Gopi Gita Appreciation part 7 The Monks Podcast 174 with Madhavananda Prabhu & Amarendra Prabhu

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna, Madhvantru, Amarindu, humble obeisances.
Thank you once again for joining for the Monks Podcast. We continue our Gopi Gir discussion. Madhvantru, would you like to begin with the invocation prayers? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Would you like to recite the words which we are discussing today? Sure Babaji.
Virachitabhayam Vrishnidhuryate Charanami Yushampam Kantakamadam Srirasi Dhehinah Shri Karagraham Look at what this verse means. The Gopis are praying. Virachitabhayam that you create, you instil, you impart fearlessness, Vrishnidhuryate There is again this tension between Krishna’s transcendental identity as the Supreme Lord and Krishna’s, you could say, identity beyond Vrindavan as a member of the Vrishni dynasty.
The point to both over here is you grant fearlessness as a hero of the Vrishni dynasty, but the fearlessness they talk about is not fearlessness from some danger in this world. It’s the dangerous material world itself. And those who take shelter of your lotus feet.
Samsmutairbhayat Karasaroruham kantakamadam Lotus feet, lotus hands you place on the heads. Srirasi Dhehinah and these lotus hands which can fulfil all desires and which are the abode of the goddess of fortune. So it’s beautiful that we have a description here of the potency of the hands of the Lord.
We often have a description of his feet. Pranatha Dhehinam will come in the couple of verses later, I think. And then the lotus feet is mentioned several times.
But here is a lot of description about the hand and it seems to be somewhat like a Aishwarya mood. Narsimhadeva places his hands on the head of Prahlad. Sridhar Gopinath is saying, place your hand on our head.
Yes, Adantru, would you like to speak something? Yeah, this subject is very, very, this verse I find very, very interesting. Because as you just pointed out, it seems to me perhaps a little confusing. It seems a little different than the previous verses that we looked at.
Because here, some stress is being given that, yes, Krishna, if you put your hand on our head, then it will get fearlessness. It will become free. Some Sritabhayat will become free from the fear of material existence.
And they’re stressing the putting a hand on the head. And a very, very interesting point. So we can say so many things about that.
One thing it reminds me of is being here in Mayapur. Once I went to the Ganga to take bath in the morning. And when I went to the Ganga, I saw there was a man and wife with their small child.
And they’re getting ready to take bath. And the child, before taking bath, went and offered obeisances to the mother and father. And the father and mother put their hands on the child’s head.
And that’s our culture. We want that asurabhadra. But as you’re pointing out, Chaitanya Charan Prabhu, that that kind of asurabhadra, that seems like it’s very much an aishwarya.
And indeed, in this verse, it’s being said that Sri Karna Brahma, that Sri, the sister of Lakshmi Devi, that this hand goes on the head of Lakshmi Devi. So some questions that I would like to personally look at is, how is it that the gopis are praying like this? Why are they praying for fearlessness? We hear in the first canto of the Bhagavatam that one of the external symptoms of hearing Bhagavatam, shoka, moha, vayapaha, that all types of fear, lamentation, and illusion go away. So there’s something more to it here.
In Vishvanath, excuse me, in Narahari Chakravarti Thakur’s Bhakti Vrindanakar, he gives a prana mantra that the gopis recite to Lord Siva, which this verse today reminds me a little of that. And they pray to Lord Siva. They’re praying to Lord Siva.
You’re the Deva who takes away hara, all types of klesha, all types of suffering. So on one level, someone may say, well, this is a nice prayer because I have lots of suffering, and the gopis, they’re also suffering. Maybe they don’t have enough to eat, or maybe it’s too cold for them.
And therefore, they’re praying to Lord Siva, please take away this cold. Please give us something to eat. We may pray in that kind of mood.
But that’s not the mood of the Vrajagopikas. What is the mood of the Vrajagopikas? When they say here, sarva klesha haram devam, this prayer from Bhakti Vrindanakar to Lord Siva, they’re not praying for our type of removal of suffering. Rather, their suffering is they want to see Krishna.
They’re suffering because they can’t see Krishna. And this is their prayer to Lord Siva. So this verse can be taken in many different ways.
And our acharyas, they speak about it in a number of different ways. I’d like to hear something from Amarendra Prabhu, but I’d like to later on discuss a little bit from a verse in the Fifth Canto of the Bible, where Lakshmi Devi is speaking about having the hand of the Lord on her head, and some of the different comments that our acharyas give about that. So this verse, again, as we’ve been discussing in all of our previous sessions, can be understood in different ways.
But we’d like to understand it in the mood of the gopis, in particular, in the mood of the left-wing gopis, that follows in Srimati Radharani. So those are my preliminary thoughts on this verse today. Thank you.
Yes, Amarendra Prabhu, would you like to comment on that? Sure, Prabhuji. So actually, just to see the verse in the context of the previous verses, Srila Viswana Chakravarti Thakur writes how this verse actually fits him. In the flow of the discussion till now.
Chakravarti Thakur writes that, so if you see till now, the second verse, the gopis have been criticising Krishna to be a murderer, neha kim vada. And in the third verse, they talk about how Krishna has been a betrayer. He has been a sabotager, trying to be from their camp, but actually, you know, not being from their camp.
Because what we see in the second verse, we see that the gopis are saying, neha kim vada, isn’t this murder? And the third verse, they say, you protected us from the poisonous water of Kaliya, and you protected us from Agasura. You protected us during the Govardhan Leela. You protected us from Arishtasura and Vatsasura and Vyomasura.
And now, when we gain our faith and trust, we invest our trust and faith in you. You have betrayed us. So in the second verse, Krishna has been called as a killer, a murderer.
