07 Nov 2021
[Smt. Priyanka asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, Your latest discourse on how sages felt about surrendering their body also to God is beyond excellence. Thank You so much for explaining the same. I have a small follow-up question to ask. Swami, please clarify this doubt as well. At Your divine lotus feet, Priyanka
Question: It is mentioned in the discourse that the sages born as Gopikas were not ordinary human beings, who burnt their lust in the fire of their penance. Hence, Gopikas were having love only towards God Krishna and not the lust. Only love existed between Lord Krishna and the gopikas. Swami, this point is understood very well over many discourses.
On another angle, it is also said that all qualities are created by God and it purely depends on the direction of the quality, which makes it good or bad. Any quality diverted towards God becomes good and any quality directed towards the world becomes bad. So if a person has lust and they divert it fully towards God, does it become lust based on lust towards God? Is it ever possible that in such cases, lust can be transformed into love towards God? Soorpanakha had lust based on lust towards Lord Rama. As Kubjaa, she still had lust based on lust, forgetting that Lord Krishna was God Himself. She did not have the background of being a learned sage like the gopikas neither she had real love towards God. Ultimately, she was sent to hell. Then, how can pure lust in a person become good when it is diverted towards God? Does it only become good when it starts with love towards God as the root cause?]
Swami Replied: Let us take the case of Shurpanakhaa. She had only lust in her. Your question is that if that lust is turned towards God, it must be pure since it is diverted to God. Diversion to God means diverting the bad quality towards God after loving God. Gopikas loved God because they were deeply attracted by His internal beauty or divine qualities of God. If you take Shurpanakhaa, she never had any love to God because she doesn’t appreciate the divine qualities being a demon. In her heart, there is no place for love. Shurpanakhaa was attracted to Rama due to the external physical beauty of Rama. Even if some other beautiful person exists in the place of Rama, Shurpanakhaa should have behaved in the same way as she behaved with Rama. If you take the case of Gopikas, they were filled with love to God only. Gopikas are the highest devotees of God in view of their past births in which they were sages with severe penance.
Let us assume that a Gopika had some lust towards Krishna and she directed that lust to God. In this case, Gopika is already a devotee having full love to God. If this Gopika diverted her lust to Krishna, her lust will become pure since Krishna is God. I have mentioned about such Gopika as an assumption only. In reality, all Gopikas were having full love to God and also had no trace of lust. No Gopika was attracted towards Krishna due to His excellent external beauty and hence, they were not having even a trace of lust towards God Krishna. Once full love on God is formed, even the lust diverted to God can become pure due to the inherent power of God. When you offer a stick of sandal wood or a thorny stick to fire, both will become sacred ash. God is sacred fire. Even the lust offered to God will become sacred ash. But, while offering the lust to God, there shall be full love in the heart of the devotee. The offering shall be based on the love of the devotee and not on the lust of the devotee.
If you offer thorny stick (lust) based on lust caused by the biological activity of hormones, such basic lust will not allow the offered lust to become sacred ash. If the same lust is offered based on love, the offered lust will become sacred ash. In the case of first Madhumatii, the wife of God Dattatreya, she also offered her lust to Him based on her lust only and not love. This means that she didn’t view God Datta as God and viewed Him as a beautiful male only. Therefore, God Datta cursed her to become demon. Since her lust is based on lust as in the case of Shurpanakhaa, Shurpanakhaa did not go to Goloka, but went to hell. There is no difference between first Madhumatii and Shurpanakhaa or Kubjaa. The second Madhumatii was reformed with full divine knowledge and developed love on God Datta because she recognised God Datta as the ultimate God. While telling that Gopikas followed illegal sex with Krishna, sage Narada told in his Bhaktisuutram that all Gopikas know very well that Krishna is God. This means that Narada is telling that all Gopikas had full love towards God Krishna. Even the lust exhibited by Gopikas to Krishna was their divine love transformed into divine lust because there is no trace of lust in their hearts since they burnt all the lust in the fire of their penance during several past births. Due to this background only, God Krishna created a special Goloka above His abode.
God Krishna knows very well that the lust shown by Gopikas on Him was not based on His excellent beauty, but, was totally based on their internal divine love to God. The lust shown by Gopikas was not at all the normal lust that is generated by hormonal activity. It is only divine lust since this divine lust is completely resulting entirely on the transformation of the divine love of Gopikas (sages) towards God. In this way, the case of Gopikas is very very exceptional. Their divine lust to God Krishna was very high, but, there is no trace of impure lust (generated by hormones) in that divine lust. The fundamental basis of this topic is that first love on God should be generated and developed to the climax and in such case, the lust shown to God is not at all impure lust but, divine lust, which is entirely the transformed divine love only. I cannot explain this topic more than this!
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