratru band bhaya ati belangyate antya acyutam gäya
Gati bhidasta udgita mohita ki taba yosita kasta janiste “
The Gopis pray that we left all our spirituality “pati su tan maya bhratru bandhaby” we left all of them and came to you “ati belanngyate” why we came ?” tab udgita mohita “ because of the sound of your flute, it is udgita it is very loud .Now generally when a music is very loud it is not consider very melodious .sometimes when the kirtan becomes very loud it is ecstasy in their but not melodious sometimes but krishna flute song is so extraordinary that is very soft and melodious but at the same time that sound for the Gopis is so love so deafening that they don’t hear anything else don’t hear anything set by others for them the sound of flute is call of love. And they says krishna it is you called us, how can you tell us to go away?, how can you leave us? so krishna even in the rasa panchadhay offers tribute to morality but the when he sees the intensity of the love of the Gopis then he transcends morality .so then he demonstrates transcendental morality where the rasa lila is the celebration of the divine love in its top most love .the Gopis and krishna their reciprocation demonstrated God is in completeness .what is god in completeness? God in completeness that everything we want to enjoy distorted in this world actually that is present in the purest and fullest form in krishna .and that this is the highest reality that is talked about that is been hinted and that is been developed by Sukadeva goswami and this pastimes .Now Sukadeva Goswami seeing everything in transcendental perspective and prakshit maharaj as a part of audience he is aware and he asked what is happening ?then Sukadeva Goswami says that actually krishna is transcendental .the violation of the moral principle by the supreme proves the supremacy .very interesting logic that Sukadeva goswmi uses,he says violation of the morality by the supreme proves his supremacy. So we accept the God is supreme ,morality is not supreme ,we accept morality as important but “god is not a servant of morality, morality is the servant of god “.so when god violate morality it is not that he is being immoral he is demonstrating his superiority over morality ,he is demonstrating his supremacy .Krishna is never motivated by any selfish desire ,krishna is motivated by simply the selfless love that is there in the heart and that is there in the devotees heart. so the rasa panchadhya ultimately the Madhurya rasa and specially the parkiya rasa within the Madhurya rasa which apparently seems immoral that demonstrate in the spiritual reality “love reins supreme” .it is not morality that supreme ,it is not even god that is supreme, it is love that reins supreme .so how does morality not rein supreme?
Because krishna and the Gopis sacrifice renounce what is consider morality for the sake of loving reciprocation .so now how is god not supreme?now god does not try to preserve his reputation ,it is what people think about ,krishna gives himself in fact in the spiritual world krishna does not even manifest his divinity .Now all the Gopis and the brajvasi’s are not thinking that krishna is god they are thinking krishna is simply most lovable of all the brajvasi’s ,he is the cynosure of all eye ,he is heartthrob of all eye he is the life of all our lives .they don’t think krishna as a god for them krishna is there be all and all and there krishna values their love the most . so krishna conceal even his divinity. in Vrindavan krishna gives up his divinity so that there can be the reciprocation of the love and this is the ultimate gift of the Bhagavatam.the vision of the spiritual world where love reins supreme ,love reins supreme over morality love reins supreme even over divinity over god .and it is that love that is the hearts ultimate fulfillment.and that is the love we are ultimately longing for we seek for that love and the temporary physical relationship of the world but this ultimately leads to disappointment and even devastation because they are all temporary .so if the bhägavatam did not reveal this vision of love as the supreme reality we would not understand where this love of this world come from and renouncing this love is difficult because if we understand ok if somebody shows this is the real mango this is the reflection now forgets the reflection and move towards to the real mango and it is easier but if we don’t that is real mango don’t take that mango take that why that is the only thing looks good and I need it I can’t live without it but what the Bhagavatama tells the love of this world is the reflection of the pure love between krishna and Gopis and krishna and all his devotee and top most is krishna and Gopis .so by revealing the pure intimate love that reins supreme in the spiritual realms the Bhagavatam gives us the means by which we can break free from the allure of the false love of the world the temporary love of this world and that’s way what the Bhagavatam says at the rasa panchadhay one who is understand the pastime what will happen
“bkriditam brajavadhum biritam vishnu sradhanvitam anusitam gatar yena ”
So one who hears the pastime of the krishna with the Gopis ,what will happen to them?
“Bhakti param bhagavadi pratilabhyate kamam hrid rogo masino paeno nachine na dhira ”
That actually by hearing these pastimes properly “anusruna” by proper authority the lust in the heart go away and love will come in ,love will streaming, the lust of the heart “hridrogam asvata aphinoti ” the heart disease of all of us are heart patient and all of our keep getting heart attack. the heart attack are of lust but we can become free from the heart attack and “bhakti param bhagavadi paralambham ” will get pure love .now imagine if some movie says watch this movie this is a romantic movie and all desire for romance will go away after watching this movie ,what is this nonsense ,what do you talking about ?but the Bhagavatam says like this is the romantic movie of krishna and his pastimes and by this all sexual attraction is go away it does not make sense ,it make sense when we understand the hierarchy ,there is a reflection and there is a reality .so when we see the reality the attraction to the reflection is go away .so the male female attraction of this world is the reflection and when we understand the real male female attraction ,the real attraction between devotee and lord in spiritual world than the the male female attraction of this world will no longer captivate us ,that is the ultimate freedom .The freedom from lust the freedom from love that is the ultimate way to fulfill the longing of heart for what it is looking .
So I will summarize
We started by talking about how from the moral point of view the pastime appears scandal and bhakti Vinod Thakur present at that time when he anticipated chronology ,the philosophy and the morality ,seeing the morality of Bhagavatam would create problems for the intellectual and then we explain based on the whole Gaudiya sidhanta that this is not immorality this is transcendental morality .the Bhagavatam acknowledge the sexual morality in the 9th canto itself but then it present us transcendental morality by showing how the lord and the devotee in so many different forms ,the devotee can be a gentle elderly lady or ferocious freighting demon .but the substance of the devotion is important and the Bhagavatam reveals us that in the heart of the female devotee and the lord as the attractive male and then it reveals that the substance is manifested as a form in the spiritual world .and the female form is the best suited for this service that’s way the devotee who have the highest devotion who have the greatest desire to serve Krishna they have the form that is most conducive to serve krishna that is female form and in principle and substance Krishna’s relationship with the Gopis .Krishna embracing the Gopis is not different from is not different then Narsinghadev embracing prahalad or Ram embracing Hanuman because the reciprocation of love is important primarly. But within the spiritual reality krishna is not just a principle he is a person ,he has senses ,the devotee has senses and with their spiritual senses the devotee serve krisna’s spiritual senses and that is the fullest of spiritual love. That is not just selflessness to just free from lust it is selflessness wanting to please Krishna ,to satisfy Krishna’s sense .than we discuss about this particular pastime it demonstrate “Sarve dharma paeityeja ” it demonstrate how love reins supreme by the sacrifice of the dharma by the sacrifice of morality for the female the sacrifice of the chastity for the sake of the love of god. through this picture of pure spiritual love the Bhagavatam enables us to become free from the captivation of impure love of this world and focus undistracted advancing towards the world of the eternal love .Thank you very much we are quite late I will not speak anything about Gundicha märjanaà today .thank you very much grantha raj Srimad bhagavtam ki jay srila Prabhupadaa ki jay gaura bhakta vrinda ki jaya nitäi gaur prema nande .