20181123 Rāsa-pūrṇima Evening Address

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapātākā Swami Mahārāja on November 23rd, 2018 in Chennai, India. The talk was given on the occasion of Ras Purnima.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpāṁ tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī-caitanya-īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapātākā Swami: So today is the Rāsa-pūrṇimā. Today we celebrate the rāsa dance of Lord Kṛṣṇa. When He was in Vṛndāvana He engaged all the Vrajavāsīs in different rasas—the trees, the cows in śānta-rasa, the servants and leaders in dāsya-rasa, Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd friends in sakhya-rasa, the mother and father of Kṛṣṇa in vātsalya-rasa, and the gopīs in the conjugal rasa. Each rasa contains all those before. The friends of Kṛṣṇa who are in sakhya-rasa also serve Him, which is dāsya-rasa, and they also admire the Lord, which is śānta-rasa. So each rasa contains the other rasas of the Lord. The vātsalya-rasa, the rasa of parenthood, contains the rasa of service, friendship, and admiration. The conjugal rasa contains all the other rasas.

So Kṛṣṇa appreciates the gopīs’ love for Him. He tells them that He cannot actually reciprocate with their devotion. The Lord says that according to how He is approached, He reciprocates. If you approach Kṛṣṇa to kill Him, He kills you. If you approach Kṛṣṇa to love Him, He loves you. But the gopīs’ love is so great that He says, I am not able to fully reciprocate with your love. That is how great the love of the gopīs for Kṛṣṇa is. They want to see Kṛṣṇa pleased, and they will go through any sacrifice to do that.

One time Kṛṣṇa told Nārada Muni, I have a headache, I need the dust of the feet of My devotee, so please bring Me some dust. Nārada Muni said, Oh that would be easy! So he went to the queens of Dvārakā and asked them for their foot dust to put on Kṛṣṇa’s head. They said, How can we do that? How can we put the dust of our feet on our husband’s head? No, it is not possible. So he went to various devotees and everyone said, No, no, it is not possible. And then he went to Vṛndāvana to the gopīs. He said, I need the dust of the feet of the devotees to cure the headache of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The gopīssaid, Please, please, take, take. He said, You will go to hell! They said, That is ok, but let Kṛṣṇa’s headache be cured. So they have so much concern to see Kṛṣṇa happy. That is why their service is considered prema, or pure love.

So in this pūrṇimā called the Rāsa-pūrṇimā, Kṛṣṇa plays on His flute in the night time. The fathers and husbands would stand at the doorway and would not let the gopīs out. So the gopīs would lie on the bed, and their body would stay there, and their ātmā, the living force, would leave the body and go to meet Kṛṣṇa. Like this, the relationship was completely spiritual, because each husband and father-in-law thought, Our gopī is sleeping in the bed, but they didn’t know that she had left the body and she was with Kṛṣṇa.

All the gopīs gathered around Kṛṣṇa and He would be playing on His flute. His flute playing was so unique. To give an example—a yogī was meditating, and suddenly the melody of Kṛṣṇa’s flute entered his ears and he became so restless. He hit his head against the rock and he was crying literally. So Kṛṣṇa’s flute playing is out of this world. The flute is anyway a beautiful instrument. But when Kṛṣṇa plays it, it is nothing to compare with.

So all the gopīs were standing in front of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa asked them, What are you doing here in the night? It is dangerous, there may be a tiger, so you should all go home. It is very dangerous here. Then the gopīs looked down and drew circles with their toes, and one spoke up: It is not fair of You. We all came at the call of Your flute because we want to serve You. So sending us home is not proper.

Kṛṣṇa is unlimited in whatever He does. So if He dances with the gopīs, He could have a zillion gopīs and He will be a zillion Kṛṣṇas and dance with each gopī. Some of the sages had approached Lord Rāma and they said, “We know that You have taken a vrata, vow of eka-patnī-vrata. But in the next yuga You will be appearing as Kṛṣṇa and You will be having many wives without any such limitations. So we want Your blessings so that we can enter into Your service in conjugal rasa”. So Lord Rāma blessed them and they also came in Vṛndāvana and joined the other gopīs. They took their birth as gopīs in Vṛndāvana.

Some people were joining the conjugal rasa with Kṛṣṇa for the first time. Some were, like Rādhārāṇī with Kṛṣṇa, in every avatāra of Kṛṣṇa. Like this, Kṛṣṇa—to make a long story short—He was staying with each gopī and they were dancing. From the heavenly planets they saw down—Kṛṣṇa with millions of gopīs, He was dancing. So this is the rāsa dance.

At one point Kṛṣṇa disappeared and it turned out that He had gone with Rādhārāṇī deep in the forest. But they traced out the footprints and they found Rādhārāṇī. She was crying and She said that Kṛṣṇa had left. Because Rādhārāṇī had more devotion, Kṛṣṇa stayed with Her. But She had asked Kṛṣṇa to carry Her because She was tired. He lifted Her up, but then He let Her down and He disappeared.

