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----- bhagap311.html
They are reproduced in all Kalpas and on all the Dvfpas or globes
for the benefit of all Bhaktas. When there is the full manifestation
of Krishna in any Kalpa, the Gopas and Gopis also appear with Him.
But His relations with them are meant to serve as a guide only for
the initiated Bhaktas, and not for the world at large. Sri Krishna as
an Avatara is different from Sri Krishna as the beloved and the
lover. As an Avatara, He forces allegiance, and expects it as of
right. As a lover, He seeks His Bhaktas as they seek Him.
The Lord of Goloka is Govinda. When Sri Krishna was
installed as Govinda, he had a right to the company of the Gopis,
and not before. The Gopis became the property of Govinda, as soon
as Krishna asserted himself as such. The Installation precedes the
Rasa Lila". The significance of this Installation will never be lost
sight of by those who want to make a critical study of the Rasa
Lila, or to apply the ordinary canons of morality to this most sacred,
most sublime, and most soul-enchanting act of Sri Krishna the
RASA LlLA.
THE RASA.
Who can presume to explain Rasa! What mortal mind can ap-
proach, even in conception, the divinity, the sublimity of the five
chapters on Rasa! The Gopis were on the field of action. They had
their husbands, their parents, their sons; they had their worldly duties
to perform, some of them arduous enough to require constant atten-
tion. When the time came, however, for union with the Purusha of
the Heart, when the signal music was heard, every Gopi threw aside
all Karma, all actions, all attachments, all bonds and offered herself
up completely to the Lord. Where is the glory of those that give up
the world, that give up all duties in life, of those that force themselves
out of all actions that they may be devoted to the Lord within and
the Lord without? And when the Gopis approached the Lord, there
was no trace of human passion in them, no love of human flesh, no
idea of material gratification. They placed themselves entirely at
the service of the Lord.
But there were those that had the yearning to do so, to free
themselves from all material obstacles in their way, to offer their
individuality to the Lord, but the Prarabdha Karma was too much
for them. Their past Karma had woven a net round them which
they could not break through. It was the yearning which the Lord
looked to and not the overcoming of obstacles in the way. And
though they died with that yearning only, the death completed what
they yearned for, for then the Union was complete.
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