13 Jul 2021
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
Continued...
19) The love existing in the worldly bonds itself is called devotion when the same love exists in the bond with God and this is old wine in new bottle. This love or devotion is of three types:- 1) Controlled devotion:- This exists in Pravṛtti only, which is unreal as far as the divine bond is concerned because the real love exists in worldly bonds only. The divine false love is to impress God to protect oneself and his/her worldly bonds. 2) Cunning devotion:- This exists in Nivṛtti as real love to God. If the worldly bonds of the devotee are congenial, full co-operation comes to the devotee. However, in many cases the worldly bonds oppose the divine devotion especially when the goal happens to be the contemporary human incarnation and when the devotion becomes practical devotion. Such opposition shall be avoided without hurting the worldly bonds by keeping the self divine devotion as secret (Rahasyaṃ hyetaduttamam, Ātmānaṃ rahasi sthitaḥ...—Gītā). In such stage, the devotee has to deceive the worldly bonds by telling lies and such things are not sinful because the devotee is avoiding fight in order not to give worry and disturbance to the worldly bonds. Gopikas did like this. The crossing of cakras by serpent like kuṇaḍlinī is nothing but the awareness or soul travelling in curved way (awareness is a form of energy travelling as waves) to cross the worldly bonds. If the journey is straight, the soul will be cut into pieces by the rotating wheels. Crossing the selfish worldly bonds by telling lies is to cross Māyā using Māyā or lifting the thorn by another thorn. All this is told in Yogaśāstra because Yoga itself means reaching contemporary human incarnation (God Kṛṣṇa) through straight or curved way. 3) Care-not devotion:- This exists in the climax stage of Nivṛtti in which the devotee does not care for the worldly bonds by becoming free from worldly bonds since these bonds become ineffective in controlling devotee. In this stage, the devotee reaches the final state of devotion called madness or unmāda (Unmādo maraṇaṃ tataḥ) by not caring even death. Prahlāda did not fear for death and Mīrā drank poison. A mad person can’t be controlled by anybody and hence, all the worldly obstructions disappear in this stage.
20) As I told again and again, Nivṛtti belongs totally to devotees in which the real love to God is the entire force. God never told Prahlāda or Gopikas or Mīrā to become His devotees and to reach the climax stage in His devotion. The force of real devotion to God jumps by itself naturally like a spring in mountain based on the devotion developed in past several births. When sages expressed the desire to embrace the beautiful Rāma by becoming ladies through their miraculous powers, Rāma refused it because neither their wives nor His wife will mind since they know very well that they are male sages in reality by which there will be no opposition from the worldly bonds to both sides! This can’t be the real test for the strongest worldly bond with the life partner (Dāreṣaṇā), which is not a real serious test. Moreover, the other two strongest bonds, which are the bonds with issues (Putreṣaṇā) and with wealth (Dhaneṣaṇā) can’t be tested through this proposed embrace of sages. If the devotee defeats the attractions of these three strongest worldly bonds (Eṣaṇātrayam) due to the attraction to God (and not due to attraction to other worldly bonds) without any self-effort in a natural way, that is called as salvation or liberation from worldly bonds.
Thus, the detachment from worldly bonds (Mokṣa) is always associated with the attachment to God (Yoga) and salvation does not mean mere detachment from worldly bonds. God Kṛṣṇa conducted these three tests in the next birth when the sages were born as Gopikas having husbands and issues along with the self-earned wealth (Karmaphala), the butter. Butter is the directly earned wealth by the hard work of Gopikas and the sacrifice of the butter will be Karmaphala Tyāga. The Veda says about sacrifice of wealth (Dhanena tyāgena…) and such wealth may be wealth given by ancestors also. But, if the wealth is earned by hard work, the bond with such earned wealth or Karmaphala will be the strongest and God always competes with the strongest worldly bond only. For 10 years from childhood (6th year), God performed the joint test for Putreṣaṇā and Dhaneṣaṇā by stealing the butter preserved for their issues in their houses. For 2 years later on (up to 18th year), God performed the test for Dāreṣanā by dancing with Gopikas in Bṛndāvanam. Only 12 Gopikas passed these three tests and reached Goloka. Many failed in the test of stealing butter and complained to Yaśodā, the mother of God Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa had plenty of butter in His house and hence, the stealing of butter was not for any need as in the case of a beggar. The stealing of butter was purely the testing bond with wealth. The certificate of the degree of real salvation was given to the passed Gopikas only because in the tests of Datta there are only two results:- pass or failure. Even 99% marks is failure only!
