Krsna Book Audio Dictation - Chapter 35
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter Thirty-five. Subject: "Gopīs Feeling Separation."
The gopīs of Vṛndāvana, they were so much attached to Kṛṣṇa that they were not satisfied simply by His association at night like rāsa dance for enjoying His company, but they wanted to associate with Him during daytime also. While Kṛṣṇa was going to the forest with His cowherds boyfriends and cows, the gopīs, although physically they did not take part in Kṛṣṇa's tending the cows in the forest, their heart was going with Him; and because their heart was with Kṛṣṇa, they could enjoy His company by a strong feeling of separation.
This strong feeling of separation is the teaching of Lord Caitanya and His direct disciples the Six Gosvāmīns. When we are not in physical contact directly with Kṛṣṇa, we can associate with Him by the separa..., feelings of separation as exemplified by the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa—His transcendental form, His transcendental quality, His transcendental pastimes, His transcendental entourage—they are all identical with Kṛṣṇa, and there are nine different kinds of devotional service. So devotional service to Kṛṣṇa in feelings of separation elevates the devotee to the highest perfectional stage, as much as to the standard of gopīs.
It is stated in Śrīnivāsācārya's prayer to the Six Gosvāmīns that they left their material opulences, their government service and their princely status of life and they went to Vṛndāvana, and they lived there just like ordinary mendicants, begging from door to door. But they were so much enriched in the separation feelings of the gopīs that in every moment they used to enjoy transcendental pleasure. Similarly, Lord Caitanya also, when He was staying in Purī, Jagannātha Purī, He was feeling the separation of Kṛṣṇa in the role of Rādhārāṇī.
So those who are in the disciplic succession of this Gauḍīya-sampradāya, or Madhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya, they should always feel the separation of Kṛṣṇa and worship His transcendental form, discuss about His transcendental teachings and His pastimes, His qualities, His entourage, His association. That will enrich the devotee to the highest devotional perfection. Such constant feelings of separation and be engaged in the service of the Lord is the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
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The gopīs used to talk amongst themselves as follows. One of the gopīs said to his (her) friend, "My dear friend, do you know that Kṛṣṇa, while lying down on the ground and resting on the elbow of His left hand, keeping His left forehead on it and moving His attractive eyebrows, plays His flute with the delicate fingers all over it, and the sound produced thereof creates such nice atmosphere that the denizens of heavenly planet who are traveling in the space with their wives and beloved, they stop their airplane and become stunted with the sound vibration of the flute. The wives of the denizens of heavenly planet who are seated in that plane becomes very much ashamed of their singing or musical qualification. Not only that; such wives of the denizens become afflicted with conjugal love, and their bunch of hair and tightened dress becomes immediately loosened."
Another gopī began to talk to his (her) friend, "My dear friend, Kṛṣṇa is so nice that on His chest the goddess of fortune always remains, as well as the golden necklace is always brightening on His chest. Such beautiful Kṛṣṇa, when He begins to play on His pipe flute in order to enthuse the heart of many other devotees—because Kṛṣṇa is the only friend for the suffering living entities—at that time, all the cows and other animals of Vṛndāvana, even though they are engaged in taking their morsel of food, they simply take the grass in the mouth and keeping them on their teeth, and raising their ears up, they remain stunted as if dead animals or not living but painted animals. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa's playing on the flute is so attractive that even the animals become enchanted, and what to speak of ourself."
Another gopī replied, "My dear friend, what to speak of the animals; they are living. Even the inanimate objects like the rivers, the Yamunā and the lakes in the Vṛndāvana, they also become stunted, because Kṛṣṇa, with a bunch of peacock feather on His head, and smeared over the body by the minerals of Vṛndāvana, and with bunches of leaves and flowers on His body, as if some hero—when He plays on His flute and calls the cows, along with Balarāma, the river Yamunā stops flowing, and it awaits the dust on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa carried by the air to be thrown on her. But unfortunately, the river Yamunā stops moving. But they are also less fortunate like us, because they will not get Kṛṣṇa's mercies and simply remains stunted, stopping the waves, as we are also stopped crying for Kṛṣṇa in frustration." This means that the gopīs, in the absence of Kṛṣṇa, were constantly crying and shedding tears, but sometimes they expected Kṛṣṇa is coming and they stop crying. But when they saw that Kṛṣṇa was not there, again they become frustrated and began to cry.
Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, the origin of all Viṣṇu forms, and the cowherds boys, they are all demigods. Therefore, as Lord Viṣṇu is always worshiped and surrounded by different categories of demigods like Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā, Indra, Candra and others, similarly Kṛṣṇa, when He travels through the Vṛndāvana forest and gets on the Govardhana Hill, and while going on He plays on His flute just to call His different cows, at that time the trees, plants and other vegetation in the forest immediately become Kṛṣṇa conscious. As a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is dedicated to sacrifice everything for Kṛṣṇa, similarly, although these trees and plants have not ordinarily very much advanced in consciousness, by the association of Kṛṣṇa and His associates they also become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and they wanted to sacrifice or deliver everything, whatever they had, namely their fruits, flowers, and come incessant current of honey falling from their different branches.
In this way, when Kṛṣṇa passes on the bank of the Yamunā, nicely decorated with tilakas on His face and garlanded with different kinds of forest flowers, as well as smeared on His body by the pulp of sandalwood and the tulasī leaves along with them, at that time the bumblebees becomes mad after the flavor and sweetness of the atmosphere, and they begin their humming sound. Kṛṣṇa also being pleased by their humming sound immediately plays on His flute, and both together it becomes so sweet to hear that the aquatic birds like cranes and swans and ducks, they become charmed with the sweet sound and instead of swimming over the water, they become stunted, and by closing their eyes immediately transform into trance of meditation for worshiping Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the hearts of the aquatic birds after hearing the sweet vibration of Kṛṣṇa's flute, immediately they are situated in trance meditation.
Another gopī said, "My dear friend, Kṛṣṇa along with Balarāma, thus nicely dressed with Their earrings and pearl necklaces, enjoys on the hilltop of Govardhana Hill and becomes absorbed in His transcendental pleasure by playing His flute, and at the same time charms the whole created manifestation. At that time the clouds on the sky also become affected. The clouds, instead of roaring, they stop loud roaring on account of being afraid of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They did not like to disturb the nice vibration of His flute, but rather they responded very mildly roaring and in order to congratulate Kṛṣṇa, their friend."
Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the friend of the cloud because both the cloud and Kṛṣṇa satisfies the people when they are too much in disturbed condition. When people are burning due to excessive heat, the cloud, by pouring rains, satisfy them. Similarly, the people in materialistic conditioned life, when they are too much disturbed by the blazing fire of material pangs, Kṛṣṇa consciousness gives them exactly relief like the cloud. Therefore the cloud and Kṛṣṇa, having the same feature of conducive effect and bodily color also, they are considered as friend. So in order to congratulate the superior friend, the cloud, instead of pouring water, begins to pour small pieces of flower like snows and covers the head of Kṛṣṇa just like umbrella to protect Him from the scorching sunshine.
One of the gopīs addressed mother Yaśodā, "My dear mother, your son is very expert amongst the cowherds boy. He knows all the different types of arts, how to tend the cows specifically in the matter of His playing the flute. He has His own songs composed by Him, and in order to sing those songs, when He puts His flute in the mouth and begins to display the harmony of different musical tunes, at that time, either in the morning or in the evening, all the demigods like Lord Śiva, Brahmā and Indra, Candra, immediately they bow down their head, and with great attention they begin to hear the vibration how the flute makes. But although they are very learned and expert in everything, still they cannot understand the musical arrangement of the flute of Kṛṣṇa. They simply hear attentively, try to understand, but becomes bewildered and nothing more."
