The Epitome of Love – Purity and Simplicity of Gopī’s Love for Kṛṣṇa

The Epitome of Love – Purity and Simplicity of Gopī’s Love for Kṛṣṇa
By Gaurāṅga Darshan Das

Pure love manifests as the desire to serve the beloved in all circumstances, without considering personal unhappiness.

Love is Eternal

Every living entity is a part and parcel of God, and thus has an eternal relationship with Him. Although one has relationships with many others in this world, they begin when one enters a material body and end while leaving the body. But one is eternally related to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The source of the love within all of us is Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate object of our love too. Therefore, everyone loves Kṛṣṇa the most, and it is Kṛṣṇa who loves a person the most.

Just as the living being is eternal, his love for God is also eternal. If we love someone, we love the things and people related to that person. Thus, understanding one’s eternal relationship with God and loving Him doesn’t make one indifferent to friends and family members, but makes one love them in true spirit.

Kindness and love centered around God makes people more united and broadminded. The love of pure devotees is meant not only for themselves or their immediate family, but such love spreads everywhere and to everyone. On the other hand, love disconnected from God doesn’t ultimately have much substance to satisfy one’s self.

Due to the covering of material illusion, a conditioned soul is overwhelmed by forgetfulness of his relationship with God, and starves due to lack of experiencing pure love in material temporary relations.

The process of bhakti-yoga is meant to reawaken that love. When one’s love for Kṛṣṇa is not covered by illusion, the nourishment and pure happiness she or he experiences in heart is beyond the imagination of an ordinary mortal.

Of all those who love Kṛṣṇa, the residents of Vṛndāvana are the topmost. They possess the most extraordinary love for Kṛṣṇa. Amongst them, the gopīs are endowed with the greatest love for Kṛṣṇa. They have no interest in their own pleasure or removing their own pain. They render service with body, mind and words only for Kṛṣṇa’s happiness.

Love is Selfless

Pure love is characterized by selflessness, service attitude and remembrance of the beloved. A glimpse of such pure love can be seen in the relationship between a mother and a small child. A mother serves the child selflessly even compromising her own needs. She nourishes the child with milk from her own body and is ready to attend to the child at all times, even in the middle of the night. Such love, however, seems to slacken as the child grows, and often may not exist through-out the lives of the mother and the child, either due to circumstances or the individuals’ changing priorities. If this is the case with mother-child relationship, what to speak of other relationships in this material world?

Thus the exchanges of love in this mortal world, although exist, are temporary and often volatile. In contrast, love on spiritual platform is purely selfless and eternal. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “When activities are enacted on the platform of personal sense gratification, they are called material activities, but when they are enacted for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, they are spiritual activities. For example, on the material platform, the servant would not serve the master if the payment is stopped. That means that the servant engages himself in the service of the master just to satisfy his own senses. On the spiritual platform, however, the servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead serves Kṛṣṇa without payment, and he continues his service in all conditions. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa consciousness and material consciousness.” (Kṛṣṇa book, chapter 29)

The gopīs of Vṛndāvana exemplify such pure and perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Their love and service are selfless and their constant meditation is how to serve Kṛṣṇa and please Kṛṣṇa.

Remembering the Beloved

To somehow or the other remaining always engrossed in the thoughts of Kṛṣṇa is the essence of devotional service. The gopīs do it so naturally and spontaneously, although engaged in many household activities.

ya dohane ‘vahanane mathanopalepa
prenkhenkhanarbha-ruditoksana-marjanadau
gāyanti cainaṁ anurakta-dhiyo ‘sru-kanthyo
dhanya vraja-striya urukrama-citta-yanah

“The ladies of Vraja are the most fortunate of women because, with their minds fully attached to Kṛṣṇa and their throats always choked up with tears, they constantly sing about Him while milking the cows, winnowing grain, churning butter, gathering cow dung for fuel, riding on swings, taking care of their crying babies, sprinkling the ground with water, cleaning their houses, and so on. By their exalted Kṛṣṇa consciousness they automatically acquire all desirable things.” (10.44.15)

