CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
When Lord KášášŁáša finally reappeared among the assembled gopÄŤs, He looked very beautiful, just befitting a person with all kinds of opulences. In the Brahma-saášhitÄ it is stated, Änanda-cin-maya-rasa-pratibhÄvitÄbhiḼ: KášášŁáša alone is not particularly beautiful, but when His energy – especially His pleasure energy, represented by RÄdhÄrÄášÄŤ – expands, He looks very magnificent. The MÄyÄvÄda conception of perfection – an Absolute Truth without potency – is due to insufficient knowledge. Actually, outside the exhibition of His different potencies, the Absolute Truth is not complete. Änanda-cin-maya-rasa means that His body is a transcendental form of eternal bliss and knowledge. KášášŁáša is always surrounded by different potencies, and therefore He is perfect and beautiful. We understand from the Brahma-saášhitÄ and Skanda PurÄáša that KášášŁáša is always surrounded by many thousands of goddesses of fortune. The gopÄŤs are all goddesses of fortune, and KášášŁáša took them hand in hand on the bank of the YamunÄ.
It is said in the Skanda PurÄáša that out of many thousands of gopÄŤs, 16,000 are prominent, out of those 16,000 gopÄŤs, 108 are especially prominent, out of these 108 gopÄŤs, eight are still more prominent, out of those eight gopÄŤs, RÄdhÄrÄášÄŤ and CandrÄvalÄŤ are even more prominent, and out of these two gopÄŤs, RÄdhÄrÄášÄŤ is the most prominent.
When KášášŁáša entered the forest on the bank of the river YamunÄ, the moonlight dissipated the surrounding darkness. Due to the season, flowers like the kunda and kadamba were blooming, and a gentle breeze was carrying their aroma. Due to the aroma, the bees were also flying in the breeze, thinking that the aroma was honey. The gopÄŤs made a seat for KášášŁáša by leveling the soft sand and placing cloths over it.
The gopÄŤs who were gathered there had almost all been followers of the Vedas. In their previous births, during Lord RÄmacandra’s advent, they had been Vedic scholars who desired the association of Lord RÄmacandra in conjugal love. RÄmacandra had given them the benediction that they would be present for the advent of Lord KášášŁáša and He would fulfill their desires. During KášášŁáša’s advent, the Vedic scholars took birth in the shape of the gopÄŤs in VášndÄvana; as young gopÄŤs, they got the association of KášášŁáša in fulfillment of their previous birth’s desire. The ultimate goal of their perfect desire was attained, and they were so joyous that they had nothing further to desire. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gÄŤtÄ: if one attains the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he has no desire for anything. When the gopÄŤs had KášášŁáša in their company, not only all their grief but their lamenting in the absence of KášášŁáša was relieved. They felt they had no desire to be fulfilled. Fully satisfied in the company of KášášŁáša, they spread their cloths on the ground. These garments were made of fine linen and smeared with the red kuáš kuma which decorated their breasts. With great care they spread a sitting place for KášášŁáša. KášášŁáša was their life and soul, and they created a very comfortable seat for Him.
Sitting on the seat amongst the gopÄŤs, KášášŁáša became more beautiful. Great yogÄŤs like Lord Ĺiva, Lord BrahmÄ or even Lord Ĺeᚣa and others always try to fix their attention upon KášášŁáša in their hearts, but here the gopÄŤs actually saw KášášŁáša seated before them on their cloths. In the society of the gopÄŤs, KášášŁáša looked very beautiful. They were the most beautiful damsels within the three worlds, and they assembled together around KášášŁáša.
