The Realm of Bhāva and the Mystery of Līlā

The Realm of Bhava and the Mystery of Lila

The Wondrous Character of the Realm of Bhava

In the realm of bhava, both sacred enjoyment and renunciation are wondrous indeed; They cannot be understood until pure loving attachment awakens. All the names and outward forms found in worldly dealings are present there as well, Yet there they are supremely pure, transcendent, distinctive, and incomparable. Joy and sorrow, attachment and longing, fear, reserve, anguish, and desire; Bondage, wounded pride, playful dalliance, the rasa dance, companionship - all these names are found there. Taking offense, sulking and weeping, rebuke and seeming insult; Teasing and vexing, carrying tales and speaking flattering words - there these become exalted acts. Yet the mind is never tainted, nor is there the least fault in anyone's intention; Whether compliant or contrary, all are stainless flavors of the sacred lila. That boundless realm of prema is filled with self-giving and wholly free of any wish for personal pleasure; No defect born of material nature can enter it, even for an instant. Within the Lord, through the Lord, and of the Lord alone arise all its particular bhavas; Not a trace of material impurity or corrupted emotion exists there. All is divine, conscious, and filled with Bhagavan; every transcendent bhava is free from defect. The Lord Himself becomes both lover and Beloved and delights unceasingly in His lila.

The Realm of Bhava

Loving remembrance of Hari! I received your letter. The answer to your question is as follows. As long as bhava is no more than an emotional surge, it remains outside the realm of spiritual practice. The desire born from such a surge produces unrest and a burning in the mind. Desire is a kind of fire: offerings of sense objects only make it grow, and when it is thwarted it assumes the terrible form of anger. Therefore, whenever such a surge of bhava arises, it should be directed toward Bhagavan. The moment it is joined to Bhagavan, bhava becomes pure and turns into a spiritual discipline. It then readily rises beyond the "realm of karma" and leads the aspirant onward toward Bhagavan.

Above this preliminary "realm of bhava" stands the "realm of jnana," which awakens knowledge of the truth of the Supreme Self. Higher still is the perfected Realm of Bhava - the supremely radiant abode of Sri Radha-Madhava, who are eternally one and yet eternally two. There the inconceivable, stainless, and sweetest lila of the Divine Lover and His Beloved proceeds forever. The vast, sweet, and unfathomable ocean of Natnagar Shyamasundara's playful lila, though utterly tranquil, rises in ceaseless movement, and He sports within it as its many captivating and supernatural waves of bhava. This is not imagination; it is reality. Only one who has become forever dispassionate toward degraded sense enjoyments and even toward kaivalya liberation, and wholly attached to the feet of Sri Radha-Madhava alone, can enter the bounds of this supremely radiant and highest Realm of Bhava. Here there is no emotional impulse: this is reality itself, the sweet lila made of sat-chit-ananda. The rest rests with Bhagavan's grace.

The Glory of the Realm of Bhava

Question - In the world of bhava, a person experiences many things. Are those experiences genuine realities, or are they produced by imagination?

Answer - Either can be the case. Bhava does not mean imagination alone. In the Gita's statement, "The unreal never comes into being, and the real never ceases to be," bhava signifies sat - that which always exists. Sat can never be absent, and asat can never truly exist. In Vaishnava literature, bhava means the very highest prema. Bhagavan Shyamasundara, Sri Krishna, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, is called Rasaraja, the sovereign of rasa; and Sri Radhaji, daughter of Vrishabhanu, sovereign of the rasa dance and eternal queen of the secluded bowers, is called Mahabhava.

Nowadays the word bhava is used in a very loose sense. No distinction is made between bhava and bhavana. In Bengal, bhavana commonly means "worry." The form that an object assumes through prolonged visualization is also called one's bhava. The disposition that arises in a person suffused with emotion is called bhavukata, or emotionality. In ordinary usage, bhavuka means an emotionally inclined person who roams the realm of imagination and is not thoughtful, or is even undiscerning and foolish. Prema and loving attachment are also called bhava. The inner states of love and attachment that arise in the depths of the heart are likewise called bhavukata. Through sustained loving contemplation, the hearts of such lovers melt. People of faith, too, are called bhavuka. According to their bhavana, emotionally inclined people form many kinds of mental images and wander within that imagined realm. The Vaishnavas, however, use bhava wholly in the sense of "sacred prema." Bhagavan's essential nature is bliss; His hladini-shakti, the intrinsic and internal potency of His own being, is precisely the potency of bliss, and that very power is bhava. Embodied, it manifests as the divine form of Sri Radhika, who is Mahabhava itself.

Whenever a devotee speaks, from his own realized vision, of the Realm of Bhava, he is speaking of Bhagavan's actual divine power, not of a feeling manufactured by imagination.

It is wholly real, not imaginary. This is how a devotee's vision ought to be. Just as one contemplates Bhagavan's form through bhavana, so too one can and does contemplate sound, touch, taste, fragrance, and the other sensory qualities. In meditation we may hear the sweet music of Bhagavan's flute, behold His form, drink the nectar of His lips, thrill with rapture at His touch, and even inhale the fragrance of His limbs. A person may see in meditation that he has clasped Bhagavan's feet and that Bhagavan has placed His hand upon his head. From the practicing devotee's perspective, all these experiences are true. Yet so long as their forms are fashioned by the mind's imagination, they remain products of bhavana. In the inner world of a dream, even when no other person is present, we experience touch, hear sounds, see forms, smell fragrances, and savor tastes. In the same way, through steadfast bhavana one can fully experience sound, touch, form, taste, fragrance, and the rest in the world of bhava. There is no doubt about this.

This itself is a very elevated and profoundly beneficial state of meditation. Beyond it, however, in the true realm of prema, one may directly behold Sri Bhagavan, Rasaraja Himself. It is difficult to establish the experience of seeing Bhagavan by any form of argument. Explaining such a vision to one who has no faith is almost impossible, for faith and trust are the root mantra of all spiritual practice. The form in which a devotee sees Bhagavan may not be one revealed in scripture. It is equally possible that Bhagavan may not appear to a devotee in the form described by scripture, but may manifest in simple attire. What is Bhagavan's form like? It is whatever His devotee longs to see. Bhagavan assumes the form desired by the devotee and appears before him. Apart from these manifestations, Bhagavan also has eternal forms in which He sports in the divine abodes, whether or not our imagination can conceive them. Devotees favored by grace have beheld these forms, and may behold them still.

At times, proud devotees who are eager for a vision may be led astray

or tested so that their resolve may be strengthened. Minor celestial deities can appear before them in various forms, claim to be Bhagavan, and try to confuse them. Accounts are also heard of certain sky-roaming minor deities who, moved by self-interested desire, assume the form of a worshiper's chosen deity and try to deceive him. The radiance of such celestial beings is many times brighter than anything we have seen on earth. They may enter the visible form of our chosen deity and delude us. Just as an obstruction from the gods may come in the form of fear, it may also come in the form of temptation. Minor deities appeared before Dhruva in the alluring form of his mother and cried, "My son, I am in terrible pain - I am burning! Save me!" But Dhruva did not turn aside from his practice. As for a devotee who has taken refuge in Bhagavan, the Lord Himself, through His grace, destroys every obstacle:

"With your mind fixed on Me, by My grace you shall cross over every difficulty."

When a devotee has offered his mind to Bhagavan and surrendered his very self, all responsibility for him passes to Bhagavan. The Lord's command is, "Let My devotee walk My royal road with eyes closed; no obstacle can stop him." The very moment a soul turns to face Bhagavan, it is delivered forever:

"The moment a soul turns toward Me, the sins of millions of births are destroyed."

The instant a devotee takes refuge in Bhagavan with exclusive and desireless devotion, Bhagavan Himself assumes the burden of all that devotee lacks and all that must be preserved. This does not mean that the devotee ceases to walk the path toward Bhagavan. On the contrary, he runs toward Him with tremendous speed. He could deliberate only if he had set out to deliberate. He does not possess ten or twenty minds so that he might think with one and offer another. He had only one mind, and he gave it to Shyamasundara. What mind is now left for him to give elsewhere? One who has surrendered himself desires no one but the Lord. The gopis' self-offering was complete in every respect. Therefore Bhagavan says:

"Their minds are absorbed in Me, their very lives are Mine, and for My sake they have relinquished all bodily ties." They have merged in Me

their minds, dissolved their life-breath in Me, and for My sake have given up even the activities of the body.

Bhagavan says:

"Mother, father, brother, son, and wife; body, wealth, home, friends, and family - gathering every thread of possessive attachment to them, he binds his mind to My feet with one strong cord. How does such a noble soul dwell within My heart? As wealth dwells within the heart of a miser."

(Sri Ramcharitmanas)

"Those who have abandoned wife, home, children, kin, life itself, wealth, this world, and the next, and have come to Me for refuge - how could I ever bring Myself to forsake them?"

(Srimad Bhagavatam 9.4.65)

"How could I even contemplate abandoning those devotees who have left wife, children, home, elders, life, wealth, this world, and the next, and have taken refuge in Me alone?"

Having withdrawn possessive attachment from every object, the devotee offers body, mind, wealth - everything, without reserve - at Bhagavan's feet and becomes free from both desire and self-assertion. When the very mind that might desire liberation has been surrendered at Sri Hari's feet, how could a wish for liberation arise? One whose whole being has thus been offered without desire has no fear that minor deities or other beings might come to trouble him. No one can place an obstacle in his path.

Spiritual practice begins with bhavana, and the root of bhavana is faith. Bhava without faith is false. Through continued cultivation of bhava and by Bhagavan's grace, one enters the true Realm of Bhava: the aspirant passes from the gross into the subtle, the subtler, and the subtlest. Entering that divine world of contemplation, he worships Bhagavan there. Five kinds of embodiment are recognized: gross, subtle, causal, bhava, and chinmaya. The chinmaya body and bhava-deha are of an extraordinary order. Bhagavan's eternal form is chinmaya. That form is not a body in the ordinary sense; it is Bhagavan's very being. There is no distinction there between body and indwelling self. Nor is there any veil of Yogamaya there. Bhagavan manifests in two ways - by assuming Yogamaya and by withdrawing Yogamaya.

Where Yogamaya accompanies Him, there is a veil. External material nature is called maya; Bhagavan's internal potency is called Yogamaya. The impure maya that envelops the world cannot delude Bhagavan. Bhagavan Himself wraps around Himself the mantle of Yogamaya, voluntarily assumes that covering, and appears before us. Where Bhagavan's chinmaya form is free of Yogamaya's veil, Yogamaya is a transformation of the hladini-shakti. When Bhagavan speaks while covered by Yogamaya, He manifests before everyone. In the intimate lila where Yogamaya's curtain has been drawn aside, the lovers who remain with Bhagavan - and in whose prema knowledge lies concealed - possess what is called a bhava-deha. Sri Radhikaji does not possess a bhava-deha; She is the chinmaya divine form itself, and all the gopis are bodily expansions of Radha.

The gopis' task is to arrange the blissful union of Sri Radha and Krishna, Beloved and Divine Lover, to bring it to fulfillment, and to behold it in its fullness. In this alone lies their ultimate satisfaction. This mystery opens only when devotees enter the divine realm of lila. Liberation may indeed be attained without entering this lila. There are many sure paths to the attainment of Bhagavan, and all of them bestow liberation. Liberation, too, is a form of Bhagavan. But to enter this profusion of lila one must become wholly imbued with gopi-bhava. To savor this lila, Narada, Arjuna, and even Bhagavan Shiva had to assume the form of a gopi. The Rasollasa-tantra describes the bhava-deha. In Bhagavan's eternal abode, a particular potency for participation in lila is bestowed upon the chinmaya forms of His eternal companions. That potency is called bhava. Bhagavan's eternal companions abide in bhava-dehas, and only by attaining such a bhava-deha do they enter the rasa-lila. This is why it is a supremely hidden mystery. Reasoning cannot establish it. In the lila of bhava, Yogamaya's curtain remains withdrawn. There is no duty of maintaining the social order there, for such a duty exists only where there is a social world. It is needed where there are creatures of the world, subjects, society, and human beings. Where no such world exists, what need can there be to uphold it? Where there is no worldly habitation and no embodied soul practicing karma-yoga - where there is Bhagavan alone, nothing but Bhagavan, where -

"The Lord of delight sported with the beauties of Vraja as a child plays with the many images of its own reflection."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.33.17)

Sri Hari sports with the gopis just as children play with their own reflections. Where there is no realm apart from the One, no separate world, no separate creature; where our sun and moon do not move and no body of this world exists - how could thoughts of worldly society arise there? How can we human beings, spellbound by maya, understand the mystery of the eternal and divine rasa-lila? The darkness of desire within the heart prevents the knowledge of rasa from illuminating us. Only after complete withdrawal from the objects of the world can something of rasa's mystery be understood, through the guileless company of great lovers and through the grace of Shyamasundara, the supremely beloved object of prema.

There is a vast difference between our world and Bhagavan's divine realm of rasa. Our hearts are so afflicted by desire that even in the transcendent lilas of the divine realm we see the shadow of our own mind's sins. Nothing belonging to this illusory world exists there. Not even Yogamaya's covering remains. With that covering removed, Radha and Sri Krishna unite in the rasa without any obstruction. How could their union be complete if a veil remained? Neither the clothing nor the women of this world exist there. There is not the slightest trace of lust; every obstruction is utterly absent. Maya places no barrier there at all.

To say that Bhagavan did not remain in Vraja after His eleventh year is only an accommodation for our human understanding. For His own companions He is the eternal Youth. The conception of time belongs to maya's realm. In the unveiled divine world, where the eternal lila of the Lord who is the Great Time beyond time reigns supreme, there is no imprisonment within time. Everything there is Bhagavan's play. Seated within maya, how can we understand what is untouched by maya? The rasa took place; the gopis' embraces and all else occurred. Yet we cannot even imagine the nature of that embrace. Only after completely conquering lust and attaining great dispassion can one enter this realm even to the smallest degree

of entry. It would not be right to drag that realm down into the world of maya, mix it with our impure feelings, and then describe it. That world cannot even be imagined within the human realm. For Bhagavan's manifestation in ordinary human society, the stated purpose of establishing varnashrama-dharma is valid; but that is not the reason in the world of devotees. By mere resolve Bhagavan can revive and establish dharma and destroy the wicked. For Him whose smile unfolds the creation and whose ceasing to smile dissolves it again, what need is there to take an avatara? Bhagavan manifests because He is bound by the devotee's law of prema. Wherever devotees become restless with longing for Him, He must come in person; He cannot restrain Himself. A mother offers her child many toys and sweets, but when the child throws them aside and cries out in longing for its mother, she herself must come to relieve the child's anguish. The devotee's heart knows only one sorrow: the burning pain of separation. Bhagavan Himself must come to remove it and establish the divine dharma of prema.

In the lila of bhava there is no human striving or action. Human action extends only to the summit of the ideals of the human world; within the lila of bhava, the very conception of a worldly society is absent. Wherever this bhava-lila exists, there too is the bhava-deha. The cowherd men saw every gopi asleep beside her own husband. Leaving their human bodies among human beings, the gopis came in bhava-dehas - in conscious, divine forms - to the place where Bhagavan was and joined the rasa. The subtle body and causal body do not possess hands, feet, and other such limbs, but the chinmaya body and bhava-deha possess them all. Every one of those limbs, however, is divine and supernatural. Just as Bhagavan Himself became the cowherd boys, the calves, and all the boys' equipment, so in that eternal rasa-lila Bhagavan Himself manifests in both forms, Mahabhava and Rasaraja. That circle of rasa lies wholly beyond this maya. There is neither a body made of this maya, nor a human being made of this maya, nor any enjoyment within this maya. Free of maya and with even Yogamaya's curtain withdrawn, Sri Krishna, who delights in the Self, sported with the gopis who are His own essential Self:

"Though complete in the bliss of His own Self, He delighted in play."

