Devotion of the Gopis

The meaning of the Krishna Avatar is beyond your understanding; why, all the Avatars (Divine Incarnations) are inexplicable, in the language of this world, in the vocabulary of common men. To attempt it is to encase the ocean in a canal by its side. You can understand it only when you become lost to the world and its attachments through the expansion of your sympathies and the purification of our motives. The One Godhead was experienced by the Gopis as immanent in every being; they steadied their minds and installed Him therein. Virabhadra Sastry said just now that the Lord will not stay in the heart unless it is maintained, fixed and unagitated. Of course, when you place a child in the cradle, it must be firm and unmoving; but, once the child is laid, the cradle can be swung, for it is only when it is swung in time with the song that I am glad and you are glad. Remember, the Lord too is a child, personified Sat-chit-ananda, devoid of gunas (qualities).

When Uddhava came to Gokula, Sastry said, "The cows were fat and full, the Gopis were happy and joyful and the place was full of fragrance and music." But, the facts were different. The place was forlorn and the men and women, disconsolate and helpless; the cattle too were overcome with grief. Uddhava brought them all a fresh lease of life. Krishna told him, "Their hearts are merged in Mine; their minds think only of Me; they have forsaken even bodily needs and they exist only because they hope to see Me again, some day." So how could the Gopis be as happy and gay as Sastry described. Uddhava himself was humbled at the sight of their complete surrender and the pangs of separation which consumed them. That is the very reason why He sent Uddhava to them.

The Simple Gopis Were Wiser Than Yogis

Every act of Krishna had a meaning and a purpose and a sweet aptness. The Gopis were convinced that Krishna was the Lord. Many Yogis and ascetics, many Rajas and Maharajas among whom Krishna moved had not realized that truth. The unlearned simple cowherds and cowherdesses were wiser. When you too feel so, affected by those pangs, you can understand the Gopis, not till then. For that pain, the message of Krishna is the antidote. Your grief is caused by your limited artificial outlook; you take Me to be a limited and bound entity and so you tell that I am far away, I am absent, I am by your side, etc. You are hugging a delusion; awake to the Truth and establish yourselves in joy.

The One does not, of its own Free Will, desire to become many. It has no desire. It has no likes and dislikes. It is immanent and transcendent. It is all this and more. What then is the reason for this manifold appearance? The reason lies in the mind of bhakta (devotee). You declare: "Baba appeared before me in this Form; I saw Baba in this Form." But, what happens is you desire that vision. I do not change into that Form. The Lord is sugar, sweetness. You may drop it into tea or coffee or milk or water. Into whatever thing you put it, it will make it sweet. That is My nature, sweetness, My signature. Once It has melted, what remains is neither water nor sugar, but a third thing, sharbat (Syrup). But, when your tongue is bitter through envy, hatred and pride, how can you taste the sugar?

Seek God Just As You Seek Food

The Lord cares for the motive, not the object offered. The tiny leaf from the cooking vessel that Draupadi gave Him satisfied His hunger and the hunger of the Universe, along with His, for, she saturated it with her bhakti. The tulasi leaf placed by Rukmini in the scale was able to balance the weight of Him who has all the 14 worlds in His belly, for, her intent added so much weight to it. The handful of parched rice that Kuchela took to Krishna was worth less than a paisa but, it was suffused so heavily with the devotion and faith of his wife that it brought great good fortune. It is possible to fill in an atom of deed, a world of feeling and the Lord will value and appreciate that.

Krishna is the causeless conditioning; you cannot discover the causes for His acts or deeds; it is sheer waste to search for them. If you go on searching for causes and then trying to tread the path, you may not get the chance at all. You have come as men in order to reach God, remember that. "Why do you go to Mathura-Brindavan, to Tirupathi, to Puttaparthi?", people stop you on the way and ask. Nobody asks you, "Why do you take food?" In fact, one has to seek God just as one seeks food. Both are necessary for happiness. Man seeks happiness, for, he is originally and truly free; he is immortal and so he seeks to overcome death.

Everyone Must Rise To The Level Of The Gopis

Do not blame the Lord for your failure in sadhana (spiritual practice); examine yourself. You set the alarm clock at 6 a.m. and go to bed; if it rings only at 10 a.m. you infer that something is wrong with its nuts, bolts, springs, wheels, etc. So too, when the expected results do not materialize, infer that something is wrong with you, your habits of food, drink, sleep or conduct or behavior or attitude towards others. Everyone, be he a Brahmin or Pandit or Student or Artist, has to adhere to a strict code of discipline. Without that, victory is beyond reach. You must become master of the senses and attain the Mahashakti (Supreme Energy) from this basic Mayashakti (Deluding Power). In short you too must rise to the level of the Gopis.

The body is assigned to you as a boat to cross the ocean to samsara (Worldly life) but you use it for storing things which give worldly joy and do not launch it on the waters; misusing it like that, it comes in the way of all activity that is really conducive to happiness; use it in the way of Dharma (righteousness) and success will be yours. Bhima asked Dharmaraja whether, Duryodhana invited him for another game of dice after the 12 years of forest and the one year of incognito were over, he would agree. He (Dharmaraja) replied, "I can never deviate from the path of Dharma." Since that was his attitude, the Pandavas were helped by the continuous Grace of Krishna and the blessings of sages like Markandeya and Vedavyasa. The Kauravas, on the other hand, were debilitated by curse after curse from enraged sages and by one ill-omen after another.

Gopis Are Best Examples Of Yearning For The Lord

Your sadhana involves not reading or writing so much as actual experiencing. Ravana was a past master in the four Vedas and the six shastras (spiritual sciences); his ten heads were full of them. But, of what avail? He had no shanti (peace), nor could he give shanti to his kith and kin. What is the profit if you simply repeat, "Delicious food, delicious food" a thousand times? You have to eat, digest and assimilate. You have no deposits on your account in the Bank of Bhagawan's Grace and yet you dare issue cheques, expecting His Grace when in distress! Have the deposits or, at least have some property on hand (like service to others, Prema (love) towards all, Ahimsa (non-violence), etc.) so that you can mortgage it and get help. If you have neither, why blame the Bank?

Through your daily avocations and activities you can realize the Lord, believe Me! The Gopis are the best examples of this, the best proofs. Remember ever the Name of the Lord with agony of unfulfilled search and remember ever the beauteous Form with the agony of being forced to be away and, you too can see Krishna in your midst. That yearning must be there; then, the result is certain.

The Lord Wants Sincerity, Not Imitation

Prahlada was immersed in that bhava (thought); when he was thrown downhill, trampled by the elephant and tortured by the minions of his father, he paid no heed, for he heeded only his Lord; he needed only his Lord. The Gopis too when they listened to the murali (flute) lost all attachment to the world and to the senses and to the manifold objective phenomenal things; they yearned for the sublimest spiritual merging with the Infinite that was always calling on the finite, to realize its finiteness.

By the purification of impulses one gets into the higher stage, when the Mystery of the Divine is grasped—the Salokya (realm of spirituality) stage. Then, by contemplation of the Divine, the Sameepya and the Sarupya (proximity to the Divinity and likeness of the Form of Divinity) stages are won. Many great mystic poets attained this height. Jayadeva sang in that strain, but, if you sing that song in the same way, Krishna will not appear. He wants sincerity, not imitation. The name uttered with sincere faith was the flower-offering of the Gopis; that was the bead of their rosary.

Excerpts from the discourse at Prasanthi Nilayam, during March 1963