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Vol II * AUGUST 2009 * Issue VIII

Meditation leads to Ultimate Flowering

Introducing various Masters & Dimensions of Spiritual Sojourn

TM

KRISHNA
RASA LILA
THE COSMIC DANCE OF ESCTASY

www.taoshobuddhameditations.com
 MEDITATION TIMES
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A PRODUCTION OF www.taoshobuddhameditations.com
Published by: www.taoshobuddhameditations.com
Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.
Chief Editor/Graphics Layout & Design: Swami Anand Neelambar
Editorial Team: Swami Anand Neelambar, Taoshobuddha
International Contributors: Hadhrat Maulawi Jalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi
Assistant Contributors: Ma Prem Sutra, Swami Dhyan Yatri, Sufi Lakshmi Sahai

For Queries, Comments, and Suggestions and to submit

In This Issue Contributions, you can email the following persons:

Taoshobuddha: taoshobuddha@gmail.com
¾ Editorial
Swami Anand Neelambar avatar411@gmail.com
¾ Rasa Lila
¾ Janmashtami
¾ Shiva Gopi Gita You can also visit
www.youtube.com\taoshobuddha01
¾ Gopi Rasa Gita
¾ Letters to the Editor www.scribd.com\taoshobuddha

¾ Krishna, the Eternal Mystery – Sri Chinmoy www.scribd.com\avatar411

¾ Glory of the Gita – Swami Sivananda
¾ Vipashyana Meditation – Taoshobuddha
¾ Whirling – a cosmic dance of oneness Also you can check the blog at
¾ Venu Gita http://bodhidharmameditation.blogspot.com/

¾ Taoshobuddha Responds http://www.taoshobuddhameditations.myeweb.net/

¾ Cooking – Taoshobuddha Way – Ma Prem Sutra
http://meditationtimes.myeweb.net/
¾ Krishna – the Mysterious Master
¾ Stealing the Clothes of Gopis
¾ The Divine Love-Play
In our Next Issue
¾ Poem – Swami Anand Neelambar
¾ Reflections on Life – Swami Anand Neelambar
TASSAWURE SHEIK
 MEDITATIONTIMES
PublishedbyTaoshobuddhaMeditations
Trinidad,Westindies
EDITORIAL
AsthismonthunfurlswecelebratethebirthofLord
Krishna with our main feature on the Rasa Lila
Dance.Alsoduringthismonthwecelebratethebirth
anniversary of Shri Aurobindo and the
Mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa – all
ofwhichfallonthesameday–15thAugust,whichis
alsotheIndependenceDayofIndia.

The RasaLilaisamostmisunderstoodaspectinthe
episode of Krishna. It holds the secrets of
transformation and enlightenment. Krishna is a
central figure in Bhakti or Devotion, but he also the
Lord of Vedanta – the highest philosophy of
Hinduism. Dance your way to God is an oft used
expression of many masters. And one particular
master, Rumi has made dance his technique of
transformation.
 ocean of the life of Krishna. He is not of this realm
Nataraja is totally symbolic of the cosmic play of
existence. If one can dissolve into dance one can
become enlightened that very instant. Dance is
movement, but inside his being, the dancer is
unmoving.
 “Krishna is utterly incomparable, he is so unique.
TheepisodeoftheportrayalofKrishnaoccursinthe
tenthcantooftheShrimadBhagavatam.Thisisvery
symbolic as the number nine represents
enlightenment and suggests that in order to
understand the hidden secrets of Krishna one must
gobeyondenlightenment.Thiswasthemainmission
of Osho – the take one beyond the realm of the
known into the dimensionless matrix of the further
shore.Allmasterspointtothisfurthershoreandare
themselves on this sojourn to the beyond. It is only
out of their infinite compassion that they sometimes
give a glimpse to us, the weary travellers on the
pathlesspath.
 vanquishedinthebattleoflife,likearenegadefrom
WeatMeditationTimesaretryingtomakeasmany
Masters and paths available to all types of seekers.

SwamiAnandNeelambar
Certainlyoureffortsaremeagrewhenoneconsiders
the infinite realms of the various Masters and the
innumerablepaths.

ThewhirlingdanceofRumiisalsomentionedinthis
issueasitisaparalleltoRasaLila.

Many more aspects of Krishna are likewise
introduced,butthesearemerelytohighlightthevast
and his realm is not in the scope of our normal
understanding.IdaresaythatitwasonlyOshowho
broughtKrishnatothedomainwherewecatchatiny
glimpseofthe‘blueboyofVrindavan’.

Firstly, his uniqueness lies in the fact that although
Krishna happened in the ancient past he belongs to
thefuture,isreallyofthefuture.Manhasyettogrow
to that height where he can be a contemporary of
Krishna’s.Heisstillbeyondman’sunderstanding;he
continues to puzzle and battle us. Only in some
future time will we be able to understand him and
appreciatehisvirtues.…Krishnaisthesolegreatman
inourwholehistorywhoreachedtheabsoluteheight
anddepthofreligion,andyetheisnotatallserious
and sad, not in tears. By and large, the chief
characteristicofareligiouspersonhasbeenthatheis
somber, serious and sadlooking – like one
life.InthelonglineofsuchsagesitisKrishnaalone
whocomesdancing,singingandlaughing.”Osho
raslIla
RasaLila

T
he Rasa lila (Rasa-lila) (raslIla) or Rasa
dance is part of the traditional story of
Krishna described in Hindu scriptures
the ‘Bhagavata Purana’ and literature
such as the ‘Gita Govinda,’ of JaiDeva
where he dances with Radha and her sakhis or
friend or milkmaids. Raslila is a famous art form
originating in Braj in Uttar Pradesh in north India.
This folk art has elements of classical music, dance
and drama.
The term, rasa comes from Sanskrit and implies
‘emotion’ or ‘performance’. It also implies ‘juice’,
‘nectar’, ‘emotion’ or ‘sweet taste’ and Lila is a
concept from Hinduism, which roughly translates
to ‘play (Lila) of the dance (rasa),’ or more broadly
as ‘Dance of Divine Love’. By taking this etymologic
breakdown of the word literally, ‘Rasa Lila’ means
the ‘sweet pastime’ (of Krishna). It is often freely
rendered as ‘the dance of love’. There are different
forms of Rasa or emotions and when translated
into dance movements these become expressions
or bhavas. These bhavas are important aspect of
any dance movement.
Rasa Lila is a popular form of folk theatre in the
regions of Mathura, Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh,
especially during the festivals of Krishna
Janmashtami and Holi, and amongst various
followers of Gaudiya, and Vaishnavism in the
region.
The rasa lila takes place one night when the gopis
of Vrindavan, upon hearing the sound of Krishna's
flute, sneak away from their households and
families to the forest to dance with Krishna
throughout the night. The night Krishna
supernaturally stretches to the length of one Night
of Brahma, a Hindu unit of time lasting
approximately 4.32 billion years. In the Krishna
Bhakti traditions, the Rasa-Lila is considered to be
one of the highest and most esoteric of Krishna's
pastimes. In these traditions, romantic love
between human beings in the material world is
seen as merely a diminished, illusionary reflection
of the soul’s original, ecstatic spiritual love for
Krishna, God, in the spiritual world.
This concept of Divine Love is not only
misunderstood instead ridiculed by baser minds
as well. Those who have not experienced love
beyond the biology can never understand why
Hindu mysticism or Bhakti movement propagated
this aspect of love. Apparently it has the same
intensity of emotions as experienced in ordinary
love yet still there is a vast difference. This aspect
transcends the finite beyond the boundaries of the
finiteness.
In the Bhagavata Purana it is stated that whoever
faithfully hears or describes the Rasa lila attains
Rasa Lila and Manipuri dance style
In the tradition of Vaishnavism of Manipur Rasa
Lila is depicted within classic Manipuri dance, and
revolves around the same story of the love
between Krishna and the cowherd girls and tells
the divine love story of Krishna, the bhagavan and
Radha, his divine beloved. This form of dance was
started by Bhagya Chandra in 1779 and in some
parts of India is still performed every year on
Krishna Janmashtami (the festival to celebrate
Krishna’s birthday). According to different
traditions, the rasa-lila is performed either by boys
and girls, or by boys only. The dance is performed
holding dandi (plural of danda) or sticks and is
often accompanied with folk songs and devotional
music. This form is very popular in Gujrat region of
India.
The Traditional Rasa Lila performances in
Vrindavan are famous throughout the Vaisnava
world as an experience of the spiritual world. Rasa
Lila performance was started by Swami Sri
Uddhavaghamanda Devacharya in the early 15th
Century at Vamshivata in Vrindavan, Mathura. He
was a prominent saint of the Nimbarka tradition,
and disciple of the world-renowned Swami Sri
Harivyasa Devacharya. The Vani literature of Vraja
is the transcription of the songs that were heard
by Swami Harivyasa Devacharya and his Guru,
Swami Shri Shribhatta as they meditated on the
Nitya Lila of Shri Radha Krishna. These songs
describe the eternal spiritual abode of Shri Radha
Krishna, the Sakhis and Nitya Vrindavana Dham -
or Nikunja Dham.
Krishna’s pure loving devotion (Suddha-bhakti or
pure devotion).
Just as a child plays at its own will with its
reflection in a mirror, so too with the help of His
Yogamaya Krishna sported with the Gopis, who
were like many shadows of His own form.
As many devotees of that time could not
understand the Vraja language, Swami
Uddavaghamanda Devacharya trained his
Brahmachari students to play the parts that
appeared in the songs in order to get a visual
representation of the Lila that was being
described. Many were sceptical of this, and
attempted to foil the first enactment. However, at
the conclusion of the first Rasa Lila, it is said, the
Lord Himself appeared and gave the actors his
own Crown, and decreed that whenever a qualified
actor was to take the part of the Lord, from the
moment he put on the crown on his head, it should
be understood that he represents the Lila potency
of God, and treated with due respect. Shri Radha
and Krishna shall be known as Shri Radha
Rasavihari.
Since then, the traditional form has remained with
actors who are young Brahmacharis. They will join
a group led by the Swami of that group. The music
remains the typical Dhrupada style of the Vraja
Acharyas who wrote the songs they heard to the
accompaniment of Sitar and Pakhawaj and the
songs are sung in Vraja Language, a forerunner to
modern Hindi.
In recent times, many have taken advantage of the
religious sentiments and have begun mixing this
ancient art, and for popularity changed the music
to popular day to day music and beats. Yet still
there are a number of dedicated few who seek to
preserve the traditional form of devotional art
known as Rasa Lila.
Raslila is associated with Radha and Krishna and
their divine love. It is a joyous circular dance of Sri
Krishna and his playmates. Today we have
villagers in India taking part in Raslila and
depicting various stories of Radha and Krishna
through dance, music and drama.
It also portrays Krishna’s association with the
milkmaids or gopis of the village. It shows how
Krishna casts a spell on the gopis who wanted him
to be their dance partner. Current form of Raslila
has a basic script which has to be followed, but it
has enough scope for improvisation as well.
Though the emphasis of Raslila is on ‘darshan’ or
the visual appeal, it is important to capture the
‘bhava’ or the sentiment. This is done through
music, dance and drama enacted by the actors.
The various ‘raasas’ or dramatic flavors like
friendship, conjugal love, parental love,
amazement, compassion, humour, chivalry, fury,
fear and dread are expressed through this
traditional folk form. Thus a variety and versatility
is provided to this dance form.
The range of the villagers who perform Rasalila is
quite vast. They perform legends that portray
different stages of Krishna’s youth. In some areas
of Uttar Pradesh Rasalila is performed only by
Brahmin boys in the age group of 13 to 14 years.
Even now, many roles of sakhis or mother of
Radha and Krishna are performed by men
disguised as women. Rasalila is also performed by
mobile troupes moving from village to village. A
traditional Rasalila usually lasts for three and a
half hours.
Rasalila in Mathura is of special significance and
forms an important part of the celebrations of
Janmasthami. It is important to know about
Rasalila, which is basically a musical drama, whose
storyline revolves around the different important
events from the childhood of Lord Krishna.
There are special mentions in the Bhagwat Purana
of Rasalila. The different pranks that Lord Krishna
used to play with the village girls, the gopis, form
the base of the Raaslila. Bhagwat Purana also
mentions how Lord Krishna used to perform raas
with the gopis on the banks of blue Yamuna River.
There is a belief that the gopis, after being
separated from Lord Krishna, used to recollect the
divine incidents from the life of Lord Krishna and
enact them. These performances later came to be
known as Raaslila. This is how the concept of
Raaslila gained in its importance.

