Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj
“Of all these gopis, Lord Krishna is most attracted to me. This is famous in the world. He regards my love to be as great as Mount Meru, and the love of the other gopis to be like three or four mustard seeds. Krishna responds with the love of the other gopis according to the qualities of their respective love. That is not wrong of Him, but if even one gopi gets out of line and makes Him unhappy, then I become very sad.”
“If Krishna sometimes doesn’t come at the meeting place, then I know He must have met some obstacle. Even though His mind is fixed on Me He may feel obliged at times to enjoy with some other gopi, being compelled by her. He will not feel happy with her, but would be burning in a fire of misery the whole night. For this pain of His I am again very sad. I will cry, thinking: ‘My dress, ornaments are all useless!’ You have all experienced that.”
“Then when Krishna humbly comes to me in the morning I will angrily tell Him : ‘Go back and enjoy with that other girl.’ But that is also all for His pleasure. Such are the ways of love in Vraja.”
“I show my own feeling by saying: ‘You cheater! Why did you leave me to go to another girl?’ and Krishna shows His feelings by standing before me, admitting His own offense. Therefore I am saying, O sakhi, as long as the light of prema does not shine through the face, it will shine steadily in the abodes of both the lover’s hearts.”
“But if it is brought outside it will disappear or diffuse. The candle-light of prema can shed its own abundant radiance to a realized soul as it comes out through the windows of the eyes and illuminates the cheeks, lips, forehead and chest in a magnificent way. But although this prema shines from the face of Krishna, it is never satisfied, because He cleverly covers it with a curtain of lies, so that it will look like lust.”
“Then He will describe the beauty and sweetness of my face and eyes, just to enjoy with me, as if He is overwhelmed by lust. But He does not show His prema by saying “You are my life’ and so on.”
“But when a gopi is burning in the fire of separation, she reveals her prema by singing verses like : ‘Oh dearly beloved! Your lotus feet are so soft that we place them gently on our chests, fearing that your feet will be hurt. Our life rests only in you. Our minds, therefore, are filled with anxiety that your tender feet might be wounded by pebbles as you roam about on the forest path.”
“In this way she clearly expresses her unmotivated love for Krishna. Although the life-airs are unable to penetrate the deep darkness of this great separation, the lamp of prema shines brightly in it, because the oil of great affection nourishes it.”
“After abandoning the gopis in the rasa dance He also left Me. Listen to why He did this. The Prince of Vraja is an ocean of divine love, and He considers me to be the greatest of His lovers. I can never take offense at His behaviour.”
“He seated me on a divine throne of matchless good fortune and adorned me with many kinds of jewel-like pastimes, wandering from one forest to another with me, and enjoying loving pastimes with me without remembering any other gopi. Then I thought to myself: ‘My girlfriends cannot see this great nectar-ocean of bliss. Where are they now, afflicted by separation? Ah what shall I do? If we stay here any longer, the sakhis who are wandering here and there looking for Us will soon find Us.’
“Thinking like this, I told Krishna: “Dearest one, I cannot walk any further.’ And we sat down for a moment. Krishna, the crown jewel of clever pranksters, and the foremost relisher of transcendental mellows, knew what was on My mind and thought to Himself: ‘If I wander through the forest with Srimati Radharani there will be no happiness. All the gopis will become sad, and if we both wait for them here they will find us and chastise us for leaving them. Then all our lilas will stop for the night and the gopis will go home without dancing the rasa dance with me.’
“Therefore He left me, so that the gopis would put the blame on Him instead of me, and they would love me in all respects. He thought: ‘they will be absorbed in an ocean of amazement after seeing Her matchless fever of separation from me. The pride of their love for me will be diminished and they will see how Radha is billions of times better than all of them, in the mood of union and in separation.’
“He thought: ‘They may think that I am lusty, and that is why I left them to play with Srimati Radharani, although their love for Me is much greater than Hers. Thus they may accuse us. But when they are burned by the flames of separation from Me that burns Srimati Radharani, as they come closer to Her, they will realize that these flames are much more intense than the insignificant fires of their love.’
“He thought: ‘I want them all to unite, and in this way my desire will be fulfilled. At the same time they will not be jealous when I later dance in the middle of the circle of the rasa dance, with Srimati Radharani as the central gopi.’
