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KB 1970-1-31 / Songs by the Gopis
31 / Songs by the Gopis
One gopi said, "My dear Krsna, ever since You took Your birth
in this land of Vrajabhumi, everything appears to be glorious.
The land of Vrndavana has become glorious, and it is as if the
goddess of fortune is personally always existing here. But it
is only we who are very unhappy, because we are searching for
You, but cannot see You with our greatest effort. Our life is
completely dependent upon You; therefore we request that You
again come to us."
Another gopi said, "My dear Krsna, You are the life and soul
even of the lotus flower that grows on the water of lakes made
transparent by the clear rains of autumn. Although the lotus
flowers are so beautiful, without Your glance they fade away.
Similarly, without You, we are also dying. Actually, we are
neither Your wives nor slaves. You never spent any
money for us, yet we are simply attracted by Your glance. Now,
if we die without receiving Your glance, You'll be responsible
for our deaths. Certainly the killing of women is a great sin,
and if You do not come to see us and we die, You will suffer
the reactions of sin. So please come see us. Do not think that
one can be killed only by certain weapons. We are being killed
by Your absence. You should consider how You are responsible
for killing women. We are always grateful to You because You
have protected us many times: from the poisonous water of
Yamuna, from the serpent Kaliya, from Bakasura, from the anger
of Indra and his torrents of rain, from forest fire and so
many other incidents. You are the greatest and most powerful of
all. It is wonderful for You to protect us from so many dangers,
but we are surprised that You are neglecting us at this moment.
"Dear Krsna, dear friend, we know very well that You are not
actually the son of mother Yasoda or the cowherd man Nanda
Maharaja. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the
Supersoul of all living entities. You have, out of Your own
causeless mercy, appeared in this world, requested by Lord
Brahma for the protection of the world. It is by Your kindness
only that You have appeared in the dynasty of Yadu. O best in
the dynasty of Yadu, if anyone afraid of this materialistic way
of life takes shelter at Your lotus feet, You never deny him
protection. Your movements are sweet, and You are independent,
touching the goddess of fortune with one hand and in the other
bearing a lotus flower. That is Your extraordinary feature.
Please, therefore, come before us and bless us with the lotus
flower in Your hand.
"Dear Krsna, You are the killer of all the fears of the
inhabitants of Vrndavana. You are the supremely powerful hero,
and we know that You can kill the unnecessary pride of Your
devotee as well as the pride of women like us simply by Your
beautiful smile. We are simply Your maidservants and slaves;
please, therefore, accept us by showing us Your lotus-like
beautiful face.
"Dear Krsna, actually we have become very lusty, having been
touched by Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet certainly kill all
kinds of sinful activities of devotees who have taken shelter
there. You are so kind that even the ordinary animals take
shelter under Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet are also the
residence of the goddess of fortune, yet You dance on the
head of the Kaliya serpent with them. Now we are requesting
You to kindly place Your lotus feet on our breasts and pacify
our lusty desires to touch You.
"O Lord, Your attractive eyes, like the lotus, are so nice and
pleasing. Your sweet words are so fascinating that they please
even the greatest scholars, who also become attracted to You.
We are also attracted by Your speaking and by the beauty of
Your face and eyes. Please, therefore, satisfy us by Your
nectarean kisses. Dear Lord, words spoken by You or words
describing Your activities are full of nectar, and simply by
speaking or hearing Your words one can be saved from the
blazing fire of material existence. Great demigods like Lord
Brahma and Lord Siva are always engaged in chanting the glories
of Your words. They do so to eradicate the sinful activities of
all living entities in the material world. If one simply tries
to hear Your transcendental words, he can very quickly be
elevated to the platform of pious activities. For the Vaisnavas,
Your words give transcendental pleasure, and saintly persons
who are engaged in distributing Your transcendental message all
over the world are first-class charitable persons." (This was
confirmed by Rupa Gosvami also when he addressed Lord Caitanya
as the most munificent incarnation because Lord Caitanya
distributed the words of Krsna and love of Krsna free of charge
all over the world.)
"Dear Krsna," the gopis continued, "You are very cunning. You
can imagine how much we are distressed simply by remembering
Your cunning smile, Your pleasing glance, Your walking with us
in the forest of Vrndavana, and Your auspicious meditations.
Your talks with us in lonely places were heart-warming.
Now we are all aggrieved to remember Your behavior. Please save
us. Dear Krsna, certainly You know how much we are saddened
when You go out of Vrndavana village to tend the cows in the
forest. How we are afflicted simply to think that Your soft
lotus feet are being pricked by the dry grass and the tiny
stones in the forest! We are so attached to You that we always
think simply of Your lotus feet.
