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(7/7) Highest Devotion
His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to devotees worldwide,
30 November 2020, part 7
Question: You mentioned that Vraja gopis' mood is the highest. Could you explain why it is so?
Devotional mood is of five types: santa (neutrality), dasya (servitude), sakhya (friendship), vatsalya (parenthood), madhura (consorthood). All these moods exist in Sri Dham Vrindavan, nowhere else – not even in Ayodhya or Dvaraka.
For example, in Rama-lila, there is only a little bit of dasya-rasa (for example, Hanuman is Lord Rama's servant). You know that Lord Ramachandra is maryada-purush: He always follows all rules and regulations to take care of His kingdom and subjects. But there are not so many rules and regulations in Vraja-lila.
There is not even so much vatsalya-rasa in Rama-lila. In Vraja-lila, when Mother Yasoda tied Krishna, that is love and affection. Mother Yasoda could beat Him also, and that is also love and affection. She can do anything she wants with her son. When she tied Krishna and Krishna rescued the Yamalarjuna trees (the twin trees), Nanda Maharaj at once ran there to see what had happened and to see if Gopal was injured. Nanda Maharaj was very upset when he heard that Mother Yasoda had tied Krishna and did not even talk to Mother Yasoda for three months because of that. This is how much love and affection he has for Krishna. But in Rama-lila, Dasarath promised his wife Kaikeyi to give her any boon she wanted, and because of that he had to send his son Ramachandra to the forest for many years! He might have been a little bit pained because of that, but he did not show it. We do not see it in the pastimes. Where is there vatsalya-rasa? And where is there madhura-rasa? Ramachandra first sent Sita Devi for agni-pariksa (test of fire), and after she passed it, He still sent her away to live in a forest.
In this way, we can understand everything. I also wrote something about it in Guidance, Volume Four:
Rama-lila's main purpose is to follow moral behaviour, to preserve moral behaviour, to protect the truth and to satisfy the dependents
Some of the purposes of Rama-lila are to follow impeccable moral behaviour and to preserve moral rules and obligations. The Lord's moral obligation is to be truthful and protect His subjects. He can never violate the righteous rules of conduct. For the sake of following the ethical principles and morality properly, the secret purpose of Rama-lila is to set an example of these moral principles. Wherever Sri Ramachandra performed His pastimes—be it in Ayodhya, in Lanka, Dandakaranya or when slaying demoness Tadaka—He never broke the moral etiquette. He descended to this world to establish the necessity to follow moral rules—it is necessary to follow them for the benefit of the jiva souls. To nourish these pastimes, Laksman also had to yield to the moral principles. In this way, even if there were obstacles or obstructions in His service, even if He was dissatisfied with His service, to carry out the main moral obligations, He too had to follow severe rules and regulations otherwise the pastimes of Lord Sri Ramachandra would not be complete and satisfactory. If Laksman had acted in another way, He would not be able to serve his Lord. Trying to carry out the order of Sri Ramachandra, Laksman had to cross His own heart. He had to do many things against His wish. If the younger brother does not obey whatever order his elder brother gives him, then morality is not maintained—it could be beautiful, it could show more love, but it did not support morality. Rama-lila's purpose is not to increase love—even when Laksman saw that His love for the Lord was obstructed at the time when He was doing His service, He still gave priority to morality. Sita Devi is innocent, her character is faultless and unblemished, but still, to satisfy His subjects, Sri Ramachandra abandoned her and sent her to the forest, and it was Laksman's duty to take her to the forest and leave her there. In terms of love, this separation or sacrifice was wrong; in terms of love, there is no justification of such action; but in terms of morality, it was the right thing to do because Ramachandra is the king—His subjects look up to Him and would squint at Him or take up a wrong path; this could not be allowed. Disregarding His love, Sri Ramachandra had to give up Sita Devi to maintain His righteousness, although He knew she was innocent. Neither did Sita Devi show any revolt. She could have said to Sri Ramachandra, "You have already made me step into fire to test my purity and have got the proof of it, why must I now live in the forest?" But she did not say it.
