The older we all get, we generally become more afraid of death. When it comes to our own death, we are fearful of how our family members would manage after our death. Such thinking shows that the more individualistic we feel, the more difficult it is for us to let go of our own body, the welfare of the people around us. This is clearly seen in the difference between the Brahmanis and the Gopis. The Brahmanas’ wives who came to Bhagavan Krshna, had His darshan and then told Him that they had to go back home, whereas the Gopis came to Bhagavan Krshna, had His darshan and never said that they had to go back to their homes. The Brahmanis were holding themselves back, and the Gopis were not.

Our Vedanta in Bhagavata course is special in helping us in disidentifying from our individuality. How? By focusing on community. In our course, we have seekers from around the world from different Centers and we also have special guests sometimes during Retreats. When the community becomes the focus, it becomes easier to let go. Our course is special because we are focusing on Divinity, on the details of Bhagavan Krshna, His names, His forms, His qualities so that we forget about our individuality. We will know that we are flowing through our course if letting go becomes easier for us — letting go of things, letting go of what people say or don’t say, letting go of people coming into and going out of our lives.

• The message of Chapter 31 in Skanda 10 is to be a mumukshu like a Gopi. The only purpose of their breathing and thinking was Moksha or freedom.
• The message of Chapter 32 is Moksha as mumukshutvam leads to Moksha. The Gopis were enlightened in this Chapter. They were reveling in Bhagavan when He came back to them.
• The message of Chapter 33 is Bhakti, the fifth Purushartha. After the Gopis were enlightened, they served Bhagavan Krshna through their singing and dancing, and they tried to make Him more and more joyous.

In Chapter 32, the Gopis asked Bhagavan Krshna about love and He gave them a framework. This framework is once again explained here for our own self-analysis, self-introspection. These are the different kinds of personalities who love –

1. Those who are selfish, get love but don’t give love.
2. Those who are selfless, give love even if they don’t get love.
3. Those who don’t love can be grouped into 4 categories –

• Atmarama — The one who loves the Infinite Self and feels that all are in that Self which means there is no other to love. So they don’t love as they love the Self as there are no others. This is advaita, from relative to Absolute.
• Aptakama — Those who love the Self, so they don’t want anything from anyone else as there is no kama. They don’t have to interact with anyone else. Though they are living in dvaita, they are really living in advaita.
• Akritajna — Those who love the Self and don’t need anything from anyone. So they do not have any reason to interact with anyone, thus living in advaita in spite of the dvaita. Akritajna literally means the one who knows what has been given to them.
• Gurudruha — The one who loves the self, but not the Absolute Self. They love the relative self which is the ego. So even though the Guru only gives love, they keep asking for more. Their ego can absorb all of this love and still want more.

Atmarama, Aptakama and Akritajna are actually one and the same. They love the Absolute. They don’t have to love the relative as they know the relative is in the Absolute.

Bhagavan Krshna says — I am not selfish, I am not selfless, and I do not belong to the category that doesn’t love for I AM LOVE! I am beyond this framework.

How do we approach this framework? How can we be Atmarama? How can we be Bhagavan Krshna? In Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, there is a beautiful section of verses 9–11, where in verse 10 Bhagavan Krshna says to Prince Arjuna –

When Bhagavan Brahma created you, he created you with yajna. In other words, you were created with love. If you were created with love, that means your potential, your purpose is to love (like we are born with a certain talent so that we can share that, to use that). Anyone who knows this and follows this, they reach Para. Para here is Bhagavan Krshna. They are born with love, they are born to love, so they become love!

Vedanta in Chapter thirty-three: In our Upanishads, there is a powerful teaching — Rasovai saha. Saha means Bhagavan or Us or ourself and what is the nature of ourselves? Rasa or Joy, Ananda. Anyone who experiences this rasa, they are engaged in raasa. If we experience our own rasa, then our life becomes a raasa. And what do we do when we are independently Joyous? Lasya which means to dance, Gita which means to sing. That’s what the Gopis did. Their Chapter thirty-two Moksha is them feeling their rasa, and Chapter thirty-three is their experience of this rasa, which is raasa — they are dancing and they are singing.

The Gopis were in love with Bhagavan Krshna and their “in love” evolved to “as love”. When they were “in love”, there was a separation there, a dvaita. However, “as love” really shows that they became love like Bhagavan Krshna. There is no separation there, only advaita.

A typical person stops at being “in love”. They do not evolve to becoming “as love”. This being in love is really like and lust, like at a relative level and lust at a heavier level. This has been shown very poetically. The last sura that was referenced before the Raasaleela started was Varuna, an icon for water. All the tastes that we experience, particularly through our tongue, is facilitated by water. That which is dry has no taste. Even sex is facilitated by water. Semen is water, an egg is water. Only when Varuna was addressed, which means when our likes, our lust, our tastes and sex are checked, then that IS Love which means these Gopis. If we are in love, is it likes, is it lust? If we are in love, is it becoming “as love”? This is something for us to reflect upon.