There, as every embodied form, there is Bhagavan Himself. The gopis too are He; everything is Sri Krishna Himself. This is no imagination. The rasa is real, the rasa is eternal, and the rasa is chinmaya.

Who can say what it is, or how could anyone say it? Only the bhavukas - those who have entered this Realm of Bhava - know its bliss. Yet how could speech born of maya express that bliss? Those absorbed in that supreme joy do not so much as glance toward the question of what might lie beyond it. This is precisely what Sri Madhusudana Swami, crown jewel of Vedanta, declared:

"His hands made beautiful by the flute, His radiance like a fresh rain cloud, His dark limbs adorned with yellow silk, His lips red as ripe bimba fruit, His face lovelier than the full moon, His eyes like blossoming lotuses - apart from Krishna, I know no higher Reality whatsoever."

"His two hands are adorned by the flute; the radiance of His limbs is dark like a newly risen rain cloud; yellow silk shines upon His dusky body; His crimson lips steal the beauty of ripe bimba fruit; His lovely face puts the full moon to shame; and His eyes charm the heart like blooming lotuses. I know of no supreme Reality other than that Bhagavan Sri Krishna."

"If yogis, with minds mastered through the discipline of meditation, behold some supreme, qualityless, actionless light, then let them behold it. For us, may that alone forever fill our eyes with astonished delight - that ineffable dark-blue splendor running along the banks of the Yamuna."

"If yogis use minds subdued by meditative practice to realize some supreme light beyond qualities and activity, let them do so. We desire only that the indescribable, dark and lovely radiance that runs along the Yamuna's bank should forever awaken wondrous, ecstatic delight in our eyes."

This is not a world of imagination. It is the divine realm of the Truth beyond the highest. There is no

need to explain it to anyone, and Bhagavan does not need people to acknowledge that His realm exists. Even so, entrance into this Realm of Bhava comes only through Bhagavan's grace. Once a devotee has entered it, he accepts, knows, and understands none but the Lord. Let the entire world oppose him a hundred thousand times; he has no concern for the world at all. This is not a matter that belongs before the tribunal of worldly criticism.

Bhagavan's Eternal Lila

There is never any pause in Bhagavan's eternal lila. We all behold His lila in the gross world, yet unfortunately, deluded as we are, we fail to recognize it as His lila and mistake it for something else. Bhagavan clearly indicates that the form in which you perceive the world is not its true form; it cannot actually be found as you see it:

"Its true form is not perceived here as such."

If that form truly existed, it ought to be discoverable. Yet we pay no attention to Bhagavan's statement. Taking a form fabricated by our own mind to be real, we run distractedly after paltry objects and purchase a new sorrow every day. Behind this gross world lies a subtle world, an inner world. It has principally two levels. At the first, Bhagavan's many infinite potencies ceaselessly act while holding the governing threads of the gross universes in their hands. Enormous changes in the gross world occur when the powers of this inner world turn even the slightest mechanism. This level is still comparatively gross and external. The second is a subtler and more inward level, where Bhagavan performs His eternal lila with His companions. It is the foundation of all the lilas of the world and contains many successively higher planes. These mysteries become known only through Bhagavan's supreme grace. Only exclusive devotees of Bhagavan's manifest form, possessed of qualities and form, can enter this subtler level of the inner world. Empowered by Bhagavan's grace, they advance onward, entering one level after

another until at last they reach the supreme and subtlest plane of all, where Bhagavan's most secret and sweetest lilas eternally unfold. According to its particular aspect, devotees of Sri Rama call this subtlest plane Saketa; devotees of Sri Krishna call it Goloka; devotees of Sri Shiva call it Kailasa; devotees of Sri Vishnu call it Vaikuntha; and it is also called Paramadhama, Mahakarana, and by other names. This is Bhagavan's eternal divine abode, beyond the light of the material sun and moon and endowed instead with the divine radiance that illumines them all. Its lilas cannot be expressed in words. A gross portion of those very lilas - and that too in a measure smaller than a single drop from an infinite ocean - was manifested in Sri Ayodhya, Janakpur, Chitrakoot, Panchavati, Sri Vrindavan, Mathura, and Dvaraka when Bhagavan Himself appeared with His beloved companions as Sri Rama in Ayodhya and as Sri Krishna in Vraja. His eternal play continues there even today, and fortunate souls are able to behold it. In truth, whenever Bhagavan descends, His eternal abode descends with Him. His lilas take place within that abode; hence the extraordinary glory of the lila-dhamas.

Eligibility to Understand the Eternal Lila

The realization of Brahman is cultivated in two ways, through vyatireka and anvaya - negation and all-pervading affirmation. To understand the world as wholly devoid of independent substance is the practice of vyatireka. To experience throughout the entire universe, in both the conscious and the apparently unconscious, the one conscious, indivisible, and perfect reality of Brahman is the practice of anvaya. When these two disciplines are united, one directly realizes the truths expressed by "All this is indeed Brahman" and "There is no multiplicity whatsoever here." That realization is the state of abiding in Brahman.

This is Sri Bhagavan's own form as Brahman, made of sat-chit-ananda. Only after realizing it does one become qualified to understand the prema-lila, or Vraja-lila, of Sri Krishna, the complete Purushottama Bhagavan. Without a divine heart and divine eyes,

The Vraja-lila cannot be beheld without them. Through many spiritual disciplines the heart must first become empty of every conditioning impression and established in pure sattva. Then the one indivisible, infinite, homogeneous, all-pervading, all-formed, and unmanifest Brahman must be directly realized throughout the entire universe. Only then do the eyes of prema open. Only then does one become qualified to behold Bhagavan's lila truly and completely, and only then does the loving devotee enter a union of perfect oneness with Bhagavan. This is the supreme culmination of knowledge:

"That supreme consummation of knowledge."

(Gita 18.50)

Sri Bhagavan Himself has said:

"Having become Brahman, serene in self, one neither grieves nor desires. Equal toward all beings, one attains supreme devotion to Me. Through devotion one knows Me in truth - how great I am and who I am. Then, having known Me in truth, one enters into Me immediately thereafter."

(Gita 18.54-55)

"When the aspirant, serene of heart, becomes established in Brahman; when he neither grieves over anything nor desires anything; and when he becomes equal toward all beings, he attains My para-bhakti - perfect prema. Through that supreme devotion he knows the truth of Me, Bhagavan - all that I am and the full measure of what I am. Knowing Me thus in truth, he immediately unites with Me, entering My lila."

This knowledge of Brahman and this para-bhakti are not attained through lofty talk alone. Mere words produce only false pride in the name of Brahma-jnana and infatuation with sense objects in the name of devotion. They become attainable only through satsanga, service to holy persons, right reflection, dispassion, bhajana, desireless action, observance of yama and niyama, and the most intense longing. In every spiritual discipline, Bhagavan's grace is indispensable, just as life-breath is indispensable to the body.

The Mystery of Bhagavan's Descent

Question - What is the purpose of Bhagavan's avatara? For what end does He descend?

Answer - Bhagavan Himself has given the answer:

"For the deliverance of the holy, the destruction of evildoers, and the reestablishment of dharma, I manifest from age to age."

(Gita 4.8)

"For the deliverance of holy persons, the destruction of those who commit evil, and the establishment of dharma, I manifest in every age."

Question - Bhagavan can deliver the holy, destroy sinners, and establish dharma by a simple resolve. At most, He could send some liberated agent who remains near Him. Why would Bhagavan, by whose mere movement of the brows all the universes can be created and dissolved, personally descend for so ordinary a task?

Answer - We cannot understand why any particular lila of Bhagavan occurs. To know and recognize Bhagavan and understand the mystery of His lila is possible only through His grace. No one can assert with certainty that the matter is exactly thus. Nevertheless, great souls explain the inner meaning of this verse in the following way. Here the word sadhu should be understood to mean holy souls like the gopis, whose deliverance could not occur without directly beholding Bhagavan. The "evildoers" should likewise be understood as Bhagavan's most intimate devotees, such as Jaya and Vijaya, whose seeming transgression existed only to unfold a particular divine lila; other evildoers will be destroyed by their own evil deeds. And the establishment of dharma should here mean the establishment of the dharma that takes the form of bhakti, prema, and yoga. Such a dharma cannot be established without Bhagavan Himself - sweet, enchanting, worthy of worship, and lovelier than millions upon millions of Kamadevas. This interpretation also appears reasonable. Certainly, subsidiary purposes include the protection of holy persons established

on the right path, the redemption of fortunate evildoers through the destruction of their bodies, and the establishment of pure and eternal dharma. While offering her prayers, Kunti Devi explains the purpose of Bhagavan's descent:

"You descend to establish bhakti-yoga for the paramahamsa sages whose hearts are utterly stainless. How then can we women hope to behold You?"

(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.20)

"You have assumed an avatara to engage those paramahamsa sages, whose inner beings are entirely free of impurity and perfectly pure, in bhakti-yoga. How can we helpless women behold or comprehend You?"

This shows that Bhagavan Himself descends in order to bestow prema upon the paramahamsa sages. Kunti Devi later presents differing views about the purpose of Sri Krishna's avatara:

"Some say that the Unborn has taken birth to increase the fame of King Yudhishthira, whose praises are sung for holiness, and in the beloved lineage of Yadu, just as sandalwood appears in the Malaya hills.

"Others say that, entreated by Vasudeva and Devaki, You who are unborn came as their son for the welfare of the world and the destruction of those who hate the gods.

"Still others say that, at Brahma's prayer, You were born to relieve the earth of its immense burden as she sank like a boat overwhelmed in the ocean.

"Some say that You came to perform divine deeds worthy of hearing and remembrance for those who suffer in this world through ignorance, desire, and desire-driven action.

"Those who constantly hear, sing, proclaim, remember, and rejoice in Your deeds soon behold Your lotus feet, which bring the current of worldly becoming to an end."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.32-36)

"Some say that You descended in the Yadu dynasty solely to increase the glory of the meritorious King Yudhishthira; or that, just as sandalwood grows upon Mount Malaya and increases that mountain's fame, so You

descended in the Yadu dynasty to increase the glory of Maharaja Yadu. Some hold that in a previous birth Sri Vasudeva and Devaki prayed that You would manifest as their son; in response to their prayer, although unborn, You descended as their son for the welfare of the world and to slay the demons hostile to the gods. Others say that the earth was sinking under a crushing burden like a boat foundering in the sea, and that You assumed an avatara at Brahmaji's prayer to lift that burden." Kunti now expresses her own view: "Living beings in this world suffer many kinds of torment because they are caught in the vicious cycle of ignorance, desire, and desire-driven action. To free these afflicted souls from suffering, You descended to perform beautiful divine lilas worthy of their hearing and contemplation. Those who hear, sing, and celebrate Your love-filled divine lilas, who repeatedly remember them and rejoice, soon behold Your auspicious lotus feet, which bring the current of worldly birth and death to rest."

All the purposes given above are fitting and true, but the final purpose stated by Kunti is especially moving. Bhagavan's deeds are, in truth, the sturdy boat by which one crosses the ocean of worldly existence. For beings in the age of Kali, they are the sole support. Goswami Tulsidasji therefore said:

"No age equals Kali, if only a person places faith in this: by singing the stainless host of Rama's virtues, one crosses worldly existence without effort."

The purpose of bestowing bhakti-yoga upon stainless sages is also wholly reasonable, for through it the pure Bhagavata-dharma is established. For these very purposes, Bhagavan - absolutely independent and free of personal desire - wills to descend.

Question - I understand the point about seeming evildoers such as Jaya and Vijaya and about the establishment of the dharma of prema. But I do not quite understand the deliverance of the gopis. What sorrow did they suffer from which they could not be freed unless Bhagavan personally descended?

Answer - Their great sorrow was their longing to behold the supremely divine and auspicious form of Natnagar Bhagavan, the ocean of the nectar of beauty and sweetness. They were consumed by the terrible burning of separation, and that pain could not be extinguished without meeting Sri Bhagavan in person. Bhagavan Himself manifested in order to deliver them from this sorrow.

One should not conclude, however, that this is the only form the purpose takes. Its particular form varies in different ages, yet the three essential purposes remain the same: the deliverance of the holy, the destruction of evil, and the establishment of dharma.

The Mystery of Stealing Butter

When reflecting upon Bhagavan's lila, one must remember that the abode of His lila, its participants, and the body through which He performs it are not material. In Bhagavan there is no distinction between body and indwelling self. The Mahabharata says:

"The Supreme Lord's body is not constituted of an aggregate of material elements. Whoever considers the body of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Self, to be material must be excluded from all rites enjoined by revelation and tradition. Such a person has no entitlement to any scriptural rite; after merely seeing his face, one should bathe fully clothed."

"The Supreme Self's body is not made from an aggregate of material elements. Whoever knows or believes the body of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Self, to be material should be barred from all Shrauta and Smarta rites, meaning that he has no right to perform any scripturally ordained act. One should even bathe with one's clothes on after seeing such a person's face."

In Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.2, Brahmaji praises Bhagavan Sri Krishna and says:

"O Lord, no one can fathom even this form, which You have manifested by Your own will to bestow grace upon me, and which is certainly not composed of material elements."

"You manifested this self-willed form of sat-chit-ananda solely to bestow grace upon me; it is never composed of the five material elements."

It is therefore clear that everything belonging to Bhagavan is beyond material nature, and that all the lilas of His birth and deeds are divine. Yet the lila of Vraja, the bower lila within Vraja, and, within that secluded bower, the sweet lila performed solely with the rasa-filled gopis, are divine beyond the divine and the most secret of all mysteries. This lila is not displayed before the general public. It is wholly intimate, and only the gopis have the right to enter it.

Even if one sets aside the perspective of the nitya-siddha gopis, who eternally dwell inseparably within Bhagavan's supreme eternal abode, and considers only the sadhana-siddha gopis, their austerity was so severe, their longing so exclusive, their love so all-embracing, and their dedication so true that it is no extraordinary thing for Bhagavan - the wish-fulfilling tree of devotees' desires and the embodiment of the rasa of prema - to delight them as they wished: accepting their desired worship through His lila of stealing butter, removing the last remaining veil of separation through His lila of taking their garments, and bestowing divine bliss upon them through the rasa-lila.

Besides Bhagavan's eternal, perfected, and consciousness-bliss-filled gopis, there were many others who, as the fruit of great spiritual practice, descended in the form of gopis in order to render Bhagavan the service longed for even by liberated souls. Some had previously been daughters of the gods, some were personified Vedic revelations, some were ascetic rishis, and some were other devotees. Their stories are found in various Puranas. The gopis who embodied the Shrutis had continually described the Supreme Self through "not this, not this," yet could not attain Him in a directly manifest form. Learning of Bhagavan's divine, rasa-filled play with the gopis, they worshiped the gopis. Ultimately they themselves assumed gopi forms and directly attained Bhagavan Sri Krishna as their own Beloved. The principal Shrutis among them were named Udgita, Sugita, Kalagita, Kalakanthika, Vipanchi, and others.

