SB 10.20.9–11 – Rama-navami Celebration—Part 02

Giriraj Swami: In continuation of last night’s talk I thought we could just read the original translations of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. This is from Texts 1.2.300 and 301.

TEXT 300

śrī-mūrter mādhurīṃ prekṣya tat-tal-līlāṃ niśamya vā
tad-bhāvākāṇkṣiṇo ye syus teṣu sādhanatānayoḥ
purāṇe śruyate pādme puṃsam api bhaved iyam

TRANSLATION

Those eligible for the practice of kamanuga bhakti, those who aspire after and long for the different sentiments of the Vrajadevis after listening to the pastimes of Lord Krsna or after seeing the beauty of the Deity or picture of the Lord, are alone eligible for either of the two categories or forms of kamanuga aspect of raganuga bhakti. Even male persons can attain such sentiments as it is stated in the Padma Purana.

TEXT 301-302

yathā—purā maharṣayaḥ sarve daṇḍakāraṇya-vāsinaḥ
dṛṣṭvā rāmaṃ hariṃ tatra bhoktum aicchan suvigraham 
te sarve strītvam āpannāḥ samudbhūtāś ca gokule
hariṃ samprāpya kāmena tato muktā bhavārṇavāt

TRANSLATION

As for example in the Padma Purana, in olden times when all the great sages who were living in Dandakaranya saw the beautiful person of Lord Rama, they desired to enjoy Him. They all were therefore born in Gokul as females and were freed forever from earthly association of the ocean of the world by attaining the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.

COMMENTARY (Texts 301 and 302)

Sri Jiva Gosvami observes that the ṛṣiś of Daṇḍakāraṇya cherished a profound longing for the feelings and sentiments of the dearest paramours of Lord Krishna who lived in the neighborhood of Gokula. Thus when they saw beautiful Rama there flared up in the hearts of these ṛṣiś who were practicing extremely hard penances, desires in the wake of the sentiments of association of the braja-gopīs for enjoying the person of Lord Krishna whose charm and beauty far surpass even those of Lord Rama and who was to manifest Himself in the world in the near future, Dvapara-yuga. These maha-ṛṣiś also prayed to Lord Rama in their mind that they might be born in Gokula as females when the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna would descend and manifest Himself in the world in Dvapara-yuga so they might also enjoy the Lord’s charming person. Owing to their shyness the ṛṣiś prayed to Lord Rama in their hearts only and did not express anything in spoken words or open prayers. So Lord Rama also, who is omniscient, blessed them in His mind like a desire tree for the fulfillment of their mental prayer. Thus the sages were born as females in the wombs of the gopīs in Gokula and somehow reached the famous Gokula of Lord Krishna and gained spiritual bodies from the braja-gopīs and thus attained Lord Krishna whose charm and beauty far excelled those of Lord Rama. They were therefore able to cross the ocean of material existence through their mental resolve for enjoying the person of Sri Krishna as their beloved husband. 

It has further been said about these ṛṣiś in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.29.9–11): “Before the rasa dance when Lord Krishna attracted the gopīs by playing on His flute at that time the wives of some of the gopas could not come out of their homes to meet their beloved and had to remain in doors. But these wives of the cowherd men who had already been in deep thoughts about their divine beloved, Sri Krishna, now closed their eyes and engaged themselves in intense remembrance. In this way they gave up their material bodies because of the burning pang of separation from their beloved and attain spiritual bodies. And in their spiritual bodies they could embrace the pure spiritual body of the Supreme Godhead, Sri Krishna.”