21) God opposes Nivṛtti and hence, Rāma refused the proposal of sages. Not only this, even Kṛṣṇa opposed this Nivṛtti by saying that Gopikas shall return to homes and coming to Bṛndāvanam in midnight is highest sin due to which horrible hell will be attained by them. God supports Pravṛtti only by all means. God told in the Gītā that the legitimate sex is as holy as God (Dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo'smi). He lifted Govardhana hill by His finger before doing these tests to warn others trying to imitate God, which means that the soul shall lift the hill before doing stealing of wealth and dancing with married Gopikas so that He will not be exploited by others to spoil the Pravṛtti. No other incarnation did such stealing and dance and hence, did not lift the hill on finger. Gopikas are sages doing penance for God (penance means love for God) for past millions of births. Rādhā is the incarnation of sage Durvāsa and Durvāsa is the incarnation of God Śiva. Kṛṣṇa is the greatest God (Paripūrṇa tamaḥ sākṣāt...). Kṛṣṇa never returned to Bṛndāvanam after completing these tests for Gopikas and He never repeated these tests elsewhere in His entire life. Later on, He only married even 16108 girls and never carried on either stealing or illegitimate sex anywhere at any time. We shall see Kṛṣṇa as the examiner of sages to give the degree of salvation and not with any other crooked angle just like we see a male doctor performing the delivery of a pregnant female patient. The doctor concentrates on the delivery of child only and not on any idea of illegal romance.
22) I am dealing this topic of Kṛṣṇa at length because this is a very important crucial topic of God easily misunderstood by several people. Other religions put their fingers on God Kṛṣṇa raising this topic. Understanding the Bhāgavatam in correct angle is said to be the severe test for spiritual knowledge of a scholar (Vidyāvatāṃ Bhāgavate parīkṣā) because this Bhāgavatam describing the illegal love of Gopikas with Kṛṣṇa gave salvation to Parīkṣit in seven days! Even Parīkṣit raised his finger on Kṛṣṇa about this topic (Paradārābhimarśanam— Bhāgavatam) forgetting that he was made alive by Kṛṣṇa only when he was born dead! Sage Śuka replied that God Kṛṣṇa was unaffected by this sin just like the light of Sun is unaffected even if it enters dirty drain. The above explanation given by God Datta seems to be better than the explanation given by Śuka because the answer given by Śuka supports Kṛṣṇa through the omnipotence of God whereas the above given explanation supports Kṛṣṇa in the view of even Pravṛtti-constitution written by the same God! Several scholars are confused in this topic and many tried to twist the fact by saying that Kṛṣṇa was a 11 year old boy when He left Bṛndāvanam for Mathurā. They forget that Rāma was married to Sītā at the age of 12 years! Why should you twist the truth when perfect explanation of the truth itself can get the case cancelled in the court? When you have killed somebody with your pistol, you shall not twist the truth by saying that while firing in air the bullet went in wrong direction. This is unnecessary because you can escape the punishment even by properly explaining the truth, which is that you killed him since he tried to kill you. One commentator on the Bhāgavatam writes that Kṛṣṇa did illegitimate sex with Gopikas without the leakage of sperm (Reme retaḥ skhalanaṃ vinā)! The omnipotent God can control the leakage of sperm in the actual copulation, can’t He resist the formation of pregnancy even on leaking the sperm? Moreover, will a rapist be excused by the judge if he says that he raped a girl without leaking his sperm?
