生 活 的 藝 術 之 南 境 知 識 棧

A Commentary of Bhakti Sutras

Vol. 5  Love Is Pure Communication

By H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

At St. Mathicu du Pare Canadian Ashram on July 24^th, 2002

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Rishi Narada said, “There is an example of love of Gopis to Krishna, such Divine love it is.” It has happened such: Yatha vraj gopikanam. If Krishna were there today, he would have undergone so many court cases. (laughter) It is the girls. He took all their clothes away when they was bathing in the river, he took them all and went up on a tree and he played with them. He was very naughty, mischievous, almost like a playboy. (laughter) That’s what he was considered. He broke all the rules. But the love was it lust, or was it love? That is where Narada said, Tatrapi na mahatmya gyana vismrityapavadah. Though the love of the Gopis to Krishna was of such intimated nature, they considered him not as God descending from heaven, but as their beloved, as their lover, as their love, so close to their heart.

You know, the respect that you have for someone above you is different from the love that you have for someone of your same status. Love flows in that direction, that there is friendliness, companionship. For that there should be some level ground. It’s easy to respect somebody, and it is easy to look down upon somebody. But to have love flow on an equal basis is hard. But then you find faults in them to put them down or you think they are too much higher above you, and put them up and think you cannot reach them, they are too practical. They don’t understand what you are, who you are. Your communication breaks down whenever you oscillate between lower and upper levels.

But with Gopis, that was not the case. Love is pure communication. Love is that which transfers from heart to heart. There are three levels you can think of. One is attraction that’s on the physical level. You see something, you get attracted. That’s so lust generates. Second, whatever you are attracted to, it becomes hard to get that love develops because that attraction seeps deep into your heart, then your heart starts longing for it, aching for it, desiring in it, and love has happened. If that love is kept again with certain distance, that love turns, the love does not destroy the respect, because as we have seen, respect needs a little distance and love cannot stand distance. So this conflict of nature between love and respect is a problem in most relationships in the world today. Why relationships happen, why they break, the cause is this intensive conflict in the nature things of where they are. That’s where the Sutra is needed, the thread that unites, that uplifts. When the love culminates, it becomes surrender. Gopis started the communication with Krishna in an equal level. Some of them even started as though he was a child you know. They used to mother him.

In any relationship you will find all these three levels sometimes come and go. If you are in a relationship with a person, you try to mother them or father them, you try to protect them, and there is an equal communication, and then you respect them also, adore them, respect. All the three aspects come in a good relationship. In ancient India when you give blessing to eleven, this was a blessing “May you have ten kids and your husband as your 11^th one.” (laughter) This usual blessing when you go on take blessings from elders, “May you have many kids.” they would say that ten kids. “May you have many kids and make your husband the 11^th.” You mother your husband, you protect him. I mean same should be for men also, not to say that you protect, take care of your wife, it’s your duty.

Yatha vraj gopikanam. The Gopis loved Krishna so much. They got so space out. One of the Gopis was doing her make-up, she just made one eye make-up, and someone said: “Krishna is coming, he’s going on the street.”, she just dropped everything, she went there. Other was tying her sari half, and in half sari she goes and stands up. Other was cooking, she just left everything. Everybody would just rush to the street just have a glimpse of Krishna. And one Gopi was still staring in the space, someone asked her: “What are you doing? What are you staring? What are you doing? He came and left already. So already 10, 15 minutes he already left. Who are you looking for?” She said he also took my vision. (laughter) “Yeah, did he go?” She said: “Oh, yes, he has already taken my vision. He took everything, my heart, my soul, my vision. I am nothing without Him.” The love of Gopis was so strong, Ｍany of them,16000 of them, not one or two. Was it lust? See in love there is two percent lust, and in lust there is two percent love. If someone keeps seeing a prostitute for a whole long time, he gets emotionally attached to that person, that prostitute he or she. Then he gets entangled or she gets entangled into. They just began the whole journey just a physical casual contact, but doesn’t stay there, it sails into emotional. In love, there’s two percent of lust. Lust means what? Coming close, being together. The ancient rishi knew it, they made a place for it also. This is a difference between orient and occident. You know oriental there are not just father, they also make mother. You hear prayer in the occident, we pray: “God, my father.” Okay, God is your father, what about mother? Were you born without a mother? You don’t have a mother. The concept of God is mother is not there. Of course, Maria is honored and respected. The father God is not seen as someone with a mother. So you are born only out of father, not with father and mother.

