Historical Krishna - Part 12 The dance with the Gopis

Now let us come to one of the most important and also controversial episode of Krishna’s life, one which has been maligned by many, understood by few and appreciated by fewer – The Raas Leela or the Autumn Dance festival. Swami Vivekananda had said that one having body consciousness can never understand the true spiritual significance of the Raas Leela. Only people who have achieved transcendental love can understand the Raas Leela and what it meant to a bunch of women who were mad with divine love, divine fervor. The story goes on like this –

The Hemant season was the harbinger of the winter. On a lovely day the young maidens, the gopikas took a bath and went to the temple of local goddess Katyayani and almost all of them prayed privately for having Krishna as their husband. On a lovely moonlit autumn night Krishna was desirous of playing with the folks and he started playing on his flute. Hearing that ethereal music, full of bliss and joy, none of the gopikas could remain in their houses. They were pining for the association of Krishna and they left everything that they had been doing to be with their Lord. And when they all came to Krishna, on the banks of Yamuna, he knew their intentions and rebuked them severely for coming in that manner. They replied that it is Him for whose attraction they have renounced their family ties, their home and hearth, their children and their everything including honour. And now that very person is asking them the reason! The pang of separation was unbearable and they could not simply remain without Him , who they loved more than their self. The love was not physical attraction as scholars would want to believe. Mere physical attraction does not generate such a passion. Of course Krishna understood their love but He also wanted to make that love pure. These rustic women had no selfish motives, they loved for the love’s sake. They were just expressing their deep angst for a boy who was merely ten year’s old. That boy was no ordinary boy. He was a divine child who had divine powers and who had no personal ambition other than ensuring general welfare. He knew that He will have to send a message through these rustic women for many many generations of devotees and saints who would similarly learn to love for love’s sake, who would teach the hatred and strife ridden humanity the message of sublime love. He created a new religion on that very night, the religion of love, the highest manifestation of which is to love the divinity as one would love a secret lover – the madhur bhava, the practice which was later perfected by the saints like the Azhwars or more aptly the incarnation like Sri Chaitanya. So they pined for Him and He satisfied them to their heart’s content by dancing with them. And then ego crept into their heart and He left them. Once again they searched for Him everywhere in their divine madness and finally when they realized their folly and surrendered to Him wholeheartedly they got Him again.

This is the simple story of the Raas Leela, the divine dance of love. It is almost a sin to talk about it if we have no transcended lust, because the gopikas had no body consciousness on that night, and, as Sri Ramakrishna mentioned, Krishna, in love of them, became one of them. He was united with them physically, as another maiden, and in spirit. He was dressed like a gopika as well. And He interacted with them as if He was part of them, nay, even they were part of Him and they were Him. In sort, He demonstrated advaita through the path of love on that night.