23) Rādhā got higher divine fruit than Rukmiṇī. Rādhā was married to Ayanaghoṣa and Rādhā was elder to Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā loved Kṛṣṇa and did not allow her husband even to touch her. Rādhā married Kṛṣṇa secretly through a special type of marriage called Gāndharva Vivāha (exchange of rings) and their married life was also highly secret. Rukmiṇī also faced the threat of marriage with Śiśupāla. But, in the marriage function, even before actual marriage, she ran away with Kṛṣṇa secretly. Manu says that if the marriage is fixed, marriage was partially done and the girl is called fixed bride through promise (Vācā dattā). However, we can say that the marriage did not finish because the ritual with Vedic hymns (Mantra dattā) did not happen and the dedication of the mind of bride on bridegroom (Mano dattā) also did not happen at all. The ethical scripture says that after completion of these three stages only the marriage is said to be completed. Finally, we can conclude that Rādhā reached God through illegitimate path and Rukmiṇī reached God through legitimate path. As per the constitution of Pravṛtti, Rādhā shall go to hell and Rukmiṇī shall go to the abode of God. Rukmiṇī reached the abode of God as per the constitution, Rādhā did not go to hell and instead, she went to Goloka, which is above even the abode of God! But, the fruit given to Rādhā violates the constitution of Pravṛtti. In Nivṛtti, the path to God is always legitimate whether it is legitimate or illegitimate in Pravṛtti. Voting for justice against injustice is Pravṛtti and voting for God against even justice is Nivṛtti. This point itself brings speciality to Rādhā because Rādhā voted for God against even the justice whereas Rukmiṇī voted for God or justice against injustice. Even from the angle of Pravṛtti, Rukmiṇī was correct because when her mind is on Kṛṣṇa and not on Śiśupāla, fixing her marriage with Śiśupāla is injustice even as per Pravṛtti. Rukmiṇī always fought against injustice supporting justice by selecting the groom to whom she gave her mind. Hence, Pravṛtti continued throughout her approach and such Pravṛtti happened to be Nivṛtti because the bride groom happened to be God. There is no special approach for Nivṛtti in the case of Rukmiṇī. Rādhā was wrong as per Pravṛtti and was right as per her special Nivṛtti. Fighting against Pravṛtti for the sake of Nivṛtti is the speciality of Rādhā and such speciality was not with Rukmiṇī since she took the support of Pravṛtti for the sake of Nivṛtti. Throughout her approach, Pravṛtti was running with its original sense and incidentally it happened to be Nivṛtti because the bride groom was God incidentally. The fruit of general Pravṛtti is heaven. Had the groom been an ordinary human being, Rukmiṇī should have gone to heaven. At the maximum, the fruit is the abode of God if the Pravṛtti is made as support for Nivṛtti. Rukmiṇī went to abode of God because her groom happened to be God incidentally.
The fruit of Nivṛtti is Goloka, which is above God because even Pravṛtti is opposed for the sake of Nivṛtti by Rādhā. Anyway, both these cases have to be taken as only the tests conducted by God regarding the detachment from the worldly bonds for the sake of the attachment with God. Rukmiṇī sacrificed her bonds with parents and brothers for the sake of bond with God. Rādhā sacrificed her bond with her legal husband for the sake of bond with God. Between these two cases of sacrifice, which is higher and more serious? Certainly, the case of Rādhā is most serious in view of the established tradition in those days that marriage once performed shall not be broken under any circumstances. Hence, Rādhā was given higher fruit than Rukmiṇī because Rādhā took more serious risk due to the real love for God than Rukmiṇī. Even Rukmiṇī told Kṛṣṇa that if He neglects her, she will commit even suicide but not marry anybody other than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was moving in a cradle catching the marriage invitation card in one hand and the love letter of Rukmiṇī in another hand. He was hesitating to marry Rukmiṇī because of the invitation card since God always supports Pravṛtti only and discourages Nivṛtti since Nivṛtti is the field in which God is always projected as the central hero. Suicide for the sake of God is the climax of real love of Nivṛtti! Once He read the point of suicide of Rukmiṇī, He ran immediately to the city of Rukmiṇī. The higher fruit of Rādhā has only very narrow margin with the fruit of Rukmiṇī. Rukmiṇī never did any injustice to reach God and hence, her total approach was Pravṛtti only, which is Nivṛtti for namesake.
Rādhā did injustice not fearing even for hell, rejecting the Pravṛtti in toto for the sake of the real Nivṛtti. Rukmiṇī travelled in riskless path to attain God whereas Rādhā dared to travel in the path with full risk of hell to attain the same God! Just next to the abode of God exists Goloka indicating very marginal distance between Rukmiṇī and Rādhā. In the case of Satyā (Satyabhāmā), the incarnation of Goddess earth, there was not even a trace of risk because, the father of Satyā presented the divine diamond to Kṛṣṇa along with his daughter Satyā. The distance between the abode of God and earth is very much, which is the difference between Rukmiṇī and Satyaā. Satyā got pass marks whereas Rukmiṇī got 90% marks and Rādhā got 100% marks. Rukmiṇī and Satyā are souls whereas Rādhā is the incarnation of God (Śiva). The case of Satyā was like unanimous election without voting since she simply followed the path of justice in pravṛtti to attain God and remained in the ground level of earth, being the incarnation of the earth. She never fought against justice or injustice in the path. Rukmiṇī never had the opportunity to fight against justice to attain God and she always fought against injustice only. Rādhā was always placed in the path of fighting against justice to attain God. The Vaikuṇṭha of Rukmiṇī and Goloka for Rādhā are just adjacent even though Goloka is above Vaikuṇṭha or abode of God. Between Vaikuṇṭha and earth (Bhūloka), the distance is very long in which six worlds exist. Satyā had never the opportunity to participate in voting, but Rukmiṇī and Rādhā participated in voting. Both voted for God only and the non-voted-defeated candidate in the election faced by Rukmiṇī was only injustice and in the case of Rādhā, the defeated candidate was always justice. Satyā faced no risk in pravṛtti (rajas of Brahmā since she contains rajas or high analytical activity). Rukmiṇī faced risk in pravṛtti appearing as nivṛtti (sattvam of Viṣṇu since she is the power of Viṣṇu as Lakṣmī). Rādhā faced highest risk in real nivṛtti (since she is tamas or firmness of Śiva as His incarnation).
