​Rasa Lila or rash lila 1- The philosophical misunderstanding

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you for coming here today afternoon and I apologise for being late. There was some confusion at the airport.
I just came from New York. Directly I have come here from the airport itself. I will be as I was told, I will be speaking on the topic of Ras Leela or Rash Leela.
So, I will be speaking on this in two parts. The first part will be philosophical and second part will be historical. So, we will have a break in between.
So, right now I will offer the overview of the philosophical part and at the end of each part we can have some question answers or at the end of the full class also we can have question answers. We will see how it flows. This is what I will be discussing.
An introduction of the Ras Leela and the paradox of the renounced apparently adoring the romantic. So, how do we understand that? Then we will talk about the Gita’s upside down tree metaphor and how that applies, that can help us to understand the Ras Leela. And then the major part of the talk will be which I will go to the historical understanding the difference between sentiments and sentimentality.
So, let’s begin. Now, the Ras Leela is described in many texts. But most prominently it is described in the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Ras Leela also finds mention in the Brahmavivert Puran, the Brahma Puran, some extent Padma Puran also and of course many other later literatures. But the commentaries of the Acharyas talk about it. But it’s most well known for the description in the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Now, let’s try to understand the position of the Ras Leela in the Srimad Bhagavatam. The Srimad Bhagavatam has 335 chapters. Srimad Bhagavatam also known as Bhagavata Puran is the most well known among the Puranas.
And it’s well known not just in terms of being very big. There are other Puranas also which are very big. It’s well known because no other Purana has attracted as many commentaries as has the Bhagavata Puran.
Vishnu Puran has just one or two commentaries from the Srinivasa tradition. But apart from that none of the Puranas have attracted commentaries. But the Bhagavata Puran, right from Sridhar Swami down, many many Acharyas have commented.
And not just in the Gauriya Vaishnav tradition. In our tradition, Srinath Chakravarti Thakur was the first person who commented on the Srimad Bhagavatam. A commentary called Chaitanya Manjusha.
And of course the most famous commentary in our tradition of the Bhagavatam is by Vishnu Achakravarti Thakur. That is Sarat Darshan. So the Bhagavatam has attracted a lot of commentaries because this book is so important.
And if we look at the whole Bhagavatam, its 335 chapters are all centred on the 10th Canto. In fact the whole Bhagavatam’s thought flow is moving towards the 10th Canto where the revelation of Krishnalila comes. So, the structure of the Bhagavatam itself is a whole separate seminar.
But a quick understanding of that is, Sri Prabhupada writes in the book On the Way to Krishna that all knowledge comes from Krishna. But all knowledge doesn’t begin from Krishna. That means that mattaṃ smṛtir jñānaṃ apohanaṃ ca Whatever we know, we know it by Krishna’s mercy.
That’s when knowledge comes from Krishna. But all knowledge doesn’t begin from Krishna. That means it’s not that suddenly one day I wake up and start thinking about God.
No, we look at the world around us and then we try to think about the nature of the world, we try to understand where this world came from and from the world our thoughts move towards God. So the Bhagavatam also adopts a similar methodology where in the first five cantos it describes different ways in which our thoughts can move towards God. Broadly it describes three ways of looking at the world in a way in which our thoughts can move towards the source of the world.
These three conceptions are the virat rupa, the universal form that is described in the second canto, the sankhya analysis, this is described in the third canto, and the cosmological description which is given in the fifth canto. Now the purpose of all these is not primarily to analyse the material world. The purpose is for one who wants to always think of God, we cannot live in this world with closed eyes.
We have to function in this world. So if we look at nature, then how can we connect our perception of nature with God? If we analyse physics, if we divide matter into its components, how can we direct that analysis towards, direct thoughts of that analysis towards God? If we study cosmology, how can we direct the study of that cosmology towards God? So the purpose is to show how from matter we can go towards the supreme spirit. And then from the sixth canto onwards, even before this also the Bhagavatam describes various avataras.
But from the third canto onwards, the Bhagavatam can be read, from 9th chapter, third canto roughly, it can be read as a chronology. It describes basically one day in the life of Brahma. Within the Bhagavatam’s cosmology, there is, one day of Brahma has 14 manvantaras.
So the first manvantara, and which are the avataras of the Lord that come in the manvantara, which are the incarnations that come, that is described from third canto till the eighth canto. So third canto to eighth canto describes the first manvantara, nisvayam bhuvah manu. Then the eighth canto, first chapter, like a fast forward, then seven manus are described over there, quickly.
nisvayam bhuvah manu’s prayers are described, then seven manus are described, and then the current manu that is going on, vaivasvah manu. From the eighth canto onwards till the twelfth canto, what happens in the vaivasvah manu that is described. So in this vaivasvah manu Krishna appears.
And Krishna’s pastimes are described in ninth and tenth canto. So in one way the Bhagavatam is going chronologically like this. But thematically if we see, the Bhagavatam from the sixth canto onwards starts describing more and more the personal descents of the Lord in this world.
That means, one is, the first it is describing, okay, I look at this world and I raise my thoughts towards God. The second is, that God himself descends to this world. And then by focussing on him, we can also direct our thoughts towards the Supreme.
So the various avataras are described. So the Bhagavatam is not giving sequential, exhaustive history. Its narration of history has a purpose.
The purpose is to actually describe those extraordinary moments in history when the path out of history was illuminated. History is in the time domain. God exists outside the time domain.
So how from within the time domain one can go outside the time domain? That happens when we become attracted to the Lord. जन्म कर्मचमे दिवियं एवं यो वित्तित्वदाः द्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर जन्म नयिति मामेति सोर्चुना That, those who understand my divine activities, they will attain me, Krishna says. So he gives us the opportunity to understand him by descending to this world.
And while describing the various avataras, the Bhagavatam focusses on Krishna. And Krishna’s leela is described in the 10th canto. And Krishna’s shiksha is described in the 11th canto.
The 11th canto is a major section, almost 24 chapters, 26 chapters, from the 7th chapter to the 30th chapter. They are what is called as Uddhava Gita. The instructions that Krishna gave to Uddhava.
And they are much bigger than the Bhagavad Gita. So that means Krishna is at the heart of the Bhagavatam. The essence of the Bhagavatam is the 10th canto and the 11th canto.
In terms of pastime is the 10th canto. In terms of philosophy, many of the acharyas, when they want to quote the Bhagavatam, they quote for philosophy the 11th canto teachings of Krishna to Uddhava. So Krishna leela has a central position in the Bhagavatam.
And within Krishna leela, the most special, the most attractive, the most evocative of Krishna’s pastimes are in Vrindavan. The Bhagavatam within 10th canto is more or less chronological. First 40 chapters describe Krishna’s, first 40 chapters of the 10th canto, they describe Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan.
The next 10 chapters describe his pastimes in Mathura. And thereafter are the pastimes in Dwarka. At that time, Shukadeva Goswami becomes very ecstatic and because of his ecstasy, his ecstasy transcends chronology at that time.
And that’s why he is speaking more pastimes based on themes. So, for example, when 55th chapter describes Krishna’s marriage to Kulukmini, after that he doesn’t describe Krishna’s other marriages. Immediately he starts describing the sons of Krishna and what all happened with those sons.
So, he is going more based on inspiration. So, now within the Vrindavan pastimes, the most celebrated is the Rasalila. The Rasalila is described in 5 chapters which are called the Ras Panchadhyay.
Panchadhyay is 5 chapters. So, there are 29 to 33 chapters in the 10th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. So, if you look at it thematically, the whole Bhagavatam is moving towards describing, towards giving this revelation of Krishna.
It’s a very vivid, personable manifestation of God as Krishna. The Bhagavatam is moving towards that. And the most intimate of his pastimes are the Rasalila.
The Rasalila is in that sense the heart of the Bhagavatam. Now, looking at this another way, where is Krishna Nila described in the Bhagavatam? It’s not just described, only in the 10th canto. Nowadays, when movies are released, now before movies are released, a trailer is released.