But the rishi made space and know Shiva shakti, the goddess. Spirit is a male, it conquers and the Earth is a female, it receives Spirit. The mother acts as the feminine aspect. You’ll always find the duals—Shiva/Pravati, Gori/Shangara, Radha/Krishna, Lakshmi/Narayana, they always made gods as a couple. Expression of Divine Prakriti and Purusha. Prakriti the Nature, Purusha the source, consciousness aspect. Lust is aggressive, love is submissive. Lust is feverishness. Lust is wanting something, demanding: “I want to have, I want to possess.” Love is giving, caring, being available for the need, the need of the hour, the need of the time. Do you see the difference? Love and lust. But the expression can be misunderstood, mistaken. In lust, there is feverishness. In love, there is sparkle of joy. A person lustfully makes you an object, object of their enjoyment. But in love, you elevate a person to godliness. Lust is nothing but stimulation of the body. Love is the stimulation of the soul, of the heart. But they are so close, they are connected somewhere. This discrimination, this awareness is missing in the society, that’s why so many problems arise in your life, you know. Because we have been thinking lust is sin, trying to put it down and make a whole of....

Neither putting something down, nor getting engrossed in it is the way to rise above. An impotent person cannot gain to the Divine love. This is also said. And Samadhi, meditation also said in terms of lust. You’ll be surprised to it. One moment of Samadhi is called one thousand times of sex. One fraction of moment of Samadhi, how it tastes like? The rishi explained: “What is it? You know sex, isn’t it? What you know, the basic thing that you know. You have done so many life times again and again and again and again. Nothing to be ashamed of. What that you have been doing all your life times being a cockroach, (laughter) being a frog, being a horse, being a donkey, monkey everything. Two things you have done, you have been eating and chewing and eating and eating, second doing sex. And having born as a human life, you start one more thing - complaining and worrying. (laughter) This is none of animal does.

A basic thing that is in the range of physiology, but struck in the mind, consciousness so much stuck in that thing. They explained Samadhi as one moment, Samadhi is one thousand sex at one moment. Saharsdarati—one thousand union. Yatha vraj gopikanam.

Let the gopis work. They have no shame or shyness to exhibit their love for Krishna because they knew the grandeur of Krishna, the glory of Krishna. They saw Krishna not just like a flooding guy moving around, but they saw his spirit that is so seductive which drove everybody, gopals and gopis everybody will simply fall. In the middle of the night, when Krishna was under a tree and playing his flute, the gopis came running. Krishna said, “This is not the time for you to be here. You go back home.” And the gopis said, “No.” (laughter) Gopis, gopals they were all there. Said, “No. This is our home wherever you are. We don’t feel at home anywhere else.” “No, no. According to dharma, the rules, you have to care for your husband, your children and your daily duties, your in-laws, parents in laws. Go, do your job.” Said, “ If you tell us to go, we will go but our heart is here. We have not come here just for our sake. I know when we come here, you can play better. By our coming here it makes you happy and joyful, that’s why we have come.” So finally put a stop, Krishna has nothing else to say. “Seeing us, I know you, you love seeing us, looking at us. You love to play the flute for us. For your sake, we have come.”

Nastyeva tasmin tatsukh sukhitvam.

If the love is just only lust, if it’s only on the physical level, then there is no expression or wish to give pleasure and comfort to the others. The nature of lust is such it is not wanting, it is not the desire or will to give comfort to the others. But love rejoices in the joy of others. When the beloved is joyful, the lover feels satisfied, full. Otherwise, that love would have been like that of a prostitute, prostitution. Narada says, “like prostitutes.”

Tadviheenam jaarannamiva. If the Divine Spirit was not there, it could have been like the love of a prostitute, which she doesn’t care for what the customer, he or she doesn’t care for the customer’s comfort, they only look for their own benefit out of it.

Nastyeva tasmin tatsukh sukhitvam. In such lust, in such expression of the so-called ‘love’, there is no joy in giving joy, there is no comfort in giving comfort. It centers around the person, not around the beloved. It centers around one’s ego, mind complex. Hmm... The nature of love is to bring comfort to the lover, to bring joy, happiness to the lover. Lust is extracting joy out of the lover, binding comfort from the lover, “Oh, I can’t live without you.” What do you mean? Why can’t you live without me? “Because I want to have...  I am the center, I can’t be without you.” No, he said gopis’ joy was not that type of joy.