During Bhagavan's avatara as Sri Rama, sages beheld Him and became enchanted, offering their very selves to the beauty of His form. Pleased by their prayer, Bhagavan granted them the boon that they would become gopis and attain Him; they later descended in Vraja in gopi forms. In addition, there were many companies of gopis: those of Mithila, Kosala, and Ayodhya; the Pulinda gopis; gopis from Rama-Vaikuntha and Shvetadvipa; the Jalandhari gopis; and others. Through severe austerity they received Bhagavan's blessing and the fortune of descending in gopi forms. The Patala-khanda of the Padma Purana describes many such rishis who, after performing exceedingly difficult austerities for many kalpas, attained gopi forms. Some of their names and accounts follow.

1 - There was a rishi named Ugratapa. He maintained the sacred fire and was firm in his vows. His austerity was extraordinary. He repeated a fifteen-syllable mantra and meditated upon the newly adolescent Shyamasundara Sri Krishna, intoxicated with the rasa dance. After one hundred kalpas he became Sunanda, daughter of a cowherd named Sunanda.

2 - There was a sage named Satyatapa. Sustaining himself on dry leaves, he repeated a ten-syllable mantra and meditated upon Sri Krishna dancing while holding both of Sri Radhaji's hands. After ten kalpas he became Subhadra, daughter of a cowherd named Subhadra.

3 - There was a rishi named Haridhama. He fasted completely while repeating a twenty-syllable mantra containing the kama-bija "klim." He meditated upon the Divine Couple reclining on a bed of the tenderest leaves within a bower of madhavi vines. After three kalpas he descended in the home of a cowherd named Saranga as Rangaveni.

4 - Once, while the Brahma-realized rishi Jabali was wandering through a vast forest, he came upon an immense stepwell. On its western bank, beneath a banyan tree, a young woman was performing severe austerity. She was exceedingly beautiful, and rays like the moon's pure white beams streamed from her in every direction. Her left hand rested upon her waist, and with her right

hand she held the gesture of knowledge. When Jabali asked her with great humility, the ascetic woman explained:

"I am that incomparable Brahma-vidya whom the greatest yogis perpetually seek. Desiring the lotus feet of Hari, I have long practiced austerity in this terrible forest while meditating upon Purushottama. I am full of the bliss of Brahman, and my understanding is satisfied by that bliss; nevertheless, without loving attachment to Krishna, I regard myself as empty."

(Padma Purana, Patala-khanda 72.30-32)

"I am the incomparable knowledge of Brahman for which the greatest yogis forever search. To attain Sri Krishna's lotus feet, I have long performed austerity in this forbidding forest while meditating upon that Purushottama. I am filled with the bliss of Brahman and my intellect is wholly satisfied by that bliss. Yet I have not attained prema for Sri Krishna, and therefore I see myself as empty." The Brahma-realized Jabali fell at her feet and received initiation. He then stood on one leg and continued severe austerity while meditating upon Bhagavan as He wandered through the lanes of Vraja. After nine kalpas he appeared as Chitragandha in the home of a cowherd named Prachanda.

5 - Shuchishrava and Suvarna, sons of a Brahmarshi named Kushadhvaja, knew the truth of the Vedas. Standing in the headstand posture, they repeated the mantra "hrim hrim sah" and practiced fierce austerity while meditating upon ten-year-old Bhagavan Sri Krishna of Gokula, beautiful as Kamadeva. After a kalpa they were born in Vraja in the home of a cowherd named Sudhira.

Many other accounts of the gopis' previous births are found in the same way. For fear of excessive length, they are not all recounted here.

Those renunciant lovers of Bhagavan had performed such austerities for Him, practicing with such dedication for kalpas, and had thereby attained the bodies and minds of gopis. If Bhagavan performs the very lila they desire in order to fulfill their longing and bestow bliss upon them, what is surprising or

improper in it? During the rasa-lila, Bhagavan Himself said to the gopis:

"I cannot repay your flawless union with Me and the goodness you have shown, even in the lifetime of a god. You severed the nearly unbreakable chains of home to worship Me. May your own virtue be the recompense for your love."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.32.22)

"O gopis, you cut through all the strong fetters of home and loved Me without guile. Even if, for each one of you separately, I were to live for the full lifespan of a god and try to repay your love, I could not do so. I am in your debt and shall forever remain so. Through your saintly nature, regard Me as released from that debt, and thereby make Me indebted still further. That alone is best." It is only natural that Bhagavan Sri Krishna, Lord of all worlds, should fulfill the wish of those most blessed gopis even before it takes shape as a conscious desire, for He Himself chooses to remain forever in their debt.

Consider carefully the condition of the gopis' minds: their very lives had gone to Sri Krishna, and their understanding was steeped in the rasa of Sri Krishna. The gopis' bodies, minds, and wealth - everything - belonged to Sri Krishna, the Beloved of their lives. They lived in the world for Sri Krishna, remained in their homes for Sri Krishna, and performed every household task for Sri Krishna. Within their stainless and sacred understanding, an understanding difficult even for the greatest yogis to attain, nothing was their own apart from Sri Krishna. They worshiped Sri Krishna solely for His sake, solely to give Him joy, and solely with things that were already His; and they themselves were happy by beholding Sri Krishna. From the moment they awoke in the morning until they went to sleep at night, everything they did was for Sri Krishna's delight. Even their sleep took place within Sri Krishna. In both dream and dreamless sleep they saw and experienced Sri Krishna's sweet and peaceful lila. At night, while setting curds and contemplating Shyamasundara's lovely form, every love-filled gopi longed:

"May my curds set perfectly. May I churn them for Sri Krishna and draw out a great abundance of the finest butter. May I place it on a hanging shelf just high enough for Sri Krishna's hands to reach with ease. Then may my treasure of life, the child Krishna, enter my home laughing and playing with His companions. May He plunder the butter and distribute it among His friends and the monkeys. Intoxicated with joy, may He dance in my courtyard while I hide in a corner and behold this lila with my own eyes, thereby making my life fruitful. Then may I suddenly catch Him and press Him to my heart." Surdasji sang:

"Mother, it is butter that pleases Me. You speak of dried fruits and sweets, but none of them appeals to Me. A maiden of Vraja stood behind Him, listening to Shyama's words. Within her heart she wondered, 'When shall I behold Him eating butter in my home? He will go and sit beside the churn, and then I shall remain hidden.' Surdas says: the Lord, knower of every heart, understood the cowherdess's mind."

One day Shyamasundara was saying, "Mother, I like butter. You offer dried fruits and sweet dishes, but they do not please Me at all." A gopi standing behind Him heard Shyamasundara's words. Inwardly she longed, "When shall I behold Him eating butter in my home? He will go and sit beside the churn, and then I shall hide!" The Lord is the indwelling knower of all hearts. He knew the gopi's wish, went to her home, ate her butter, and gave her joy - "Shyama went to that cowherdess's house."

She was so full of joy that she could not contain herself. Surdasji sings:

"The cowherdess roams about, her heart swelling with joy. Her friends question one another: 'Has she found some hidden treasure somewhere?' Every hair on her body thrills; her voice is choked, and no words leave her lips. 'Friend, what has happened? Why will you not tell us? Our bodies may be separate, but our heart is one; you and we are of one form.' Surdas says: the cowherdess told her friends, 'I have beheld the incomparable Form.'"

Filled to overflowing with happiness, she went about radiant with delight. Joy could find no room within her heart. Her friends asked, "Have you discovered some buried treasure somewhere?" Hearing this, she became still more overwhelmed with prema. Every hair upon her body blossomed in rapture; her throat choked, and no word would leave her mouth. Her companions said, "Friend, what has happened? Why do you not tell us? Only our bodies are two; our life is one. You and we are of one form. What could there be to hide from us?" At last only this much escaped her lips: "Today I beheld the incomparable Form." Her speech stopped again, and tears of prema began to flow. This was the condition of every gopi.

"Throughout every home in Vraja the news became known: Hari steals curds and butter, then eats them with His cowherd friends. Hearing this, each woman of Vraja rejoices: 'May He come into my home! May I catch Him suddenly while He eats the butter and clasp Him to my breast!' Within their hearts they all cherish this longing and hold this vision. Surdas says: 'I shall bring the Lord into my home and give Him butter to eat.'"

"From house to house throughout Vraja the news spread: Nanda's son takes His friends along and steals butter to eat. One woman says, 'He just now ran into my house!' Another says, 'He saw me at the doorway and fled the other way.' One says, 'How shall I behold Hari within my own home? I shall watch for Him and offer fine butter; let Shyama eat as much as He wishes.' One says, 'If I behold Him, I shall fill my arms with Him!' Another says, 'I shall bind Him and keep Him - who could prevent me?' To attain the Lord, each imagines a different plan. With folded hands they pray to Providence for Nandakumara."

At night the gopis remained awake, watching and waiting for dawn. Their minds were absorbed in Sri Krishna. Early in the morning they hurriedly churned the curds and drew out the butter,

and placed it upon a hanging shelf. Fearing that the treasure of their lives might come and then turn away, they left every other task and did this first. Restless as they waited for Shyamasundara, they thought within themselves, "Ah! Why has the Beloved of my life not come today? Why is He so late? Will He not sanctify this maidservant's home today? Will He not taste this insignificant butter that I have offered, delight Himself, and thereby give delight to me? Has Mother Yashoda detained Him? There are nine hundred thousand cows in their home - what shortage of butter could they have? He comes to my home only out of grace!" Weeping amid these thoughts, the gopi ran to the door again and again. Casting modesty aside, she peered down the road and questioned her companions. Every blink of an eye became an age for her. Bhagavan fulfilled the heart's longing of such fortunate gopis by coming to their homes.

Surdasji sang:

"Hari first performed the theft of butter. To fulfill the cowherd women's hearts' desires, He Himself roamed the lanes of Vraja. Hari thought within Himself, 'I shall go to every home throughout Vraja. I have taken birth in Gokula to give joy; I shall eat everyone's butter. Yashoda knows Me as her little child, while with the gopis I share the bliss of love.' Surdas says: the Lord lovingly declares, 'These people of Vraja are Mine.'"

Bhagavan had come to Gokula precisely to make His own people, the residents of Vraja, happy. There was no shortage of butter in Nanda Baba's house; he possessed hundreds of thousands of cows. Krishna could eat and distribute as much as He wished. But He belonged not only to Nanda Baba; He was the very own of every resident of Vraja and desired to give joy to them all. He went to the gopis' homes and stole their butter solely to fulfill their longing. This was not theft in truth. It was Bhagavan's acceptance of the gopis' mode of worship. How could Bhagavan, tenderly devoted to His devotees, fail to accept a devotee's worship?

Because people do not understand the mystery of this divine lila of Bhagavan - the stealing of butter -

some people describe it as contrary to moral ideals. They must first understand what theft is, whose property can be stolen, and who can commit such an act. Theft occurs when one takes something belonging to another without the owner's desire or knowledge and with the intention that the owner should not discover it afterward. Bhagavan Sri Krishna took butter from the gopis' homes with their desire and not without their knowledge. They knew; they watched Him do it; and there was no question of concealing it afterward, for He ran away directly before their eyes. More importantly, what object exists, within or beyond the world, that does not belong to Sri Bhagavan and that He could therefore steal? Everything the gopis possessed already belonged to Sri Bhagavan, and the whole universe is His. From whom could He possibly steal? The true thieves are those who regard Bhagavan's property as their own, become trapped in possessiveness and attachment, and thereby make themselves liable to punishment. From every perspective above, the so-called stealing of butter was no theft; it was Bhagavan's divine lila. In fact, the gopis, overwhelmed by prema, lovingly named Bhagavan "the Thief," for He had already stolen their hearts. This is its mystery.

Those who do not accept Bhagavan Sri Krishna as Bhagavan have no standing to judge the divine lilas described in Srimad Bhagavatam. Yet even from their perspective, nothing objectionable occurred here, for Sri Krishna was then a child of about two or three years, and the gopis, out of immense affection, longed to behold His many sweet games.

The Mystery of the Taking of the Garments

Many doubts are raised about the episode in which the garments were taken, and it is therefore necessary to reflect upon it. The truth is that very few people receive the good fortune of understanding the mystery of the divine, sweet, and rasa-filled lilas of Bhagavan, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda. Just as Bhagavan

is chinmaya, His lilas too are made of pure consciousness. This lila unfolds on a supremely exalted plane within the realm of sat-chit-ananda and rasa. That plane is so extraordinary that at times the lila does not manifest even within the pure conscious Supreme Brahman known through knowledge and realization. For this reason, even great souls who have realized Brahman may be unable to taste its rasa. The true revelation of Bhagavan's supremely radiant, divine rasa-lila occurs only within the hearts of Sri Radhaji, daughter of Vrishabhanu and eternal queen of the secluded bowers, who is Bhagavan's own intrinsic hladini-shakti, and within the hearts of the prema-filled gopis who are Her very limbs. They alone, with every veil removed, taste Bhagavan's most intimate and rasa-filled lila.

The twenty-first chapter of the Tenth Canto describes how the gopis become enchanted upon seeing and hearing the beauty of Bhagavan's form, the music of His flute, and His loving lilas. In the twenty-second chapter they undertake spiritual discipline in order to bring that prema to fulfillment. In that same chapter Bhagavan comes and completes their discipline. This is the episode of the taking of the garments.

What the gopis desired is clear from their practice. They sought complete self-surrender to Sri Krishna and such total union with Him that every pore of their bodies, their minds and life-breath, and their entire beings would become filled with Sri Krishna alone. During the autumn they had spoken together about the sound of Sri Krishna's flute. Their discipline began in the very first month of the cold season, in Margashirsha, which is a manifestation of Bhagavan's glory. Delay was unbearable to them. On winter mornings they went early to bathe in the Yamuna, with no concern for bodily comfort. Many unmarried cowherd girls gathered together without jealousy or hostility among them. They walked while loudly singing Sri Krishna's name, unafraid of village opinion or caste society. Even at home they ate only the simple sanctified food prescribed for a vow. Their longing for Sri Krishna had become so intense that even reserve before their parents no longer restrained them. Following the prescribed rite, they fashioned an image of the Goddess from sand, worshiped it, and repeated their mantra. They considered this practice entirely proper and praiseworthy,

and, in a word, had wholly surrendered their lineage, family, religious duty, reserve, and individual identity at Bhagavan's feet. They continually repeated one prayer: "May Nanda's son alone be the Lord of our lives." In truth, Sri Krishna was already their Lord. From the standpoint of the lila, however, a slight incompleteness remained in their surrender. They did not yet approach Sri Krishna without any covering; a trace of hesitation remained. To remove that hesitation and bring their discipline and surrender to completion, their covering had to be broken. The garment that embodied that covering had to be taken away, and this is what Bhagavan Sri Krishna did. For this purpose Bhagavan, Lord even of the masters of yoga, came to the Yamuna's bank with His cowherd-boy friends.

An aspirant cannot attain perfect surrender through personal power, strength, resolve, or determination alone. Surrender itself remains an action, and the one who performs it remains unsurrendered. In such a condition, the inner being is wholly surrendered only when Bhagavan Himself comes, accepts the resolve, and accepts the one who has made it. Only there does surrender become complete. The aspirant's duty is to prepare for total surrender; Bhagavan alone brings it to fulfillment.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna is Lilapurushottama. Even so, when He manifests His lila, He does not violate sacred order but establishes it. No one can advance upon the path of spiritual discipline by transgressing prescribed rules. Yet guilelessness of heart, sincerity, and true prema mitigate even a transgression of formal rule. There was one fault in the discipline by which the gopis sought to attain Sri Krishna: in bathing unclothed, they departed from scriptural decorum and traditional, eternal standards. Although they acted in ignorance, it was necessary for Bhagavan to correct the fault. Bhagavan also had the gopis perform expiation for it. Those who violate sacred rules in the name of love for Bhagavan should read this episode carefully and observe how deeply Bhagavan honors scriptural injunctions.