And the trailer is meant to attract people. Oh, come on, watch this movie. The movie may be 2 hours, 3 hours, but trailer is 3-4 minutes.
And it’s supposed to be so gripping that people get attracted. And they want to come and see the movie. So, like that the Bhagavatam, it gives the full movie of Krishna Nila in the 10th canto.
It gives a trailer in the 1st canto itself. In the 1st canto from chapter 7 itself, Krishna appears over there. And Krishna is God.
Satyam param dheemahi, the Bhagavatam says. That absolute truth is the source of everything. But the first appearance of that absolute truth in the Bhagavatam is very dramatic.
Now, suppose there is a movie in which, you know, often many movies, the entry of the hero is very dramatic. Now, maybe there is some damsel in distress and the hero just comes in a coat of shining armour, riding on a horse and rescues her. The hero’s entry is usually very dramatic.
But the Bhagavatam, the supreme hero, how does he enter? Now, you can imagine, say, you know, there is somebody in danger and suddenly a car comes rushing over there. And then the car breaks, there is a big squeak sound as the car stops. And then the hero will jump out.
Now, if the hero is a very big person, first the chauffeur will come out and then the chauffeur will open the door for the hero. Or if the hero is a very action hero, the hero will himself be driving the car and he will jump out. But Krishna appears as the hero, but he is actually driving somebody else’s car.
You know, Krishna is riding Arjuna’s chariot. That’s how Krishna enters for the first time in the Bhagavatam. And that reveals the bhaktavatsalya of the Lord who is going to be revealed in the Bhagavatam.
That he is the servant of his devotees. And how he is conquered by the love of his devotees, that is revealed at the highest level in Rasleela. So, in one sense, Krishna and Arjuna together in the martial setting and the Krishna with the gopis in Vrindavan, that’s a very romantic pastoral setting.
From the setting point of view, they may seem very different. But the theme is common. The theme is that the Lord becomes conquered by the love of his devotees.
He becomes the charioteer of Arjuna. And similarly, he tells the gopis that your love is so great, na paareham, I cannot repay the debt I owe to you. The service that you have done, I cannot reciprocate with that service.
Krishna is saying that I become conquered by their love. So, the Bhagavatam in the first canto gives a glimpse of what it is going to offer in the tenth canto. So, in that sense, it’s like a trailer.
And Krishna is mentioned in each canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. There are various avatars mentioned, but Krishna is mentioned in each canto. And Krishna Leela is once more described in the third canto, second and third chapter where there is a discussion between Uddhava and Vidura.
At that time, Krishna Leela is described in a synopsis over there. And the first reference to the Raas Leela specifically, the first reference to Krishna’s Vrindavan pastimes comes in the eighth chapter of the first canto, where there is, now the Damodar month is going on. So, Kunti Maharani remembers the Damodar Leela.
गोप्या ददे त्वई कृताग सिदामतावध्याते दशाषु कलिधान्यर संभरमाक्षः वक्त्रम् निय भयभावनयास्तितस्य सामाम्यमोहेति भीरपियद्धिभेति She says that, you, of whom even fear personified is afraid, you became fearful when your mother took a stick and wanted to beat you. So, again the theme is, you are conquered by the love of your devotees. That is the first remembrance of Vrindavan pastimes.
And the first mention of the Raasth Leela in the Bhagavatam comes, very paradoxically again, Bhishma Pitamaha, he remembers it. Bhishma Pitamaha, actually Bhishma has been a lifelong celibate. And as a lifelong celibate, he is now about to die.
Now, celibates themselves, they normally avoid thinking about the opposite sex. When somebody is about to die, they don’t want to think about anything sensual. At the same time, one of the last sentences that he speaks, this is 1.9.14, just two verses after that, the last words he speaks and he stops.
And the verse he speaks is what? How the gopis in Vrindavan were mad for Krishna. And when they were mad for Krishna, in that madness, they imitated his pastimes. And that lord who maddened the devotees like this, out of love for him, I remember that lord.
That’s the mood. So, I’ll come back to the significance of this particular recollection, when we talk about the Raasth Leela again once again. So, the point is, the Bhagavatam is a book of, a vast book, with lot of subjects being dealt with, but its thrust is towards Krishna Leela.
And it sets up clues which point towards what is going to come in the future. It is said that if somebody is writing a novel or doing a drama, if you are doing a drama and you show a table with a gun on it, the gun has to be shot sometime later. There is no point in having the gun over there.
So, like that, the Bhagavatam drops hints of Krishna Leela throughout. And that Krishna Leela is described in the 10th canto. So, it’s all moving towards Krishna Leela and especially within Krishna Leela towards the Raasth Leela.
So, as I mentioned, the Raasth Leela has five chapters from 29 to 33. And the last verse of the last chapter of Raasth Leela, 10, 33, 39, this is like the conclusion of the Raasth Leela. And this is a very strikingly paradoxical verse.
vikriditam vrajavadhubhir idam cha vishnu shraddhan mitho anushunayadatavaranahedya bhaktim param bhagvatipatilabhyakamam hridrogam asvapahinotya chirenadheeraha Ashokdev Goswami is describing vikriditam, vikrida is play. So, the play with vrajavadhu, with the gopis. vikriditam vrajavadhubhir idam cha vishnu which Vishnu performed with the vrajavadhus.
shraddhan mitho anushunayadatavaranahedya If somebody hears them, hears it very faithfully, shraddha, anushunayad, Prabhupada would often explain the word anu, means systematically, in parampara, properly we understand it. anushunayadatavaranahedya, when hears it or describes it. What will happen by this? bhaktim param bhagvati, one will attain bhakti for Krishna.
parabhakti, transcendental devotion and pratilabhya, on gaining this what will happen? hridrogam, the heart disease. What is this heart disease? It is not a disease which can be diagnosed by a cardiac specialist. It is the heart disease of selfish desire.
Lust is sometimes translated as the male-female attraction. That is one understanding of lust. But lust essentially means selfish desire.
So, selfishness basically. hridrogam asva apahinoti That selfish desire in the heart, that will be destroyed. apahinoti, achirena dheera Very easily, very rapidly it will be destroyed.
And the person will become dheera. dheera means sober, one who is not agitated, disturbed by illusion. So, there are several amazing things about this verse.
First is, normally in the Puranas, whenever any leela is described, the phala shruti refers to what will be the phala of shruti. shruti is hearing, phala is the fruit. What will be the fruit of hearing? What will you get by hearing this pastime? So, that is usually the phala shruti, phala shruti are very effusive.
Oh, all your sins will be destroyed. You will attain heavens. You will attain prosperity as much as A’s of Vishnu.
There are very effusive praises that are given usually. The phala shruti. And yet, at the end of this pastime, the phala shruti seems to be very, very straightforward.
It is that, you will get paravakti. Usually, the phala shruti also indicates, you know, what is the speaker’s understanding of the level of the audience. So, for example, this is what we discussed today at the end of the class.
So, that means, the teacher’s objective is, this is what the student should have understood. So, when Shukdev Goswami is narrating the Braj Leela, his purpose is understood over here, that one will get paravakti. So, it is not talking about any heavenly wealth, any heavenly enjoyment.
It is just saying, you will get paravakti by this. So, in one sense, it’s not a very, as compared to other phala shruti, this seems to be a very toned down phala shruti. In material terms, it is.
No heaven, no great prosperity, you will get paravakti. Now, if you look at this phrase paravakti, it comes in the Bhagavad Gita, and it comes actually at a very significant stage. In the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives more or less a summary of the whole Gita.
And from 18.40 onwards till 18.55, he describes the whole flow from karma yoga through jnana yoga to bhakti yoga. And there in 18.54, he describes jnana yoga. The stage is, brahma bhuta prasannatma nishochiti na kankshati samah sarveshu bhuteshu mad-bhaktim labhate param Krishna says, brahma bhuta prasannatma, a person who has realised one’s brahman nature, one’s spiritual nature, nishochiti na kankshati, that person is not attracted to anything, does not lament for anything, and samah sarveshu bhuteshu, is equal poised towards all beings.
