Naradabhakthisuthra -suthras21 to24

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Suthra 21-yaThA vrajagopikAnAm

 

Such indeed was the devotion of the gopikas of vraja.

 

Narada has said in the previous suthra that there are examples of this kind of bhakthi ‘asthu evam evam,’ and now he is showing the examples of it.

 

Sri Ramakrishna has said that the devotion of the gopis was the devotion of love, constant unmixed and unflinching. They loved Krishna more than anyone else and proved as the examples of the bhakthiyoga which Krishna was going to preach in the battlefield in his discourse of the Bhagavatgita, ‘mayyeva mana Adhathsva mayi buddhim nivesaya,’ by thinking of him alone all the time. Swami Vivekananda said that rasalila is the acme of the religion of love, to which individuality vanishes and there is communion. This is understood by the unenlightened as being erotic. Even Parikshit was no exception to this misconception and raised the doubt that how could these women who thought about Krishna only as their lover attain the divine communion with him. Suka pointed out that the single pointed concentration on the Lord in whatever capacity is enough to attain Him. Krishna himself clarifies this doubt in Srimad bhagavatham by saying that the desire of those, who approach him to satisfy the baser instincts, become like roasted seeds which never shoot up again,(Bh.10-22-28) In the 11th skandha Krishna remarks that the gopis attained that state which even the yogis find difficult to reach by their sheer love.(Bh.11-12-13). Swami Vivekananda has said that to understand the love of gopis it is first essential to make yourself pure as it could not be understood with impure minds. It is to be remembered that the one who told the story was Suka who was a self-realised master and those who gathered to hear him were the sages who have renounced the world.

 

Suthra 22- thathrApi na mAhAthmyajnAnavismrthi apavAdhaH

 

Even if the love was human it could not be construed that they were not aware of the divinity of Krishna.

 

The gopis were fully aware of the fact that Krishna was not human but the supreme purusha. They have witnessed his super human exploits and never thought of him as a mere human being.

 

Brahadaranyaka Upanishad declares that everyone and everything is loved only because one loves oneself. ‘na vA are pathyuh kAmAya pathih priyo bhavathi----Athmanansthu kAmAya sarvam priyam bhavathi ‘(Brhd.2-4-5)

 

The Lord is the inner self of the individual self and hence compared with the love of Him everything else becomes secondary. This was the state of the gopis that they left everything and everyone and rushed to Krishna , the supreme self. This was the love of Meera in more recent times.

 

Suthra-23- Thadviheenam jArANAm iva

 

Had they been lacking in this knowledge of divinity of Krishna it would have been the love for a paramour.

 

This distinguishes between the earthly love and the divine. Even in the worldly sense a pure love should not be of the body but of the soul. A devotee loves all because he sees the Lord in all. Love is divine when there is no expectation or possessiveness. When you feel love for a person it is due to a momentary removal of a screen that veils the divinity in them which is in contact with the divinity within you. Detachment alone can give rise to real love, which does not require the presence or even any communication with the loved one.

 

Love in its ultimate state is the love of God .You do not see Him or speak to Him but you feel that He is very close and that He can hear you and see you and knows your innermost thoughts. All other kinds of love is only a semblance of that love which is Bhakthi.

 

This idea is set out in the next suthra where Narada says that such worldly love which is of sensual nature is selfish and does not please the one who is loved.

 

Suthra 24-nAsthyeva thasmin that sukha sukhithvam

 

The happiness of a selfish love does not consists in the happiness of the one who is loved.

 

The real love is when one does not care for his own happiness but willing to suffer to make the loved one happy. The gopis did not love Krishna for selfish motives and were ready to give up all for making him happy This suthra brings out yet another distinguishing feature of bhakthi which consists in selfless love forgetting oneself in serving the Lord.

 

End of part 1 of Naradabhakthisuthra.