Lessons in love from Krishna-gopis relationship

[Bhagavatam class on 11.12.11 at ISKCON, Washington DC, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
At least some part of it Hare Krishna Seek the blessings of Anuttama Prabhu Senior Vaishnavas here so that I can Speak on this very exalted Section of the Bhagavatam So Coincidence as it is said There are Krishna’s ways of staying anonymous Coincidentally This is one of my most favourite Verses from the Bhagavatam In fact these four verses Starting from the 10th to the 13th They are considered to be Like the Chatur Shloki Uddhav Gita Just like we have a Chatur Shloki Bhagavad Gita 10.8 to 11 11.12 10 to 13 This is considered to be like The four verse essence Of the Uddhav Gita The Uddhava is being Given instructions by Krishna And that spans almost the entire Canto, 11th Canto Which is after the 10th Canto Which is nearly the Biggest Canto, the 3rd and the 11th are the biggest Cantos after the 10th From almost the 7th Chapter to the 30th Chapter The Uddhav Gita goes across And this chapter Talks about the glory of devotion And The title is beyond knowledge and renunciation So what is right beyond knowledge and renunciation? That is Bhakti Bhakti is beyond Jnana And beyond Vairagya And towards the start of this chapter Krishna gives examples Of how Bhakti Transcends and trumps All material designations And segregations How even Beings from animal species like monkeys Who assisted Lord Ram How even People who are considered very low grade Even All kinds of people, they can take shelter of The Lord through Bhakti and they can attain Perfection And then after talking about these devotees In various species, in various castes In various parts of the universe Then Krishna Talks about his dear most devotees So In a sense This section is like the Backward glance of Krishna Krishna Is now going to depart From this world And from the 11th canto onwards We go back to the 10th canto The heart is Rasa Panchadhyay Chapters 29 to 33 Krishna’s intimate pastimes with the Gopis And And When Krishna departs from Vrindavan Which is what is described in the previous verse So When the son of Swapalka Akrura came to take The Gopis away from Krishna Krishna away from the Gopis Then the Gopis were devastated Just couldn’t live Without him So in the Bhagavatam in that section So at that time it is described When the Gopis became separated from Krishna Viraha Viraha Viraha is separation They became extremely agitated by that Brisham is heavy agitation Unbearable agitation So what happened? They gave up all considerations of Shyness and shame So Lajja can mean shame It can mean shyness So normally Normally The culture that is depicted At the time of Krishna and Vrindavan It is quite a socially conservative culture There are no Public displays of affection between Men and women even when they are married to each other What to speak of when they are not married So The Gopis are not Gopis They are very close to Krishna But the whole Vraja Leela is arranged in such a way That in order to intensify the love Between Krishna and the Gopis Actually there is separation I’ll come to this point a little later again But the point is the Gopis had Always hidden their affection for Krishna Of course They don’t have a direct relationship with him They are teenage girls, Krishna is a teenage boy So they would meet secretly at various places But they would never publicly Show their affection for Krishna But at this point When they saw Krishna was about to depart And nobody was stopping them Stopping him Then They just give up all Sense of shyness Just ran forward to Krishna In public And just begged to Krishna, stop Krishna You cannot go How can you leave us and go like this If you are going to go Your chariot will have to go over our bodies And they lay down in front of Krishna On his chariot So at that time A Virahatura Prashanth That actually they were undergoing great Great agony The agony of the prospect of separation Of Krishna itself was unbearable And they begged Krishna, please do not go So that Govinda Damodara Madhaveti They chanted Krishna’s name Govinda Damodara Madhava And The poet Bilwamangal Thakur Has taken this verse as a seed And he has written a Beautiful composition called the Govinda Damodara Sutra and he envisions In his mystic devotional Trance that How devotees in different situations When they are put in danger They all call out to Krishna Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, so his whole 65-70 verses which he has composed The Govinda Damodara Sutra, all of them Have this chorus, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti So the Gopis Are intensely separated from Krishna Their consciousness completely attached to him And Because their emotion Was so deep So they just couldn’t Tolerate separation from Krishna So actually The Love of the Gopis for Krishna Is arranged in such a way That It is Demonstrated that it is the Topmost love There are some people I was once I had gone to a Hindu programme And there they were reciting the Bhagavad Gita 18th chapter And there they recited They came to the 18th chapter, 66th verse Sarva Adharman Parityajya Mamey Kamsharnam Vraja So they change Sarva Adharman Parityajya Sarva Adharman Parityajya So I asked them what happened Why are you reciting Adharman So it is Dharma I said no, there is some Gita commentator Who has said that actually Krishna has come to Establish Dharma So how can Krishna tell us to give up Dharma So what Krishna is telling us, give up Adharma So there that scholar’s Argument was that traditionally While the Bhagavad Gita was written down Generation after generation Some transcriber of the Gita Some scribe forgot to put a And that’s why what was originally Sarva Adharman Parityajya Has become Sarva Dharman Parityajya He says give up all Irreligiosity and surrender to Krishna But actually This understanding might seem Logical but It doesn’t fit in the context of the Gita For Arjuna he was called as Anagha, he was a sinless person And for Arjuna there was no question Of doing any Adharma at all But Arjuna’s Conflict at the start of the Gita was Two Dharmas were pulling him Into two different directions.