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Ten, Chapter Twenty-nine: ‘Krsna and the Gopīs Meet”’

TEXT 9

antar-gṛha-gatāḥ kāścid
gopyo ‘labdha-vinirgamāḥ
kṛṣṇaṁ tad-bhāvanā-yuktā
dadhyur mīlita-locanāḥ

TRANSLATION

Some of the gopīs, however, could not manage to get out of their houses, and instead they remained home with eyes closed, meditating upon Him in pure love

PURPORT

Throughout the Tenth Canto, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives elaborate poetic commentaries on Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. It is not always possible to include these extensive descriptions, but we will quote in its entirety his comments on this verse. It is our sincere recommendation to the learned Vaiṣṇava community that a qualified devotee of the Lord present the entire commentary of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī on the Tenth Canto as a separate book, which will undoubtedly be appreciated by devotees and nondevotees alike. The ācārya’s comments on this verse are as follows:

“In this context we will make our analysis according to the method described in Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. There are two categories of gopīs: the eternally perfect (the nitya-siddhas) and those who have become perfect by practicing bhakti-yoga (the sādhana-siddhas). The sādhana-siddhas are of two categories: those who belong to special groups and those who do not. And there are also two classes of the gopīs belonging to special groups: namely the śruti-cārīs, who come from the group of the personified Vedas, and the ṛṣi-cārīs, who come from the group of sages who saw Lord Rāmacandra in the Daṇḍakāraṇya forest.

“This same fourfold categorization of the gopīs is given in the Padma Purāṇa:

gopyas tu śrutayo jñeyā
ṛṣi-jā gopa-kanyakāḥ
deva-kanyāś ca rājendra
na mānuṣyāḥ kathañcana

‘It is understood that some of the gopīs are personified Vedic literatures, while others are reborn sages, daughters of cowherds, or demigod maidens. But by no means, my dear King, are any of them ordinary humans.’ Here we are informed that although the gopīs appeared to be human cowherd girls, they actually were not. Thus the contention that they are mortals is refuted.

“The daughters of cowherds, referred to here as gopa-kanyās, must be eternally perfect, since we never hear of them having executed any sādhana. Their apparent sādhana of worshiping goddess Kātyāyanī in the role of gopīs merely manifests their manner of playing like human beings, and the Bhāgavatam narrates the account of this worship only to show how they had fully taken on the role of cowherd girls.

“That the gopa-kanyā gopīs are actually nitya-siddhas, eternally perfect devotees of the Lord, is established by a statement in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) — ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ — which proves that they are the Lord’s spiritual pleasure potency. Similarly, we have the words of the Gautamīya-tantra, hlādinī yā mahā-śaktiḥ. Further corroboration of their eternal perfection is that these gopīs, being coeternal with Lord Kṛṣṇa, their lover, are mentioned along with Him in the eighteen-syllable mantra, the ten-syllable mantra and others, and also that the worship of these mantras, and also the śrutis that present them, have been in existence since beginningless time.”

COMMENT

So here Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura is analyzing the four categories of gopīs mentioned in the Padma-Purana and first he deals with gopa-kanyā, daughters of the cowherd men. He proves that they are nitya-siddhas, or eternal associates of the Lord. Apart from citing various scriptures like Brahma-saṁhitā which state that the gopīs are expansions of the pleasure potency of Lord Krishna, he refers to mantras—- the Gopala mantra and the Kāma-gāyatrī mantra—- which have existed from the beginning of time and which refer to Krishna with the gopīs. As such some gopīs have been with Krishna eternally and as such they are nitya-siddhas and therefore the one category, gopa-kanyās, the daughters of the cowherd men.

PURPORT (continued)

The deva-kanyās, daughters of the demigods, who are mentioned in the verse beginning sambhavas tv amara-striyaḥ, are explained in Śrī Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi as partial expansions of the gopīs who are eternally perfect. That the śruti-cārī gopīs, the personified Vedas, are sādhana-siddha is understood from the following words of theirs quoted in the Bṛhad-vāmana Purāṇa:

kandarpa-koṭi-lāvaṇye
tvayi dṛṣṭe manāṁsi naḥ
kāminī-bhāvam āsādya
smara-kṣubdhānya-saṁśayāḥ

yathā tval-loka-vāsinyaḥ
kāma-tattvena gopikāḥ
bhajanti ramaṇaṁ matvā
cikīrṣājaninas tathā

‘Since we have seen Your face, which possesses the beauty of millions of Cupids, our minds have become lusty after You like those of young girls, and we have forgotten all other allurements. We have developed the desire to act toward You as do the gopīs who dwell on Your transcendental planet and who manifest the nature of Cupid by worshiping You with the idea that You are their paramour.’