And in the third verse, he’s been called as a betrayer. So in the spurti, in the heart of the gopis, they hear Krishna say that, if you think I’m a killer, if you think I’m a betrayer, if you speak like this, I will never come out. I will never give you darshan.
So then the gopis change their strategy. From the fourth verse onwards, they start glorifying him so that he comes back. Therefore, in the fourth verse, we see, na khalu gopika nandano bhava na khila dehinamantarat madhrik Oh, you’re not just the son of Gopika, Mother Yashoda.
You’re actually the Supersoul, and Brahmaji prayed for your appearance so that Krishna is satisfied with that glorification. And actually, there also we discussed how there are two camps, the Dakshinya and the Vamya Drishtikona, the perspective from the left wing and the right wing. And hearing the fourth verse, Krishna said, Oh, now I’m very happy.
After criticising me in verse two and verse three, after calling me a murderer and calling me a betrayer, in verse four, you have glorified me very nicely. But left wing camp says that, no, we were actually even, even in the fourth verse, we criticised you. But it’s just that we decorated it so nicely.
It’s externally seen as glorification, but actually we still are speaking our words of criticism. So Krishna says, Oh, actually, your words of criticism are sweeter than your words of glorification. All of you are so expert in speaking.
I am very satisfied. And therefore, when I am happy, I would like to give you a boon. Ask for whatever you want.
So in the fifth verse, the gopis say, the only thing that we want is you please place your hand on our head. So when Krishna is happy to give a boon, the boon is always given as a blessing on the head of the recipient. So this verse falls in the context of the heart-to-heart conversation between the gopis and Sri Krishna.
And Srila Sridhar Swami in his Bhavartha Deepika commentary, he has mentioned how four verses, starting from this one, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, there are actually four verses of prayers. The gopis are, till now they were asking for the darshan of Krishna. Krishna, you appear.
But now in the next four verses, we could say they are like the chatushloki of the Gopi Gita. Five, six, seven and eight, not like the seed verses, but back to back four verses of prayers where the gopis are expressing their heart and asking for a benediction. Srila Sridhar Swami says this is an interesting point.
We can see even in this verse, like the other verses that we have discussed in the past, the first syllable and the seventh syllable remains the same. Except for the second line, you can see the last line, Srirasi starts with a Sh, and after the pause, the seventh syllable is Sri Karagraham. So, Sri Sridehi Naha, pause.
Sri Karagraham. So, Sh as Srirasi and Sh as Sri Karagraham. And in the third line, Karasaroruham, starting with a K, and after the pause, again K, Kanta Kamadham.
And first line is Virachitabhayam, starting with a V and after the pause, Vrishnidhuryate. But the second line we see, it is Charanamyushram, starting with a Ch, and after the pause, it is Samsriterbhayat. So, Sripad Vallabhacharyaji in his Sri Subodhini Tika, he says a replacement for Charanam could be Sharanam.
So, in that way, what happens is, Virachitabhayam Vrishnidhuryate, so it’s the V, which is consistent. And then, instead of Charanam, if the alternative reading could be Sharanam, Sharanamiyushram, then Samsriterbhayat would again poetically match with the S, before and after the pause. So, in that way, all the lines are poetically so beautifully aligned.
And, as we previously mentioned, the second syllable remains the same. Virachitabhayam, it is Ra. Charanamiyushram, Karasaroruham, Shirasidehinam.
So, these were some poetic standouts for the verse, apart from the comments from Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur, Sripad Vallabhacharyaji, and Srila Sridhar Swami. So, I will pause at that for now. Regarding this verse, this Shri Karagraham, there is this, throughout the 10th Canto, there are glimpses when the, whoever is offering prayers, they sometimes talk about Krishna’s divinity, the Aishwarya Bhav.
But then, it is quickly overshadowed. Even when Yashodamayi sees the universal form of Krishna with his mouth, she initially becomes bewildered, then she becomes reverential, and then she again starts, she forgets that. So, there are some glimpses of Krishna’s divinity coming up intermittently.
But I was thinking that there is no place, other place, in the 10th Canto, where the Vrajivasis themselves are offering prayers to Krishna. Isn’t it? In Vrindavan, there is Brahmaji offering prayers, Indra offering prayers, but we don’t see the Gopas or Maharaja Yashoda, anyone else, his Krishna’s Gopa friends. Does anyone else offer prayers to Krishna directly, so that the tension of Aishwarya and Madhurya, from the Vrajivasi perspective, can be seen? It’s interesting in the Bhagavatam, both in the meeting of Kurukshetra, and here in the Gopi Gita, and a few other places, we find the Gopis apparently offering prayers to Krishna.
And indeed, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in Puri, He recites some of those verses that the Gopis were reciting in the meeting of Kurukshetra. But what is the nature of these things? In Srila Jiva Goswami’s Gopal Champu, there is an interesting discussion about the 47th chapter, the 10th canto. In Radharani, she is chastising this bumblebee.
And she is saying, you are such a badmouth, you are a drunkard, you are this or that. And then the bumblebee starts flying away. And in Radharani, she becomes disturbed.
She thinks, oh, what have I done? I have committed some offence to this bumblebee. And then she starts speaking in a very sweet way to the bumblebee. So, as Amarendra Prabhu was pointing out, the Gopis, they are speaking in a sweet way because there is this discussion going on, on a subtle level, with Krishna.
There is some spurti. And Krishna is saying, oh, you are angry with me. You are not happy with me.
Then I will go. And then the Gopis say, no, no, no, no, no, no. And they start speaking in a sweet kind of way.
So, there is a technical phrase for that, which Bhaktivinoda Thakura speaks about in Gita Mala, and archaryas in different places. And that kind of lady, she is a Kalahantarita Naika. The Kalahantarita, Bhaktivinoda Thakura defines as, manera kalahari jana chali dukkha kori kalahantarita santa pani.