He had his Kshatriya Dharma which required him to Fight against aggressors and he had his Kula Dharma which required him To protect the members of his dynasty Kula Dharma is Duty to one’s dynasty. So These two Dharmas were in Conflict. So It was not a conflict between Dharma and Adharma for Arjuna It was a conflict between two Dharmas And Krishna’s answer to Arjuna Is that, Krishna is telling about Dharma But actually the topmost Dharma Is Maha Mekam Sharanam Rajya So therefore if you are confused, should I do this Dharma Should I do that Dharma, just forget all These technicalities and surrender to me Surrender to me doesn’t mean become Adharmic.
It means take Up that Dharma by which You can execute that surrender to me So in Arjuna’s specific context it was by Doing the Kshatriya Dharma, just by Fighting. So it is Sarva Dharmaan Parittajya Maha Mekam Sharanam Rajya. And The same principle of 18.66 is demonstrated By the Gopis When they leave everything For Krishna 18.66 In the Gopi Gita, the Gopis pray that Krishna we left everything for you Our husbands, our brothers, our sisters Our friends Our family members We left all of it To come to you O Lord Achyuta And why did we come? They heard the flute of Krishna Calling him And when they heard the flute of Krishna calling them Then Now they are using the word Udgita Mohita.
It is a loud Sound of the flute Actually Flute doesn’t emit a very loud sound Now Guruji was playing harmonium so Sweetly now. Somebody said the sound Of the harmonium was so loud Well normally loud would not be considered A compliment for harmonium music We would consider sweet As a compliment for harmonium music So the Gopis are saying Krishna your flute song was so loud Udgita Mohita So why loud? Because you know When there is love Even the softest words Are heard very clearly So because the Gopis Love Krishna so much They are so tuned to Krishna Even when they hear the sound of Krishna’s flute At that time That one sound Blinds them to everything References them to everything else You know A mother may be working Doing some house work or doing some office work from home And then suddenly she hears A little cry, Mummy A very soft cry but for the mother That one cry when she hears She will run from wherever she is to see What has happened to my child So when there is love even a small sound Appears very loud And sometimes when there is no love The other person may shout And still the other person doesn’t understand What is being said So the Gopis because of their love They are just attracted towards Krishna And when they hear his flute They are telling Krishna Krishna we left everything for you And now you have left us And gone away What kind of person are you? Even with ordinary morality A man is meant to protect women And here you have left us All alone in the forest At night How can a man abandon Women right in the forest like that Please come back Krishna They are fervently begging Krishna The point which I am making over here is that The Gopis It is one thing to give up The bad for God We may all have some sinful habits We may all have some Anti-devotional tendencies And we give them up for Krishna And that is good, that is essential There comes a time when we not only need to give up The bad for God But we also have to give up the good for God Giving up the good for God Does not mean we become bad It means that God becomes More important than good for us So There is immoral, there is moral And there is trans-moral There is consideration Higher than morality And that is service to Krishna Service to Krishna does not mean Immorality is below morality Whereas trans-morality is Above morality So when the Gopis Leave their family members For going to Krishna Somebody might say they are so irresponsible They have left everything for Krishna They are not irresponsible That is supreme fulfilment Of what every soul can do So now at one level Why is it arranged like this That Krishna could very well have married the Gopis And then There could have been natural Loving interactions between them But Krishna through the eternal Setting of Vrindavan, goal of Vrindavan Demonstrated this That bhakti Is beyond dharma That’s why So love Love is naturally Expressed through various situations But love is Expressed and experienced more Intensely When there are obstacles to love So God is a supreme being And for him There can be no obstacles But in Vrindavan Just for the intensification Of love Everything is arranged in such a way that The love between Krishna and his devotees Can be intensified So just as one arrangement is Yashodamai forgets that Krishna is God In the background of her awareness She knows Krishna is God But in the foreground she thinks he is my child And if I don’t feed him He will die So now that forgetfulness of Krishna’s Divinity is arranged by Yoga Maya So that The love can flow unimpeded So everything In goal of Vrindavan is arranged in such a way That the love Can reign supreme So even God conceals His supremacy so that love Can reign supreme So Krishna does not act as God in Vrindavan He acts as just a beautiful Lovable cowherd boy And his divinity is concealed So that Yashodamai can love her Like her child This concealment of divinity Is there for the sake Of intensification of the maternal love Similarly There is the Intensification of There is the special arrangement For the intensification Of amorous love Madhuryaras Actually is The attraction between male and female The sweetness of that Attraction And as the Gopis are not married Bhaktiswami Swarthakur Gopis are not married to Krishna Krishna Would translate this Madhurya As amorous Amorous means attraction between male and female Now Prabhupada Translated as conjugal Technically conjugal refers to The Relationship between a husband and a wife Conjugal affection The Gopis are not Married to Krishna as his wives And yet Prabhupada uses the word Conjugal because even in Leela Prabhupada focusses on Tattva. So we can consider Vrindavan to be like a drama All this has to be very carefully Understood.
Say in real life There is a couple Husband and wife, they are happily married to each other But in a drama They are acting As if this wife is married to Someone else, this husband is Not married and they are having a relationship In real life They are married to each other But within the drama For the purpose of the drama It acts as if they are not having A marital relationship. They are having Some other relationship. So Krishna And the Gopis in Tattva They are eternally related As Lord and Devotees.
And that is the philosophical Truth. Krishna is the lord Of all living beings and he is the lord Of the Gopis also. So from The point of Tattva, there is nothing Objectionable.