"O Krsna, when You return from the pasturing ground with the
animals, we see Your face covered by Your curly hair and dusted
by the hoof-dust of the cows. We see Your mildly smiling face,
and our desire to enjoy You increases. O dear Krsna, You are
the supreme lover, and You always give shelter to surrendered
souls. You fulfill everyone's desire; Your lotus feet are even
worshiped by Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe. To
whomever worships Your lotus feet, You without a doubt always
bestow Your benedictions. So kindly be pleased with us and keep
Your lotus feet on our breasts and thus relieve our present
distresses. Dear Krsna, we are seeking Your kisses which You
offer even to Your flute. The vibration of Your flute enchants
the whole world and our hearts also. Kindly, therefore, return
and kiss us with Your mouth of nectar."
When Lord Krsna finally reappeared and assembled with the gopis,
He looked very beautiful, just befitting a person with all
kinds of opulences. In the Brahma-samhita, it is stated, ananda-
cin-maya-rasa-pratibhavitabhih: Krsna alone is not particularly
beautiful, but when His energy -- especially His pleasure
energy, represented by Radharani -- expands, He looks very
magnificent. The Mayavada conception of the perfection of the
Absolute Truth without potency is due to insufficient knowledge.
Actually, outside the exhibition of His different potencies,
the Absolute Truth is not complete. Ananda-cin-maya-rasa means
that His body is a transcendental form of eternal bliss and
knowledge. Krsna is always surrounded by different potencies,
and therefore He is perfect and beautiful. We understand from
Brahma-samhita and Skanda Purana that Krsna is always
surrounded by many thousands of goddesses of fortune. The gopis
are all goddesses of fortune, and Krsna took them hand in hand
on the bank of the Yamuna.
It is said in the Skanda Purana that out of many thousands of
gopis, 16,000 are predominant; out of those 16,000 gopis, 108
gopis are especially prominent; and out of 108 gopis, eight
gopis are still more prominent; out of eight gopis, Radharani
and Candravali are prominent; and out of these two gopis,
Radharani is the most prominent.
When Krsna entered the forest on the bank of the Yamuna, the
moonlight dissipated the surrounding darkness. Due to the
season, flowers like the kunda and kadamba were blooming, and a
gentle breeze was carrying their aroma. Due to the aroma, the
bees were also flying in the breeze, thinking that the aroma
was honey. The gopis made a seat for Krsna by leveling the soft
sand and placing cloths over it.
The gopis who were gathered there were mostly all followers of
the Vedas. In their previous births, during Lord Ramacandra's
advent, they were Vedic scholars who desired the association of
Lord Ramacandra in conjugal love. Ramacandra gave them the
benediction that they would be present for the advent of Lord
Krsna, and He would fulfill their desires. During Krsna's
advent, the Vedic scholars took birth in the shape of the gopis
in Vrndavana; as young gopis, they got the association of Krsna
in fulfillment of their previous births' desire. The ultimate
goal of their perfect desire was attained, and they were so
joyous that they had nothing further to desire. This is
confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: if one attains the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, then he has no desire for anything.
When the gopis had Krsna in their company, not only all their
grief, but their lamenting in the absence of Krsna was relieved.
They felt they had no desire to be fulfilled. Fully satisfied
in the company of Krsna, they spread their cloths on the ground.
These garments were made of fine linen and smeared with the
red kunkuma which decorated their breasts. With great care they
spread a sitting place for Krsna. Krsna was their life and soul,
and they created a very comfortable seat for Him.
Sitting on the seat amongst the gopis, Krsna became more
beautiful. Great yogis like Lord Siva, Lord Brahma or even Lord
Sesa and others always try to fix their attention upon Krsna in
their heart, but here the gopis actually saw Krsna seated
before them on their cloths. In the society of the gopis, Krsna
looked very beautiful. They were the most beautiful damsels
within the three worlds, and they assembled together around
Krsna.
It may be asked herein how Krsna seated Himself beside so many
gopis and yet sat alone. There is a significant word in this
verse: isvara. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, isvarah
sarva-bhutanam. Isvara refers to the Supreme Lord as the
Supersoul seated in everyone's heart. Krsna also manifested
this potency of expansion as Paramatma in this gathering with
the gopis. Krsna was sitting by the side of each gopi, unseen
by the others. Krsna was so kind to the gopis that instead of
sitting in their hearts to be appreciated in yogic meditation,
He seated Himself by their sides. By seating Himself outside,
He showed special favor to the gopis, who were the selected
beauties of all creation. Having gotten their most beloved Lord,
the gopis began to please Him by moving their eyebrows and
smiling and also by suppressing their anger. Some of them took
His lotus feet in their laps and began to massage Him. And
while smiling, they confidentially expressed their suppressed
anger and said, "Dear Krsna, we are ordinary women of Vrndavana,
and we do not know much about Vedic knowledge -- what is right
and what is wrong. We therefore put a question to You, and,
since You are very learned, You can answer it properly. In
dealing between lovers, we find that there are three classes of
men. One class simply receives, another class reciprocates
favorably, even if the lover is very contrary, and the third
class neither acts contrary nor answers favorably in dealings
of love. So out of these three classes, which do You prefer, or
which do You call honest?"
