QA-3

(Some of my friends, who are atheists, have asked these questions on sweet devotion and related topics. I have sent those questions to H.H. Shri Datta Swami, who has answered these questions. - Ms. Thrylokya)

3. Swami, can You explain the contradiction between the following statements.

[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Swami, can You explain to me the contradiction between the two statements:- i) God Krishna satisfied the sexual desire of sweet devotion of Gopikas to encourage them in the spiritual path to reach God for permanent association through the similar sweet devotion. ii) God Krishna while satisfying Gopikas did not lose His celibacy since God Brahma told that Krishna is the real celibate. Please don’t use the omnipotency of God Krishna by telling that God Krishna satisfied the desire of Gopikas in sweet devotion by meeting with them directly and at the same time, is the real celibate since He can do any impossible contradicting concept as possible correlated concept.]

Swami replied:- The unimaginable God is omnipotent and can do as you said (meeting with Gopikas can be proved as non-meeting due to His omnipotency even though His real form only met with them) because He is beyond the worldly logic possessing the inseparable omnipotent power called Maayaa. He can do a thing and at the same time, He can be the undoer of that thing due to His omnipotency. The Veda also says the same thing that God is stable and at the same time, faster than mind; has no legs and at the same time, runs very fast; has no hands and at the same time, can catch with hands (Anejadekaṃ manaso javīyo, nainat devā āpnuvan pūrvamarṣāt, apāṇi pādo javano grahītā). But, this point will not be used by Me since it looks as if the unimaginable God is incapable to answer your question through proper worldly logic. God Krishna did not say that even though He met Gopikas with His real form, He did not meet them due to His omnipotency, which (His power Maayaa) can make any impossible thing as possible and any contradicting thing as non-contradicting correlated completely. He made an arrangement to avoid this blame through omnipotency. The arrangement was that He created illusory Krishnas just like He created this illusory world and illusory souls. The illusory Krishnas met with the illusory Gopikas and every illusory Krishna maintained the one-wife concept (Eka patniivratam) even though Gopikas were not maintaining that because they were already married and had children (even then, the Gopikas are not to be blamed since devotees can break justice for the sake of their devotion to God in Nivrutti). In this way, from God’s side, even in the illusory Krishnas, there was no injustice.

Here, one concept shall be remembered:- Illusory real world means that the world is inherently unreal and the world has become absolute reality due to the gifted absolute reality by the unimaginable God. This was done because God is to be entertained by the real world only and not by the unreal imaginary world. Since God is omnipotent and can make His imaginary world also as real, He need not entertain Himself with an imaginary unreal world like the little-potentcy soul. Since the world has become absolutely real, but inherently it is unreal, we cannot say that the world in total concept as real or unreal. Hence, it is called Mithyaa, which means that it is very difficult to conclude in one word as real or unreal. This does not mean that even God is incapable of a specific decision. The promise of God is to tell the truth (Satyaṃ Jñānam - Veda). If the monkey is sitting on the centre of the joint-wall present between two houses, the true knowledge is to say that we cannot decide whether the monkey is sitting in the area of that house or this house. Even God will say the same and if He decides that side or this side, it is not true knowledge. In this way, we can say that the creation of this world by the unimaginable God is also unimaginable or inexplicable (Anirvacanīyatā khyāti).

But, the world is experienced by us as absolutely real by the God-gifted absolute reality and such world is also really experienced by God for the sake of His real entertainment. Therefore, worldly justice must be followed by every human form in this real world and illusory Krishna is not exceptional to this rule being completely equal to any human being. In the case of Gopikas, who were sages and writers of scriptures of justice (Dharma Shastras), there is no injustice because for the sake of God, even justice can be crossed in the path of Nivrutti. This means that justice of Pravrutti can be thrown out for the sake of God in the climax of spiritual life or Nivrutti (sarvadharmān parityajya… – Gita, Teṣāṃ tejo viśeṣeṇa, pratyavāyo na vidyate…, Nivṛttistu mahāphalā – Dharma Shastra). Moreover, those Gopikas were the greatest sages doing penance (terrible continuous pain) for God for millions of births and worldly justice is nothing before their spiritual life or Nivrutti. Neither Gopikas nor the illusory Krishnas are touched by any trace of sin because all this arrangement is happening by the will and guidance of God only.