There is not really so much difference between Knowledge (Jnana) and Love (Bhakti) as
people sometimes imagine. We shall see as we go on, that in the end they converge and
meet at the same point.….The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest, and
the most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; its great disadvantage is that
in its lower forms it often times degenerates into hideous fanaticism….This kind of love is
somewhat like the canine instinct of guarding the master’s property from intrusion; only,
the instinct of the dog is better than the reason of man, for the dog never mistakes its
master for an enemy in whatever dress he may come before it. Again, the fanatic loses all
power of judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of such absorbing interest that
to him it is no right or wrong; but the one thing he is always particularly careful to know
is, who says it.

Swami Vivekananda
 VARIOUS ASPECTS OF RASALILA
Sanjhee: This is the colourful art of decorating the
ground with flowers. The story goes that Sri
Krishna in order to please Radha, decorated the
floor with flowers one evening and thereafter this
art was known as Sanjhee.
Rasalila: According to the Bhagwat Purana, Sri
Krishna along with the gopis had danced the Raas
on the banks of the Yamuna at Vrindavan. When
the gopis felt conceited about Lord Krishna
dancing with them, he disappeared from their
midst. In the agony of separation from the beloved
Krishna, the gopis recalled and enacted his lilas
(divine episodes of his life) which in course of time
came to be known as the Rasalila.
Charkula: This is a traditional folk dance of Braj,
where a female dancer balances a column of
lighted lamps over her head while dancing. The
charkula, a tapered wooden column with four to
five circular tiers has earthen lamps on each level.
The number of lamps can range from 51 to 108 at
times.
The dancer with her face veiled, moves with swift,
graceful movements while balancing the 40 to 50
kilogram charkula on her head. A dramatic dance
that is visually attractive, it is performed on the
Dooj of Holi, to the accompaniment of Rasiya songs
rendered by the men folk.
Rasiya: This is the rich tradition of folk-songs that
is found in the Braj area. Rasiya songs describe the
love of the divine couple Radha and Sri Krishna. It
is an inseparable part of the Holi celebrations and
all other festive occasions at Braj. The Rasiya is
sung to the rhythm of huge drums, locally known
as bumb.

The Real Basis

There is only one explanation. And that is, there is one common Living Reality in all of us
which furnishes the common inner bond. Our philosophy calls it Atma. We love and serve one
another not because of the external relations, but because of the community of that Atma.

Yajnavalkya tells Maitreyi:

(O Maitrey! Man is not loved (by wife) because he is the husband, but because of the Atma in him) It is
in this sense, i.e,, the same spirit being immanent in all, that all men are equal. Equality is
applicable only on the plane of the Supreme Spirit. But on the physical plane the same Spirit
manifests itself in a wondrous variety of diversities and disparities.

According to our philosophy, the very projection of the Universe is due to a disturbance in the
equilibrium of its three attributes – sattva, rajas and tamas – and if there is a ‘gunasamya’, perfect
balance of the three attributes, then the Universe will dissolve back to the Unmanifest State.
Thus, disparity is an indivisible part of nature and we have to live with it. Our efforts should
be only to keep it in limits and take away the sting born out of it.