“The ṛṣi-cārī gopīs are also sādhana-siddha, as stated in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi: gopālopāsakāḥ pūrvam aprāptābhīṣṭa-siddhayaḥ. Previously they were all mahārṣis living in the Daṇḍaka forest. We find evidence for this in the Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa:

dṛṣṭvā rāmaṁ hariṁ tatra
bhoktum aicchan su-vigraham
te sarve strītvam āpannāḥ
samudbhūtāś ca gokule
hariṁ samprāpya kāmena
tato muktā bhavārṇavāt

This verse says that upon seeing Lord Rāmacandra, the sages in the Daṇḍaka forest desired to enjoy Lord Hari (Kṛṣṇa). In other words, the sight of Lord Rāma’s beauty reminded them of Lord Hari, Gopāla, their personal object of worship, and they then wanted to enjoy with Him. But out of embarrassment they did not act on that desire, whereupon Lord Śrī Rāma, who is like a desire tree, gave His mercy to them, even though they had not voiced their request. Thus their desire was fulfilled, as stated by the words beginning te sarve. By means of their lusty attraction they became freed from the ocean of material existence, the cycle of birth and death, and coincidentally they got the association of Hari in conjugal love.

“In the present verse of the Bhāgavatam we understand that it was the gopīs who had children who were kept forcibly at home. This fact is clear from verses yet to come: mātaraḥ pitaraḥ putrāḥ (Bhāg. 10.29.20), yat-paty-apatya-suhṛdām anuvṛttir aṅga (Bhāg. 10.29.32) and pati-sutānvaya-bhrātṛ-bāndhavān (Bhāg. 10.31.16). In his comments on the Tenth Canto, Śrīla Kavi-karṇapūra Gosvāmī mentions this fact. Without trying to repeat all his thoughts on this verse, we will give the gist of his purport:

COMMENT

This is Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura quoting from Sri Kavi-karnapura Gosvami.

PURPORT (continued)

“‘Upon seeing the personal form of Lord Śrī Rāmacandra, the sages who were worshipers of Lord Gopāla immediately became elevated to the mature platform of spontaneous devotion, automatically reaching the stages of firm faith, attraction and attachment. But they had not yet completely freed themselves of all material contamination; therefore Śrī Yoga-māyā-devi arranged for them to take birth from the wombs of gopīs and become cowherd girls. By associating with the eternally perfect gopīs, some of these new gopīs fully manifested pūrva-raga loving attraction for Kṛṣṇa as soon as they reached puberty. (This kind of attraction develops even before one meets the beloved.) When these new gopīs got the direct audience of Kṛṣṇa and physically associated with Him, all their remaining contamination became burned up, and they achieved the advanced stages of prema, sneha and so on.

“‘Even though they were in the company of their cowherd husbands, by the power of Yoga-māyā the gopīs remained unsullied by sexual contact with them; rather, they were situated in purely spiritual bodies that Kṛṣṇa enjoyed. On the night they heard the sound of Kṛṣṇa’s flute, their husbands tried to stop them, but by the merciful assistance of Yoga-māyā the sādhana-siddha gopīs were able to go forth to their beloved, together with the nitya-siddha gopīs.

