Return to Shyamdas's articlesChir Haran lila
continued...
"HE TOOK MY CLOTHS"
BHAGAVAT 27 ½
Gopis
Return to Braja.
Your vows
Are completed.
Virtuous ones
The purpose of your Katyayani worship,
The pledges you undertook have ripened.
Now you will dance with Me
During those autum nights
That I am showing you
Right now.
SUBODHINI
"From now on dear Gopis wherever you are, you will never be touched by anything mundane."
When Shri Krishna commands them to return home, His words reveal that they are now His own as well as His loving affection for them.
To wander about is
An activity of strength and
You are Abalas, now devoid of power.
It is time to return.
Krishna begins, "O Gopis, the earth does not move. Only grass and other small particles upon it do. Now there is no other place you can go besides me."
If someone questions, "As the earth is prepared by plowing it, in a similar way, doesn't Shri Krishna now have to prepare the Gopis?"
To this Shri Krishna replied, "Of course not, you are perfected, you have attained, there is nothing left for you to do."
Because they are spiritually accomplished Shri Krishna tells them go home. Just before that, He allowed them the darshan of the Braja lila they would later enter as He said, "You will play with Me during those nights."
The moment He says "those nights" was when they received lila darshan of themselves by the banks of the Yamuna river dancing with the immortal Hari. The actual event did not occur until much later that year.
That divine night
Always resides with Him.
When Krishna says "During those nights you will make lila with Me" He reveals to those blessed Gopis a condition of extreme union. Now there can be no further doubts, they have had the darshan.
If you ask, why didn't Shri Krishna give them the reward of His eternal connection instead of a few nights of union? The answer is that they undertook the vow specifically for nights of dalliance. It was why they worshipped Katyayani Devi. Their adoration of Shri Krishna was pure and provided them an ultimate reward.
Krishna lila was the true gift of their month long Devi worship. Because their pujas concluded at the end of night, that event decided that their lila with Shri Krishna would also take place at night.
"Virtuous women"
They don't not make dalliance during the day or whenever they desire. Their dalliance arises according to the decrees of marriage. If the Gopis came when He first called them, that reward would have been indestructible. The fruit of all other karmas is perishable.
TIPPANI
Although he Gopis had the desire to go everywhere with Shri Krishna, that would not have nourished the ras and so Shri Krishna told them to return to Braja.
Like a plow goes to the earth, the earth does not go to the plow, so when necessary, Shri Krishna in the evening comes to Braja for a night of dalliance.
This was kindly translated by Shyamdas. His numerous books (in English) on Pushti Marg are well worth reading.
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