It is The perfection of all relationship For the Gopis to be devoted to Krishna But for the purpose of Leela It is arranged as if the Gopis Do not belong to Krishna. The Gopis belong To someone else. What happens by that? By that The obstacle is created In their loving union And that obstacle increases The intensity of the affection Just as an elephant When a small elephant is there And it is tied to a tree And then it pulls and pulls When it faces an obstacle Then there is Greater internal realisation And outer Expression of that strength.
How strong the elephant is The elephant itself may not know and others may not know But if the elephant wants to go somewhere Desperately and then it is tied To a tree and the elephant pulls And pulls and pulls And then a giant tree just crashes down Then the whole world My God, how powerful that elephant is So the elephant is How powerful I am, I didn’t know I was so strong So when there is an obstacle To the elephant then there is Internal realisation And there is external expression Of the strength of the elephant Similarly When Dharma itself Becomes an obstacle For the Gopis’ expression of love For Krishna And then the Gopis They pull and break The tree of Dharma Metaphorically speaking Dharma is considered to be very important For a woman to be chaste to her husband Almost everywhere in the Bhagavatam Where women are talked about A primary virtue about them that is talked about is chastity And yet When the Gopis are ready to Give up even chastity For the sake of Krishna Then there is No greater demonstration Of the power of their love So actually they are not unchaste So ultimately everyone Belongs to Krishna And in the spiritual sense They are completely chaste to Krishna But in the sense of Leela That obstacle is arranged So that the Gopis’ love for Krishna Can be intensified So for those who truly Understand what is going on The Gopis giving up their family members For Krishna’s sake That is not immoral That is transmoral That is the perfection Of one’s loving propensity That one is ready to Give up everything for Krishna’s sake Not only Adharma But also Dharma Now when the Gopis give up Everything like this for Krishna’s sake And what does Krishna do initially? Krishna disappears Now the Gopis Have given up everything for Krishna And then Krishna Has given them up The Gopis are devastated In any Loving relationship There is always some amount of Insecurity Because we can’t Know another person’s heart And that’s why we can’t know Whether that person loves us or not Now we love that person But whether that person loves us or not We just can’t know because we can’t see their heart And then that creates insecurity So Now some person might say Oh I love you Even when they say I love you Whether they really mean it or not They might just say we say you to pacify us How do we know that? But say If there is a relationship between A and B And A tells not B that I love you So Krishna tells the Gopis also In such an incredible way Towards the end of Raas Nila Krishna says to the Gopis That I cannot Repay you Normally it is Krishna who is maintaining All of us and it is we who are meant To serve him but Krishna tells the Gopis your service for me Is so extraordinary So Unparalleled So So incredible that There is nothing I can do to repay you So God Who is Lakshmipati who has everything In the world He feels so obliged He is saying I can’t repay you I can’t repay you So This is a Declaration that Krishna loves Krishna knows, Krishna loves, Krishna cares Krishna appreciates Krishna cherishes This is such a Reassuring Realisation for the Gopis So when such words are spoken They themselves are reassuring But say when there is a relationship between A and B And A tells C how much I love you And then C tells B that is even more reassuring Because When A is simply speaking to B That might simply just be out of Etiquette, out of courtesy But when A is speaking to C There is no obligation over there There is simply spontaneous Expression So this is like that In this section when Krishna is speaking To Uddhava And he is saying here He is appreciating how much the Gopis Suffered for his sales He is saying I was the dearest to all of them I was the dearest to all of them Many people may be dear to us But Krishna needs to be the Dearmost So When we were together in Vrindavan At that time they felt And when I was with them The whole night which I spent with them It appeared just like a moment But then So Krishna is acknowledging That when I left the Gopis and went away It was like every moment For them was like Kalpasama It was like a whole day of Brahma It was unbearable for them So when we are going through difficulties Sometimes we may feel does Krishna know Does Krishna care But statements like this can reassure us Krishna is knowing what the Gopis are going through And Krishna appreciates that As the testimony To their love And The next verse Krishna gives the example That how were the Gopis How were the Gopis absorbed in Krishna He says And here there is a classic example Which is often thought of as an impersonalist example That just as rivers enter into the ocean Similarly The Gopis They were completely Absorbed in me Now this example Actually although it is Mentioned in Upanishad, Katha Upanishad Just as the rivers enter into the ocean Similarly the soul on liberation enters into the absolute truth It is mentioned there The Vaishnavas also talk about this example For example Kunti Maharani says that In 1.8.42 she states that In 1.8.42 she states that Just as The Ganga constantly flows towards the ocean Let my consciousness flow towards you This is from the devotees perspective In third canto Kapiladeva also speaks this That just as The Ganga flows towards the ocean Similarly the consciousness of my devotees flows towards me So see the impersonalists Use this example To substantiate the point of merging That the water enters into the ocean And then the drop Merges with the ocean The Vaishnavas take the same example And their focus is not on merging It is on flowing Just as the river keeps flowing towards the ocean Similarly A devotee’s consciousness Keeps flowing towards Krishna So the example itself is neutral The example is simply talking about The river going towards the ocean The point is not necessarily merging The point is The point is meeting So just as there is a constant So this example when Krishna Is giving it, he is not talking about Merging of beings He is talking about the meeting of hearts The Gopi’s heart is constantly Moving towards Krishna So just as The sages in deep absorption They become absorbed in Mystic trance in the absolute truth And their consciousness flows towards The absolute Similarly Just as the water Flows towards the ocean Similarly the Gopi’s became absorbed Now we may say that Wait a minute The Gopi’s are far more exalted than the sages The Gopi’s are top most devotees Then why is Krishna Comparing the Gopi’s with the sages See the Bhagavatam Is spoken to a particular audience And Uddhava Krishna is speaking See the Bhagavad Gita Talks about in broad sense From Karma to Bhakti It talks about Karma Yoga And it evolves to Bhakti Yoga That is the