Posted on: 04 Oct 2022
[Shri Hrushikesh asked: Dear Swami, In continuation to Your answer to the question about Sweet devotion. I have the following questions.
Can we say that Females are more fortunate than males because they have the opportunity to show Madhura Bhakti? Kindly clarify. Is there anyway a male can also show the same Bhakti towards Swami being born as a Male or has to wait for a female birth? Namaskaar to Your Lotus Feet, Hrushikesh]
Swami replied:- The external body is only a dress to the soul as told in the Gita. The dress is selected by God as per the requirement of the stage of devotion. Of course, the doctrine of deeds and fruits also plays its own role in deciding the gender-dress of the soul as per the requirements of the fruits of deeds of the soul. This is a separate affair related to the cycle of deeds and fruits. The spiritual progress is a different cycle of the soul, in which God also decides the same gender–address of the soul, which depends on the stage of the spiritual progress. The stage of progress is decided by the examiner and not by the candidate to be examined. Moreover, the stage of internal stuff is more important than the external dress and other formalities. Mere gender-dress is not sufficient. Mere sweet devotion is also not necessary to test true love. I will tell a small story. Krishna got wounded in His finger and all the 16108 wives ran in different directions in search of a small piece of cloth needed for bandage. All these wives are connected to Krishna through sweet devotion. But, all of them were not having the climax true love possessed by Draupadi, who loved Krishna as her brother. Draupadi is incarnation of Parvati and the five faces of God Shiva became the forms of five Pandavaas.
Krishna is the incarnation of God Vishnu. Goddess Parvati is the sister of God Vishnu. Draupadi tore her new sari at once to do bandage of the wounded finger of her brother Krishna. All the sweet devotees were defeated by the sister Draupadi. She was sitting in the sacrifice and she knows that she shall not tear her new sari because such an act will make her lose all wealth and the same thing happened as well. Inspite of such terrible loss, she tore her sari for the sake of Krishna. All the sweet devotees need not have to fear for such a loss because they were not sitting in the sacrifice. Even though such loss is absent, their fascination for their new saris was so much that they could not tear their saris for the immediate need for bandage of Krishna’s finger. Sweet devotion is only a form of devotion, which has nothing to do with the quantity of true love. A candy swan is 10 gms. A candy donkey is 100 gms. The rate of the swan is one rupee and the rate of the donkey is ten rupees. If you ask the sweet shop keeper that since a donkey is much lower than a swan and ask the donkey to be sold for one rupee, will the shop keeper oblige to your logic?
The weight of true love in the brotherly bond of Draupadi is greater than the weight of true love in the sweet devotion bond of all the wives of Krishna. You must understand the actual reason for testing the bond with spouse (Daareshanaa) in the final female birth of the soul. The actual reason is that this bond is very weak and has the facility of divorce unlike the other family bonds. Unless all the 99 worldly bonds are defeated before the bond with God, this bond with spouse shall not be tested. If it is tested before itself, this weak bond will be naturally defeated even though other stronger worldly bonds are not defeated. Almost all the Gopikas failed in the joint test of bonds with children and money whereas all the Gopikas passed in the test of bond with spouse. This means that almost all the Gopikas quarreled with Krishna for stealing the butter preserved for their children. But, all Gopikas danced with Krishna at midnight secretly. Only twelve Gopikas passing both the tests reached Goloka. You shall not misunderstand that Gopikas reached Goloka through sweet devotion and Hanuman could reach only Brahma Loka through service that lacked sweet devotion. This is not the correct reason. Gopikas reached Goloka since they sacrificed butter, which is their fruit of work (Karmaphala tyaaga) whereas Hanuman being a male-saint could do only service (Karma samnyaasa). The former is greater than the latter because the bond with the former is stronger than the bond with the latter. Gita says that after the sacrifice of fruit of work, no spiritual effort remains leftover since that is the final full stop (Tyāgāt śānti ranantaram).
Veda also supports this (Dhanena tyāgena eke…). The bond with wealth is the strongest because wealth is necessary for all the worldly bonds including the bond with one’s self. Even minimum maintenance is related to money only. The true love for all alive worldly bonds is based on inert money and hence, money represents the true love of all worldly bonds including with one’s self. In the absence of the alive worldly bonds, the inert money is useless for anybody. Hence, the importance of money is that it is the basis of the true love of all the alive worldly bonds. If you think that sweet devotion alone is the climax of devotion, a prostitute involved in sweet devotion with anybody for the sake of money disproves your idea. Hence, sweet devotion is tested in the final birth of the soul in female body and in this test, every soul will get formal pass marks. The test of this bond is not important and the test of all other worldly bonds is very very important. The test of this bond is just a formal test because all the 100 worldly bonds should be crossed and the crossing of 99 worldly bonds does not give the certificate of passing all the 100 worldly bonds.
[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- My understanding was that Gopikas reached Goloka through sweet devotion, which is the highest form of devotion that gave higher than the highest fruit. Your reply to the question of Shri Hrushikesh is very powerful in shaking the concept of sweet devotion. Please clarify.]
