8 Gopi Gita (Gopi geet) | Text 16 | When we feel abandoned by God

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

Hare Krishna. So today we continue our discussion on the Gopi Gita. These are the second last session.

Tomorrow will be the last session. We have four verses remaining. Yesterday we discussed about how the Gopis are calling out to Krishna in different ways.

And they are expressing the desperation, the intensity, the fervency of their longing in different ways. So when there is love, love is seen through both our words, how we express ourselves and also through our actions. So here in the previous verse, the Gopis express their emotions.

One moment feels like a millennium when you are away. And even when you are there, we can't see you. In the Ananda Vanchyapu, Kavi Karanapur phrases, the emotions of the Gopis, they say that we feel for the one moment when our eyelids cover our sight of you, we feel as if it is the end of the world.

We feel it to be as devastating. And now after that expression of their emotion, now they are saying the action that they have done to express their love for Krishna. And here, so they are describing, pati su tanvaya, bhratru bandhavan.

So we have abandoned everyone. Ati vilangya, vilangya means to neglect, to go beyond, to transcend them, to just put them aside. So our husbands, our children, anvaya, even our ancestors, the ancestors may not be living, but they live on in the legacy of the culture and the tradition and the expectations that it brings about certain norms of behavior.

Bhratru bandhavan. So our brothers, our siblings and our other relatives in general. Ati vilangya te, we have neglected them all.

And they have never done anything like this before. And why have they done this? Antya achyutagatha. We have come in your presence, oh Achyuta.

And while there are different names used for Krishna, here the name Achyuta has special significance. That you are infallible, you are unfailing in your love, and yet you are failing us in your love. We left everything to come to you.

Antya achyutagatha. We have come here. And why did we come? It is not just because we wanted to come.

Of course the Gopis always had a desire to be with Krishna. But the Gopis were responding to Krishna's call. Gati vidas tava.

You know why you are with us. You know why we have come here. That you understand the purpose.

Vida is associated with the word Veda, to know. Gati, our movement, our arrival here. Gati vidas tava, you know it.

Udgeeta mohitaha. That Udgeeta. Udgeeta is the sound, the music, the song.

Udgeeta, Udgar is a loud sound. So Udgeeta is the loud sound of your flute. Mohitaha.

We were deluded by that. We were overwhelmed by that. We just forgot everything when you called us with your flute.

And then they are saying, Kittavayoshitas Kastyajen. So when we have come at your call, at great cost to ourselves, how can you abandon us now? Kittavayoshitas, we are women, you know, we need your protection. We have abandoned you.

And not only that, Kastyajen Nishi. Nishi means it's night time. So the Gopis are making here multiple lines of argument within the same verse.

So broadly here they are talking about the sacrifice that they have done. What they have sacrificed is their, not just their relatives and family. It is basically the Gopis in one sense by leaving Krishna like that, leaving for Krishna like that, leaving their entire family, basically they were committing social suicide.

In a society like that, a woman would be considered fallen and then she would have no respectable position. There was some survey done among devotees in Europe about what was the, sometimes we get very reductionistic ideas about what was the role of women in the past. Some devotees were asked, what were the roles of women in the past? They basically said either they were princesses or prostitutes.

Now, like we have examples of Kunti and Draupadi and Sita and Devahuti, they are princesses, they are queens. And then we have Pingala and other prostitutes. So people had a normal life.

People continued their normal lives. The Gopis were neither princesses nor nothing. They had normal life.

But the point is that the idea is that if you are not socially in a respectable position, then it would be a ruination for them. It may be to some different degrees in today's world, but at that time the Gopis, the magnitude of the risk that they were taking is enormous. The sacrifice that they have taken and the initiative, we did not initiate it.

Somebody may say that, I didn't call you, you came on your own. I didn't ask you. The initiative was yours.

It is you who called us to come. And then our situation is that often they are saying women. So now, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, it's on, okay.

So, they are talking about the sacrifice they have done, their situation, they are women, and not only, the time is the night. So, even if Krishna doesn't want to have a loving relationship with them, Krishna doesn't want them, at least from the point of basic human decency, Krishna, you come back and protect us. We are in trouble.

So, how can you abandon us? The Gopis' words here actually depict one of the biggest predicaments on the human journey towards God. There are times when we may feel abandoned by God. Abandonment or rejection is a constant fear in any relationship.

It could be that, you know, we have a relationship with somebody and when we need their help, their help doesn't come. When we need their support, their support doesn't come. Now, we can say that, okay, people in this world are fallible, people in this world have their own considerations because of which they may not help us.

And there is truth to that. Everybody is finite. Now, what happens is, at one level, we are finite and Krishna is infinite.

Now, this, when we have a relationship with Krishna, Krishna's being infinite can be seen in two different ways. One is that because Krishna is infinite, our expectations from him increase. That Krishna can do anything.