flow, overall flow of the Bhagavad Gita That is why there is In the beginning And there is In the end The Bhagavad Gita progresses from Karma Yoga To Bhakti Yoga On the other hand The Uddhava Gita progresses largely from Gyana Yoga to Bhakti Yoga The contexts are different In the context Of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna has to fight a war And Krishna says if you fight at the level of Karma Yoga that is good If you fight at the level of Bhakti Yoga that is best Now in the Uddhava Gita The context is very different The context is Krishna is going to depart from the world The Yadu dynasty has been destroyed Uddhava is all alone Krishna wants his associates To leave the world now So the focus in the Uddhava Gita is Best to renounce the world Now Gyana is good to renounce the world Because when you understand that This world is temporary With its philosophical knowledge You will renounce the world But to renounce the world with Bhakti is the best Because the context is different The stress is different The whole mood of the Bhagavatam The Bhagavatam has been spoken to Parikshit Maharaj When a person is about to die And at that point Parikshit Maharaj Doesn’t need to hear about Karma Yoga He doesn’t need to hear about How to act responsibly in the world At that time when a person is about to die The whole world is a distraction The focus is on Just focussing on transcendence So in that sense The Uddhava Gita’s focus is on Gyana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga Or from Gyana Yoga to Bhakti Yoga We have to renounce the world Renounce it through Gyana Yoga Or renounce it through Bhakti Yoga Bhakti Yoga is best If you can’t do it, renounce it through Gyana Yoga That’s why Gyana Yoga is taken as a reference point And then Bhakti Yoga is shown as higher So Krishna is giving the example He is comparing the Gopis with the sages Because in the conventional situation at that time The sages who have renounced the world Are considered exalted And ordinary people may not think of the Gopis As such exalted people So Krishna therefore by comparing The Gopis with them Is pointing out in that cultural context The glory of the Gopis Don’t think that they are simply Some household women. They were exalted devotees And the last verse Which is 13th verse Mat Kamaramanam Jaram Aswaroop Vidobalah No sorry not this one Yeah this one only Aswaroop Vidobalah Brahmamam Paramam Prapusangachat Sahasrashah He says The Gopis thought of me As simply their lover And yet although they thought of me as my lover They understood me They attained me as they would attain the absolute truth Because their love Was not mundane. Their love was transcendent So I conclude with two points First is that Separation Does to love What Wind does to fire You know When there is a big forest fire At that time a wind comes The forest fire just spreads further and further And further So like that for the Gopis Their love for Krishna is like a forest fire And when they are separated from Krishna That separation causes further Intensification of their love And in that way The Gopis love becomes deeper and deeper More and more They become more absorbed in Krishna Remembering Krishna more and more In the Padyavali There is a verse which says Radharani is envisioned as saying that I prefer separation to Krishna I prefer Krishna over union with Krishna Why? Because when I am united with Krishna I can see him only in one place But when I am separated from him I can see him everywhere So this is Separation does to love What wind does to fire However If the fire is not a forest fire If the fire is the flame of a candle Then that same wind Will extinguish the fire So our love Is like the flame of a candle If we separate ourselves from Krishna If we go away from devotees Separation by love will increase It won’t happen like that For us we need the association of devotees In the association of devotees Our love will increase But in principle we can understand How separation can Also intensify love And sometimes if we are put in a situation Where we are separated from devotees We can see that also as an opportunity To increase our appreciation for their association Whenever we get it And if we have that attitude Then at time also separation can intensify our affection And the second point is That as devotees We are struggling against our mind Against our senses We are trying to follow the rules and regulations So it It can be a very Uphill struggle And when the struggle becomes too intense Our mind and senses keep troubling us again and again The world keeps troubling us again and again And Krishna seems Very far away Krishna seems very far away Sometimes we feel Krishna only cares for his pure devotees Does Krishna care for me at all So Anirudh just invited me For an interfaith dialogue The day before yesterday He was telling one of his experiences He said that one of the Christians After one of their dialogues He told him that we talk so much about how much Jesus loves us But he says what I have seen in you Hare Krishna devotees You focus on how to love Krishna How to love God So every relationship has these two parts That you know If we connect with God God loves us and we love God Or we try to love God So the process of sadhana Bhakti is all our Trying to love God And when we are struggling to focus our consciousness on Krishna To offer our affection to Krishna Sometimes We may not really That point that Krishna also loves us That we may not appreciate it so much So there has to be a balance Now if you only focus on Krishna loves me And I don’t do anything to love Krishna That is not going to work Some people think oh love means there should be freedom Now if God really loved us He should have allowed us to do Whatever we want And if he is putting restrictions Where is love Love should be freedom Actually Love A loving relationship Has to begin with freedom A boy cannot put a gun on a girl’s head Love me or I will kill you No loving relationship can happen like that So love as a starting point Love requires freedom But The process of loving Itself means giving up freedom You know when a boy When a boy and a girl When a man and a woman decide to get married At that time they give up their freedom To associate with other men and other women So that they can have a deeper relationship with each other So actually the idea of free love Which is so much commonly touted about Free love is a self-contradiction Love by its nature Is binding It is not free Of course it frees us in other sense It frees us To deepen that connection But love by its very nature Requires restriction So it’s not that When Krishna says don’t do this Krishna is taking away our freedom Rather when Krishna tells us Don’t do such things The whole point is By doing the things which Krishna tells us to do We can connect with him deeper And by not doing the things Which Krishna tells us not to do We avoid the things that Disconnect us from him So the focus Is on connecting with Krishna And when we are Trying to connect with Krishna By practising the process of bhakti It is also valuable to remember that Krishna loves us And Krishna’s love for us Is not Because we are so good