Such devotion culminates in ragatmika-bhakti, and ragatmika-bhakti matures into complete surrender. The gopis practiced vaidhi-bhakti, devotion governed by sacred rite, while their hearts were already filled with ragatmika-bhakti, spontaneous devotion made of passionate loving attachment. Complete surrender now had to occur. The taking of the garments brought that work to fulfillment.

For Sri Krishna the gopis had disregarded this world and the next, self-interest and spiritual gain, caste and lineage, townspeople and relatives, and even revered elders. To attain Him alone they undertook this great observance. At His feet they had offered everything they possessed, and their one desire was to meet Him with no veil between them. If they could not approach that very unveiled and rasa-filled Bhagavan Sri Krishna without any covering of feeling, would this not have left their discipline incomplete? It certainly would. Recognizing this, the gopis approached Him with every veil removed.

Sri Krishna is the sole sovereign of moving and unmoving nature. He alone is the agent, enjoyer, and witness of every action. No manifest or unmanifest thing exists that is not wholly uncovered before Him. He alone is all-pervading and the indwelling knower. He is the Self of the gopis, the cowherd men, and the entire universe. People worship Him as lord, guru, father, mother, friend, husband, and in other relationships. The gopis desired to attain that very Bhagavan as their husband, knowing that He was Bhagavan Himself - the Lord of the masters of yoga and Purushottama beyond both the perishable and imperishable. Anyone who reads the Tenth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam with faith will see very clearly that the gopis knew and recognized Sri Krishna's true nature. This can be seen, heard, and understood in the Venu-gita, Gopi-gita, Yugala-gita, and in the gopis' search after Sri Krishna disappeared. Those who accept Bhagavan as Bhagavan, relate to Him, and honor Him as Lord, friend, and in other sacred relationships could hardly harbor doubt in their hearts about the gopis' transcendent relationship of divine sweetness or the discipline by which it is attained.

For an advanced aspirant, the life revealed in this divine lila of the gopis is

find in this the ideal life. Sri Krishna is the directly manifest Supreme Self, the one goal to be attained by every soul. Our understanding and vision remain limited to the body. We therefore mistake the prema of Sri Krishna and the gopis for something merely physical and tainted by desire. Dragging that otherworldly and nonmaterial lila into the realm of material nature is a harmful consequence of our own gross desires. The soul's mind is overwhelmed by sense-seeking cravings and tamasic tendencies. It wanders restlessly among sense objects and remains afflicted by many kinds of illness and sorrow. At some fortunate moment, when the fruit of meritorious action ripens, reflection awakens through Bhagavan's inconceivable and causeless grace. The soul then becomes eager to escape the flames of suffering and bring its life into an abode of peace. It journeys to the sacred places of Bhagavan's lila and attains satsanga. A longing that had until then lain dormant awakens with the heart's anguish and moves swiftly toward the Supreme Self. Because the mind has long practiced engagement with sense objects, their impressions trouble it from time to time, and it repeatedly encounters distraction. Yet as it prays to Bhagavan, sings His names, remembers Him, and contemplates Him, the heart becomes tender and filled with rasa. Gradually it begins to experience Bhagavan's nearness. At the first taste of even a little rasa, the mind enters the inner realm with great speed, and Bhagavan appears as guide - as the boatman upon the vessel that carries one across the ocean of worldly existence, or, one might say, directly as Gurudeva, the embodied form of pure consciousness. In that very instant, the bonds of lack, incompleteness, and limitation are destroyed, and pure bliss and pure knowledge begin to be experienced.

Some gopis have only just become perfected through spiritual practice and are about to enter Bhagavan's intimate lila. Having long yearned to merge their life-breath with Sri Krishna's, they have now come close to perfection. Others are eternally perfected and assist His divine lila according to His desire. Sri Krishna, the sole knower of every feeling within their hearts, draws them with His flute and engages them in spiritual discipline, as though to wash away whatever old

impressions remained in their hearts. The mind is enchanted and the voice chokes with emotion when one reflects upon the depth of His compassion and the love He bears His lovers.

Taking into His own hands, in the form of the gopis' garments, all the coverings made of their accumulated impressions, Sri Krishna climbed a nearby kadamba tree and sat upon it. The gopis stood in the water and seemingly believed that the water concealed them from Bhagavan Sri Krishna, who is all-pervading and all-seeing. It was as though they had forgotten that Sri Krishna is not merely present within the water; He is the very being of the water itself. Their old impressions hindered them from approaching Him. For Sri Krishna they had forgotten everything else, but they had not yet forgotten themselves. They desired Sri Krishna alone, yet their impressions still wished to preserve a curtain between them. Prema will not tolerate even the veil of a flower between lover and Beloved. The nature of prema is union that is wholly unobstructed, unbroken, and infinite. Until everything one calls one's own - however vast its extent - has been consumed in the flame of prema, both prema and surrender remain incomplete. Removing this last incompleteness, Sri Krishna, "pleased by their pure bhava," said in effect: "O gopis who love Me alone, come to Me once - only once - forgetting all that is yours and forgetting even yourselves. For a single moment, make outwardly manifest the renunciation still hidden within your hearts. Can you not do even this much for Me?" The gopis seemed to reply, "Sri Krishna, how can we forget ourselves? Only if the convictions of birth after birth allow us to forget! We are immersed up to our necks in the unfathomable waters of the world, and we also suffer from the winter cold. Even though we wish to come, we cannot. Shyamasundara, Life of our lives, our hearts are open before You. We are Your maidservants and will obey Your commands. But do not summon us before You with every covering removed." This is the aspirant's state of deep conflict: desiring Bhagavan while refusing to relinquish the world, remaining entangled in old impressions, and keeping maya's curtain intact. Bhagavan teaches precisely this: "Become free of accumulated impressions, cast off every covering, draw aside maya's curtain,

and come. Come to Me. I Myself have taken away this veil of delusion; why remain attached to it now? This curtain is the great barrier between the Supreme Self and the individual soul. Its removal is a great blessing. Come to Me now, for only then can your long-accumulated yearnings be fulfilled." When, through Bhagavan's grace, this call of the Supreme Self Sri Krishna - this sweet invitation to union with the supremely beloved Self of one's self - manifests in a person's inner realm, that person becomes immersed in prema, relinquishes everything, forgets even the act of relinquishing, and runs to the feet of the Beloved Sri Krishna. He then remembers neither his clothing nor the opinion of others. He sees neither the world nor himself. This is the mystery of Bhagavat-prema. This is what occurs in pure and exclusive love for Bhagavan.

The gopis came and stood silently near Sri Krishna's feet, their faces lowered in modesty. A minute remnant of old impressions still hindered them from turning completely toward Him. Sri Krishna smiled and indicated: "Within so great a renunciation, this hesitation is a blemish. You are forever stainless; you must relinquish even this, relinquish the awareness that you have renounced, and relinquish even the memory of renunciation." The gopis' gaze fell upon Sri Krishna's lotus face. Their hands joined of themselves, and from their own Beloved Sri Krishna, abiding within the orb of the sun, they begged the gift of prema. The gopis' renunciation of everything, their perfect surrender, and this highest self-forgetfulness filled them with Bhagavan Sri Krishna's prema. They began to plunge and rise in the infinite ocean of supernatural, nonmaterial nectar that is divine rasa. They forgot everything and even forgot the one who had forgotten. Shyamasundara alone remained within their vision - Shyamasundara and nothing else.

When a loving devotee forgets himself, responsibility for him rests with the beloved Bhagavan. The gopis themselves no longer needed garments to preserve decorum, for they had obtained the one thing they needed. Yet Sri Krishna does not allow His lover to fall from sacred propriety. He Himself returns their garments, then awakens them from absorption with His nectar-filled words and brings them again into the world. Sri Krishna said, "O gopis, you are faithful and virtuous. Your

prema and your spiritual practice are not hidden from Me. Your resolve will come true. This resolve, this longing, establishes you in the state that is the fruit of freedom from all resolve and desire. Your purpose is fulfilled and your surrender complete. During the autumn nights to come, you shall sport with Me." Bhagavan fixed the time at which their discipline would bear fruit. This too makes it clear that no distortion of lust can be imagined in Bhagavan Sri Krishna. When could the mind of a lustful man remain under control for even an instant upon seeing unclothed women?

One fact is especially remarkable. Before the gopis approached Bhagavan, the garments had obstructed the completeness of surrender and acted as a distraction. After receiving Bhagavan's grace, prema, nearness, and blessing, those same garments assumed the form of prasada. What caused this transformation? Their relationship with Bhagavan. Bhagavan had lifted the garments with His own hands and placed them upon the noble limb of His shoulder. Who can estimate how profoundly nonmaterial and filled with rasa those lower-body garments became when raised to Bhagavan's shoulder and touched by Him, how pure and Krishna-filled they became? In truth, this world obstructs and distracts only until it is brought into relationship with Bhagavan and becomes His prasada. When received from Him, bondage itself assumes the form of liberation. Through contact with Him, maya becomes pure vidya. The world and all its actions become filled with the nectarous rasa of bliss. Then no fear of bondage remains, and no covering can deprive us of Bhagavan's vision. Hell ceases to be hell; because Bhagavan is continuously beheld there, it becomes Vaikuntha. Even after reaching this state, great aspirants may still appear to behave like ordinary people. Having become Sri Krishna's very own, the gopis again put on those same garments, or rather Sri Krishna Himself clothed them in those garments. Yet in the gopis' vision they were no longer the same garments; in truth, they were not the same at all. They had become something altogether different: Bhagavan's sacred prasada, beautiful symbols that at every moment

awakened remembrance of Bhagavan. This is why the gopis accepted them. Their state of prema stood above conventional propriety, yet at Bhagavan's desire they accepted that propriety. Considered from this perspective, Bhagavan's lila of taking the garments, like all His other lilas, appears filled with the highest sacred decorum.

Regarding Bhagavan Sri Krishna's lilas, the only authorities are the ancient texts of the rishis in which those lilas are described. Not one of those works fails to affirm Sri Krishna's divinity. Everywhere one finds the same declaration: Sri Krishna is "Bhagavan Himself." Those who do not accept Sri Krishna as Bhagavan clearly do not accept those works either. If they reject those texts as authoritative, they also have no right to use the lilas described in them as a basis for judging Sri Krishna's character. From the scriptural perspective, placing Bhagavan's lilas on the same plane as human conduct is a grave offense, and imitating them is absolutely forbidden. Human intelligence, enclosed as it is within gross materiality, can think only in relation to inert matter; it cannot even conceive Bhagavan's divine, consciousness-filled lila. An intellect makes a mockery of itself when it tests by its own standard the divine lila of the Supreme Self, who inspires every intelligence and remains far beyond them all.

Even if, contrary to both heart and reason, one were briefly to assume that Sri Krishna was not Bhagavan or that this lila was human, neither logic nor reason supports any claim that would stain His character. Readers of Srimad Bhagavatam know that Sri Krishna remained in Vraja only until the age of eleven. If the rasa-lila is placed in His tenth year, the lila of taking the garments occurred in His ninth. It is inconceivable that an eight- or nine-year-old child could be driven by sexual passion. Nor is it at all possible that unsophisticated village cowherd girls, untouched by modern urban attitudes, would desire an illicit relationship with an eight- or nine-year-old child and perform spiritual discipline for that purpose.

The claim that those unmarried gopis harbored impure intentions is a projection of the impure mentality of the present age. Even today, young village girls worship gods and goddesses in the hope of receiving a husband like Rama and a husband's younger brother like Lakshmana. In the same way, those maidens worshiped the Goddess and observed vows in order to attain the supremely beautiful and sweet Sri Krishna. What fault could there be in this?

The present age is a different matter. In countries dominated by sensual indulgence, there are even nudist sects and clubs for unclothed bathing. Their vision is limited to gratification of the senses. The Indian outlook opposes this stimulating and impure practice. Bathing unclothed is considered a fault that strengthens the animal tendency. Scripture forbids it:

"One should not bathe unclothed."

This is scripture's command. Sri Krishna did not want the gopis to act contrary to scripture. The teaching of the Indian rishis recognizes distinct presiding deities within all things and therefore regards unclothed bathing not merely as a worldly impropriety but as an offense against the gods. Sri Krishna knew that it dishonored the deity Varuna. The gopis were practicing austerity to attain their cherished aim, but bathing unclothed could have produced an inauspicious result. If the custom were not opposed at its very inception, it might spread further; Sri Krishna therefore prohibited it in an extraordinary way.

Sri Krishna also devised an original means of teaching the village cowherd girls why the practice was wrong. Had He approached them and explained the philosophy of presiding deities, they would not readily have understood. They needed direct experience of the difficulty the custom could bring. After giving them that experience, He explained that they had dishonored the gods and had them perform expiation by joining their palms and praying for forgiveness. Such insight is seen in great beings even during childhood.

Sri Krishna was eight or nine years old and could not have been sexually impassioned; He took the garments in order to abolish the harmful custom of bathing unclothed - this

answer is possible. Even so, some people are alarmed by the words kama and ramana in Srimad Bhagavatam. This is merely an attachment to isolated words, to which great souls pay no heed. The words kama, ramana, rati, and others occur many times in the Shrutis and the Gita, yet they do not carry an obscene meaning there. The Gita even declares desire that does not oppose dharma to be a manifestation of the Supreme Self. The great beings' delight in the Self, union within the Self, and love of the Self are well known. In such a context, thoughtful persons should not become agitated merely upon seeing a few words. Those who regard Sri Krishna as only a human being should understand ramana and rati simply as play or sport, which accords with grammar:

"The verbal root ram means 'to sport or play.'"

Sri Krishna's lila appears in different forms according to the observer's perspective. Followers of the spiritual interpretation see Sri Krishna as the Self and the gopis as the mind's modes. The destruction of the covering over those modes is the "lila of taking the garments," while their repose and delight in the Self is the "rasa." From this perspective as well, every lila forms a coherent whole. To devotees, all this is the eternal lila-vilasa of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the fullest Purushottama and Lord of Goloka. It proceeds eternally from beginningless time into endless time. At times, to bestow grace upon His devotees, He manifests with His eternal abode and eternal friends and companions within a lila-dhama, performs His lila, reveals material for the devotees' remembrance, contemplation, joy, and blessedness, and then withdraws from sight once more.

This lila of taking the garments also reveals how Bhagavan, in His grace toward aspirants, purifies the inward impurities and the layered impressions accumulated from beginningless time. Bhagavan's lila is mysterious. Bhagavan alone knows its truth, and by His grace fortunate devotees who have entered His lila know something of it. Here the author has merely ventured to write a little on the authority of scripture and the words of saints.