In answer, Krsna said, "My dear friends, persons who simply
reciprocate the loving dealings of the other party are just
like merchants. They give in loving affairs as much as they get
from the other party. Practically there is no question of love.
It is simply business dealing, and it is self-interested or
self-centered. Better the second class of men, who love in
spite of the opposite party's contrariness; even those without
a tinge of loving affairs are better than the merchants.
Sincere love can be seen when the father and mother love their
children in spite of their children's neglect. The third class
neither reciprocates nor neglects. They can be further divided
into two classes. One is the self-satisfied, who do not require
anyone's love. They are called atmarama, which means they are
absorbed in the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and so do not care whether one loves them or not. But another
class are ungrateful men. They are called callous. The men in
this group revolt against superior persons. For instance, a son,
in spite of receiving all kinds of things from loving parents,
may be callous and not reciprocate. Those in this class are
generally known as gurudruha, which means they receive favors
from the parents or the spiritual master and yet neglect them."
Krsna indirectly answered the questions of the gopis, even
those questions which implied that Krsna did not properly
receive their dealings. In answer, Krsna said that He, as the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, is self-satisfied. He does not
require anyone's love, but at the same time He said that He is
not ungrateful.
"My dear friends," Krsna continued, "you might be aggrieved by
My words and acts, but you must know that sometimes I do not
reciprocate My devotees' dealings with Me. It appears that My
devotees are very much attached to Me, but sometimes I do not
reciprocate their feelings properly in order to increase their
love for Me more and more. If I can very easily be approached
by them, they might think, 'Krsna is so easily available.' So
sometimes I do not respond. If a person has no money but after
some time accumulates some wealth and then loses it, he will
think of the lost property twenty-four hours a day. Similarly,
in order to increase the love of My devotees, sometimes I
appear to be lost to them, and instead of forgetting Me, they
feel their loving sentiments for Me increase. My dear friends,
do not think for a moment that I have been dealing with you
just like ordinary devotees. I know what you are. You have
forsaken all kinds of social and religious obligations; you
have given up all connection with your parents. Without caring
for social convention and religious obligations, you have come
to Me and loved Me, and I am so much obliged to you that I
cannot treat you as ordinary devotees. Do not think that I was
away from you. I was near to you. I was simply seeing how much
you were anxious for Me in My absence. So please do not try to
find fault in Me. Because you consider Me so dear to you,
kindly excuse Me if I have done anything wrong. I cannot repay
your continual love for Me, even throughout the lifetimes of
the demigods in the heavenly planets. It is impossible to repay
you or show gratitude for your love; therefore please be
satisfied by your own pious activities. You have displayed
exemplary attraction for Me, overcoming the greatest
difficulties arising from family connections. Please be
satisfied with your highly exemplary character, for it is not
possible for Me to repay your debt."
The exemplary character of devotional service manifested by the
devotees of Vrndavana is the purest type of devotion. It is
enjoined in authoritative sastra that devotional service must
be ahaituka and apratihata. This means that devotional service
to Krsna cannot be checked by political or religious convention.
The stage of devotional service is always transcendental. The
gopis particularly showed pure devotional service towards Krsna,
so much so that Krsna Himself remained indebted to them. Lord
Caitanya thus said that the devotional service manifested by
the gopis in Vrndavana excelled all other methods of
approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Thirty-first Chapter
of Krsna, "Songs by the Gopis."
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KB 31: Songs by the Gopis
CHAPTER THIRTY–ONE
Songs by the Gopis
One gopi said, "My dear Krsna, ever since You took Your birth
in this land of Vrajabhumi, everything appears to be glorious.
The land of Vrndavana has become glorious, and it is as if the
goddess of fortune is personally always existing here. But it
is only we who are very unhappy, because we are searching for
You but cannot see You with our greatest effort. Our life is
completely dependent upon You; therefore we request that You
again come to us."
Another gopi said, "My dear Krsna, You are the life and soul
even of the lotus flower that grows on the water of lakes made
transparent by the clear rains of autumn. Although the lotus
flowers are so beautiful, without Your glance they fade away.
