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----- bhagap277.html
The Gopis all returned to the forest and searched for Krishna
as long as there was moonlight. They gave up their search when it
was dark. With thoughts all directed to Krishna, with conversations
all about Him, with gestures and movements all after Him, with
songs all about His deeds, the Gopis, all full of Krishna, they did
not think of their homes. They went to the banks of the Yamuna,
and all sang in a chorus about Krishna, ardently praying for his return.
(I shall not touch with my profane hand the songs of the Gopis.
They are far too sacred for any rendering into English and they
baffle any attempt to do so. Sweet as nectar, the melody of those
songs is inseparable from their very essence, and he would be murdering
Bhagavata who would attempt to translate those songs. For the
continuity of our study it is only necessary to translate the fourth
sloka.)
"Thou art not surely the son of Yasoda. Thou art the in-
most seer of all things. Implored by Brahma thou hast appeared, O
friend, in the line of the Satvats, for the protection of the Universe."
While the Gopis were thus bewailing in melodious tunes, Krishna
appeared with a smiling face. They formed a circle round Him and
were so pleased to see Him that they reached the very limit of their
joy. The Gopis spread out their outer garments as a seat for Sri
Krishna, on the river bank. When Krishna sat down, they addressed
him thus:
"Some seek those only that seek them; some do the contrary,
(i. e. seek those even who do not seek them), others seek neither those
that seek them nor those that do not seek them. Please tell us, what
is all this."
Said Sri Krishna: "Those that seek each other are guided in
their efforts by selfishness. There is neither friendship nor virtue in
that mutuality. It is all for a selfish end. (Even the beasts seek mutual
good. Sridhara. And do not the Utilitarians and the evolutionists do
so)? Those that seek the unseeking are either kind-hearted men or
they are guided by affection like the parents. It is pure virtue in the
former case and friendship in the latter.
Those that do not seek the people that seek them and far less
those that do not seek them fall under one of the following four
classes:
(i) Those that seek pleasure in self (and not in the outside
world), (2) those that are satiated, (3) the ungrateful and (4) the
treacherous. But I do not belong to any of these classes, I do not
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v?