The Nature and Significance of the Divine Rasa Play

Those nights were adorned with autumn jasmine flowers in full bloom. Beholding them, the Lord rich in inconceivable power manifested His Yogamaya. Bhagavan, complete in all six divine opulences, at once formed the great resolve to engage in ramana - tasting rasa and sharing His own essential being - and bestow rasa upon all. (1)

As a lover, after long absence, grants his beloved a vision of himself and with his own supremely pleasing hand colors her face with saffron, so the moon colored the lovely face of the eastern horizon with the crimson of his rays and rose with cooling limbs, dispelling the anguish of all beings in the world. (2)

Madhava beheld the moon, red as fresh kumkum and lovely as Lakshmi's face, and saw the forest illumined by the moon's garland of tender rays. Then He, stealer of the hearts of Vraja's pure beauties with their sweet and captivating eyes, played a wondrous melody upon the flute in exquisitely graceful, honeyed tones. (3)

Within the flute's nectarous music they heard their Beloved's rasa-filled summons. All became transported and set out, abandoning modesty, patience, decorum, lineage, and honor. They left husband, child, home, wealth, grain, clothing, ornaments, cows, and food half-prepared. Each departed from wherever she stood and just as she was, her heart filled with loving attachment to the Beloved. (4)

They asked no one anything and said nothing, their hearts wholly absorbed. They hastened to the place where Nanda's youthful son played His honeyed flute. Overwhelmed by the flute song that ever deepened their prema, the women of Vraja at once reached their Beloved, forgetting every awareness of self and other. (5)

Their minds were seized by Krishna; they were embodiments of ujjvala-rasa. Their stainless prema fulfilled sweet Natvara's deepest longing. Self-offering and complete surrender were their most sacred bhava, without the slightest trace of desire or enthusiasm for personal pleasure. (6)

He tested them in many ways, setting before them attachment, fear, dharma, and discrimination; yet those pure and prema-filled women of Vraja did not abandon their resolve in the least.

They said, "All-pervading Lord, all-powerful foundation of everything, why do You speak so cruelly when You see us arrive at Your own door?" (7)

"Renouncing every object, worldly enjoyment, and liberation, we have come to Your feet. O difficult One, do not abandon us and forget all rasa in this way. Beloved, You alone are every creature's friend and its dearest inner Self. One who attains You and then leaves is the greatest fool, fallen and base. (8)

"You tell us, supreme knower of dharma, eternal Beloved: having loved You, could it ever be right to worship again something other that only brings sorrow? Where could we go after leaving You? Our feet cannot move a single step. You happily plunder everyone's treasure of mind, then set out to teach us 'discrimination.'" (9)

He is the crown of those who delight in the Self, the supreme abode made of sat-chit-paramananda, Lord of the masters of yoga, sovereign of every world, eternally fulfilled and desireless. Brahma, Shiva, Shesha, Sanaka, and Narada forever sing His virtues; yet that Bhagavan is brought under the sway of the pure prema of Vraja's loving women. (10)

Bestowing the stainless touch of His pure limbs, He made them all sacred and blessed. He intensified their bhava and awakened pure desire, exclusively fit for divine love. Then Hari, perfectly pure and fulfilled in every desire, delighted in the Self, the abode of rasa upon those autumn nights adorned by the moon's rays. (11)

Hari, whose desire is truth and whose creative power is perfectly restrained, engaged in sacred play: a true resolve, a chinmaya lila, rasa-filled, sweet, eternal, and changeless. This ramana was never the sense enjoyment of those attached to objects, nor was it merely the inward self-delight of yogis absorbed in the Self. (12)

Nor was there the slightest notion of "conquering lust," for degraded lust could never gain entrance here at all. It was Madhava's utterly pure distribution of the great bliss of His own essential nature; it was the perfect arrangement by which He savored supreme rasa within Himself. (13)

Taster and tasted were not two; only the honeyed current of lila flowed. It was an extraordinary and sacred expansion of the highest rasa of prema.

Within this supremely sweet ocean of rasa, the gopis alone possess the right of entry, for Hari accepted them after beholding in them the embodied form of perfect renunciation. (14)

Shyama shone within the circle of Vraja's prema-filled women like the stainless full moon, pure crown jewel amid hosts of countless stars; or like a fresh dark-blue rain cloud resplendent within a multitude of lightning flashes. Cloud within lightning and lightning within cloud, both were adorned with immeasurable, incomparable radiance. (15)

Under the sole sovereignty of Raseshvari Radhika unfolded that beautiful array: an immeasurable kingdom of lightning and rain cloud, unequaled and unsurpassed, pure, lovely, sweet, and filled with rasa. Each enchanting One stood between each enchanting maiden; all together kept the rhythm. The connoisseurs of rasa were absorbed in the dance of rasa while pure, gentle, nectarous instruments sounded. (16)

Whoever is able to taste even a little of this sweet and stainless rasa is freed from all the visible world's grief, delusion, fear, greed, and despair. The disease of lust becomes wholly absent from that person's life, and through the grace of a particle of dust from Radha-Madhava's feet, one attains bhava. (17)

Having attained bhava, one can become an attendant of Radharani. Every defect is erased, and a pure array of virtues swiftly manifests within. One then receives the exceedingly rare right of service in the eternal secluded bower, for which rishis, sages, and ascetics forever yearn after relinquishing every impurity. (18)

The Mystery of the Rasa-lila

"Bhagavan beheld those autumn nights blooming with jasmine. Taking refuge in Yogamaya, He resolved within His mind to engage in divine play."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.1)

The account of Bhagavan's rasa-lila occupies chapters twenty-nine through thirty-three of the Tenth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. These five chapters are called the Rasa-panchadhyayi. Within them shines the supreme and radiant revelation of the ultimate Reality that is the essence of all truths described in Srimad Bhagavatam. These five chapters are in fact like the scripture's five vital breaths. If one fails to understand the bhava of Bhagavan's divine lila and views the narrative only outwardly, the whole account may appear filled with romantic sentiment and may confuse the mind. Perhaps for this very reason Sri Shukadevaji placed the word Bhagavan first in the opening verse, so that the reader would approach the account specifically as Bhagavan's lila. In truth, it is never an episode of worldly lust. Its listener is Maharaja Parikshit, endowed with discrimination and dispassion, yearning for liberation, filled with knowledge of dharma, and awaiting death. Its speaker is Sri Shukadevaji, highest among knowers of Brahman, a supreme yogi liberated while living and honored by all rishis and sages. It would be a mistake to imagine such a speaker and listener discussing worldly romance. These five chapters actually describe Bhagavan Sri Krishna's supremely divine and intimate lila: His rasa-filled play with Sri Radhaji, His intrinsic hladini-shakti and the embodiment of Mahabhava, and with the divine, Krishna-loving gopis who are Her bodily expansions. The word rasa is the root of rasa-lila, and rasa is Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself:

"He indeed is Rasa."

The divine play in which the one Rasa becomes many rasas and tastes limitless rasa; in which the one Rasa manifests as a multitude of rasas and Himself sports as both tasted and taster, as lila and sacred abode, and as the many supports and stimulants of rasa - that is called rasa-lila. The rasa-lila is therefore the very form of Bhagavan, who is lila itself. This divine lila proceeds eternally and divinely within Bhagavan's divine abode. Through Bhagavan's special grace, loving

aspirants, it sometimes descends upon the earth together with its divine abode. Qualified persons may then see, hear, sing, remember, and contemplate it, tasting the bliss of this supremely rasa-filled lila of Bhagavan, who is Rasa Himself. By entering Bhagavan's lila themselves, they may bring their lives to complete fulfillment. The five chapters describe the flute's call; the gopis' journey to their tryst; their conversation with Sri Krishna; divine play; His disappearance with Sri Radhaji and later reappearance; His sitting upon the seat made from the gopis' garments; His answer to their enigmatic question; the rasa, dance, and play; sport in the water; and wandering in the forest. Although described in human language, all of it is in truth supremely divine.

One must understand from the outset that Bhagavan's body is not inert like an embodied soul's body. Inert matter exists only from the soul's perspective, not from Bhagavan's. The distinction "this is the body and this its indwelling self" exists only within material nature. In the nonmaterial realm, where nature itself is chinmaya, everything is made of consciousness. The appearance of anything unconscious there exists only as a play of consciousness or to accomplish Bhagavan's lila. Consequently, when a mind confined to grossness - or, one may say, inhabiting the realm of inert matter - begins to think about Bhagavan's nonmaterial lilas, it projects upon that divine realm the ideas, imaginings, and actions of the material realm according to its previous desires. It therefore becomes incapable of understanding the mystery of the divine lila. The rasa-lila is actually a divine revelation of the supremely radiant rasa. Far from appearing in the inert world, it does not manifest even in the realms of knowledge or realized knowledge. More than this, not even a faint reflection of that supremely divine and radiant rasa is seen among directly conscious principles. This highest rasa awakens only within the sweet hearts of the gopis, whose supreme bhava is the very embodiment of prema for Sri Krishna. They alone taste the rasa-lila's true nature and supreme sweetness; others cannot even imagine it.

Like Bhagavan, the gopis too are filled with the highest rasa and are embodiments of sat-chit-ananda.

From the perspective of spiritual discipline, they have relinquished not only the inert physical body but also heaven attained through the subtle body, liberation experienced through kaivalya, and even the very standpoint that perceives inert matter. Their vision holds only Sri Krishna, the embodiment of conscious bliss, and their hearts contain the nectar of prema that gives Him delight. In this extraordinary state, one cannot imagine the gross body, memory of that body, or bodily contact arising through it. Such notions belong only to souls bound by the belief that they are the body. Those who have truly recognized the gopis have sought fulfillment by obtaining the touch of dust from their feet. By worshiping the gopis, Brahma, Shankara, Uddhava, and Arjuna either received or desired the blessing of such prema at Bhagavan's feet. To equate the gopis' divine bhava with the feelings of ordinary women and men is a grave injustice and offense against the gopis, against Bhagavan, and indeed against truth itself. To avoid this offense, one must remember the nonmaterial divinity of Bhagavan's lilas whenever reflecting upon them.

Bhagavan's concentrated form of conscious bliss is divine. It is unborn, imperishable, and beyond both loss and acquisition. It is the eternal, beginningless, pure form of Bhagavan Himself. In the same way, the gopis are Bhagavan's intrinsic internal potencies within the divine world. Their relationship is therefore divine as well. This lila of the highest Realm of Bhava lies beyond the gross body and gross mind. Entrance occurs after the covering is broken - after Bhagavan takes the garments and grants His acceptance.

A material body is formed through the conjunction of three embodiments: gross, subtle, and causal. As long as the causal body remains, the soul is not released from material embodiment. The term causal body refers to impressions left by previous actions that become the causes of bodily formation. On the basis of this causal body, the soul must repeatedly enter the cycle of birth and death. The cycle continues until the soul is liberated or the cause is completely absent. Through this karmic bondage one receives the gross body made of five elements, filled with blood, flesh,

bone, fat, marrow, and the other tissues, all covered by skin. According to the account given here, every body within material nature is formed through a conjunction of womb and generative seed. This remains so whether a body arises from degraded intercourse driven by lust, from the resolve of a great master who has conserved the generative force, from worthy and dutiful union when that force descends, or without intercourse: through contact with the navel, heart, throat, ear, eye, head, crown, or another place; through sight alone without touch; or through resolve alone without even sight. All bodies generated through sexual or nonsexual means - and at times even without a female or male body - are said to arise from this conjunction of womb and seed. All are material bodies. In the same way, the "created bodies" fashioned by yogis, though comparatively pure, remain material. The bodies of ancestors or gods that are called divine are also material. Nonmaterial bodies are distinct from all of these; they are not destroyed even in the great cosmic dissolution. Bhagavan's body, moreover, is Bhagavan's own essential form directly. The bodies of gods generally do not consist of blood, flesh, fat, and bone, nor do nonmaterial bodies. How then could Bhagavan Sri Krishna's own divine form consist of blood, flesh, and bone? It is entirely made of conscious bliss. In it there is no distinction between body and indwelling self, quality and possessor of quality, form and one who possesses form, name and named, or lila and Lilapurushottama. Every limb of Sri Krishna is the whole of Sri Krishna. Just as Sri Krishna's face is the whole of Sri Krishna, the nail of His foot is also the whole of Sri Krishna. Every one of Sri Krishna's senses can perform every function. His ears can see, His eyes can hear, His nose can touch, His tongue can smell, and His skin can taste. He can see with His hands and walk with His eyes. Because everything of Sri Krishna is Sri Krishna, it is utterly and perfectly complete. Thus the sweetness of His form forever increases and is filled with ever-new beauty. Its wonder is such that it attracts even Him to Himself. What then need be said of cows and deer, trees and vines thrilling beneath the sweetness of His beauty? Degraded sexual action is not possible through such a body, which is Bhagavan's own essential form. From the food a human being eats, according to the traditional account, arise in sequence nutritive essence, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, bone, and finally generative fluid. Upon that

generative fluid, the account continues, the body is sustained, and it is this fluid that is discharged in sexual union. Bhagavan's body is neither produced by karma, nor born from sexual generation, nor merely divine in the manner of a god's body. Beyond all these, it is the utterly pure form of Bhagavan Himself. It contains no blood, flesh, bone, or other material tissue, and therefore no generative fluid. One cannot consequently imagine through it the sexual play or union of women and men possessing material bodies made of five elements. For this reason the Upanishads describe Bhagavan as an "unbroken brahmachari," and the Bhagavatam applies to Him terms such as "one whose creative potency is perfectly restrained." If someone asks how His 16,108 queens bore so many sons, the direct answer is that the entire creation was Bhagavati, arising through Bhagavan's resolve. Whatever blood, flesh, and other tissues appear in Bhagavan's body are wonders of His Yogamaya. This analysis too establishes that Bhagavan Sri Krishna's play with the gopis was wholly a divine lila of Bhagavan's realm and not worldly erotic sport.

Those gopis' spiritual discipline had reached completion. Bhagavan had lovingly resolved to sport with them on future nights. During those same nights, He also intended to include within the divine lila the eternally perfected gopis who, from the world's perspective, were married. Bhagavan's gaze already held the identity of those coming nights: He beheld the autumn nights. "Bhagavan beheld" carries a special rather than ordinary meaning. At the beginning of creation:

"He beheld: 'I am one; may I become many.'"

As the universe arises from Bhagavan's beholding, so at the beginning of the rasa the divine autumn nights arise from His loving gaze. Every stimulant of rasa - jasmine flowers, moonlight, and all the rest - has been beheld by Bhagavan, and is therefore not worldly but supernatural and nonmaterial. The gopis had merged their minds in Sri Krishna's mind; no separate mind remained to them. Sri Krishna, the giver of prema, now created for their play a new mind, a divine mind.

This is the Yogamaya of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, Lord of the masters of yoga. She creates the divine place, divine materials, and divine mind for the rasa-lila. Once all this is complete, Bhagavan's flute begins to sound.

Bhagavan's flute continually makes the inert conscious and the conscious inert, the moving motionless and the motionless move, the distracted enter samadhi and the one in samadhi become restless. Having received Bhagavan's gift of prema, the gopis were free of personal resolve and anxiety as they attended to household tasks. One served her elders, an activity of dharma. Another milked cows or performed other work of artha. Another arranged dress and adornment, instruments of kama. Another engaged in worship and recitation, practices for moksha. All were occupied with their respective tasks, yet none in truth desired any of their objects. This was their special quality, and its direct proof is that the moment they heard the flute, they gave no thought to completing their work. They did not think, "Let us finish and then go." They set out like renunciants free of attachment to sense objects, their hearts filled with the blazing fire of dispassion. No one questioned or consulted another. Disheveled and hurrying, each came to Sri Krishna exactly as she was. The perfection of dispassion and the perfection of prema are one and the same, not two. Who can decide whether the gopis standing between Vraja and Sri Krishna are dispassion embodied or prema embodied?

Spiritual discipline is of two kinds: first, valid practice governed by sacred boundaries; and second, unregulated, boundary-transcending discipline of prema. Each has its own independent rules. In regulated discipline, abandoning the restraint of rules, eternal method, duties, and the many forms of dharma to be observed causes one to fall from practice and is profoundly harmful. In the boundary-transcending discipline of prema, observing those same forms becomes a blemish. This does not mean that a practitioner of such love deliberately abandons all these means of self-elevation. Rather, that plane is one on which they are no longer needed. There they fall away of themselves, just as, after one reaches the far bank of a river, one naturally leaves the boat

behind. On dry land there is no question of traveling by boat, nor would anyone who wished or tried to do so be considered wise. All these disciplines remain only until every movement of the heart begins, freely and of itself, to run always and forever toward Bhagavan alone.

