Yesterday, January 30, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated decades ago, and his dying words were Hey Ram. How is it that as one is dying, one is smiling and remembering an icon of Joy? We cannot relate to that even when we are sick, or physically unwell. Instead we are thinking of sleeping more, of watching more TV, wondering “Why me?”. The reason for this difference in thinking between Gandhiji and us is that he was a full-time seeker, and we are casual seekers. He was a full-time seeker because this was all he thought about, spoke about, and acted upon. We may project him to be a political figure, yet he was a seeker. Casual seekers like us pretend to think, speak and act about the Divine, but we tend to be hypocrites.

To help us evolve from being part-time seekers to full-time seekers, we engage in Adhyatma Vidya. Adhyatma is that which helps us pull away our focus from the Anatma, that which is unimportant and that which will not bring Joy, and put in focus to the Atma, that which is the most important and that which will bring us the most Joy. Vidya is the knowledge to know, to feel that this is the right way to live. All of us want to be deeper and give up more, but we are held back when others tell us that this is the wrong way to live, and we begin to think like them. We know we are immersing ourselves in Vidya when we feel this is the right way to live.

Raasapanchadhyayihi — we are currently studying these five chapters in Skanda ten that focus on Raasa. Raasa is poorly interpreted as dance, and is rightly interpreted as Joy. Here is an overview of these five Chapters:

• The highlight of Chapter 29 is Pranaya Gita. This is the song of the Gopis where they are supplicating Bhagavan Krshna.
• The highlight of Chapter 30 is being introduced and inferring the presence of Devi Radha.
• The highlight of Chapter 31 will be the Gopi Gita. It has been shared that Skanda ten is the heart of Srimad Bhagavata, and these five chapters are the breath of this heart. This breath is compared to the Pancha Pranas. These are the five physiological functions according to Vedanta and the most powerful function is known as the Udana Prana which is the power that takes us from one body to another body. When we die, our mind and ego are transferred to another body through the Udana Prana. And Gopi Gita is considered the Udana Prana of Srimad Bhagavata. Thus Chapter 31 is the most important of the five chapters. Some consider Chapter 33 to be the most important, which is the Raasa Leela. Though both interpretations are acceptable, according to Vivekji, it is the Gopi Gita.
• The focal point of Chapter 32 is Saantva, when the Gopis supplicate Bhagavan Krshna to come back and He responds to their supplication and comes back. Saantva is when the Gopis are then appeased, relieved.
• The highlight of Chapter 33 is the Raasaleela.

All that we have experienced for almost one hundred classes now was a build up for these five chapters. A big portion of Skanda ten has been about the Asuras being destroyed, like Kaaliya, Vatsa, Baki, Baka. Subjectively, these Asuras symbolize our vices. Bhagavan will destroy our vices if we keep Him in our hearts. Next, we saw how Bhagavan humbled the Suras like Bhagavan Brahma, Agni, Indra because for us these Asuras symbolize our ego. Sometimes our ego comes with our virtues like we feel we are the most patient, selfless, etc.

Shri Kabir has taught that one should not feel proud of their renunciation. Many tend to feel how much they have given up in life. When we truly give up, we don’t remember what we have renounced. Otherwise we have not really given up. Relatedly, Shri Kabir has taught that one should not renounce and concurrently, one should not be obsessed. Renouncing and obsessing are extreme ways of living. Simply be virtuous. When vices are destroyed and virtues are filled with humility, then one can experience and be a Gopi as we are doing by immersing ourselves in these five chapters.

When Bhagavan Brahma tested Bhagavan Krshna earlier in Srimad Bhagavata, he repented to Bhagavan Krshna, and asked Him for a boon, for a blessing. Bhagavan Brahma asked to be born as a tree in Vrindavana. One reason was that Bhagavan Krshna had such a love for the Nature of Vrindavana. The second reason was that when asked, as if by Bhagavan Krshna, “Why don’t you want to be born as a Gopi?”, Bhagavan Brahma, the Creator of our multiverse, said that he did not deserve to be born as a Gopi, that he was not good enough to be a Gopi. We are learning all this for us to deserve to be a Gopi.