Basically, Krishna is giving the symptoms of a person who is perfectly brahman realised. Basically, there is equality towards things and equality towards people. And both are there, that means one is very advanced.
Krishna actually describes these as two progressive stages in the sixth chapter. In 6.8, when he describes the yogis who go to the forest, first is, they become equal poised towards things. samaloshitra ashmakanchana But then, in the next day, 6.9, he describes, they become equal poised towards people also.
surunmitrarudasena madhyasthadveshabandhushu sadhushvapichapapeshu samabuddhi vishishyate Vishishyate means they are special. So, Krishna is describing that advanced spiritualist, who is equal towards all things and all people. That means this person is perfectly brahman realised.
And what is the fruit of that? Such a person, madbhaktim labhate param, that person will attain my bhakti. And what kind of bhakti? Parabhakti. So, parabhakti, that means, is higher than perfect brahman realisation.
After one has attained perfect brahman realisation, then one will attain parabhakti. So, from the karmakanda point of view, if you see, the fruit of parabhakti is not all that great. If somebody comes to temple, like people are in matrimony, they chant Hare Krishna.
Now, what will you get by chanting Hare Krishna? Prabhupada would say, by chanting Hare Krishna, we will get more chanting Hare Krishna. What is the use of that? From the materialistic point of view, parabhakti doesn’t seem to be anything special. That is from the karma point of view.
From the jnana point of view, it is mukti that is special. Because that is what jnanis want to attain. And from that perspective, what is said over here, parabhakti is higher than mukti.
After one gets mukti, then one will get parabhakti. Then the question may come up, you are just hearing some stories. And those stories are also of a boy and a girl.
How can the stories of a boy and a girl give a result that is higher than mukti? So, from both the karma point of view and the jnana point of view, this phalashrutti is very surprising. And of course, from the jnana point of view, take it forward, that vikriditam, krida is play. And normally, Vishnu is a formal manifestation of God.
Now, we don’t have Vishnu playing with his friends. Vishnu is, although he is God in Vaikuntha, he is fully God. But he is more formal.
So, the Bhagavatam is actually using a very significant paradox over here. Vikriditam and Vishnu. Where that repetition of sound is there.
The whole Raas Pillai is very poetic with many alliterations. Vikriditam and V sound is there, Vishnu, again the V sound is there over there. But more importantly, not just the sound, is significant for determining the choice of the names.
Vishnu is a majestic manifestation of God. And if you look at all the five chapters of the Raas Panchayat Gyai, Krishna is referred to as Krishna, as Govinda, as Gopala, as Hari, but never before he is referred to as Vishnu. So, why in this verse itself, he is referred to as Vishnu? That’s because, Shukadeva Goswami is condemning, don’t think this is just an ordinary boy.
Don’t think this is just an ordinary boy, he is the Supreme Lord. And the extraordinary is that, that Supreme Lord, he is actually playing. Vishnu is playing.
What is he doing? He is doing Krida. And the first reference to Vishnu, not in the Bhagavatam, but in the Raas Panchayat Gyai. And at the end it comes, it reminds, don’t think of him as an ordinary person.
And the most paradoxical thing over here is, that by hearing these pastimes, what will happen? That we’ll get bhakti, bhaktim param bhagvati pratilabdha kaavam rutrogva asho honi asho apahinoti achiren dheeraha, that the lust in the heart will be destroyed. Now this is more strange, because normally, you know, if people hear about some romantic movie, then basically, the sensual desires increase. Any romantic novel that is there, the sensual desires increase on hearing that.
Now it depends, if it’s romantic, it can be erotic. The more explicit it is sensually, the more the sensual desires will increase. But basically, the stories of male-female attraction, of romantic stories, they don’t decrease sensuality.
Sometimes if that romantic story ends in a tragedy, then the desire may go down a little bit. But, you know, frustration is not renunciation. Frustration means that I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy.
Renunciation means I don’t have the desire to enjoy. The two are very different things. So, when people see some tragedies, some romance story ending, love story ending in a tragedy, now that doesn’t lead to renunciation.
That may lead to some temporary frustration. But the desires still remain. And anyway, the Raas Leela is actually not a tragedy.
The way it ends is, there is union. Krishna and the Gopis, they unite, they dance together, and they have wonderful Leela. So, how can it be that hearing this Leela can actually decrease one’s lust? So, lust can’t counter lust.
By hearing about lust, one’s lust will increase. But the Bhagavatam says over here, by hearing this, one’s lust will decrease. In fact, it will go away.
So, how do we understand this paradox? So, at the very least, you know, if somebody says, many people ask, you know, why do you worship Krishna? He is such an immoral God. He dances with the Gopis. Well, if he is immoral, then why are saints who are utterly renounced, why are they worshipping him? And why is it that his supposedly immoral dalliances are said to free people from lust? So, at the very least, and looking at these paradoxes, should check our judgmentality about Krishna Leela.
Or somebody passing summary judgement, oh, this is immoral. At least it should check that. And make us think, what more is there? Why is the Bhagavatam describing something like this? And then that brings us to the further philosophical analysis.
So, there is a Sri Vaishnav scholar, very celebrated scholar, you know, he read Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam commentary and he said, I have read many Bhagavatam commentaries till now, but I have never seen any commentary on the Bhagavatam which correlates the Bhagavatam in the Gita so beautifully. That’s Srila Prabhupada’s, Srila Prabhupada’s expertise, that in the Bhagavad Gita he offers us the Bhagavatam, in the Bhagavatam he offers us the Bhagavad Gita. So, there is a symbiosis between the two.
So, I’ll explain the Rashtriya Leela from the perspective of the Bhagavad Gita, as Srila Prabhupada also does in explaining his Bhagavatam. So, the Bhagavad Gita in the 15th chapter gives us a metaphor. ऊर्धमूलमदशाकं अश्वत्थं प्राहु रव्ययं चन्दान्स्यस्य परणानि इस्तं वेद सवेद वेत So, ऊर्धमूलम, that, मूल is root, that root is upwards, अधः शाकं, शाकं is branches, they are downwards, अश्वत्थं प्राहु रव्ययं, there is a whole imperishable banyan tree that exists.
And now, this again is very intriguing, because normally roots are downwards, branches are upwards. So, the Acharyas explain that, where do we see, Srila Prabhupada especially explains that, where do we see such a tree? In a reflection. So, if there is a river on the bank, there is a reflection, then in the reflection we will see the roots to be upwards, and the shoots, the branches to be downwards.
So, Krishna through this metaphor is conveying that this world is like an upside down place, upside down banyan tree. Now, if somebody sees a mango, the mango is there on the tree, but if they see the mango in the reflection, and they just jump into the river to get the reflection, they dive in and below the surface of the water it’s rocky, bang their head, what happened? Where did the mango go? And they come out again, again they see the mango, again they jump in. So, now, again and again they will keep jumping in, they will never get the mango.
But suppose, somebody comes and lifts their head up, the mango is there. Now, as soon as they see the mango there, they will lose all interest in the reflection. Why? Because they understood this is the reality and this is the reflection.
Now, if the reflection were not there, then if they were just looking at the river and there was no reflection in the river, they would never come to look upwards and see the reality. So, the very presence of the reflection points to the existence of the reality. Some people ask, you know, how do you know whether the soul exists or not? How do you know whether there is an eternal world or not? There are different ways of explaining this.
One is based on scriptural authority. Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a world which is beyond this world. Parastasmat bhavonyo vyakto vyakta sanatra, 8.26. Another is we can have scientific evidences.
We can talk scientific pointers, near-death experiences, past life memories, which point to the eternality of our existence beyond our body. Another way of it is simple logic. Now, everything around us is temporary.
Nothing lasts forever. So, if everything around us is temporary, and yet we all have the desire to live forever. No matter how old we become, we want to live forever.