Sri Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar

 Janmashtami
‘Gokulashtami’ or ‘Krishna Jayanti’ or
‘Janmashtami’ marks the celebration of the birth of
Sri Krishna in the month of July-August. The entire
festival is celebrated with great fervor. All the
temples are decorated with devotees visiting the
temples. Quite often the décor of these temples is
worth admiring and beyond imagination.
Celebrations are held over two days. However the
celebration in temples continues for weeks. The
first day is Krishnashtami or Gokulashtami. The
second day is called Kalastami or more popularly
Janmashtami.
Krishna was born on Ashtami day or the eighth
day after Raksha Bandhan during the Hindu month
of SHRAVAN or rainy season. This falls in July –
August. As the story goes he was born in the dark
half of the month and at the darkest hour of
midnight. But the birth of Vishnu's incarnation was
to bring joy and give security to the suffering
humanity.
He is considered to be one of Lord Vishnu's most
glorious incarnations. He is popularly known as a
naughty child, an inspired cowherd, a destroyer of
demons, an enthralling flute-bearer and flute
player, a divine lover, and a clever diplomat - all
rolled in one.
He is also considered to be the Hindu God of Music
and is the patron god of Indian musicians. Krishna
is always shown with his flute or ‘Bansuri’.
Krishna is also known as Govinda, Gopala and
Kanhaiya.
Krishna is Lord Vishnu’s eighth avatar
(incarnation) on earth. The main object of this
incarnation of Vishnu as Krishna was to destroy
the cruel King Kansa of Mathura.
Kansa, the king of Mathura was a very cruel tyrant.
His tyranny spared no one, even the sages had to
bear the brunt of this. Finally the Gods could
tolerate no more and in a dream Kansa was told
that his evil reign would be brought to an end by
his sister Devaki’s son who would kill him. The
cowardly tyrant immediately threw his sister
Devaki and her husband Vasudev in prison so that
he could kill all the sons born to Devaki.
In captivity Devaki bore six sons, each of whom
were promptly killed by Kansa. The seventh
pregnancy was transferred mystically to Rohini
who was the first wife of Vasudev. Out of this
pregnancy Balram was born. Although it was
Rohini who bore the pregnancy however it was
Yashoda who brought up Balram as the elder
brother of Krishna. When Devaki gave birth to her
eighth child, the newly born baby changed himself
into the form of Vishnu and commanded Vasudev
to carry him to Nand gaon and place him besides
Yasodha. That night the prison guards fell into a
deep slumber and the doors were unlocked.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Vasudev
slipped out of the prison and whisked away the
God-child to the safety a neighboring kingdom
which was ruled by king Nanda. King Nanda’s
domain lay across the Yamuna River. At that time
the river Yamuna was high, but when Baby
Krishna’s feet touched the waters, the waters
parted making a channel for Vasudev to pass.
He was also asked to bring back the baby girl
whom Yashoda had delivered. Vasudev brought
back the baby girl. Seeing the baby girl, the
enraged King Kansa smashed her on the wall but
Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita
A major event in Krishna’s later life was that he
was the adviser to the Pandavas during the Great
Mahabharat War between the Pandavas and
Kauravas. He was Arjuna’s charioteer during the
battle..
His teachings to Arjuna during this epic war are
known as ‘Bhagwad Gita’ itself which means ‘the
song of the divine’. The Bhagwad Gita is written in
the form of a spiritual dialogue between Krishna
and Arjun. It has 700 verses and captures the
she escaped his hands and flew away to heaven
announcing –‘Beware, your killer is alive’.
At Gokul, under king Nanda’s protection, Krishna
got the loving affection of King Nanda's Queen
Yashoda whom Krishna looked upon as a mother.
Days passed with fun and frolic, while the child-
Krishna grew up. Krishna grew up happy in
Nandgaon amongst cowherds. His flute-playing
enthralled the young girls or ‘gopis’ who danced
around him. The cows gathered with his sweet
flute playing. But one day rumors reached Kansa
that Devaki’s son had somehow escaped his
clutches and was living in Gokul.
You will notice that the theme of ‘Krishna with his
Gopis’ is a favourite theme for painting among
many Rajasthani paintings.
Krishna was ideal in all his human relationships - a
darling son to his parents, an endearing friend, a
devoted disciple, a loving husband and a trusted
brother. There are many stories that tell about his
superhuman qualities and mystical achievements.
In spite of this Krishna never appeared distant to
any of his fellow human beings. In fact he was dear
to them than their own nearest kith and kin. The
shadow of his greatness never marred these bonds
of the heart. To the Hindu, he is the supreme
statesman, warrior, hero, philosopher,
psychologist, teacher and god himself.
essential teachings of the ‘Upanishads’ through 18
chapters.
No other scriptural text propounds various paths
of transformation in such a profound and yet such
a concise and easy manner for the common man to
understand and comprehend as the Bhagwad Gita.
The setting of the Gita is also wonderfully unique -
set in the Kurukshetra or battlefield representing
the eternal battlefield of the human soul.
 Janmashtami Celebrations
The state of Gujarat is the abode of Krishna. The
town of Dwarka comes alive, with major
celebrations and hordes of visitors. The temples of
Vrindavan witness an extravagant and colorful
celebration on this occasion. Celebrations are held
on a grand scale in all Krishna temples all over
India, especially the ones in Vrindavan, Mathura in
the state of Uttar Pradesh and in Dwaraka in the
state of Gujarat. Other regionally famous Krishna
temples also celebrate Janmashtami with pomp
and splendor. Celebrations are also held in many
Hindu Temples in the US. Like the Krishna
Janmashtmi Celebration at Barsana Dham and
Shree Rajeshwari Radha Rani Temple in Texas.
Many more Hindu Temples around the US
celebrate this festival.
On this auspicious day of Janmashtami the idol of
infant Krishna is bathed at midnight and is placed
in a cradle. It is then adorned with flowers,
jewellery and a small ‘mukut’ or crown. It is then
placed in a cradle. Everyone swings the cradle to
the tune of bhajans or songs of praise.
The atmosphere is filled with joy and jubilation as
everyone rejoices the birth of Vishnu’s incarnation
that has been born to give security to the suffering
Celebrations at homes
In the houses, mango leaves are tied to the
doorways to mark the auspicious occasion.
Colorful ‘Rangolis’ or designs are drawn on the
front yard. Inside the house, a small wooden
‘mandap’ is erected and decorated with flowers
and plantain leaves. An idol of a crawling baby
Krishna is placed in a silver cradle which is then
placed in the mandap. Krishna’s idol is decorated
with flowers and a crown and jewelry at times.
Most families keep a ‘vrat’or fast on this day. The
fast is done all day and then one meal is had during
the day. This is known as phalar, and consists of
humanity. Then ‘Naivedya’ is offered to god and
then distributed to all. This Naivedya or prasaad is
a mixture of puffed rice, milk, curds and sugar. In
addition, plenty of milk products especially butter,
which was Sri Krishna's favorite childhood food, is
given as offerings. A wide variety of fruits are also
offered to god.
Plenty of Indian sweets are made during this
festival. Among these are Laddus, Payasam or
Kheer, Shrikhand and so on.
Exactly at midnight, Krishna’s birth is announced
with ringing of bells and blowing of conch shells.
Many women observe fast for the whole day and
partake food only after Krishna’s birth. In temples
‘Bhajans’ - recitation of devotional songs and
‘Kirtans’ - religious discourses - start early in the
evening and continue till midnight - the hour of the
Lord’s birth. Singing and music continue
throughout the night. The following morning
‘NAND-MAHOTSAV’ is celebrated in praise and
gratitude to Nand, the ruler of the cowherds of
Nandgaon where Krishna grew up and lived in his
childhood.
fruit, mithai, curd, (kuttu) Singhare-ki-Puri. This
phalar is taken in the afternoon (around 2-3 p.m.)
along with tea and coffee. During this fast,
consumption of tea and coffee is not forbidden and
can be taken at any time of the day.
In the evening, the family members gather
together and sit down in the decorated room and
sing ‘bhajans’ or devotional songs in praise of
Krishna, like ‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare.’
 Om jaya jagadesha hare, Swami jaya jagadeesha hare
Bhakta janana ke sankata, Deva janana ke sankata
Kshana ][ mei dura kare,Om jaya jagadesha hare
Jo dhyawei phala pawei, Dukha veenashei manaka
Swami dukha veenashei manaka, Sukah sampati ghara awei
Sukah sampati ghara awei, Kasta mitei tana ka
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Mata pita tuma mere, Sharana gahoon kisakee

Swami sharana gahoon kisakee, Tuma binna aura nadooja
Tuma binna aura nadooja, Asha karoon jisakee
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Tuma poorana paramatma, Tuma antarayamee

Swami tuma antarayamee, Para Brahma parameshwara
Para Brahma parameshwara, Tuma sub ke swami
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Tuma karuna ke sagara, Tuma palana karata

Swami tuma palana karata, Mein sewaka tuma swami
Mein sewaka tuma swami, Kripa karo bharta
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Tuma ho ek agochara, Subake parana pati

Swami subake parana pati, Kisa bidhi miloon daya maya
Kisa bidhi miloon daya maya, Tumako mein kumati
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Deena bandhu dukha harta, Tuma rakshaka mere

Swami tuma rakshaka mere, Apaney haatha uthao
Apaney haatha uthao, Dwara para tere
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Vishaya vikaro mitao, Papa haro deva

Swami papa haro deva, Shradha bhakti barhao
Shradha bhakti barhao, Santana ke seva
Om jaya jagadesha hare

Jaya jagadesha hare, Prabu jaya jagadeesha hare

Bhakta janana ke sankata, Deva janana ke sankata
Kshana mei doora kare, Om jaya jagadesha hare
Om jaya jagadesha hare

The birth of Krishna is welcomed at midnight by the gentleman or the lady of the house by applying the
teeka and then doing puja to Krishna. Prasad and ‘charnamrit’ are then distributed to all present.
 Dahi handi
This most popular ceremony of Dahi-handi takes
place on the second day of celebrations. The
celebration of Krishna’s birth is also known as
‘Dahihandi’. An earthen pot or ‘matka’ or ‘handi’
filled with curds, milk, curds, butter, honey, fruits
and ‘jvari’ is tied from a high rope about 20 to 40
feet high. The rope also has prize money tied to it.
This prize money is distributed among those who
participate in the building the pyramid. It is a
spectacular sight to see.
Young men form a human pyramid to break the
pot. To do so they climb, constructing a human
pyramid by standing over each other's shoulders
till the pyramid is tall enough to enable the person
at the top to reach the pot and claim the contents
after breaking it.
A popular image of Krishna was and still
is......Krishna stealing dahi or butter from an
earthen pot. During his childhood, the naughty
and adventurous Lord Krishna along with his
mates used to raid the houses of his neighbors in
search of milk and butter; they too would build a
human pyramid and plunder the pots of milk and
butter. This ceremony replicates Krishna’s love for
milk and butter.
Once the pot is broken, the contents are eaten as
‘prasad’ amidst acclamations of ‘Govind’ which is
another name for Krishna.