The gopīs are not born in brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya families, but in vaiśya families, that too not in big mercantile communities but in cowherd communities. They are not well educated, although they heard all sorts of knowledge from brāhmaṇas. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “The exemplary character of devotional service manifested by the devotees of Vṛndāvana is the purest type of devotion. The gopīs particularly showed pure devotional service toward Kṛṣṇa, so much so that Kṛṣṇa Himself remained indebted to them. Lord Caitanya thus said that the devotional service manifested by the gopīs in Vṛndāvana excelled all other methods of approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Kṛṣṇa book, Chapter 32)

Exhibiting the topmost example of kṛṣṇa-prema, the gopīs display their love, youth and beauty only for increasing Kṛṣṇa’s joy. Their selfless service attitude and dedication towards Kṛṣṇa is worshipped even by exalted devotees such as Uddhava.

The Topmost Display of Love

The rasa dance that Lord Kṛṣṇa had performed with the gopīs in Vṛndāvana is the topmost display of such pure love between God and His energies. When the mortal beings see God as ordinary and consider Him one amongst them, they tend to misunderstand His divine activities. However, just as Kṛṣṇa’s lifting of Govardhana Hill and His killing of great demons like Pūtanā are all extraordinary activities, similarly, the rasa dance is also an uncommon spiritual pastime of Kṛṣṇa and cannot be imitated or criticized by any ordinary man.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states that Lord Kṛṣṇa’s rasa dance took place on the śarat-pūrṇimā, the full-moon night of the Autumn, the most beautiful night in the year. In the festive and cool ambience of śarat-pūrṇimā in Vṛndāvana, the moonrise increased Kṛṣṇa’s desire to dance with the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa began to play His flute, and the gopīs all over Vṛndāvana left their respective engagements and rushed towards Kṛṣṇa who was standing at the Vaṁśīvaṭa. Some of them were forbidden by their relatives, but they disregarded them and went to Kṛṣṇa. When a person becomes attracted by the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, one loses interest in all external obligations. Initially Kṛṣṇa spoke few words to send the gopīs back, but later He initiated the rasa dance with them.

This apparently immoral activity of Kṛṣṇa’s dancing with others’ wives is not a display of material lust which is like iron, but of pure spiritual love which is like gold. That rāsa-līlā is not an ordinary activity and is transcendental is explained elaborately by the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas.

Kṛṣṇa’s age when He enjoyed the rasa dance with the gopīs was eight years. Even from an external perspective, a child of that age cannot be lusty for women.

Kṛṣṇa is bhagavān, the Supreme Lord endowed with all six opulences in full, and thus has no desire that needs to be fulfilled. Thus His dance cannot be like the ordinary dancing of young boys and girls.

The gopīs are transcendental expansions of Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure potency, and as His potency they are nondifferent from Him. The gopīs are on an equal level with Kṛṣṇa as His eternal associates. In the rāsa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa looked at the gopīs and touched them exactly as a child enjoys playing with the reflection of his body in a mirror. Kṛṣṇa was enjoying with His own svarūpa-śakti.

In pure spiritual bodies, Lord Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs exchanged transcendental love in the rāsa-līlā. They don’t have material bodies and thus there is no question of material lust.
Kṛṣṇa’s yogamāyā orchestrated His rasa dance, and not the mahāmāyā, that induces dances between boys and girls on the basis of material lust which is like iron. The gopīs went to Kṛṣṇa with the transcendental desire to satisfy Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual love between them is like gold.

Kṛṣṇa is the Supersoul (paramātmā) in everyone’s heart. He also manifested such expansion in this gathering with the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa was sitting by the side of each gopī, unseen by the others. Kṛṣṇa was so kind to the gopīs that instead of sitting in their hearts to be appreciated in yogic meditation, He seated Himself by their sides and showed them special favor in pure love.

Kṛṣṇa is self-sufficient (ātmārāma). He does not require anything beyond Himself for His satisfaction. At the same time, He is not ungrateful. But because the gopīs desired to have Kṛṣṇa as their husband, He fulfilled their desire.

