Sri Krishna’s Brindavanam and Dvarka Lilas : 7. Glory of Srimad Maha Bhagavatam : Swami Krishnananda

20/04/2019
7.

Otherwise, how would we appreciate the answer of Suka Maharishi to Parikshit’s question, that this is a cure for desire? A thing that would otherwise rouse desire is considered to be a cure for it. This is how God acts. He slaps us from both sides, and we do not know what the intention behind it is. Sri Krishna behaved recklessly with his mother and his comrades, and yet always saved them in their hour of need. He did fantastic things such as eating mud, and then behaved abominably with children; but when he was threatened, he showed the Cosmic Form in his open mouth. But he would not allow his mother to remember this vision that he had shown her, and immediately veiled it from her consciousness. Again she hugged the little child, as if nothing had happened. Look at this contradiction in his behaviour. He showed the Cosmic Form, but would not allow her to keep that consciousness. Then why did he show it to her at all? This is how God acts. He will tantalise us, and yet save us.

This is the intention behind the Rasa Dance. Otherwise, the contradictory nature that is behind this performance is inexplicable to human nature. This is how God works. Are we able to comprehend God’s ways, how He can create and then destroy things? God can create floods and wash away villages. Is it justifiable action? He can break the Earth to its very bowels, and cause kingdoms and all humanity to fall into it. Does God create people in order that He may destroy them? Is He playing a joke?

Yes, says the Brahmasutra. Lokavattu lilakaivalyam (B.S. 2.1.33).

The only reason for God’s creation is to play jokes with Himself, as a child plays with his reflection.

Reme rameso vraja-sundaribhir yatharbhaka? sva-pratibimba vibhrama? (S.B. 10.33.16).

Sri Krishna did not play with little children, he did not play with women; he played with his own reflections, as a child dances in ecstasy by seeing its own image in mirrors kept everywhere. His Gopis were only mirrors through which he himself was reflected and, therefore, they got transformed into a spirit which was not human—not man, not woman.

Krishna was not a man, and the Gopis were not women; they were something transcendent. Therefore, the description of the Rasa Lila is a cure for the maladies of human nature, says Suka Maharishi. Normally this meaning cannot be understood, and it is simply bypassed. We do parayana—we read the Bhagavata in seven days—but we do not grasp its meaning. We do not know what we have read. It seems to be all contradiction and trouble. Somehow we finish the reading, a havan is performed and the matter is over, but we have gained nothing by the Bhagavata-saptaha. This is what happens.

To be continued ..