Rasa Lila
As Krishna loved song and dance, one of the main beloved Krishna, the gopis recalled and enacted
celebrations during his lilas or divine
this festival is episodes of his life -
‘RASLILA’. which in course of
time came to be
According to the known as the
Bhagvat Purana, Rasalilas.
Krishna along with
the gopis had danced The Dandiya or
the Raas on the Garba dances of
banks of the Yamuna today originated
at Vrindavan. from that ‘Rasalila
in Vrajbhoomi’ on
When the gopis felt banks of river
conceited about Yamuna.
Krishna dancing
with them, he
disappeared from
their midst. In the agony of separation from their
 SHIVA GOPI GITA

T
he entire Bhakti movement is divided into
Shaivite and Vaishnavite. The two groups
belong to two dieties according to Hindu
Trinity. Hindu Triniy consists of Shiva – the
destroyer; Brahma – the creator; and Vishnu – the
preservator. These are three roles needed for life to
created, preserved and then destroyed. No one
bothers about the creator. As a result there is only
one known temple of Brahma. Vishnu is reserves.
This too is not so significant. No one, after being
created, really bothers the preservation. Yet still
Vishnu is worshipped in different forms not
directly. The role of preservation is done in
different forms and incarnations as Rama, Krishna,
and others. This also explains the process of
evolution. Lastly is Shiva – the destroyer – the
death. Everyone is afraid of death.
Out of this understanding bhakti eveolved around
these two aspects of the trinity: Vishnu and Shiva.
Out of Shiva evoled the tradition of Shiva worship.
The devotees are called Shaivites. While the
followers of Vishnu are called Vaishnavites. At the
plane of consciousness of these there is no
difference between these two deties. Each is
assigned a role to perform for the sustenance of
creation. Everything has to move in harmony so
that balance is maintained. If the things are created
and preserved but not destroyed this will create an
imbalance. But the difference is very easily evident
among the devotees and organizations. This
difference is not new instead it is continuing from
the time of creation when the movement came into
existence
The entire bhakti movement is divided amidst
these two factions. During the times there is
episode of Narhari Sunar (the gold smith) who was
shaivite and had taken the vow not to see any other
image of God except Shiva. And as part of the
business one day a business man who was blessed
with a son decided to pay his gratitude by offering
a gold waistband to the statue of Krishna as he was
the follower of Krishna – a vaishanavite. A strange
situation arouse.
As was requested the item was made but it was
two finger width short. It was corrected but made
the item two finger width bigger. In spite of efforts
it could not be corrected. Now the reputation of the
goldsmit was at stake. So he decided to take the
measurement himself on one condition. His
condition was that he will go for the measurement
with his eyes closed with a bandage on the eyes.
As his fingers mover along the statue he felt the
hair lock and all the embelems of Shiva. He knew
that he came to take the measurement of Krishna.
This baffled him. So as he removed the bandage for
confirmation of his feelings he found the Krishna
statue in front of him. Hurriedly he closed the eyes
and the same thing happened once again. This
happened in southern part of India in Pandarpur.
There is a statue of Krishna with Shiva emblems as
well. There Krishna is worshipped as Bhagwan
Viththal.
Now Shiva Gopi Gita. One day it happened it was
winter season. The rasa was in progress in nidhi
vana. Shiva decided to visit the rasa in nidhi vana.
So he descended from the place of his abode at
Kailas and came to the nidhi vana. As he was about
to enter the area Lalita stopped Shiva saying that he
cannot enter the area as this ismeant only for gopis
and no male is allowed. But Shiva expressed his
deep desire to see the rasa and be part of rasa lila.
At this Lalita suggested there is only one way for
him to enter for rasa lila if he decides to have the
make up as a gopi and enters the area as a gopi.
Shiva so much wanted to take part in rasa lila that
he agreed to any condition put forward by Lalita.
Accordingly Shiva was dressed up like a gopi and
Shiva was male dressed as a female. Krishna
noticed this strange gopi now entering the rasa. The
rasa continued. All of a sudden Krishna decided
that he would like to see the face of each Gopi
saying that the gopis had been dancing for so long
with drapes.
It was decided that all the gopis will stand in a que
and one by one he will look at the face of each gopi.
This way the privacy will remain and he will be
able to recognize each gopi. Gopis gathered in large
number for rasa. Shiva stood at the other end and
was confident that his turn may not come at all as
the number of gopis was quite large in rasa. When
Krishna saw that Shiva was standing at the other
end. Suddenly he decided to start seeing the face
from the side of the que where Shiva was standing.
Shiva did not want Krishna to know that he came
to the rasa. But Krishna was mischievous.

Shiva found himself in a fix so he ran from the

place where he was standing to the other end of the
que. Seeing this Krishna decided to look at the face
of this gopi that was running wild from place to
place.

Shiva was caught and as Krishna raised the drape

Lalita put the make up, the anklet, dancing bells,
bangles, waist band, nose ring, ear rings, eye lash,
and the bindi. With all the decoration and make-up
Shiva now enters the rasa amidst the sound of
dancing bells with face covered with a drape..
Unlike other Gopis Shiva had a different bodily
structure. Definitely it bound to look different as
Krishna exclaimed, ‘Gopishwer aap ki jai ho’ – hail
to you o Gopishwer. It was the two elements of
Shaivism and Vaishnavism coming togather.
In Vrandavana there is one temple of Shiva where
he is dressed as gopi and on Mondays special
make-up is done.

Hanuman represents the sojourn from mortal consciousness into divine awakening. The Hanuman Chalisa is indeed a
mystical treatise on the evolution from mind into no-mind. Hanuman Chalisa shows the way of transformation from ego-
centricity to becoming a nimitta – an instrument of divinity…. In the mystical dimension Hanuman is sometimes used to
represent a seeker on the spiritual sojourn and at other times to represent the guru – enlightened master. This is very
symbolic as at the final state of dissolution, the seeker is the master and the master is the seeker.