Krishna can intervene when he wants. And if Krishna is not intervening, Krishna is not doing something to fix this issue, then does Krishna even care? Does Krishna even exist? We could go in that direction. So God's infinitude, God's being unlimited can lead us to have unlimited expectations from God.

That is one way that dynamic of the relationship can go. Now, God is infinite that can also lead to our humility increasing. Humility increasing means that Krishna is far wiser than me.

Krishna knows the bigger picture far better than what I do. And therefore, what Krishna is doing, I can't figure it out. But just because I can't figure it out does not mean that Krishna does not care.

If you see Bhishma, in his guidance given to Yudhishtira from his deathbed, arrives at this conclusion that even the great sages are bewildered about Krishna's will and Krishna's plan. They try to inquire, but they do not come to know. So, this particular point of humility that God is so great and his plan is so great that I cannot understand it.

And the readiness to pursue our devotion, even when we feel abandoned by God, that is a great test of devotion. So, philosophy is a great test of devotion. Philosophy is in one sense abstract.

Abstract in the sense that philosophy consists of a set of truths. But how those truths have a bearing on us, how we relate with those truths is up to us. In the Gita, there are three terms which are called Gyan, Geya and Gyanagamya.

So, Geya is the object of knowledge. Now, Geya is the object of knowledge. Now, Gyana, at least the way it is used in the Gita, often is translated knowledge, but it is more of process to gain knowledge and to stay in knowledge.

When Krishna says, humility, that manithu madambithvam ahimsa shantirarjavam, these are the virtues that will help us to gain knowledge, that will help us to stay in knowledge. So, we can say this is knowledge, but it is also the process to stay in knowledge. Whereas, Gyanagamya is the objective of knowledge.

What is it that we are trying to learn? How are we going to get that knowledge? And after getting that knowledge, what is our goal? So, Gyanagamya, what does it result in? So, for a devotee, if understanding Krishna's supremacy leads to heightened expectations from Krishna, generally in life, frustration is proportional to expectation. The greater our expectation from someone or something, the greater is the frustration when that doesn't work out. So, if in bhakti, understanding Krishna's greatness leads to an increased in our expectations from Krishna, then that will lead to an increase in our frustration.

And that can be very much pratikul to our bhakti. That can be damaging to our devotion. So, then what do we do? Do we have no expectation from Krishna? Does ahaituki apratihata, unmotivated, uninterrupted devotional service mean that we have no expectation at all? In any relationship, we do something for the other person, we expect something from the other person also.

That is natural reciprocity is there. Now, the reciprocity itself is an intrinsic feature of the relationship. Now, of course, the reciprocity can be transactional, where I don't want to really care for you.

I do something for you and you do something for me. Like say we go to a shopkeeper and we give them some money and they give us some product. So, it's transactional.

But the reciprocity can also be transformational, where in the process, where I do something for you and you do something for me, by that I come closer to you, you come closer to me and by that we both rise higher. In trying to please you, I become a better person. In trying to please me, you become a better person.

So, the relationship bhakti is not meant to be transactional. Transactional is basically to some extent karmakand. So, bhakti is meant to be transformational and there is a principle of reciprocity.

And we often talk about, now this is our endeavour, this is our seva, that's what we are doing and what Krishna gives is his mercy, his krupa. And we often talk about how Krishna's mercy is so great and so causeless and we may talk about it theoretically but sometimes we may feel practically I am not getting any mercy at all. Or at least I am not getting any mercy where I need it.

Maybe I am getting it elsewhere but where I need it, I am not getting it. So, the problem is not expectations. It is in every relationship there will be expectations.

So, in devotion, if there are no expectations at all, then there is no reciprocation. But the problem is not so much expectations as it is attachment to expectations. That this is how Krishna must act or this is what he should do.

So, when that happens, then that causes an interruption in our devotion. So, this is to let go of these attachments, to let go, this is where humility comes in. Humility means, Krishna, I may have done a lot.

A devotee never brags that I have done so much for Krishna. But we all have certain awareness of what we are doing. And when we are doing, we may have certain expectations.

But then the humility in this context means that I am not attached to my expectations. Krishna, I think this is good for me. But I trust that you know what is best for me.

We are not rejecting our intelligence. With our intelligence, we do try to do what we can. When Srila Prabhupada went to America, he was trying to reach out to people.

In many ways, he tried to follow the template that had been given by his spiritual master to the disciples whom he had sent abroad. See, he asked his disciples to reach out to the elite class. So, that's why they would go to the lords and the ladies and the dukes and all those earls, those kind of influential people and they connected with them.

In fact, they connected with them in a far more influential way than what leaders from other spiritual organizations who had also gone abroad did. So, they reached a lot of influential people. But these influential people were just, you could say, curious or appreciative.

They were not interested in getting committed at all. And Prabhupada tried that initially. When he came to Butler, Pennsylvania, he was hosted by a person, Gopal and Salli Agarwal were not very prosperous, but they were reasonably well-to-do.