We want to live on and on. So, now the question comes up, if we were simply products of matter, and matter is temporary, everything around us is temporary, where would we get the desire to live forever from? Our desires usually are circumstantial. If I have never heard of a pizza, how can I get a desire for a pizza? Isn’t it? Our desires have to come from somewhere.
They just don’t come out of a vacuum suddenly. So, if we have a desire to live forever, where does this desire come from? It cannot come from our circumstances, because in our circumstances there is nothing eternal. That means, this desire is coming not from outside, but from inside.
From inside there is some aspect to our being, which has this aspiration for eternity. And it has that aspiration, the Gita explains, because that aspect of us, the soul, is itself eternal. So, if you consider, from the Darwinian evolution’s perspective, that survival of the fittest.
Now, as far as the law of nature is concerned, that’s perfectly fine, the survival of the fittest. The fittest will survive, the unfit will die. But when this is used as an explanatory mechanism for everything, then it is a non-scientific extrapolation of scientific data.
There is scientific data which tells us something, but from that we need sweeping generalisations. Then that is wrong. You know, if some extraterrestrial being comes to this earth, and they have to take a synopsis of the population of the earth, and they come to this room, and they observe this room for maybe one hour, and then they go back, and based on that they report, you know, what is the population of the earth, and the population of the earth is Hare Krishna devotees.
That is a good extrapolation. But in terms of factuality, it is not exactly correct. So, the problem is, there is a limited sample, and from that limited sample, a huge extrapolation is done.
So, why I am giving this example is, that from the Darwinian evolution’s perspective, we may say survival of the fittest, but if we are simply products of matter, then why do we have a desire for something that is just not present in matter? Matter is never eternal. So, our very desire for eternity points to our spirituality. Spirituality means the side of us which is eternal.
So, that’s the first point. There is something eternal beyond this world. And that something eternal is what is reflected in our desire to live forever.
Similarly, now if we consider Krishna Leela, what the Bhagavatam describes to us is, that Krishna Leela is the eternal reality. So, the various spiritual traditions in the world, they all recognise that the pleasures of this world, the allurements of this world, they often distract us from spiritual growth. And they all ask us to regulate our attraction to things of this world in some way or the other.
But, they just can’t explain, okay, why are these attractions there? Among all the attractions in this world, the male-female attraction is the strongest. So, now why does this male-female attraction exist at all? On my website, the Spiritual Scientist, I answer questions quite often. So, one person asked a question, you know, is God a tormentor? You know, God only creates beautiful objects in this world and then tells us don’t enjoy these objects.
You know, is he trying to torment us? What is his purpose? So, actually, his purpose is not to torment us. His purpose is to help us transcend this reality of this world. That means, why is there male-female attraction in this world? Because there is original male-female attraction in the spiritual world.
And that is reflected here. Why is there a mango in the river? Because there is a mango on the tree. Now, the reflection is not the problem.
Our mistaking the reflection to be the reality, that is the problem. So, the male-female attraction itself is not the problem. Our assuming that all our desires for love and happiness can be fulfilled through this male-female attraction, that is the problem.
So, we will have a relationship in this world and those relationships can give us some sense of belonging, some sense of security. But if we think these relationships are the be-all and end-all, that is the problem. Now, most of the romantic movies, they end with H-E-A, happily ever after.
Now, if you see, the Bhagavad Gita tells us the exactly opposite. Dukkhaalem Ashashvatam. So, happily, Bhagavad Gita says, Dukkhaalem, ever after, Ashashvatam.
It is exactly opposite. So, now, even people who watch these movies or read these novels, they also know that it is not true. They know, and it is not true, that it is not going to last forever.
But still, that longing is there. That longing is there for a lasting loving relationship. So, where does this longing come from? That longing comes from the spiritual realm where we have it.
So, why does the male-female attraction exist over here? It is meant to be a reminder of the eternal relationship in the spiritual world. Krishna talks about this in the Bhagavad Gita in the 10th chapter when he states, yad yad vibhutimat sattvam shreemadurchitam eva va tattva devavagacchatvam mamatejam shi sambhava He says, that all opulent, beautiful and glorious things, they spring from but a spark of my splendour. That means, whatever is attractive in this world, it is meant to remind us of Krishna.
So, everything beautiful comes from Krishna. But everything beautiful does not necessarily take us to Krishna. If we get attracted to its beauty and don’t see the connection of that beauty with Krishna, then we get deluded.
But if we see that beauty as a spark of Krishna’s beauty, you know, this beauty captivates me so much, how much more will be Krishna’s beauty? Then that can remind us of Krishna. And then we can move towards Krishna. So, with this background, now let’s try to understand how by hearing Rastila, one’s lust will decrease, the Bhagavatam says.
So, how it is? Rastila gives us a reality. It shows us a real mango. When a person sees the real mango, their attraction to the reflection will go away.
Similarly, when we hear Krishna’s pastimes and we understand Krishna Leela, we understand this is the real mango. And we understand this is the real mango, then the captivation with the objects of this world, with the relationship in this world, that captivation goes away. Especially the selfish desire, the lust goes away.
Because when I understand the reality, then I’m not attracted towards the reflection. However, for this purpose, one has to understand that that is the reality and this is the reflection. So, ideally speaking, what should happen? The reflection should remind us of the reality.
Rupa Goswami says in a beautiful prayer, he says, He says, just as a boy is attracted to a girl or a girl is attracted to a boy, let my heart be attracted to you, Lord. So, what is he saying over here? He is not condemning the male-female attraction. He is saying, the way this attraction is there, let my heart be attracted to you.
That means, he is saying, the reflection is reminding him of the reality. He is seeing the male-female attraction, he is saying, oh, the reality is, the soul is attracted towards Krishna, let me become attracted like that. That is what should happen.
But unfortunately for many people, what happens is, instead of the reflection reminding them of the reality, the reality reminds them of the reflection. That means, they hear Krishna’s pastimes with the Gopis and think, oh, now I should also have a romantic partner and I’ll enjoy similarly. So, when that happens, then the purpose gets distorted.
So, how will it happen that the reality, what will determine whether the reality reminds me of the reflection or the reflection reminds me of the reality? That depends on philosophical understanding. If I understand the philosophy properly, then I’ll understand this is the reflection, that is the reality. And then I’ll detach myself from the reflection and focus on the reality.
But if I don’t have philosophical understanding, then I think both are similar only. Then that will remind me of this. And that’s why many times when people hear Krishna Leela, now Krishna’s childhood pastimes, they hear it’s entertaining.
Oh, Krishna is a naughty boy, he steams butter. It’s just entertaining. And many people hear Krishna’s pastimes as pious entertainment.
You know, going to sensual movies, going to violent movies, that can be Rajasic entertainment. Hearing Krishna Leela is sattvic entertainment. But that’s all it is, entertainment.
It’s certainly better than Rajasic or Tamasic entertainment. But that will not lead to much purification and it won’t lead to liberation. And that’s why in that same verse which I quoted 4.9 from the Gita, Krishna juxtaposes Leela and Tattva together.
Krishna put both of them together. janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah Understand this in truth. That person will attain.
So, it’s not just hearing Krishna’s pastimes, but understanding Krishna’s pastimes philosophically. What does it mean? You know, in the broad Hindu culture, the previous two verses are quoted very often. 4.7 and 8. 4.7 and 8 is, tadayidahi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanava dharmasya tadatmanam sujamya paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya yudhrikitam dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge That God descends to this world and establishes dharma.
Yes, that is good. But what is the purpose of establishing dharma? It is not just to make things happy in this world. The purpose of establishing dharma is to help us to come out of this world to Krishna.
So, when we think that Krishna should come here and establish dharma in this world, that often idea is the karmakandha understanding. Karmakandha understanding is that, you know, God should be the guarantor of my happiness in this world. That Krishna is playing his flute.
Many times people go to different temples and other devatas are often offering blessings. Raising hands, offering blessings. But Krishna seems to be lost in his own world.
