Why was Bhagavan Krshna born in bondage? He was born in prison with His parents locked up. He did this to release us from our meta-physical bondage. We are not physically bound, but our bondage is more serious — our dependency on outside factors for joy.
Why was Bhagavan Krshna living among those who are ordinary — calves, cows, Gopis, Gopas? So that we can relate to Him, and how He lived extraordinarily in an ordinary circumstance, to lift us up with every thought, word and action. The more one inquires into Bhagavan Krshna’s birth and life, and sadly we project this into the future, the un-manifestation. The more we inquire into this, the more differences we feel — you, I, rich, poor, etc…these differences become less relevant and what we start to feel is more divine. If one does not inquire into the life of Bhagavan Krshna, then this is just a Katha. But we know that this is not just His katha, but our katha, our past, our future.
When Bhagavan saw that His foster family was preparing so much for a ritual, He asked them why. He never let the people around Him live in a meaningless way. And their why was Indra. The vedanta of this dialogue is — whatever we do not understand, we fear. We do not understand a lot of practices that we engage in, like puja, japa. etc.. and we have a habit subtly of engaging in it out of fear. We think if we do not do this, this will happen. This is NOT the nature of Sanatana Dharma. We do not live in and follow a fear-based religion. We have to know what we are doing to be changed or to be transformed by it. If one thinks of Karna, He didn’t know he was a Pandava most of his life and he struggled. If one thinks of Dushyanta, he was married to this divine woman Shakuntala and had a divine son, Bharata, but doesn’t know it. Karna felt some relief only after knowing he was a Pandava. Dushyanta was happy once he knew that this was his wife and child.
Let us mind our own mind which means let us engage in our dharma or responsibilities. This is much more meaningful than minding Indra. Karma or Dharma is ever with us, unlike Indra. What was lovely about Bhagavan Krshna’s foster family was that they did not reject this. They accepted it. The one who didn’t, was Indra. So Bhagavan Krshna had to teach Indra that position is for peace, not for praise. Indra has this special position as the controller of weather, and instead of using position for being peaceful and moving higher, he was just going sideways demanding praise. Many of us are in positions of power and we should ask ourselves the same question — Are we moving up or sideways with that power?
Bhagavan Giridhara — Giri is mountain and dhara is the one who holds, so one who holds up a mountain. He held up this mountain to show Indra that Indra’s power depends on Bhagavan Krshna as well.
We have flowed through many Suras and Asuras. Bhagavan destroyed the Asuras like Putana, Agha and corrected the Suras like Bhagavan Brahma, Agni deva, Indra deva. The Suras symbolize virtues to an extent, but we sometimes become arrogant of our virtues. So Bhagavan does not destroy the vices, but we need to refine those vices with more and more humility. Humility is beauty.
We also came to appreciate Bhagavan’s name as Govinda. Da — the one who gives, vin means gain or purpose and Go means senses. So Govinda is The one who gives purpose to our senses.
We are now starting — Raasapanchadhyayihi — the five chapters that focus on joy, enlightenment. We have learned that the tenth Skanda is the heart of Shrimad Bhagavata, and within the heart, the next five chapters are the breath. And within the breath, the raasa leela is the foremost breath.
Skanda 10:29:15 — Rishi Shuka is answering Raja Parikshita’s question and tells him that different emotions like desire, anger which make one single pointedly focused on Hari, Bhagavan, then Bhagavan gives Himself or they become what they are thinking about, which is Bhagavan.
Some context: Now we are in the middle portion of autumn and it is most pleasant in Bharat and Bhagavan is outside near the Yamuna playing His flute. The Gopis, when they heard these notes, they became restless. Whatever they were doing, they could not focus on it. So they stopped doing whatever they were doing. If they were cooking they stopped, if they were cleaning, they stopped and got themselves ready to follow those notes to go to Bhagavan. They were so focused on Bhagavan’s music, that they were getting ready in a most disorderly way.
The parents, the husband in some homes stopped some of the Gopis from physically leaving their home, but these Gopis were great. They did not kick or punch, they just contemplated and contemplated until samadhi where their bodies passed away as well, freeing themselves from any sort of bondage. So what Raja Parikshita asked was, “Wasn’t what the Gopis did, wrong? Shouldn’t they have been cooking and cleaning? Why were they resisting the family members who were stopping them?” And Rishi Shuka answered that he already answered this question back in Skanda seven, but that question was about Shishupala. Shishupala hated Bhagavan Krsna yet he was enlightened. And at that time Rishi Shuka had said that it doesn’t matter what emotion we have towards God as long as we are absorbed in Him or Her. So it seems like Raja Parikshita was not paying attention, but this question was asked for us as we are the ones not paying attention. The question was asked to remind us that these Gopis were not engaged in any wrongdoing, but what they were doing was right.
