Posted on: 18 Aug 2021
Smt. Priyanka Seethepalli asked: Namaste Sarma garu, Swami advised me to send mine and Thrylokya's follow-up question on Madhura Bhakti directly to you. Can you please show this to Swami?
Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi, I have a doubt regarding a specific statement You made regarding Prahlāda, that he had to be born as a gopika to reach Goloka even though he reached the abode of God. You also said that Nivṛtti was discovered by souls themselves because the soul itself had a desire to embrace God (like the sages in Tretā Yuga) whereas God always supports Pravṛtti only.
My question is:- Did Prahlāda have such desires in the first place, to be given a chance to be born as a gopika? Or was it that God Himself saw Prahlāda's potential when he sacrificed 99/100 worldly bonds for God and made him born as a gopika to pass the one last final examination to give him a higher status of being in Goloka? While Goloka is higher than Brahma Loka/ Vaikuṇṭham, what if a soul does not have any specific goal to reach Goloka and is content that he/she is in God's presence in Brahma Loka itself? Forgive me Swāmi, if this thinking is not right, but I feel the whole point is to reach God only and be in His presence and serve Him forever, irrespective of the world, whether it is Earth or heaven or higher upper lokas. It is not to achieve some personal status among all the lokas. If the soul is having Goloka as ambition, then is it not false devotion in the first place? Because the goal should always be God only and not a specific world to go to. So, what was the reason that God made Prahlāda or any other soul in his position be born as a gopika in the next birth?]
Ms. Thrylokya's question asked:- What if God has taken a female form instead of the male form of Kṛṣṇa, and Gopikas were born as Males, would the Rāslīlā still be possible? At Your divine lotus feet, Priyanka and Thrylokya.
Swami Replied:-
1) Even in Goloka, God exists as God Kṛṣṇa as God exists in Brahmaloka (Satyaloka) or Vaikuṇṭha or Śiva Loka as God Brahmā or as God Viṣṇu or as God Śiva respectively. If God is absent, such loka or world can’t be called as the divine fruit. Both Brahma loka and Goloka are the divine fruits. Is it not said in our scriptures that Goloka exists above Brahmaloka etc., as higher plane? I am putting this question because it is a historical fact and not a created concept by Me.
2) If some devotee like Prahlāda is satisfied with Brahmaloka where the devotee is servant of God (Rukmiṇī pressing the feet of God Viṣṇu), why shall anybody is to be worried? In Goloka, God is the servant of Rādhā and Gopikas. It is not the question of owner or servant, but, it is the question of extent of love of God. In Vaikuṇṭha (Brahmaloka), God shows highest love to devotee whereas in Goloka, God shows higher than highest love to the devotee. It depends purely on the aspiration of devotee for the extent of love of God. Aspiration for the love of God is not like other wrong aspirations. Are these facts not in scriptures? I am putting this question because it is a historical fact and not a created concept by Me.
3) In Goloka, there is total surrender of the devotee because devotee as female surrendered the body also to God. Is this not true in the case of Gopikas? I am putting this question because it is a historical fact and not a created concept by Me.
4) Sages as males could not get the final salvation and wanted to embrace God by becoming females with a feeling of wife or darling. Of course, the path of darling is more risky than the path of wife. Rādhā faced more risk than Rukmiṇī. Rādhā is given higher fruit than Rukmiṇī. Is this not historical fact? I am putting this question because it is a historical fact and not a created concept by Me.
5) If sages are satisfied with Brahmaloka, why did they request God Rāma that they will embrace Him by becoming females? I am putting this question because it is a historical fact and not a created concept by Me.
6) Is Goloka not said as higher than the highest Vaikuṇṭha or Satya loka and is it not said that only Gopikas went to Goloka in our scriptures? In such case, does it not mean that the higher than highest birth shall be female?
In this point itself, I want to answer the question from Thrylokya also:-
The reason here is that a specific male soul and a specific female soul can eliminate their acquired ego (due to caste, knowledge, rich, power etc.) and make the acquired ego as zero by their spiritual efforts. Now we can treat both male and female souls equal having zero value for the acquired ego. In this stage, the total value of ego of female becomes zero. But, the total value of ego of male can never become zero because there is a trace of gender-ego in male, which cannot disappear unless the male is again born as female. Unless the soul gets total value of ego as zero, the total surrender is not possible. The male sages cannot totally surrender to the female form of God. For this reason only, God Rāma asked the male sages to become females in the next birth so that they can achieve total value of ego as zero. This is the reason that why God is not taking the female form to dance with male sages. This is the reason that why the devotee is always treated as female and wife or darling of God even though the devotee is a male.
The Veda says that all souls are females and wives of God only (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ). This means that the soul shall be born as female in the final birth in order to get rid of the gender ego and shall become wife or darling of God by which the surrender of body to God brings the total surrender. At the same time, this does not mean that mere surrender of body to God is the final birth. Such surrender of body must become total surrender, which means that all worldly bonds must be spontaneously dropped due to the unique bond with God. We should always remember that the surrender of body is one of the total surrender and total surrender is the path. Total surrender without surrender of the body is not complete and mere surrender of body without total surrender is also not complete path. We shall not go in the analysis based on gender-fight, but, we shall go based on the patient analysis of the background facts.
Gender-ego is an inherent quality because it is associated with the body that is in constant association with the soul that attains the qualities from surroundings. The nearest surrounding item of the soul is the body having specific modifications related to the gender and hence, the influence of gender becomes inherent. The influence of caste can’t be inherent because it is external and fabricated by the human beings only. Based on qualities and deeds the caste is decided. The false caste system based on birth is definitely not inherent, which is not concerned with at least the inherent qualities of the soul. If you decide the caste by the inherent qualities of the soul, the story is different, but, the present ignorant caste system can’t give the inherent quality. Regarding education, it is acquired from outside and similarly the richness. Ego means the concept of I that is related to self and its closest body.
If both of you can give a better explanation than Me explaining the above quoted scriptures as the basic historical facts, I shall be very very grateful to you both. Based on very deep logic, I don’t find any alternative path as better than the path of Madhura Bhakti, which is the main theme of the Bhāgavatam that gave salvation to the soul in 7 days.
I am discussing this topic in depth because this topic has become a weapon for some religions to mock at Hinduism. No religion shall mock any other religion because the same unimaginable God in the form of Datta or Father of heaven exists as the real internal entity of the divine form of any religion in the world. I invite any scholar of Hinduism to give a better explanation and interpretation of this topic of the Bhāgavatam, which is the highest scripture giving salvation to the soul in 7 days. The triad (Tripuṭī) of this topic is also highest since 1) Gopikas (Gantā) are the highest reborn sages, who were being worshipped even by angels, 2) Kṛṣṇa (Gamyam) is the highest form of incarnation (Paripūrṇa tamaḥ) and His highest abode is Goloka, which is higher than Brahma loka and 3)The path (Gamanam) adopted to reach the highest goal was liberation from all worldly bonds including the bond with life-partner in which even worldly justice is opposed (Sarvadharmān... Gītā).