16 Mar 2025
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5. Why did Krishna say that He is Radha and also Gopika, who are real and unreal forms respectively?
[Swami, God Krishna said to Radha that He and Radha are one and the same. God Krishna told the same sentence to every Gopika also. Every Gopika is the unreal form of the Maayaa power of Krishna whereas Radha is the real form of Krishna. In such case, how He could say the same sentence to both real and unreal forms?]
Swami replied:- In the case of Radha, really, Krishna and Radha are one and the same as explained above. Hence, in the case of Radha, Krishna told the truth. In the case of each Gopika, He told the same sentence to encourage the Gopika in her spiritual effort. By this thought of monism, some type of ultimate satisfaction comes in the mind of the spiritual aspirant so that the spiritual journey of the aspirant gets some halt for some time at least so that the devotee can take some rest during the continuous spiritual effort thinking that the spiritual aspirant has reached the ultimate goal. Such intermediate rest is necessary for any continuous worker. Krishna told Arjuna also that He and Arjuna are one and the same (Pāṇḍavānāṃ Dhanañjayaḥ - Gita). This is only to encourage Arjuna by giving some resting stop like the paid vacation given to the top employees by the management of the company. This is not the ultimate truth because Krishna says to Arjuna in the same Gita that He knows everything whereas Arjuna doesn’t know anything (Na tvam vettha paraṃtapa). The truth is revealed by Krishna so that Arjuna must not believe the said monism as truth and get ego. This monism told to the devotee by God is called Bhaavaadvaitam, which means just theoretical monism, which is fundamentally unreal and it is assumed as real for some good purpose to help the devotee in the spiritual journey.
A lie can be told for good purpose and this is called as Arthavaada (Vaada = lie told, Artha = for the purpose of good welfare only). It is just like a mother telling the child that if the child eats the food completely, the moon will come down from the sky. For the sake of the welfare of the child, which is to make her eat the food completely, the mother is telling this lie and such lie is not a sin. If God is confident that His encouraging word will not bring ego in the mind of a specific devotee, God will not reveal the truth of His encouraging word to that specific devotee. If the incarnation says the same word to another incarnation, it is really real. God Hanuman, the incarnation of God Shiva says that basically He and Rama are one and the same (Ātmabuddhyā tvamevāham, iti me niścitā matiḥ). He also says that He is the servant of Rama in the view of His body and He is a part of Rama in view of His individual soul (Dehabuddhyā tu dāso'ham, Jīvabuddhyā tvadaṃśakaḥ). Rama is God Vishnu and Hanuman is God Shiva. God Vishnu and God Shiva are one and the same (Śivaśca Nārāyaṇaḥ - Veda). From the angle of the physical medium, servant-master relationship is told. From the angle of bundle of thoughts, whole-part relationship is expressed. These three indicate Monism of Shankara, Qualified Monism of Ramanuja and Dualism of Madhva respectively.
God is absolutely real and the creation is inherently unreal. But, the creation also becomes absolutely real due to the gifted absolute reality from God. The human incarnation has the medium that belongs to creation and has the internal God-component, which is creator. The commonalities between the medium of human incarnation and any human being of the creation are:-
The difference between human incarnation and any human being is the existence of unimaginable God in merged state in the human incarnation and the absence of unimaginable God in any human being. Now, referring only to the commonalities of medium of human incarnation with the commonalities of the entire human being (this means that the human being entirely is a part of the world-medium only), God can say to any human being that He and the human being are one and the same. This is the justification of the statement of God Krishna in the case of human beings, which are sages born as Gopikas. When the same statement is told by God Krishna to Radha or Rukmini, the statement is justified with reference to the medium as well as the internal God-component. Rukmini or Radha is the same God-component and is equal to Krishna since the difference is only in the gender of the media of Krishna and Radha or Rukmini. This means that the incarnation of God can be in both genders because the gender-difference is only in some modifications of the gross body. In this way, the statement of God Krishna is justified in both Gopikas and Radha or Rukmini. Similarly, the same statement uttered by God Rama in the case of Sita and Hanuman is justified since Sita and Hanuman are also the incarnations of God.
6. Why did Krishna say to both Radha and Gopikas that He exists in their heart?
[God Krishna said to both Radha and each Gopika that she exists in His heart. How to correlate this sentence between Radha and Gopikas?]
Swami replied:- In the same building, an office exists in which employees of different cadres are sitting. Since all are sitting in the same building, do you mean that all the employees must be of the same cadre? The love of God towards devotee may vary like the cadres of the employees, but, all devotees sit in the same heart of God-Incarnation, which is like the same building.
7. Didn't Shuka know about the unreal Krishnas touching the unreal Gopikas?
[When Parikshit asked Sage Shuka that why God touched the married ladies, the answer should be that God didn't touch them at all in true sense. Didn't Sage Shuka know what You have revealed to us about the unreal Krishnas touching the unreal Gopikas?]