“‘Other gopīs, however, because of not getting the good fortune of associating with the nitya-siddha gopīs and other advanced gopīs, had not achieved the stage of prema, and so their contamination was not completely burned away. They entered the company of their cowherd husbands and, after sexual union with them, gave birth to children. But a short time later even these gopīs developed their pūrva-raga by hankering intensely for the physical association of Kṛṣṇa — a hankering they acquired by associating with the advanced gopīs. Becoming worthy recipients of the mercy of the perfected gopīs, they assumed transcendental bodies fit to be enjoyed by Kṛṣṇa, and when Yoga-māyā failed to help them overcome their husbands’ attempts to keep them from going out, they felt themselves cast into the worst calamity. Viewing their husbands, brothers, fathers and other family members as enemies, they came close to dying. Just as other women might remember their mothers or other relatives at the time of death, these gopīs remembered the sole friend of their very life, Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the present verse of the Bhāgavatam, beginning with the word antar.

“‘It is implied that those ladies were not able to exit because they were held back by their husbands, who were standing before them with sticks in their hands, scolding them. Although these gopīs were perpetually absorbed in love for Kṛṣṇa, at that particular time they meditated upon Him and cried out within: “Alas, alas, O only friend of our life! O ocean of the artistic skills of Vṛndāvana forest! Please let us become your girlfriends in some future life, because at this time we cannot see Your lotuslike face with our eyes. So be it; we shall look upon You with our minds.” Each of them lamenting to herself in this way, the gopīs stood with their eyes shut and meditated deeply upon Him.’”

TEXTS 10 and 11

duḥsaha-preṣṭha-viraha-
tīvra-tāpa-dhutāśubhāḥ
dhyāna-prāptācyutāśleṣa-
nirvṛtyā kṣīṇa-maṅgalāḥ

tam eva paramātmānaṁ
jāra-buddhyāpi saṅgatāḥ
jahur guṇa-mayaṁ dehaṁ
sadyaḥ prakṣīṇa-bandhanāḥ

TRANSLATION

For those gopīs who could not go to see Kṛṣṇa, intolerable separation from their beloved caused an intense agony that burned away all impious karma. By meditating upon Him they realized His embrace, and the ecstasy they then felt exhausted their material piety. Although Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Soul, these girls simply thought of Him as their male lover and associated with Him in that intimate mood. Thus their karmic bondage was nullified and they abandoned their gross material bodies.

PURPORT

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments upon this verse as follows: “Here Śukadeva Gosvāmī speaks in a peculiar way: he presents the intimate object the gopīs attained as if it were an external idea, thus keeping its true nature secret from outsiders, while at the same time he reveals to the confidential devotees well versed in the scientific conclusions of devotional service the internal meaning that is his real purport. Thus to outsiders Śukadeva says that Kṛṣṇa gave the gopīs liberation, but to the confidential hearers Śukadeva reveals that when the gopīs experienced separation from their beloved there arose in them both immeasurable unhappiness and immeasurable happiness, and that they gradually achieved their desired goal.

“Thus the verse can be understood as follows: Because of their intolerable separation from their beloved, the gopīs felt terrible agony, by which they caused all inauspicious things to tremble. In other words, when people in general hear of the gopīs’ extreme agony in separation from their beloved, they abandon thousands of inauspicious things — things even as fearsome as the subterranean fires of millions of universes or the powerful poison swallowed by Lord Śiva. More specifically, those who hear of the gopīs’ love in separation give up their terrible false ego and, thinking themselves defeated, are shaken. When the gopīs meditated on Lord Acyuta, He became manifest and personally came to them, and they experienced great joy by embracing His body, which was full of transcendental love for them. The gopīs also experienced great joy by exhibiting personal characteristics and a sense of identification appropriate to such love. That joy made all their good fortune, both material and spiritual, seem paltry by comparison.

“The implication is that when other persons see how happy the gopīs became upon embracing Kṛṣṇa when He manifested Himself directly before them, these other persons feel that thousands of so-called auspicious objects are insignificant by comparison, including all the sense gratificatory pleasures found in millions of universes and even the supersensory pleasure of spiritual bliss (brahmānanda). Thus hearing of the gopīs’ distress and the joy that arose, respectively, out of their separation from the Supreme Lord and their union with Him, anyone can get rid of all the reactions of his past activities, both sinful and pious. Vaiṣṇavas certainly do not think that sinful and pious reactions can be destroyed only by being lived out, since, after all, neither separation from the Supreme Lord nor direct association with Him are in the category of karma. This kind of elimination of karmic reactions occurs in the stage of bhajana, for those who have come to the level of anartha-nivṛtti.