The nature of this heroine is that when there is some quarrel with Krishna. And that quarrel comes from man. Man is one of the four different types of separation between the lover and the beloved.
But after that man takes place, then the heroine, she chastises Krishna, you go away, get out of here, I don’t want to see you. She sends him away. And then, santa pani, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, she starts lamenting.
She becomes even more bereaved. What did I do? I made this mistake. Why did I send him away? So, this phrase is an interesting phrase, kalahantarita.
The word kalah, all of these words have a number of different meanings. This is a compound word, kalahantarita. Kalah means to speak in a soft way.
And kalaha means to quarrel or abuse someone. Kalaha is a woman. Women by nature, as Bhaktivinoda, excuse me, Rupa Goswami says, in Ujjwamila Mani, when he speaks about man, or loving sulkiness, and it’s an important thing for us to understand.
This is not just some russi kind of things. We can’t understand the gopis. We can’t understand these verses unless we understand something about the nature of man.
So, the nature of man, Rupa Goswami says, there’s two types of man. There’s hoitakiman and ahoitakiman, or anger or sulkiness with a cause, and anger or sulkiness without a cause. Sometimes Krishna goes to see some other gopis and he comes before Radharani, he has some makeup on his face or something from those other gopis, or he comes late, and Radharani has a cause for her anger, and she chastises Krishna.
But other times there’s anger with no cause, ahoitakiman. Sometimes Krishna says, O Radhika, your face is just like the moon. And he’s glorifying Radha.
But Radharani becomes angry. She says, what do you mean? The moon has so many pockmarks on it. What are you saying about me? That’s anger without a cause.
So, one of the synonyms for striya, for woman, is kalaha. Kalaha means someone who gently chastises or abuses a man. So, I like to point out sometimes, especially to girls and men, that God gave women the right to be angry even for no reason.
So, the kalaha tarita naika, this heroine, it’s a little bit of a technical thing, but it’s very relevant for our discussion today. She’s kalaha. She’s a woman who’s chastising in a soft way, but tarita.
She uses a forefinger, this particular finger. And this finger, in Sanskrit, in Ayurvedic medicine, is called bish-angu. Angu means a finger, and bish means poison.
This is a poisonous finger. In Ayurvedic medicine, you’re not supposed to make the medicine or take the medicine with this finger. In our japa, we keep this finger outside of our bead bed because this is a bish-angu.
Bish-angu is that finger which we use to chastise. So, tarita is a synonym of bish-angu. Tarita means that this kalaha tarita, this woman, she’s chastising with this finger.
But then the word hanta has a few meanings too. Hanta means grief. Then she begins to lament, Oh, what did I do? I sent Krishna away.
I chastised Krishna. This is very, very bad. There are five different prominent characteristics of the kalaha tarita naika.
One is that this Radharani has these symptoms. She chastises Krishna. Krishna comes and he says, No, this and that happened.
I wasn’t able to come because I overslept. My alarm didn’t go off or whatever. And Radharani is just very scornful of everything that he says, all of his explanations.
And she considers it just to be some cunning trickery. That’s the first symptom. And the second symptom of the kalaha tarita naika, of Radha, is that she, in her heart, she starts criticising Krishna’s behaviour.
And then she starts making different allegations against him out of anger. And the third symptom is that Krishna then, he reciprocates, he starts offering obeisances and begging forgiveness from Radharani. And then Radharani becomes more and more obstinate.
Fourth symptom is that then she, as her anguish gets further and deeper and deeper, she starts thinking about all the bad things that Krishna’s done in her imagination. And then she becomes completely overwhelmed and she starts thinking about Krishna and no one else. So this is the nature of Radharani’s love, the nature of the gopis’ love.
They chastise Krishna. And just as Jiva Goswami in his Gopal Champu, he discusses how when the bumblebee came in the Brahma Raghita and Radharani started speaking ill of that bumblebee and saying, look, as I see on your whiskers, there’s some kum-kum. This means that you were on the garland of Krishna.
And Krishna had been embracing some gopis and he got some kum-kum from their body on that garland. And therefore you’ve gotten this. And you’re a rascal and your master’s a rascal.
And Radharani’s speaking like this in her maan. And then suddenly the bumblebee starts going away. And then Radharani becomes disturbed and she thinks in the mood of this Kalahantarita Naika, she thinks, oh, what have I done? Hanta means to lament.
She starts lamenting, I sent Krishna away. This is very, very wrong. And then the gopis begin to offer prayers.
But to understand those prayers, they’re not like prayers which are offered by Gajendra. They’re not prayers which are offered by the residents of Mathura, Dwaraka, or any other place. These are prayers.
As Chaitanya Charanpu, you’re pointing out, of Braj, we don’t see the Vrchabasis offering prayers. But the gopis sometimes offer prayers. So how do we understand that those prayers are manifestation of their maan? That’s the mood of Kalahantarita Naika.
So many things can be said about that. I should stop there and see what reflections the two of you have on that. I’m sorry, it’s a very technical thing.
But if we don’t understand some of these points, and Srila Prabhupada discusses these things also in Chaitanya Charitamrita. In Madhya Lila, Chapter 15, there’s some discussion given about the Harapanchami Festival. And there’s a long discussion about maan.
If we don’t understand these things, then how can we understand the mood of the gopis? How can we understand the purport of these verses? Otherwise, just externally, it seems that the gopis are offering prayers and are saying, please take away our material problems. It’s not the fact. It’s amazing.
It’s striking how something technical, when explained in the devotional context, can also become so relishable. Thank you. Amaranda Prabhu, anything? Sure, Prabhuji.
It was just so beautiful. Sripad Madhavananda Prabhu’s Kalahantarita. Very nice.
I really liked it. The gopi who’s quarrelling with Krishna, has maan, and is chastising Krishna with her forefinger, and at the same time has lament. So, very nice.
