Krishnanandalahari-Yadhavabhyudhaya of vedantadesika-

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Desika describes the state of the mind of the gopis who looked at Krishna by a beautiful sloka.

 

apathrapAsaikatham AsrithAnAm

rAgOdhaDHou krishnamukhEndhununnE

hasthAvalambO na babhoova thAsAm

uthpakshmaNAm uthkalikApluthAnAm

 

The face of Krishna was like the moon, krishnamukhEndhu, that caused the waves of desire to rise in the sea of love, rAgAbDHi. The gopis tried to ascend on the sand hill made of bashfulness., apathrapAsaikatha, due to the fear of censure, in order to escape being immersed in the sea, and looked up to get some support,uthpakshma but not finding any, hasthAvalamba,were deeply immersed in their love.

 

At this juncture Desika asserts that there was no brahmacharyabhanga to Krishna by sporting with the gopis which is proved in the incident of saving the life of Parikshith who was born charred by the apandavAsthra of Asvatthama. In Mahabharatha Krishna says 'yadhi mE brahmacharyam syAth sathyam cha mayi thishTathi avyAhatham mamaiSvaryam thEmna jeevathu bAlakah,' that if he is a true brahmachari and there is truth in him and if his mastery is untarnished this child should live.And Parikshith came back to life.

 

There is another story to illustrate this.

Once Krishna told a gopi to take food for Vyasa who was at the other side of river Yamuna. But she was not able to cross the river as Yamuna was in spate. Krishna told her to pray that if Krishna was a nithya brahmachari the river should part. Probably the gopi had her own doubts but she had explicit faith in Krishna and did as he told her and the river parted and she went to the other side and gave the food to Vyasa. But again there was flood and she could not go back . Then Vyasa told her that if he was nithya upavasi the river will part. This time the girl was really perplexed because just then he ate the whole food brought by her and termed himself a nithya upavasi. She expressed her doubt to Vyasa and also told him what Krishna said about Himself.. Vyasa explained that both of them being jeevanmukthas the function of their bodies did not touch their real Self. The real `I' which is the pure Self is neither the doer nor the enjoyer.

 

What does this mean?The Lord is the inner self of all and the experience of the body does not touch the self. The whole world is the sarira of the Lord and the experiences iof the world do not touch Him who is the self.Krishna, being the supreme self, all the experiences are for the others and not for Him. He appears to have the experience through His maya.

 

 

There are two ways to mukthi, rasAsvadha, or experiencing the joy of union with the Lord and brahmajnana, through meditation or jnanamarga.The upanishad says, 'rasO vai sah;rasam hOvAyamlabDhva Anandhee bhavathi.' Brahman or Narayana is the rasa and attaining Him is the bliss. Rasa, Anandha and Brahman are synonymous terms.

 

The rasakreeda signifies the jivas enjoying the bliss with the Lord. The sages see the leela of the Lord in the world where all the jivas are around Him holding His hand.So the whole world is the brindavan and the leela of the Lord in creating sustaining and annihiating is the rasakreeda. RAsa is also termed as the collection of all the five vaishnava rasas, namely,dAsya, sakhya, vAtsalya,madhura and shantha.

 

To those who criticise the rasleela the answer would be that Krishna was only 10 when he was in Brindavan and where does eroticism figure? Parikshit himself was ignorant on this aspect and asked Shuka how is it justified for one who incarnated for dharmasamsthapana to play with the wives of others. And Shuka replied,

gOpeenAm thathpatheenAm cha sarvEshAmEva dhEhinAm yO anthascharathi so aDHyakshah kreedanEna iha dhEhabhavah

 

The one who is the indweller of the gopis and their husbands and all beings and the witness self, is now playing in physical form.

 

Srimadbhagavatha says,

rEmE ramESO vrajasundareebhih

yaTHA arbakah svaprathibimba vibhramah.

 

The Lord of Lakshmi enjoyed the company of the cowherd damsels as a child will revel in his own reflections.

 

The whole of Bhagavatha is considered to be the sarira of the Lord and the five adhyayas describing rasakreeda are the prANasThAna. It is bhakthyAh parA kAshTA na sringArasya . It is the height of devotion and not of physical desire.It is said in Bhagavatha that the husbands never felt the absence of their wives during the nights of rasakreeda because their yogasariras were with Krishna while their bhogasariras were at home doing their duty. As the gopis saw only Krishna everywhere their love for their kith and kin only increased,and for the same reason it was reciprocated.

 

 

Vedantadesika mentions that the brahmacharya of Krishna was not in any way affected,'na brhmachryam bibhidhE thadheeyam, and Appayyadikshita , a leading exponent of advaita, writing commentary on this work says that this is because everythng is His sarira and He was embracing His own sarira. He quotes the PAdhmOttharakAnda from PadmapuraNa where Lord Siva tells Parvathi, who raised the same question, that it is like 'svasariraparishvanga' embracing oneself.

 

The one who related the story is a parivrajaka brahmajnani and the one to whom it is told is Parikshit, paramabhagavtha and those who listened were rshis. All jivas are women and He alone is the Purusha.

(This explanation is given here instead of giving it in the chapter on rasakrida because it would help understanding and enjoying Rasakreeda when we come to the chapter.)