Krishna’s love for us Is because he is so good Sometimes you feel Oh! I am so bad When Krishna loves me Krishna’s love for us Is not based on who we are It is based on who he is He loves us Whatever we may be 9.31 in the Bhagavad Gita Even if a person commits the most sinful activity Still they should be considered to be sadhus So one meaning of this verse Is that There is nothing That we can ever do That can stop Krishna From loving us No matter what we do Krishna the Paramatma is not going to say I am going to leave your heart and go away Krishna is always going to be there with us So nothing will stop Krishna from loving us Although Krishna’s love for us Is not based on who we are Our experience of his love Is based on who we are The sun always gives light But if my eyes are closed I cannot see the sunlight Rather Krishna always loves us But when we are too attached To material things Then we can’t perceive Krishna’s love Rather We perceive Krishna’s love Only in terms of Whether we get that material thing or not That means I need this thing to work out And I come and pray to Krishna Krishna please make this work And if Krishna makes that work Oh God is so good He fulfilled my prayer And if that doesn’t work out Then does God even exist? Start thinking like that So what happens Our attachments become the filter Through which we evaluate God’s love for us And that’s why when we are attached We cannot perceive Krishna’s love for us So In our condition stage Hearing past times like this Although they are very exalted They help us appreciate that It’s not just a one way relationship Where we are struggling to love Krishna Krishna is also tirelessly loving Krishna is unfailingly loving us constantly And if we just put aside our attachments We can’t give up the attachments But if we just put them aside In the sense that don’t filter Krishna’s love through them We will see that Krishna also loves us Just like a small child Sometimes a small child Parents have provided so many things for them But The child wants a particular toy And the parent says no you cannot get this toy I want this toy No you cannot get this toy And then Children Have their own way of innocent blackmailing What is that? They tell their parents You don’t love me And the parents are doing so much for the child But just see that One toy the parents are not giving The child says you don’t love me So now we laugh if a child does like that But unfortunately we also do like that Now our objects May be quite serious But still from the point of view of eternity Whatever it is that we feel This problem should be solved This thing should be healed This thing should be tackled But from the point of eternity They are not really all that important So this is not to trivialise our problems But it is also to See no matter how big a problem seems to be We see from the perspective of eternity That it is not so big So the very fact that we have the opportunity To practise bhakti That itself is such a great treasure Among the millions of people Even in human species Who don’t know about Krishna I want to speak of the billions and quadrillions Who are in non-human species We are among the fortunate few who have the opportunity to practise bhakti And not only that we are practising bhakti If we look at our own life If we feel discouraged Does this Krishna bhakti really work? Does Krishna really care? At that time we can look back And we look back and see How far we have come What we were 10 years ago, 20 years ago 30 years ago There is a tremendous difference in our life So Krishna has changed our life And if we look at our heart Yes we practised bhakti, we went through some difficulties But we also were distracted by our mind By our senses, by the world So even with our distracted practise of bhakti Krishna has changed Our life so much So Krishna has Brought us so much closer to him You see how far we have come That will be for us a testimony That Krishna’s love Is for real, Krishna’s mercy Is really transformational And with that assurance We can march forward Sometimes When nothing is left Krishna is still left And that is what the central theme of the Bhagavatam is Parikshit Maharaj In one moment for him nothing is left One moment he is the king And the next moment He is about to die He is cursed to die in seven days And sometimes you know there may be some movie A person is supposed to die And then the whole movie Will be like an adventure story Where the person somehow manages to avoid the curse And survives The Bhagavatam is a story, at the beginning The hero is cursed to die And by the end the hero dies You say what is this? What is the speciality of the story? What is going on? But the speciality is that Actually in the intermediate He takes shelter of Krishna’s love And by that he rises his consciousness Above the material So the event of death happens But there is no trauma of death for him Because he is absorbed in Krishna And he attains Krishna So the Bhagavatam describes Krishna’s love Not in terms of Krishna solving The problems in this world He can do that also and he will do that on many occasions But the Bhagavatam Urges us to shift our expectation From Krishna solving the problems in this world To Krishna raising us Raising our consciousness Above this problematic world So while practising Bhakti If we seek a problem free life We think now I am chanting Hare Krishna My life will be problem free We will become frustrated soon But if we seek a purpose filled life My purpose is to serve Krishna My purpose is to go closer to Krishna Then we find every problem Will be like an opportunity to go closer to Krishna And by remembering past times like these Verses like these Where Krishna is expressing his love and appreciation For his devotees We can remember that Krishna also loves and cares for us And that can reassure us In our struggles as we March towards Krishna So I will summarise what I spoke today So I spoke about How these four verses from the Uddhava Gita Comprise the Chatur Shloki Uddhava Gita So here Krishna Is after talking about various devotees In the first half of the Initial part of the chapter Now talks of the devotees who are Dear most to his heart With whom he has interacted in this very Avatar when he has come And he talks about the Gopis So first verse he remembers How the Gopis went through so much agony When he was about to depart And then this verse he talks about how For the Gopis After he departed every moment Was like a kalpa Unbearable separation from them And then third verse he says That while being separated From him they were Absorbed in him and thus they were like Exalted sages The consciousness flowing like a river towards the ocean And last verse he says That although they saw him As their lover but still They attained the absolute truth By their meditation So these four verses talk about how Krishna Loved the Gopis and Krishna Assured the Gopis have attained perfection And discussed About the setting Of Vrindavan that Everything is arranged in Vrindavan For the intensification of love So just as God conceives his divinity So that Mother Yashoda’s love Can become unimpeded By thoughts of Krishna’s divinity So similarly there