So, they were a part of the YMCA, he went there, Young Men's Christian Association, he spoke over there. In New York also, generally people who practice yoga, even now in India as well as in the West, it's generally the more upper class people. So, the clientele over there is reasonably well-to-do people.

So, Prabhupada was going there and he was trying to reach out to those people, but they were not interested. So, Prabhupada was using the intelligence to see whom I can reach to. But then they were not interested, then Prabhupada found these people from the counterculture.

And the people from the counterculture would externally seeming be the least likely to take up bhakti. They were disheveled, they were unclean, they were unregulated, and yet Prabhupada saw they were interested. So, Prabhupada using intelligence had his plan, but he was not attached.

When something else worked out, he accepted that. Even when Prabhupada came to India, what happened was, Prabhupada's hope was that seeing Americans becoming devotees or Westerners becoming devotees, Indians will also become devotees. But Prabhupada saw that did not happen.

He saw that Indians were very impressed. But there is a difference between being impressed and being inspired. They are very impressed, oh this Swamiji has made Americans into his disciples, must be a great person.

But still they were not ready to become Prabhupada's followers. So, Prabhupada was remarkably resourceful. That's when he came to India in 1968, then he came in 1970, and within a few months, Prabhupada adopted a significantly different approach from what he had adopted in the West.

In the West it was primarily do Harinam Sankirtan and distribute books and get people to join the temples. When Prabhupada saw that was not working, Prabhupada focused on making life members and building huge temples. So, he wanted them to be engaged.

If they are not ready to surrender, at least engage them. So, Prabhupada had his plan but his plan didn't work. Prabhupada was resourceful.

So, the point I am making is that if we become attached to our expectations, then we will feel abandoned by Krishna. But if we are not attached to our expectations, so it's like one extreme could be we have no expectations. We have no expectations, we have no plans.

If something happens, good. If something doesn't happen, it's also okay. We shouldn't be apathetic like that.

It's like Prabhupada's Guru Maharaj had told him, if nobody comes, preach to the walls. Now, Prabhupada could have said, maybe that is what my Guru Maharaj wants me to do throughout my life. I'll stay in India and preach to the walls.

I have no expectations from Krishna. No, Prabhupada wanted. So, just being completely apathetic in the name of having no expectations, that is also not a sign of serious devotion.

On the other hand, we become attached to expectations. Now, expectations means we become attached to our plans. Then that will make us agitated and that can make us feel abandoned.

Agitated, why is Krishna not doing anything? Why is Krishna not helping me? And abandoned means, oh, nothing is going to happen. I am all alone in this. But in between is what? Bhakti has this combination of on one side being faithful, on the other side being resourceful.

Faithful will lead us to being committed that I am going to do my part. Krishna is my Lord and I am his servant and there is nothing more for me in my life apart from this reality. So, to the extent we are faithful, we will be committed.

But at the same time, when we are resourceful, in the sense that we will be open to what opportunities come. And the resourcefulness will come in the form of we being curious, we being open. What opportunities is Krishna providing for me? This is what I want to do.

But if this is not working, then what else is there? So, Prabhupada followed his spiritual master's instruction. But Prabhupada was not attached to the letter of the instruction. The last half of his ISKCON life, 70s to 77, Prabhupada spent time in India.

Although his spiritual master had told him to preach in the West, in English. Prabhupada's focus was not just follow the letter. He saw that we want to, yes, we are having preaching in the West, but we need a supportive foundation in India.

And he felt that I will focus my energy on creating that supportive foundation here. So, now, for the Gopis, they are feeling abandoned by Krishna and they are desperately expressing their urge, Krishna please return. So, now, I'll talk about three points going back to the Gopis over here.

There is a tension in our tradition between, say, Chakravarthipada on one side and Jiva Goswami on the other side. To some extent, Rupa Goswami also is on one side. That there is the, they focus on the Parakheeras.

And what happened is, when the Gaudiya tradition emerged, to some extent, we were largely on the fringes of society. Mahaprabhu came and inspired many many people, wherever he went. At the same time, with general people, Mahaprabhu did not talk the philosophy.

He just gave them the holy name. But when those who started looking at our teachings, the idea of Parakheeras, that of Krishna having a relationship with those who are not bonded to him officially through marriage, that was quite controversial even in the past. So, Jiva Rupa Goswami, in his writings, to some extent, emphasizes how this shows the supreme love of the Gopis.

That, no, it is one thing to give up Dharma for Krishna. But it is quite another thing to give up Dharma for Krishna. It is one thing to give up bad things for Krishna.

It is another thing to give up good things for Krishna. And it is actually a far greater sacrifice to give up the reputation or the prestige or the honor that comes from being a good person. So, in that sense, the Gopis' sacrifice is extraordinary and exalted.