The gopis were the supreme ideal at this exalted stage of spiritual practice. Every movement of their hearts remained wholly immersed in Sri Krishna. Therefore they left body and home, husband and child, this world and the next, duty and dharma. Transcending everything, they went to their tryst solely to attain Bhagavan Sri Krishna, who is Himself the highest Dharma. At their level, this leaving of husbands and children and relinquishment of every dharma was itself their svadharma.

This svadharma in the form of "renouncing every dharma" is possible only for aspirants of the gopis' exalted level. Only those who have duly and completely observed all dharmas and attained their highest fruit - exclusive, inconceivable Bhagavat-prema, rare even among the gods - can relinquish them all. Even they do not deliberately abandon them. When the sun's fierce light appears, those dharmas leave them of themselves like an oil lamp rendered unnecessary. The renunciation arises not from contempt but from complete fulfillment. This is the nature of the highest state of Bhagavat-prema. A sutra of Devarshi Narada says:

"Renouncing even the Vedas, one attains uninterrupted loving attachment alone."

"One who thoroughly relinquishes even the Vedas - all the sacred boundaries of dharma rooted in the Vedas - attains unbroken and limitless love for Bhagavan."

When Bhagavan sounds His flute and calls someone by name, how and when could that person stop to look toward some other dharma? Those who tried to restrain the gopis did so, but who can halt the fierce current of the Brahmaputra as it descends from the Himalayas and rushes toward the sea? They did not stop and could not be stopped. Those in whose minds some old impressions still remained could not go physically because they had not yet attained the required qualification. Their bodies remained at home, while the sorrow of separation from Bhagavan washed away all their impurities,

and through Bhagavan's loving embrace attained in meditation they received the supreme fruit of all their merit. They reached Bhagavan even before the gopis who went to Him physically and merged in Him. Scripture teaches the well-known principle that sin and merit cause bondage and the experience of inauspicious and auspicious results. When both sin and merit are exhausted through experiencing the results of good and evil deeds, the soul is liberated. Although the gopis were embodiments of Sri Bhagavan's prema and beyond both sin and merit, the lila presents the matter in this way: because they could not go to their Beloved Sri Krishna, the fire of separation caused such immense anguish that all their inauspicious karma was experienced and every sin destroyed. Meditation upon their beloved Bhagavan gave such bliss that they received the fruit of all their merit. With both sin and merit completely absent, they attained liberation. Whatever one's feeling - lust, anger, or greed - if one contemplates Bhagavan's auspicious divine form, the intrinsic power of that Reality brings one's welfare without depending upon the quality of the emotion. This is the special nature of Bhagavan's divine form. Through bhava, even a stone image can bestow the highest good; Bhagavan's form naturally bestows good even without bhava.

Bhagavan is filled with lila. On one hand He is the inner Self of all beings, worshiped even by Brahma, Shiva, and the other creators and governors of the universe. On the other, as the supreme Actor in lila, He dances at the gopis' gestures. Inspired by His own desire, His loving summons, and the invitation of His flute, the gopis came to Him. Yet He displayed such an attitude and assumed such a role that it appeared He knew nothing of their arrival. Perhaps He wished to hear from their own lips the truth within their hearts, the truth of their prema. Perhaps through separation He wished to strengthen their feeling of union. Most likely, lest people mistake the episode for something ordinary, He placed before everyone both an instruction for ordinary people and the gopis'

special qualification. He said, "O gopis, has some calamity befallen Vraja? Why have you come here in the dead of night? Your families must be searching for you; you should not remain here now. You have seen the forest's beauty; remember your children and calves as well. It is improper for women to abandon service to their relatives - an open gate to liberation that accords with dharma - and wander from place to place in the forest. A woman should serve her husband whatever his condition. This is eternal dharma, and you should conduct yourselves accordingly. I know that you all love Me, but physical nearness is not necessary in prema. Hearing, remembering, seeing, and meditating increase prema even more than physical proximity. Go and observe eternal virtuous conduct. Do not allow your minds to wander here and there."

Sri Krishna's teaching was not meant for the gopis but for women in general. The gopis possessed a special qualification, and Bhagavan Sri Krishna spoke these words precisely to reveal it. What condition overtook the gopis when they heard Him; what they prayed to Sri Krishna in reply; and how beautifully they demonstrated that they did not regard Sri Krishna as a human being but knew His eternal form as complete Brahman and loved Him with that knowledge - all this deserves to be read in the original text. Those whose hearts truly contain such incomparable knowledge of Bhagavan's supreme Reality, such great and exclusive loving attachment to Him, and whose speech sincerely pours forth in such words, alone possess that special qualification.

The gopis' prayer makes clear that they recognized Sri Krishna as the indwelling knower, the Supreme Self and Lord of the masters of yoga. Just as others worship Sri Krishna as guru, friend, or mother and father, they loved Him as husband. Scripture calls this madhura-bhava, the supreme radiant rasa. When every bhava of prema reaches perfection and aspirants attain Bhagavan as lord, friend, or in other relationships,

what offense had the gopis committed that their highest bhava should not be fulfilled - the bhava that contains shanta, dasya, sakhya, and vatsalya within itself and is the most exalted and final form of them all? Bhagavan fulfilled their bhava, manifested Himself in countless forms, and played with the gopis. Scripture describes the nature of their play:

"The Lord of delight sported with the beauties of Vraja as a child plays with the many images of its own reflection."

As a small child plays with its own reflection in a mirror or in water, so Bhagavan, the Lord of delight, sported with the beauties of Vraja. In other words, Bhagavan Sri Krishna - the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, indwelling knower of all, form of the rasa of prema, Supreme Self filled with the rasa of lila - played within Himself with the gopis. They are His own reflected forms, arising from His own counterpart and illumined by the conscious bliss-rasa of His hladini-shakti. This divine play of conscious bliss by Bhagavan Sri Krishna - complete Brahman, eternal form of Rasa, Rasaraja, crown of rasa connoisseurs, Rasa as Parabrahman, and embodiment of the nectar of every rasa - is itself called rasa-lila. No inert body, material physical contact, or gross material conception of such contact existed within it. It was the divine play of Bhagavan, made of conscious bliss. Though it proceeds forever in the divine lila-dhama, it sometimes manifests even within this inert world.

Separation nourishes union, while mana and mada - loving pride and self-exaltation - obstruct Bhagavan's lila. Yet within His divine lila, even mana and mada are themselves divine and arise so that the lila's rasa may be enriched still further. By Bhagavan's will, mana and mada appropriate to the lila arose among the gopis, and Bhagavan disappeared. Those in whose hearts even the slightest self-exaltation remains, or even the faintest impression of wounded pride, are not qualified to remain before Bhagavan. Even if they are near Him, they cannot behold Him. But the gopis were the gopis; no creature in the world can be compared with them in even the smallest measure. Every reader of the rasa-lila knows the condition that overtook the gopis in separation from Bhagavan. The gopis' bodies and minds,

life-breath, and everything they were became wholly one-pointed in Sri Krishna. Their song of love's divine madness, the direct embodiment of their very lives, still absorbs sensitive devotees in bhava and carries them into Bhagavan's realm of lila. Read even once with a rasa-filled heart rather than a heartless mind, it fills the entire heart with the gopis' greatness. Beholding the gopis' Mahabhava, that supernatural madness of prema, Sri Krishna could no longer remain hidden. He appeared before them directly as "the Enchanter of the god of love" and openly confessed, "O gopis, I am eternally in debt to your prema. Even if I served you for endless time, I could not repay that debt. My purpose in disappearing was not to pain your hearts, but to make your prema still more radiant and abundant." The rasa play then began.

Those who have studied the spiritual sciences know that even ordinary yogis who have attained yogic powers can project many bodies simultaneously and perform different actions while present in many places. Indra and the other gods can be present in many places at once and simultaneously accept offerings in many sacrifices. What is surprising, then, if the all-powerful Bhagavan Sri Krishna, Lord of all yogis and masters of yoga, plays with many gopis at the same time? Only those who do not accept Bhagavan as Bhagavan raise doubts and suspicions of many kinds. Such arguments have no place in Bhagavan's own lila.

The question whether the gopis were Sri Krishna's own or belonged to another arises only when Sri Krishna's true nature is forgotten. Sri Krishna is not an individual soul who shares ownership of the world's things with other souls. He alone is the Lord of everything that was, is, or ever will be. In their prayer, and in Sri Shukadevaji's answer to Parikshit's question, the gopis declared this very truth: the gopis, their husbands, their sons and relatives, and

all living beings in the world have within their hearts, as their self and Supreme Self, the Lord who is Sri Krishna. Through delusion or ignorance someone may regard Sri Krishna as another, but He is alien to no one. He is everyone's very own, and everyone belongs to Him. From Sri Krishna's perspective, which is the perspective of reality, no one belongs to another; all are His own. All are nothing but His own lila-vilasa, His intrinsic internal potencies, identical in essence with Him. The gopis knew this and declared it in many places.

In such a condition, jara-bhava and aupapatya no longer carry any worldly meaning. Where lust and material bodily contact are absent, how could one conceive of worldly adultery or illicit union? The gopis did not belong to another; they belonged to Sri Krishna. Yet they possessed parakiya-bhava, the feeling of belonging to another. There is a difference as vast as heaven and earth between literally belonging to another and possessing parakiya-bhava. Three features are especially important in parakiya-bhava: constant contemplation of the Beloved, intense yearning for union, and complete absence of fault-finding. In the feeling of established belonging, constant proximity makes these three secondary; in parakiya-bhava they increase without limit. Some gopis desired Sri Krishna through jara-bhava. This means only that they constantly contemplated Him, yearned intensely to meet Him, and viewed every one of His actions solely through the eyes of prema. A fourth feature has particular importance. One who lives as an acknowledged wife expects her husband to maintain and protect her, her household, and her sons and daughters. She regards this care as his duty because they depend upon him, and she therefore holds such expectations. However devoted she may be, a hidden trace of desire for personal benefit remains. The parakiya lover, by contrast, wants nothing from the Beloved and expects nothing. She desires only to give everything of herself and make Him happy. This bhava was fully manifest in the gopis. Because of this distinctive quality, many works of Sanskrit literature describe parakiya-bhava as the exemplary form of constant contemplation.

Srimad Bhagavatam provides not one but many examples of this bhava in the gopis. To accuse them of literally belonging to another is therefore to misunderstand their bhava. When even a faint ray of ordinary dharma enters someone's life, that life becomes supremely pure and exemplary for others. How, then, could the gopis transgress virtuous conduct - those whose lives had reached the ultimate limit of spiritual discipline, who were eternally perfected and intrinsic forms of Bhagavan's own being, or who had practiced for kalpas and through Sri Krishna's grace attained the right to serve Him? And how could Sri Krishna, founder of every sacred boundary of dharma, be accused of transgressing dharma? Such distorted imaginings about Sri Krishna and the gopis reveal only ignorance of their divine nature and divine lila.

Many commentaries and expositions have been written upon Srimad Bhagavatam, the Tenth Canto, and the Rasa-panchadhyayi. Their authors include Jagadguru Sri Vallabhacharya, Sri Sridhara Swami, Sri Jiva Goswami, and others. They have explained the glory of the rasa-lila in great detail. Some describe it as the conquest of lust, some as Bhagavan's divine play, and some give it a spiritual interpretation. In that reading, Bhagavan Sri Krishna is the Self, Sri Radha is the mode of awareness that assumes the Self's form, and the remaining modes turned toward the Self are the gopis. Their unbroken, stream-like delight in the Self is rasa. From every perspective, the glory of the rasa-lila appears ever greater.

One should not therefore conclude that the rasa or ramana described in Srimad Bhagavatam is only allegory or imagination. It is wholly real, and the tasting of romantic rasa in the forms of meeting, play, and all else occurred exactly as described. The sole distinction is that it was not the lustful union of worldly women and men. Its hero was Bhagavan Gopinatha, Nanda's son: the embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, the Reality beyond the highest, perfectly independent, unrestricted, and delighting by His own sovereign will. Its heroines were Sri Radhaji, the hladini-shakti Herself, and the gopis who are Her bodily expansions and concentrated embodiments,

the Sri Gopis. Their lila was therefore nonmaterial. Suppose perfectly sweet sugar candy were shaped like an intensely bitter colocynth gourd so that it looked exactly like that bitter fruit. The candy would not thereby become bitter. Does assuming a gourd's shape deprive sugar of its natural sweetness? No. Whatever form it takes, everywhere, always, and in every respect it remains sugar alone. Indeed, the wonder of lila lies precisely here: people imagine a bitter gourd, while in reality it is sweet candy. In the same way, whatever outward appearance the lila of Bhagavan Sri Krishna - the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda and ocean of all nectarous rasa - and the gopis, His inseparable internal forms, may assume, in truth it remains made of sat-chit-ananda. It contains none of the bitter taste of degraded worldly lust. Yet no one should ever imitate this lila, nor is such imitation possible. How could anyone use products of maya to imitate Bhagavan, who is beyond maya? However beautifully one shapes a bitter gourd to resemble a sweet, its bitterness never disappears. Therefore deluded people who have tried, or now try, to imitate Sri Krishna's intimate lilas such as the rasa and taste the sentiment of worldly hero and heroine have fallen terribly and will continue to fall. Only Sri Krishna can enact Sri Krishna's lilas. At the end of the Rasa-panchadhyayi, Shukadevaji therefore cautioned everyone: all should obey Bhagavan's teachings, but no one should ever imitate all His actions.

If someone insists that Sri Krishna's conduct must accord with human conceptions and ideals, there is still no difficulty. As the Bhagavatam clearly describes, Sri Krishna was about ten years old at the time. Many ten-year-old children in villages go unclothed and have no knowledge of sexual desire or relations between women and men. Boys and girls play together, dance, sing, celebrate festivals, stage weddings for their dolls, take out wedding processions, and hold festive

meals together as well. The village elders are pleased to watch the children's recreation; no improper thought enters their minds. Young women too regard such children with great affection, honor them, bathe them, and feed them. This is true even of ordinary children. One cannot imagine how much affection and respect the women, girls, and children of Vraja must have felt toward an extraordinary child of Sri Krishna's intelligence and power. Many of His virtues had already manifested in childhood, and through His judgment, cleverness, and strength the residents of Vraja had been delivered from great calamities. Drawn by His beauty, sweetness, and divine majesty, the village boys and girls remained with Him. With His original genius, Sri Krishna entertained and taught them through ever-new melodies, rhythms, and other means. The rasa-lila may be understood as one such recreation. Even from the perspective of those who regard Sri Krishna only as human, there should be nothing blameworthy in it. With breadth of mind and intelligence, they should understand words such as kama and rati in the Bhagavatam just as those terms are understood in the Upanishads and Gita. In truth, kama here is simply another name for the gopis' supremely self-renouncing prema:

"The prema of the women of Vraja became renowned by the name kama."

And rati is Bhagavan Sri Krishna's delight in the Self, His divine play:

"He who delights within the Self"; "Though complete in the bliss of His own Self, He delighted in play."

For this reason the episode repeatedly applies to Him such titles as Vibhu, Parameshvara, Lord of Lakshmi, Bhagavan, Lord of the masters of yoga, one who delights in the Self, Enchanter of the god of love, and the indwelling witness of all embodied beings, so that no one should be confused.