Swami Anand Neelambar – Hanuman Chalisa – A Mystical Dimension

 GOPI RASA GITA
W
henever we seek to enter the esoteric
dimension of any aspect of mythology or
religion or tradition it is referred to as
mysticism. To explain this aspect it is called ‘Gita’.
Therefore in order to bring this understanding I
have to explore this as ‘Gopi Rasa Gita’ and bring a
deeper understanding of the entire aspect of Rasa
Lila, an act where Sri Krishna danced on the banks
of the river Yamuna in the full moon night along
with Sri Radhika Rani and other Gopis.
Gopi-gita is part of Rasa Panch Adhyaya. There are
five chapters in Srimad Bhagwatam that relate to
Rasa- Lila. Remember ‘Five’ is a mystical number
with great meaning hidden within its womb.
Human body has five kinds of life-airs or prana-vayu
(Pancha - Prana) residing in the heart, and among
these five, one is the most vital. The twelve cantos of
Srimad Bhagwatam are connected to twelve parts of
a body.
The Tenth Canto is the heart of that body. Within
that heart, these five chapters explain Rasa Lila
signifying the five life-elements of man’s eternal
existence. Among these, Gopi-Gita is the foremost.
This is the heart.
Before I take you through Gopi-gita it is significant
to remember the chapter in Srimad Bhagwatam that
describes the episode of gopis’ worship of the
goddess Katyayani Devi to attain Krishna as their
husband. The first verse of this chapter states:
hemante prathame masi
nanda-vraja-kamarikau
cerur havinyaa bhuijanau
katyayani-archana-vratam
Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.22.1)
Sukdeva said, ‘During the first month of the winter
season, the young, unmarried girls of Gokula
observed the vow of worshipping goddess
Katyayani. For the entire month they ate only
unspiced khichri or combination of rice and daal
cooked together.’
The gopis who observed the vow to worship
Katyayani were young and unmarried. What, then,
was Krishna’s age at this time? Krishna had left
Gokula when he was only three and a half years old.
He was seven years old when He lifted the
mountain, Govardhana, on the little finger of His left
hand.
What is this Girraj Mountain? Before I proceed let
me explain the katha of Sri Girraj Mountain. Once it
happened that Sri Narayan was visiting the earthly
realm or goloak. He went on Drona Mountain. A
yajna was in progress there. Krishna visited a gopi
named Girija. This was followed by Sri Radha Rani
who was following Narayana. However she was not
allowed as a gopa named Sudam stopped Sri Radha
Rani from entering the Yajna shala. At this Sri Radha
Rani got angry and cursed him to be born in raksha
clan. The gopa was born as demon Sakhyasur as a
result of this curse.
Not only that the gopa also cursed Sri Radha Rani to
be separated from Thakur ji for 100 years. When
Krishna met Sri Radha Rani and he came to know of
the curse he said they have to go through this curse
for 100 years. At this Sri Radha Rani said, ‘She
would like to dwell in goloak, where there is sacred
bank of Sri Yamuna ji and also there is the Girraj
Mountain.’
At this Sri Krishna caste a glance at Drona Mountain
and Girraj Mountain was born as the son of Drona.
This Girraj Mountain is another form of Sri Krishna.
The mountain is very beautiful. And Drone
Mountain loved Girraj Mountain.
Later on once sage Pulasya visited the Drona
Mountain. He fell in love with this mountain and
expressed desire to take the Girraj Mountain to
Kashi. The father mountain was not ready for this.
Yet still knowing the anger of the sage Drona agreed
to allow the sage to take the Girraj Mountain if he
agrees. So when sage enquired Girraj Mountain
agreed to accompany him only on one condition.
The condition was, if for any reason the sage put the
mountain down it will get established there and will
not move from there.
Sage Pulasya carried the Girraj Mountain. On
reaching Goloak dham Girraj became very happy. It
was déjà vu. He wanted to settle there. So Girraj
increased its weight. With this the sage felt tired and
decided to take a rest. As a result the sage rest Girraj
at one place. After taking the rest when the sage got
set to start the journey again he could not lift Girraj
Mountain as it had already established there. This
enraged the sage. At this Girraj Mountain reminded
the sage of his condition? The sage had no choice
but to leave the mountain there still he cursed Girraj
that you will continue to get smaller in size. That
gopi Girija assumed the form as Sri Yamuna ji.
Girraj Mountain therefore is another form of
Krishna.
This is the story of Girraj Mountain. After Krishna
lifted Girirja, all the elders and their priests
gathered together and told Nanda Baba, ‘You should
not treat Krishna as if He were your son alone. He is
actually not your son. He may be a demigod, or
perhaps He is God, or someone like God. We have
heard that Narayana Himself has come in the form
of Krishna, and perhaps it is true. So you should not
treat Him like an ordinary boy. Do not bind His
hands, and do not chastise or punish Him. He is only
seven years old, and yet He lifted a mountain like
Govardhana or Girraj. How is that possible? This is
indeed mysterious.’
Hearing this Nanda Baba laughed. ‘I have heard that
gopas only become mature and intelligent at the age
of eighty. They cannot properly decide anything
before then, because their minds are not fixed.
Krishna is just an ordinary boy.
God has far more good qualities than even the
perfected saints. Such saints do not become angry,
and they are not disturbed by hunger, thirst, or any
other material distress. They do not steal or tell lies.
Krishna tells lies. He weeps and becomes angry. He
plays tricks on people, and He is naughty in so many
other ways. He sometimes cries for butter and sugar
candy. If He does not get what He wants, He
becomes furious and hurls all the items in our home
onto the ground, and then scatters them here and
there.
‘This is a proof in itself that He is not God. In any
case, even if you would insist that He is God, He is
still my son, so I will admonish and punish Him and
treat Him as a father should treat his child.’
Nanda Baba continued to laugh at the very idea that
Krishna is God. Same time Yogamaya appeared, and
by her mere presence and influence, everyone
present there forgot the idea. This incident took
place during the month of Kartika, when Krishna
was seven years old, and it was just after Kartika
that the gopis worshiped Katyayani.
There were two groups of gopis: those who were
married and those who were not. Although it was
the unmarried gopis who worshiped Katyayani, the
married gopis like Lalita, and Radhika also had
purva-raga (the gopis’ tender love for Krishna
before their first intimate meeting with Him). This is
because, although they had met with Him so many
times, they always felt the excited anticipation of
the first meeting.
The unmarried gopis were somewhat younger than
the married ones. Radhika is thirteen and a half
years old, and Krishna is fourteen. Lalita is twenty-
seven days older than Radhika, and Vishakha was
born on the same day as Radhika. Rupa Maijari and
Rati Maijari are a little over twelve years, so they
are about one and a half years younger than
Krishna. This means that when Krishna was seven
years old, the gopis who were engaged in the
worship of Katyayani Devi were about six; but they
already had love and affection for Him. Their love
for Krishna for was not kama or amorous love,
because kama is not possible at such a tender age.
They loved Him dearly, but there was no feeling of
kama. Krishna told those gopis engaged in worship,
‘Next year, during the autumn season, I will fulfill
your desires.’ Then, a year later, when Krishna was
about eight years old, He played His flute to call the
gopis for rasa dance.
It is said that He was in Vrandavana until He was
ten years old, and within that time He performed
Rasa Lila as well as all His Vrindavana pastimes,
including the killing of the demon.
In other words, He appeared to be fourteen years
old when He was actually only ten, and the gopis
also appeared to be older than they were actually. It
is said that they grew up very quickly and looked
big because they used to eat plenty butter and sugar
candy. In actual fact, the reason they appeared to be
teenagers is because of the influence of Yogamaya.
In their previous births, some of the young
unmarried gopis had been personified Vedic
scriptures called srutis. Some had been sages; while
others had been princesses from Janaka-puri, and
some, daughters of the demigods (deva-kanya).
Among the gopis, some had the association of the
nitya-siddha gopis, and they also had purvaraga.
These gopis easily entered the rasa-lila, whether
they were married or not. On the other hand, the
married gopis who had purva-raga but did not have
the association of nitya-siddha gopis were stopped
from entering rasa-lila. The gopis mentioned in the
above verse from Srimad- Bhagavatam (10.22.1) had
association with the nitya-siddha gopis. We know
this because at the end of the month they invited
Radhika, Lalita, Chitra, and all other such gopis to
join them in their worship. This means that they had
the association of those gopis, and consequently
they could easily enter the rasa nritya.
This is confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The
nitya-siddha gopis and those who had their
association entered the rasa-lila without difficulty,
whereas the married gopis with sons or daughters
were checked by Yogamaya. They could not go, even
though they had purva-raga. It appeared that it was
their husbands who had obstructed them, but
actually it was Yogamaya who did so. She had
entered the minds of their husbands, fathers,
mothers, and other relatives influencing them to
prevent the gopis from going.
If Yogamaya had wanted them to join the rasa-lila,
she would have made duplicate forms of those
gopis. In this way the real gopis would have been
able to leave their homes unnoticed and enter rasa-
lila. However, Yogamaya could not help these gopis,
because they had some traces of a consciousness
that was not favorable for fully developed parakiya-
bhava (paramour love in relationship to Krishna).
They still had the conception: ‘This is my husband,
and these are my children.’ Their affection was not
solely for Krishna but was shared with many others.
Devotional process of rasa Lila
We are now beginning the devotional process. If our
eternal spiritual form is that of a gopi, we will
develop an increasing taste to serve as a gopi. We
will gradually be able to perform sadhana and in
this way we will develop a yearning to be like the
gopis.
One year after Krishna made his promise to the
gopis, on the full-moon night in autumn He looked
at the moon and began to play His flute. He
remembered, ‘Our forefather, the moon, has a
beloved other than his wife, Rohini. His beloved is
Purva-disha, the eastern horizon.’
Vyasa described this scene as follows:
Krishna was thinking, ‘The hands of our forefather,
the moon, are smeared with kuakum. Those hands,
his rays, are decorating the face of his beloved
Purva-disha without any difficulty, and she is shyly
accepting that reddish ornamentation. Why should I
not do the same?’
In other words, the reddish rays of the moon
radiated throughout the forest, bathing the trees
and the rivers, and everything in it in a red light. In
that ambrosial atmosphere, thoughts of the gopis
came to Krishna’s mind, and He remembered His
promise to fulfill their inner quest. He pondered, ‘By
diffusing the reddish hue of his gentle rays and by
glowing with the effulgence of newly applied
vermilion, Chandra (the moon) has reminded Me of
My promise and has placed within My heart the
inspiration to fulfill it. This is the perfect moment
for Me to do so.’
Then, on that full moon night of the sharad
(autumn) season, Krishna played a beautiful melody
on His flute and the gopis came running to Him. But
when they arrived, He told them to return to Braja.
‘A lady should serve her husband,’ He said,
‘regardless of his qualities. Her husband may be
poor or plagued with diseases, but she should serve
him under all circumstances.’
At first the gopis did not say anything in reply, but
within their minds and hearts they questioned,
‘Does He really mean it or is He joking with us?’
They observed Him closely as He tried to cleverly
hide His real intention. It seemed that He was
honestly expressing Himself in a straightforward
manner, but in fact, He was not.
Finally the gopis said, ‘You are our guru and, as
such, You are giving us so many instructions. We
know that even in the presence of God, a person
should serve his guru first, so let us first serve You,
our guru, before we return to serve our husbands.’
In Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says:
ye yatha maa prapadyante,
taas tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante,
manunyau partha sarvashau!!
Bhagavad-gita (4.11)
I reward everyone according to their surrender
unto Me. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O
son of Patha.
Sri Krishna was instructing the gopis and also
telling them, ‘I am God. I am telling you what to do,
so you should obey Me’.
The gopis replied, ‘We agree that if You are God we
should certainly obey You, but our first duty is to
serve our guru. When we have executed that order,
we will obey Your instructions to serve our
husbands.
‘Our second consideration is this. We know that God
is our father, God is our real husband, and God is
everything; so if You are God, then You are both our
husband and our guru. In every way, if You do not
accept our service You will be guilty of acting
against the principles of religion. You are giving us
instructions on religious principles, but You should
practice this Yourself.’
At last, after all these the rasa began. Krishna
danced with Sri Radhika Rani in the center of the
circle of gopis, and at the same time He danced with
each of the gopis comprising the circle. It is not that
He expanded into as many manifestations of
Himself as there were gopis, because in Vrandavana,
pastimes there is no evidence of opulence
(aishvarya-lila).
Rather, He danced so quickly, like a firebrand
orbiting in a circle, that it simply looked as if He
were constantly and simultaneously dancing with
each and every gopi. If He had expanded into many
manifestations of Himself, this pastime would have
been aishvarya-lila. Instead, He was engaged in
human-like pastimes (nara-lila).
Many people have commented that Krishna
manifested His kaya-vyuha (direct expansions of His
personal form) when He was dancing in the rasa-
lila, however this is not so. There are those who
think that Krishna expanded his form to perform, in
fact it is not so. In reality only Krishna’s svayaa-rupa
(original form) performed this transcendental
pastime.
Krishna moved like a lightning flash from gopi to
gopi, dancing with each one in turn. Sri Radhika saw
that Krishna was dancing with Her. Then, as She
cast Her gaze over all the other gopis, She saw that
Krishna was dancing with each of them as well. Each
gopi thought,
‘Krishna is dancing only with me.’ Sri Radhika alone
could see Him with each and every gopi. When She
looked beside Her, She saw that He was there with
Her, but when She looked toward the other gopis,
She saw Him dancing with them.
Krishna’s performance of rasa-lila in this way does
not manifest aishvarya form by bringing forth
expansions of His form. Instead it was WHIRLING
from gopi to gopi at a lightning speed. This was
indeed miraculous. Moreover, He performed many
varieties of activities with the gopis as they danced
together. He asked one gopi if she were fatigued, He
gently wiped drops of perspiration from the face of
another, and He fastened ankle-bells on another.
With each and every gopi He had various
interactions, and thus each gopi became maddened
in their love for Him. All these acts were performed
while he was dancing with Gopis. Rasa Lila involved
a lightning speed with which Sri Krishana moved
from gopi to gopi, performed various acts as part of
the rasa and yet still he was with Sri Radhika Rani.
The gopis’ madness that had intoxicated them by
their own good fortune, is called saubhagya-mada.
In this regard Srimad-Bhagavatam states:
tasaa tat-saubhaga-madaa
veknya manaa ca keshavau
Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.29.48)
Then Keshava saw that the gopis were madly
intoxicated due to their good fortune, and He also
saw Sri Radhika’s mana, Her mood of lovingness yet
jealous anger.
The gopis as an entire group exhibited both
saubhagya-mada and mana, while mana was only
exhibited by Sri Radhika Rani. Only She could see
Krishna dancing with the other gopis. The other
gopis did not see this, and thus they were
intoxicated by their good fortune (saubhagya-mada)
in which they saw Krishna dancing with them alone.
When a hero (nayik) is controlled by a heroine
(nayika), the heroine thinks herself to be the most
fortunate beloved. This fortune is called saubhaga
and, as it evolves, it brings her to the state of
saubhagya-mada. Generally ‘mada’ means
intoxication through drinking, but saubhagya-mada
means intoxication from the feeling of good fortune,
‘In all of Braja, there is no one equal to me in good
fortune.’
In this state, the gopis became so proud that if they
had been aware of Krishna’s dancing with other
gopis, they would have developed mana. Then, in
that angry and sulky mood, they would have been
completely unable to continue participating in rasa-
lila with the other gopis. Instead, each gopi was
convinced that she had Krishna fully under her
control, that He was captivated and controlled by
her and obedient to her every command. Gopis were
overwhelmed because of this saubhagya mada
while Sri Radhika Rani exhibited the mana and its
various bhavas.
Krishna understood what was happening, and
considered, ‘I have decided to sport with all the
gopis and fulfill all their most cherished desires, but
there is no hope of that happening unless they
change their bhava. In some way their pride must be
removed.’
He then saw that Radhika was no longer there in
rasa-lila. In Her mana, She had abruptly left that
place and was going elsewhere. Such is the situation
with human mind. With this Krishna also
disappeared, and all of the gopis began their search
for Him. It is said that Krishna became invisible,
whereas in reality He did not. Rather, He went to a
nearby kuija and hid there. Thus continues the Gopi
Gita as part of Rasa Lila.
 Letters to the editor
Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim,