That the Parakheeras says that it is the supreme sacrifice. The sacrifice can be of the bad things. Things are more gross.

You can sacrifice good things. Bad things means we have unhealthy habits. Some people, many times when they give to charity, there is a Christian charity organizing called Salvation Army.

They are supposed to be for salvation, but now they focus more on social welfare. So, people often give their old clothes and old things that they are not using. So, that which is not so good for us, we give in charity.

That's one level we give bad things. Then we give the good things. That which is our best, we try to give it to Krishna.

We may have some jewelry ourselves, but then if the nudity of Krishna is coming, then we want to give the best jewelry to Krishna. So, giving up good things is a greater sacrifice. But then there are good subtle things.

That is, you can say that reputation, respect. To give that up is far more difficult. And especially to be actually very religious and to accept the label of being irreligious.

That is extremely difficult. So, that is a very high level sacrifice. So, the Parakheeras actually glorifies the extent of the love of the Gopis.

Now, of course, Krishna is always related with the Gopis because Krishna is the Lord of all living beings. Patim patinam paramam parastad. He is the Lord of everyone, including the Gopis.

So, the Parakheeras is emphasized by Rupa Goswami and Chakravarti Pada. Now, Jiva Goswami was later in the tradition, one generation later. And as our tradition became more well-established, we also had to start establishing our credibility in the eyes of the mainstream society of that time.

If we are just a small group doing certain things, I think I mentioned last time, in the 1980s, early 90s, some survey was done among Americans. What do you think about the Hare Krishnas? The cult movement was there, that we were labeled as a cult, but that was a small group of people. So, the mainstream perception was, it's just a jolly bunch of impractical people.

You know, they dance and sing, they seem to be happy, but they've got nothing to do with the real world. So, now, our devotees are more socially engaged. As our movement has become more established.

So, we participate in other social causes. We have a presence or a stand on issues that are relevant for us, especially with the whole thing happening in Bangladesh now. We realize that we can't just stay in our own bubble, thinking that we will just go toward Krishna.

We are a part of a larger society. So, we have to be socially engaged. We can't just expect society to help us when we need them.

So, when we need, we tell everyone, Oh, we are Hindus, please protect us. And we don't need them. Oh, we are not Hindus, we are transcendental.

You know, we cannot do like that. We will come off as very opportunistic and self-serving. So, we need to be more engaged.

So, as a movement becomes established, it needs to become more engaged with the broader world and what the broader world thinks about it. It matters. So, basically, that there are insiders in any tradition and there are outsiders.

Now, between insiders, there could be insiders who are teachers and there are insiders who are students. And there are outsiders. So, there are outsiders who may become students.

So, this is the main mode of outreach or what we call as preaching. Did I discuss this last time when I came here? No? Okay. So, generally speaking, in our movement, and that's true of any religious tradition, in the beginning, it is just focused on reaching those outsiders who are ready to become insiders.

So, the purpose of communicating with them is so that they become insiders. And that's important for every tradition. But then, especially in the 80s, late 80s, early 90s, we started to recognize that, you know, we have to also train our insiders.

There is so much more to learn. Otherwise, what happens is like we have a university where the same class is heard by the junior KG student and the same class is heard by the PhD level student. How can the PhD level student be satisfied by hearing what is meant for the LKG level? So, we realized that we need further scriptural education.

So, this is Shastra study. So, Bhakti Shastri, Bhakti Vaibhav, all this started. Prabhupada had envisioned it, but we had not really started it during his times.

So, we have started doing that to a substantial degree now. It has become systematized, especially for secondization, it is a requirement. But now, slowly, we are also becoming aware that all outsiders are not the same.

There are outsiders who are opinion leaders. They are already established in society and they may not become insiders, but they influence other outsiders. So, this, what outsiders who are teachers or leaders speak to other outsiders, that is our reputation.

Our reputation is not just determined by how we act. That is important. But generally, reputation is shaped by what others think about us and what they tell others.

So, when we were relatively a small group of people not connected with the larger world much, those who are interested, they will come, everyone else is in Maya, forget them. But now, we understand that even Maya has degrees, isn't it? There could be people in Maya who are completely hostile to us. There are people who are neutral to us and there are people who are supportive of us.

There is a big difference. So, in our own tradition, there is Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. So, we could say Sattva is more pro-devotional, Rajas is more non-devotional and Tamas is more anti-devotional.

So, the point is that there are people who may never become followers of our tradition. They may never become insiders, but they may influence significantly the perception of our tradition. So, for those people, we need to reach out to them also.

So, how do they see us? There may be some influential podcasters today. There may be Wikipedia as a reference point for people. There is ChatGPT where people go and search.

So, what do these sources of information and knowledge say about us and can we shape that? To some extent. So, that becomes a concern for a moment as it becomes more respected. So, Jiva Goswami was the first Acharya in our tradition who established something like a formal academy for teaching.