Kṛṣṇa is self-satisfied (āpta-kāma), all His desires are automatically fulfilled. He has no unfulfilled desires. He could not be lusty. Even if He were lusty, He doesn’t need to take help from others to satisfy His lusty desires.

Kṛṣṇa is the supreme creator and proprietor of this entire cosmic manifestation, and everything belongs to Him. Thus if He dances with the gopīs, He cannot be accused in anyway. It is the purest display of love between the Lord and His devotees.

Even the devotees of Kṛṣṇa like Arjuna and Haridāsa Ṭhākura didn’t succumb to material lust when approached by Urvaśī and Māyā herself respectively. So, how can their worshippable Lord Kṛṣṇa be subjected to material lust?

Great paramahaṁsas in the renounced order of life like Lord Caitanya, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana also hear and relish the loving pastimes of Kṛṣṇa with the gopīs. So, in no way can these exchanges be ordinary lust.

Testimony for the Purest Love

Once, after going to Mathurā, Lord Kṛṣṇa had sent His dear associate Uddhava to Vṛndāvana with a message for the gopīs. When the Vraja-gopīs met Uddhava, who resembled Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs remembered Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, and loudly wept in separation from Kṛṣṇa. Uddhava tried to console the gopīs and related to them Kṛṣṇa’s message.

Uddhava stayed in Vraja for several months reminding the Vraja-vāsīs about Kṛṣṇa in various ways. Seeing how the gopīs were totally absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava was supremely pleased. Uddhava was an exalted minister in Dvārakā and a dear associate of Kṛṣṇa. Yet he felt the spiritual urge to worship the glorious gopīs, although externally they were mere cowherd girls in a small village called Vṛndāvana. Desiring to offer them all respect, he sang their glories in five verses (10.47.58-62). Uddhava sang these verses daily while he was in Vṛndāvana.

Aspired even by great souls

etāḥ param tanu-bhṛto bhuvi gopa-vadhvo
govinda eva nikhilatmani rudha-bhavah
vāñchanti yad bhava-bhiyo munayo vayam ca
kim brahma-janmabhir ananta-katha-rasasya

[Uddhava sang:] “Among all persons on earth, these cowherd women alone have actually perfected their embodied lives, for they have achieved the perfection of unalloyed love for Lord Govinda. Their pure love is hankered after by those who fear material existence, by great sages, and by ourselves as well. For one who has tasted the narrations of the infinite Lord, what is the use of taking birth as a high-class brāhmaṇa, or even as Lord Brahmā himself?” (10.47.58)

The high births as brāhmaṇas or even Brahmā cannot compare to pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In fact, Śrī Uddhava, who spoke this verse, took birth as a pure brāhmaṇa, but he deprecates this position in comparison to that of the exalted gopīs, who had pure love for Kṛṣṇa.
Often criticized, yet most perfect

Uddhava continued singing, “How amazing it is that these simple women who wander about the forest, seemingly spoiled by improper behavior, have achieved the perfection of unalloyed love for Kṛṣṇa! Still, it is true that the Supreme Lord Himself awards His blessings even to an ignorant worshiper, just as the best medicine works even when taken by a person ignorant of its ingredients.” (10.47.59)

Lord Kṛṣṇa is criticized by worldly people for His stealing butter, tending cows, wandering in the forest, eating with monkeys, dancing with others’ wives, and so on. Yet He, as the Supreme Lord, exists on the highest platform of purity and morality, and always remained praiseworthy by sensible people.

Similarly, some people criticize the gopīs for being mere cowherd women living in the forest and behaving in an apparently improper way of associating with Kṛṣṇa. But these gopīs constituted of the Lord’s pleasure potency (hlādinī śakti) and are on the highest standard of purity and auspiciousness, even in comparison to the goddesses of fortune, and thus they are supremely glorious.

