Posted on: 20 Dec 2022
[Smt. Lakshmi Chaitanya asked: Why God Krishna steal butter from the houses of the Gopikas having normal level of wealth whereas He was the son of Nanda, the wealthiest of the village? Even His mother asked Him about this point, why did He not reply to her question except giving a smile?]
Swami replied: The reason for this question was the actual background of God Datta who came as the incarnation of Krishna. The previous incarnation was Rama and the sages approached Rama in the Dandakaranya forest requesting Him to give salvation. The actual meaning of salvation is misunderstood by everybody as reaching the world of God and live there with infinite bliss as we see in film shows. The actual meaning of salvation is to get liberation from these worldly bonds. But, mere liberation from worldly bonds is meaningless. When we have taken birth in this world, why should we aspire liberation from the worldly bonds? We are feeling happy and really entertained by these worldly bonds. Therefore, salvation is not mere liberation from worldly bonds. A stone is also not having any worldly bond. Do you think that the stone has full salvation? Therefore, the liberation from worldly bonds should be based on the attachment to God or the bond with God. We are having bonds with several worldly drinks. Why shall we cut our bonds with these worldly drinks and lose the happiness that is attained by drinking these worldly drinks? Only a mad person will do such things. Our detachment from the worldly drinks should be based on the bliss we get by drinking divine nectar.
When we have tasted divine nectar, naturally we will lose all our interests on any worldly drink. Such detachment from the worldly drinks is called as salvation. Similarly, if we have tasted the bliss in the bond with God, all these worldly bonds are dropped off naturally without any effort. If the bond with God is not tasted, detachment from the worldly bonds is impossible in spite of our hectic efforts. Had we not tasted the divine nectar, we cannot leave drinking coffee in spite of our terrible efforts. When the divine nectar is not tasted, it is also utter foolishness to leave the happiness in drinking coffee. You are lost from both sides, since neither you have tasted the divine nectar nor have drank the coffee. Without tasting divine nectar, if we leave coffee by putting hectic efforts, it is called as liberation from the bond of coffee. If the coffee is naturally dropped, without even a trace of effort due to tasting divine nectar, it is called as salvation from the bond of coffee. Similarly, if anybody is liberated from these worldly bonds without tasting the devotion to God, it shall be called as liberation from worldly bonds. If these worldly bonds are spontaneously dropped without any effort due to devotion to God, it is called as salvation from worldly bonds.
The fascination to a worldly bond is called eshanaa. Among the various worldly bonds, the three strongest worldly bonds are fascination to money, fascination to children and fascination to life partner. Among these three strongest worldly bonds, fascination to money is the strongest because if money is absent, even if you are fascinated to any worldly bond, it will leave you mercilessly. Of course, money is always linked with the fascination to children. Hence, these two bonds are always linked together and hence the bond with money becomes the strongest. If the soul is liberated from these three worldly bonds, the soul is liberated from all the worldly bonds. If the strongest fighter in a city is defeated by you, all the people of that city are indirectly defeated. Hence, if the bond with money or wealth is destroyed, all the worldly bonds are destroyed.
The sages prayed to Rama for total salvation from all the worldly bonds. Rama was born as Krishna and the sages were born as the Gopikas. In the case of the bond with money, a special point exists, which is that the bond with hard earned money is always stronger than the bond with ancestral wealth. Therefore, the strongest bond can be the bond with hard earned wealth. God wanted to compete with this bond of hard-earned wealth. If the strongest bond is defeated by the bond with God, the bond with God will become the strongest or the highest. This competition is the test conducted by God Datta which is called as Datta pariiksha. The Gopikas did a lot of hard work in preparing butter, which is their hard-earned wealth. The ancestral wealth is called as Dhanam whereas hard-earned wealth is called Karma phalam. Tyaga means sacrifice. Hence, Karma phala tyaga or sacrifice of hard-earned wealth is the strongest worldly bond, which is stronger than Dhana tyaga or sacrifice of ancestral wealth. The Veda emphasized on dhana tyaga, whereas Krishna emphasized on Karma phala tyaga in the entire Gita. The butter that was prepared by the Gopikas was reserved for their children in the houses after deducting some part of the butter that was sold in Madhura city, to get the groceries and money for other expenses. This butter stored for their children becomes doubly strongest and Krishna started stealing this stored butter to test the Gopikas.
Now the Gopika is leftover with the hard-earned wealth linked with children. Gopikas were sages for the past millions of births doing penance for God and therefore, their strongest feeling or samskara was God only. Due to the power of their previous long penance, they knew very well that Krishna was God. Apart from this, Krishna did several miracles to show that He was God. Therefore, there was no question of the Gopikas treating Krishna as an ordinary human being. This point was also stressed in the Narada Bhakti sutras (Tatrāpi na māhātmyajñāna vismṛtyapavādaḥ). Hence, for the sages, the test was very clear between the bond with God and the strongest bond with hard-earned money stored for their children. But what happened? We expect that the sages who have done penance for the past millions of births must have won the test. Alas! The expectation completely failed. Almost all the Gopikas complained to the mother of Krishna regarding this stealing of their hard-earned butter. Almost all the Gopikas failed except 12 Gopikas, who alone reached Goloka, which was higher than the highest fruit (the highest fruit is the abode of God). This is the main background of the incarnation of Krishna. All this should be explained to Yashoda when she asked the question. Even if He tells, Yashoda cannot understand this mystic historical background. Hence, Krishna smiled since the actual candidates, the Gopikas know all this background thoroughly. Therefore, He just smiled and closed the divine drama.