“And thus the gopīs thought of Kṛṣṇa — the Paramātmā, or supreme worthy object of all love — as their paramour. Even though such a concept is ordinarily contemptible, the gopīs realized Kṛṣṇa in an even fuller sense than did Rukmiṇī and His other queens, who thought of Him most respectfully as their husband. That thinking of the Lord as one’s paramour is superior to thinking of Him as one’s husband is proved by the fact that unbridled pure love is superior to domesticated love. This idea is borne out by the following words of Śrī Uddhava: yā dustyajaṁ sva-janam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā. ‘These ladies of Vraja abandoned their families and their advanced religious principles, even though to do so is very difficult.’ (Bhāg. 10.47.61)

“In His pastimes on earth Kṛṣṇa often turns the most lowly things into the most elevated. As Bhīṣma stated, Kṛṣṇa’s pastime of acting as Arjuna’s chariot driver was even more elevated than the pastimes in which He acted as a mighty King of kings: vijaya-ratha-kuṭumba ātta-totre/ dhṛta-haya-raśmini tac-chriyeskṣaṇīye. ‘I concentrate upon the chariot driver of Arjuna, who stood with a whip in His right hand and a bridle rope in His left, and who was very careful to protect Arjuna’s chariot by all means.’ (Bhāg. 1.9.39) Similarly, in the Lord’s appearance as Kṛṣṇa we see that the normally inferior conjugal rasa becomes better than the normally superior mood of śānta-rasa, as also the attitude of loving a paramour becomes superior to the loving exchange between legitimate spouses, and lowly guñjā necklaces, red oxide paste and peacock feathers become better than the most excellent jeweled ornaments.

“But, it may be objected, it is not fitting for the Supreme Lord to sport with women whose bodies have already been enjoyed by other men. This objection is replied to by the words beginning jahuḥ. The word deham is used here in the singular form to indicate unity of category, even though the gopīs are many. Some authorities say that by the power of Yoga-māyā these gopīs’ bodies disappeared in a way no one noticed, but other authorities say that the ‘body’ referred to in this context is the inferior body, composed of the modes of material nature. Thus by the prominence of the adjective guṇa-mayam, it is understood that before the gopīs heard the sound of Kṛṣṇa’s flute their bodies had been twofold, material and spiritual, and upon hearing the flute they gave up the material bodies, which their husbands had enjoyed. We may analyze this as follows:

“When devotees begin prosecuting devotional service in accordance with the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master, they engage their ears and other senses in pure devotion by hearing of the Lord, chanting His glories, remembering Him, offering obeisances to Him, giving Him personal attendance, and so forth. Thus the devotees make the Lord’s transcendental qualities the objects of their senses, as stated by the Lord Himself: nirguṇo mad-apāśrayaḥ. (Bhāg. 11.25.26) In this way the devotees’ bodies transcend the material modes. Yet sometimes the devotees may take as their sense objects mundane sounds and so on, and that is material. Thus a devotee’s body can have two aspects, transcendental and material.

“According to one’s level of devotional service, to that degree the transcendental aspects of one’s body become prominent and the material aspects diminish. This transformation is described in the following verse from the Bhāgavatam (11.2.42):

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir
anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus
tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo ‘nu-ghāsam

‘Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things — these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.’ When one achieves totally pure love of God, the material portions of the body disappear and the body becomes completely spiritual. Nonetheless, so as not to disturb the false opinions of atheists and so as to protect the confidentiality of devotional service, the Supreme Lord usually has His illusory energy exhibit the demise of the gross body. An example of this is the disappearance of the Yādavas during the Mauṣala-līlā.