is a very Extraordinary arrangement for The Gopis’ love with Krishna That is In Tattva all souls belong to Krishna So the Gopis are also married to Krishna They belong to him But in Leela It is arranged that the Gopis belong to someone else So like in a drama A duly married couple They act as if They are having an extramarital relationship So like that Now why is this done? The Bhagavatam is demonstrating how Not only do we need to give up the bad for God But we need to give up Even the good for God So for a woman One of the greatest virtues Is considered to be chastity And the Gopis When they give up their chastity for Krishna They don’t become unchaste They become trans-chaste Transcendentally chaste to Krishna There is not immorality The Bhagavatam takes us beyond immorality And beyond morality to pure devotion That is the theme of the Bhagavad Gita also It is sarva-dharman parityajya Mam ekam sarva-namarajya So Arjuna is caught between two dharmas Kula-dharma and Kshatriya-dharma And Krishna says, forget it, just surrender to me And do that which will help me to surrender So like that the Gopis This is their super most love That which is considered a dharmic virtue The supreme dharmic virtue They are ready to give up even that For Krishna’s sake Just as an elephant When it is tired and it has to run somewhere It brings down a tree So it is internal realisation and external expression of its strength Like that when the tree of dharma Obstructs the Gopis’ love for Krishna And they break that tree down That is the demonstration They themselves realise And the world realises how great Is their love for Krishna And Krishna himself Appreciates their love And he says God who possesses everything says that I cannot repay you And then I discussed about how love in separation Separation does to love what wind does to fire When the love is great it intensifies it When love is small it extinguishes it So for us we should not Put ourselves in separation from Krishna Because our love is small But somehow if we are put in separation We can see that as a way to increase our appreciation And lastly I discussed about how Krishna For us when we are struggling with our mind and senses Struggling with the world Trying to practise bhakti Our focus is on we trying to love Krishna But at the same time To remember that Krishna loves us Is also very important And Krishna’s love for us Is unconditional in the sense that he always Loves us no matter what we do His love is based on how good he is But the idea that love should Empower absolute freedom That is not true.
Krishna gives us freedom to choose But if we choose to love him Then love is binding Love involves some restriction So that there can be more deeper connection in that love So the restriction in Krishna bhakti Are not signs that Krishna doesn’t love us Or Krishna doesn’t care for us Rather they are ways by which we can Intensify our expression of love for him And if we If we see Krishna’s love for us Through the filter of our attachments We will always be uncertain Does Krishna love me or does he not love me Just like a child who evaluates parents love Through seeing whether they give a particular toy or not Although the things that worry us Are far more serious than a toy But from the perspective of eternity They are not all that important And by focussing on Krishna Whatever ups and downs we may face We can avoid being shaken by them And we can stay focused on Krishna So to appreciate Krishna’s love for us Rather than seeing whether specific things are working out or not We can see the fact that Krishna has given us the opportunity to practise bhakti And even with our Distracted half-hearted practise of bhakti Krishna has changed our lives so much We have come so far By that we can get faith And we can keep marching towards Krishna confidently Knowing that With confidence That even if everything in the world is lost Krishna will never be lost When nothing is left Krishna will still be left with us Thank you very much Hare Krishna Any comments or questions Do we have time Yes Thank you very much Oh God Okay Can I give another example of the trans-moral Yeah There are many examples in the Mahabharata For example When When Krishna tells Bhima To hit Duryodhana below the thigh Or when Krishna tells Arjuna To kill Karna When Karna is off the chariot So Now Arjuna had already defeated Karna On many occasions Just before the Kurukshetra war started He had defeated him When the Virat Yudha had taken place Arjuna had single-handedly defeated all the Kauravas Including Karna But at that time Krishna told Arjuna Shoot Even when Karna was off the chariot Normally against Kshatriya etiquette But Krishna wants to teach a deeper principle over here So the Mahabharata Can be understood at the level of Karmakanda Mahabharata can also be understood at the level of Bhakti At the level of Karmakanda Karmakanda means Sometimes we use the word Karmakanda in a very negative sense But in traditional India it is not necessarily negative Because it is also piety It is religiosity by which one person goes to heaven Which is good, it is not bad As compared to attaining Goloka it is bad So the Mahabharata demonstrates Karmakanda By doing Dharma one will be elevated to heaven So from that perspective While acting In this world Kshatriyas sometimes have to You know Kshatriya Dharma involves warfare So Morality is a principle No doubt But at the same time morality is not an absolute principle Dharma is the absolute principle So Krishna demonstrates That with the cunning You need to be cunning With the cunning you may need to be cunning So Krishna demonstrates that Karna tells Arjuna Arjuna, remember the codes of Kshatriya And do not shoot And then Krishna tells Karna Karna, it is fortunate indeed That now you remember the codes of morality Was it by the code of morality That you Along with five other warriors Attacked Abhimanyu And killed him Was it by the codes of morality That you cheated Along with the Kauravas cheated in the gambling match Was it by the codes of morality That You suggested that Draupadi be disowned Was it by the codes of morality That you called her a prostitute Was it by the codes of morality that you connived To have the Pandavas burned alive in Varanasi If those Were the codes of morality you followed By that same code of morality Arjuna will kill you So at one level Krishna is demonstrating here That even from the point of mundane dharma We can rationalise And explain what Krishna did Krishna told Arjuna to look to Karna But from the ultimate perspective That is demonstrating Arjuna surrendered to Krishna That Arjuna, Krishna told him Shoot, he shot So now this should not be So the idea of Transmoral does not Mean that we Send morality on a toss, toss it away As unimportant. Morality is important It is extremely important And that is why if morality is To be given up, it needs serious discussion It needs serious deliberation So Krishna and Arjuna Already had that deliberation In the Bhagavad Gita. And Krishna told Sarva-dharmāntara-tija mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja So there Are some occasions when We may have to Put morality aside for a higher Cause.