And he had many, many students who came to him from various places to learn. And that's why this parakheeras, it was very difficult for people to accept if they do not accept the insider aspects of our tradition. If they are not becoming insiders to say Krishna is transcendental and whatever he does is transcendental.

You know, the idea of the Gopi Krishna relationship being transcendental, that doesn't seem very persuasive for people who do not even understand or accept the idea of transcendence. So, therefore, from Jiva Goswami onwards, he started emphasizing how the parakheer was also actually in some ways a hidden swakheer. Hidden swakheer means what? That he says that three different ways it goes.

That the Gopis were actually secretly married to Krishna. And we know that the description of that happening at the Brahma Vimohan Leela. So, actually the relationship was not immoral because they were actually married.

Now, there is another tradition that it happened in Bhandirava and when we go there, Brahmaji performed the marriage of Krishna with Radharani. So, that's one way to say that actually that relationship is not immoral. The second way Jiva Goswami says is, he describes how when Krishna came back to Vrindavan after killing Dantavakra.

Not Dantavakra, Shupala Dantavakra. Dantavakra was killed near Mathura itself. Then Krishna came back and at that time there was a majestic wedding of Krishna with the Gopis.

And then after that all of them got on a chariot, the same chariot which Krishna had come on. They expanded the chariot or a similar chariot. They expanded the chariot and they came to Jamuna.

And from there Krishna took all the Vrajivasis back to the spiritual world. So, that Vrindavan Krishna went back to the spiritual world and Vasudeva Krishna crossed over and went back. And then fought in the Kurukshetra, participated in the Kurukshetra war and continued on.

So, he says that hidden swakheers, it happened before or it happened later. That they did get married. In this way he tries to explain that they are actually married.

So, now the question comes up, patisutanvaya bhratra bandhavan. So, is a woman meant to just abandon her family for the sake of Krishna? Is that something we recommend as a norm or as a standard? So, he uses elaborate grammatical analysis over here to say that there are many previous places where the Gopis are using the word vayam. Vayam means we.

And for example, when they talk about the dangers that they faced. Vishajalapayad, Vyalarakshasad. So, now they did not face those dangers.

Kaliya didn't propose a danger to them. It was the Gopas who had been poisoned. Then Vyalarakshasad, Aghasur.

So, they were not endangered by that. So, he takes those references and similar references to say that actually when the Gopis are referring to pati and sutanvaya, they are using it in a collective sense. Because the whole idea is Gopya uchhu.

So, there were Gopis who were married and there were Gopis who were unmarried. And those who came to see Krishna were the Gopis who were unmarried. Because there were the Gopis who were restrained and they could not come.

All the Gopis wanted to come, but some Gopis could come, some Gopis could not come. And he says that those Gopis who came were not Gopis who were married. But because they were all a part of the community of Gopis who had started off in responding to Krishna's call.

So, Gopis are using it in a collective sense. So, the concern over here is that there is a tension between Dharma and Moksha. And this tension comes to the forefront in Bhakti.

See, Dharma is more associated with the Karma Marga. The idea of Dharma is, by living according to the principles of Dharma, we will have peace and prosperity in this world. Krishna comes to establish Dharma in this world.

The Moksha is associated more with the Gyan Marga. Now, Gyan Marga holds that peace and prosperity, what is the use of it? Ultimately, this world is Dukkhalaya. And this world is not just dangerous in the sense that padam padam yad vipadam, but it is also treacherous.

Treacherous in the sense that the very things that promise pleasure in this world, they entangle us. So, Dharma is about world transforming. That we can transform the world.

And we are meant to transform the world. Krishna says this world is Dukkhalaya. But if that were the key truth of the Bhagavad Gita, then we could say this world is Dukkhalaya.

The more dukkhi the world becomes, the better it is. Isn't it? The more miserable the world becomes, the more people will want to get out of it. The more disorderly, the more chaotic, the more cruel the world becomes, the better it is.

Then why does Krishna come to establish Dharma? Dharma samsthaapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge. So, transforming the world is the focus of Dharma. And now, Moksha is more world transcending.

That whatever you do in this world, it's all temporary. Nothing is going to last forever. So, why bother? Just turn away from the world, renounce the world.

So, it's a world transcending ethos. Now, in the Bhakti tradition, both these ideas are integrated. Some aspects of world transformation are there in Bhakti.

And some aspects of world transcending are there. Krishna talks about Dharma repeatedly. Lokasangraha, maintenance of the world.

Svakarmanatam abhyarje, he talks about it. But then he also talks about attaining Mayabodha. Many, many times he talks about it.

So, why are we talking about this right now over here? I'm going back to this point over here that when we are functioning in this world, when we feel sometimes abandoned by God, as the Gopis are feeling. I talked about how Jiva goes Swami, Rupa goes Swami. They cared about their reputation.

