19 Sep 2022
Ms. Thrylokya asked: Swami, in the same birth, Krishna tested the Gopikas competing with their children in stealing the butter, which is the joint test for money (butter) and issues. In this test, He became their child. In the same birth, Krishna tested the Gopikas competing with their husbands while dancing in Brundavanam in which He acted as the real husband. Between the same people, in the same birth, how are these two contradicting bonds possible?
Swami replied:- Krishna is neither a biological child of the Gopikas nor the married husband. Here, the competition is between the bond with child and the bond with God, and between the bond with husband (or wife) and the bond with God. Suppose, there is a competition between the born child and married husband of a Gopika regarding butter (money). Suppose, a specific Gopika loves her husband more than her child and gives butter to the husband avoiding the child. The conclusion is that her bond with her husband is stronger than her bond with the child. You will not say that this test happened between her child and her husband-child. Her child is her biological child whereas the husband is not her biological child. By competing with the child, the husband does not become her biological child. Similarly, the test is between God and child. If she gave the butter saved for her biological child to God Krishna, the conclusion is that her bond with God is stronger than her bond with her biological child. You can’t say that the test is between her biological-child and her God-child.
Scholars say that the wife is like mother while giving food to her husband and the wife is like the heavenly dancer on the bed at night (Bhojyeṣu mātā śayane ca rambhā). This does not mean that the wife becomes the biological mother while giving food and the same wife becomes married wife on the bed. It only means that while giving food, the wife is like the biological mother.
Devotees treat God as Father and God is the Divine Father and not the biological father. If God is the biological father, all the male souls and female souls that are created must be brothers and sisters, in which case marriages should not take place. If God had a wife and if His wife carried on each soul as the child in her womb and then delivered the child, in such case God can be the biological father. God has created the soul like the biological father and the nature or creation or Prakruti has created the body for the soul by the power of God only. Inert Prakruti can’t be the non-inert biological mother so that we can give equal credit as given to the mother. The process of birth of the child from biological parents is quite different from the birth of a soul with body from God and nature. There are several occasions when God created the soul with body by His will as in the case of the birth of God Viirabhadra from the hair-lock of the head of God Shiva. Here, God created nature while the biological father does not create the biological mother. Hence, when the Gita says that God is the father like seed giving birth to a tree (Ahaṃ bīja pradaḥ pitā), it means that God is the creator of the seed, which does not mean that He is not the creator of earth that forms the body of the plant. Here, the simile is not a complete simile because God created the earth as well just as He created the seed. Simile shall be taken as a partial comparison only. God is said to be the intellectual as well as the material cause of the creation (Abhinna nimittopādāna kāraṇaṃ Brahma). Hence, God is the Divine Father, who is the total cause for the soul and its body.
People mock at God Brahma, who married Goddess Sarasvati even though she is His daughter. Is she His biological daughter? If so, where is her biological mother. If you say that since God Brahma created Sarasvati, she must be His biological daughter only. Then, God Brahma created all the human beings as He created Sarasvati. In such a case, all the human beings must be sons and daughters of God Brahma alone and should not perform marriages within themselves. When you criticize others, you must examine yourself. In the same way, God created Adam and Eve, who became husband and wife.
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