“Sometimes, however, to proclaim the excellence of bhakti-yoga, Kṛṣṇa will allow a devotee to go back to Godhead in his selfsame body, as in the case of Dhruva Mahārāja. We can cite evidence for this point from the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto, text 32:

yeneme nirjitāḥ saumya
guṇā jīvena citta-jāḥ
bhakti-yogena man-niṣṭho
mad-bhāvāya prapadyate

‘A living entity who conquers the modes of material nature, which are manifested from the mind, can dedicate himself to Me [Kṛṣṇa] by the process of devotional service and thus attain pure love for Me.’ Here the Lord states that the defeat and destruction of that which is composed of the modes of material nature can be brought about only by the process of devotional service.

“Therefore, what we should understand from the present verse of the Bhāgavatam is that the gopīs who could not go to see Kṛṣṇa had their inauspicious, material bodies removed or burned up, while their auspicious, spiritual bodies, far from being destroyed, simply grew more prominent because of the ecstasy the gopīs felt by embracing Kṛṣṇa in meditation. Thus their bondage was completely destroyed: by the help of Yoga-māyā they got free from ignorance and also from the prohibitions of their husbands and other relatives.

“We should not make the mistake of explaining this falling away of the gopīs’ bodies as being a result of their dying. As the Lord Himself states (Bhāg. 10.47.37):

yā mayā krīḍatā rātryāṁ
vane ‘smin vraja āsthitāḥ
alabdha-rāsāḥ kalyāṇyo
māpur mad-vīrya-cintayā

‘Some of those all-auspcious gopīs could not directly join Me in enjoying the rāsa dance on that night in this Vṛndāvana forest, yet still they achieved My association by remembering My transcendental pastimes.’ By using the word kalyāṇyaḥ in this verse, the Lord implies, ‘Even though these gopīs wanted to give up their bodies because of their husbands’ prohibitions and the torment of separation from Me, for them to die at the very beginning of the most auspicious festival of the rāsa dance would have been displeasing to Me and thus inauspicious. So they did not die.’

“More evidence that the gopīs who were prevented from going to see Kṛṣṇa did not physically die is provided by a statement of Śrī Śukadeva’s later in this canto (10.47.38): tā ūcur uddhavaṁ prītās tat-sandeśāgata-smṛtīḥ. ‘Then they [the gopīs] replied to Uddhava, feeling satisfied because His message had reminded them of Kṛṣṇa.’ Here we understand that the gopīs speaking to Uddhava were the ones who had not had the chance to participate directly in the rāsa dance because of being held captive in their homes. Thus the conclusion is that they gave up their material bodies without dying. Parched by the intense heat of separation, their material bodies gave up their materiality and became purely spiritual, just like the bodies of such great devotees as Dhruva Mahārāja. This is the meaning of the gopīs’ ‘giving up their bodies.’

“The following analogy illustrates the statuses of the various gopīs: By observing seven or eight ripe mangoes on a tree, we can ascertain that all the fruits on the tree are ripe. Then we can pick them all and bring them home, where in due course the sun’s rays and other agents will make them fine-looking, fragrant and delicious — fit to be offered to the king for his enjoyment. When the time comes for the king to take his meal, a discriminating servant can choose those fruits ready to offer him. From the appearance of the fruits the servant can tell which are ripe in the middle but still raw on the outside and thus not yet fit for the king. By the application of a special heating process, these remaining fruits will become ripe in two or three days, and then they too will be ready to offer to the king.

“Similarly, among the muni-cārī gopīs who took birth in Gokula, those who completely gave up the materiality of their bodies and very early in life achieved purely spiritual bodies were able to remain untouched by any other man; thus Yoga-māyā allowed them to join the nitya-siddha and other advanced gopīs when they went to meet Kṛṣṇa. Other muni-cārī gopīs still retained some connection with the external material body, but even they, after being parched by the heat of separation from Śrī Kṛṣṇa, gave up the materiality of their bodies and assumed perfectly transcendental bodies, purified of all taint of contact with other men. On the night of the rāsa dance, Yoga-māyā sent some of these gopīs out behind those who had already gone out; others, who Yoga-māyā saw still had a slight amount of contamination, she kept back to further purify with the heat of separation, and then she sent them out on some other night.

