Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 22

tatrāpi na māhātmya-jñāna-vismrity-apavādah

SYNONYMS

tatra — in that case; api — even; na — there is not; māhātmya — of greatness; jñāna — of awareness; vismriti — of forgetting; apavādah — criticism.

TRANSLATION

Even in the case of the gopīs, one cannot criticize them for forgetting the Lord's greatness.

PURPORT

Nārada is replying to a possible criticism: Although all Vaishnavas praise the gopīs, and though even the impersonalists join in the chorus, some philosophers think the gopīs' love is uninformed. Because the gopīs were attracted to Krishna as a beautiful young boy, and because they ran from their homes in the dead of night to dance with Him in the moonlit Vrindāvana forest, foolish critics think the gopīs did not know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The accusation against the gopīs is false, says Nārada. The gopīs knew that Śrī Krishna is the Supreme Person, but in their intimate rasa with Him they put aside the awe and reverence usually offered to the Supreme Lord. The Lord's internal potency, Yogamāyā, allows loving intimacy to overshadow God's majesty. But this does not mean that pure devotees like the gopīs lack spiritual advancement. Except for the gopīs Krishna brought with Him from the spiritual world, all the gopīs came to their position of mādhurya-rasa only after many lifetimes of austerity and spiritual cultivation. Regarding the cowherd boys (gopas) who play with Krishna, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states that they attained their position "only after accumulating heaps of pious activities" in many lives. So although it may sometimes appear that the liberated devotees have forgotten that Lord Krishna is God, this is actually an arrangement by Yogamāyā for increasing the pleasure of the Lord and His devotees.

For example, as Vasudeva carried his baby son Krishna across the Yamunā River, the baby fell into the river. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, "Just to test the intense love of Vasudeva, Lord Krishna fell down into the waters of the Yamunā while His father was crossing the river. Vasudeva became mad after his child as he tried to recover Him in the midst of the rising river" (Bhāg. 3.2.17, purport). Lord Krishna did not want Vasudeva to think, "Oh, Krishna will save Himself; He's God," but He wanted to evoke the paternal rasa in full intensity. In a similar way, mother Yaśodā sometimes expressed her maternal love for baby Krishna by punishing Him. And when His mother came to punish Him, Krishna reciprocated by running away in fear. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this apparent contradiction as follows:

The Lord's pure devotee renders service unto the Lord out of unalloyed love only, and while discharging such devotional service the pure devotee forgets the position of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord also accepts the loving service of His devotees more relishably when the service is rendered spontaneously out of pure affection, without any reverential admiration.... If mother Yaśodā had been conscious of the exalted position of the Lord, she would certainly have hesitated to punish the Lord. But she was made to forget this situation because the Lord wanted to make a complete gesture of childishness before the affectionate Yaśodā.... Mother Yaśodā is praised for her unique position of love, for she could control even the all-powerful Lord as her beloved child. [Bhāg. 1.8.31, purport]

Another prominent example is Arjuna, Krishna's friend, who accepted the infallible Lord as his chariot driver.

As for the gopīs of Vraja, they often manifested deep knowledge of Krishna's divinity. But they never diminished their conjugal mood in order to become scholars or meditators. Krishna wanted to dance with the most beautiful girls in the universe, and so the gopīs, His completely surrendered servants, happily complied. When Krishna called the gopīs to Him in the dead of night, He first began to lecture them on morality. The gopīs complained to Him about this attitude, and yet their statements indicate that they knew very well who He was. The gopīs said to Krishna,

Within these three worlds there is no distinction between men and women in relation to You because both men and women belong to the marginal potency, or prakriti. No one is actually the enjoyer, or male; everyone is meant to be enjoyed by You. There is no woman within these three worlds who cannot but deviate from her path of chastity when she is attracted to You because Your beauty is so sublime that not only men and women, but cows, birds, beasts, and even trees, fruits, and flowers — everyone and everything — become enchanted, and what to speak of ourselves? [Krishna, p. 252]

After Lord Krishna left Vrindāvana, He sent Uddhava to deliver a message to the gopīs. When Uddhava saw the gopīs' undying devotion for Śrī Krishna, he praised their transcendental perfection:

My dear gopīs, the mentality you have developed in relationship to Krishna is very, very difficult to attain, even for great sages and saintly persons. You have attained the highest perfectional stage of life. It is a great boon for you that you have fixed your minds upon Krishna and have decided to have Krishna only, giving up your family, homes, relatives, husbands, and children for the sake of the Supreme Personality. Because your minds are now fully absorbed in Krishna, the Supreme Soul, universal love has automatically developed in you. I think myself very fortunate that I have been favored, by your grace, to see you in this situation. [Krishna, p. 380]

The gopīs were always impatient when either Uddhava or Krishna spoke philosophy to them, because all they wanted was to be alone with Krishna in the Vrindāvana mood. So when Uddhava praised them, they did not find it very pleasing. Sometimes they even denounced Krishna's behavior, and yet they remained aware of His supreme and independent position. As one gopī said, "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the husband of the goddess of fortune, and He is self-sufficient. He has no business either with us — the girls of Vrindāvana forest — or with the city girls in Mathurā. He is the great Supersoul; He has nothing to do with any of us, either here or there" (Krishna, p. 386).

It is offensive to judge the gopīs according to ordinary standards of human behavior. The intimacy Krishna allowed them is inconceivable, and no one can understand it except those who are completely free of material desires. The gopīs' love is certainly beyond awe and reverence, and yet it is never mundane.

The impersonalist sometimes tries to jump on the bandwagon of praise for the gopīs. He says that the gopīs cannot be understood by people infected with worldly lust, but then he himself commits an even worse offense: he thinks Krishna's affairs with the gopīs are "allegories that contain profound spiritual truths." Behind the Māyāvādī's admiration of gopī-bhāva is the desire to commit spiritual annihilation, to become one with God. In other words, the impersonalist thinks that at the last stage of perfection, a gopī will realize that her beloved Krishna is her very self. We have already pointed out the foolishness of these claims, but we do so again just to expose the impersonalist's so-called praise of krishna-līlā.

By contrast, Nārada Muni's praise of the gopīs' devotion to Lord Krishna is upheld by all śāstras and sages.

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