We like people to respect us with love. We too should respect and love them. There should be tenderness and warmth in your conversation.
Animals are tied with a rope.
Birds are tied with a cage.
Souls are tied with desires.
God is tied with love.
The anxious and inpatient Gopis ran swiftly to meet Lord Shree Krishna. Nothing could stop them.
The attractions of family, children, husband, parents and in-laws were unable to stop them. God welcomed them happily: “O most fortunate Gopis! I welcome you.” Thus, those who are mad after God will be received and welcomed happily by God.
Those who possess cars, a garden, estates, wealth or powers are not fortunate or lucky. Such wealth is mortal and not everlasting. Only those who are in love with God are most fortunate.
Lord Shree Krishna asked them, “Why have you come here late at night? Is Vraj in trouble? Is there any problem? It is dark and there is a dense forest between here and Vraj. You should not come all alone like this by leaving your husband and children at home. It is better if you to go back.”
(He played his divine flute and invoked the pains of separation. The majestic music drew the depressed ladies to the dense forest. There he criticised them, but the ladies had no complaint for him.)
God said, “O Gopis! It is not good for you to roam all alone at night in the dark forest. You should not leave your family and house at such late hour of the night. You should go back to your house and do my devotion there. The Gopis were shocked with such advice of Shree Krishna. They cried and said, “You called us to come here. Now, you are sending us back! O Krishna! Please don’t leave us. The soul that is tormented by the cycle of birth and death has come here for benign refuge. Please don’t push us away. O God! Who else would support us if rejected by you? We cannot go back. You have stolen our heart and soul. Give it back to us, if you want us to go back!”
God said, “Your soul and heart are merged in me. It cannot be given back now. Just as sugar that has dissolved in the milk cannot be separated from the milk.”
The Gopis prayed, “O Shree Krishna! Our feet are not ready to take a backward step from the refuge of your lotus-like feet. How can we go back?”
God said, “O Gopis! I know about your love, but leave at once for your home, at least for this moment.” The Gopis said, “Why are you asking us repeatedly to leave for our homes? We will not to go back at any cost. We will leave our life, but not you!”
God realised the love and devotional affection of the Gopis. It was pure and unpolluted. They desired nothing else from God.
God then submitted, “O Gopis! Let us play Raas – this is what you want isn’t it?” Raas leela then began. In the first round of raas leela there was one Krishna for every Gopi and they formed pairs so that all the Gopis in such pairs could play raas with Krishna. It was divine and majestic. In the second round of raas leela, Lord Shree Krishna with Radhikaji stood in centre of the circle and the Gopis played raasa about them in a circle. Sadguru Brahmanand Swami captures this event beautifully:
(Lord Shree Krishna played group raas with the Gopis in the charmful moonlight of Poonam. The atmosphere was charged with tender feelings of devotional love. The musical tunes of the jingling anklets were the added attractions of the dance. Lord Shree Krishna played tricks to attract the hearts of the Gopis. The night of the full moon of Sharad is great and great are the Gopis who play there the Raas-Leela. Lord Girdhar loves them heartily. Gopis are swinging to the devotional music by holding the arm of Shree Krishna. Lord Shree Krishna of Brahmanand Swami is pleased by the Gopis of Vraj.)
But the Gopis lost Shree Krishna all of sudden, when they were proud of their loving exchanges with God. Lord Shree Krishna knew about their vanity and disappeared from there to remove their ego. The raas halted all of a sudden.
(They played raas with Shree Krishna, but he disappeared all of sudden. The Gopis were separated from Shree Krishna in the forest. They spent the whole night lamenting for Shree Krishna. But they were not perturbed by it.)
Shree Krishna had disappeared. They searched for him. The stream of love breaks through false ego or pride. The Gopis enquired to the trees, creepers, plants and rocks of the whereabouts of Shree Krishna, but Krishna was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile said a Gopi, “God cannot be attained through such search. We should do hearty prayer to gain him back. Come, let us pray together.”
This tender song narrates the pains of their separation from Shree Krishna and is known as ‘Gopi Geet’.
O Shree Krishna! We are tormented by your separation. Nothing can cheer us, except darshan of thee. Please be kind to us and gift us your blissful darshan. Mere darshan will be enough to remove our grief. They prayed amidst lamentation. The tears from their eyes washed off the ego and pride from their heart.
(Lord of Vrindavan and the Raas- leela, Lord Shree Krishna manifested himself amidst the group of the Gopis.)
The Gopis got a new lease of life through darshan of Shree Krishna. They rose from their place and ran hurriedly to Shree Krishna. They held his hands and asked, “O Krishna! O my life and soul! Where did you go? We searched for you for so long. Where were you?”
Shree Krishna said, “I was here. I was behind that tree.”
“Why were we not able to see you?” They asked him anxiously.
Shree Krishna said, “Your eyes were covered with the curtain of ego. That curtain did not allow you to see me. Now it is molten in the tears shed by thee.” In this way the Gopis had submitted their ultimate happiness to Lord Shree Krishna.
Pada - 2
Sneh Geeta is a story of the sacred union of the individual consciousness with the supreme consciousness.
(Love is incomparable. Householders, recluses and ascetics do penance in the seclusion of the forest to develop divine love for God.)
God has said that he believes only in selfless love. He believes in devotional love and not in caste, lineage, strength or power. He measures a man by the measurement of love. God is interested only in a man’s love for Him.
It is the nature of water that it flows towards the lower levels. In our life too there will be no need to search vehemently for God - we just need to live the polite life of a disciple – of a devotee. God will come to us automatically, seeing our devotion.
Some do yoga, some do pilgrimage, some wear sets of rosaries and decorate their forehead with various symbols, some sustain life by drinking the water of Ganga and some do non-stop japa by counting the beads of the rosary, but their lifetime of efforts will be of no use if they did so without love for God. It will turn futile. God acts always with the love of his devotees at heart.
The Gopis sustain their brahmic relation by remembering the leelas of Shree Krishna. This is the best way to sustain a relationship. Remember God constantly during all your actions. God lives forever in the heart of the devotee who remembers him constantly. God’s presence in one’s heart helps the soul to rationalise worldly relations.
Shreeji Maharaj says (Vachanamrit G.M.55) “An Ekantika Bhakta should always engage his mind in meditation of God. He should sing the glory and majesty of God; he should serve God with his own hands. His ears should hear nothing but the stories of God.”
There is very little time and yet we are supposed to accomplish all these auspicious acts of devotion. God has given us this garden-like human body to do devotion. This body is absolutely suitable for devotion. The saints have said repeatedly that the delusive souls forget frequently the most attainable assignment - the assignment of ultimate benediction.
Contemporary man has forgotten about the ultimate aim of life, Moksha. Pollution has rotted his mind. The soul in his journey through the innumerable births has forgotten the supreme aim of life. He roams here and there without any aim. He doesn’t do what he is supposed to do. Sadguru Devanand Swami explains this in poetry:
(You did nothing of what you were supposed to do. You never gave an ear to listen to the name of God. You have attained nothing from your worldly life. You have not known Lord Jagdish. Your tasks are unfinished.)
God’s episodes make us forget the world. We are supposed to live in this world and yet supposed to forget the world. How can we do this? Where can we go in an attempt to leave this world? Wherever we go, the world will always be there with us! Therefore, we are not required to leave the world, but we are supposed to renounce the world in our mind. We have to free ourselves from the bonds of the world. God’s episodes (divine leelas) help us to forget the world.