This article is being written by well known pushtmarg American vaishanav Mr Shyamdas who has translated a lot of other books also. He spents most of his time in vraj getting knowledge and sharing with us.I am lucky to have a friend like him who shares some of his views with me.
Vasant Punjabi.
Jai shri KRishna
here is something that i am working on from Subodhiniji
take a look
KRISHNA APPEARS
Now Shri Krishna showers His grace because He is delighted with the Gopis and moved by their gushing devotion. We understand through Hari’s play that there is no sadhana capable of pleasing God. For the ignited bhakta who remains in His orbit, the only means that can reach Hari is humility. The frim yet yeilding mood of humilty is the singular way to delight God and when humility arises in the Gopis, their every torment is sundered; but it only arose after they praised Him for a very long time.
The moment the Most Beloved appeared before the Gopis, they all bristled with ecstatic joy. Every hair on their bodies stood errect full of bliss and when they stood up to greet Hari, it was as it their prans had suddenly returned to them. He always resided within them but when He appeared before them their physical beings responsed to the divine manifestation. All of their senses and actions became filled with the joy of His presence. His sight makes the Gopis blossom like a lotus that opens with the rising sun. It is only love that can create this transformation and the Gopis’ source is Hari. When He arose, so did they.
Now hear what happened. One delighted Gopi took the Lord’s lotus hand into her plam while another placed His sandal paste annointed arm and put it on her shoulder. Another lucky lady put Hari’s chewed betal into her hand and strenghtened her relationship with God while another afflicted with His passion, placed His lotus feet upon her breasts. Another Gopi stood by with arched eyebrows filled with fiery love. She bit her lower lip and a fired a glance at Him. By raising her eyebrows she controlled time and transformed her mundane nature through the divine anger and greed that she directed towards Him. When she bit her lower lip, she avoid falling into the trap of liberation and increased her devotion.
Another gazed at Hari’s lotus face with unblinking eyes and drank in His beauty without siety. She became like a pure saint whose meditation on His lotus feet is unending. Another Gopi brought Hari into her heart through her eyes and her body bristled with joy. She remained unaware of anything else and appeared like a realized yogi and radiated perfect joy. She captured Hari into her eyes and then closed them to make sure that He would stay. Now she does not have to take Hari home with her to enjoy Him, she can do it within her heart and like a realized being, she can do anything she likes!
Hari appeared in countless unique way for all the various types blessed Gopis who made it to the Vrindavan forest. He related to them in ways they could fathom for He is potent and removes His bhakta’s disorders and conflicts by simply playing with them. Hari established the perfect states of nirodha within those Gopis right there in the Vrindavan forest. Those dairy maids then forgot their mundane worlds that are so difficult to overcome while their love and attachment to Him magnified.
As the Gopis imbibed Shri Krishna, they abandoned their pains of separation and became totally liberated. Passion filled Hari freed them of all inferior virtues and in the amazing celebration that followed, the Gopis became brillant! Their lila celebration could never be compared to anything worldly for it was endless and continually increases in Joy. It was as if the natural bliss of the dreamless state arose in them while they awoke. Not a tinged of anything mundane remained and even the state of liberation appeared pale before the peerless lila play.
When the Gopis gathered around the imperishable Krishna, it appeared like the Primal Being was embellished by His shaktis. Even though Hari is God, He could not, as the Sruits say, "play alone" for ultimate Joy is never found in only One. It arises when Hari sports with His divine powers, with the Braja Devis whose transformed natures now match His own, otherwise how could they embellish Him! Hari and the Gopis are now equal in blissful content and dedicated to only each other.
Shri Krishna while playing with His own divine portions made perfect splendor arise in Vrindavan. The play was full of amorous enchanges. Now Hari is surrounded by His own and He looks better than ever! The Gopis are endowed with lila wisdom and their every action reveals thousands of enlightenments. The Gopis are full of awareness as they drink deeply of His beauty that is at one with His Blissful nature. The Gopis now examplify the highest state of divine awakening that is revealed in the core of the sacred Srutis.