KášášŁáša seated Himself beside each of the many gopÄŤs, and it may be asked herein how He did this. There is a significant word in this verse: ÄŤĹvara. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gÄŤtÄ, ÄŤĹvaraḼ sarva-bhĹŤtÄnÄm. ÄŞĹvara refers to the Supreme Lord as the Supersoul seated in everyone’s heart. KášášŁáša also manifested this potency of expansion as ParamÄtmÄ in this gathering with the gopÄŤs. KášášŁáša was sitting by the side of each gopÄŤ, unseen by the others. KášášŁáša was so kind to the gopÄŤs that instead of sitting in their hearts to be appreciated in yogic meditation, He seated Himself by their sides. By seating Himself outside, He showed special favor to the gopÄŤs, who were the selected beauties of all creation. Having gotten their most beloved Lord, the gopÄŤs began to please Him by moving their eyebrows and smiling and also by suppressing their anger. Some of them took His lotus feet in their laps and massaged them. And while smiling, they confidentially expressed their suppressed anger and said, “Dear KášášŁáša, we are ordinary women of VášndÄvana, and we do not know much about Vedic knowledge – what is right and what is wrong. We therefore put a question to You, and, since You are very learned, You can answer it properly. In dealings between lovers, we find that there are three classes of men. One class simply receives, another class reciprocates favorably, even if the lover is very contrary, and the third class neither acts contrary nor answers favorably in dealings of love. So out of these three classes, which do You prefer, or which do You call honest?”
In answer, KášášŁáša said, “My dear friends, persons who simply reciprocate the loving dealings of the other party are just like merchants. They give in loving affairs as much as they get from the other party. Practically there is no question of love. It is simply self-interested or self-centered business dealing. Even those without a tinge of loving affairs are better than these merchants. Better than the first class is the second class of men, who love in spite of the opposite party’s contrariness. Such sincere love can be seen when the father and mother love their children in spite of their children’s neglect. The third class neither reciprocate nor neglect. They can be further divided into two classes. One comprises the self-satisfied, who do not require anyone’s love. They are called ÄtmÄrÄma, which means they are absorbed in the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and so do not care whether one loves them or not. But another class comprises ungrateful men. They are called callous. The men in this group revolt against superior persons. For instance, a son, in spite of receiving all kinds of things from loving parents, may be callous and not reciprocate. Those in this class are generally known as guru-druha, which means they receive favors from the parents or the spiritual master and yet neglect them.”
KášášŁáša indirectly answered the questions of the gopÄŤs, even those questions which implied that KášášŁáša did not properly reciprocate their dealings. In answer, KášášŁáša said that He, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is self-satisfied. He does not require anyone’s love, but at the same time He said that He is not ungrateful.
“My dear friends,” KášášŁáša continued, “you might be aggrieved by My words and acts, but you must know that sometimes I do not reciprocate My devotees’ dealings with Me. My devotees are very much attached to Me, but sometimes I do not reciprocate their feelings properly in order to increase their love for Me more and more. If I can very easily be approached by them, they might think, ‘KášášŁáša is so easily available.’ So sometimes I do not respond. If a person has no money but after some time accumulates some wealth and then loses it, he will think of the lost property twenty-four hours a day. Similarly, in order to increase the love of My devotees, sometimes I appear to be lost to them, and instead of forgetting Me, they feel their loving sentiments for Me increase. My dear friends, do not think for a moment that I have been dealing with you as I do with ordinary devotees. I know what you are. You have forsaken all kinds of social and religious obligations; you have given up all connection with your parents. Without caring for social convention and religious obligations, you have come to Me and loved Me, and I am so much obliged to you that I cannot treat you as ordinary devotees. Do not think that I was away from you. I was near to you. I was simply seeing how much you were anxious for Me in My absence. So please do not try to find fault with Me. Because you consider Me so dear to you, kindly excuse Me if I have done anything wrong. I cannot repay your continuous love for Me, even throughout the lifetimes of the demigods in the heavenly planets. It is impossible to repay you or show enough gratitude for your love; therefore please be satisfied by your own pious activities. You have displayed exemplary attraction for Me, overcoming the greatest difficulties arising from family connections. Please be satisfied with your highly exemplary character, for it is not possible for Me to repay My debt to you.”
The exemplary character of devotional service manifested by the devotees of VášndÄvana is the purest type of devotion. It is enjoined in authoritative ĹÄstras that devotional service must be ahaitukÄŤ and apratihatÄ. This means that devotional service to KášášŁáša cannot be checked by political or religious convention. The stage of devotional service is always transcendental. The gopÄŤs particularly showed pure devotional service toward KášášŁáša, so much so that KášášŁáša Himself remained indebted to them. Lord Caitanya thus said that the devotional service manifested by the gopÄŤs in VášndÄvana excelled all other methods of approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the thirty-second chapter of KášášŁáša, “KášášŁáša Returns to the GopÄŤs.”