24) In the light of absence of any support from God for Nivṛtti, the success in Nivṛtti is possible only with the third state of devotion, which is madness for God. When a student studied spiritual knowledge from a preacher and became mad of God roaming on the banks of the river, the public went and informed the preacher that his student became mad. The preacher wept not for the madness of the student, but, wept for himself saying that he could not get such divine madness in spite of his preaching the same knowledge to several batches in the past (Unmattavat sañcaratīha śiṣyaḥ, Taveti lokasya vacāṃsi śṛuṇvan, Khidyannuvācā'sya Guruḥ Purā'ho, Unmattatā me na hi tādṛśīti)! A Gopika called Candralekhā was reaching Kṛṣṇa in the midnight through the cunning devotion for a long time. One night, she was obstructed by her family members and she could not enter the third ‘care-not devotion’ of madness for God to push them away and run for Kṛṣṇa. She stood at the door and was experiencing both extreme joy and extreme pain. She immediately collapsed there itself and reached God by leaving the body! Her case can be explained in this way:- She felt climax of joy in the memories of Kṛṣṇa and also simultaneously felt climax of pain in the obstruction to reach Kṛṣṇa. Through her deep joy, the fruits of all her good deeds got exhausted and through her deep pain the fruits of all her bad deeds got exhausted. There is no balance of actions (Karmaśeṣa or Prārabdha) and hence, got salvation due to absence of the cause of rebirth. The Veda says that when both merits and sins are exhausted, the soul reaches God (Puṇya pāpe vidhūya...). She could reach God’s energetic incarnation in the upper world after leaving the body (Videhamukti), but, could not reach God’s contemporary human incarnation while alive in this birth itself on this earth itself (Jīvan mukti). People feel that both these types of salvations pertain to self, leaving the body and self with the body while alive. Here, the word self shall be taken as the incarnation of God. The word self means the medium, which is a body with the soul. Hence, Videhamukti means attaining energetic incarnation of God after leaving the body and Jīvanmukti means attaining contemporary human incarnation of God while alive with the body in this world. The word Ātmā means body with a soul.
25) Sage Nārada wrote in his Bhakti Sūtram that a devotee shall be after God like a girl after her boyfriend in illegitimate way or like a married lady after her illegitimate male darling (Jāravat ca). The sage gave the alive example of Vraja Gopikas for the above Sūtram in the next Sūtram (Yathā Vraja Gopikānām). Here, the sage is not encouraging illegitimate sex in the worldly life or Pravṛtti by the above two sūtras, but, is giving the example of strongest real love in the worldly life, which happens to be the illegitimate sex only, which is only the simile given for the strongest real love to God. Even though this simile (Nīcopamā) is not pure simile, but, it is selected since it is the apt simile. The reason for this extreme strength of love in this worldly illegitimate bond is the enormous opposing force against such bond that leads the soul to horrible hell. Even Kṛṣṇa told Gopikas to go back to homes since such affair will lead the souls to terrible hell. Gopikas told Kṛṣṇa that God Kṛṣṇa is the real alive husband and their husbands are only the photos of real alive husband. They also told Kṛṣṇa that God alone is the male (Puruṣa) and every soul is female being Parāprakṛti. Husband or Bhartā means the maintainer-God (Bibharti iti) and Bhāryā means the maintained soul (Bhriyate iti) and hence, God alone is the husband of all souls irrespective of their gender (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ...—Veda). Hence, sages wanted to become females and wives of Rāma praying for His embracement. Gopikas also questioned Kṛṣṇa by telling a story in this way- “A husband went abroad for business. His wife separated from him was worshipping the photo of her husband daily in his absence. One day, the husband returned and was knocking the bolted doors of the house while the wife was in the worship of the photo of her husband. Now, we are asking You the question that whether the wife shall continue the worship of the photo of her husband or shall leave the worship on the spot and run to open the doors for her actual alive husband?”