Nahmaduhu Wa Nusolli 'Ala Rasulihil Karim,

Wa Ba'du,

Assalamu'alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Alhamdulillah, the MEDITATION TIMES gives to the audiences an extra knowledge and
understanding about different paths to reach the divine destination.

Special thanks to Hadhrat Sufi Taoshobudhha for reviving the spiritual elements in modern
age for discovering the various paths to reach the truth. May Allah’s blessing be upon those
who strive to love him and are striving to bring the people towards him, especially to
Hadhrat Sufi Taoshobudhha for what he has done for the sake of Allah.

Either by following a guru or without a guru is not so important because a guru is just a
medium for a person to reach the knowledge of the unlimited. The true source of knowledge
and understanding only comes from Allah, nothing else. If one knows Allah really well and
can learn from the manifestations of his names, attributes, qualities and actions, so one may
not need to have a guru anymore, Allah will be his greatest guru. But for those who can't
even understand about his creator's names, qualities, attributes and actions, how could he
understand his essence? These kinds of people are compulsory to have a guru to guide them
physically and spiritually to reach the divine. Otherwise their journey will be impossible at
all. He will move like a blind man in a dark night. Still if one needs a guru, Allah is the best
guru.

May Allah bless us, Amin.

Wabillahi taufiq wal hidayah,

wallahu a'lam wa 'ilmuhu atam.

Regards,
Faqir Mawlawi Jalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi
'Ufiyallahu 'Anhu

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 Krishna, the Eternal Mystery
ExtractedfromadiscoursefromSriChinmoy
SriKrishnawasateacherfromtheverybeginningofhis
life. Even before he entered into the physical world he
acted as a teacher. Before he entered into his mothers
womb,hecametohisfatherwhohadbeenimprisoned
bythekingandsaid,Iamnowgoingtoenterintothe
physicalworld.AssoonasIamborn,youwilltakeme
out of this prisoncell and take me to Nanda (one of
hisrelatives).HisfathersawSriKrishnavividlybefore
he came into the world of manifestation, and to
everybodyssurprise,allofasuddenallthedoorsand
gatesoftheprisonwerewideopen,andhisfathertook
himtoNandasplace.Herehestartedhisteaching.
Before he came into the world, a similar incident
occurred to the mother of the Lord Buddha. Also
Christianity practically says the same, that Jesus
enteredintohismotherswombconsciously.
To come back to Sri Krishna, while he was just a child
heopenedhismouthandshowedhismotherthewhole
universe.Hewasteachinghismotherthattheuniverse
isnowhereelsebutinsidehim.
Then, when he was eleven years old, one day he
observed that his parents and his relatives and
neighbours were all performing ceremonies in honour
oftheLordIndra,IndratherainGod,KingoftheGods.
SriKrishnasaid,WhyareyouworshippingIndra?Itis
better to worship this hill. Why dont you worship this
Giri Govardhan? Our cattle are being fed by this hill,
andeveryoneisbeinghelpedinonewayoranotherby
this hill. We should worship the hill and not Indra.
Indraisnothelpingusinanyway.Ifyouwanttoknow
the truth, then you worship this hill.? They listened to
him on that occasion. They worshipped not Indra but
the hill, and Indra became furious. He inundated the
whole place with water. There was a constant
downpourwhichlastedsevendays.ButSriKrishnawas
nottoacceptdefeat.Withoneofhisfingersheliftedthe
whole hill, and the hill served the purpose of an
umbrella. The entire vicinity was under the protection
ofthehill,anditisstillthere.ItissaidthatSriKrishna
held it for seven days and then Lord Indra felt that it
wasuseless.SriKrishnaprotectedhiswholeraceandall
hisrelatives.ThenLordIndraacceptedhisdefeat.
Krishnawasacowherdandhehadmany,manyfriends.
He was a very great flutist. The boys and girls,
especiallythegirls,usedto
cometolistentohismusic.
But the love he had for
them was always of the
purest. He had many so
called girlfriends. We
immediately associate this
term with the wrong
emotion, but in Sri
SriChinmoy Krishnas case, his
relationshipwasabsolutely
pure. Among these girls, there was one called Radha.
Radha finally became his consort and his shakti, and it
was she who understood fully who Sri Krishna was.
There Sri Krishna was expressing his Divine Love to
humanbeings.Itwasdelightthathewantedtoexpress,
pure delight, to this physical world. But criticism was
existent in those days too. People started criticising Sri
Krishna openly because of his fondness for Radha.
Radha became very close to him. One day, Radha, in a
sulking mood, said to him,Look,you aresopureand
so divine and I come here to listen to your music and
youtellmeeternal,divinetruths.Howisitthatpeople
create such gossip, especially my girlfriends? Just
because you give special attention to me they criticise
us.? Sri Krishna gave her a broad smile and said, All
right.SoonedaySriKrishnainvitedallhisgirlfriends
and told them,TodayI wishto have aspecialgame.I
knowallofyouarepureandallofyouarechaste.Most
of you have husbands. Then Sri Krishna took a sieve
and a bucket of water. He told them each to pour the
water into the sieve, and if the water did not leak
through,itmeantthatthatparticulargirlwaspureand
chaste. They started, one by one, to pour water, and of
coursewiththefirstonethewaterleakedthrough.They
allwerelaughingandsayingthatshewasnotchasteor
pure, and she buried her head in the fold of her arm.
Then the next girl came and the same thing happened,
andonandonwitheachgirl.
Radhawasobservingthescene.SriKrishnasaidtoher, name,fameandduties.ButinRadhascase,Iamalways
Radha, why are inhermind.Radhaisamarriedwoman,Radhahasher
you silent, why own husband, but no matter where she goes and with
dont you try? whom she speaks, her mind is always on Me. I am the
She said, They Lord of the Universe, and whoever thinks of Me is the
are always purestonearth.Thosewhothinkofotherthingsarenot
criticisingme,and pure.
if I try I will
probably join Whenhegrewupinthesocietyveryoftenhewishedto
them in their give most illumining counsel. Everybody came to him
failure. Sri for guidance, and he was their chief counsellor. When
Krishna said, thePandavasbecamehismostintimatefriends,heused
Why dont you to advise them all the time in their difficulties; in all
comeandtry,itis their sorrows and joys Sri Krishna was there to advise
a game after all. them.ThenhecametothebattlefieldtohelpArjuna.We
Soshecameandpouredthewater,bucketafterbucket, already know from the Gita how he advised Arjuna to
butthesievedidnotleak.Theywereallastonishedand fight, and he taught Arjuna all about the inner life, the
Sri Krishna said, Look here, now you can see who is spiritual life, inner perfection and outer perfection,
chaste,whoispure.NowIamteachingyoutheeternal realisation and revelation. Sri Krishna said, Whenever
truth.IamtheLordoftheUniverse.RadhacomestoMe thereisdeclineofrighteousness,andunrighteousnessis
forspiritualhelpandEternalTruth,andMyloveforher intheascendent,thenIbodyMyselfforthtoprotectthe
andallofyouisspiritualanddivine.Someofyouhave virtuous and put an end to evildoers; to establish
husbands, but your minds still roam elsewhere. You Dharma,Iambornfromagetoage.Thisisoneofthe
care for other men and you give much attention to mostimportantversesintheGita.

