When Bhagavan Shiva was drinking the Kalakuta, the most poisonous substance in creation, He closed his eyes and contemplated. In his contemplation, he came to feel Bhagavan Narayana living in his heart. So he couldn’t let that poison reach his heart. And outside of him was Bhagavan Narayana’s creation, his bhaktas, so he couldn’t let out the poison either. So he just kept it to himself. This message from the scriptures, this visualization is perfect to contemplate upon, a perfect reminder on how to live. As we continue to plough through Srimad Bhagavata, we will know we are becoming a Bhagavata, like Bhagavan Shiva, when we feel the Divine in our heart and beyond our body.
When the Asuras are destroyed, for us it means that when rajas is sublimated, one becomes satvik. When the Suras like Indra, Agni are humbled, for us that means that the sattva is sublimated and it is called Shuddha Sattva. When Bhagavan Brahma is humbled, then even Shuddha Sattva is sublimated and that is called Vishuddha Sattva, the purest sattva. That is when one becomes a Gopi who is Vishuddha Sattva in personality.
What does a Gopi do? The first reference is in the first verse of the Hanuman Chalisa — Jaya Kapisha. The word Kapi — Ka means Brahman or Rama and Pi means drinks, and who is the one drinking up Rama? Shri Hanumanji. So kapi means more than monkey in vedanta. Gopi means literally a milkmaid or a farm female. In vedanta, Go is senses, Pi — drinks — the one who is drinking through their senses. Every one of their senses is drinking up Bhagavan Krshna. There is no worldliness in their personalities. Their vasanas which is their blueprint, their eshanas which is their desires, their vrittis that is their thoughts, their shabdas that is their words, their karmas that is their actions — all of that is dedicated to Bhagavan Krshna. Our blueprint, desires, thoughts, words, actions make up who we are really. Now we will experience that even more deeply.
Skanda ten is the hridaya, heart of Bhagavata. Within this heart, these five chapters that we are studying are the prana or the breath of this heart and within the breath, this Chapter 31–19 verses, is the Udana, the power to go from the Shuddha Sattva to Gunateeta, to go from being a Gopi to being Gopala, as in Bhagavan Krshna. Each of these 19 verses has the same chorus –
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision! — which means we are begging You to come back, come back as soon as possible.
Vivekji asked us to say this chorus out loud after the summary of each verse.
Here is a summary of the 19 verses of the Gopi Gita. The Gopis are on the banks of the Yamuna, singing to each other. They are experiencing Bhagavan Krshna, but not physically. So these Gopis share –
Verse 1 — No one has ever suffered the way that we are suffering. You are our breath and You have left us and we are looking everywhere for our breath to come back.
These Gopis are experiencing without Bhagavan the same hurt that one would experience when one is out of breath and suffering like when drowning.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 2 — We are Your unbought servants, just giving to you, not wanting anything in return. We are Your dasikas. You have saved us our whole life and now You are killing us. You are supposed to be Varada, the one who gives boons, gives life, but You are killing us. Why? You came to us and then You left us. So You saved us only to kill us. What kind of torturer are You?
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 3 — The Gopis list all of the times that the Asuras and the Suras harmed them, tried to kill them, but everytime Bhagavan Krshna was there to protect them. The Gopis say — You are the best and everytime we needed protection, You were there. So why aren’t You here right now?
Even in our lives, every time we needed protection, we were protected, even if we didn’t realize it. The fact that we are listening to Gopi Gita proves that we are always protected by Him. We are getting to experience the breath of the breath of the heart of Bhagavata.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 4 — You are not just Nanda Baba’s son! You are not just an ordinary child. You are the One who is the Drk. You are the One who is living inside of us and all we experience is because of You. You are Atma in everyone, and everything, not just in us.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 5 — The Gopis are focusing on wanting Bhagavan Krshna’s hand on their head. They say — For those who love Your feet, they are the antidote to the fear of samsara. The one who has surrendered to His feet, Bhagavan will definitely put His hand on their head. They say — We love Your feet, but where is Your hand? How come it is not on our head? We are afraid.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 6 — In this verse, Bhagavan is very beautifully referred to as Aratiheen. Heen — the One who takes away, Arati — hardships, sadness. This is where the word Arati is derived from. They say — Sometimes You destroy the ego, the arrogance of Your people with Your smile. We miss your smile. Your smile won’t hurt us because You love us.
