Contents
Radha’s Prem -Swami Sivananda
Scene 1
Act 1
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Jnana Dev:—Yes, I will tell you. But it seems preposterous to me. I should attempt to explain this transcendental mystery to you. Who can presume to explain the Rasa Leela? What mortal mind can approach, even in its wildest flights of imagination, the divinity, the sublimity of Rasa Leela of the Lord? Words are of no avail. The tongue fails. The poor mind or the intellect cannot reach the heights of Truth. No one can really explain the Truth, this Mystery, to any one else. Nor can any one grasp this sublime Leela from another’s lips. Haven’t you read in the Gita: àscaryavata pasyati kascidenaü àscaryavadvadati tathaiva cànyaþ | One sees This (the Self) as a wonder; another speaks of It as a wonder; another hears of It as a wonder; yet, having heard, none understands It at all. God and His Leelas are not matters for discussion. They are for direct perception and realisation. Ah, the Bliss that you get out of this realisation, that itself is indescribable! Now, I was saying something about Radhika and the pat-Ranis. Next to these in importance comes the group of Gopis. The Gopis were the medium for the Lord to express the infinite variety of His Bliss aspect. They were, in their previous birth, the sages of Dandaka forest, who wanted to embrace Rama. As Rama had taken the vow of “Ekapatnee-vrata” in that Avatar, he could not accede to their request, but promised to fulfil their desire in His next Avatar as Krishna. The sages were born as Gopis in their next birth for eventual merging into the Lord. They had their husbands, their parents and sons, they had their worldly duties to perform, some of them arduous enough to require constant attention. But the Gopis’ mind was always fixed on the Lord. When the time came for the union with the Purusha of the Heart, when the signal music was heard, every Gopi shook off all the bonds and offered herself up completely to the Lord. Nothing in the world could stop them. This is the highest form of Bhakti. They present an ideal for us to keep always before us. How can their glory be described? |
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