When you refer to God Krishna, you have to understand His composition. God Krishna is the human incarnation of God Datta. God Datta is the first energetic incarnation because the first energetic being (energetic body + energetic soul or awareness + the four internal instruments of the soul called four antahkaranams, which are mind, intelligence, memory power and basic ego) is merged by the unimaginable God or Parabrahman. In the case of Parabrahman or unimaginable God, only His existence can be experienced (Anubhavaika vedyaṃ Brahma) and not His nature. His nature is known to Himself only (Brahmavit Brahmaiva… - Veda). This merge of unimaginable God through God Datta with the human medium like the son of Vasudeva called Krishna is also an unimaginable process and cannot be treated like the merge of imaginable copper and imaginable gold to form an imaginable solid solution in which both metals depend on each other forcibly in certain properties like: if copper becomes hot, gold has to become hot and if gold has become hot, copper will become hot etc. The merge of unimaginable item with imaginable item (human medium) cannot be treated like the merge between two imaginable items. This means that the unimaginable God in the human incarnation of Krishna (means: unimaginable God merged with the rest medium, which is matter + energy + awareness of son of Vasudeva) should not be treated equal to copper and gold in a solid solution.

The unimaginable God is completely untouched by the medium, which is a part of the creation because the Veda and the Gita say that God is neither in any item of the creation (Na tvahaṃ teṣu…, Nacāhaṃ teṣu… - Gita) nor any item of the creation is God (Neti Neti… - Veda). Therefore, the unimaginable God is neither touched by His medium physically nor touched by the awareness or its modes called thoughts or feelings because unimaginable God is beyond space and the medium has spatial dimensions (even awareness is nervous energy and energy has spatial dimensions). This means that if the unimaginable God wants to be detached from physical material and also mental feelings, He can remain so without involving in that particular materialistic scene of the world. Also, if the unimaginable God wishes, He can merge with the material (body) or even with nervous energy (feelings) if He likes to do so. He does so when His medium (real Krishna) is enjoying His own power personified in a different form (Radha/Rukmini). This is not like an ordinary fellow seeing a cinema in which the fellow is not self-controlled and will be emotionally carried away by the influence of the scenes of the cinema irrespective of his wishes.

The unimaginable God is like a self-controlled saint, who can identify Himself with the scenes if He likes and doesn’t identify Himself with the scenes if He dislikes even though He is merged with His medium in both cases because He is not controlled by the scientific conditions of worldly merge of two imaginable items. When He doesn’t identify Himself with the scenes, He is still watching the scenes just like a neutral spectator (saakshii). This point can be further illustrated by the example of AdiShankara, who was associated with the soul of King Amaruka and entertained Himself as neutral spectator when the king was uniting with his queens. Shankara learnt all the sex education through this and His observation alone existed without any involvement with the actions of body and feelings of mind. I can give another example. When Sage Vyaasa was engaged in sex with the two widow-wives of his younger brothers to produce children at the request of his mother, the sage was not involved in that act or feeling since he was just a neutral spectator (saakshii) and no trace of sin touched the sage. He just became the inert artificial injection of sperms in a fertility centre. The Veda says that when a soul is in the state of a neutral spectator without any contamination, it loses all the qualities or feelings (sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaśca). Sun is called Karma Saakshii, which means that He is just a neutral spectator without involving Himself in the observed action to stand as witness whenever required.

Now, coming to the unimaginable God or Parabrahman, He has the freedom of seeing the cinema as a neutral spectator in some scenes, which are not liked by Him, without a trace of involvement in that scene or its feeling and He also has the freedom to see some scenes, which are liked by Him, with involvement by feelings and also by even touching the matter (body) or energy (words) or awareness (feelings) of the items involved in the world-cinema. Here, the spectator seeing the cinema is not a complete example for the concept of God because the simile fails if the spectator wants to touch the material or energy or awareness of the items and their media of the cinema. Simile is never complete and especially in the case of God, it is completely a failure because there is no second unimaginable item to be compared with Him in this world except the one unimaginable God.