Why? Because generally, when initially we are functioning in the world, as a starting of the movement, we just want to transcend the world. There's one devotee, one Prabhupada disciple. He told me that the way Prabhupada would preach, there was a notion in our movement that the more unpopular we were, the more that was proof of our purity.

So, unpopularity was seen as a proof of purity. Now, is that true? Well, it is possible that sometimes we follow some pure principles and we become unpopular because of that. But it's also possible that we are just being insensitive and irresponsible and dogmatic and radical and that's why we are unpopular.

Isn't it? So, yes, the pure positions may not always be popular. But just because A leads to B, does not mean B is caused only by A. Or B is the proof of A. This is a false argument. It's like, okay, if it rains, the pavement will be wet.

But that does not mean because the pavement is wet, it rained yesterday. You know, there could be a leak in your pipeline in the house and you have to fix that. Isn't it? There could be many other causes.

So, for us to say that we are unpopular, that is the proof we are pure. That is perverse logic. We need to be concerned about our reputation.

And right from the start of our tradition, we see this. In fact, it goes so much forward that while Mahaprabhu said that there is no need for any commentary on the Vedanta Sutra because the Bhagavatam is a natural commentary. By the time it came to Baldevidya Bhushan's time, the very credibility of our tradition was questioned by the Ramanandis.

And Baldevidya Bhushan had to write a commentary. Nobody else would accept the argument that a Bhagavatam is a natural commentary. They saw it simply as your rationalization for not having a commentary.

So, Baldevidya Bhushan saw that we were losing credibility. And he wrote a commentary. Was he defying or rejecting Mahaprabhu's teachings? No.

He saw the need of the organization, need of the tradition at that particular time. So, for all of us also, when we feel abandoned by Krishna at some times, that it is for us to take responsibility. The Gopis are in a situation, they have tried searching for Krishna.

And they have not found Krishna. Now, they are calling out to Krishna. Although they feel abandoned by Krishna, they have not just given up.

Oh, maybe Krishna doesn't care for us. Krishna, how can you do this? By saying this, they are endeavoring. So, the Gopis' endeavoring comes in two ways.

One is searching, which they have already done. And now it is calling. So, like that, at our level, when we feel abandoned by Krishna, we need to endeavor ourselves.

Instead of just saying, Oh, I am feeling abandoned by you, Krishna. No, that is not a valid principle. If we want to, I will take three verses in the last session.

I wanted to focus on this theme today. I will just make two more quick points before I summarize. That when we live in the world, if we really want to adopt the Jnana way, that this world is completely, it is all a temporary place, if nothing ever lasts in this world, then we should not, if we are really authentically at that level, then we should not be disturbed.

If we hear news of, say, temples being destroyed, or devotees or Hindus being killed, or all these kind of things keep happening in the world. So, if we are at that level, that a spiritually informed response can be at the level of equanimity. Equanimity is, things keep happening in this world.

This thing goes wrong, that thing goes wrong. All these things keep going wrong in this world. And we should not get disturbed by it.

At the same time, what happens sometimes is that we say, Oh, don't be disturbed. That, oh, things keep happening in this world. This temple was destroyed, that happened, that happened.

Be equanimity. Have equanimity. And then our prasad comes five minutes late, we become agitated.

So, we cannot artificially pretend to be at that level. If somebody is at that level of equanimity, that's perfectly fine. So, this Krishna talks about, say, 256.

But there is also empathy. Empathy is what Krishna talks about in 632. That, what he says is, the topmost yogis see the true equality of all living beings in their happiness and in their distress.

So, if somebody is threatened, somebody is being tortured, somebody is being killed, if we were in that position, we would feel pain. Their pain is similar to our pain. And their relief will be similar to our relief.

So, equanimity is more about disinvestment of emotion. We don't invest our emotions. But this is more like a spiritual investment of emotions.

We care for others. And we care not at a mundane level, but we don't reject the mundane level simply by calling it mundane. We care for the full person.

So, the material level is also included in that. Now, the Gopis, when they are feeling abandoned by Krishna, they do what they can. They keep calling out to Krishna and Krishna comes.

Now, we know the Gopis spoke 19 verses and then Krishna returned. The Gopis don't know that we have to speak only 5 more verses and Krishna will come. So, they don't know when Krishna is going to come.

But they are going to call out to Krishna till he comes. So, for all of us, we also, when we feel abandoned by Krishna at times, we may individually feel abandoned, we may feel collectively abandoned. But we, at that time, we put aside that feeling of abandonment with humility.

That okay, I don't understand what Krishna is doing. But Krishna has some plan. So, I will keep calling out to Krishna.

I will keep doing my part. Now, Prabhupada, when he was walking on the streets in Delhi, a cow hit him. And he was knocked down completely.

Now, generally a cow is a very gentle animal. And Prabhupada spoke so much about protecting cows and other things in his own books. So, why would he be hit by a cow? Prabhupada says in one conversation with Tamal Krishna Maharaj, at that time, Prabhupada says, I was asking, why is this happening to me? That was not a sign of Prabhupada not having faith.