I really liked it. Actually, as far as this verse is concerned, that we are discussing, and we are speaking about the mood of prayers, and whether in Vrindavan there are prayers, my mind goes to the 19th chapter of the Tenth Canto, where amidst the forest fire, the friends offer prayers. Krishna, Krishna, Mahavira, Hey Rama, Amogha, Vikrama.
That, O Sri Krishna, O Sri Balaram, Daavagnina Daihyamana, we are being scorched by the heat of the forest fire. O Krishna, O Balaram, please protect us. So, there are some prayers there.
Also, Nagapatnis, technically they are also bridge-bassis, but I think they will be considered as those in the mood of Aishwarya, because they are devotees in Dasirathi, as servitude. But they have also offered prayers in the 16th chapter of the Tenth Canto, going from text 33 to 53. And we see, even outside Vrindavan, even exalted Mahabhagavata Vaishnava is offering prayers.
In the 11th canto, we see Uddhava offering very sweet prayers. Taapatrayena Abhihatasya Ghore, Santapyamanasya Bhavadvanasha, Pashyaminanya Charanam Tavangrim, Dvandvata Patrat Amritabhi Varsha. Very, very beautifully he has said, Taapatrayena Abhihatasya Ghore, O Krishna, Taapatrayena Abhihatasya, I am being scorched by the three-fold miseries of life.
And Santapyamanam, I am really distressed. By what? I am distressed by this Kora, this very horrifying, fierce, intense material world. Isha, my Lord, this is my situation here.
Bhavadvanisha, in this Bhavadvani, in this path of this material existence, I am being scorched. And Pashyaminanya Charanam Tavangrim, apart from your two lotus feet, my Lord, I don’t see any other source of shelter. But your lotus feet, how are they? Dvandvata Patrat Amritabhi Varsha.
The heat of distress from outside can be protected by an umbrella. So your lotus feet are the umbrella which protect us from the heat of distress outside. But it’s a very interesting umbrella.
It protects us from the heat of distress and inside the umbrella, there is a rain of happiness. So Aata Patrat Amritabhi Varsha. That Krishna, your two lotus feet protect us from the scorching heat of distress as an umbrella.
But it adds an extra flavour under the umbrella of your lotus feet. There are raindrops of nectarean happiness. So actually speaking, Uddhava is not being scorched by the threefold miseries of life.
He’s not. Why would he say that? Why would he say that? And similarly, we find Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur in Vrindadevya Ashtakam. Bhaktya Vihina Aparadhalakshe Kshiptascha Kamadita Rangamadhye Kripamaitvam Sharanam Prapanna Vrinde Namaste Charanaravindam Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur has said, My Lord, what is my situation? Bhaktya Vihina Aparadhalakshe I am devoid of devotion and my only intention is to commit Aparadha.
Offences. And Kshiptascha Kamadita Rangamadhye and I am fallen in the waves of lusty desires. Kripamai O Vrindadevi O Tulsi Maharani Kripamai O Ocean of Mercy Twam Sharanam Prapanna Please, I approach your lotus feet.
Please give me shelter. Vrinde Namaste Charanaravindam O Tulsi Devi, O Vrindadevi, I bow down to you. So question could be asked.
In the first example, is Uddhava actually tormented by the threefold miseries? In the second example, is Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur actually devoid of devotion and intentionally committing offences and thrown in the waves of lust? The answer is no. A conditioned soul prays to the Supreme Lord because that is his reality. When a conditioned soul says that I am scorched by the threefold miseries, that’s a reality.
When a conditioned soul says that I am thrown in the waves of lust, that’s a reality. But when great Vaishnavas like Uddhava, Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur or the Gopis in this case, where they say that, O my Lord, anyone who takes shelter of your lotus feet is freed from suffering and fear. In that mood, we take shelter of your lotus feet.
The question could be, are they actually fearful? Do they have any fear of material existence? The answer is no. The answer is no. They absolutely have no fear.
Then why are they speaking like this? Why is Uddhava offering prayers like that? Why is Srila Sanatana Goswami saying, My Lord, that my Lord, I don’t know who I am. I don’t know why I am being scorched by the threefold miseries. People glorify me as a scholar and my problem is I believe them.
So he’s speaking, it seems like in a self-deprecating manner. Kaviraj Goswami speaks, Anybody who hears my name, they will fall from their spiritual standing. Why are the Acharyas speaking like this? Why are they offering prayers? Very different from a conditioned soul.
Conditioned soul is speaking in honesty and liberated, pure Vaishnavas, Nitya Siddha Mahabhagavat, the eternally perfected beings, are offering prayers in humility. They are able to see themselves in a situation that they are not in. It’s like transcendental hallucination.
It’s on the other side of the spectrum. A conditioned soul, he realises his position and he offers prayers. Pure Vaishnavas, they are beyond it.
But in their humility, they feel there’s need for me to take shelter because I’m in that situation. Sometimes we see pure Vaishnavas also offering prayers in that mood. Although they don’t need it, but Janasamanya for Loka Shiksha, for teaching everyone how to take shelter.
So this verse is beautiful in that way. It’s like Krishna’s pastimes have this aspect of some of them are to be imitated, some of them are to be, we take inspiration from them but we are not meant to imitate them. So it seems even with the prayers of the devotees, we have to look at when they are actually taking the role of Sadhaka.
For our second Prahlad Maharaj, at one place he says that that I am being like a soul person who is being pulled by different wives in different directions. So, but then the next verse he’s praying that I have no, not next verse, a few verses later he’s praying that I have no fear of mortal existence because I am simply Padveera Gayan Mahamruta Magna Chittaha. So I am completely absorbed in your glories, in relishing your glories.