Hari then takes the Gopis to the banks of the Yamnuna river where jasmines and a multitude of other blossoming flowers fill the air with a magic fragrance that upsurge wonderful desires, some of them very secret. The breezes there are soft, fragrant and cooling. The intoxicate black bees hoover there singing divine songs while the river Yamunaji appears in her Devi form and makes everything lila perfect. Time has lost its hold and all things appear purely for the sake of Krishna’s play. The timing of everything is exact and every manifestation is for the lila pleasure. Time and space stand at attention in Hari’s lila service.
Meanwhile, the beams of the autumn moon remove the darkness and fill everything full of fortune. Shri Yamunaji’s waves become like hands and spread out the white delicate sands on Her banks and make them smooth and cool, fit for Hari’s dance. Every particle of Braja is filled with liberated joy, bright as a million suns. Not a speck of contrary substance can arise within Shri Yamunaji lila arrangements. Every detail is perfectly attended to and virtue arises everywhere and enable Shri Krishna to play properly, without hinderance.
When the Gopis have Krishna’s darshan, a Joy arises in their hearts that can only be compared to the when the sacred Srutis text themselves, who continually praise the supreme Brahman finally have their desires fulfilled when the arrive at the end of their spiritual serach. The Gopis realize the secret of their manifestation and then revel with it.
Because the Gopis are refined, they have arrived at the right place and now their every aspiration is perfected. What mind and speech can never approach and always return from without attainment, those Gopis attained. They not only praised Brahman but attained inimate proximity with that Most Sacred One, the final goal of all revealed and secret teachings. What is believed in by all true seekers, sought after in all the Upanisadas, whose foundations are recorded in the Vedant and recognized as the final goal, praised in the Vedas, that Supreme Divinity, sometimes called Brahman, Ishvar or named as Purushottam, with that lovely Hari, those lovely dairy maids danced. By simply listening to His glories, the heart becomes pure and capable of grasping what is divine, beyond the material creation yet its Creator. The pure saints sing of Him without any reliance on worldly means. Now to make sure that that Hari, the bestower of the supreme pursuit would not go anywhere, in an act of worship, a gesture that reveals the totallity of their soulful dedication, the Gopis take their shawls, tinged with the red kum kum powder that adorned their breasts and make a seat with them for Hari, the true friend of their souls while their fevor for Him increases.
Women of that era wore three types of cloth. One around their waist, one they tied tightly around their breast and the third as a shawl. The shawls they wore were of two types; one worn daily while a second one, made of very thin and delicate cloth was worn only during love play. That sheer shawl is the one the Gopis offered to their Beloved Hari to sit upon. It was stained with kum kum powder, that normally remains dry, but became wet during Hari’s love play. They offered the tinged garment to Hari because He is the closest friend of their soul, their true protector as well as the guardian of their divine bodies.
And then, Bhagavan who had fully entered all of the Gopis, that Lord of all enlighened Yogis who resides within their meditative hearts, who contains the concentrated beauty of all the Laxshmis of the three worlds, that lovely Krishna, who is so honored in the assembly of the Gopis, accepted their loving offering of shawls and sat down on them. He accepted them, even though they were tinged, because He can do, not do and do what is not either doing or not doing. He transformed their shawls into divine substance. Hari, made all the Gopis garments divine and they remained dry even when they froliced in the Yamuna river. Although Hari can easily accomplish what is impossible He always acts in accordance with the flow of ras.
Bhagavan who occassionaly stands in the pure hearts of His dedicated yogis, deep within the cavities of their inner meditations came before the Gopis and sat down on the seat of their damp shawls. It was the major asana, the main position and so lovely to behold, Hari sitting there surrounded by a group of loving Gopis. He appeared as their Lord and husband and embodied the beauty of countless love gods within His natural self. The lords of heavens, the goddesses of splendor, whatever beauty, wealth and opluence they have to offer was multiplied countless times in Hari’s every portion. He brought forth whatever was best for that time and locus so that all the Gopis could be enjoyed as well as enjoy!