That was Prabhupada wondering what Krishna's plan is. What does Krishna want me to do? But Prabhupada never lost hope. He kept trying.

He kept trying and Prabhupada, he faced more reversals in his outreach efforts than what probably anyone else has suffered. And then Krishna, in his own time, gave him more success than what anyone else has got. So, for us, devotion, there are two aspects to it.

There is our determination. And then there is our expectation. So, with respect to determination, we need to be firm.

With respect to expectation, we need to be flexible. That, sometimes what happens is, our determination is weak and our expectation is very high. Krishna, I won't do this, I won't do that, but Krishna, you should do this for me.

It's not that we have to have low expectations from Krishna. It is when we say, don't be attached to expectations. That doesn't mean that Krishna will never reciprocate.

That Krishna's plan is such that we will never understand and nothing will happen in a way that we understand ever. But with respect to our expectations, we need to be flexible. So, the gopis have given up everything for Krishna.

They have shown their determination. And when Krishna seems to abandon them, they have not lost faith. They are waiting, they are calling out and they are waiting for Krishna to come.

And Krishna will reciprocate in his own due time. How it will work? So, we could see when we are expecting, when it is, when our expectations are flexible, there is a certain level of uncertainty. Now, that uncertainty we can see that can cause insecurity to us.

What's going to happen, I don't know. But that uncertainty, we can also embrace it in a mood of adventure. That, okay, let's see what Krishna's plan is.

Let's see what Krishna will do. I will do my part and let's see what Krishna will do. So, if we can embrace this spirit of adventure in our service to Krishna, then we will find that so many more vistas will open.

Otherwise, without that feeling of adventure, we will just be caught. You know, if I do this, will Krishna reciprocate or not? Should I do this or not? And if I do this, what is going to happen? We will just get too caught in our own head. And we will not be able to move forward.

So, Prabhupada embraced the spirit of adventure when he went to America. आच्छे किछु कार जे तबे एही अनुमाने. It is my guess.

It is my inference. You must have some purpose for me, Krishna. नहें केनो आनी बेना एही उग्रस थाने.

Otherwise, why would you bring me here? So, Prabhupada had that spirit of adventure as his followers. It is important that we have that spirit of missionary, spirit of preaching, of expanding the Krishna consciousness movement. But while we are attempting that, that spirit of adventure is vital.

Otherwise, we will be paralyzed or crippled within our attempts by our attachment to our expectations. So, I will summarize what I discussed. I talked about four distinct points today.

First was, I talked about the loving actions of the gopis. As their love is through our words and even through our actions. So, actions are, what they have sacrificed.

They have given up their family. They have come because Krishna called. Not that they came on their own.

Then, they are women who are alone in the forest. It is night time. So, in multiple ways, they are saying, Krishna, how can you abandon us? So, that is the fervency of their call by expressing the urgency of their situation.

And then, we talked about that feeling, that when we feel abandoned by God. When we feel abandoned, we can see that in any relationship, there is, in our relationship with Krishna, there is reciprocation. So, reciprocation can be either transformational or it can be transactional.

We want our relationship with Krishna to be transformational. Now, when we understand Krishna's infinitude, that Krishna is infinite, he is greatest, then that can lead to our expectations increasing or it can lead to our humility increasing. Now, if our expectations increase, that will lead to increase in frustration and Krishna doesn't seem to reciprocate.

Now, humility means that we will be in devotion. We can have expectations. But we are not attached to our expectations.

So, when we avoid that attachment, then we can move forward. And we discussed with respect to the attachment from that expectations. So, what does it mean? That Krishna will take care of everything? No, we talked about our endeavor.

So, there I talked about how there is swakya parakya tension and why that came up and how it was resolved. So, we have Chakravarthipada and before him Rupa Goswami focusing on the glory of the Gopi's love by emphasizing the parakiyaras. And Jiva Goswami, so here it was the glory of the love.

That was the focus. And Jiva Goswami's focus was more on the Krishna's and the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition's reputation. How it is seen.

And as he said, in various ways that actually the swakya parakya is swakya. That they were married before, three things I said, that they were married before, they were married later and those who came were not the married Gopis. So, the idea is that we discuss this insider teachers, insider students, outsider teachers and outsider students.

So, there is preaching, there is education and there is reputation also. So, we need to be concerned about our reputation. And we shouldn't say that my purity is seen in my unpopularity.

Of course, it's not true that our popularity is a proof for our purity also. It is complex causality. We have to evaluate the cause.

And last part, I talked about for us, how do we function. So, what does our endeavour mean for us in our situation? We can range in our responses when we are facing difficulties from equanimity to empathy. That when we feel abandoned by Krishna or when we feel those whom we are connected with are seemingly abandoned by Krishna, we can have equanimity, that is more of the jnana approach.

