Gopashtami – The spiritual world is an arena of loving service

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. What happens is, to this Ramasamhita verse explains, that, time is an eternal present over there, that does not mean that time doesn’t flow, time flows, but, time flows simply to create variety and beauty, in the pastimes of Krishna, time does not control and destroy, as it does in this world, so, just to give occasions, for his devotees, to relish newer and newer pastimes, and to celebrate, newer and newer occasions, festivals, there is time in the spiritual world, so, when Krishna appears in this world, he grows, and he grows from a small baby to a youth, and while he is growing thus, actually, he offers his devotees opportunities to relish distinctive pastimes, and one such pastime is, the rite of passage, that is, marked by Gopashtim, rite of passage, r-i-t-e, rite is like ritual, rite of passage, refers to significant events that happen in people’s lives, for example, a student passing the matriculation exam, or student passing the graduation exam, this is considered to be like a rite of passage, or a person getting married, that is also a rite of passage, when we are going through our life journey, very significant markers, events that are very important, they are called as rites of passage, so, in Krishna’s life also, there are rites of passage, and the devotees celebrate that jubilantly, so, when Krishna was small, he would take care of the cows, and when he would take care of the cows, he would just, in the vicinity of Vrindavan, the cows would graze, and the small cows, but as he grew up, his desire to act like a normal cowherd, and take care of cows grew, and along with the growth of his desire, grew the anxiety of Yashodamayi, because Yashodamayi felt that if Krishna goes deep into the forest, what will happen? He didn’t want Krishna to be out of sight for even one moment, or to speak of outside, if Krishna would go out deep into the forest, but Krishna insisted, Nanda Maharaj suggested that now Krishna has grown up, and Krishna should be entrusted the cows to take care of, Yashodamayi said no, you have so many assistants, let them take care of the cows, there are so many demons attacking Krishna, even when he is in Vrindavan, if he goes out, who knows what dangers will come, Krishna became very angry, and he said, mother, you are always spoiling my fun, I was longing to go to the forest, and now you are saying no, I am going to go to the forest, and in his own sweet way, through a temper, and Yashodamayi and Nanda Maharaj discussed privately, finally Yashodamayi said, we cannot let Krishna get upset, and you are right, Nanda Maharaj was surprised, at the selfless nature of Yashodamayi’s love for Krishna, and she wanted to protect Krishna, but at the same time, she did not want Krishna to be unhappy, and putting a stone on her heart, she gave consent to Krishna going deep out in the forest, and Krishna was jubilant, and Krishna refused to wear any shoes, he said that mother, if you want me to have shoes, then actually I am serving the cows, Trunacharanugam, Shriniketanam, that lord who is the residence of Lakshmidevi, Lakshmidevi resides on his chest as Shrivatsa, Shriniketanam, that lord, what was he doing, the Gopis in their songs sing, Trunacharanugam, Trunachar, those who eat grass, Anugam, he was going behind them, serving them, as they were going around grazing, and how can the cows, how can the servant have something more than the master, if the cow, if you want me to wear shoes, then the cow should have a pair of shoes, and Yashodamani said, Nandamani has 9 lakh cows, 36 lakh shoes, I don’t have so many shoes, Krishna said, I will not wear shoes, so this conversation was going on near the cow shed, and all the cows heard it with their ears and thought, because of their intense desire to protect Krishna, that night by the arrangement of Yoga Maya, the ropes that were tying them became unbound, and all these cows ran out into Vrindavan’s forest, and everywhere they went and with their hard hooves, they hit the ground, and all over Vrindavan, they reduced all the sharp objects into fine soft powder, and in this way they prepared all of Vrindavan for the arrival of Krishna, removing all thorny objects, removing all obstacles so that Krishna could relish the pastimes, so this is Vrindavan, where Krishna wants to serve the cows, and the cows want to serve Krishna, and in this rite of passage, where Krishna becomes a cowherd, and takes care of the cows, this demonstrates this sweet reciprocation of loving service between the Lord and His devotees, because of our conditioning, often we feel, why do I have to be a servant, but actually if we understand what the nature of service is in the spiritual world, it’s an expression of love, it’s not an expression of domination by someone, it’s an expression of affection, and when we understand this, then our heart also longs to enter into that and also to serve, serve the Lord, serve His devotees, and thereby ultimately enter into the circle of love, that is the spiritual world, so in Gopashtam we can pray to Krishna, and to His cows, and to His devotees, that they may also bless us so that one day we can enter into their circle of affectionate service,