You know, he is just playing his flute. It’s like you go to meet someone and they are just working on their own computer. They don’t even look at us.
They are just going on, you may say. So, Krishna, does he not even notice us? He is just playing his flute. Actually, Krishna’s blessing is that he plays his flute to attract our hearts to him.
Just as he played the flute to invite the gopis to come to the Rajasthila, similarly, he is playing the flute to invite all of us to the spiritual world. So, Krishna is inviting us to come to the spiritual world. Krishna is calling us to the spiritual world to join his pastimes.
But, at the Karmakanda level, the idea is, Krishna, I want to perform pastimes here. And you come and assist me in my pastimes. That becomes the idea.
God, you become my assistant. Now, of course, we may not say it so blatantly. But the point is that there are two very different understandings of Krishna Nila.
So, when we get the tattva, when we get the tattva, then we understand the significant difference. See, Krishna appreciates people who go to him in trouble and pray to him also. Later on, he says they are sukrutina.
In 7.16, he says that they are also good people. So, anybody who comes to God, they are good. But then, the good can often be the enemy of the best.
The good can be the enemy of the best. That means, if I just go to a temple, pray to God, do some worship, I think I am a good person. Yes, you are a good person, but you are missing out the opportunity to get the best result.
The best result is not just to have a comfortable, pious life in this world. The best result is to use this life as a springboard for attaining eternal life. And for that, philosophy is important.
So, philosophy is what helps us to differentiate. This is the reality, this is the reflection. Now, as far as Krishna’s childhood, pastimes are concerned, there is not much harm that happens if you don’t understand Krishna’s transcendence.
Krishna is just a nice, entertaining character. Sweet boy. We will also be attracted to him by that.
But, if we come to Krishna’s Raas Leela, then not understanding his philosophy becomes a problem. Because Krishna’s Raas Leela can actually seem immoral. What is going on over here? At the least, it seems sensual, and it can even seem immoral.
That’s why the philosophy is very important when we are trying to understand Krishna. सिधान्तबलियाचित्ते नाकर्यालस् इहा है ते कृष्णा लागे सुद्रूडमानस् In the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Krishna Das P.R. Jyotsana says that, don’t be lazy thinking this is philosophy. I am a rasik bhakta, you know.
I am not interested in all this philosophy. No, he says, by this philosophy, इहा है ते कृष्णा लागे सुद्रूडमानस् your mind will become fixed on Krishna. That means, in our analytical context, we could say that, instead of being attracted to the reflection, or instead of the reality reminding us of the reflection, if we have the philosophical understanding, then our mind will fix on the reality.
And even the reflection will remind us of the reality. So, let’s move forward now. What does Krishna Leela actually signify? What is the philosophical understanding of Krishna Leela? So, Krishna Leela is like a drama.
Now, the word drama often conveys the notion of something unreal. But this is actually supra-real. This is the eternal reality.
Drama is not in the sense that it is false, but the drama is in the sense that the normal reality is suspended for a higher reality. The normal reality is Krishna as God is supreme. But, Krishna is not a God who delights in the display of his Godhood.
I am God, all of you come and keep bowing down to me. And that is what you have to do eternally, and that is what I will do eternally. You bow down, I will receive your obeisances.
That is not what Krishna wants you to do. So, Krishna in his Leela, he wants to have the full gamut of relationships. And if somebody is a very famous, very big, powerful person, initially we will go to them with very great reverence.
But then, if we want to have a closer relationship, then we start seeing the other side, oh, this is a powerful person, but soft person, gentle person, whatever it is. Then, that’s when the reverence alone, it can’t allow the relationship to develop fully. So then, Krishna, what he does is, he also doesn’t want the reverential worship all the time.
In fact, the Chaitanya Chaitanya Tamas says, आईश्वर शीतिल भक्ति ना ईश्वर भुजाय। He says that bhakti, which is आईश्वर शीतिल, शीतिल means to become cold or become mild, to become weakened because of knowledge of Krishna’s greatness. This doesn’t please Krishna. And now, what does Krishna do for this purpose? He actually uses the agency of yoga maya.
So, Krishna is like a drama in which Krishna is the hero. He is the main actor. And yoga maya is like the director.
So now, the excellence of the character, of the actor who is playing a particular character, is that the actor becomes the character. So, if somebody is playing, say, some Shakespearean drama, then while they are playing the Shakespearean drama, to the extent they enter into the character, whoever it is. Now then, to that extent, the drama becomes very rich.
And that is, the actor becoming the character, that is both the expertise of the actor and the expertise of the director. So, Krishna is like the actor and yoga maya is the director. As the director, what does she do? She directs everyone, including Krishna.
Now, Krishna plays one more role. Before I come to that, one more interesting thing over here. The word yoga maya itself is actually an oxymoron.
Oxymoron is an English figure of speech in which two contradictory words are put together. So, for example, if I say, he is a courageous coward. Now, either somebody is courageous or they are cowardly.
How can you have both? It’s like, suicide is an act of courageous cowardice. That means what? Actually, if somebody, you know, sees a train going by and they say, I am going to end my life. And they lie down on the train rails.
But then when they hear the sound of the train coming, they get up, maybe next time. Because to end, you know, to end one’s life, it requires courage. You have to lose your life.
It’s not easy to end one’s life. But when one is ending one’s life because of frustration, because of inability to deal with life’s problems, that is cowardice. So, courageous cowardice are normally contradictory words, but they are brought together to convey some deeper meaning.
So, the word yoga maya itself is actually like an oxymoron. Because maya is that which puts us in illusion. That which takes us away from Krishna.
And yoga is that which connects us with Krishna. So, how can we have yoga maya together? That which connects us with Krishna and that which disconnects us from Krishna. How are they together? Actually, yoga maya is that agency which creates the illusion that increases our connection with Krishna.
Normally, illusion decreases our connection with Krishna. But yoga maya creates the illusion that increases our connection with Krishna. How does she do that? That is through the leela.
So, for example, Yashodamayi, if she thinks that Krishna is God, she will not be able to offer her maternal love. She thinks, Krishna, if he doesn’t take food on time, then he will become weak. He will die.
The acharyas describe that, why did Yashodamayi get so angry with Krishna when he broke the butter pot? He just broke a butter pot, childhood mischief. But Yashodamayi was thinking, Krishna is growing now. He has to outgrow his mischief.
If he doesn’t outgrow his mischief, then which father will give his daughter in marriage to him? Therefore, I have to discipline him. Therefore, she chases after him to beat him and tie him up. So, Yashodamayi, if she is always remembering that Krishna is God, then she can’t have that unconstricted flow of love towards him.
So, she forgets that Krishna is God. So, the agency that brings about this forgetfulness, that is Yogamaya. Now, this forgetfulness is actually different from ignorance.
Normally, sometimes we equate the two words, forgetfulness and ignorance. Ignorance means to not know. Forget means to not be aware.
So, one knows it, but one is not aware of it at that time. So, Yashodamayi is not ignorant of Krishna’s position. She is forgetful.
And that forgetfulness is brought about by Krishna’s arrangement. So, the example for differentiating between forgetfulness and ignorance is like stars in the sky. The stars in the sky are always there.
They are there in the daytime also. But in the daytime, because the sun is so bright, we can’t see the stars. So, if we compare the stars to the truths of Krishna’s supreme position, to philosophical truths of Krishna’s divinity, Krishna’s supremacy, those stars are there also in the sky of Yashodamayi’s heart.
She is aware that Krishna is God. But the sun of her love for him is so great that the stars get eclipsed by that. They get overshadowed.
So, because of her love, she forgets. She is not ignorant, but she is forgetful. And the agency that brings about this forgetfulness, that is Yogamaya.
So, what Yogamaya does is, she arranges the illusion that intensifies devotion. The normal illusion actually erodes devotion. It weakens devotion.