Swami replied:- The point is very simple. My straight question to you on this subject is:- If sweet devotion alone is the path to reach Goloka, all the Gopikas participated in sweet devotion by dancing with Krishna in Brundavanam at midnight. Then, why did all these Gopikas not reach Goloka? Only those 12 Gopikas reached Goloka, who did not complain to Yashoda about the stealing of butter by Krishna. Does this not mean that the sacrifice of the fruit of the hard work (butter) by the Gopikas alone that took the Gopikas to Goloka? Of course, these 12 Gopikas also participated in sweet devotion defeating their bonds with their spouses before the bond with God. All the other Gopikas also participated in sweet devotion defeating their bonds with their spouses and in such a case, why did all the other Gopikas not reach Goloka? The analysis clearly shows that defeating their bond with children and hard earned money is the total essence of the path and defeating their bonds with spouses is only a formality because detachment from all 100 worldly bonds is a formality indicating the detachment from all worldly bonds. The main essence is detachment from all the other 99 worldly bonds. A person is selected as a constable based on his qualifications and successful training. He is given the police uniform. Do you recognize the police based on mere external uniform or do you recognize the police based on the appointment order given by the police department based on his qualifications and successful training? If mere uniform is the basis, a drama actor wearing police uniform must be also recognized as a police man.
Let us compare Radha (or any one of the 12 Gopikas) with a prostitute. Radha joined Krishna leaving her wedded, official husband. The prostitute also joined her customer leaving her wedded official husband. Based on this single commonality, will you equate the prostitute with Radha? The difference between Radha and the prostitute is that Radha sacrificed the fruit of her hard work (butter) to God Krishna whereas the prostitute sold her sweet devotion to the customer to grab his fruit of work (hard earned money). The sweet love of the prostitute towards the customer is not sweet love at all and it is false love to earn money from customers. It is not even the hormone provoked lust, which is only an action of love.
The sweet devotion of Radha (and twelve Gopikas) was based on total surrender to God Krishna before which no love of any worldly bond could stand. Their lust towards God Krishna in the dance with God Krishna is the true devotion-transformed-lust, which is neither false love of the prostitute nor even the hormone provoked lust. In every action of the lust of Gopika, the only feeling is that Krishna is the ultimate God and the bond with Him is the permanent bond. When Radha or the Gopika hugged and kissed Krishna, she was thinking only that she is hugging and kissing the ultimate God and the intension in the action gives the fruit and not the inert action. If a girl is hugging and kissing her own brother, it should not be treated as her lust but shall be treated as her pure brotherly love. Even though actions are one and the same, the intensions and the material of inner desires are completely different between these two cases. If the Gopika is hugging and kissing Krishna thinking that Krishna is very beautiful and highly masculine, the intension in that action is hormone provoked lust. Such lust shall be justified and shall be between a couple trying for children to extend the human generations in the future for the service of God. Such lust comes under pravrutti only and not in Nivrutti. If such lust is not justified, it will result in sin leading to hell. When the Gopikas came to dance with Krishna, Krishna told them that they shall go back to their homes because such dance is sinful leading to hell. The punishment for such sin is that the Gopika after death shall embrace a hot burning copper statue of Krishna! Gopikas told them that their husbands are only false, who are photos only and that their real husband is God Krishna. These Gopikas are not ignorant souls to be controlled by hormonal lust. They were filled with the devotion of God in their souls and entire bodies. They told “God is our real husband, who alone is Purusha (Male). All the souls are females only and also the wives of God. Husband (Bhartaa) means maintainer and wife (Bhaaryaa) means the maintained, alive or inert item. Veda says the same (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ). This applies to every soul irrespective of gender. Purusha or male is God whereas Prakruti or female is the creation. Souls are part of creation only. The soul is called Paraaprakruti, which is the best part of creation as said in Gita (Prakṛtiṃ viddhi Me parām, Jīvabhūtām). The body of the soul is the lower part of creation called Aparaa Prakruti, which is just like the external dress. The soul has no gender, which is awareness only. This external body or dress alone has gender (Vāsaṃsi jīṇāni…-Gita). Sage Naarada also told that the love of Gopikas to Krishna is not hormonal lust, but, pure love or devotion towards God and in every step of the lust in the dance, the Gopikas are aware that Krishna is God (Tatrāpi na māhātmya jñāna vismṛtyapavādaḥ— Bhakti Sutram). He told what it is and also told what it is not by saying that, if such pure devotion to God were absent in the minds of the Gopikas, the dance would be sinful action of hormonal lust (Tadvihīnaṃ jārāṇāmiva— Bhakti Suutram). Sage Naarada is considered to be the embodiment of divine devotion by this entire world and hence, we shall recognize the actual essence of sweet devotion of Gopikas to God Krishna without any type of misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
In the above case, heterosex is mentioned, which is justified in Pravrutti. The homosex is condemned even in Pravrutti because such type of sex is found in the ignorant animals. Hence, one should not misunderstand the pure devotion of male devotees. Shri Chaitanya Mahaa Prabhu used to embrace God Krishna every day. Till God Krishna embraces him, he is with very high fever and his devotees used to apply sandal paste frequently on his body because due to the heat of the body, the wet sandal paste used to become dry immediately and fall down! If anybody sees homosex in this most holy devotion, such a fellow will fall in the liquid fire of the hell as long as this eternal creation exists. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Brindavanam, used to feel Himself as Gopika and wore a sari and jewels every day for one month during His complete stay in Brindavanam. Do you think that Paramahamsa is female? Actually, He is the incarnation of both Rama and Krishna! He acted as a devotee to preach to us, the devotees. Even Shri Chaitanya is the incarnation of Radha, who is the incarnation of God Shiva. Incarnations act like ideal human beings and devotees. Rama acted as ideal human being and Hanuman, the incarnation of God Shiva acted as devotee.