GLORY OF THE GITA

Swami Sivananda
The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Lord Krishna and half of the Margasirsha month according to Hindu almanac. It
Arjuna, narrated in the Bhishma-Parva of Mahabharata. It was the day on which this scripture was revealed to the world
comprisres eighteen chapters of a total of 700 Sanskrit Verses. by Sanjaya.
Considerable matter has been condensed and compressed
within these verses. On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Lord In the whole world-literature there
Krishna, during the discourse of His most interesting and is no book so elevating and so
instructive talk with Arjuna, revealed the profound, sublime inspiring as the Gita. The Gita
and soul-stirring spiritual truths and expounded to him rare expounds very lucidly the cardinal
secrets of Yoga, Vedanta, Bhakti and Karma. All the principles or the fundamentals of
teachings of Lord Krishna were subsequently recorded as the Hindu religion and the Hindu
Song Celestial or the Bhagavad Gita by Sri Bhagavan Vyasa Dharma. It is the source of all
for the benefit of humanity at large. The world is under a great wisdom. It is your great guide. It is
debt of gratitude to Sri Vyasa who has presented this Celestial your supreme teacher. It is an
Song to humanity for their daily conduct in life, spiritual inexhaustible spiritual treasure. It is
uplift and Self-realisation. Only those who are self-controlled a fountain of Bliss. It is an ocean of
and are endowed with faith can reap the full benefit of the Knowledge. It is full of Divine
Gita, which is the Science of the Soul. splendour and grandeur.
SwamiSivananda
The Gita Jayanti day or the birthday of the Bhagavd Gita is The Gita is the cream of the Vedas.
celebrated throughout India by all the admirers and lovers of It is the essence of all Upanishads. It is the universal scripture
this unique book on the 11th day (Ekadasi) of the brightest
for all people of all temperaments and for all times. It is a
wonderful book with sublime thoughts and practical
instructions on Yoga, Devotion, Vedanta and Action. It is a
marvellous book, profound in throughts and sublime in
heights of vision. It gives peace and solace to the souls who
are afflicted by the three fires (Taapa Traya) of this mortal
world (Samsara), viz., Adhyatmika (afflictions caused by
one’s own body), Adhibhautika (those caused by beings
around one), and Adhidaivika (those caused by the demi-gods
or forces of nature).
The Bhagavad Gita contains the divine nectar. It is the
Chintamani, Kalpataru and Kamadhenu (wish-fulfilling gem,
tree and cow respectively). You can milk out anything from it.
It is a book of eternity. It is not a catch-penny book which has
a life like that of a mushroom. The Gita has been my constant
companion of life. It is a vade mecum for all. Peace, Bliss,
Ananda, Happiness, Wisdom, Atman, Brahman, Purusha,
Dhama, Nirvana, Param Padam, Gita are all only synonymous
terms.
The Gita is a boundless ocean of nectar. It is an immortal
celestial fruit of the tree of Upanishads. In this unique book,
you will find an unbiased exposition of the philosophy of
action, devotion and knowledge and a wonderful synthesis.
The Bhagavad Gita is a rare and splendid flower that wafts its
sweet fragrance throughout the world. All the upanishads
represent cows; Sri Krishna is the milker of the Upanishad-
Cows; Partha (Arjuna) is the calf who first tasted that milk of
wisdom of the self, which was milked by the Divine
Cowherd, Sri Krishna, for the benefit of Arjuna and all
humanity, as the Bhagavad Gita. It helps to solve not only
Arjuna’s problems and doubts, but also the world problems
and the problems and doubts of every individual. Glory to
Lord Krishna, the friend of the cowherds of Gokula, the Joy
of Devaki ! He who drinks the nectar of the Gita through
purification of the heart and meditation, attains immortality,
eternal bliss, everlasting peace and perennial Joy.
Just as the dark unfathomed depths of the ocean contain more
precious pearls, so also the Gita contains spiritual gems of
incalculable value. You will have to dive deep into the depths
of the ocean of the Gita with sincere attitude of reverence and
faith. Only then will you be able to collect the spiritual pearls
of the Gita. Only then will you be able to comprehend the
profound and subtle teachings of the Gita.
The Gita is a unique book for all ages. It is a book that comes
under the category of Prasthanatraya, the authoritative books
of the Hindu religion. The Gita is the immortal Song of the
Soul, whicih bespeaks the glory of life. The instructions that
are inculcated by Sri Krishna are for the whole world. It is a
standard book on Yoga for all. The language is as simple as it
Om Tat Sat
Om Santih, Santih, Santih
could be. Even a man who has elementary knowledge of
Sanskrit can go through the book. It deals with the four
Yogas, viz., Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana
Yoga.
The Gita is like the lake of Manasasarovara for the
Paramahamsa (monks and renunciates) and thirsting aspirants
to sport in. It is the ocean of bliss in which the seekers of
Truth swim with joy and ecstasy. If the philosopher’s stone
touches a piece of iron even at one point, the whole of it is
transformed into gold. Even so, if you live in the spirit of even
one verse, you will doubtless be transmuted into divinity.
Study of the Gita alone is sufficient for the purpose of daily
Svadhyaya (Scriptural Study). You will find a solution here
for all your doubts. The more you study with devotion and
faith, the more you will get deeper knowledge, penetrative
insight and clear right thinking. Even if you live in the spirit
of one verse of the Gita, all your miseries will come to an end
and you will attain the goal of life – Immortality and Eternal
Peace.
The Gita is a gospel for the whole world. It is meant for the
generality of mankind. It was given over five thousand years
ago on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, by Lord Krishna to
Arjuna. None but the Lord can bring out such an
unprecedented and marvellous book which gives peace to the
readers, which helps and guides them in the attainment of
Supreme Bliss, which has survived upto this time. This itself
proves clearly that God exists, that God is an embodiment of
knowledge and that one can attain perfection or liberation by
realising God alone.
The whole world is a battlefield. The real Kurukshetra is
within you. The battle of Mahabharata is still raging within
you. Ignorancce (Avidya) is Dhritarashtra. The individual soul
is Arjuna. The Indweller Who Dwells in your heart is Lord
Krishna, the charioteer. The body is your chariot. The senses
(Indriyas) are the horses. The mind, egoism, senses, sanskaras
(mental impressions), vasanas (latent tendecies), cravings,
Raga-Dvesha (likes and dislikes), lust, jealousy, greed, pride
and hypocrisy are your dire enemies. Bhagvad Gita teaches
you how to transcend these and realise your highest Divine
nature.
Glory, glory to the Gita. Glory to Lord Krishna, Who has
placed the Gita before men of this world for attaining Sreyas
or Moksha. May His blessings be upon you all ! May the Gita
be your center, ideal and goal ! Blessed is the man who
studies the Gita daily. Twice blessed is he who lives in the
spirit of the Gita. Thrice blessed is he who has realised the
knowledge of the Gita, Atmajnana or Self Knowledge.
 MEDITATION LEADS TO ULTIMATE FLOWERING

VIPASHYANA MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

© 2009, Taoshobuddha
TAOSHOBUDDHA
 TAOSHOBUDDHA

The word ‘Taoshobuddha’ comes from three words, ‘tao,’ ‘sho,’ and ‘Buddha’.
The word Tao was coined by the Chinese master, Lau Tzu. It means that which
is and cannot be put into words. It is unknown and unknowable. It can only be
experienced and not expressed in words. Its magnanimity cannot be
condensed into finiteness. The word Sho implies, that which is vast like the sky
and deep like an ocean and carries within its womb a treasure. It also means
one on whom the existence showers its blessings. And lastly the word Buddha
implies the Enlightened One; one who has arrived home.