Sita Devi knew it all, Laksman also knew it, and Sri Ramachandra knew it better than anyone else. Still, even knowing everything, He sent her to live in the forest. He came to perform particular pastimes, so from this standpoint it was right. Laksman served Ramachandra shedding His blood. When the time came to appoint Ramachandra the king, Kaikeyi decided that she wanted Him to live in the forest for fourteen years. Dasarath could not say 'no' because then his morality, or promise, would be broken. Sita Devi also went to live in the forest with Ramachandra, but Kaikeyi never wanted Laksman to go with them too—Laksman went with Ramachandra voluntarily, to serve His worshippable Lord. The fact that Ramachandra and Sita Devi had to go to live in the forest pierced Laksman's heart like an arrow, and the greatest pain was in the heart of Dasarath. Not being able to tolerate this terrible pain, Dasarath left his body, but he did not leave his adherence to morality. Ramachandra rejected His throne, but He did cross His father's word.
....Why did then Sita Devi have to go to the forest following the order of Rama? She had to do it to show support to ethical principles. Ramachandra called His younger brother and said, "You know why I have appeared, so You must take Sita Devi to the forest." This extremely difficult order of His elder brother broke Laksman's heart. A flood of tears fell from His eyes. Still, He carried out His elder brother's order—He took Sita Devi to Tapovan, the asram of Valmiki. Laksman did not go against His brother's righteousness, but He could not forget the pain that He felt at that time.
It is the same in Dvaraka also. Krishna Himself showed the example of how much love and affection Vraja gopis have for Him when Narad Goswami came to see Him in Dvaraka. So, in short, we can say why is Vraja gopis' devotion the highest? Because Krishna Himself established this. When Narad Goswami came that day, Krishna said, 'I have a very bad headache. If you can bring me some footdust of My devotees, it will help Me.' So, Narad Goswami went to many places and asked many devotees (Satyabhama, Rukmini and others), but they all said, 'No, we cannot give our footdust to Krishna! We worship His feet, and if we give our footdust, we will go to hell!' But Vraja gopis did not think like that. They said, 'Yes, we will give it to you. Even if we go to hell, it is not a problem! For Krishna's service, we can even go hell, it is not a problem. If Krishna is happy and His headache goes away with the help of our footdust, then we will give it!' That is why their devotion is the highest.
Krishna Himself says, "Of all my pastimes, My human pastimes are the best.' Krishna Himself admits that He likes santa-rasa, dasya-rasa, sakhya-rasa, vatsalya-rasa and madhura-rasa. Krishna likes it when He plays the flute and all the Vraja gopis, all beings run to Him.
There is also one more thing I want to say. There is one sloka in Srimad Bhagavatam describing Krishna's pastimes. Gurudev often recited it. The meaning of this sloka is this. Krishna and His cowherd friends are grazing cows, Krishna is eating soil and playing with sand and other cowherd boys. Who is capable of understanding this? One simple cowherd boy is walking with cows, and all Vraja gopis, even Laksmi and Maha-laksmi are following Him.
Even Maha-laksmi prays, 'I cannot enter Vrindavan. This is the highest place, and it is beyond my quality or qualification because I have no anugatya (submission).' Maha-laksmi has so much power, but she cannot enter Vrindavan. Vraja gopis' devotion is so high that even Maha-laksmi cannot enter that kind of devotion. Only Sivji Maharaj could enter it because he had taken shelter of gopis. Since that time, Sivji Maharj has been staying in Vrindavan as Gopeshwar Mahaddev. This is another evidence that the highest devotion is found in Vrindavan.
Jay Srila Gurudev.
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READ OTHER PARTS:
1)
Understanding
Religion of Kali-Yuga
2)
Who Is Mahaprabhu?
3)
Understanding Lord
Jagannath
4)
Mahaprabhu's Mystic
Pastimes
5)
Small Service, Great
Heart
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Love and Appreciate
Mahaprabhu's Gift
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Highest Devotion
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