Vedanta from the katha last week:

Chapter 29:

• The Gopis left their responsibilities and followed the music of Bhagavan Krshna’s flute to the jungle. How come the Gopas and the cows did not act the same way and go to the jungle? It is because only the Gopis heard Bhagavan’s flute and no other being did. There is a specific reason for that. In Chapter 28, we heard that Bhagavan Krshna took the Gopas to the Brahmahridam where all of those Gopas were enlightened and after that He took them to Vaikuntha. Bhagavan then showed the Gopas who He is. So these Gopas were already enlightened, and now Bhagavan Krshna was offering the same to the Gopis which is why only they heard His flute. It is to be noted that Bhagavan Krshna first took the Gopas to Brahman and then to Bhagavan Vishnu which shows that there are not four Purusharthas in life, but five. The fourth Purushartha is Moksha, and the fifth Purushartha is Bhakti. That is why these Gopas went to Vaikuntha after enlightenment. For these Gopis, after they go to the Raasaleela, which is their enlightenment, they keep on serving Bhagavan Krshna.
• In Chapter 29, Raja Parikshita questions Rishi Shuka that what the Gopis did was wrong as they left their responsibilities to go to Bhagavan. We have to remember that this is a planted question, just as Prince Arjuna’s confusion was planted by Bhagavan Krshna. The reason for this is — Nishshayasa Arthaya which means the purpose of Bhagavan Krshna is to be gracious, to just bless, to give who He is, to give what He knows, not just a logical purpose like we think, of destroying and humbling. So if we hate Him, He will give to us. If we are jealous of Him, He will give to us. If we love Him, He will obviously give to us. By going to Him, these Gopis are desiring the One who is desireless. They have desire and He is desireless. What does He do to their desire? He makes them desireless too. That is what Bhagavan Krshna is teaching in Bhagavad Gita. He says we should have the desire for desirelessness. Look how long it takes Prince Arjuna. He receives this teaching when he is 85 years old. These Gopis are learning when they are 15, 25 years old.
• The Gopis share with Bhagavan Krshna that He is their only relative. One of the greatest pulls in our lives is attachment, attachment to our families — parents, siblings, spouses, kids, grandkids. We must not forget that these are our relatives in the most relative sense. Our only relative is Bhagavan, our Cause, our Creator, our original parent and so naturally, our only relationship should be of Bhakti. Bhakti is depending on Bhagavan, and that is equivalent to becoming independent, or independently joyous. These Gopis depended on Bhagavan in every way possible — Bhagavan was their food, Bhagavan was their drink.
• These Gopis were not jealous of each other. A common feeling among those who proclaim that they are Bhaktas is that they feel they are superior to another Bhakta and this feeling of superiority is an expression of the ego. These Gopis never felt like that. They always felt like they were a lesser bhakta than the next. And when you feel that, other bhaktas inspire you. We don’t feel jealousy, but inspiration. A deep truth to this is that Bhagavan, Shastra and Sadguru all have roots in Brahman, and Brahman is Infinite. So whether one is with Bhagavan, Shastra or Sadguru, physically or not, if one knows that these entities are Infinite, it is not required for us to be with them physically. We still feel their infinite presence.

Swamini Vimalananda once shared that once she had come into a room where a lot of people were around Swami Chinmayananda. Some were massaging his feet and some were offering tea and she had just come in from her seva and she had this thought or wish of being closer to Gurudev. Then immediately, without her verbalising it, he said that his real devotees were the ones who were serving in the field. She didn’t need this physical presence, but those of a little lower caliber need that physical presence.

• Even though these Gopis were not jealous of each other, a trace of pride came into their personalities where they focused more on themselves than on Bhagavan. That is called avidya or forgetfulness. They were feeling that they were special, but who should this feeling be focused on? Who is really special? Bhagavan. And since they felt they were special, Bhagavan felt He was not special and what did He do? He left.