Similarly, without You, we are also dying. Actually, we are
not Your wives but are Your slaves. You never spent any
money for us, yet we are simply attracted by Your glance. Now,
if we die without receiving Your glance, You'll be responsible
for our deaths. Certainly the killing of women is a great sin,
and if You do not come to see us and we die, You will suffer
the reactions of sin. So please come see us. Do not think that
one can be killed only by certain weapons. We are being killed
by Your absence. You should consider how You are responsible
for killing women. We are always grateful to You because You
have protected us many times: from the poisonous water of the
Yamuna, from the serpent Kaliya, from Bakasura, from the anger
of Indra and his torrents of rain, from the forest fire and so
many other incidents. You are the greatest and most powerful of
all. It is wonderful for You to protect us from so many dangers,
but we are surprised that You are neglecting us at this moment.
"Dear Krsna, dear friend, we know very well that You are not
actually the son of Mother Yasoda or the cowherd man Nanda
Maharaja. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the
Supersoul of all living entities. You have, out of Your own
causeless mercy, appeared in this world, requested by Lord
Brahma for the protection of the world. It is by Your kindness
only that You have appeared in the dynasty of Yadu. O best in
the dynasty of Yadu, if anyone afraid of this materialistic way
of life takes shelter at Your lotus feet, You never deny him
protection. Your movements are sweet, and You are independent,
touching the goddess of fortune with one hand and in the other
bearing a lotus flower. That is Your extraordinary feature.
Please, therefore, come before us and bless us with the lotus
flower in Your hand.
"Dear Krsna, You are the killer of all the fears of the
inhabitants of Vrndavana. You are the supremely powerful hero,
and we know that You can kill the unnecessary pride of Your
devotee, as well as the pride of women like us, simply by Your
beautiful smile. We are simply Your maidservants and slaves;
please, therefore, accept us by showing us Your
beautiful lotuslike face.
"Dear Krsna, actually we have become very lusty, having been
touched by Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet certainly kill all
kinds of sinful activities of devotees who have taken shelter
there. You are so kind that even the ordinary animals take
shelter under Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet are also the
residence of the goddess of fortune, yet You danced on the
heads of the Kaliya serpent with them. Now we are requesting
You to kindly place Your lotus feet on our breasts and pacify
our lusty desires to touch You.
"O Lord, Your attractive eyes, like the lotus, are so nice and
pleasing. Your sweet words are so fascinating that they please
even the greatest scholars, who also become attracted to You.
We are also attracted by Your speaking and by the beauty of
Your face and eyes. Please, therefore, satisfy us by Your
nectarean kisses. Dear Lord, words spoken by You or words
describing Your activities are full of nectar, and simply by
speaking or hearing Your words one can be saved from the
blazing fire of material existence. Great demigods like Lord
Brahma and Lord Siva are always engaged in chanting the glories
of Your words. They do so to eradicate the sinful activities of
all living entities in the material world. If one simply tries
to hear Your transcendental words, he can very quickly be
elevated to the platform of pious activities. For the Vaisnavas,
Your words give transcendental pleasure, and saintly persons
who are engaged in distributing Your transcendental message all
over the world are first-class charitable persons." (This was
confirmed by Rupa Gosvami when he addressed Lord Caitanya
as the most munificent incarnation because He
distributed the words of Krsna and love of Krsna free of charge
all over the world.)
"Dear Krsna," the gopis continued, "You are very cunning. You
can imagine how much we are distressed simply by remembering
Your cunning smile, Your pleasing glance, Your walking with us
in the forest of Vrndavana and Your auspicious meditations.
Your talks with us in lonely places were heartwarming.
Now we are all aggrieved to remember Your behavior. Please save
us. Dear Krsna, certainly You know how much we are saddened
when You go out of Vrndavana village to tend the cows in the
forest. How we are afflicted simply to think that Your soft
lotus feet are being pricked by the dry grass and the tiny
stones in the forest! We are so attached to You that we always
think simply of Your lotus feet.
"O Krsna, when You return from the pasturing ground with the
animals, we see Your face covered by Your curly hair and dusted
by the hoof dust of the cows. We see Your mildly smiling face,
and our desire to enjoy You increases. O dear Krsna, You are
the supreme lover, and You always give shelter to surrendered
souls. You fulfill everyone's desire; Your lotus feet are
worshiped even by Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe. On
whoever worships Your lotus feet, You without a doubt always
bestow Your benedictions. So kindly be pleased with us and keep
Your lotus feet on our breasts and thus relieve our present
distresses. Dear Krsna, we are seeking Your kisses, which You
offer even to Your flute. The vibration of Your flute enchants
the whole world and our hearts also. Kindly, therefore, return
and kiss us with Your mouth of nectar."
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Thirty-first Chapter
of Krsna, "Songs by the Gopis."
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