But Yogamaya’s illusion intensifies devotion. And this Yogamaya’s illusion applies not just to the devotees, it applies also to Krishna. That means, it is not that Krishna is actually thinking, Oh, I am God, but I am just doing a drama running away from mother Yashoda.
At that time, Krishna really thinks, Oh, Yashoda’s mother is so angry with me. She will beat me. No, I cannot be beaten.
I have to run from here now. So, Yogamaya also puts Krishna in illusion. And that’s why the Raj Panchadhyay, it begins with a very significant verse, Yogamayam Upasthah.
It describes that, that Supreme Lord Krishna, he desired to perform pastimes. And for performing pastimes, he took shelter of Yogamaya. He took shelter of Yogamaya.
The whole mood of the Bhagavatam or the whole philosophical tenor of the Bhagavatam, it should describe how Krishna is the supreme shelter. Krishna is the shelter of everyone. But that same Bhagavatam says over here, Krishna took shelter of Yogamaya.
How is that? That means, Krishna lost awareness of his divinity so that he could enter into the leela. So, if Krishna loses awareness of his divinity, then how is he divine? How is he God? So, that is what is described in the previous slide I said, that Krishna, Yogamaya is the director. And in one sense, the director controls the actor.
So then, is Yogamaya God? Krishna is not God. But actually, Yogamaya, sorry, the director directs the actor according to script. And Krishna is also the script writer.
So that means, Krishna is simultaneously the controlled and the controller. Krishna is controlled by Yogamaya, but he is controlled by Yogamaya according to his own will. Now, in Krishna leela, in this way, for the reciprocation of love, Krishna and the gopis, they perform pastimes where the gopis think of Krishna simply as an attractive boy.
They know that he is God, but they are not aware that he is God. And Krishna is attracted to the gopis. He is attracted to their devotion.
He sees them as beautiful cowherd girls. And there is this reciprocation of love which happens over there. At the supreme spiritual level.
So now, how is this relationship different from, say, material, worldly male-female relationships? One, of course, we say that they are spiritual bodies. They are completely pure. At the same time, another important thing is that Krishna and the gopis are completely selfless.
And if you see, the Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamruta defines the difference between kama and prema. Ātmendriya priti vāñcha, tāre bole kāma. Kṛṣṇendriya priti iccha, dhare premana.
He says that the desire to satisfy one’s own senses, that is lust. And the desire to satisfy Krishna’s senses, that is love. This is a very interesting definition.
Because what it implies is that Krishna has senses. And the devotee is meant to satisfy Krishna’s senses. So when you prepare bhoga, Krishna has a tongue.
Krishna delights in eating with the tongue. So Krishna’s senses are of course transcendental. But the point here is that Bhagavatam is not defining love as the opposite of lust.
It is not defining love as the complete rejection of senses and sensual desires. It is actually defining love not so as a complete redirection. Redirection means when lust is there, I want to satisfy my senses.
But when love is there, I want to satisfy Krishna. And satisfy Krishna in every way. So that means the Chaitanya Chakram is defining love and lust not just in terms of the presence of physical desire or the absence of physical desire.
It is defining lust and love in terms of selfishness and selflessness. So lust, as I said earlier, is not just male-female attraction. It is selfish desire basically.
And love is not just the absence of sensual desire. Bhakti is not just characterised by absence of sensual desire. Bhakti essentially is selflessness.
Selfless desire to serve. And this selflessness is demonstrated in that famous pastime of the gopis when Krishna gets a headache. Now, when Krishna gets a headache, first of all, you know, again if you go from a sceptical perspective, God is supposed to remove my headaches.
If God gets a headache, why should I go to such a God? Now, actually Krishna gets a headache because it’s a leela to reveal the love of His devotees. And then Narada Muni tells Narada Muni, please, I’ve got a headache. Narada Muni is also a devotee now.
He says, so what can I do? He says, what is the cure for it? Should I call a doctor? He says, no, no other doctor will work. He says, I need the dust from the feet of my devotees. Narada Muni says, what devotee will give the dust of your feet? Dust of their feet to you? Normally, if we are handling something sacred, we won’t even touch it with our leg.
What to speak of letting something from our leg, take it and deliberately put it on the… In the early days of the movement, devotees had no idea about sanctity of things. So, in 1966 when Srila Prabhupada was in Lower East Side, I just came from Lower East Side, I was in New York yesterday. So, there, Hagriva Prabhu was one of Prabhupada’s earliest disciples.
So, he was sitting on the floor and typing. And then Prabhupada came into the room, the typewriter was there, so he just kicked the typewriter with his leg and he was bowing down. And he said, Prabhupada, Prabhupada said, hey, don’t touch it with your leg, don’t touch the typewriter with your leg, that’s sacred.
So, Hagriva Prabhu said, Swamiji, at that time they were not calling Prabhupada, Swamiji, do you mean that the typewriter is sacred and my leg is not sacred? Prabhupada said, yes, you are a devotee, your leg is also sacred. But, sacred objects have to be handled in a particular way. And we show respect by touching something with our hand and touching something with our leg is actually a sign of disrespect.
Like if some stone is there or something, we just kick it. So, basically we have to dismiss that thing. So, touching with the leg is a sign of dismissiveness or disrespectfulness.
So, you know, letting the dust from Krishna’s lotus feet put on their head, that is something which a devotee will consider sacrilegious, how can it be done? And Armani goes to various, all the devotees, different devotees he goes to, and what happens? They all say, how can we do this? They are all agonised to know that Krishna is having a headache, but they are mortified, horrified to think that we can give our dust to Krishna, our blessing to Krishna. And then finally he goes to the gopis, and the gopis, Krishna, as soon as the gopis see Naraguni, how is Krishna? They are asking. He says, Krishna, he has got a headache.
Oh no, what can we do? He wants the dust of his devotee’s feet. So, immediately the gopis go to the nearby Yamuna, they put their legs in the Yamuna, take their leg out, and then they put it in the mud of Raja, and they take out their cloth, their pallu, and then they just put a big pile of dust over there. And now Naraguni starts thinking, you know, maybe these gopis are cowherd women, they are illiterate, they don’t know what they are doing.
So, he starts saying, do you know? Do you know that if the dust of your feet is touched in Krishna’s head, Krishna is gone, he will go to hell. Krishna, gopis, we know that. But for us, the thought that Krishna has a headache, that is hell for us.
We can’t tolerate the thought that Krishna has a headache. To relieve Krishna from his headache for even one moment, we are ready to go to hell forever. That is the selflessness of their love.
For Krishna. And it is this selfless love that Krishna cherishes, that Krishna adores. And when we first understand this point, rather than thinking of spirituality as simply the opposite of sensuality, yes it is, but that’s not the essence.
Somebody can be completely detached and still be completely selfish. How is that possible? Suppose I am fasting on Ekadashi. I fast nirjal on Ekadashi, and then I go to the kitchen to see who all is eating what.
Then, sense gratifier, sense gratifier. Then what is happening? My body is fasting, but my ego is feasting. So, detachment is favourable for bhakti, but detachment itself is not bhakti.
Bhakti essentially is selflessness, selfless service to Krishna. And attachment prevents us from service to Krishna, and detachment helps us in service to Krishna. That’s why we want to avoid detachment and have detachment.
But spiritual bhakti is not just detachment alone. So, when we understand this point that bhakti is actually selflessness, then we can go further and appreciate the further setting in Krishna Leela. See, now the Bhagavatam depicts that some of the gopis were married to some other men.
And this seems to be even more immoral. It’s one thing for God to be having romantic relationships. By itself people can’t digest something.
But then, for God to have not just romantic, but immoral, that’s actually an outrage. Who worships their God? That’s what people ask. But if we see, first let us understand that Krishna Leela is like a drama.
Now, within the drama, the whole purpose of Yoga Maya is to create a setting for the intensification of love. So, Krishna is God, but his divinity is concealed for the sake of intensification of love. Okay, we’ll come to that later.
Yeah, I’ll come to that. I’ll talk about it later. So, Krishna is, so everything is there in the Leela for the intensification of love.