Another gopī said, "My dear friend, when Kṛṣṇa returns home with His cows, His footprints of flag, thunderbolt and trident and lotus flower relieves the pain of the earth on account of traversing by the cows. The cows’ hoofs are so hard that the earth becomes aggrieved on account of their traversing. But Kṛṣṇa comes back the cows, and when the footprints of His lotus feet are imprinted, the surface of the earth becomes relieved. And He comes in a style which is so attractive with His flute that looking on Him, we become practically too much lusty to enjoy His company. At that time, our movements become stunted. We just become like trees and stand still without any movement, and we cannot perceive about our loosening of the bunch of hair or dress. We do not know how and where they are now."
Kṛṣṇa has many thousands of cows, but they are divided into groups according to their respective color, and Kṛṣṇa has a complete account of all the individual cows; they have got different names according to the color. So when He comes back from the pasturing ground, He counts them on the beads. As we chant 108 beads according to the individual association of the gopīs, similarly, Kṛṣṇa also chants 108 beads according to the different groups of His cows. So when He comes back He is seen garlanded with tulasī leaves and calls the cows back in and takes their account on the beads. And while coming back in this way, He puts His hand on the shoulder of His cowherds boyfriend and begins to blow on His transcendental flute.
At that time, the wives of black deers, they become enchanted as they are usually become by hearing the vibration of vīṇā. Kṛṣṇa's flute resemble the vibration of vīṇā. In this way they come to Kṛṣṇa and become so charmed that they stand still and forget their homes and husband, exactly like the gopīs. As the gopīs are enchanted by the ocean of transcendental qualities of Kṛṣṇa, similarly, the she-deer, they also become enchanted by the vibration of the flute of Kṛṣṇa.
Another gopī addressed mother Yaśodā, "My dear mother, when your son, or the son of Mahārāja Nanda, comes back home, He specifically dresses Himself with the buds of kunda flowers as ornaments, and just to enlighten and engladden His friends, He blows the flute. At that time, the breeze blowing from the Malaya islands or from the southern side, it pleases the whole atmosphere because it is fragrant and very cool. At that time the semi-gods or upa-(indistinct), just like the Gandharvas and Siddhas, they take advantage of this atmosphere and begins to offer prayer to Kṛṣṇa by sounding their bugles and drums, and thus they offer their worship to your son.
"Kṛṣṇa is very kind to the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi, Vṛndāvana, and when He comes back with His groups of cows along with His friends, He is remembered as the uplifter of the Govardhana Hill. And taking advantage of this opportunity, even the most exalted demigods like Brahmā and Lord Śiva, they come down to offer their prayers to Kṛṣṇa in the evening, and the accompanying cowherds boys also begin to glorify the qualities of Kṛṣṇa.
"Kṛṣṇa is compared with the moon, born in the ocean of the womb of Devakī, and when He comes back in the evening it appears that He is fatigued, but still He tries to engladden the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana by His auspicious presence. In this way, when Kṛṣṇa comes back in Vṛndāvana garlanded with flowers and His face looks beautiful with the golden earrings, He tries to engladden the inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi and walks in Vṛndāvana in a style just like the elephant slowly enters home. When thus Kṛṣṇa comes back home, both the men, women and cows of Vṛndāvana immediately forget the scorching heat of the day."
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The above description of Kṛṣṇa's transcendental pastimes and activities remembered by the gopīs during the absence of Kṛṣṇa from Vṛndāvana gives us an idea of how much Kṛṣṇa is attractive, not only to the human being, but also to the animate and inanimate objects like trees, plants, water, the animals like deers, cows. Everyone is attracted by Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfect description of Kṛṣṇa's all-attractiveness. The examples of the gopīs are very much instructive to persons who are trying to be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One can very easily associate with Kṛṣṇa simply by remembering His transcendental pastimes. Everyone has a tendency to love somebody else. That Kṛṣṇa should be the objective of love, that is the central point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By constantly chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and remembering the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, one can remain fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus one can make his life sublime and fruitful.
Thus ends the Thirty-fifth Chapter of Kṛṣṇa in the matter of "Gopīs' Feeling of Separation for Kṛṣṇa."
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