So it does seem that this dynamic, it is there throughout the Bhagavatam also that sometimes the great souls place themselves in the position of Sadhakas or conditioned souls to teach us how to, how we can approach the Lord. So with respect to the Gopis, there is this, since we are talking about Uddhava and the Gopis, the Gopis here at one level they are they are experiencing intense separation from Krishna and they are using, you could say, using or utilising every means to beseech Krishna to come back and one of them, we could say also that, yes, if you are the Supreme Divinity, if you are Vishnu, then you should protect us from distress. So even if you don’t acknowledge that we have an intimate relationship, this is basically like human decency or just your, not necessarily intimate relationship, but the Divine.
If God is there and somebody prays to God, God protects them. So you are the Lord of the Goddess of Fortune. We are in misfortune.
So Oh Vrishti Dhuryate, Oh Hero, Oh Lord, please protect us. So the Gopis in their mood, it’s like we could say almost like Yukta Vairagya, like we use the material in the service of Krishna in the mood of renunciation. The Gopis sometimes use Krishna’s Divinity to further their intimate relationship with Him and their focus is not so much on that Divinity of Krishna, but okay if this can help us come closer to Krishna then even this can be this can be used just like the Gopis pray to Vishnu, please tell us where is Krishna and their idea is that yes Vishnu is there we want to go to Krishna.
So if Vishnu can help us then let me go towards Krishna also. Let us, let us, let help us go towards Krishna. Is there any thoughts on this? Yeah.
It’s a manifestation of their Dainya, but it’s not just only Dainya, there’s also very very intense love and the Gopis, they’re not, as we’re pointing out again and again, the Gopis here they’re not praying for something for themselves but these prayers are a manifestation of their love for Krishna and what’s happened is they were chastising Krishna in their sulkiness and then in their spirit, in their mind, in their heart they saw, oh Krishna now he’s left, Krishna says okay you don’t want me then I’ll go and then the Gopis they manifest this humility and they start praying but that humility is a very different kind of humility from the humility of Uddhava or other devotees. The humility is a manifestation of their ecstatic love for Krishna. They want to please Krishna by that and that’s one reason why also I find it very astonishing, Sri Upadhyaya Goswami and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu find it very astonishing.
The sulkiness of Lakshmi Devi which is mentioned in Madhya Chapter 15, 14 I think it is, in the Hara Panchami. In Odia language Panchami means the fifth, it’s the fifth day and Hara means to see. So on that day Lakshmi Devi she becomes angry.
Sri Upadhyaya Goswami says we’ve never seen any kind of anger like this. So we were hearing in the previous verses in this 31st chapter how the Gopis are chastising Krishna but now all of a sudden they thought, oh we’ve done something wrong please forgive us, which is a manifestation of their ecstatic love. We see it also in the 82nd chapter of the 10th Canto, it’s a famous verse which is recited by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannath Puri also with the Gopis.
This verse is very interesting. In the 87th chapter of the 10th Canto, this is the only verse spoken by the Gopis to Krishna. The Gopis haven’t seen Krishna in so many, many years and then they come together and they only have one verse to say.
What does that mean? The Gopis they say ahushyate nalina nabhapadadavinda yogeshvara hrdi vichincham hagadavodai samsara kupapati totadana valambamge ham jusam apimanasyudhyat sadanaha In Jiva Goswami in Prithvi Sundar, where he quotes this verse our chariots give elaborate commentaries and it has many different meanings. Like the verse we’re looking at today has a lot of similarity. The Gopis, they’re praying to Krishna as Bhagavan.
You’re the personality whose navel is like a lotus flower. Lord Brahma comes out of that. You’re Bhagavan.
yogeshvara hrdi vichincham hagadavodai And all the great rishis and mystics, they worship you. But who are we? Samsara kupapatita. We’re falling in this samsara kupa this dark well of material existence.
We’re just household ladies. We can’t So we’re praying let our minds be meditating on you. So this is a general meaning.
But the Gopis are also saying something else. And indirectly they’re telling Krishna that oh, please excuse us. Please accept our obeisances.
You’re a big man. You left Vrindavan. And now you’re Bhagavan.
You’re a god. So please accept our obeisances. And you’re sending that Uddhava Thala to us.
He’s telling us that we should be yogis and we should do meditations. But we can’t do meditation. Because samsara kupapatita.
We’re falling in the ocean, in the dark well of material existence. We’re just absorbed in family affairs. In other words, they’re saying we’re absorbed in brunch.
We’re absorbed in you because that’s the mood of brunch. And we can’t do yoga. We can’t do meditation.
Because our minds are not peaceful. To practise yoga, we have to have a peaceful mind. But our minds are always disturbed.
Our minds are always disturbed because we can’t stop thinking about you. So this is the kind of prayers that the Gopis offer. And one commentary in this verse in the 82nd chapter is very interesting.
It says that why is it that Sukadeva Goswami only gives us one verse from the Gopis in that 82nd chapter? It’s because there are many things the Gopis said. But Sukadeva Goswami, or Sri Suk, who’s the shuk or the parrot of Srimati Radharani, he couldn’t tolerate repeating all those very, very painful things that the Gopis were saying. So he just gave us one particular verse.
And there’s a lot of similarity between that verse and what we’re looking at today. Virat Chitabaya, Bhrishni Duryodhye, that the Gopis here, they’re praying that you please make us fearless. But the Gopis are speaking in paroksha about it.
They’re saying two different things. One thing externally, but they’re meaning another thing. And they’re actually chastising Krishna in different ways.
So anyway, I’ll stop there. Maybe Amaranda or yourself have some further comments Thank you. It’s beautiful.
I read this verse several times before, but this is the way you explained it. Yeham Jushyam can actually refer to not necessarily material existence, it can refer to the Gopis themselves. So it’s like if we consider this as material existence, then this is you could say spiritual level of consciousness and this is Vraja level of consciousness.
