[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Concept, of Bakri Yoga

[Guest guest]

God is experienced by each individual in his own way.This idea is strikingly illustrated in Bhagavatham, in which Krishna assumes as many forms of himself as there are cowherd women,his disciples and manifests to shower love on each individually.Of course many a puerile moralist holds that Sri Krishnas relationship with innumerable Gopis stands on exclusive footing and no mortal dare copy it.But this position of the pseudo-moralist arises from an imperfect understanding.There is not in this episode any trace of taint which the moralist would hv us behold.Sri Krishna the enchanter of Gopis had just seen nine autumns when he had concluded his sports with the milk maid of Brindavan.Is it ever possible for a boy of eight or nine to hv any kind of conjugal realationship with thousands of women?Does the plan of Nature admit of such a possibility?

 

When still a baby Sri Krishna, killed the demons like Putana, Trnvrata, Sakatasura and so on. At the age of seven, Krishna lifted the govardhana hill with a little on his left hand and danced on the kaliya serpent. He was constantly defying the known laws of nature even as a small child. Being God, why cant he ? According to Srimad Bhagavatam, he has 16000 wives and he was simultaneously present with each one of them and their children. It also defied the laws of nature.

 

According to the puranas, Krishna had conjugal relationship with the gopis, who were wives of other men. He advises them jokingly that it is immoral for them but they say they cannot control their attraction for him. One who accepts scriptures CANNOT deny the statements there in because it does not suit our notions of morality. We have to understand what the acharyas have said about it. In form, it may be somewhat similar but it is completely different in substance. His body was apakrta or transcendental and his activities cannot be compared to mundane sex which if born of rajo guna sambandha.

 

The philosophical understanding of rasa lila as explained by acharyas is as follows. The goal of vedanta is to become atma ramas or one who is satisfied in the Self. The yogis do that by meditating on the paramatma within the heart. The jnanis do it by meditating on the all-pervading brahman. The gopis, being the most exalted devotees, were atma ramas in the sense they were enjoying with Bhagavan Vasudeva, their innermost Self.

 

With the best of intentions, our efforts to understand scriptures will fail if we dont have the humility to learn from acharyas. I suggest that instead of writing our own views, we choose the writings of Srila Prabhupada, Madhwa, Ramanuja. Vallabha, Sridhara or Sankara.

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

Yes Rajaram,

I do agree with yr views with some reservations.But I hv studied in many puranas that even without any conjugal relationship the sages of yore were able to get children in multitudes in a single birth.from women they liked.In Bharatha Kunti got Karna from Sun God and they could not hv any relationship in sex as it is well nigh impossible to think that a mortal could go near the Sun.Will that also come under the category adumbrated by you? There are umpteen such stories in puranas which cant be digested.The birth of Karthikeya was also like that.The power emanated from the eyes of Siva coupled with the power of Sakthi gave rise to six children which when the Kritika girls embraced all the bodies merged into one and only six heads and a single body were there and they named him Arumugan.So do you want to say all the puranas,shuld be thrown to dustbin as they contain many things that go beyond the power of human mind.

I am not an authority on this.But even Sankara praised Karthikeya in his famous Subrahmanya Bujangam (an euology of Lord of Trichendur,) Were all the sages who produced children even without touching the loving women shuld be treated at par.So too the birth of Ganesa.He too was praised by the acharyas.At least in the case of Gopikas the matter is with a boy aged nine.

I dont hv the erudition to study the subjects projected by the great and venerable acharyas like Madhwa,Ramanuja,Sankara and others.Actually you shuld hv quoted some of their teachings and opinions on such controversial subjects as many of the members like me dont hv much access to that.