Why did the gopis worship Katyayani? Can we worship demigods to attain Krishna?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question. Why did the Gopis worship the goddess Katyani when Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita discourages demigod worship by calling demigod worshippers as less intelligent? Answer.
Demigod worship is a part of Vedic culture and when Krishna discourages it in the Bhagavad Gita, it is to enable sadhakas to rise to the highest spiritual level of practicing undistracted devotional service. The Vedic culture offers us multi-level spirituality where people can practice according to their levels. So, the Gopis of Vrindavan are at the highest spiritual level and they have no distraction in their devotional, single-minded focus on Krishna.
In fact, for them, they are so desperate to attain Krishna that they are ready to adopt any and every means for that purpose and their worship of the demigod as Katyani, far from being an indication of a splayed or distracted devotion is actually a demonstration of the intensity of their devotion that they are ready to adopt any and every means for the sake of attaining Krishna including demigod worship. So, this pastime is elaborately explained and analyzed by Jiva Swami in the Gopal Champu and he explains that actually in Vrindavan, Krishna is not worshipped as God. So, although the Gopis wanted Krishna as their lord in terms of being their they wanted him as their husband but the mood of Vrindavan is such that the Gopis cannot worship Krishna and ask him for benedictions because for them Krishna is not God.
For them, Krishna is their beloved and for attaining their beloved whom they don’t see as God, they are ready to adopt any means and so, because they feel that it is not in their power by their own efforts to attain Krishna, they want to seek some higher means and Yogamaya arranges for them Yogamaya who is there in Vrindavan as Poorna Masi she sends Vrindadevi and Vrindadevi tells the Gopis to worship Katyani actually these are younger Gopis and Radharani is not among these Gopis. Radharani worships Suryadevi but the principle is the same that they are trying all possible means to attain Krishna and more and most importantly actually through this pastime also we see how the purity of their love is vindicated. It is not that when they worship Katyani, Katyani comes and blesses them and says that you will attain Krishna actually, they don’t need Katyani.
When Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita whatever fruits the demigods give, actually they are given by me. So that is actually demonstrated by Krishna through this pastime. They are asked to do one month vrata from the start of the agrahayal month, four dandas before the sunrise.
They go in the Yamuna and bathe over there and on the last day of their vrata, Krishna appears and accepts them as his consorts. He agrees to become their husband. So it is not that Katyani appears at the end of the vrata and she gives them a blessing.
It is not that Katyani is in a position higher than Krishna. Rather, that worship of Katyani is just a means for the gopis to express their devotion to Krishna. Express their devotion not in terms of they think of Krishna as God but their intense attraction to Krishna and when Krishna sees that expression, he reciprocates by accepting their heart and when he does that, it is not that he can be ordered by Katyani.
In fact, at the start of the tenth canto, we say that he orders the goddess who comes in various names and forms the Katyani Durga, please transfer Balramji from the womb of Devaki to the womb of Rohini. So she is his servant. It is not that he is her servant.
And more importantly, on the last day, every day the gopis would bathe and then come out and worship the Katyani. But on the last day of the vrata, they don’t worship Katyani because before that worship itself, Krishna appears and fulfills their desire. So, once they see that their desire is fulfilled, they the purpose for which they were doing the Katyani vrata is finished.
So, essentially if our desire is to serve Krishna and for that purpose we fervently want to adopt any and every means and if a spiritual guide asks us to do such a thing, then we can do that. But as sadhakas, if we try to imitate this particular aspect of the gopis’ way of approaching Krishna, we may well get distracted because our devotion to Krishna is not single-minded and that’s why the acharyas don’t recommend that we do any form of demigod worship. We respect the demigods but we don’t want to do that worship.
For us, if we do demigod worship, often it may be a dushana. It may be a contamination in our single-minded faith, a single-minded devotion and total faith in Krishna’s potency to give all blessings. On the other hand, for the gopis, it is a dushana because they are so desperate to attain Krishna.
For them, there is nothing apart from Krishna that matters and we see this single-mindedness of the gopis and of Radharani in their focus on Krishna. Even in the Rashtriya when Krishna disappears and takes the form of Vishnu, Radharani and all the gopis see Vishnu, they offer obeisances and they ask, where is Krishna? So, their single heart’s longing is to attain Krishna and to serve Krishna. When we have that single-minded longing, then at that time we are in a position where our devotion will not get splayed, will not get distracted by worshipping the demigods.
Till we attain that stage, we need to cultivate single-minded demigod worship. Sorry, single-minded Krishna worship and we offer respect to the demigods. If we chance to go to the demigod temples because of some other service, some other work, we can surely pray to them for seeking their blessings.
They are great devotees and we can ask them to bless us so that we can become better devotees. But, we don’t have to do any such vratas. The vratas that Vaishnavas do are told by the acharyas in our scriptures.
For example, we can do Kartik Vrata or Chaturmasya Vrata and these vratas, Purushottam Masa Vrata. And these vratas can help us swiftly and single-mindedly advance in devotional service and attain Krishna.