So the Gopis are claiming to be material level, but they’re actually at the highest transcendental level of consciousness. Yeham Jushyam. Next.
Do you want to add something on this verse? Sure, Prabhuji. Ahushyate nalina nabha padaravindam yogeshwarai hrithi vichintyam agada bodhaihi samsara koopa patito taranavalambham geham jushyam api manasyudhyat sadanaha So, very beautifully Sri Padmadavananda Prabhu explained. It’s very interesting verse actually, very interesting.
I would like to, with your permission, would like to share a few thoughts from Srimati Radharani’s camp in the leftist mood of this verse. So Krishna ahushyate nalina nabha nalina nabha your navel is in the shape of a lotus. Or, you are that person from whose navel a lotus springs.
And from that lotus Brahmaji appears. And we know Brahmaji is a fool. Gopis have already criticised Brahmaji enough.
In Brahma Loka, if there’s a daily newspaper, the flashing headlines would be that the Gopis of Vrindavan have criticised you today Brahmaji. And you would probably open and you would say well that’s a daily news. Nothing surprising about it.
The Gopis have criticised Brahmaji that what kind of faulty creator are you? You are giving the Brajbasis two eyes. In the same village that Krishna has appeared, you are giving them only two eyes. And Dwarkavasis also have two eyes.
And Vaikuntavasis also have two eyes. And guess what? How many eyes Indra has? Indra has thousands and thousands of eyes. For watching what? The dance of Rambha, Urvashi and Menaka.
He needs thousands and thousands of eyes. And look how many eyes Brahmaji has. He himself is sitting with eight eyes, four heads of two eyes each.
Eight eyes. And what is he doing with those four pairs of eyes? He’s closing and meditating. If he has to shut those eyelids, why would he even have those eyes? He’s a very faulty creator.
And the Brajbasis are having two eyes. And the Brajgopis are also having two eyes. Instead of giving eyes on every pore of our body, he has given only two eyes.
And those two eyes have eyelids which are coming like curtains. So Krishna is standing in front of us and the eyelids are shutting. And when Krishna leaves Vrindavan, the eyelids open.
What kind of creation is this? And then when Krishna is in front of us, those two eyes and the eyelids are open, then there are tears which come streaming, which obstructs the vision of the form of Shri Krishna. If we were Brahmaji, we would give million eyes to the Gopis in every pore of their body, without eyelids and with no ashtasattvic vikar, no crying. So that we can drink through the pot of our eyes the sweet form of Shri Krishna.
So the point is Nalinanabha. Why Nalinanabha? Brahmaji is not very intelligent according to the Gopis. And who is Krishna? Brahmaji is Paramgurudev.
Because Brahmaji’s father is the lotus. And lotus father is Krishna. Because Nalinanabha from his navel comes a lotus and from the lotus comes Brahma.
So if the grandson is not very intelligent, we could probably say that he got his genes from his father and from his grandfather. The Gopis have enough evidence that Brahmaji is not very intelligent. Now one step before that.
Who is the father of Brahmaji in this poetic analysis? The lotus. Because from the navel comes the lotus, from lotus comes Brahma. And the lotus is also not very intelligent.
Why? Because it appears from mud. So the lotus is not very intelligent. That which comes in a dirty pool of muddy water, it can be intelligent.
So the Gopis are saying the grandson Brahma is not very intelligent. His father, the lotus is not very intelligent. So therefore his father Krishna can never be intelligent.
And this is why he sent Uddhava to talk to us. The most intelligent Krishna, Nalinanabha. We know you.
From whose navel comes a lotus. You intelligent Krishna, we know you. Or in a rasic mood, it could be Nalinanabha.
That oh Krishna, we know the shape of your navel that the Dwarkavasis don’t know. You’re always covered with your, you know, clothes, and armour, and weapons, and chariots. So the Dwarkavasis don’t know the shape of your navel.
But we, Prajagopis, in the groves of Vrindavan, we know that secret that they don’t know. So you actually belong to us, Nalinanabha, the hidden secret. And then the Gopis are saying Yogeshwara, Oh you’ve been meditating, your lotus feet is meditated upon by the Yogis.
But Krishna, again you’re not fair to them. yad yapi samadhi shubhi dhirapi parshyati na tava na kagra marichim idam icchami nisham yadavachuta tadapi kripadhuta vichim krishna deva bhavantam vande. Srila Rupa Goswami Pada has sung that Krishna, we know you, the Yogis are meditating on your, the tip, effulgence coming from the tip of your toenail for millions of lifetimes and still they don’t get your mercy.
So the Gopis are saying, Krishna, you’re a sadist. You are a sadist. That the Yogis, those sages who are trying to catch you in your mind, you never get into their mind and we are trying to forget you and you never leave.
You sadist, Krishna. They want to catch you and you never get caught by them and we want to let go. But you never leave.
And you’re also not very intelligent. Why? Because what is the sadhana that is employed by the Yogis, you’re putting us through that same sadhana. It’s like saying the cows eat grass so let me feed my brother grass.
It doesn’t make sense because cow is a different species and my brother is a human. So if I’m going to give grass to a cow, I’m not going to feed my brother with grass. So Yogeshwara hrithi vichintya magad The Yogis have to meditate.
So you’re giving them the grass of meditation and we are we are in Braj and you’re giving us the same grass of meditation on you. It’s not going to work. And then finally the Gopis say Oh Krishna, may you appear.
May you place your lotus feet in our mind. But where is your mind? Chaitanya Charitamrita describes what is the mana of Radharani? Vrindavan. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said my mind, my heart is in Vrindavan, non-different.
So when the Gopis are saying here Krishna, place your lotus feet in our mind. Lotus feet. May your lotus feet appear in our mind.
