The rakshasas related to Bhagavan Krshna as an enemy, so they were destroyed by Him and in doing so, Bhagavan Krshna gave them liberation. The Gopas, like Shri Nanda and others, related to Bhagavan Krshna as a child, so He delivered them. Bhagavan Krishna had taken them to the heart of Brahman, to Vaikuntha. He thus gave them liberation. The Gopis related to Bhagavan Krshna as a lover and were engaged in a vrata for Him to be their husband. Bhagavan Krishna in return, danced with them and in doing so, granted them liberation. Vedanta in Bhagavata is a course, a map, a system that is helping us relate to the highest, as an enemy, as a child, as a lover, or in any way. It is this relationship with the highest that will help us realize our highest. Our highest is not to be a good person, or a great person. Our highest is to be JOYOUS, independently JOYOUS!

Vedanta in the Raasa Leela — A summary: The Raasa Leela was a dance with the Gopis, but who are these Gopis?

• These Gopis were devas who had reincarnated as Gopis. These Gopis were rishis who had reincarnated as Gopis. These Gopis were also Matsyas who were reborn as Gopis. When Bhagavan Narayana had taken the Matsya Avatara, all the fish and sea creatures who had touched Him or seen Him, they had all become Gopis.
• The Gopis knew who Bhagavan Krshna was. Like in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a difference between jnana and vijnana, there is a difference between knowing of God, and knowing God. They knew that Bhagavan Krshna was God so they treated Him like a child. If Kamsa found out that this was not a child, but someone who was manifesting all of these glories, he would have had him killed more assertively. Gopa and Gopi means the one who hides. They hid Bhagavan Krshna’s radiance from Kamsa and they only did that as they knew who Bhagavan Krshna was.
• And the one portion of Raasa Leela where Bhagavan Krshna disappears, that separation from Bhagavan, that pang burned up the Gopis, but particularly burned up their papa, burned up the separation between Bhagavan and themselves. The more vicious one is, the less divine one feels. So this separation that the Gopi experienced was Bhagavan’s kripa on them, for them to intensely feel this struggle with separation. For us, we are OK with being separate from Bhagavan. It doesn’t bother us, but for a mumukshu, it is hard to breathe with this sense of separation from God. So Bhagavan came when all of that papa or separation was burned up, and enlightened them and gave them the fifth purushartha, which is Bhakti.

The next two Chapters of Bhagavata, Chapters 34 and 35 exemplify Bhakti, not Moksha. We are going to look at some important practices with a lot of pointers about how we should live.

10:34:14 — A sarpa whose name is Sudarshana is speaking to Bhagavan Krshna in this verse. Sudarsha is saying to Bhagavna Krshna — The curse that was inflicted upon me is actually a blessing, anugrahah, and this was given to me by those who are compassionate. Why? Because now I get to experience the Jagadguru, Bhagavan Krshna, and by the touch of His feet, all of my ashubha, my papa or separation, has been dismantled.

Around the time of Maha Shivaratri, which we are about to experience very soon ourselves, all the Gopas and Gopis were engaged in a vrata for Bhagavan Shiva, and this vrata was that they would only consume water. As they were engaged in remembering Bhagavan Shiva and Bhagavati Parvati, a python came and wrapped itself around Shri Nanda and started crushing him. The other Gopas and Gopis tried to free Shri Nanda by burning this python, by hitting it with torches and putting the torches near its eyes, but the python kept on tightening its grip on Shri Nanda. And then they called Bhagavan Krshna for help and He, as a seven year old child, came skipping over there and just touched that python with His toe. As soon as Bhagavan Krshna’s foot touched the python, this sarpa turned into Sudarshana, a semi-God. He then shared that he was cursed to become a snake, but in doing so, he had been blessed by experiencing Bhagavan Krshna, a blessing forever.

