A Joyous Bhakti Anudina to all! Joyous because that is the best greeting, Bhakti means to depend, to depend on the Higher as the more we depend, the less selfish we are, and Anudina as this is not just one day or an event, but a form of development everyday of our lives.

When we have a relationship with a sadhu, our desires are reduced. Having completed 94 classes of Srimad Bhagavata, Vivekji hopes that we are beginning to appreciate that a Sadhu is not an individuality, with a specific name and form, but a Sadhu is a community, our community where we are shifting our desires from desires for ourselves to desiring the Divine. This is the fabric of Vedanta in Bhagavata.

We are currently immersed in Raasapanchadhyayihi — the five chapters on enlightenment in Skanda 10.

• Chapter 29 — The focus is Pranaya which means supplication. The Gopis share with Bhagavan Krshna how much they depend on Him using their words.
• Chapter 30 — The focus is Aradhitah where we meet Devi Radha. Here the Gopis share with Bhagavan Krshna how much they depend on Him, not just with words, but through their actions.
• Chapter 31 — The focus is the Gopi Gita. Here the Gopis share that they depend on Bhagavan Krshna not just with words and actions, but their entire lives depend on Him. The Gopi Gita is actually a Chapter on Mumukshutvam. We tend to focus on poetry too much, whereas the vedanta is a focus on the last quality that a seeker needs, the intensity to be with their original parent, to be independently joyous. A Gopi is the one who “Pi” — introspects with their “Go” — their senses, all of their equipment. Dhyana or contemplation should be perpetual and personal just as these Gopis are contemplating on their nature perpetually and personally. One has to “feel” that they are a full-time seeker to be a Gopi. Bhagavan Krshna is testing the Gopis by, as if disappearing from them, actually blessing to intensify their longing for Him. Training happens in a controlled environment, but testing happens in an uncontrolled environment and that testing is a blessing to see how aligned we are with the Truth, and these Gopis are.

The end of Gopi Gita — Iti Srimad Bhagavate Mahapurane Paramahamsyam Samhitayam Dashamaskande Poorvardhe Rasakreedayam Gopigitamnama

Ekatrimshodhyayah

10:32:19 — Here Bhagavan Krshna was speaking to the Gopis, responding to their question about love by creating a framework of love which is very deep. The Gopis were on the banks of the Yamuna and were practically dead, physically, mentally, and then Bhagavan Krshna reappeared. When He came back, they all began to rise, their eyes started dilating and they rushed to be with Him. Bhagavan Krshna was chewing on a betel nut, and the juice was dripping from His mouth, and the Gopis who were very close to Him were catching it and keeping it close to their hearts. One of the Gopis sucked Bhagavan Krshna in through her eyes and went into ecstasy, like a yogi. Another Gopi, whose heart was aching, felt Bhagavan Krshna in her and became thoughtless, like what the Veda teaches. The Gopis then took their clothes and threw them in a pile on the banks of the Yamuna and created a throne for Bhagavan Krshna to sit on as they felt Him in their hearts and did not want even the clothing between Him and their hearts. They could feel that the dearest relationship was with themselves. These Gopis were reveling in Bhagavan Krshna, and were partially confused and angry and so they asked Him — You say that You love us, but do You? Because if You loved us, why did You leave?

This is where Bhagavan Krshna provides the deep framework of love. Bhagavan says –

1. One type of lover is the one who loves for getting love in return. Such a lover is selfish as he loves for reciprocity alone.
2. The other type of lover is the one who loves without any transaction of receiving love back. Such a personality is selfless and Bhagavan also describes this love as parental.
3. Another type of personality is one who doesn’t love at all, return or no return. Bhagavan describes such a person in four categories. Why don’t they love?

• One type of person is Atmarama which means they are living in advaita, in oneness so there isn’t anyone to love.
• The second type of person is Aptakama which means one who, though living in dvaita, has the vision of advaita. Such a person lives in duality but has the vision of oneness, so doesn’t have anyone to love either.
• Then the third type of person is Akritajna, the one who, though in dvaita, is completely unaware, is content, is enlightened. So as they are reveling in their own Self, there is no one to love either.

The above three categories can be categorized into one as these personalities are tuned into oneness and there is no other to love.

• The fourth type of person is known as a Gurudruha, the one who is viscous, who is a papi and is not capable of loving.

Then Bhagavan Krshna shares that He is none of the above as He says — I AM LOVE! In all the above categories there is an expression of love whereas Bhagavan IS love! And this is the answer that the Gopis were looking for. Bhagavan says — I am love, I love you, and that is why I created this as if separation to intensify your love for Me so that you too become love.

The end of the Chapter — 10:32:22 — “Even by service for countless divine years, I cannot pay back to you anything equal to your glorious act of self-surrender. Prompted by love untarnished by any blemish of selfishness and breaking the ever powerful chain of attachment for home and worldly concerns, as I cannot pay back the debt, may your generous act be its own reward.”