What does that mean? Our mind or our heart is Vrindavan. So may your lotus feet appear in Vrindavan, which means give up this Dwarka, give up this Kurukshetra and come to Braj. This is the meaning.
May your lotus feet rise in our heart. But our heart is Vrindavan. So may your lotus feet appear in the land of Vrindavan.
Give up this Dwarka, give up this Kurukshetra and please come with us to the land of Braj. May the lotus feet of Krishna rise in the heart of the Gopis, which is Braj. So in this way very sarcastic, crooked, heartfelt glorification.
Hidden criticism. Sorry for speaking too much. Please forgive me.
Beautiful. Thank you. Anand, would you like to speak something? Just again, it reminds me of Jagannath Puri.
So many things remind me of Puri. This verse, which is one of the most important verses spoken during the Ratha Yatra in Madhya Liga chapter 13. Mahaprabhu is reciting this.
And in the next chapter we hear about Lakshmi Devi’s maan. And in her maan, he discusses about how the person is angry, how they chastise the other person in so many different ways. Sometimes with harsh words, sometimes the Gopis may even hit Krishna with a stick or something.
And in the Madhya Liga chapter 14 it’s described that Lakshmi Devi, her maan, is very extraordinary. She’s chastising Krishna with her opulence. And that’s a very, very extraordinary thing.
And I thought it very significant thinking about Puri. It’s a little bit of a separate topic. But that she doesn’t chastise Krishna with her opulence when she’s at the Sri Mandir.
But when Krishna leaves to go to Ratha Yatra to go see his girlfriend, Krishna goes to the Vrindavan Mandir, which is representative of Vrindavan because that’s where Vishwakarma originally made the deities of Jagannath Baladeva Subhadra. Then Lakshmi Devi comes there and she manifests that angry mood. And she chastises Jagannath there, Krishna, with that opulence.
So this is an interesting thing that comes to my mind about this. A lot of thoughts have come to my mind about this putting the hand on the head. I’d like to raise that topic amongst the two.
That’s a very important point in this verse. That Krishna’s hand is like a lotus flower. One aspect of that is that the gopis are saying because we’re burning in this Agni, we’re burning in this fire of separation.
So the lotus is something which is very, very cooling. It comes from the water. So your hand is very cooling.
So you should put that hand on our head. And that by doing that, then Kanta Kama Dham, you’ll fulfil our desires. You’ll fulfil the desires of Cupid by putting this hand on our head.
And again, that hand on the head is something we find many, many times in Vedic literature, Vaishnava literature. In, what’s the name of the book? The story of Hrishika Nandaprabhu. There’s a Hrishika in Vilas.
It’s not coming to mind right now. But there’s an interesting story there that when Hrishika Nandaprabhu is from Hrishikamangal by Gopi Janavallabhadasa, disciple of Hrishika Nandaprabhu. There was once one elephant who was attacking people.
Demonic elephant was coming and killing the cows and different animals and killing people and horses and things. And everybody was afraid. They didn’t know what to do.
And so at that time the Muslim ruler who was there, his name was Ahmed Beg. And he wanted to actually criticise Hrishika Nandaprabhu. He said, we should take shelter of this sadhu.
And he can do something. And he’s thinking to himself, what can he do? And Hrishika Nandaprabhu understood his mood. So then he told his companions, you go away.
And then that elephant came and Hrishika Nandaprabhu started preaching to the elephant. And then at one point Hrishika Nandaprabhu put his hand on the head of the elephant. And when he put his hand on the head of the elephant, the elephant calmed down.
And then Hrishika Nandaprabhu spoke the Hare Krishna mantra into the ears of the elephant. And he gave initiation to the elephant. He became known as Gopal Das after that.
So that’s the nature of Krishna’s hand. That’s the nature of the hand of the devotees. That it puts out the fire of material existence.
It solves all of our different problems. But the gopis here, their mood is quite different. When they’re praying to Krishna, they’re praying that you put out this fire.
And what does it mean you put out this fire? It means that you appear before us. We want to see you. And they’re speaking again in a humble way because they’re thinking, oh, in their bhava, they’re thinking, oh, now we’ve offended Krishna.
Now he’s gone away. Krishna’s unhappy with us. So they begin to offer some prayers.
But their prayers are not like our prayers. Their prayers are we want to see you. And we want to see you.
Why? Sometimes we have this misunderstanding. We think that to see the Lord that’s a kind of sense gratification. It’s like going to a movie where there’s a song in America and it’s running up to the boys watch the girls as the girls watch the boys as the world goes by.
So that’s the nature of the material existence. The boys are watching the girls. The girls are watching the boys.
And they’re getting this material pleasure. So many times we think that when the gopis they want to see Krishna, that’s also for their pleasure. But it’s not exactly for their pleasure.
If it’s only for their pleasure then as we, maybe we spoke about before in this session in some recent class I was speaking, why didn’t the gopis then go to Mathura? I think it was in a previous session I mentioned how Radhanath Maharaj used to walk from Mathura to Vrindavan. It’s not such a great distance. If the gopis really want to see Krishna, he’s right there.
They can go and they can see him. But seeing him is not the same way that we want to see. They want to see him so they can render service.
And what kind of service can we do in Mathura? It’s a place of chariots and noise and all these things going on. There’s no Radhakun, there’s no Shamakun, there’s no Jamuna River there, there’s no Kunjas, there’s no Govardhan Hill. We need all these Udipanas.
We need all these supportive items to be there so that we can offer proper service to you. So when the gopis want to see the Lord, it indicates they want to render service to him in this very, very ecstatic way. So I see those points in this verse.
So Amarindu, would you like to respond? Sure, Prabhuji. So as far as the hand is concerned, so Varasaroruham, the word used is since we are winding up, so maybe we’ll just make this as the last point from my side, but then I would also like to hear from Chaitanya Charan Prabhu. And maybe we can even continue this discussion in our next podcast if there are more discussions for this verse.