Vedanta: Let us learn what Maha Shivaratri is really about as we tend to demean this utsava. Maha Shivaratri is the most sattvik of all utsavas in Sanatana Dharma which means it is the closest to Sat or Existence. This is the reason there are very few stories around Maha Shivaratri. There is not a lot of connection to the Puranas. Once, Bhagavan Narayana and Bhagavan Brahma were having a dialog about the Creator and the creation, and Bhagavan Brahma occasionally has this seed of arrogance that trickles into him. We have to remember that Bhagavan Brahma is the icon for our intellect. Where does our arrogance manifest? In the intellect. As this dialog was going on, all of a sudden, a pillar of light appeared. They then decided to see which one of them could reach the top or the bottom of the pillar first. So Bhagavan Brahma started floating to the top in his lotus and Bhagavan Narayana started digging through the ground in the form of Varaha. A long time passed, and eventually, Bhagavan Brahma faked that he had reached the top of the pillar of light by bringing back a flower from the top and he called out to Bhagavan Narayana that the challenge was over. So Bhagavan Narayana came back and said that He never reached the bottom of that pillar. It was then that the pillar of light manifested as Bhagavan Shiva like we see Him, and shared that Bhagavan Brahma never reached the top. He had artificially manifested a flower, pretending that he had got it from the top. What does this story teach us?

Bhagavan Brahma is creation, is the effect. Bhagavan Narayana, Bhagavan Shiva are the Creator, are the Cause. This pillar of light, that is Bhagavan Shiva, is our awareness. Our awareness has no beginning and has no end. In our arrogance, we keep saying that we know our awareness. We may know so intellectually, but we cannot know our awareness like we know a rock or the Zoom code. We can only Be awareness. On Maha Shivaratri, we have to cease from being rajasik. Rajas is forever engaging in creation. As part of the vrata on this day, we shouldn’t do anything that we don’t need to. We need to breathe, we need to drink water, we need to go to work, so let us do that, but anything we don’t need to, we should not do on Maha Shivaratri day. We don’t need to watch Netflix, we don’t need to eat a donut. But when we disengage from creation, when we disengage from rajas, our propensity is to be tamasik. That is why Maha Shivaratri is celebrated at midnight so that instead of that rajas devolving into tamas, we should raise that rajas to sattva. We need to be more vigilant, more conscious and the fulfilment of that is being that pillar of light. We always are, but we tend to treat it in a very secular way, trying to find the beginning or the end of that pillar.

Sudarshana came to appreciate that Anugrahah is really Nigrahah. Anugrahah means grace and nigrahah means controller. Bhagavan Shiva, Bhagavan Narayana are not just the Creators, but also the Conservers and the Controllers. Everything that they do is for our welfare. As we don’t know that, we complain and criticize and cry. However, Sudarshana knew it so he said that the curse was actually a blessing. Even in our lives, challenges are testing us to be better, and not be bitter.

A romantic expression in the second half of Chapter 34 — The Gopis, Bhagavan Krshna, and Shri Balarama were back in the jungle, and they were all absorbed in singing and dancing. Shri Balarama was also a flautist, though we rarely see him playing the flute. So they were busy playing the flute, the Gopis were absorbed, it was in the middle of the night, when a particular character, named Shankachuda came and tried to kidnap some of the Gopis. The Gopis started shouting out for Shri Balarama and Bhagavan Krshna to come and save them, and they were shouting back that they were coming and not to worry. Finally, Bhagavan Krshna caught up to Shankachuda and removed his head. Shankachuda means the one who has a conch on his head. This conch is not a physical conch, but essentially a jewel and Bhagavan Krshna came back and gave it to Shri Balarama. What a sweet gesture to give the conch to His older brother!

Now we move on to Chapter 35 which is a very special Chapter called Yugala Gita. This is like Gopi Gita, but Yugala Gita is more vedanta oriented, unlike Gopi Gita which is more Bhagavata oriented.

10:35:26 — Here Rishi Shuka is describing to Raja Parikshita what the Gopis are saying to each other. In the Gopi Gita, the Gopis were also speaking to each other, but in the jungle. Now in the Yugala Gita, the Gopis are speaking to each other at home. So these are pointers of how we should live at home, engaged in our responsibilities. This Chapter has 26 verses. The first and last verses are by Rishi Shuka and the rest are the Gopis talking. So Verses 2–25 is the content of Yugala Gita, worth contemplating upon. Here is a summary.

Rishi Shuka is telling Raja Parikshita — O Rajan! The Gopis of Braja were ever engaged in singing the leelas of Bhagavan Krshna. Their minds were absorbed in these leelas, in Brahma, and their bodies were absorbed in dharma. They experienced independent joy.

