07 Feb 2025
[Smt. Chhanda asked: Paadanamaskaaram Swami! Swami, in reply to a question asked by Shri Anil recently, You said that excess of devotion will spoil the health and bring madness. You also said that devotion is emotion that is uncontrolled due to lack of complete spiritual knowledge. Swami, can I apply this same concept to understand the reason for Gopikas not being able to control their emotion? Can I say that Gopikas were lacking complete spiritual knowledge in comparison to Janaka? But they were sages for yugas who were discussing spiritual knowledge only. Moreover, is it possible for any soul to have complete spiritual knowledge? King Janaka might have more knowledge as well as more absorption of the same. Is it correct, Swami? I have asked this question several times. You also have answered from different angles. Still my mind could not catch the right logic. Please take this pain again and help me out as You have always done. At Your divine lotus feet, Chhanda always]
Swami replied:- Certainly, Gopikas were sages for the past millions of births and acquired excellent spiritual knowledge. You are seeing even great scholars of spiritual knowledge lacking practical devotion and sometimes, lacking even theoretical devotion! Many Gopikas failed in practical devotion since most of them complained to Mother Yashoda about the stealing of butter by God Krishna. They were excellent in theoretical devotion. But, the theoretical devotion alone in excess will spoil the health. When health is spoiled, the devotee becomes weak and incapable of doing practical devotion. Practical devotion is the true proof of theoretical devotion. Many Gopikas failed in practical devotion even though they were excellent in theoretical devotion. Only twelve Gopikas were successful in both theoretical and practical devotion. Unless the devotee controls the emotional theoretical devotion, the devotee cannot succeed in true practical devotion. God Krishna observed the case of many failed Gopikas and emphasized the practical aspect of devotion called as Karma Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita. Simply taking the word ‘Gopikas’, you shall not feel that you are referring to the gold-medalists because there are several Gopikas, who did not even pass the divine test. Only a very small minority was successful in the spiritual path.
God Krishna told that only through the practical aspect of devotion, devotees like Janaka were successful in the spiritual line (Karmaṇaiva hi saṃsiddhiṃ, āsthitā Janakādayaḥ - Gita). The successful candidates were twelve Gopikas and Janaka, who took complete care about the practical aspect of spiritual effort. God Krishna told that by karma (action) alone, spiritual success is possible. Several people misunderstand this verse by taking the meaning as that people will succeed in spiritual line only if they do worldly work. Here, the word ‘karma’ does not mean worldly work, but, means practical devotion (practical sacrifice of work and practical sacrifice of fruit of work). Our people are talented in quickly catching the misinterpretation than the correct interpretation! The theoretical devotion is also necessary and always necessary to transfer knowledge into practice, but, such theoretical devotion must be within the limits so that practical devotion is not affected. All the Gopikas were mad after God Krishna, but, the twelve Gopikas controlled their madness and were effectively successful in the final practical devotion also.
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