So for example It is said that, but this is called as Āpadharma, emergency duty Or emergency duty. In the Bhagavatam Chetan Charitāmanda is an example When Sanatana Goswami was imprisoned And he wanted to escape So he told the Prisoner over there You know actually I am a pious Muslim And before I die at least once I want To go to Mecca. So you please Release me and then The piety that comes By going to Mecca, you will also get that piety And when he did listen, then he also Used the language that everybody understands The language of money.
He bribed him At that time. So now Now this kind of speaking lies or Bribing, this cannot be done But that time it was an emergency You know he had been imprisoned For no fault of his except his faith And he might well have been Killed over there or he might have just spent his whole life In the prison So we We value morality Very much. But at the Same time we don’t make morality the Supreme value Bhakti is the supreme value and morality Is important because morality normally Helps us move towards Krishna But sometimes morality Can become an obstacle So at those times we may need To give up morality for Krishna’s sake So it’s like If it is dark And we have a torch light The torch light Shows us the way.
This is right, this is wrong. Or if you have a street light The street light also shows us the way So morality Moral principles are like that flashlight or Street light. You know we are all Our inner world is darkened By our selfish desires And that’s why we need Morality to help us Ensure that we don’t selfishly make Immoral choices.
But at the same time When the sun has arisen Then we don’t need the flashlight or sunlight So when somebody is directly In the presence of Krishna, somebody is purely devoted To Krishna who is Sensing Krishna’s presence in their heart Hearing Krishna’s voice in their heart Those people They may not use the street light So it is an Exceptional situation. In principle We agree that In principle we consider this a very exalted State of transmoral In practise we need to first of all come to The level of morality. That’s why Although in our tradition The gopis are considered to be the highest devotees Now all our acharyas have been very strong And that we should not imitate The gopis.
So We should not prematurely Try to imitate Their pastimes or even meditate on Their pastimes if it is agitating us We have to be careful. But in principle We cherish those pastimes So morality is the light which guides us But that light becomes redundant When Krishna comes in When the light of Krishna is guiding us That is when we can be transmoral But when the light of Krishna is not there And we give up morality also Then we submerge ourselves in darkness Does that answer your question? Thank you. Yes please … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … So we have seen in our movement That sometimes some senior leaders They feel that they are guided by Krishna And they acted With disregard for morality And later on they succumbed to immorality So can that principle Ever be applied? Yeah, it’s best to try to cultivate morality and also learn to teach morality.
But there may be exceptions where, for example, where, say, a devotee’s survival itself is at stake, or a moment’s survival itself is at stake. At that time, on some occasions, we may have to, what is called, a selective disclosure of facts. We may not necessarily tell the full truth.
We may have to tell something in a particular way. So that is acceptable. Like Krishna says that, Sarvarambhai doshena, dhume naranjani bhavrata.
That all endeavours are covered by a fall, just as fire is covered by smoke. So in a sense, we have to make sure that our service to Krishna goes on. So, for example, I would say that, say, I come from India.
India has a lot of corruption in the government and many other places. So it’s there everywhere, I would say, in America. But India is well known it is there.
So suppose there’s a devotee working in a government office where there’s a lot of corruption. And then if that devotee decides, you know, I will myself not take any bribes. That’s good.
A devotee should be moral. But sometimes, you know, there’s a whole network. And if one person stands out, then that person becomes a threat for everyone.
And then that person may become framed and that person may get victimised. And then that person has to defend oneself because everybody else sees them as a threat. And either that person is framed and is dismissed or transferred to some remote godforsaken place.
Or one person can get in a lot of trouble because of that. In such a situation, we have to choose our battles. So it is not that there is a licence for being corrupt oneself.
But the point is that if our trying to be moral in a situation where everybody is immoral, that makes us a target and then it creates problems for us. Then just do the needful. But that is where it’s just the way things are and we have to live that way.
But sometimes, just to get things done with lesser effort. And we just think that, sometimes devotees think that, you know, that speaking counterfactually is a way of getting things done faster. And then it becomes not out of necessity.
