03 May 2023
[Smt. Priyanka asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, You mentioned that the Gopikas were sages for millions of years and Sage Durvasa was born as Radha. Similarly, were some other great sages like Sage Vishwamitra, Sage Agastya, Sage Vashistha, etc. who met Lord Rama in the forest also born as Gopikas? If yes, these famous sages have been alive all the way from Satya Yuga. Then how did they go through millions of births until they were born as the Gopikas in the end of Dwapara Yuga? Can we assume that these great sages were exceptional cases, who discussed spiritual knowledge through many Yugas and only the rest of the gopikas (among those 100 gopikas who got tested) went through millions of births studying spiritual knowledge? At Your divine lotus feet, Priyanka]
Swami replied:- What is the use of these statistics in the case of sages, which are not connected to the main concept? In what way they can help or oppose the main concept, which is defeating the three strongest worldly bonds when they compete with the bond with God? You are resembling the present research scholars doing research on Shankara discussing about His birth date, birth time and place of birth as required in the matrimonial websites without touching the commentary of Shankara! If I encourage you by giving answer to this question, your next questions would be “During the penance, what type of tiffin, lunch and dinner was taken by sages? Did they use the drinking water supplied by the municipality? What was the material used for the roofs of their cottages?” etc.
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