This is the Gopis’ experience who have a trace of arrogance that they are special and they are asking Bhagavan Krshna to just smile at them.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 7 — The focus is on Bhagavan Krshna’s feet. The Gopis say — Bhagavan, Your feet are everywhere, all over Braja Bhoomi, all over Kaliya’s head. Even though You live in our hearts, how come Your feet are not on our skin? How come You haven’t given us Your feet to hold on to? For those who prostrate at Your feet, the One who helps destroy one’s sins, You are the One who can help us with disidentifying from our vasanas. Each of these verses is highlighting a different part of Bhagavan’s body. These Gopis want more and more.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 8 — Here Bhagavan is described as Madhuraya, the One who is everything, is sweet, and particularly the sweetness of His mouth. His lips are sweet, His music is sweet, all that comes from His mouth is sweet. The Gopis say — For those who are wise, O lotus-eyed One, they enjoy Your sweetness, more so metaphysically, like studying the Bhagavad Gita.
For those who tend to focus on jnana, how lovely, how transformative the Bhagavad Gita is. And there is such diversity in Gopi Gita, that though these Gopis are as if illiterate, but we can see they are not. They are also contemplators. For contemplative people, jnana is sweet.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 9 — Your stories and narrations help to cool down those who are burning, and give them relief. Poets are always longing for You. (Who else can one describe more than Bhagavan Krshna?) You are the One who takes away all negativity, vasanas. Just listening to anything about You is mangala which actually means egolessness. Those who teach, those who study You Bhagavan Krshna, they are greatest gift givers and gift receivers. (When we are listening about Bhagavan Krshna, whom are we not thinking about? Ourselves.)
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
For Vivekji, Verse 9 is the densest and the most contemplative.
Verse 10 — Rahasita — Here Bhagavan’s laughter is being highlighted. His laughter is most contemplation worthy.
The Gopis say — When one reflects on Your play, it leads to egolessness.
Bhagavan’s leelas are worthy of dhyana. For those who practice contemplation, the last aspect that our eyes should see, is the smile of our Ishta Devata or personal God.
This was one of Raja Parikshita’s questions to Rishi Shuka at the beginning of Bhagavata — Tell me about Bhagavan’s leela. This dhyana mangalam leads to egolessness.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 11 — We who love You, we who feel are the wives of You, with Your disappearance, our minds are gone. We care so much about You that we are confused.
The Gopis are sharing how agitated their minds are and that they are lost and confused without Him.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 12 — As the day went on, we would be engaged in pariksha, just waiting for You to come back to the village. And then we would see Your curly, dark blue hair that would fall in front of Your eyes.
The Gopis are sharing how their entire day revolved around Bhagavan. When He woke up, He blew on a conch, and they were already awake to see Him and hear Him. They engaged in their responsibilities so that they could focus on Bhagavan. We on the other hand, wait until our responsibilities are done, and then we indulge.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 13 — Whoever has come in contact with You, is most Bhagya or fortunate since You are Bhagavan, You are the source of that fortune. The world is most fortunate since You walked all over it.
We should contemplate on this as it saves us from emergencies, like the one we are going through right now. When we are in an emergency, we tend to ask help from those who need help themselves. Here we are being told to ask for help from the One who doesn’t need help.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 14 — Bhagavan Krshna’s lips and His relationship with His flute are described. The Gopis share how jealous they are of His flute and wish they were His flute.
The Gopis say — For those who desire You, Bhagavan, they forget about their raga, they forget about their desires and attachments.
We should desire the One who is desireless and we will be free.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 15 — The Gopis’ eyes in reference to Bhagavan Krshna is described.
The Gopis say — Every moment that we don’t see You, feels like a yuga. The shortest yuga is the one we are living in right now and that too is 432,000 years. They begin to curse Bhagavan Brahma as they say — The one who created these eyelids is a fool since these eyelids create those moments when we can’t see You, Bhagavan.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 16 — We left everyone we are supposed to love — our parents, our spouses, our children and came to You and now You left us! What kind of relationship is this? And they call Bhagavan a Kitava or rogue — Kitava, don’t You know how young we are? Who else but You, would leave such young people out in the jungle at night?