It just becomes, it’s done out of lethargy. Now, I don’t want to take the trouble. So for example, when we’re distributing books, instead of telling people, you know, what the book contains and how the book is going to benefit, we tell them whatever they want to hear.
And we tell them whatever they want to hear and we mislead them. You know, we tell them, you know, somebody is into animal protection. Then this book is about animal protection.
They read the whole book and they say there’s nothing about animal protection. And we say, no, actually, we say that all souls have, all animals have souls. So therefore, we also protect animals.
That’s quite a stretch. It’s not definitely about animal protection. Sometimes we make a creative connection and that is good.
But if we put morality aside simply to get things done faster, and that becomes like a shortcut. So we think service to Krishna is what is important. And then morality doesn’t matter.
If my moral is good, it doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t trivialise it. It is important and very careful, very carefully with deep consideration, maybe with consulting other devotees, other equals, other seniors.
After all, only in exceptional situations it should be done. So in no situation should, that’s my understanding, no situation should just put the brushing, should morality, brushing aside morality become a habit. It doesn’t matter.
It may need to be done on occasions, but it has to be done very carefully. And it’s best to assume, in this case, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was very, very clear in Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit, he says that devotees have to be moral. Devotees have to be honest.
Devotees have to be truthful. So he himself was actually, if you read his biography, he was such an honest person. And sometimes he got into trouble because of his honesty.
So he was working in a business and he did many jobs throughout his life before he got a magistrate. He was doing a business, he was working in a business and he was so honest, he got in trouble because of that. And then he had to leave that job.
And later on when he was working as a high court magistrate also, at that time, there were some of his other colleagues, you know, they plotted against him. And nothing happened to him, he was protected. But later on when he retired and he took up full-time practising of bhakti and sharing of bhakti, then one of his colleagues, he came and met him.
And when he saw how saintly you are, he apologised. I’m sorry I did that. And Lakshmana Thakur wrote that, I was surprised.
I was surprised that this person had so much vehemence against me. He says, I forgive him, but still, there was all that in the background. So because of his honesty, he was seen as a threat by others.
But still he perceived it as honesty. They say that, certainly there should never be any dismissive attitude towards morality. Morality is extremely important, but we don’t make, like the Christians say, don’t make anything into God.
So we don’t make morality into God. If it becomes a God, then it becomes like a false God, which can obstruct us in going towards Christianity. But still, morality is extremely important.
And only in exceptional situations can we, after consulting others, praying deeply, we can act trans-morally. You know how much more experience than me, so you can add something about this. Yes.
Well, during this time, you add maybe one thing. You think of it like, even though he was ordered by the Lord to engage in a battle, his anxiety was that perhaps I should have understood the whole concept of anxiety. But afterwards, he never even mentioned it.
He regretted it. It’s just one sentence. If you see the next slide, it’s just the same thing.
Maybe that’s another sentence. You send example to the man in the office. He’s got a bride, you know, you’ve got to be part of the system or else they’re going to bust some pieces of prophecy.
Okay, so maybe he has to take that money. So he anonymously leaves his position. He leaves his position.
He doesn’t even put his name on the list. Oh, I’m getting sent down immediately. So he leaves his position.
This is just to be seen in the Christian picture. By the circumstances, I have no choice. I think I have no choice.
I don’t want this to be something I’m self-assuming. So at least I’m bringing the money here to help me avoid the situation. Et cetera.
So that’s just a sentence. And also, making sure there’s no selfish benefit from that immoral act. I mean, aside from perhaps, let’s say some, like, you know, where the death rates are coming to the, you know, some of the tax rate, maybe you have to depend on the way that that immorality saves a person.
Yeah. Outside of that selfish benefit, to say whatever benefit it may be, let me make sure I can keep it. I don’t keep the fame.
I don’t keep the money. I don’t keep the power. I don’t keep the status.
It’s just to make sure that it gets deleted by death. Yeah, you know. Yes.
Very important. I’m Australian, but that’s a perfect example of redistricting my right to independence after that. Thank you very much.
Jai Prabhupada ki. Jai Prabhupada ki. Kaurvata vindaki.
Jai Prabhupada ki. Kaurvata vindaki. We have one more page as well.
Yeah. If those occasions where there was, like when Krishna told Arjuna to shoot at Karna, that wasn’t what they did all the time. You know, it didn’t become a standard way in the beginning of the war, and then therefore, you could shoot everybody off the chariot.
So, when you do have those occasions where generally one is off, emergencies are saved, they’re no longer needed. Right? Yeah, that’s true. So, in that way, you can see that.
That’s the- that’s when it becomes. Yeah, when it becomes, or you justify it, or when other people start doing what you did. But that, the rest of the war, the next time somebody else hopped off the chariot, they didn’t say, okay, now I can take care of this guy.
I think that’s the big difference between the war in Kurukshetra and the way the jihadis attack. Jihadis, the terrorists, they have made it like a principle now. Attacking unarmed people, attacking defenceless people, killing civilians.
So, the nearest comparison, because many times the Kurukshetra violence is compared with Islamic violence, radical Islamic violence. So, the closest that it comes to is Ashwatthama killing at night. The Kurukshetra war, nowhere it goes to attacking civilians, even once.
So, and Ashwatthama’s attack is totally condemned. Totally condemned. Yeah, right.
Yeah. And then they set the camp on fire and killed everybody. Yeah.
Totally. Yeah. Thank you very much.
Very excellent.