Sri Shukadevaji answered the doubts raised in King Parikshit's questions in accordance with those questions, in chapter 29, verses 13-16, and chapter 33, verses 30-37. His answer removes the doubts, but the mystery of Bhagavan's divine lila remains unrevealed. Perhaps the account of the rasa-lila ends in chapter 33 precisely to preserve that mystery. In truth, the profound mystery of this lila cannot be explained within the material world,

because it is not a play of this world at all. It is the wondrous lila of that divine realm of bliss and rasa, which even paramahamsa sages forever yearn to hear and behold. Some people consider this episode a later interpolation into the Bhagavatam, but this is mere obstinacy: the account appears even in the oldest manuscripts, and a little careful reflection shows it to be entirely coherent and free of fault. May Bhagavan Sri Krishna graciously grant us the stainless understanding by which we may comprehend something of its mystery.

Readers of the Rasa-panchadhyayi must accept with certainty that not even the faintest trace of worldly lust can be imagined within it. It is the great savoring of the most sacred prema-rasa: nonmaterial and inconceivable, enacted by the fullest Bhagavan, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, together with His glorious, divine, conscious, and complete potency. Sri Shukadevaji therefore declares the great and unprecedented fruit of hearing and recounting the rasa-lila: the total destruction of the heart's disease of lust and the attainment of supreme devotion in the form of prema. This establishes that the account is a current of divine rasa and bears no relation to a worldly tale of lust. Some great souls call the rasa a lila of conquering lust. From one perspective that too is valid, but within this divine realm of prema no degraded lust can ever enter. How, then, could there be a conquest of lust? Sri Shukadevaji says:

"One who, with faith and a mind free of doubt, hears and sings of Bhagavan's rasa play with the women of Vraja will soon attain Bhagavan's loving devotion, para-bhakti, and the heart's disease of lust will be wholly destroyed."

In truth, this is the purpose of describing Bhagavan's divine lila: the soul should remember the gopis' causeless prema, free of any desire for personal happiness and intent solely upon giving joy to Sri Krishna. Through it the soul should experience Bhagavan's infinite love in His rasa-filled divine realm of lila. Therefore, while studying the Rasa-panchadhyayi, one should harbor no doubt,

should keep this bhava awake, and with a faithful heart should read and hear the text only as Bhagavan's most sacred lila.

The Harm of Blindly Imitating Sri Krishna's Lila

Bhagavan Sri Rama is Maryada-purushottama, the supreme embodiment of sacred conduct, and Bhagavan Sri Krishna is Lila-purushottama, the supreme embodiment of divine play. The two are one. The same Supreme Self, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, descended in two forms during two ages for different lilas. Imagining one to be greater or lesser than the other is an offense. In Sri Rama's form, each lila assumes the form of sacred conduct fit for everyone to imitate. Though the mystery of His lilas as Rama is exceedingly profound, their outward form can be understood by all, and each person may imitate it according to individual qualification without obstacle. It is a straight royal road. Some lilas performed in Bhagavan's form as Sri Krishna, however, are deeply hidden and mysterious both outwardly and inwardly. They are exceedingly difficult to understand, and to imitate them without understanding is like drinking deadly halahala poison or deliberately leaping into a blazing fire. This path is covered with thorns and flames. Therefore the great teaching that all ordinary people should understand, accept, and follow is Bhagavan Sri Krishna's Bhagavad Gita, while the sacredly ordered lilas of Bhagavan Sri Rama are fit to be imitated in every respect.

Those who imitated Bhagavan Sri Krishna's lila without understanding it destroyed themselves and caused many innocent women and men to fall as well. Why would anyone try to imitate drinking fire, lifting a mountain on one finger, subduing the serpent Kaliya, or similar deeds? Such acts also lie beyond their power. Imitators select only the taking of the garments, the rasa-lila, and the love lilas of Sri Radha and Krishna. Entirely unable to understand the exalted spiritual bhava of those lilas, they use the name of imitation to gratify their own desire-filled tendencies and in truth

they commit sin. It is said, "Love of Bhagavan requires neither detachment nor renunciation. The love of the Divine Beloveds is concerned only with romantic adornment and enjoyment." Some go so far as to say, "Become servants of the feet of the Divine Couple, and thereafter you may persist in theft and illicit relations, falsehood and deceit, heedlessness and laziness - whatever you do, there is no objection." In my understanding, all such statements are made to conceal personal weakness, obtain sense pleasures in the name of devotion to Bhagavan, earn sin while posing as lovers of God, and gratify wicked desires by deceiving innocent women and men. Could anyone who has become a servant of the feet of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the concentrated embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, and Sri Radhikaji, the Mother of the universe and His own essential Self, ever commit theft, adultery, or other sins? When even one divine name uttered with a sincere heart burns away the whole mass of sins, how could a tendency toward sin remain in servants of Bhagavan's feet? Detachment and renunciation are the foundation stones of devotion to Bhagavan. How can one who does not renounce sense objects in the mind and relinquish the thirst for enjoyment become Bhagavan's devotee? A devotee must lay everything - this world, the next, and even liberation - at Bhagavan's feet and become wholly possessionless. How can one who loves Bhagavan be a sensualist? We should therefore remain forever vigilant against those who preach enjoyment in the name of divine love and against their teachings. Sadly, when people falsely imitate Srimad Bhagavatam's Rasa-panchadhyayi, they see no objection to mingling with women out of lust, claiming that they imitate Bhagavan's lila. Yet they pay no heed to the same Srimad Bhagavatam's instruction, "A self-possessed person should remain far away not only from the company of women, but also from the company of those who associate with women." Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu truly understood the heart of Srimad Bhagavatam, love of Sri Krishna, and madhurya-rasa; although He worshiped in the mood of that sweet rasa, He remained entirely apart from wealth and women.

Although for several reasons such sinful acts are now less often committed openly,

their ideas are still widely promoted and spread in secret. They obstruct devotion and divine love. Failing to understand the heart of Vyasa and Shukadeva, poets composed whatever suited their own imaginations. Apart from ascetics, devotees, and those who knew the inner truth, others who called themselves gurus, devotees, and preachers spoke and acted arbitrarily. Sri Krishna and Sri Radha were inserted into filthy songs of worldly romance, while wicked sensualists sheltered behind these lilas and established a tradition of sin. The terrible harm thereby done to Hindu society has no limit. Even now, everyone should awaken and shape life according to the divine teaching of Bhagavan Sri Krishna's Gita. Bhagavan's words should always be remembered in every respect:

"Threefold is this gate of hell, destructive of the self: desire, anger, and greed. Therefore one should abandon these three."

(Gita 16.21)

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell that carry the self downward; therefore all three must be abandoned completely.

Imitation of Sri Krishna's Lila Is Harmful

In my humble understanding, those who costume themselves as Sri Krishna and have women worship them in gopi-bhava commit a grave error. It is true that the entire universe is a manifestation of the Supreme Self. Because the Supreme Self is both its instrumental and material cause, the universe is indeed of the nature of the Supreme Self; from this perspective, gods, humans, animals, birds, insects, and moths must all be regarded as forms of the Supreme Self. Yet this is not the Supreme Self's complete form; it is only a portion. Though everything is the Supreme Self, the Supreme Self is not merely this "everything." The Supreme Self is infinite beyond all this, and that infinite Supreme Self is the very nature of Sri Krishna. Thus it is indeed true that Sri Krishna pervades all things.

"In My unmanifest form, I pervade this entire universe."

(Gita 9.4)

Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself said, "My unmanifest form - the all-pervading Supreme Self - pervades the whole universe." But this universe alone is not Sri Krishna. Someone may play Sri Krishna in a theatrical rasa-lila; for a human being actually to claim to be Sri Krishna and have people worship him, however, is extremely improper, and the worshipers too make a grave mistake. Granted that the women are devout, come from respectable homes, and act with pure intent; the practice itself nevertheless violates the ideal and is harmful. Granted also that the holy man is free of disturbance; even then, his example is corrupted, and if he is still a practitioner, only Bhagavan's boundless grace can preserve such freedom from disturbance for very long. In these circumstances, those who oppose the practice with pure intent neither incur fault nor act improperly. In my understanding, if their intent is pure and free of malice, they do not partake of sin.

Sri Krishna, as I understand Him, is not merely a great person or perfected holy man. He is Parabrahman directly, the complete Brahman, the eternal Purushottama, Bhagavan Himself. His body is not material or constituted of the five elements; He is the eternal embodiment of sat-chit-ananda. The gopis too possess divine bodies and are concentrated divine forms of the hladini-shakti, the bliss potency that is the very nature of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. The Padma Purana says of the Sri Gopis:

"The gopis should be known as the Shrutis, sages reborn, daughters of the gods, and daughters of the cowherds, O king; they are never human beings."

These greatly blessed gopis, beloved of Sri Bhagavan - the Lord of the universe, ocean of every rasa, and crown jewel among sovereigns of rasa - bear divine forms. Some are nitya-siddhas, eternally perfect ones who have enjoyed divine lila with Bhagavan Sri Krishna from beginningless time. Some were in former births the presiding deities of the Shrutis and are called shruti-purvas; some were perfected sages of Dandakaranya and are renowned as rishi-purvas; and some were celestial maidens dwelling in heaven and are called devi-purvas. The latter

three classes of gopis are sadhana-siddhas, perfected through spiritual practice. Among the nitya-siddha gopis, Sri Radhaji is foremost, while Chandravaliji, Lalitaji, Vishakhaji, and others are bodily expansions of Her; they are called gopa-kanyas. In former births, the sadhana-siddha gopis attained perfection in spiritual practice through their longing to serve Sri Krishna. In this birth they descended into the homes of the gopis, and through the holy company, cooperation, and service of the nitya-siddha gopis, they attained divine forms and the right to serve Sri Krishna's divine feet. These gopis were not other men's wives, nor was Bhagavan Sri Krishna - Lord of the entire cosmic universe and Self of all selves - another man or paramour in the worldly sense. At the summit of the highest stage of practice on the path of love, great souls receive by Bhagavan's grace the ultimate realization that is perfection. To distribute that incomparable divine love, the Lord of the universe adopted the guise of a paramour, and His powers, His eternal companions and beloveds, adopted the guise of other men's wives. This rasa, this meeting of the gopis and Gopinatha, is not something from the degraded realm of lust like our impure unions; it is not the product of vile lustful agitation in bodies made of the five elements. It is an utterly marvelous and extraordinary divine lila, a mere glimpse of which is longed for by the greatest self-realized souls who have attained kaivalya. No human being can ever imitate it, however exalted one's state. Women and men married to others who seek to form romantic bonds with one another in an attempt to imitate this lila are preparing themselves for the torments of a terrible hell. They possess no true love at all. They are slaves of petty lust and bring disgrace upon the very name of love. True love can be directed only toward Sri Bhagavan. In love, no desire or craving remains except love itself. Even charitable acts in the world contain some desire for self-satisfaction. No living being in the world loves another without some wish for the gratification of one's own senses, however faint that wish may be; and what contains a desire for personal sensual gratification is not love. Undivided love free from any desire to gratify one's own senses can be directed only toward Sri Krishna, the Self of all selves and the Self even of our own self. Women and men married to others who, from a desire for sensual gratification,

even in the form of an extremely subtle craving, assume the guise of love in fact bring immense ruin upon themselves. Desire takes little time to grow strong. Just as adding fuel makes a fire blaze higher, obtaining an object of enjoyment intensifies the thirst for enjoyment; its consequences in this world and the next are disgrace, fear, anguish, suffering, and endless torment in hell.

The scripture says:

"If here a man approaches a woman forbidden to him, or a woman approaches a man forbidden to her, then after death they are beaten with whips; the man is made to embrace a searing iron image of a woman, and the woman a searing image in the form of a man."

That is, if a man has intercourse with a woman forbidden to him, or a woman with a man forbidden to her - one is forbidden when no marriage has taken place - then after their death the messengers of Yama drive them on with blows. There the man is made to embrace a burning iron image of a woman, and the woman a burning iron image of a man. This hell is called Taptasurmi.

Thereafter, when they take birth in a physical body, they must suffer many kinds of dreadful diseases for several lifetimes.

Thus in this world of maya, the divine lila of Sri Krishna and the gopis can never be imitated, nor should anyone ever undertake such a rash act.

There is, however, another possibility. Some people may have become utterly pure within. Every desire for enjoyment in this world and the next may have vanished from their minds, and they may be able to reject even liberation. If, by the grace of a great soul, longing to serve Sri Krishna awakens in such persons; if even the subtlest desire for enjoyment or liberation is entirely absent and they attain pure prema-bhakti, then, like the gopis, they may perhaps attain Sri Krishna in the form of the divine paramour. Therefore, if one takes the gopis as one's ideal and seeks to imitate them, it should be for that Supreme Person, Sri Krishna, not for another woman or man, a loathsome puppet of flesh and bone. No one can imitate the lila through the body. But even through bhava,

If women or men who retain even the slightest desire to gratify their own senses and have not reached the stainless ground of sacred and supreme detachment attempt to imitate the lilas of the Sri Gopis and Gopinatha, their fate will resemble that of people who mistake a highly venomous serpent for a garland of beautiful flowers and place it around their necks. Women and men embodied in the five material elements should never compare Sri Krishna's lila with their own actions.

Not All of Bhagavan's Lilas Can Be Imitated

Dear Sir, respectful and loving remembrance of Hari. I received your gracious letter. We should harbor no doubt concerning Bhagavan's avatar lilas. We should accept that He is Bhagavan, omnipotent and absolutely independent: He can do whatever He wishes, however and whenever He wishes, and everything is proper for Him. We, however, should imitate only those things that He and the scriptures, which are His own speech, command us to imitate. Indeed, the truth is that not all of Bhagavan's lilas can be imitated at all.

Bhagavan's lilas are principally of three kinds: 1. exemplary lilas performed for the welfare or instruction of the world; 2. majestic lilas that are wondrous and appear impossible; and 3. love-filled lilas enacted with intimate loving devotees.

1. Devotion to one's parents, devotion to the guru, reverence for brahmanas, righteous conduct, worship of the gods, protection of the distressed, restraint of the senses, meditation and worship, truthful dealings, freedom from selfish motive, nonattachment, equanimity, and abiding in eternal joy are exemplary lilas that may appropriately be imitated. Each person can and should imitate these according to one's qualification. Bhagavan also commands us to do so.

2. Drinking fire; entering Varuna's realm; holding a mountain upon one finger for seven days; revealing His cosmic form in many ways; absorbing into Himself the soul-light of Aghasura, Shishupala, and others after their death; simultaneously meeting thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in different relationships; dwelling at once in the palaces of thousands of queens; accepting hospitality at two places at the same moment; concealing the sun; becoming innumerable calves, cowherd boys, and every one of their possessions; granting Brahmaji a vision of Bhagavan's form and supreme majesty within them all; revealing Himself to Akrura in the water; and delivering demons by slaying them - these are majestic lilas. It is wholly impossible for an ordinary human being to imitate them.

3. Stealing and eating butter from the gopis' homes, taking the garments, the rasa-lila, and the nikunja-lila are intimate, sweet lilas of love. Bhagavan enacts them within Himself, with associates and lovers who are His own essential Self, freely crossing the bounds established by the Shruti:

"The Lord of Rama played with the beautiful women of Vraja as a child plays with its own reflections."

These sweet lilas must never be imitated. A fool who attempts to imitate them falls away from scripture and dharma and becomes fit for a terrible hell.