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 17 — The Gopis are remembering the private conversations that Bhagavan Krshna had with them, where He would caress them and whisper sweet nothings into their ears. They share — Your laughter, Your smile, Your glowing face, Your looks cause us to feel desire and love.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 18 — The Gopis are comparing Bhagavan Krshna with a medicine giver or physician who is most miserly, keeping all that medicine to Himself. The Gopis say — We are Your people and we have a heart disease. We are having a cardiac arrest, so give us some of that medicine. Stop being so cheap and give us some of that medicine so that our hearts stop experiencing this pain. Their hearts are breaking without Bhagavan.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Verse 19 — We have lost our minds and have no control over them without You. We are burning without You.
This is an apt conclusion to Gopi Gita as this shows the Mumukshutvam of the Gopis. Their desire and yearning for moksha and Bhagavan cannot be matched. Every equipment of our Gopis is not directed towards the world, but every equipment is directed to the Atma.
O Lord! Tarry not to come before our vision!
Gopi Gita — Om Tat Sat!
Additional insights from Vivekji:
- More elaboration on Verse 9
In Bhagavata, all that relates to Bhagavan Krshna, is like Amrita. Mrita means dying and Amrita means that which stops dying. This is in reference to the tapta, those who are on fire, and this katha can stop them from dying. Those who are wise, they also desire Bhagavan. One cannot bypass to be with Brahman as that is not possible. Bhagavan is the One that removes that which harms us. Hearing about You, listening about You is auspicious, as in egolessness. The One who gives the elaboration of You to the people, he is the greatest giver as he has given the greatest gift.
- The system of how we are studying this portion about the Gopis
Bhagavan taught the Gopis. The Gopis came to Him, but then Bhagavan tested the Gopis by asking them to go. So they supplicated Him in Pranaya Gita saying they couldn’t go. Bhagavan was as if baking the clay, making the Gopis harder and harder, but in a good way. And then Bhagavan gave Himself to them and they walked, played games, and whispered to each other, but then there was a sense of “We are special” in the Gopis, only a trace of dvaita as the Gopis were Vishuddha Sattva. That’s when Bhagavan disappeared, but they didn’t give up and continued to look for Him, even started acting like Him. Their jiva dharma became Ishwara Dharma. And now they are gathered and they are expressing themselves more deeply. We must remember that the point of Gopi Gita is to sense their Mumukshutvam, to intensify their need for Bhagavan, just like Kamsa began to fear Bhagavan intensely once incited by Rishi Narada which was a form of blessing for Rishi Narada. Bhagavan was doing the same to intensify their need. And then follows the Rasa Leela which is moksha for the Gopis, it is the Gopis going past Vishuddha Sattva.
- One cannot bypass Bhagavan to be with Brahman
We cannot have realisation of the Infinite without realisation of God. If anyone studied the teachings of Shri Ramana, they are most oriented towards the Infinite. Yet he has shared that we need Ishwara darshan to have vision of our own Self, to have enlightenment. The practicality of this is that the audio-visual symbol of Om is so vital for us. We need to see it, we need to hear it. Om is like Bhagavan since our orientation is towards a particular name and form. But from there, we have to let go of that name and form more to reach our own Self or Brahman. Right now our hands are on articles, beings and circumstances. We have to shift our hands and give our hands to Bhagavan, His feet. We should want His hands on our head, and then He will put our hands back on us making us realize that He lives in our hearts. Bhagavan is us. The sooner we surrender to this knowledge, the sooner we will develop a loving relationship with Bhagavan. Those who do not, it is their sattvik ego.
RAW from last week — Vivekji’s observations on going from Bahikarna to Antahkarana, from outward practices to inner practices — You started to feel that the message that you are constantly being exposed to, became more real and personal. How?
- You will know the completion of shravana or listening when you feel that this is THE message.
- You will know you have completed manana or reflecting when you start to feel that THE message is real as you would have cleared your doubts.
- And finally Nidhidhyasana or contemplation is complete when you feel the message is real and personal. You will know this is about my life, this is about me as all vipareeta bhavana or erroneous notions about who I am, are all cleared out.
As long as you are engaged in Bahikarana sadhana like puja, japa, seva etc, you will never feel that this is THE message, that this is THE message that is real, and that this is THE message that is real and personal.