There is another story about gopis. Krishna left Madula Brindavan and then he went to the west like it is a saying in America, “Go west, young man. Go west.” (laughter) Similarly Krishna left Brindavan the eastern part of India and went to the west to Gujurat to Duraka. Then one day he had terrible headache, whether he really had headache or he acted one. You have to figure that out. You see he pretends he has a big headache. So all the doctors, vidya came and they took his pulses and they couldn’t find anything, they couldn’t find a solution. Finally all the devotees gathered together said, “Let’s ask Krishna himself. You know, you tell me what is the medication, what can we do to make you comfortable, what can we do to make your headache disappear.” Krishna said, “No, all that I want is the dust from the feet of my devotees. If you take some dust from the feet of my devotees and put on my head, that headache will disappear and this is the solution.”

Then all the wise people there, men and everybody said, “Dust from the feet of devotees?” Everybody started big discussions about it, how... you know it is written in the scriptures with the dust from the devotees’ feet goes onto the Lord’s head, they will go to hell. Some of the devotees has to stamp on the head of the Master or the God, and hell is booked for them (laughter), first class ticket (laughter) immediate. This is a karma. What is the karma would come out of it? Everybody was so scared. Everyone hestitates, find some other devotees, you know (laughter) Please find some other devotees. Everybody else keeps passing on. And then one Narada, the same Narada, everyone told Nararda, “Muni Narada, we can’t do that. You please takes some other devotees.” So Narada searched all over and he has to move east. So Narada moved east and he went to the gopis. And the gopis, “What? Dust from the feet of the devotees? How much, how many truck loads you want? Come on, we’ll give you. (laughter) We can’t stand our Lord having in pain, being in pain. We could not stand it. Go, immediately go. How much you want? Never mind even for 14 generations, 14 lifetimes, 72 life generations if we have to rot in hell, we are ready to do this. No difficulty, take it. We can’t stand our lover, our beloved suffering.”

For Krishna to tell all the people in there in Gujurat of how the gopis are. What is their love, their expression of love? When Krishna left the body, he sent one of his very close disciple Udeva, “Go and tell the gopis that I have left this universe, this world. My physical body is leaving this world. Give them knowledge.” So when he went to give them knowledge, they said, “What knowledge are you talking about? God teach knowledge to those who need but we don’t because every particle of us is filled with Lord.” Said, “Nobody exists here at home, only Krishna is.” These are simple housewives, simple women folk of the village, but their state of consciousness was something remarkable, that all the sages, all the prophets the same, everybody bows in front of that love of gopis. It is said the heavens opened up and all the angels came to rejoice that one tear of the gopis, tear of ecstasy, tear of joy, tear of love, the tear of longing.

Love and lust, two points of one spectrum, and the Sutra makes you understand and connect your life in all these diversities, binds you from every angle, and yet brings such a freedom from within. See, there is a taboo in the East to express love. People love each other but they won’t tell them. It’s all gone through a look and gestures. You won’t see mother is telling the children, “Oh, I love you so much, you are my honey.” But rather in the West there is lots of expression of love. Too much expressing love somewhere the feelings die out. And too little expression brings a lot of stifles somebody, you know. I feel there should be some middle path. If you express love too much like in the West, it loses the depth. Every other sentences you call “Honey, honey...” (laughter) and the honey becomes so bitter. (laughter) I mean it loses its depth. No offense if one keeps calling your wife or husband “honey”, you can continue that. (laughter) I am saying that the meaning, the essence somewhere when we express too much, it doesn’t take deeper roots within you. In the East, there is very deep root. Once you love somebody, that’s it, you love them for your whole life. Come what may. There you do not express your..., many times you love somebody, you don’t even tell them you love. You don’t express at all. So, some middle path is essential, it is not too much expression and not too much suppression. Middle path. What do you say? (Yes) So the love of gopis was that of to give comfort and they rejoice in the joy of the beloved, they rejoice in the comfort of the beloved.

Sri Radhe Radhe Radhe Sham   Govinde Radhe

Sri Radhe Radhe Radhe Sham   Govinde Radhe  Sri Radhe

Govinde Radhe Radhe Sham    Gopale Radhe Radhe Sham

Govinde Radhe Radhe Sham    Gopale Radhe Radhe Sham

Sri Radhe Sri Radhe Sri Radhe....