Why Krishna watched as Gopis lifted water

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Why Krishna watched as Gopis lifted water

Once the gopikas of Brindavan were lifting heavy pails of water while their cowherd friend Krishna, stood by and watched. He made no move to help them. The gopis marked His strange indifference. However, a little later when they wanted to remove the pails from their heads and place them on the ground, Krishna rushed to help them. Asked why, He replied that His task was to help human souls unburden themselves, not assist them in adding burdens.

Often, we pray for the very things that God does not want to give us: added burdens. We seek fame, fortune and power but none of these give us the happiness we are seeking. Why? Simply because, all these are external and related to the world, whereas true happiness is internal and related to the spirit. We may strew our lives with pleasures, but that will not help because there is a vast difference between pleasure and happiness. The former is related to the senses and is evanescent; the latter is of and from the soul and is abiding.

How to attain soul-abiding happiness? The scriptures have a stunning thing to say... they tell us that there is nothing to attain for we are sat-chitananda or embodiments of bliss, it is just a question of realising it. The whole aim of life is this Self-realisation. To reach this one has to turn one’s gaze and attention inward, away from the material world, to the inner essence of being.

“Whether one is a yogi or a bhogi; whether one is a sanyasi or householder, he alone will be truly happy and will verily enjoy, who is ever revealing inwardly in Brahmanâ€, said Adi Sankara in the Bhaja Govindam.

It is maya or illusion that creates the universe and spreads before the mind the vast paraphernalia of the objective world. It is a nartaki or enchantress who entices the intelligence and traps the senses. Every material thing is a decoy to make you lose your way to the spirit. It’s like chasing mirages one after another.

The more you clear the clutter of worldly desires and negative thoughts the more space is created for spirit to surface and roam free. Desire in itself is not a bad thing; it is limitless desire that creates havoc and destroys peace.

A basic concept underlying the Hindu attitude to life is that of the four ends of man or purusharthas: dharma, righteousness; artha, wealth; kama, desire; and moksha, liberation. An emancipated and integrated approach to human experience is reflected in the four purusharthas. Dharma is the regulating factor and if artha and kama are kept within the parameters of dharma then the individual will, in the natural course, proceed towards the final and supreme aspiration, moksha.

Since material pleasures can never provide complete fulfillment, it is worthwhile to enquire deeply where true satisfaction and happiness lie. For this, one has to awaken the spiritual senses which exist in a dimension different to that of our limited physical senses.

Sathya Sai Baba says: “Less luggage, more comfort, make travel a pleasure. On this journey of life our desires are our baggage. The fewer our desires the greater our comfort... many people interpret renunciation to mean either giving away as charity, money or land or donning the ochre robe; but real renunciation is the giving up of desireâ€.