“O Goddess. Thinking like this, Krishna affectionately carried me on His chest for a while and then said: ‘Dearest One, just wait here for a moment.’ Then He placed me behind in a soft place.
“When Krishna saw how upset I was about this He felt very sorry, but just as He was about to return to console Me, My girlfriends came and found Me there and comforted Me in My mood of intense separation.”
“In reality, Krishna didn’t do anything wrong by killing the demons Arishtasura, Bakasura, Aghasura, Vatsasura and the deceitful Putana, because they were killed by the power of Lord Vishnu, who appeared in Him (Krishna) to protect the devotees. Sri Krishna’s transcendental feats, like killing these demons and lifting Govardhana Hill proved Garga Muni’s words to Nanda Maharaja that Sri Krishna is equal to Lord Narayana in qualities.”
“But, O devi, Lord Narayana cannot equal Krishna in form, attributes and sweetness. That is what I understood from the words of Garga, the best of the Munis.”
Hearing these beautiful words of Srimati Radharani, Lord Hari eagerly said: “I know that you are the only reservoir of the prema you have just explained. O dear friend! The essence of your ambrosial talks about prema is that it makes the lover’s faults look like good qualities, it makes the misery of the lover seem like the delightful taste of nectar, it makes one incapable to stand even the slightest misery that the lover may feel, it makes one unable to give up one’s body and it makes the lover seem glorious even though he may not be glorious at all. That is prema, O Radha, and you are the only refuge of that prema, just as I have heard in in Devi Parvati’s assembly.”
“But, O sakhi! I fear Hari does not have the same love for you. That I can see from his activities! Therefore my heart burns when I see your heart burning in a forest fire of misery. How can we believe your clarification of why He left you in the rasa dance? We have never heard this from Him, nor from His friends. And when did they ever speak the truth?”
Srimati Radharani said: “Sakhi! I know exactly and instantly what is on my beloved’s mind.”
Lord Krishna replied: “Really?! How could you know? Have you studied the Achyuta yoga scriptures, so that you know how to enter other people’s bodies?”
Srimati Radharani said: “You are a demigoddess, therefore you are always eager to learn this Achyuta yoga. I am but a human being, so how can I be like you? If you think you can trust Me, I will tell you how I can know what is in my lover’s mind. Otherwise, why should I waste my words?”
Lord Krishna replied: “My dear Radha. If you can logically convince me, then why shouldn’t I believe you? Your lover may be an ocean of qualities, but I don’t believe He actually loves you.”
Srimati Radharani answered: “You are an expert comedian. You must be joking when You call someone who does not know the mind of Her beloved a seer who is able to enter someone else’s body or mind.”
Krishna then said: “Gandarvike I don’t argue whether you know His mind I or not, but the question is if He knows yours.”
Radharani replied: “He knows my mind. Why do you ask? Listen to the secret surrounding this. I will tell you, only because you control me with your love.”
Krishna said: “Radhe! I ask you this because I am overwhelmed with love for you. You should tell me truthfully as I want to hear it, and don’t hide anything.”
Srimati Radharani said: “We know what is in each other’s minds; and we always dwell there. This is not imagination. We are actually one soul. We can never be split in two. We are one soul; full of deep rasa, with a golden and bluish form, like two lotus flowers, one golden and the other blue, in one lake.”
“O sakhi! When the wind of separation seems to blow out the lamp of our love, our expert girlfriends carefully protect it and give it new life by arranging for us to meet each other. O auspicious girl, remove the darkness of your doubts by opening the treasure-chest of my heart and looking at the secret gems of love in it. Hold them in your heart and never show them to anyone!”
Krishna said: “I fully considered what You told Me just now, and now My mind becomes very eager to directly test Your words. Now you are here, but where is your beloved? Is He at home or is He tending His cows in the forest? How can you make me believe that you are one soul without allowing me to test it? O fair-faced girl, I will definitely believe you when you can show me that you are thinking of the same thing as Him at the same time. Is your lover nearby or far away? Quickly think of this and I will happily believe that you are one soul with two bodies.”
“I will not be unfaithful if by chance you cannot meet because you are withheld by your superiors, because of some demon, or because of any other reason, though you may be thinking of each other. Although You are locked in Your house and You cannot call Your lover, go out to meet Him or bring Him to You, still, O restless eyed girl, You must remember Him just once on My request. O Krishna-priya, we will be very happy if He would come. Now is a good chance, because your superiors are not here. So boldly remove the misery coming from my doubts.”