“After enjoying the pleasures of the rāsa dance and other pastimes with Kṛṣṇa, the muni-cārī gopīs who had participated went back to their homes when the night was over, as did the nitya-siddha and other advanced gopīs. But now Yoga-māyā protected these muni-cārī gopīs from the material association of their husbands; in other words, these gopīs were devoid of any selfish attachment for husband, children and so on. Since these gopīs were thoroughly immersed in the great ocean of love for Kṛṣṇa, their breasts dried up so that they could not feed their infants, and to their family members they appeared as if haunted by ghosts. In conclusion, it is not unseemly that the gopīs who were previously in material association joined in the rāsa dance.

“Some authorities, however, maintain that the gopīs who were kept back in their houses did not have children. According to them, whenever such words as apatya (‘children’) are used in verses yet to come, these words refer to the children of co-wives, to adopted children or to nephews and nieces.”

COMMENT

Any questions or comments?

Karunamayi: I don’t understand much of it but from what I understand there are different groups of gopīs and so if all these sages became gopīs they were sadhana siddha. Can they join with groups of eternally liberated gopīs in the spiritual world? Are the groups set already? There are living entities that never fall and then there are living entities that can fall. If you are part of that group. . . I don’t understand. That is what I am asking.

Giriraj Swami: Well, when the muni-cārī gopīs were qualified enough they got the association of the nitya-siddha gopīs and by the association of the nitya-siddha gopīs they developed pūrva-rāga or intense attraction to Krishna even before they met Him. So when Krishna played His flute on the full moon night of the sarat season, because they had already developed their attraction for Krishna by the association of the nitya-siddha gopīs and other advanced gopīs, Yoga-māyā allowed them to leave their homes and join with Krishna. But other muni-cārī gopīs who were not fortunate enough to have the association of nitya-siddha gopīs did not develop pūrva-rāga or such strong attraction to Krishna before they met Him. And because they were not fully qualified Yoga-māyā kept them in their houses. As we read they felt intense agony because of separation of Krishna and then when Krishna came to them and embraced them, internally they felt extreme ecstasy. And by the intense agony they burnt up all impiety and by the extreme ecstasy they burnt up all piety. In other words they became completely pure. And then Yoga-māyā arranged for them to associate with the nitya-siddha and other advanced gopīs. Then they became qualified to join with Krishna. So according to one’s qualification, even when one is a sadhana-siddha, he or she will get the association of nitya-siddha gopīs. They also serve the Lord in the association of nitya-siddha gopīs. Was that your question?

Karunamayi: Yes, but in terms of the groups that are already there. . .

Giriraj Swami: Here ‘groups’ means categories; it does not mean groups.

Karunamayi: Different parties of gopīs.

Giriraj Swami: No it does not mean that because sadhana-siddha gopīs do join the parties of nitya-siddha gopīs. That is the goal – to serve under the nitya-siddha gopīs like Lalita, Visakha, Rupa mañjarī and so on. 

Krsangi: Guru Maharaja, the pastimes that you described about some of the gopīs who still had some material contamination and could not join in the rasa dance and in the heat of separation they got purified. Do these pastimes take place in Vrindavan in the material world? Not in spiritual world?

Giriraj Swami: No, the process is that when one attains perfection in the material world, he takes birth on the planet in the material world where Krishna has His pastimes. Then one develops the higher stages after prema like sneha, mana, raga, anurāga, bhava, mahā-bhāva. And then after gaining entry into Krishna’s pastimes in the material world one is promoted to the spiritual world in the next life. So the descriptions we are reading here in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are from the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan on earth or Mathura or Dvaraka on earth.