I will apply this above concept to the case of God Krishna and Gopikas. Suppose God is involved in a romantic scene like Krishna doing romance with Radha or Rukmini. Even in this case, if God wants to be untouched by the romantic scene, He can remain so. In fact, in this scene, Radha and Rukmini are the embodiments of His unimaginable power and there is no real internal dualism and His real celibacy remains untouched. In this scene, if He gets the experience from the individual soul of Krishna through its four internal instruments along with all feelings and even physical touches, there is no damage to His celibacy because in reality, there is only monism of Himself and His power (Śakti śaktirmato rabhedaḥ). Hence, whether He is involved through the real form of Krishna or He is not involved remaining as a neutral spectator, His celibacy is not touched at all by even a trace of injustice in the case of Radha and Rukmini. In the case of Radha/Rukmini also, He has no requirement of the trace of illusory happiness generated from the interaction with their two media. But still, He is involved through His real form in the entire romance, which is not only justified, but will not disturb His celibacy since He and those two are one and the same. In the case of 16,107 married wives, if He through His real form is involved, the romance is justified due to marriage, but, still, He is involved through illusory forms only since they are also illusory souls due to which His celibacy will be spoiled and also, God being assumed Father touching the indirect daughters (created souls) also brings injustice (I have already told that one theory says that God is the assumed Father though not direct biological father of souls since He is the husband of the biological mother called Kaarya Maayaa Shakti. Another theory says that God’s wish is the root cause of the birth of the soul and hence, God is not father at all so that sweet devotion with God is not sin. Refer My Answer to Question No. 1).

Now, let us take a different scene in this world-cinema, where a devoted hunter is plucking the second eye also for the sake of God Shiva. Please remember that God Shiva and God Krishna are one and the same. To be more convenient, let Me take a similar example of Sudaama, who sacrificed some parched rice to God by taking it as loan from others while he and his family were starving for several days and expected nothing in return from God Krishna. In this scene, God Krishna embraced Sudaama with climax emotion just like God Shiva embraced the hunter. In these cases, even the unimaginable God embraced Sudaama and the hunter through His omnipotency (actually unimaginable God is beyond space and no worldly item with spatial dimensions can embrace the unimaginable God, but, the omnipotent unimaginable God can embrace the devotee) because the omnipotent God can do any impossible thing. Here, the unimaginable God touches the matter (body), energy (words) and awareness (feelings) of Sudaama and the hunter through His omnipotency because He likes this situation more than the scene of illusory Krishna kissing the lips of Gopika. In the first two scenes, no romance is involved and in the third scene, romance is involved.

When the illusory Krishna kisses Gopika, only the unreal medium of unimaginable God namely Krishna is touching another unreal medium of the created unreal soul called Gopika. Since the illusory Krishna is not the real Krishna merged with the unimaginable God, there is no father-assumed daughter relationship between the illusory Krishna and Gopika. The unimaginable God or Parabrahman has full freedom to change His action in any situation based on justice or even assumed justice unlike the little-potentcy soul. In this situation, the worldly justice is not touched in anyway (since the real Krishna is not involved in romance with Gopikas) and God has full freedom to be a neutral spectator or to be householder in the case of Radha/Rukmini because in either case, the monism and celibacy of Parabrahman is not at all disturbed. This means that God can entertain Himself with the bliss of monism like Shankara enjoying His own self, which is an ocean of bliss. At the same time, God can entertain Himself with the bliss of dualism without spoiling the monism like Rama enjoying Sita or Krishna enjoying Radha/Rukmini since the same real monism exists in both cases at the basic level and both cases are not different at all because the basic real celibacy is intact indeed. If the dual sweet devotion is not enjoyed by God’s own real form, it shows the incompleteness of the multi angle divine personality of God.

The entertainment of Shankara with self and the entertainment of Krishna with Radha/Rukmini are basically monistic celibacy only and the difference is only in the variety of the entertainment. The one absolute God was an infinite ocean of bliss without any trace of deficiency in happiness. The happiness through dualism does not increase the original quantity of happiness of God present in monistic state. It is only a change of variety from monism to dualism. A king living in palace with fullest happiness is going to forest for hunting not to increase his happiness more quantitatively, but to change the variety of happiness qualitatively. I am not lowering the status of sweet devotion because it has the greatest merit of union of body, word and mind with fullest happiness (I appreciate Osho in bringing merit of union, but, I condemn him since he referred only souls in illegal way without God and sinless sweet devotion involves soul and God). In spite of this merit, the defect is that sweet devotion itself alone cannot prove the absence of selfishness, which is the basis in sacrifice to God and such path of sacrifice alone leads the devotee to God. Hence, this sweet devotion exists in the final birth of the soul after the soul defeats all the 99 worldly bonds for the sake of God. This is the reason why God Krishna conducted the joint test of bond with child and wealth in the beginning for ten years and then only finally conducted the test for bond with spouse by dancing in Brundaavanam just for one year because this final test is only formal as proved by Gopikas. No doubt, sweet devotion is the highest path of all the paths of devotion provided it is after the defeat of 99 worldly bonds and the spouse bond is to be left as the last formal test. If this crucial point is missing, the highest Gopika will become the lowest prostitute as said by Sage Naarada (Tadvihīnaṃ jārāṇāmiva… - Bhakti Suutram).