So all the gopīs went back to the Yamunā and they were happy that one of the gopīs had conquered Kṛṣṇa, but they also felt sympathy that He left Her. They went back to the Yamunā and started chanting.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare/

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

This chanting exists in Goloka Vṛndāvana. There is one verse by a follower of Lord Caitanya: 

golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana 

This Hare Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana has come down from Goloka Vṛndāvana. So the name of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa are non-different. The Absolute Truth, body of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa are non-different. His name and His person are no different. Similarly, His pastimes and He are non-different.

The gopīs started chanting and Kṛṣṇa came back. So that night was like a day of Brahmā—very ecstatic—and they were all the time chanting and dancing with Kṛṣṇa. Then Kṛṣṇa took everyone to the Yamunā and they all had a bath with Him. The residents of the heavenly planets, seeing Kṛṣṇa dance in the rāsa dance, had never seen something so beautiful. So they also wished to be in the dance.

The dance was so beautiful that Lakṣmī also wanted to be a part. She did tapasya to be allowed to enter the rāsa-līlā, but she was not allowed because the gopīs are very humble, but Lakṣmī—she has an attitude. The attitude did not fit in Vṛndāvana, so she was not allowed to enter into the rāsa-līlā.

Śiva wanted to enter, but He was allowed to take the form of a gopī and stand at the doorway. So that is why He got the name Gopīśvara. Nārada Muni also wanted to experience what it is like to be a gopī in the rāsa dance, but Rādhārāṇī said, No men allowed except Kṛṣṇa. So then he took bath in the Kusuma-sarovara and became a gopī, and then he could enter.

So this rāsa dance is a most attractive thing and it is completely spiritual. People dance in the material world using their lust, but in the spiritual world everything is on the level of love. So today is the sacred day of the rāsa dance. There are two dances—one dance is only with the 108 gopīs and the other dance is with all the gopīs. In Māyāpur we get hundreds of thousands of lakhs of visitors on Rāsa-pūrṇimā.

Are there any questions? Śubha Rāsa-pūrṇimā! Happy Rāsa-pūrṇimā! Felis Rāsa-pūrṇimā!

Today we ended the five-day Bhīṣma Pañcaka. After the moon rose we broke our fast. Maybe I ate something that I should not have, I am coughing! Ha! I had dahi-vadā in the evening. I should not take dahi.

Today is also the appearance of Nimbārka Ācārya, and also for those who did Dāmodara month, today is the last day. So today is a very auspicious day. We start the hāthi procession in Māyāpur. And after this, every Saturday, we do the hāthiprocession. Any question?

Question: From Devamādhava Prabhu: Did the idea to dance originate with the gopīs or with Kṛṣṇa?

Jayapātākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything. So how do we say that it did not originate from Him? But to enjoy we need two people. One person cannot enjoy. So He expanded into Rādhārāṇī, and Rādhārāṇī expanded into the gopīs,queens in Dvārakā, Lakṣmīs of Vaikuṇṭha, like this. She is the original energy and He is the original Person.

So now we are back to our normal diet. I did not see anybody asking for lots of fruits. I think everybody had their fill of fruits for a while! We will resume the readings of the Lord Caitanya book. He returned from Gayā where He got initiation from Īśvara Purī, and He is telling the devotees what happened to Him. So He met with six or so confidential devotees in the house of Śuklāmbhara Brahmacārī and He mentioned how He was initiated and how the love of Kṛṣṇa started to manifest in Him when He saw the lotus footprint of Lord Gadādhara. When He went back to Navadvīpa, He saw Kṛṣṇa at Kānāi Nāṭaśālā. He asked, Who is in the house? Someone said, Gadādhara, Your Gadādhara. Then Gadādhara came out and paid obeisance. He said, You are very fortunate. Since childhood you have fixed your mind on Kṛṣṇa and you are always Kṛṣṇa conscious. My life has been wasted. I spent up to now all my time in studying śāstras and arguing with people using logic. So I was not interested in Kṛṣṇa-bhakti. But now I see that there is nothing important without Kṛṣṇa.

Then He caught up the column of Śuklāmbhara Brahmacārī’s house and He so tightly hugged it that it broke and fell down. Sometimes He was crying, falling down, hair standing on end. He said, I had Kṛṣṇa but I lost Him, I lost Him. He would embrace devotees around the neck and ask, Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Tears were flowing from His eyes and it seemed like the Gaṅgā had filled up the house of Śuklāmbhara Brahmacārī. All the devotees present also could not resist crying. When He fell down, they also fell down, and this went on for 12 hours, from morning to night. All they were saying was, Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where? Where?

So finally He bid farewell to them and went out. The devotees looked at each other and they could not speak anything. They were just crying. So they went and told all the Vaiṣṇavas that Nimāi Paṇḍita has become a Mahā-bhāgavata—He has become the greatest devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Some people said, Oh, this is wonderful news. Someone said that maybe the Lord has come to create this. Different devotees said different things. One devotee said that now Nimāi Paṇḍita will silence any atheist. The greatest logician has become the greatest devotee. So all those atheists—they have nowhere to stand. Like that they were all laughing, crying, This is a miracle! This is a miracle!

So that is what we are reading now. 

Thank you all! Happy Rāsa-pūrṇimā, Śubha Rāsa-pūrṇimā, Felis Rāsa-pūrṇimā! Haribol!