Being requested like this Srimati Radharani, said: “O sakhi, if I cannot do what you wish for, my prema will be put to shame by my great pain.”
Then Maharaja Vrishabhanu’s daughter prayed: “O You who are praised by the demigods, O effulgent One, my chosen Deity, O Sun God, You who delights the three worlds with His radiance, O fulfiller of all desires, O merciful one, Lord of the lotus flowers. O witness of all truths and falsehoods. If Gandarvika and Giridhari are one soul, then let Giridhari now appear before me to satisfy my girlfriends.”
Saying this, Sri Radhika meditated on Her beloved Lord, Sri Krishna, with closed eyes, concentrating her mind like a yogini. Then Krishna gave up His female disguise, winked at His loyal girlfriends, and embraced Srimati Radharani to his heart.
Radharani’s body shivered with goose pimples of ecstasy when She saw Her beloved appear in Her meditation as well externally, and She washed the kohl from Her eyes with Her ecstatic tears.
When fair-eyed Radha came to Her senses She shyly covered Her face with Her veil, while Lalita told Krishna: “O capricious one. It’s most incredible that you appeared here in such an invisible way. This inner chamber is only accessible to housewives, and even the wind cannot enter it. Any man who enters this chamber is the crest jewel of all audacious men. Not only is this chamber hard to enter, but Srimati Radharani is also protected by Her friends like me. All the chaste women purify themselves by bathing in the pure Ganges water of Radharani’s fame. You are so shameless! My friend sat down on Her asana to meditate before worshipping the Sun God after Her ritual bath, and now you have forcibly touched and polluted Her. Aren’t you afraid of the Sun God? Have yougiven up all social and religious etiquette? Don’t you have any shame? Anyway Madhava, You’re fortunate today that Jatila and Abhimanyu are not at home and we are all weak helpless girls. Indeed you are very lucky!”
Lord Krishna replied: “It’s not my fault. I was playing in the courtyard of my barn when I suddenly remembered Srimati Radharani, and then this goddess brought me here.”
Radha said: “Lalite! Where is the goddess now? I have to see her to make her believe me.” Lalita said: “The goddess became free from distress when she saw you meeting with Krishna. Now she shines in this room, and we have all become most happy.”
Lord Krishna said: “Show Me that goddess.” But Lalita frowned at him remained silent.
Krishna then said: “In such a short period I have understood your brazenness. Has any perfected lady or goddess come here, from whom you have taken a siddha mantra with which you want to control Me and force Me into slavery? O Radharani, I also want a mantra from this goddess. Help me to get the same mantra that you received. I very eagerly take shelter of you. Take Me to a I lonely place and initiate Me as Your disciple!”
Srimati Radharani shyly replied: “Your flute already knows that enchanting art with which you take the virtuous housewives on your lap.”
Krishna replied: “But if you steal the flute, then what will be my fate? Even through My flute I cannot have my desires fulfilled.”
Lalita said: “Seeing You, this goddess shyly hides inside the house without coming out. So how can she give you the mantra? If you are so eager to get it, then go inside yourself. If she is kind to You, You will have your desires fulfilled.”
Hearing this, Lord Krishna entered the house and Srimati Radharani said: “Lalita, what’s happening? I’m scared.” Lalita replied: “What are you afraid of! Come, we’ll all go with you and Hari to see this sakhi.”
The seeds of Krishna’s words were thus planted in Radha’s field-like heart and sprinkled with the nectar stream of jokes of the cloudlike sakhis, causing a stream of amusing arguments to grow, that bore the luscious fruit of true love.
Then Lalita said: “Sakhi! That goddess has left. Where has she gone? We’re quickly going out to look for her. You can make your beloved happy by giving Him the mantra yourself.” Then she quickly left with her girlfriends.
Then Sri Radha and Krishna adorned each other with many play jewels from their love box, thus defeating the lustre of millions of Cupids.
Even the great saints defeat Cupid by always hearing, glorifying and remembering such loving transcendental pastimes.
Anyone who devotedly hears or describes this pastime of the Supreme Lord with the gopis of Vraja attains supreme devotion for Sri Krishna, and quickly becomes free from the disease of lust, becoming fixed in Krishna consciousness.
Source – Sri Chaitanya institute of Baistanvic Culture
