Part 60 (2/2)

Baka or the crane, stands for religious hypocrisy. Spiritual life rejects all hypocrisy, all traces of untruth, in any form.

When these two Asuras are destroyed, a third Asura appears on the scene, the terrible Agha. Agha is sin, an evil deed. The sins of a man, his past evil deeds, stand up for a while and swallow up all that is divine in him. Even G.o.ds can not overcome Agha. Those who know the struggles of a devotee know very well how hard it is when all that is evil in man the acc.u.mulated tendencies of innumerable births, rise up in rebellion as it were at a certain stage of his progress. Who else but Sri Krishna can save a devotee at such a crisis. The flesh itself has to be destroyed and the whole nature changed. The devotee undergoes a second birth as it were. His Vrittis are not the Vrittis of yore; even the energies that guide these vrittis undergo change.

Every Brahmana knows the Mantra that is recited for the suppression of Agha (Agha-marshana). It goes back to the pre-manifesting period, when days and nights did not exist.

The serpent Agha swallowed up Krishna and his companions.

Krishna came out victorious and he revivified his companions.

The Vrittis underwent change by this process and also those that guided them. It was another creation altogether. The forms and varieties of Brahma's creation had no meaning now in them.

What if the Vrittis were now removed from the Gopis or the Gopa boys kept out in a body? They all lost their distinctive features; their differences were gone. All was become divine - the Vrittis and the Gopa boys.

So when Brahma concealed the calves and the Gopa boys, he only thought of his own creation. The Vrittis and the Gopa boys came out in divinity which was now their only reality. They were all parts of Sri Krishna himself. They were manifestly sparks or rays of atma itself. The senses and the mind were now irresistibly drawn towards their calves. The Gopas were more than ever attached to their boys. Balarama noticed this and spoke to Krishna. The query of Raja Pariks.h.i.+t and the reply of Suka explain the whole position. This brings us to the end of the k.u.mARA LILa of Sri Krishna which prepares the way for the union of the human soul with the over-soul, of Jiva atma with Parama atma. We come next to the POUGANDA LILa when Krishna guided the mind itself and all were attached to Him.

_Krishna, the tender of the cows._

Rama and Krishna were now in charge of the cows themselves, the senses and the mind.

_The Kaliya serpent._

Yama is the Death-G.o.d. The river Yamuna is his sister. _Kaliya_ is from kala or time. Kaliya with its one hundred hoods is the lifetime of one birth, represented by one hundred years. The serpent could not be killed but only sent away from Vrindavana. The devotees got over the periodic death-transformation.

_The conflagtation and Pralamba._

As the followers of Krishna were saved from death on the one hand, so they were saved from conflagration (annihilation of form) and loss of the Ego (Balarama) on the other hand.

In the kingdom of Divine Bliss, everything now was divine. The purified mind did not go astray. It remained entirely attached to Sri Krishna.

Personality was now thoroughly conquered. The Jiva had acquired matter congenial to the plane of the first Purusha, and he no longer ran the risk of death or annihilation. The Gopis completed their homeward journey and they knew nothing except their Lord Krishna. They gave up all for the sake of the Lord. The Lord was all in all to them. They were bound to Him by the most sacred ties of devotional love. We shall now see how they became united to the Divine Lord.

_The Gopis and the stealing of their clothes._

The rains followed the summer and there was a flow of spirituality all around. The autumn followed and it was calm, clear and transparent.

When the water is pure, transparent and calm and the sun is over it can anything prevent the reflection of the sun's image on its bosom? The Gopis drew unto themselves the image of Sri Krishna. There was no muddiness in them as in ordinary mortals; they had not the calls of other desires.

It is not till the ear ceases to hear the outside world, that it is open to the music in the heart, the flute of Sri Krishna.

The Rupa of Krishna becomes manifest when all worldly Rupas lose their charm.

The Gopis even smelt the divine fragrance of Sri Krishna; they felt his divine touch and they tasted the honey of Sri Krishna's lips.

The charms of the world all dead and gone, there remains only one attraction, that of Sri Krishna, the only Purusha in Vrindavana.

The Gopis now had a right to approach Sri Krishna as their lover. They became full of Him (_tanmaya_), and they wors.h.i.+pped Katyayani (Yoga Maya) to gain their object. (X. 21.)

It was then that Sri Krishna stripped them of their clothes (X. 22.) No false shame, no false considerations should now deter the Gopis. They should lay themselves bare before Sri Krishna. No hiding, no half speaking. ”Virtuous girls, I know your resolve. It is to wors.h.i.+p me. I also approve of it and so it must succeed.” This was the long and short of the whole affair. The Gopis saw they were found out. So it was to be a matter of open love now.

We shall pa.s.s over a few digressions before we come back to the Gopis and the consummation of their love (Rasa Lila).

<script>