Chapter 30:

• We tend to typically live by “out of sight out of mind”. The Gopis did not live by “out of sight, out of mind” when Bhagavan Krshna was out of their sight. Instead, they remembered Him even more then, like the idea of “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. All of them, their hopes, their lives depended on His katha. Many of these Gopis never ever saw Bhagavan Krshna, but only heard about Him. They depended on what they heard about Him — shravana, shruti. They contemplated on Him. So when His physical presence was not there, they missed Him, but He wasn’t out of their minds. They started acting like Bhagavan Krshna, like one Gopi started dancing on the head of another Gopi, the same way Bhagavan Krshna dances on Kaaliya. More details were described in the katha earlier.

What this shows for us is that a jiva’s dharma, our responsibility, is to invoke Jagadeeshwara’s dharma. A framework to understand Vedanta or self-development is jiva, jagat and Jagadeeshwara. The jiva has to become one with Jagadeeshwara, but what does the jiva do? Becomes one with the jagat. All we think, speak and act about is articles, beings and circumstances. And what did these Gopis do? These jivas did become one with Jagadeeshwara. They thought like Him, spoke like Him, acted like Him. This virtue is called Samaadhana and it means to focus. When their hands were cooking and cleaning, where were their minds? Focused on Bhagavan, that this was their seva, their dharma for Bhagavan. And if one is ever engaged in Samaadhana then that leads one to Samadhi. Samaadhana is the means, and Samadhi is the ends.

Samadhi means to well and fully place the ego in the Spirit, and in the language of Bhagavata, Samaadhana is to well and fully place the jiva in the Jagadeeshwara. That is Advaita. If the jiva goes into Jagadeeshwara, the jagat goes too. Then there is only oneness.

• In this chapter, we are also introduced to Devi Radha and another name for her is Radhika. In the text, the word that is used is ‘Aaradhitah’ and the more common expression is ‘Aaradhana’. Aaradhana has the same meaning as Bhaja. The six layers of Bhaja are:

1. To Sing — deeper than that
2. To Seek — deeper than that
3. To Serve — deeper than that
4. To Worship — deeper than that
5. To Love — and what is the fulfillment of love?
6. To BE

That is why in some texts, Devi Radha, as if disappears, and what this means is that she became Bhagavan Krshna, just like Devi Meera. To truly appreciate Devi Radha, we need to study associated texts.

Devi Radha is an icon of the Atma and Bhagavan Krshna is an icon of Brahma as in Brahman, which is why Bhagavan Krshna and Devi Radha never got married. They never needed to as they are the same being. Do we marry ourselves? They are also Ardha-Nari-Ishwara. We typically see that with Bhagavan Shiva and Devi Parvati, but Bhagavan Krshna and Devi Radha are the same.

• The final Vedanta from Chapter 30 — Bhagavan Krshna hiding is actually Sat-Chit-Ananda which is as if covered by the ego. The ego makes us extrovert, but when we contemplate, we have to make the ego become introvert, to the Spirit. The ego is like a force and we have to be stronger to push the ego into the Spirit. Then Bhagavan Krshna is not hiding, but we are not looking at Him. So this Katha is like Bhagavan is hiding and the Gopis are seeking. In our lives, we are not looking. We are forgetting, and that is all Ego. These Gopis went looking and looking and looking for Bhagavan Krshna. They never gave up. This shows their steadiness, their sincerity, their stamina. And the evolution of stamina in seeking is Surrender. Their surrender was them going back to the Yamuna where they started with Bhagavan Krshna and they sang. That is where Gopi Gita begins.

Whenever there is a Gita in Sanatana Dharma, there is always a Phalashruti — you sing, and this is what you will get. Hanuman Chalisa has this, Vishnu Sahasranama has this. The Phalashruti of these five chapters is that we will renounce worldliness. That is a deep reflection to end this class with.