In the case of other Gopikas, since the equally real (with reference to Gopikas) illusory Krishnas are involved in the act of sex as told above, there is no trace of sin that can enter from any angle. The unimaginable God is with the real form of Krishna and not with the illusory forms of Krishna because merging of Parabrahman takes place in the case of an incarnation only (In the case of first energetic incarnation, Parabrahman directly merged with Datta to make Him God Datta and all other incarnations result by the merge of God Datta with energetic or human media.). But, the unimaginable God is the maintainer of this world and is the substratum for the entire world. The unimaginable God merged neither with illusory Gopikas nor with illusory Krishnas (nor even with any worldly soul nor even with the world), but, the unimaginable God is present very very near to every soul as the substratum of every place and event of the world and hence, the unimaginable God is witnessing the love of Gopikas. In this act of romance, Gopikas are also getting pleasure from illusory Krishnas, but, if you take the case of the hunter or Sudaama, the devotee is not getting any pleasure from the receiver-God since the donor-devotee is in loss of health (by losing eye) and wealth. Sacrifice is not the act that gives pleasure to both donor and receiver. Generally, the sacrifice is very difficult for the donor and pleases only the receiver.

When Gopikas preserved butter for their children, God Krishna stole it. All Gopikas know that Krishna is God. But still, their bond with children (Putreshanaa) is so strong that it could even cross their bond with God. As a result, all Gopikas complained to Mother Yashoda about God Krishna. Hence, the sweet devotion alone cannot prove that the bond with God is the strongest. Hence, in the beginning itself, God Krishna tested them in the joint bond of issues and wealth by stealing the butter for ten long years. The test for spouse is only a formal test conducted just for two years (strictly speaking, one year only) because every Gopika passed in it. Even the prostitute can pass that test because she is not only getting pleasure from the customer, but also wealth. Those Gopikas, who passed the joint test of children and wealth in the test of stealing butter alone were selected for Goloka and their test for spouse was only a formality because neither God nor sages were really interested in the illegal sex. Radha and Rukmini were not having any test because they belong to the side of God being the embodiments of His inseparable power. Their case was totally different from the case of Gopikas because union with both of them for the real Lord Krishna did not spoil His celibacy even by a trace.

There is no difference between the union of Radha with the real form of Krishna and the union of a Gopika with an illusory form of Krishna. The reason is that even the form of the real Krishna is illusory only since it belongs to the creation having spatial dimensions. In both unions of Radha and Gopika, the interaction between bodies (matter), words (energy) and feelings (awareness) are one and the same since in both forms of Krishna, the gross body, the individual soul and the four internal instruments are exactly one and the same. God is also very very near to the Gopika and illusory Krishna as the substratum. God is giving the same fruit to all the successful Gopikas, which is His closest association in Goloka. One should not think that Radha is given the highest post because she is the most successful Gopika. Radha is not Gopika at all. Radha is the same Krishna. Krishna and Radha are the King and Queen of Goloka. Both are one only with different external personalities to maintain the basic principle of dualism for the sake of sweet devotion. You cannot say that Radha is closest to Krishna because Radha and Krishna are one and the same. The closest souls are also the twelve Gopikas, who are the successful sages. Do not confuse yourself by comparing Radha/Rukmini with Gopikas because Radha and Rukmini are the associates of God Krishna and they are givers of salvation to souls like Gopikas. The main point here is that even the sages entered sweet devotion only after defeating all the worldly bonds in competition with the bond with God. That is why, they succeeded in getting salvation from the worldly bonds and in getting permanent association with God. A soul shall not jump towards the path of sweet devotion without testing its total detachment from all the other worldly bonds already existing in the world because sweet devotion is only the last formality test.