The subtlety of this is Bhagavan saying He didn’t want to give love back to the Gopis, but He wanted them to be Love. That is what Bhakti is — the fifth Purushartha, the fifth purpose in life. The highest reason to live is not enlightenment, but it is devotion, it is depending. It is Bhakti Anudina.

And now The Rasa Leela, the completion of the chapters on enlightenment. As this portion is narrated, we could dance, we could sing, we could cry, we just need to BE love!

10:33:3 — This is Rishi Shuka explaining to Raja Parikshita -Then the Rasa Utsava began. All the Gopis arranged themselves holding hands and in-between each Gopi was the Master of Yoga, The Krishna. As the Rasa Leela began, He started bringing the Gopis closer, holding them by their necks in a loving way. Then they danced. As Bhagavan was between two Gopis holding their necks, poetically it has been described as an emerald between two golden beads, Bhagavan being the jewel and the Gopis being the gold. The Gopis were dancing and singing vigorously and it looked like a dark cloud between lightning as the Gopis were shining so much with Bhagavan Krshna in-between. Every Gopi was looking at Bhagavan Krshna trying to make Him more joyous. What a concept! Bhagavan Krshna is Joy Himself, but there was so much love and oneness between the Gopis and Bhagavan Krshna that they wanted to make Him more joyous, whatever they could do to make that happen. Some special portions –

• The Gopis had all earned Bhagavan Krshna as their husband. They had earlier engaged in a vratha, a discipline, a sacrifice for Bhagavan Krshna to become their husband, and this was the phala, the reward, showing that it was possible. We are believers, but we don’t have faith. This Rasa Leela should instil faith in us that these little girls who are engaged in this vratha, if it is possible for them, it is definitely possible for us — for Bhagavan to be our spouse, for Bhagavan to be us.
• These gopis had lots of flowers in their hair that kept falling as they were dancing vigorously. These flowers started attracting a lot of bees and soon there were so many bees that their buzzing became the music for their dancing. The accompaniment to the music was all of their jewellery — their necklaces, their bangles, their anklets. Everything sounded perfect. Guruji, Swami Tejomayananda, has shared that even the Gopis crying for Bhagavan Krshna, sounded melodious. Bhagavan Krshna was loving every one of these Gopis like a child playing with himself looking into a mirror.
• The moon that was illuminating this Rasa Leela, was amazed at what it was seeing so it became still and the whole night went on and on and on.
• These Gopis were sweating so much that Bhagavan Krshna was wiping their sweat with His own hands so that the sweat wouldn’t enter and sting their eyes. Feeling how much they loved Him, He guided them all to go into the Yamuna river and soon the Gopis started splashing water and playing in the river in a child-like manner. They were just being!

As Rishi Shuka is explaining all this to Raja Parikshita, the latter asks how all of this was even allowed. These Gopis had their own relationships and responsibilities and here they were, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the jungle, with one entity. How was this possible? He uses terms like this is anti-Krshna, describing it as behavior of the worst kind.

Rishi Shuka responds by saying that Bhagavan Krshna is like fire and fire purifies everything that goes into it without losing its purity. He explains to Raja Parikshita that Bhagavan Krshna is supra-moral, which means morality doesn’t apply to Him. It is almost like Rishi Shuka is being sarcastic with Raja Parikshita when he says that if one doesn’t believe him then instead of imitating Bhagavan Krshna, one must first imitate Bhagavan Shiva drinking up the kaalakuta and then one can be like Bhagavan Krshna. He explains that Bhagavan Krshna is BEING, He is not doing. Only if one is doing, can there be sinning, but if one is not doing, there cannot be sinning. Bhagavan Krshna is being with Himself. He shares that the Spirit of the Gopis, the Spirit of their husbands’, the Spirit of all beings is Bhagavan Krshna, so how can this be wrong? He is them, and there is no other — Ananya. One can only harm another, but not oneself independently.

The completion of the Rasa Leela — Whoever hears or recites again and again the account of Krshna’s amorous dalliances with the Gopis with deep faith in the divinity of Krshna, the faith that He is Maha Vishnu, the Supreme Being, attains to the highest devotion to the Lord and in the course of the development of devotion, he quickly overcomes lust, the universal heart disease of humankind.

We have already studied in Bhagavata that Bhagavan Narayana or Bhagavan Vishnu is The Original and all else are expressions of Him and that’s why this point is being made that Bhagavan Krshna is Bhagavan Narayana.

Many teachers have shared that the Rasa Leela is the Kama Vijaya Leela. It is the expression of being victorious over not just lust, but desire. Desire only comes to those who are incomplete. If one has become victorious over incompleteness, then they are enlightened, they are Bhagavan. So the Rasa leela is very, very, very different in how we interpret or practice this today as being something cultural or entertaining, but this is the highest teaching or the highest experience.

Vivekji then shared guided imagery or Saguna Dhyana, contemplation on the name, form and guna (qualities) so that we are in tune with the dhama or who we truly are, on what reality is, to renounce the lower perpetually, personally.