20 Mar 2023
[Smt. Lakshmi Lavanya K asked: Namaste Swami. You are always saying that God is real husband of all souls and all souls are His wives, then how could sex between Lord Krishna and Gopikas becomes illegitimate! I feel this was legitimate and sex between Gopikas and their husbands was wrong because both are wives of Lord Krishna. How could anyone say that sex between two ladies is legitimate. Please clarify. Thank You Swami.]
Swami replied:- The word husband (Bhartaa) means maintainer and the word wife (Bhaaryaa) means maintained soul. Between the maintainer and maintained soul there is no difference in the gender. The employer need not be male and employee need not be female. In the olden days, the husband is employed earning money to maintain his wife. But, in these days even females are employed and are earning money equally or even more. If the wife alone is earning money and the husband is maintained by the wife, the wife is the husband and the husband is the wife as per the meanings of the words Bhartaa and Bhaaryaa. In such case, there is no relationship between these two words and the gender. Males may become husband or wife and females may become wife or husband. The males are told to be females before God by which the given message is that the males shall not exhibit gender ego atleast before God. In this way, God is said to be male (Purusha) and husband (Bhartaa) and all the souls are females (Prakruti) and wives (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ…-Veda). Is the ultimate God male or female? This is another angle. The shaakteya school says that Aadiparaashakti (female) is the ultimate God and even Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are subordinates to Her (Turīyā kā'pi tvam…—Shankara). In the place of Aadiparaashakti, God Datta (Iishvara) is mentioned by Vedaantins.
Aadiparaashakti or Anaghaa is said to be power of God Datta. In such case, power is more important than the possessor of power. Some say that the power is under the control of possessor of power. If you go to the topmost position for the sake of the ultimate God, such God is called Parabrahman or the original creator, who is unimaginable and beyond gender. In this way, the original maintainer of souls is beyond gender. The Parabrahman is merging with a human medium like Krishna to become God Krishna. But, the same Parabrahman is merging with a human medium like Raadhaa to become Goddess Raadhaa. Both Krishna and Raadhaa are exact equal and one and the same because in both, Parabrahman is Purusha and the medium other than Parabrahman is Prakruti. In what way both are different? The difference is only that one is male and another is female. But, in both, male Parabrahman and female medium exist in common. Then, how can you say that Krishna is male and Raadhaa is female? In essence both are male and female. The only point based on which we can say that Krishna is male and Raadhaa is female is that the body of Krishna is male whereas the body of Raadhaa is female as per the difference between male characteristics of body and female characteristics of the body. But, body itself is fundamentally female or Prakruti. Hence, this difference in the male and female is in the feminine body or Prakruti only. Therefore, the difference in the gender is not fundamental. If this is known, the gender ego of males will vanish.
The superficial gender-difference is useful for sexual relationship to generate children for the extension of humanity on the earth so that whenever God comes down as incarnation, the earth is not vacant and souls will be playing in different roles in each generation for the entertainment of God. Gopikas had children from their husbands only and not from God Krishna. In fact, every soul is born as a male or female child by the will of the Parabrahman, who is present in God Krishna in fully merged condition. Hence, every child is born by the will of God Krishna as told by Him in the Gita (Ahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā). The will of God is beyond the sperm of male and the ovum of the female. The sperm and ovum combine by the will of God only. The fertilized ovum is safe and develops in to child by the will of God only. God Krishna is called Father based on the superficial male characteristic of His body and in fact, He is both Father and Mother and strictly speaking He is beyond father and mother and in fact, everything (Tvameva mātā ca pitā tvameva…Tvameva sarvaṃ mama deva deva—Gita). Hence, God is to be viewed as the ultimate goal with whom all relationships or bonds of love and affection exist. Even though other bonds exist, all these worldly bonds are vacant without love like all the taps without a drop of water and only one tap is full of water and that one tap is the single bond with God in which love overflows and this state is called Nivrutti. Nivrutti is not a single tap having some water while other taps also have water. Gopikas succeeded as wives because they attended the dance at Brundaavanam. They failed as mothers because they complained to the mother of Krishna objecting the stealing of their butter preserved for their issues by Krishna. The test of stealing butter carried 66.66% marks because it is a joint of two questions. The dance at Brundaavanam carried 33.33% marks because it is the test on single question. Since all Gopikas attended Brundavanam dance and got 33.33% marks, what is the use of analyzing the answer for this single question again and again, which is insufficient and inefficient to give at least pass mark (40%)? If the answer for this question alone is 100%, all the Gopikaas should have reached Goloka because in the examination of God Datta 100% marks give pass and even 99.9% marks give failure in the total test. It is waste of time to ponder over this answer for this question, which does not give even minimum pass even though we get 100% marks for this answer of this single question. Instead of this useless question, it is better to concentrate on the second joint question by answering which alone, one can get 66.66% marks that gives first class as per the present system of examinations. Even as per the present examination system, 33.33% is a failure only. Even as per the examination-system of God Datta, 66.66% is twice greater than 33.33%. There is a hope for the first candidate to get 100% and there is no trace of hope for the second candidate to get pass mark i.e., 100% as per God Datta. After getting 66.66% first, it is better to think about 33.33%. This is the reason why Krishna concentrated on the joint-question test first in the childhood (10 yrs-long time) and then only conducted the single question test in youth (2yrs-very short time) later on.
The only candidate getting 100% marks passing the total test without any grace mark is Raadhaa, who faced lot of opposition from the society for leaving her husband and marrying Krishna secretly, maintaining the marital life with Krishna in high confidence by meeting Him rarely so that the prestige of Krishna is saved since frequent meetings may spoil the secrecy and avoiding children also for the same goal. She is the exceptional candidate, who already passed the total test with 100% marks even before attending the test! Somebody asked that why Krishna allowed all Gopikas for the second test when all of them failed in the first test. The reason for this is that He did not make the secrecy of the tests revealed because in such case some extra care might have been taken, which does not reveal the real behavior. When the test is announced, students prepare for the test and their preparation does not reveal their knowledge that is present in their brains in natural state. To Know the knowledge digested perfectly and existing in the brain in natural way, slip test is conducted without announcing the date of examination. Actually, this slip test shows the knowledge possessed by the brain always in natural condition. The knowledge present in the brain due to extra preparation may go out of brain after the examination. This is the reason why Rama refused to conduct the test for the single question when sages approached Him with single question test (test about life partner). When all Gopikas passed this single question test, what is the use of discussion about this test, which is like shooting the dead serpent with AK47 gun again and again? It is like conducting a very serious seminar about eating meals as if it is very difficult subject, neglecting about passing the IAS examination as if it is a very simple issue!
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