Surpasses everyone else’s position

nāyaṁ śriyo ‘ṅga u nitānta-rateḥ prasādaḥ
svar-yoṣitāṁ nalina-gandha-rucāṁ kuto ‘nyaḥ
rāsotsave ‘sya bhuja-danda-grhita-kantha-
labdhāśiṣāṁ ya udagād vraja-vallabhinam

“When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced by the arms of the Lord. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or other consorts in the spiritual world. Indeed, never was such a thing even imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the lotus flower. And what to speak of worldly women who are very beautiful according to material estimation?” (10.47.60)

May I get their dust, if not their mood

Having glorified the superiority of the gopīs over all others, Uddhava desires their service attitude, but thinks of its extreme rarity. Thus he desires only a particle of dust from their lotus feet:

asam aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syam
vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām
ya dustyajam sva-janam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā
bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām

“The gopīs of Vṛndāvana have given up the association of their husbands, sons and other family members, who are very difficult to give up, and they have forsaken the path of chastity to take shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, which one should search for by Vedic knowledge. Oh, let me be fortunate enough to be one of the bushes, creepers or herbs in Vṛndāvana, because the gopīs trample them and bless them with the dust of their lotus feet.” (10.47.61)

Being a humble Vaiṣṇava, Uddhava does not pray to be equal to the gopīs in their exalted stage of love, but rather to take birth as a bush or creeper in Vṛndāvana so that when they walk upon him he will get their dust and be blessed. The shy gopīs would never agree to give their dust to a great personality like Uddhava; therefore he cleverly sought to get such mercy by taking birth as a plant in Vṛndāvana.

Even Lord Brahmā also prayed for the good fortune of taking any birth in Gokula and have his head bathed by the dust falling from the lotus feet of any of its residents. Uddhava’s prayer is considered even more exalted. Uddhava desired for a service attitude like the gopīs, with special bhava for Kṛṣṇa, yet thinking himself unqualified for it, he humbly prayed for the dust of the gopīs.

Attained the rarest privilege

Uddhava sang further, “The goddess of fortune herself, along with Lord Brahmā and all the other demigods, who are masters of yogic perfection, can worship the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa only within her mind. But during the rasa dance Lord Kṛṣṇa placed His feet upon these gopīs’ bodies, and by embracing those feet the gopīs gave up all distress.” (10.47.62)

Having established the glories of the gopīs in these five verses, Śrī Uddhava, now directly offers his obeisances to them. Considering himself completely unqualified for such direct service to the Lord, Uddhava simply offers respects to the gopīs to attain such a bhava.

My fervent prayer

vande nanda-vraja-strinam
pāda-reṇum abhīkṣṇaśaḥ
yāsām hari-kathodgitam
punāti bhuvana-trayam

“I repeatedly offer my respects to the dust from the feet of the women of Nanda Mahārāja’s cowherd village. When these gopīs loudly chant the glories of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the vibration purifies the three worlds.” (10.47.63)

Among all the devotees, those who worship Kṛṣṇa are the best, since Kṛṣṇa is Svayam Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead endowed with all the six opulences in full. Among those devotees, Kṛṣṇa’s immediate assistants in His pastimes are more intimate, because of their loyalty in following Him. Among these intimate associates, Uddhava is the best, for Kṛṣṇa Himself said, “Among the devotees I am Uddhava, Uddhava is not less than Myself.” Uddhava, however, desired the dust and the service attitude of the gopīs, and had the greatest regard for them. He did not give such regard even to the queens of Kṛṣṇa. Among all the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the highest.

Uddhava then took permission to leave from the gopīs and from mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja. He bade farewell to the Vraja-vāsīs and departed for Mathurā.

Conclusion

One who faithfully hears Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs from the right sources will become completely freed from the lusty desire and elevated to the highest level of spiritual understanding.

vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ
śraddhānvito ‘nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ
bhaktim param bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ
hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ

“Anyone who faithfully hears or describes the Lord’s playful affairs with the young gopīs of Vṛndāvana will attain the Lord’s pure devotional service. Thus he will quickly become sober and conquer lust, the disease of the heart.” (10.33.39)