• Verses 2 and 3 — Bhagavan Krshna is described as having His left cheek on His left shoulder, playing His flute. His flute had 7 holes and His fingers softly caressed those holes, playing music with His head tilted to the left.
• Verses 4 and 5 — All of the animals that came to hear and see Bhagavan Krshna — the cows, the bulls, the frogs, when they heard Him, their ears stood up, and those that were chewing cud, their mouths dropped and it looked like they all became paintings. So the Gopis and the animals were absorbed in Bhagavan Krshna. Are we absorbed in Bhagavan Krshna?
• Verses 6 and 7 — The nearby river wanted to touch the dust that touched Bhagavan’s feet. So the river started to slow down and it’s as if the mist from the river became arms, trying to gather all of this dust. And whenever it did gather the dust, the river stopped as if it were also in samadhi.
• Verses 8 and 9 — All the trees that got to see Bhagavan Krshna, bent low. It’s as if they generated more leaves, more flowers, more fruit to bend low to see Bhagavan Krshna more. And they started shedding the juice from the fruits as if making an offering to Bhagavan Krshna.
• Verses 10 and 11 — There were water birds like swans, cranes, seagulls who upon hearing Bhagavan Krshna, stopped in the water side-by-side and they closed their eyes, like a sage in contemplation.
• Verses 12 and 13 — The clouds are described here. There was about to be a thunderstorm, but as they heard Bhagavan Krshna’s flute, not wanting to disturb Him, they appeared to swallow their own thunder and it just became a soothing vibration, and instead of rain, they just dropped fine particles of water to cool Bhagavan Krshna. They stopped over Him to form an umbrella.
• Verses 14 and 15 — The Gopis are using Devi Yashoda as a reference, that she never taught her son anything about music, but how self-taught He was in singing and playing instruments. He was so adept in music that even the devas bowed down to how accomplished He was in music, not just to His Ishwaratvam.
• Verses 16 and 17 — The ground of Vrindavana is described as always trampled by all the cows and calves. Bhagavan Krshna walked all around Vrindavana like an elephant, soothing and supporting that ground. He was seven years old and would soon be leaving at eight, so He was everywhere, just blessing and blessing.
• Verses 18 and 19 — Bhagavan had one arm around one of the Gopas and was counting the cows using a Japa Mala. Everything about Him was so sattvik.
• Verses 20 and 21 — Devi Yamuna wanted to serve Bhagavan Krshna, so she created a breeze that went through the jungle, particularly over the Sandalwood trees and collected their fragrance and brought it to Bhagavan.
• Verses 22 and 23 — When Bhagavan Krshna came back to the village all dusty in the evening, and it is even shared that He was tired, but when He saw everyone’s eyes attached to Him, He opened His eyes more and smiled to delight them.
• Verse 24 and 25 — The Gopis were looking at Bhagavan Krshna’s eyes and how they were slightly rolled back, because He was revelling in His own nature.
• Verse 26 — Rishi Shuka says to Raja Parikshita — O King, in this way, even in the daytime, the noble souled Gopis rejoiced themselves singing of Krshna’s glorious sports with their minds absorbed in Him and in the bliss produced thereby.

As our course and this text reaches a culmination, we should not ask how we are supposed to live. Everyone of these verses is showing us how to live, how to be a Gopi. These Gopis were engaged in Smarana all day. Smarana means to remember and in Vedanta, it means to reflect. Smarana leads to Sudarshana or the vision of the Divine.

If we don’t remember the Divine, then even if He or She comes right in front of us, we will not be able to see Him, just like Prince Arjuna. He was with Bhagavan Krshna for 85 years, but didn’t know Bhagavan Krshna. Then in Chapter 11 when Prince Arjuna asks to see Him, Bhagavan Krshna doesn’t give him Divyachakshu, but rather He removes Prince Arjuna’s Ajnanachakshu or ignorance and then he comes to experience who Bhagavan Krshna is.

Iti Srimad Bhagavate Mahapurane Paramahamsyam Samhitayam Dashamaskande Poorvardhe Vrindavanakreedayam Gopikayugalagitamnama Panchatrimshodhyayah — Thus ends the Yugala Gita.

How are we to relate to the Gitas? Remember them, Reflect on them.

Discussion: We listened to a song and Vivekji shared that we need to internalize that Bhagavan Krshna IS Love. When Bhagavan Krshna leaves Vrindavana, Devi Yashoda never speaks again. She goes into Mauna forever. For us too, we never know when this love will leave externally, so work hard and smart to internalize this LOVE.