Kṛṣṇa did not answer their question appreciating their depth of the spiritual knowledge (we must remember that they are not uneducated Gopikas, but, most learned sages reborn as Gopikas) through a sweet smile and got down from the tree! Gopikas did not care for the future torture in the hell as threatened by Kṛṣṇa and gave a counter threat that they will jump in to Yamunā river if He refuses them! When sage Nārada came and asked for their feet-dust to cure the headache of Kṛṣṇa (He was playing a drama with false headache to show the real devotees to Nārada.) and Gopikas gave plenty of their feet dust at once to the sage. Sage Nārada threatened them saying that they will go to horrible hell if Kṛṣṇa puts their feet-dust on His head. Gopikas replied that they are ready to go to hell if the headache of Kṛṣṇa is cured. When the same sage asked 16108 wives of Kṛṣṇa for the same feet dust, all refused saying that they will go to hell if their feet-dust is applied to the forehead of Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa married 16108 girls and gave birth to ten sons and one daughter through each wife and is this not single point sufficient to say that Kṛṣṇa is the omnipotent God? When the finger of Kṛṣṇa was cut by the sugar cane (while He was eating it), all His wives ran for a piece of cloth to be used as bandage for the finger of Kṛṣṇa. Immediately, Draupadī (who was doing worship in the ritual of Rājasūya sacrifice) tore her new sari and bound the wounded finger of Kṛṣṇa with the bandage. She knows that if the new cloth is torn while doing the ritual, she will become poor and actually she lost all the wealth after that incident in the gambling played by her husbands. But, she never scolded Kṛṣṇa to be careless in cutting His finger that resulted in her poverty. Any other soul would have scolded Kṛṣṇa in such situation. The reality of love is known by the fire test only. Even Sudāma did not scold Kṛṣṇa while returning to home even though Kṛṣṇa did not help him in any way. The fruits given by God were infinite for such real love without aspiration for fruit in return, which were infinite saris and infinite wealth respectively for Draupadī and Sudāma.
26) Every devoted soul shall have the likes of God as its likes and dislikes of God as its dislikes be it Pravṛtti or Nivṛtti. In Pravṛtti, every soul must like justice and must dislike injustice as per the likes and dislikes of God. In Nivṛtti, God likes the likes of the devotee and dislikes the dislikes of the devotee to become the servant of His climax devotee. Sages prayed Rāma saying “O lotus eyed God! Why are You not showing kindness towards us?” In the next birth, Kṛṣṇa ran after Gopikas praying “O Lotus eyed Gopī! Why are you not showing kindness towards Me?”. Gopikas were sages, who wrote several ethical scriptures, told finally as Gopikas “why we have written so many ethical scriptures to decide which is good deed and which is bad deed? Every like of God is good deed and every dislike of God is bad deed for any devotee of God” (Pāpa puṇya vivekāya, kuto'yam grantha vistaraḥ?, Hareḥ kopakaraṃ pāpam, Puṇyaṃ tasya priyapradaṃ- Krishna Bhāgavatam of Datta Swami). Everything will be returned by God in plenty through proper angle and angle must be real love without any account and not business with account. Draupadī gave the piece of cloth with real love without any account and without any aspiration for the return. In this pure angle of love, God returned thousands and thousands of saris as per the need of the situation. If it is the angle of business involving principal and interest, at the maximum, God will return one sari for one small piece of cloth, which is very very insufficient for the need of the situation in which she was tried by evil people to be made naked. When Draupadī cried in that situation, Kṛṣṇa responded for her practical devotion of practical sacrifice of piece of cloth and not for her theoretical devotion through cries. Fruit is always given for the practical devotion only and not for theoretical devotion or theoretical knowledge. As soon as He heard the cry of Draupadī, immediately He searched for her practical devotion in her account book. He found the piece of cloth sacrificed to Him, which was based on pure love to Him and not based on any aspiration for any return and hence, He gave her countless number of saris in that critical situation. Hence, the devotees always shall be very careful in taking lot of attention on this point that in any case we are not based on the angle of business in the case of God, but, we are based on the pure love expressed theoretically and practically without any aspiration for fruit in return. If this one point is cleaned, all the points are cleaned. Based on this one point only we are observing the silence of God for all our prayers, worships, services and sacrifices. We must note that God always tests us in possible opened channel only and not in the impossible closed channel. If the devotee is unable to sacrifice either service or fruit of work to God, He will not test us in such closed channels. In such case, He is pleased with us in theoretical channels (knowledge and devotion) only. He tested Gopikas in the sacrifice of butter, which is the wealth acquired by their hard work and this is called as Karmaphala tyāga, which is an open channel for them.
(To be Continued...)
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