When these Gopis finally arrived at the Yamuna, Bhagavan Krshna asked them, “What can I do for you?” He said, “You wanted to see Me, so now that you have, you may leave. You are being irresponsible. What will your family think of you and Me? So go home.”
Shlokas 31–41 — This is another Gita and it is contemplation worthy. This is known as Pranaya Gita. Pranaya means supplication. The Gopis are trying to negotiate with Bhagavan Krshna about why they should not leave. Here are some of the insights:
- The Gopis share — “You have taught us that You are our closest relative, so we are acting on that.” They are not justifying, they are masterly.
- They share that the dearest pursuit is one of Joy and we know You are Joy, so we are only pursuing the purusharthas. This is the fourth purushartha.
- They share — “We have nurtured this understanding, this bhava for a long time. We are only following what You have taught us, how You have lived.”
Bhagavan Krshna was seven years old now and they have nurtured this for at least seven years in an undistracted way. Bhagavan Krshna was most happy with their response.
Chapter 29 — Verses 42–48 — Pre-Raasa leela — Here details are shared about how Bhagavan Krshna engaged these Gopis. There are more than a hundred Gopis and One Bhagavan Krshna. What did Bhagavan do? He just kept on looking at them. We have to visualize someone that we love just looking at us, and they know how we want them to look at us, and they look at us that way. He was smiling at all the Gopis and there was not even a trace of jealousy among these Gopis. They felt that Bhagavan was only looking at them, only smiling at them. And Bhagavan slowly started leading them, slowly walking on the sand banks, into the jungle and this troop of a hundred Ggopis was just following His footsteps.
And as they got into the depth of that jungle, slowly He started hugging them, hugging their shoulders, hugging their lower backs, caressing them, caressing their hair, their thighs and He started laughing with them. These Gopis felt the best, and gradually started feeling that they were the best, and as soon as Bhagavan sensed that they felt they were the best, the luckiest Gopis, Bhagavan disappeared. The feeling of dvaita had kicked in. Dvaita is when we compare with another and since these Gopis felt they were better than another, Bhagavan left. So what did these Gopi’s do being in the middle of the jungle, in the middle of the night with Bhagavan no longer there?
Skanda 10:30:28 — An important figure, who is un-named in the whole of Srimad Bhagavata, is highlighted in this verse. And that is Radha. Her name is only inferred.
anayārādhito nūnaṁ bhagavān harir īśvaraḥ
yan no vihāya govindaḥ prīto yām anayad rahaḥ
As these Gopis were trying to find Bhagavan Krshna, they inferred that there was another Gopi who loved Him more. The name Radha comes from Aradhana which means to love. She loved Bhagavan Hari who is Ishwara. She must have known that This was The Bhagavan. And that is why Bhagavan left with her, by Himself. And He made her feel special.
When Bhagavan Krshna left these Gopis, some may feel that these Gopis were delusional. But we should be open minded and reflect on who is delusional. Are they delusional or are we delusional? What do we think and how do we feel? The Gopis were completely absorbed in Bhagavan Krshna so they started assuming that they were Bhagavan Krshna. They started assuming His attitude, His movements. They started saying ‘I am Krshna, You are Krshna, We are Krshna’ and they started wandering around asking the trees, the rocks, the grass in the jungle if they’d seen their Krshna. There is a huge section which lists all the different trees that they ask if their Krshna had come that way. They shared with the beings in the jungle, “We are half dead right now, we are zombies without our Krshna. Please tell us where he is.”
Then they started a dialogue with Bhudevi that is the Earth. They saw a certain area where the grass was thicker. So they bent down and started talking to the Earth, “Why is your grass so green? Why is it so lush here? You are most lucky since our Bhagavan stepped on you as Vamana. Why are you so healthy? Why are you so beautiful? Is it because He lifted you up when He was a boar? These Devis knew that He was not just a little boy. They knew about His incarnations. They started acting out every detail about Bhagavan. One Gopi started acting as Putana and another Gopi became Bhagavan Krshna. One Gopi was acting like Kaliya and another Gopi was on her head, dancing on it. One Gopi was walking, and another Gopi was putting her arm around her shoulder, pretending to be Bhagavan Krshna, hugging and caressing her. So they did their best to track Bhagavan Krshna. And in one spot they saw that the grass was pressed in more. So they huddled around and what they extrapolated like a detective was that He must have carried this other Gopi on His shoulder, and that was the reason His foot may have gone deeper into the ground. Then they found another footprint where only the front part of the foot was deeper. So they extrapolated that He must have been trying to get something high, like a flower for her. So that’s why only the front part was deeper and not the back.
And as they did all this tracking, they eventually found the Gopi who is referenced in the verse and who we now know to be Radha. She was crying and these Gopis asked her why she was crying. She said because she felt she was special, and as soon as she thought that, He disappeared. And then all of these Gopis went back to the banks of the Yamuna and started to sing and their song is called the Gopi-Gita.