So, just as Krishna’s divinity is concealed from the gopis and from himself at times, so that he could again intensification of love. So, there is a further addition to the setting. And that is this apparent gopis being married to someone else.
Parakiaras. So, what is Parakiaras exactly? Again, to go in a drama, suppose there is a husband-wife couple. In real life they are happily married to each other.
But then there is a drama in which that wife is married to someone else. And then this husband is not yet married. And then they have a relationship.
Now, within the drama, it will appear as if it is immoral. But actually they have a natural relationship. So, now similarly, something like that is on Krishna Leela.
For what purpose? The purpose is actually to increase the excitement in the relationship. The whole purpose of Krishna Leela is to do whatever it takes to intensify love. So, the example is given that if there is an elephant.
And that elephant is very thirsty and needs to go to water. Then if that elephant is tied up using strong ropes. And the elephant feels very thirsty.
So, when the elephant feels thirsty, it drags itself towards the, it pulls to go towards the river. And it pulls against the ropes and the ropes are tied to a pole. It pulls and pulls.
And when there is that obstacle in the form of the ropes, if there is no obstacle, no ropes were there, the elephant would just rush to the river and drink water. But when there is an obstacle in the form of the ropes, two things happen. First is that the elephant itself, it pulls against the tree, or pulls against the pole, such a big pole, it is also moving, I am pulling it, it is moving.
So, there is internal realisation of the strength. And there is external expression of the strength. The elephant realises, oh, how strong I am.
And the world says, hey, this is a small elephant, you can bring down such a big pole. So, what happens over here is, similar in Krishna Leela, actually when the gopis face obstacles in their love for Krishna, then they overcome those obstacles. That demonstrates the glory of their love.
So, the obstacle that is put in their setting is through the apparent marriage of the gopis to someone else. They are actually not married to someone else, they are actually eternally the partners of Krishna, the consorts of Krishna. But just the setting is created so that one can, so that the supremacy of Krishna’s love, of the gopis’ love is demonstrated.
Now concluding the verse of the Bhagavad Gita, the Charan Shloka is described by Ramanujacharya to be 18.66, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam charanam vraja. There is one Hindu scholar, he said that, he just couldn’t digest this verse. And he said, but actually Krishna has come and he said, dharma samsthapanarthaye, I have come to establish dharma.
So, he said, how can Krishna say, give up dharma? So, it’s probably, you know, when the Bhagavad Gita was repeatedly written down again and again, at that time there was a mistake in rewriting it. So, it should not be sarva-dharman parityajya, it should be sarva-adharman parityajya. So, when he writes his Bhagavad Gita, when in his organisation people recite the Bhagavad Gita, they recite as sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam charanam vraja.
Now, yes, Krishna has not come to teach adharma. Prabhupada told the hippies, Prabhupada said in one lecture, actually, even the hippies had done sarva-dharman parityajya. You know, they had given up their parents, they had given up their education, they had given up their career, they had given up even basic sanitation, cleanliness.
Now, he said, Prabhupada, I taught them how to do mam ekam charanam vraja. So, sarva-dharman parityajya is not a great thing to do. The important thing is mam ekam charanam vraja.
Now, if you look at the thrust of the Bhagavad Gita, it is not adharma over there. This is of course a whole different subject. But actually Arjuna, for him adharma is not an option only.
Arjuna, it is described in the Udyoga Parva, which comes before the Bhishma Parva, where the Bhagavad Gita is described in the Mahabharata. They describe that basically the Pandavas have a dharma sankat. This adharma sankat is between two kinds of dharma.
There is Kshatriya dharma and there is Kula dharma. Kshatriya dharma is that anybody who is an aggressor should fight against them. So, somebody has insulted your wife, you should punish them.
Somebody has stolen your property, you should punish them. Kshatriya dharma is an aggressor should be punished. Kula dharma is the duty towards dynasty.
Kula dharma is that one should always protect one’s family members. One should always respect one’s elders. So, there are two dharmas over there.
Now, which dharma to follow? That is Arjuna’s question. So, for Arjuna, adharma is not an option only. So, in the context of the Bhagavad Gita, sarva-dharman parityajya will not work over there.
So, Krishna is telling, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam charanam vraja. Krishna is telling Arjuna, don’t get confused about Kshatriya dharma or Kula dharma. What should I follow? Arjuna is telling, your dharma is to surrender to me.
And for surrendering to me, whichever dharma is anukula, you accept that. So, at that particular position, for him, the Kshatriya dharma is anukula. So, he accepts that.
So, the Bhagavad Gita’s point is that for God’s sake, we certainly have to give up the bad. We have to give up the sinful. But for God’s sake, sometimes we may have to give up the good also.
So, there is the bad, there is the good, and then there is God. God is greater than even the good. Now, if somebody gives up the good for the bad, that is immoral.
So, immoral means doing bad things. Being moral is doing good things. Now, if somebody gives up the good for the bad, that is, they become immoral.
From moral, they become immoral. But if somebody gives up the good for God, that is not immoral, that is trans-moral. That is higher than morality.
Because ultimately, morality has a purpose. The purpose of morality is spirituality. The purpose of morality is pure love.
The purpose of morality is to attain eternal life. Morality is not an end in itself. So, when the gopis apparently give up their family, the gopis say that, we have given up all our relatives and have come to you, Krishna, being attracted by your flute.
So, what do they mean over there? Actually, the gopis are demonstrating sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam jnanam vraja They are giving up all religions, including the religion of beautifulness. For a woman, especially in a conservative society of that time where it was, chastity is the foremost value. And for a woman to risk giving it up, they never gave it up because they are eternally the consorts of Krishna only.
But even in public eye, the risk of giving it up, that could be a great danger. But the gopis accepted that for Krishna’s sake. And that, their willingness to give up even the good for the sake of God, that demonstrated their supreme devotion.
So, the Krishna Leela is not meant to licence immorality. Rather, it is meant to demonstrate how spirituality transcends morality. And for the sake of spirituality, even morality can be given up.
Not always. Exceptions exist. The Bhagavatam itself is actually careful about both transcending morality and preserving morality.
So, in the gopis’ narrative, as well as in the initial chapters, it is described that the gopis are opposed by their family members and still they go to Krishna. But at the end of the Bhagavatam, it is described that when the gopis perform Rasleela and come back, their husbands are not resentful to them. Because by Krishna’s arrangement, there was a form of the gopis which stayed with their husbands.
So, when they wanted to go out and their husbands opposed, what happened is, the gopis went in a spiritual form to Krishna. And for the husband, it appears as if Krishna was there with them. That means the Bhagavatam is not licencing a blatant rejection of dharma even for the sake of spirituality.
Dharma is also important. But in principle, for the sake of Krishna, everything can be given up. So, the gopis’ selflessness is demonstrated in both these ways.
One is, which we can much more easily appreciate, that they are ready to go to hell to relieve Krishna of headache. But their selflessness is also demonstrated in their willingness to risk their chastity and their reputation for the sake of responding to Krishna’s love. So, the apparent immoral setting of Krishna’s love, it’s not actually immoral, it is trans-moral.
It is demonstrating a transcendence of Krishna’s love for his devotees and a devotee’s love for Krishna. And because the gopis are ready to give up everything for Krishna’s sake, so therefore Krishna reciprocates by saying, you know, what can I give you? You know, what can I give you? Whatever is valuable in this world, you are ready to give it up all for my sake? So, he says, you should be satisfied with your service because there is nothing I can give you. This is Krishna acknowledging the greatness of the love of the gopis.
So, this is considered the supreme celebration of divine love where the devotee gives up everything for the sake of the Lord. And the Lord is so worried that he says, what can I do for you? Normally, the worshippers go to ask and ask God, what are you doing for me? What are you doing for me? People say, you are not doing this, you are not doing this. You know, give me a better job, give me better health, do this, do this, what are you doing for me? But here, the Lord is saying, you know, what can I do for you? You don’t want anything of this world, you are ready to give up everything for my sake.