The Gopis then sat around their Beloved with their eyes briming full of delight. Their eyebrows reflected a mood of dalliance as they began to praise Him who increased their divine passion. They took His feet into their laps and began to speak at first with some anger and resentment all the time remaining unaware of their physical bodies. Even though they were in the process of enjoying Him, they desired Hari again and again. They prayed to the One who increases their desires in so many divine ways. As they absorbed His glance, it increased their wisdom and removed knowledge of everything else. His dalliance nourishes their souls while His eyebrows controlled their time and made it divine. As they massaged His feet they felt some resentment and looked up at Hari and ask, "Why did you leave us, Your surrendered souls, alone in the forest?"
Hari acknowledge their words, for only He could pacify the lovely dairy maids. He then listened carefully to the Gopis’ question. "O Krishna, some love those who love them. Others love those who do not love them while there are some who do not love either those who love them or not. Who is the best and and also please explain to us who is ungrateful, foolish or appropriate here."
Shri Krishna then smiled and explained to those Gopis of Braja, "You know, some will only wash your feet if you wash theirs. There are also problems with those who worship those who do not worship them as well as complications in those who don’t care if they are worshipped or not.
"A person who worship only the one who worships him does not understand the spirit of the compassionate dharma and acts out of selfish concern. People like that get angry if they are not worshipped. Also know there is no dharma if a person accepts the worship of others while anticipating some recogniztion. Even when people do charity, there can be a sublte ego if they are thinking about how they help other beings. It is not pure dharma, although some people claim it is.
"Now consider the ones who love even those who do not love them, O lovely eyed ladies, they are for sure full of compassion and concern like we see in parents for their children. They are free of deception and are loving beings yet know their love is also worldly based. Then there are those who only follow the word of scripture and love even those who do not love them. They attain Vedic or heavenly rewards yet they too are self concerned and can not imbibe the total dharma. All of these people’s actions are motivated by previous karmas or past lives relationships.
"Now hear about those who do not worship or love either those who worship them, never mind those who do not worship them, They are of four types. Either they delight in only their own souls, have all of their desires fulfilled, are ungrateful or have contempt for their guru and other great being. Know gentle Gopis that I do not fall under any of these the categories I have explained to you.
"Understand, I don’t appear to worship those who worship Me in order to keep their minds and hearts always focused on Me. They are like a poor man who becomes rich and then after losing all of his wealth, is continually consumed by thoughts of wealth. This state is parallel to the bhaktas’ for they are consumed with thoughts of only Me.
"I am what the pure yogi seeks. Because I am Ram, the divine sport itself, I do not revel in my soul because I am the soul of all souls and comprised of pure atma. I am not a jiva, an embodied soul, and so I have no desires, hence My desires cannot be fufilled. Also I do not love people the way people love each other in this world yet I appear as the reward and become beneficial to everyone in whatever they want. But understand, if I enter someones sadhana, I will ruin it because they are performing practice for a purpose and I am without purpose. I am the reward of sadhana. I enjoy and can be enjoyed and grant bhaktas rewards but can also grant worldly gains that are controlled by time.
"You Gopis are not in any of these categories and so you are all worthy of experiencing My loving assocation. You remember Me like that rich man who loses his wealth and constantly remembers his lost wealth everywhere. O Gopis, for Me you have left everything that of this world or promised in the Vedas. You have established your minds and hearts into Me alone. Know that while hiding from you, I have been worshipping you all the time. Now please do not find find fault with My love. Know that you are My beloveds and I am yours.
"Even though I did not appear to you in this dark forest for a long time, know that I have always protected you dear blessed ones who have left everything for Me including liberation. When you did not even see Me, You left your famlies. This is indeed very hard to do. You forsaked all other dharmas and took my shelter one-pointedly. Your absorption into Me is a fruit in itself.
"Dearest Gopis, your worship and love is so pure that I can not repay you even within the lifetime of Brahma for you have broken the impossible chains of worldly lives and homes. I remain indebt to you forever. Know that My love has be tinged with deciet but not yours. Your efforts are purely divine, full of amazing karmas. You desire nothing in return for your worship except Me. This sort of bhajan is the dharma of the soul."
