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How did the thought of lust arise in the Gopikas, who conquered hormone-based lust towards God Krishna?

[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, Kindly answer the following questions, at Your Lotus Feet-anil. 1. Gopikas were sages who conquered hormone based lust by their intense penance in the previous births. In such a case, how did the thought of lust arise in them (even though it is loved based lust) towards God Krishna? To arise lust in a person, action of hormones is needed right? Was the lust purely from the side of the Gopikas towards God Krishna and was one sided? How was this lust initiated in the absence of initiating action of hormones for it?]

Swami replied: - We are generating ash by burning wood. But, Shri Satya Sai generated ash just by will. The source of generation need not be one way only. Sages surrendered everything to God. They got an idea that their bodies also have to be surrendered to God to fulfill the concept of total surrender. God has no reservations for anything in this world since He sees only the feeling of surrender in a devotee. For Him anything is one and the same. There is always response in the case of every surrender. Generally, the lust is generated by hormones created by God only, as the universal principle for the extension of the race of humanity through heterosex. Due to the activity of hormones, the attraction between male and female is generated. Such attraction gets concentrated on a specific individual and not only the general lust is generated, but also, a specific individual stands as the object of the lust in the beginning itself. The general lust and the individual object start from the very beginning point. It is not necessary that the general lust must be generated in the beginning and then only the individual object must rise. It is quite possible that the general lust can start along with the specific individual object.

In the case of sages, they have already controlled the generation of lust by hormones and stood as the fires of spiritual knowledge. The hormones were controlled by them and this means that the hormones were not destroyed. The activities of hormones were completely under their control. The sages were also house holders and in the context of extension of the race, they allowed the hormones to do their activity. Such activity of hormones was allowed as per the path of Pravrutti, which was totally justified. When the question of Nivrutti came into the picture  and when the context of surrendering their bodies to God by becoming females due to their miraculous powers arose, the sages allowed the activity of hormones, which was a necessary associate of such angle of surrender to God. God sees only the pure feeling of the total surrender of the devotee, which alone is considered by Him. The body is after all a relative reality of modification of energy and matter.

You must take the same approach even if you consider the love affair of Macdelene with Jesus (assuming that this story is true). This topic shall not be viewed in wrong sense because the total liberation from all the worldly bonds due to the single attraction to God cannot exclude any single worldly bond as an exception. The detachment from this type of worldly bond (life partner) cannot be an exception because TOTAL SALVATION means TOTAL SALVATION only! When I said that they have burnt their lust in the fire of penance, it means that they have the miraculous power to generate lust to God since they felt that such a lust towards God was very essential to get total salvation from all the worldly bonds due to the single attraction to God.

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