Of these three kinds of lila, only the first is in fact fit for imitation. The latter two are meant to be heard, sung, reflected upon, and meditated upon so that one may attain devotion and love for Bhagavan. With a pure mind, faith, and devotion, one should contemplate Bhagavan's lilas filled with majesty and sweetness, while embodying in one's life the exemplary lilas that instruct the world. The rest rests with Bhagavan's grace.

Scattered Blossoms

1. Bhagavan's actions are not different from Bhagavan's essential nature. Therefore His actions are not called karma but lila. Lila is the play of consciousness belonging to the embodiment of sat-chit-ananda. Just as the ocean's waves are the ocean's own play, so the lila of Bhagavan, the compact ocean of consciousness, is nothing other than consciousness itself.

2. Without faith in Bhagavan's inconceivable supreme power, one cannot savor lila. Doubts will arise at every point, or its sweetness will be destroyed by reducing those lilas to merely spiritual allegories. To devotees Bhagavan's succession of lilas is eternally real - and in truth it is real.

3. To ordinary sight, Vrindavan-dhama is eight kos long and four kos wide, but Bhagavan's abode is inconceivable and composed of pure consciousness. Infinite millions of universes can be contained, and are contained, within every particle of its dust.

4. All the companions in Bhagavan's manifest lila who bear the moods of parental affection, friendship, or sweet conjugal love are forms of Bhagavan Himself, for all are His associates in lila. Every movement and inspiration arising through them, all they do or attempt to do, takes place through the lila-shakti united with Bhagavan's will-power; all of it serves as an instrument of His lila.

5. Bhagavan's childhood lilas appear exactly like those of material children; no nonmaterial quality is visible in them. This wondrous imitation of the material by the nonmaterial is delightful to behold. Seeing ordinary-seeming lilas performed by Him whose resolve creates, sustains, and directs infinite millions of universes, one can naturally wonder whether He truly is Lord of all. Yet one who takes refuge at His feet and seeks to receive their sweetness will learn how

sweet this material-seeming lila of the nonmaterial truly is. Here we discover Bhagavan's tenderness toward devotees and His submission to love. Though He sustains the entire cosmic universe, He reveals not the slightest trace of His boundless majesty and plays among ordinary children exactly as a child. We should not suppose that He is pretending: He truly plays and truly delights in it. Only loving devotees can give joy to Joy itself and awaken in the Blissful One a longing and thirst for joy. To taste the rasa of joy, Bhagavan performs lilas suited to loving devotees in the rasas of parental affection, friendship, sweet love, and others. The nonmaterial one's lila is nonmaterial, though it appears material. Bhagavan performs whatever lilas will delight His loving devotees; their happiness is His happiness. The lilas of His avatars such as Sri Krishna are not new. They occur eternally and will continue eternally; it is not that they did not exist before and have only now appeared. Just as Bhagavan is eternal, so are His lilas. They contain no lust belonging to the world of maya. Devotees who take joy in them are truly blessed.

6. Among all Bhagavan's powers, the lila-shakti and grace-shakti are foremost. No power manifests itself in opposition to these two. Every power works to reveal them and always proceeds in their service.

7. Bhagavan neither pretends nor acts theatrically. In Bhagavan's lilas of love, it is not that He knowingly behaves as though unaware. Every lila is real. At the will of the lila-shakti, even His omniscient power remains concealed there; this is His submission to love.

8. When we attempt to weigh Bhagavan's actions upon the scale of a soul's insignificant power, we inevitably fail. But if we forget our own power and attend to Sri Krishna's inconceivable power, we will understand that nothing is impossible for it.

9. To understand the principle of the lila-filled Lord's lila, one must take refuge at the feet of

the Lord of lila. One who seeks to comprehend and know Him by the strength of learning, personal endeavor, and one's own power can neither comprehend nor know Bhagavan. Such a person cannot know Reality as it is; material feeling takes root within it through one's material intellect and understanding. To understand Bhagavan's lila, one must rely upon His grace, take refuge in His inconceivable supreme power, and seek shelter at Sri Krishna's feet. Otherwise contrary ideas arise, faith disappears, and one begins to fault the lila as allegory, invention, illusion, theater, illustration, interpolation, and the like. In this way, hearing lila-katha without faith, we commit many offenses, and along with our sin the speaker too must share in sin. Lila-katha should not be narrated before those who harbor even the slightest disbelief in Sri Krishna's lila or who, on account of their learning, call it allegory, imagination, and so on. Sri Krishna's lila should be told only before those who place faith above argument and wish to hear lila-katha with reverence. Bhagavan's lila is profoundly secret.

10. Bhagavan Sri Krishna's majesty pervades everything and requires no effort to perceive, but His sweetness is deeply hidden and cannot be revealed without His grace. His sweetness lies precisely in His charming innocence. When He who is infinitely great becomes very small, when He who consists of knowledge becomes unknowing, and when He enacts meeting and separation with loving devotees, the ocean of His sweetness swells. Infinite waves, each uniquely wondrous, rise within it and inundate the entire universe with the nectar of supreme bliss.

11. The gopis of Vraja are wish-fulfilling vines of parental and sweet conjugal love, eternally entwined around the divine wish-fulfilling tree that is Sri Krishna.

12. To increase the devotees' joy, the ocean of bliss that is Bhagavan's sat-chit-ananda nature surges. Therefore Bhagavan even accepts defeat in order to increase a devotee's joy.

13. When a contest arises between the devotee and Bhagavan, Bhagavan accepts defeat. This is Bhagavan's submission to love. To uphold a devotee's vow, Bhagavan will even break His own. He is eternally victorious - who could defeat Him? Yet in a contest between Bhagavan and His devotee, Bhagavan loses.

14. The sweetness of Bhagavan's lila and the devotee's love continually vie with one another. Bhagavan's lila keeps increasing the devotee's love, and the devotee's love keeps increasing Bhagavan's lila. Just as audience and actor together enjoy the sweetness of a performance, devotee and Bhagavan together savor the sweetness of lila.

15. The simultaneous inclusion and reconciliation of mutually contradictory attributes is Bhagavan's natural quality. Nowhere outside Bhagavan are such contradictions reconciled. Though possessed of infinite majesty, in lila Bhagavan asks Mother Yashoda for one thing after another. Though goodness itself in every respect, He steals. Though eternally fulfilled, He remains unsatisfied and eager to drink Mother Yashoda's breast milk.

"He is neither gross nor minute; He is both gross and minute in every way. He is said to be wholly without color, yet He is dark-hued and red at the corners of His eyes."

The Nrisimha-uttara-tapini Upanishad says:

"The fourth and not the fourth; the Self and the non-self; fierce and gentle; heroic and unheroic; great and not great; all-pervading and not all-pervading; blazing and not blazing; facing everywhere and not facing everywhere."

Bhagavan is turiya, the fourth beyond Virat, Hiranyagarbha, and the causal state, or beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. At the same time He is aturiya, "not the fourth," because He is the witness of all, the indwelling ruler, the Self of everyone, and the ground of every state, and thus assumes all forms. Bhagavan is conscious Atman, and at the same time the inert non-self, all that is not Atman, is also Bhagavan. Bhagavan is fierce: while slaying Hiranyakashipu, His form was so terrifying that even the gods and

Lakshmiji were frightened to see Him, yet at that very moment He was gentle and supremely peaceful toward Prahlada, crown jewel of devotees. To destroy demons such as Agha and Baka, He is a mighty hero, yet before loving devotees such as the cowherd boys He is "unheroic," forever defeated. He is great, bearing infinite millions of universes within each pore of His body, and at the same time not great, tiny as the little infant resting in Mother Yashoda's small lap. He is Vishnu, all-pervading, and as the embodied form of lila, assuming a shape suited to His devotees' love, He is avishnu, localized in one place. He is blazing, reducing hosts of demons to ashes with the fierce fire of His eyes, and at the same time not blazing, appearing to devotees with supremely tender, peaceful eyes that bestow delight. Bhagavan faces everywhere: His hands, feet, eyes, heads, and faces are on every side - "That has hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads, and faces everywhere." Yet in sweet lilas such as those of Vrindavan He does not face everywhere; as a lila form with two hands, two feet, two eyes, and one face, He continually increases joy.

Remaining beyond the gunas, He possesses qualities; remaining formless, He has form. Though every desire is fulfilled, He desires; though unborn, He takes birth. He is everything, and at the same time beyond everything.

In truth, this capacity to be the abode of contradictory attributes is Bhagavan's very divinity. Without understanding it, one cannot reconcile His lilas, taste their supremely sweet rasa, or know His inconceivable majesty. One's knowledge of Bhagavan's essential nature thus remains incomplete. Bhagavan's weeping, anger, eagerness to drink breast milk, and similar acts are neither material nor imaginary. They are His eternal natural quality of submission to love.

16. The child Krishna's anger and tears are not theater or acting performed to please spectators; they are the sweet expression of Sri Krishna's inner childhood bhava. Bhagavan does not pretend. The thought, "Bhagavan did not really suffer; He was merely deceiving us,"

destroys rasa. Such ideas make us lose both Bhagavan's sweetness and the devotee's parental affection.

17. The outward expression of an inner bhava does not require a spectator or approver. An inner bhava unfolds naturally where no crowd is present. In a crowd, even when its cause is present, the inner bhava may not manifest. In solitude it appears freely, without hesitation. To know someone's real nature, observe what that person does when alone; the true form will then be revealed. When Mother Yashoda went away to take the milk from the stove, Sri Krishna became angry while alone, broke the pot of yogurt, and fled. This was not theater staged for display; it was His genuine bhava.

18. Sweet lila, an abundance of loving associates, the sweetness of form, and the sweetness of the flute - these four kinds of sweetness are especially present in the Son of the king of Vraja. They remain in Vraja and do not accompany Him to Mathura or Dvaraka.

19. Loving devotees neither wish to disclose Bhagavan's secret of love nor wish others to have it disclosed.

20. Nothing dwells in Sri Yashodaji's heart except her son Sri Krishna. Love consists of bhava. Bhagavan Sri Krishna's child form is forever inscribed upon the tablet of her heart because that heart is flooded with the rasa of bhava.

21. All Bhagavan's garments, ornaments, weapons, and other possessions are divine, conscious, made of sat-chit-ananda, and forms of Bhagavan Himself. Ordinarily they remain invisible, but from time to time they manifest through a member of a household or a devotee. When Mother Yashoda adorns Sri Krishna with an ornament, Bhagavan's invisible ornaments somehow manifest within her treasury, and with those very ornaments she dresses Him. Yet neither the devotee nor the householder knows that Bhagavan's divine ornaments have manifested and that one is adorning Him with them.

22. Whenever doubt arises concerning Bhagavan's lila,

we are not truly regarding Bhagavan as Bhagavan; we bring Him down into our own category. Otherwise no doubt could arise. Every act and every word of Bhagavan is true in essence, even when it appears contradictory.

23. Bhagavan's lila-katha is exceedingly delightful, bestows equal joy upon all, depends upon nothing, and never fails in its effect.

24. The instant something enters into relation with Bhagavan, all its faults disappear. Bhagavan has hidden this power within lila-katha. In His grace, He has left the sweetness of His lila-katha here so that people turned outward toward the world may be blessed. If such people are told to practice yama, niyama, and other disciplines, who will do so? But when an engaging episode appears in the sacred narrative, even their minds become absorbed.

25. One may neither have seen nor understood fire, but when one touches it, fire's inherent power to burn invariably burns; once burned, one naturally gains faith in it. In the same way, faith arises of itself through lila-katha.

26. Without the strength of merit and Bhagavan's grace, one never receives an opportunity to hear Bhagavan's sacred narrative. Logicians consider it useless, while those attached to the household have no leisure even to hear it.

27. There is only one method for Bhagavan's lila-katha: open the passage of your ears to its arriving current. Let that stream of nectar enter the ears without obstruction. The moment it reaches within, it washes away the heap of refuse accumulated over countless births. Fire will no longer be needed. Fire burns but leaves a mound of ash behind; this is a flood that carries everything far away and at the same time melts the inner being, transforming it into the kingdom of love for Sri Krishna.

28. Lila-katha is truly savored only where the listener's mind contains neither argument nor dispute, but solely the wish to drink rasa, and where questions are asked only to increase that rasa.

29. Sacred narrative - the intimate narrative of secret truths - reveals itself only where, upon seeing the listener's interest and longing, its substance spontaneously awakens in the speaker's mind. The speaker holds many things within, but when no interest is visible in the listener, they remain hidden. There are, however, assemblies where simply sitting among the listeners causes ever-new insights to arise in the speaker's mind. Where, as with Parikshit, there is an urgent longing to hear and no satisfaction even after hearing continuously - where one keeps eating and remains hungry, keeps eating and remains hungry - in such an assembly ever-new intimate narratives continually arise in the speaker's heart.

30. Such is Bhagavan's lila-katha that, however it enters the ears, it destroys sin and suffering. But if one is fortunate enough to hear it from the lips of Sri Krishna's loving devotees, sin and suffering cannot remain at all, for their minds are united with Sri Krishna. Therefore every word they utter is inspired by Sri Krishna.

31. Those who worship Bhagavan as Brahman through jnana-yoga wish to be freed from the world. Practitioners of ashtanga-yoga, established in samadhi, wish to behold the light of the Supreme Self. Devotees endowed with knowledge of divine majesty seek liberation such as nearness to Bhagavan. All seek their own welfare; none is concerned for Sri Krishna's welfare, for they regard Him as eternally filled with happiness. Those, however, who are bound to Sri Krishna by intimate possessiveness and regard Him as their son, friend, beloved of their life, or the like forget every happiness of their own and care only for Sri Krishna's good. No personal happiness or sorrow remains for them. Forgetting the ego, they become nothing but Sri Krishna's happiness. Sri Krishna too performs lilas suited to the intimate possessiveness of such devotees and savors divine prema-rasa. Blessed are those loving devotees.

32. Everyone with whom Bhagavan joins in lila is His associate. Associates are of two kinds: 1. favorable associates and 2. opposing associates. Favorable associates assist the lila as friends; opposing associates assist it through the mood of enmity.

In the divine abode, lila takes place with the favorable associates. The opposing associates remain there in an unconscious state.

33. Bhagavan's grace-shakti is so powerful that every other power follows it. Bhagavan Himself comes under its sway and accepts many kinds of bonds imposed by His devotee.

34. Of all Bhagavan's lilas, the childhood lila is supremely generous. In other lilas, if Bhagavan gives knowledge to someone, slays demons, or makes kings into sovereigns, there is no special greatness in it. There is no greatness when the great becomes great, for He is already great. Greatness lies in the great becoming small. In childhood lila, Bhagavan must become an unknowing child, join other unknowing children, and perform lila just like theirs. Herein lies His generosity.

35. Bhagavan's parents, ornaments, abode, lila, possessions, and all else are forms of Bhagavan Himself, and all are eternal.

36. Our duty is not to strive to know the metaphysical essence of Bhagavan's lilas, but to sing, hear, and meditate upon their sacred narratives.

Those Qualified to Behold the Nikunja-Lila

The Beloved and Her Beloved sport eternally there; The eternal bower is supremely lovely and pure, beyond maya, the gunas, and the senses.

There shines neither sun nor moon, nor any other material light; The sky is forever suffused with the body's eternally risen divine radiance.

The splendor of Their toenails becomes Brahman and fills the sages' minds; Their existence and sovereignty alone pervade the whole universe.

Their smiles, delights, and the rasa of Their play are all the form of Hari beyond the gunas; No quality of maya enters there - every peerless thing is made of consciousness.