Sharad’ means winter and ‘mahotsav’ is festival. Though this is the month of Phalgun, it was in Sharad on a full moon night that millennia ago in
Vrindavan a dance of love was performed by Krishna, a child of seven years and the gopis. This came to be known as ‘raas leela’.
Swami Vivekananda said that the raas leela is an external expression of divine leela which takes place in the heart of each and every individual, between the finite and the universal soul. Unless we have unflinching love and faith, Krishna and his life would always baffle us.
Take for instance Radha's love. So enchanted was Krishna with Radha's love, pure and divine, that He wished to experience it Himself. Radha told Krishna to incarnate so that she could infuse 'Radha bhava' in that incarnation. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is believed to be Krishna's incarnation with Radha Bhava.
Only those who become "mad" with love can understand the love of gopis who are the personification of unconditional love. Krishna's intellectual friend Uddhava asked Him: "Are all paths of spiritual advancement equally efficacious or is any one of them more important than the others?" Krishna answered: "All other paths by themselves cannot reach me without the help of supreme love or devotion. Knowledge alone is not enough. It cannot purify the mind and without purity of mind what results can one achieve?"
Sages who had done rigorous tapasya in their previous births reincarnated as gopis and were waiting to merge with their beloved God in this raas leela.
Krishna is the ideal lover, householder and sannyasin who, even while being detached, shows the world that true love is unconditional. When Radha and the gopis want to know why Krishna can't meet them just once, Uddhava says, "The Lord knows that distance will make you love Him with more intensity and that is the secret to reach Him, to remember Him constantly." Worldly people find it difficult to understand a love so pure that it wants nothing, expects nothing.
Krishna has revealed all aspects of love to us. Devotees are permitted to love Him in any which way. They think of Krishna constantly and the result is they get merged with Him. Uddhava meets the village girls and offers to take them to Mathura where Krishna resides. They refuse, saying: "Our Krishna is a cow herd, He plays the flute, he loves the cows, wears no slippers. Bring back our Krishna, Uddhava." When he offers to carry their messages they reply: "Messages are sent for one who is away but for one who is entrenched in our soul, what message can we send?" Uddhava says: "Close your eyes and meditate on Him in your heart." The gopis cry: "But Uddhava, how can we close our eyes? Look, there He is on the tree, on each leaf, now in the Yamuna, there grazing that cow, look around, Krishna is everywhere. Krishna is smiling at us, He is stealing our butter."
Radha then becomes Krishna and dances with the gopis and plays the flute. Like Krishna she teases them, hides behind trees and runs away. Till now Uddhava had meditated upon Krishna in his heart with closed eyes but now he sees Krishna everywhere. A transformation comes over Uddhava who cries on seeing the gopis and bows to them in reverence. No wonder Krishna's dance of love is unsurpassable and if one even witnesses
an enactment of it one might understand the true import of divine love.
Vrindavan a dance of love was performed by Krishna, a child of seven years and the gopis. This came to be known as ‘raas leela’.
Swami Vivekananda said that the raas leela is an external expression of divine leela which takes place in the heart of each and every individual, between the finite and the universal soul. Unless we have unflinching love and faith, Krishna and his life would always baffle us.
Take for instance Radha's love. So enchanted was Krishna with Radha's love, pure and divine, that He wished to experience it Himself. Radha told Krishna to incarnate so that she could infuse 'Radha bhava' in that incarnation. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is believed to be Krishna's incarnation with Radha Bhava.
Only those who become "mad" with love can understand the love of gopis who are the personification of unconditional love. Krishna's intellectual friend Uddhava asked Him: "Are all paths of spiritual advancement equally efficacious or is any one of them more important than the others?" Krishna answered: "All other paths by themselves cannot reach me without the help of supreme love or devotion. Knowledge alone is not enough. It cannot purify the mind and without purity of mind what results can one achieve?"
Sages who had done rigorous tapasya in their previous births reincarnated as gopis and were waiting to merge with their beloved God in this raas leela.
Krishna is the ideal lover, householder and sannyasin who, even while being detached, shows the world that true love is unconditional. When Radha and the gopis want to know why Krishna can't meet them just once, Uddhava says, "The Lord knows that distance will make you love Him with more intensity and that is the secret to reach Him, to remember Him constantly." Worldly people find it difficult to understand a love so pure that it wants nothing, expects nothing.
Krishna has revealed all aspects of love to us. Devotees are permitted to love Him in any which way. They think of Krishna constantly and the result is they get merged with Him. Uddhava meets the village girls and offers to take them to Mathura where Krishna resides. They refuse, saying: "Our Krishna is a cow herd, He plays the flute, he loves the cows, wears no slippers. Bring back our Krishna, Uddhava." When he offers to carry their messages they reply: "Messages are sent for one who is away but for one who is entrenched in our soul, what message can we send?" Uddhava says: "Close your eyes and meditate on Him in your heart." The gopis cry: "But Uddhava, how can we close our eyes? Look, there He is on the tree, on each leaf, now in the Yamuna, there grazing that cow, look around, Krishna is everywhere. Krishna is smiling at us, He is stealing our butter."
Radha then becomes Krishna and dances with the gopis and plays the flute. Like Krishna she teases them, hides behind trees and runs away. Till now Uddhava had meditated upon Krishna in his heart with closed eyes but now he sees Krishna everywhere. A transformation comes over Uddhava who cries on seeing the gopis and bows to them in reverence. No wonder Krishna's dance of love is unsurpassable and if one even witnesses
an enactment of it one might understand the true import of divine love.
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