So, this is the summit of selfless spiritual love. And it is because of Rasila being so exalted that it is celebrated as the highest among the revelations of Krishna Leela. And it is adored by our Acharyas.
And many Acharyas have commented on it. There are Acharyas who commented only on the 10th Canto. And there are some Acharyas who commented, expanded on the Ras Panchadya into full book length of realisations and revelations.
And this way they churn the nectar and make it more and more accessible to us. Of course, unfortunately, because the immoral and the trans-moral seem very similar, the trans-moral has been mistaken to be immoral. And that’s why our Acharyas have also been very cautious, especially in the modern Acharyas, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Bhaktisanta Thakur, Srila Prabhupada, they have been extremely cautious in approaching the Ras Leela.
So, that I’ll discuss in the second part of the class. I’ll just quickly summarise what I discussed now. So, we started by talking about the introduction to the Ras Leela.
In that context, I talked about how it is described primarily in the Bhagavatam. And the Bhagavatam progresses towards bringing the focus on God in His manifestation as Krishna. So, what is the purpose? It starts from this world and helps us to direct our thoughts from this world to Krishna through the Virat Rupa, through the Sankhya and through the cosmology.
Then, while describing the various Avataras during the various Manvantaras, the Bhagavatam reveals more and more personal manifestations of God till it comes to Krishna Leela in the 10th canto and Krishna Shiksha in the 11th canto. And Krishna is mentioned in all the cantos of the Bhagavatam and a preview is given in the first canto of what will come in the 10th canto. And the Ras Panchadhyaya is the sweetest among all the sweet leelas of Krishna that are described in the 10th canto.
And now, when we approach Krishna Leela, actually, we may just see it as pious entertainment. And as far as Baal Leela is concerned, it is fine, it is sattvic entertainment. But when it comes to Ras Leela, because it seems immoral, without philosophical understanding, it can lead to distortion.
And that’s why we discuss elaborately about the philosophical understanding that Krishna’s purpose is not just to prepare to establish dharma in this world. The purpose of establishing dharma in this world is to elevate us out of this world to his abode by revealing his pastimes. And for understanding his pastimes properly, we have to understand the philosophy.
We discussed the example of reflection and reality. So, a person who sees the real mango is no longer attracted to the reflection. Similarly, Krishna reveals his pastimes to the gopis, which is the real relationship of love, eternal love between the soul and the Lord.
And that is meant to attract our heart. And when we understand this is the real, then we won’t be attracted to the, no, we won’t be so captivated by the relationship in the soul. That’s why there is a verse in the Ras Leela, concluding the Ras Panchadhyaya says that, Vishnu, don’t think of him as an ordinary person.
You will get Parabhakti. And the Phalashruti is, you will get Parabhakti. Which from the Karmakanda point of view is, what’s so great about Parabhakti? Nothing sensational about it.
From the Jnana point of view, it seems to be outrageous. Something higher than Mukti you will get just by hearing Ras Leela. How is that possible? And even more paradoxical or puzzling is that, it says that by hearing about Ras Leela, one’s lust will go away.
So, how will by hearing about lust, lust go away? We are not hearing about lust. We are hearing about something very different. So, that’s hearing about the real mango, will detach us from the reflected mango.
So, like that when we understand Krishna Ji as the reality, and the relationship in this world, they are the reflection, then we won’t get so captivated by them. So, how do we know there is some reality like this? Discuss two ways. One is, why do we have a desire for the eternal? There is nothing in our circumstance which lasts forever.
So, the desire must be coming from some core within us which is eternal. Just like if I have never heard of a pizza, I cannot have a desire for pizza. So, our very desire for the eternal, points to the eternal within us.
And secondly, we not only desire to live eternally ourselves, we desire to have eternal relationships. Although everyone knows happening never after is not going to happen. But still, the heart longs for that.
Why? Because that is our eternal nature. It’s just that eternal nature in relationship with Krishna. And so, when we understand that what Krishna Ji is revealing is the reality, then that will detach us from this world.
So, Krishna is not a tormentor, who has given us beautiful objects and has told us don’t enjoy them. The point of the beautiful objects in this world is, that they serve as pointers towards Krishna. This is so beautiful, and how much more beautiful will Krishna be? So, all beautiful things come from God, but all beautiful things don’t take us towards God.
It is when we remember that beauty is coming from God, then we will be attracted to Him. And then going further into the analysis of Krishna Leela, so this is in principle, the Rasleela demonstrates the male-female attraction in its originality and its purity. So, how is it pure? So, we discussed that Krishna is not a God who delights in His Godhood.
Rather, He subordinates His Godhood for the intense reciprocation of love. And Yoga Maya is the agency which does this. It’s an oxymoron.
It’s normally illusion, takes us away from God. But this is the illusion which takes us closer to God. And how does that happen? Yoga Maya is like the director in a drama of Krishna, where Krishna is the actor, and she makes Krishna forget that He is God.
She makes His devotees forget that they are God. So, forgetfulness is not ignorance. It’s like, the stars are there in the daytime also, but the sun makes us unable to see them.
So, like that, the Gopis and the Vajvasi, they are all aware of Krishna’s divinity. But their love is so great that they know Krishna’s divinity, but they are not consciously aware all the time. So, in Krishna Leela, the Yashodamaya and Krishna’s love is easy to understand and appreciate.
Even if we see it materially, there is no problem. But Gopi’s love for Krishna, what does it demonstrate? Actually, to understand how that is not material, that is not like the love of this world, we have to see it in terms of, not just sensual or non-sensual, we have to see it in terms of selfless, selfish and selfless. So, love is characterised by the desire to please Krishna.
And the desire to please Krishna includes pleasing Him in every possibility. The Gopis please Krishna, and that is their selflessness. In connection with that, we discussed about how Gopis are ready to go to hell, court suffering for the sake of Krishna, and similarly, the Gopis are ready to risk their reputation.
For the sake of Krishna. So, for the sake of God, the bad has to be given up, but even the good, if it is needed to be given up, it has to be given up. And the Rasagraha demonstrates the Gopis walking Krishna’s instructions, Sarva Dharma and Parityaja.
And because they are ready to give up everything for Krishna, that’s why they are considered to be the topmost devotees of Krishna. So, thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
So, how should we go ahead? Yeah, I was wondering, how do we go ahead? Do we have break first? Yeah, so we’ll have a break, then we’ll come back, and then maybe 10 minutes, how many? It’s 4, 5, can we go till 5.30? Yes. Is that okay? We can go till 6. We can go till 6 in the morning. No, no, no.
Okay. Yeah, we’ll plan it out. I think, okay, after the break, when we come back, maybe for 15 minutes we can have question and answer, 15-20 minutes.
And then we can have next part of that. Hare Krishna. Oh, really? Nice to meet you, bro.
After a long, long time. I’ve been waiting for years. It’s not the case to meet you.
Well, I’ve been talking to everybody. He’s my closest friend. Then get me in touch with him.
Because I absolutely adore his writing. I’ve read a lot of what he writes. It’s wonderful to have you.
I’m just pleased, really. Our paths haven’t crossed. Our paths directly, physically haven’t crossed.
But, you know, I’m sure… It’s great to meet you. It’s great to have you with us for some time. I’d love to take a rest, have a drink with you, and just share some pastimes.
We have had for decades now. Hare Krishna. It’s amazing to meet you.
So happy. Hare, Hare Krishna. Out of the blue, it’s just like, you know, we’ve come to that you’re here from here.
It’s such… Really, I’m so pleased. I’m so happy to be here. It’s giving me inner happiness.
Yeah. We’ll talk more after. Actually, I just want to prepare the remaining PPT also.
Yeah. Pru, do you know if anyone will be having a… like American to Indian converter? American to UK converter? Because my laptop is discharged. Okay.
Wait a minute. I need an American to… I’ll take after some time. Is this there? Oh, excellent.
That’s my laptop. This is yours. But the adapter is my own.