Swami replied:- Sage Shuka knows everything, but, he revealed the needful answer to Parikshit saying that human beings should not develop imitation-illusion and do sins. He said that the ordinary human beings shall not imitate God because God is omniscient and omnipotent. This means that God does things with deep logic that actually justifies His actions that can be understood by deep and sharp analysis only. The spouse is one of the three strongest worldly bonds (Eshanaatrayam). Unless this test is done, complete victory in the tests of all worldly bonds cannot be declared to grant salvation. In this test, the real form of God Krishna is not involved and hence, sin cannot touch God Krishna. Conducting this test is inevitable for God Krishna to declare salvation from all the worldly bonds for any Gopika. At the same time, in order to avoid the exploitation by any human being, God underwent the punishment of this sin twice (one for self and the other for the sake of Gopika) for each Gopika. For the sake of the protection of climax devotees, for the sake of protection of all human beings in the creation and for the sake of protection of the divine constitution written by Himself, God conducted this test without involving Himself in the sin in the real sense because the test is done by His inherently unreal forms. God says that His main aim is to protect all the human beings in His creation, which is called as Lokasamgraha (Lokasaṅgrahamevā'pi… - Gita). He clearly said in the Gita that at any cost, He will not spoil the human beings of His own creation to fall under the illusion of His imitation (Saṅkarasya ca kartā syām, upahanyā mimāḥ prajāḥ).
8. Will God say such sentences of Bhaavaadvaita to liberated souls only or to other souls also trying to get salvation?
Swami replied:- Whenever there is a need of such statement, God uses it. Bhaavaadvaitam means the monism (Advaitam) said in terms of a thought (Bhaava) only and not in real practical sense, which is the true monism (Satyaadvaitam). Thought comes under theoretical phase only, which is inherently unreal. Word following such thought comes under the same theoretical phase only.
9. When God says to a devotee that the devotee is one with God or the master to God, how can it encourage the soul?
[You told that when God says to a devotee that the devotee is one with God or the master to God, it would give them full satisfaction leading to a resting break in their spiritual journey. How can it encourage them to put further efforts for salvation since the devotee has already attained the highest fruit according to the statement given by God?]
Swami replied:- God will reveal the truth after the temporary rest of the soul is over. This revealed truth will make the spiritual aspirant to proceed on the further spiritual journey. The entire truth shall not be revealed in the beginning itself when the soul starts the practical spiritual journey. When you are travelling to Kashi by walk along with your Guru, the Guru says that Kashi is almost arrived at every stage to encourage your journey. At every step, the ultimate goal is said to be the achieved fruit. It is said that if you remember the name of River Ganga, you will achieve salvation. Actually, salvation is obtained when you go to Kashi, take bath in Ganga for freshness, hear the spiritual knowledge from the scholars of Kashi and practice (Karma Yoga) such spiritual knowledge. But, the spiritual guide says that you have attained salvation at the end of every step to give you some break in the spiritual effort. After some rest resulting from full satisfaction, the Guru will reveal the next step and initiate you for the further journey towards the next step. This is called as Arthavaada.
10. Is Krishna just reciprocating the devotion of each devotee without inherent love for the devotee?
[After listening to Your explanation about how God Krishna rewarded all the Gopikas by satisfying them with His unreal forms, it feels like God is just a justice-delivery machine since He is just reciprocating the devotion of each devotee without having inherent love for the devotee. Please enlighten me.]
Swami replied:- If God delivers only love, you will criticize Him as unjust. If God delivers justice, you will criticize Him as a machine without loving heart. God balances both due to His omniscience and omnipotence. No soul can do like that. Due to this reason, the souls are jealous of God and pass such meaningless comments. Both justice and love are very important. For the sake of love, justice cannot be sacrificed. Ravana loved God to the climax level by cutting all his ten heads to offer to God Shiva. Such love is impossible in any devotee. Because of such extreme love, God Shiva did not give long longevity to Ravana. The devotee of God Shiva will always get good longevity and never gets untimely death (Akaala mrutyu). God Shiva is famous for this special boon. But, God Shiva gave untimely death to Ravana and to almost all his family members since justice was with Rama and injustice was with Ravana.
God never allows even a hair crack to justice. He always protects the devotee for the extreme devotion or love of that devotee without damaging the deity of justice at any place and at any time. If there is no way to protect love or devotion without damaging justice, God will bend to the side of protection of justice only. If there is a way to protect both, He will certainly choose that way only to protect both love and justice. But, as far as possible, He protects the devotion without damaging justice using His unimaginable intelligence that creates a special way! If both justice and love compete with each other with equal forces, the final way for God is to take the punishment of the sin of the devotee and suffer for the sake of the devotee. This provision is written by God Himself in His divine constitution. In this way, He protects both justice and love to the devotee. Such is the omniscience of God! But, for such action, the devotee shall be very much deserving unlike Ravana. When the devotee is deserving like Bāṇāsura, God Shiva came to the war on the side of Bāṇāsura to fight with Krishna and finally protected the life of Bāṇāsura. Bāṇāsura was not undeserving since he had good qualities along with a single bad quality that is ego.
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