Not that we are being jnanis, but the jnana approach is this world is anyway a place of dukkhale. The karma approach would be more of empathy, wherein we act to, we don't focus on transcending the world, but on transforming the world. So, for each one of us, when we are practicing bhakti, how exactly we act will vary.

But the broad principle is our determination needs to be firm and our expectation needs to be flexible. So, by this combination, we discuss how Prabhupada also in many ways was flexible when he went to America about whom his target audience would be. When he came to India, what he could expect from his target audience.

He was flexible and that's how he spread. So, Krishna will reciprocate, but in his own way, in his own time. And by keeping our expectations flexible, we will have in our bhakti, not a sense of insecurity, but a sense of adventure.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Is there any one quick question? Hare Krishna, Prabhuji.

Thanks for wonderful class, Prabhuji. Prabhuji, like outside, okay, we can't exhibit anything, Prabhuji. But inside, Prabhuji, how much we think that we have to keep the things flexible.

But it is not possible, Prabhuji. Like, something we set in, something we made plan in our mindset means that we will stick for that plan only, Prabhuji. But we can't take it in a flexible way, Prabhuji.

How we can overcome it, Prabhuji? Like something that is going against that plan means we will definitely feel upset, Prabhuji. Yes, I am not saying that we will not feel upset. See, human emotions are natural.

And Krishna says, for example, na praharishet priyam prapya, no dvijet prapya cha priyam. So, don't be elated when you get something desirable. And don't be dejected when you get something undesirable.

So, what this means is, we will still pursue some things to be desirable and some things to be undesirable. It's not that perception itself is deadened. That there are natural human emotions.

Now, when somebody treats us courteously and respectfully, we naturally feel in a particular way and somebody is rude and dismissive, we feel a different way. So, Krishna is not telling us in the name of spiritual growth, we have to banish all normal human emotions. So, that priya and apriya perception is there.

But Krishna is saying, don't go to emotional extremes because of that. Na praharishet. Oh, this person honors me.

This is the best person in the world. You know, you are my best friend because you respected me. You disrespected me.

There is no more horrible person in the world than this. You have committed a vaishnavapradha. You are going to go to hell now.

Now, don't go to extremes like that. So, there will be normal human emotions and those human emotions, we need to address them. Sometimes, if we are feeling very burdened or very down or dejected, then we talk with some devotees.

It's not just bhakti, it's not just an individual effort. It is, yes, we are individuals. Ultimately, we have to fight our own, fly our own plane as Prabhupada said.

But we have the support of the community. So, gohiyam akhyati puchchati. What does that mean? When something is agitating us too much, so, there is apriya and apriya is leading to no dvijet.

We are becoming dejected because of that. Then we need to talk with someone. Talk with someone and get a proper perspective and try to understand it.

And if we are in a responsible position, if we are taking up some responsible role, see, one of the misapplications of too much of the jnana way of looking at things, coming into bhakti is that, if somebody comes to us with a practical problem and we give them a philosophical solution. It's prasadam time and we go to the kitchen for prasadam. There is no prasadam today.

There is no prasadam. What happened? We go to the kitchen manager and say, chant Hare Krishna and be happy. Now, if there is a practical problem, what should happen is, there can be a philosophical perspective to see the problem.

But if we are in a responsible position, then we also have to come up with a practical solution. Otherwise, don't be in that responsible position. Say, if I am not the manager of a particular place, and somebody comes with some disturbance, some issue in the community, I can give them a philosophical perspective by which they can make sense of it.

They can learn to live with it. But if it's a serious problem, somebody who is a manager in that place has to actually deal with that problem. Isn't it? So there is a difference between how the brahmanas deal with and kshatriyas.

Now, I don't want to equate brahmanas and kshatriyas with the devotees who manage the kshatriya. All devotees are transcendental, but they are playing a particular role at a particular time. So, when some atrocity is happening, when the Pandavas have been subjected to so many atrocities, Draupadi has been dishonored, when Krishna says, tam sthitikshaso bharat, tolerate.

The implication of that is not tolerate the atrocities the Kauravas have committed. Tolerate the fact that you will have to fight against Bhishma and Drona, but still keep fighting. So the thing is, if in our home, in our family, in our job, which is our source of livelihood, then we are facing some big difficulty.

Then we have to come up with a practical solution. But, a philosophical perspective can help us to decrease our agitation level till the practical solution works out. So, if suddenly we lose a job, now we want to get a new job, but it may take some time.

During that time we could go to extreme agitation, but if we have a supportive devotee community, we talk with someone, they give us some perspectives, then that can help us stay calm. So yes, at a practical level, if we are in a responsible role, then we can't just be satisfied by giving or getting philosophical perspectives. In that responsible role, we have to take practical action.

Does it answer your question? You wanted to add something? So, thank you very much.