In Bhakti Shastra, the Gopis are known as Bhagavan Krshna’s Parikara, His Parshadas. This means attendants or those who attend to Bhagavan Krshna. The word Parikara in Sanskritam also means enlargement which shows that these Gopis are actually an expression of Bhagavan Krshna. It is impossible to have lust for ourselves. We do love ourselves, whether we know it or not, whether we verbalize it or not. So the Gopis had no lust towards Bhagavan Krshna. They loved Bhagavan Krshna as they are an expression of Him. Bhagavan Krshna is the Shakta and the Gopis are the Shakti. The Shakta and Shakti are the same. What is different is their expression.

In a vedantic lens, Bhagavan Krishna is the bimba, the Gopis are the pratibimba. Bimba means source and pratibimba means reflection. Is the reflection different from the source? If we take the source away, the reflection goes away too. The reflection is really the source in a different name and form.

The way that we can internalize this the most — The Gopis are vrittis and Bhagavan Krshna is the Chit. They are thoughts and He is Awareness. When our thoughts are on Awareness, that is being in love with Awareness. When our thoughts are in Awareness, they are no longer thoughts then, which means they are “as Awareness”. When the Gopis were dancing and singing, Bhagavan Krshna was in the middle of every two Gopis. There is Bhagavan Krshna before a Gopi, and Bhagavan Krshna after a Gopi, which shows that before our thoughts, there is Awareness and after our thoughts, there is Awareness. Only if we know this, is our life a Raasaleela.

A synonym for lust or Kamadeva is Manoja which shows that lust or desire is born in the mind. What is the mind? Thoughts. If our thoughts are not on and in Awareness, that is not love, but lust. If we are trying to complete ourselves externally, all that is, is an expression of lust.

Now some insights into leela. The word leela means play and it also means a feeling. When we see such a play, such a leela, we have a feeling of delight like watching an infant play. Leela also means that which melts. When our ignorance melts and we stop ignoring who we are, then we come to appreciate and experience that our nature is Ananda. We should internalize this as another definition of leela, “That which makes the unmanifest, manifest.” It melts away that which we are not. As soon as Neti is complete, what remains is iti.

Existence is easy for us to tune into. No one denies existence. Even awareness is like that. As seekers, we know the manifestation of Awareness, but we all get stuck with Ananda. What do you mean my nature is Ananda? I’m far from that! A leela is where we start to feel this Ananda.

Whenever we try to complete ourselves externally, then that is called gratification. We are only able to complete some facets of our personality. For example, when watching a movie late at night, our intellect may be happy, our mind may be happy, but our body may be tired. When we eat awesome ice cream, our body may be happy, our mind may be happy, but our intellect knows that we shouldn’t be eating so much ice cream. So there is never a complete completeness.

When we try and complete ourselves internally, that is called satisfaction and all facets of our personality are complete. This is why the Gopis are not just sitting with their eyes closed, they are dancing and singing — annamaya is involved, pranamaya is involved, manomaya is involved. The technical term is –Rasaanaam Sammuhah iti Raasa — Rasanaam means Joy, Sammuhah means Complete. These are more details on the Vedanta of the Raasa leela.

“Owing to Krshna’s mysterious power, the Gopas felt that their women with them all the while and had no ground to feel any ill will to Krshna.” This again affirms that these Gopis are Bhagavan Krshna. Towards early morning, when the Brahma muhurta had begun, the Gopis persuaded by Krshna, their beloved, and congratulated by Him, went back home unwillingly. Just imagine Bhagavan Krshna congratulating them — ‘You have completed the purpose of your life’. That is an awesome, awesome scene to visualize!

The Raasa Leela is forever. When we are sleeping, this is ignorant Advaita. There is no time. These Gopis, even though they went back home, they did not. Upon enlightenment, upon being devoted, we can never go back. So their Raasa Leela is forever, which is indicative of Advaita.

According to Vivekji — An event is that which happens annually, like a typical Raasa Leela that is organized by a cultural organization. A movement is that which happens every week, like our course that has been going on for 95 weeks, building up to the Raasa Leela. Development happens when we engage in Raasa leela daily. That means we read about Raasa Leela, write about Raasa Leela, and reflect upon Raasa leela. And Enlightenment happens when this becomes our experience. This has to be our own sadhana, feeling it is our biography.

Discussion topic: What is holding you back from being a Gopi and why?

Vivekji’s thoughts: We still feel we can be happy by arranging articles, beings and circumstances. That is why we hold ourselves back from immersing ourselves in our own Self. This sense that we can arrange articles, beings and circumstances in a complete way shows how deep we are in maya, and also shows our lack of clarity about what Moksha is. If we had full clarity that samsara will not bring us happiness, we wouldn’t try to arrange it. If we had full clarity that our Spirit will make us completely happy, then we would be dedicated to that. But we don’t have clarity on either side, and that is why we keep flirting. So we are inconsistent. Recognizing the source of Joy is within, we can be peaceful regardless of a changing context.