As far as the context of Krishna’s hand is concerned, so Karasaroruham. Saroruham means that which appears from the pond. Very specifically, because the word Sara, like Sarovara means a pond.
So Saroruham means that, it’s not a field lotus, but it’s a water lotus. So Krishna’s hand is not just a lotus, but it is that lotus which appears from cooling water ponds. So that adds extra poetic and devotional mood to say that our body is burning in the fire of separation.
And lotus by nature is very cooling. But that lotus which comes from the cooling water ponds definitely has more prominence in healing the heat. So your hand Krishna is a lotus because it is pink, is reddish, the palms are pink, reddish, they are soft like the lotus, they are fragrant like the lotus, they are cooling like the lotus and the nectar of the lotus is in the central part.
So the nectar of the lotus of your palms is your touch. Just like the honey bee wants the nectar which is in the middle portion of the lotus flower, your lotus palms are like a lotus flower and in the middle portion is your blessings or your touch. So we want that.
We like honey bees, like bumble bees, we want that. So when the gopis are praying, karasaroruham kanta kamadam, in their spurti they see that Krishna is coming and stretching his hand to touch them. But then at that point Krishna is saying, yes I am ready to touch but you know, do you all think that you are very qualified to get my touch? Great personalities are praying for my touch.
You see Dhruva Maharaj, I am just adding here, it’s not in the discussion between Krishna and the gopis but we see in the Bhagavatam, Dhruva Maharaj getting the touch of Krishna’s hand. Akrura, canto 10 chapter 38, I believe text 15 or 16. Akrura is praying, my lord please touch your lotus palms on my head.
So in this way Krishna is asking the gopis, you think you are very qualified to get my touch on your head? The gopis are saying we may not be qualified but you are vrishni dhurya. What does vrishni dhurya mean? In the yadu vamsa, coming from king yadu, we see the 16th generation down is vrishni. So and he had many queens, many queens.
So Krishna, you have appeared in that dynasty of Maharaj vrishni as the son of that dynasty and look at how vrishni was. He would touch and bless all his wives. He had many women and he would bless all of them.
So we may not be qualified to get your touch but you are vrishni dhurya. You are the son in the dynasty of king vrishni who had many queens and he would bless all of them and protect them with his palms. So please live up to your own glory.
We may not be glorious but we depend on your glory. Or another meaning could be vrishni dhurya, you have appeared in the dynasty of Nanda Maharaj. Why have you appeared in the dynasty of Nanda Maharaj and not Vasudev Maharaj there? But you have appeared here in Brindavan vrishni dhurya as the son of Nanda Maharaj to display unlimited sweetness.
Is it not Krishna? More sweetness than Vaikuntha, more sweetness than Dwaraka, more sweetness than Mathura and where is the sweetness? The sweetness is not about thinking who is qualified or who is not. It’s about freely distributing the nectar that you have. So please place your hand on our head and in this way you fulfil all our desires.
When there is heat, traditionally it is described in Ayurveda that whenever there is heat, they would place lotus petals on the forehead. Just like the mother sometimes when I remember when I was a kid and I used to be down with fever, my mother used to dip handkerchiefs in salt water and place handkerchiefs on the forehead because it reduces the temperature when someone is having fever or is down with temperature. So traditionally in Ayurveda they keep lotus petals on the head when someone has high temperature because it is described that water lotus petals, they have the power to absorb that heat.
So the gopis are telling Krishna that our body is burning in the heat of separation and no lotus petal of this world will help except the lotus petal of your palms. So please kindly keep it on our head so that the heat of our illness, the fever, heat comes down. So they are giving formidable reasons why Krishna should come and then to support that they also say you know when you have Sri Karagraham, when you can give your hand to Lakshmi and that Lakshmi has taken shelter of Braj where we are the leaders as the gopis.
If you can give your hand to Lakshmi, why can’t you give your hand to the gopis? Sri Karagraham. So in that way the word Karasaroruham and Sri Karagraham are linked with the same word kara being used. So these are some thoughts.
Amazing. Yeah, I think Anant, would you like to reflect on this? I think we may have to continue this verse in our next session also to some extent. We can do it partially and then move to the next verse.
But if you have some quick reflections I don’t want to keep you too long. No, I’m okay. Such a nice comment.
Thank you, Pupul. So I’ll try to summarise. So this verse started about how it seems to be in the Aishwarya Bhava lot where they’re talking about Krishna being, blessing them with their hands on their head and they’re talking about Krishna being the god of the the lord of the goddess of fortune Sri Karagraham.
So the understanding discussed at multiple levels. One level is that the Gopis they are setting the example for us sadhakas. Another is that they are expressing their dainyata in their desperation to call out for Krishna and in general in the prayers of the Vrajivasis, they discuss that there are not that many prayers directly by the Vrajivasis to Krishna but in the prayers sometimes this dainyata comes up and then we discuss that beautiful verse from the the prayer that the Gopis are offering to Krishna in Mathura and that in Kurukshetra and that also has a very similar mood over here and we discuss the external and internal or the left and the right meanings of those verses and in this particular verse this last part about Karasarovaroham and that because it’s a water lotus it’s especially cooling and especially soothing for the heart and that you bless Lakshmidevi so you please bless us also so if you’re blessing her then why can’t you bless us and the overall mood in this verse is that the Gopis are as we mentioned that Krishna may feel angry and go away so the Gopis are glorifying Krishna while also beseeching him to return and give them his darshan and this verse actually is although the Aishwarya Bhava is there, the Aishwarya Bhava is actually intensifying their Madhurya call to Krishna to return of course there are many other points but thank you very much for joining today and we look forward to continuing our session in the near future Hare Krishna Hare Krishna