Thus, TAOSHOBUDDHA implies one who is existential, on whom the

existence showers its blessings and one who has arrived home. THE
ENLIGHTENED ONE!
 VIPASHYANA MEDITATION TECHNIQUES
WHEN INTELLECT IS UNDULY ACTIVE WE CANNOT ATTAIN THE EMPTINESS OF THE MIND.
BRIEF HISTORY
A
flower that never knew about the sun
and a flower that has experienced the sun
are not the same. Indeed they cannot be.
Because a flower that has never witnessed the
rising sun can never feel the rising sun within!
Such a flower is dead. It has the potentiality but
the potentiality has not attained fruition. It has
never known its own spirit. However, a flower
that has witnessed the sunrise has also seen
something arise within itself. It has discovered its
own soul. Now this flower is no more a flower.
The flower has known a deep happening within.
To create this inner sun of awareness within,
Buddha invented a technique of meditation
almost twenty-five centuries ago. This technique
not only creates the inner sun of awareness, but at
the same time it also allows the awareness to
penetrate into every cell of the body and then to
the entire being. The technique that Buddha
invented is known as Anapana Sati Yoga. This is
the yoga of incoming and outgoing breath
awareness. It is also known as Vipashyana
meditation. The word Vipashyana has two words
put together – Vi and Pashyana. Vi means neutral
and Pashyana means to see. Thus, Vipashyana
means to look at everything with a neutral
attitude.
Vipashyana is also known as Insight Meditation.
It was discovered by Buddha to unravel the
questions arising in his mind to know the truth.
When Buddha was born, his father was of a well-
advanced age. Astrologers were called in. One of
the younger astrologers said that Buddha would
leave the kingly splendor in search of Truth.
While the other astrologers suggested ways to
change the destiny, it was suggested that he be
married. Also it was made sure that nothing
unusual be allowed to happen around him as
metaphysical questions would arise in him seeing
the leaves turning yellow and then falling etc. So
he was married to Yashodhara and around the
palace where he was living, all dried leaves were
picked up before sunrise. All arrangements were
made so that no unusual questions would arise in
his mind. However, Buddha had not come to rule
any kingdom. One night he first saw an old man,
then a sick person, and finally a dead body. That
was the destined night. It is said that these three
men were the Enlightened masters of the past,
who came to guide and pave the path for Buddha.
He questioned his charioteer about these events.
He was told that such is the destiny of each
human being. Buddha did not return to the palace
that night. He decided to seek the answer to these
questions. So he embraced the life of a wandering
ascetic.
Then it was believed that there were two major
techniques of meditation. First of these techniques
was of concentration. This involved experiencing
various stages of meditative absorption. This is
called jhana or dhyana. Buddha went to two
masters of the time to learn this. In the process he
attained the highest state of jhana. Yet still he was
far from the Truth or Dhamma, so he asked his
teachers if they had anything more to offer. But
they were honest enough to say no. Buddha did
all that was needed to attain the highest spiritual
state and then left.
Then he came across the other form of meditative
practice which was also used. This was the
practice of self-mortification or self-torture. It was
believed then, that by tormenting the body the self
or ego would vanish. This could be accomplished
in several ways, including fasting or lying on a
bed of nails. Buddha went through all these
techniques. For six years he wandered. His last
master was Alarkalam. For six months Buddha
lived on one grain of rice. He practiced the fasting
intensely. Nothing happened!
After a long period of fasting he became very frail
and weak. He had no energy to live. He was lying
half unconscious under a banyan tree when he
was discovered by a cowherd boy. The young boy
realized that the recluse must have been fasting
for a long time and that had weakened his body.
But Buddha did not see the boy. The boy was wise
enough to give milk to Buddha but Buddha was
so weak that he could not open his mouth. The
boy hesitated to touch Buddha as he belonged to a
lower caste but realizing the situation he decided
that even though it was a sin to touch Buddha, it
was more important to save him. He could ask for
forgiveness afterwards.
Buddha felt better after drinking the milk and was
finally able to move. He saw the boy sitting next
to him respectfully, so Buddha enquired who he
was. The boy said that he was a cowherd and
asked for forgiveness. Buddha consoled the boy;
he told him that he had done the right thing and
there was no need to ask for forgiveness. Further
Buddha said, “We are not good or bad simply
because we are born in a low or high family. Our
goodness depends on our actions.”
So Buddha stayed under the tree. In the evening
he heard a song coming from the nearby forest.
The song was being sung by a group of girls who
were collecting firewood in the forest. The song
meant that if the strings of the musical instrument
were too tight they would break on being used.
Also if the strings were too loose the instrument
would not make the right sound. The strings
would have to be neither too tight nor too loose.
Thus, Buddha saw the futility of the extreme
paths and also the dangers of attachment to them.
So he decided to pursue the middle path himself.
He realized the significance of the middle path.
He then went to Niranjana River and sat on the
bank to meditate and discover the middle path.
It is said that Buddha wanted to cross the river
Niranjana but he was so weak that he fell into it; it
was a shallow stony river. He held on to the
branch of a tree leaning from the other shore. He
thought about the futility of his actions of the past
few days. He thought, “now that I am so weak,
what would I be able to do even if Enlightenment
happened?” He could not sleep. He remained
awake the whole night watching the stars
disappear in the sky. Somehow he came out of the
river! He made a seat of grass under a Bodhi tree
and sat for meditation. Then a woman came by to
offer him some food as offering of her good
fortune. She thought that God had come to her in
this human form of a holy man sitting under the
Bodhi Tree. She offered Buddha excellent food in
forty-nine pieces on a beautiful platter. Buddha
ate all that was offered and then again began to
meditate without any further need for
nourishment. It was now sunset. He decided not
to move again until Enlightenment happened.
That night, at near about midnight, Buddha was
strongly tempted by Mara or Maya or illusion. It
is the symbol of all obstructing forces. The three
daughters of Mara – Desire, Lust, and Aversion
came to persuade him to leave the path of
meditation and return to the palace and become
the king. This did not affect Buddha who was
tranquil. This made Mara angry, so he sent his
armies by land and air to frighten Buddha. He
became afraid; he opened his eyes and raised his
hand to ward off the attack. But then he realized
there was no one. They were, in fact, his
hallucinations.
Buddha continued his meditation. He was
tranquil and restful. He meditated watching his
mind until dawn when each star in the sky had
disappeared. With this, something dawned on
him. Buddha got a clear insight and inner
understanding of all the phenomena, both within
and without. Enlightenment happened at that
very moment! The thing which Buddha was
waiting for years, happened that precise moment.
It was during meditation Buddha discovered the
technique of Vipashyana or Insight Meditation.
The meditation is such that it not only creates an
inner awareness, but simultaneously allows the
awareness to penetrate to the very cells of the
body, to the whole of one’s being. It is also called
Anapana Sati Yoga. It is a meditation.
That brings awareness of incoming and outgoing
breath. It is based on constant or attentive
awareness. We attach various meanings to
awareness. We have to be clear about its meaning.
When Buddha spoke of breath awareness, he
meant to look attentively without applying any
knowledge or information. It means that we
simply look with a quiet mind, without making
any comment or applying knowledge,
interpretation, or explanation! The art of neutral
observation is not so easy. By doing so, we can see
that the mind can be emptied of its contents. Then
we can understand the way the mind works and
also examine the contents of the mind. This is the
way to meet everything – fully with the whole
being and with all the energy that you have. Then
there is no more dissipation of energy. And it can
be directed for looking at what is going on. This is
looking beyond appearance. It is significant to
understand that we are simply looking ‘at’ and
not looking ‘for’. There is a vast difference
between looking at and looking for. When we are
looking ‘at’ there is no more expectation, which is
an aspect of looking ‘for’. If we look for something
in meditation and there is expectation, the
disappointment is bound to come. This will lead
to clinging, loss of energy, and mental imbalance.
It is important to look attentively and silently.
This will bring clear understanding and insight
into the nature and the contents of the mind.
Buddha explained the same in Satipatthana Sutra.
These sutras are related to mindfulness. Buddha
explained that awareness is only for intuitive
understanding and awareness itself, not for
anything else.
Intuitive insight gradually develops along the
path of awareness. We may see that this
incorporates three main factors namely: attention,
awareness, and watchfulness. These three words
explain the techniques of insight. Insight is
developed if we follow this properly, in other
words when the meditation is done in the right
way.
However, in the early stages, insight is closely
connected with intellect. This is mainly because of
conflicts within and the knowledge that we have.
But with insight, we come to understand what we
know; insight gets deeper. And thus is revealed
the difference between insight itself and the
function of intellect. The two go on cooperating in
deep meditation. But this is quite different from
what we have known originally. Intellect gets still
and becomes receptive when insight operates.
Now intellect will pick up the signals given by the
insight – words and concepts.
We need to allow intellect to be quiet and passive.
Then intellect becomes subservient to insight. It
can no more remain active all the time. When
intellect is unduly active we cannot attain the
emptiness of the mind. We cannot come to total
silence. When we attain stillness, then we can see
without obstruction. This seeing is insight! And
thus the meaning of the method of Vipashyana!
To begin the process we need to cultivate our
attention. And in developing this attention, we
need some primary object as focus. In Vipashyana
we use the rise and fall of breath as the
preliminary object. We need not regulate the
breath. Just let it be as it is. Let the breath move in
and out as naturally as possible without any
interference of the mind. As the breath moves in
and out, observe the rise and fall. This is the first
 step for the mind, to see the nature of the rising
and the passing away in the physical sense of
breathing.
As an individual we go on breathing
unconsciously. Breath is Prana. Breath is élan
vital. Yet still breathing is unconscious. We are
unaware of it. And if we were to be aware of
breathing in order to breathe, we would die.
Sooner or later we would forget. Thus, we cannot
remember anything continuously. Breathing
establishes a connection between our voluntary
and nonvoluntary systems. We can, however,
control our breathing to some extent. At times we
can even stop breathing for a while. But no way
can we stop breathing permanently. It goes on
without any effort on our part. One can be in
Vipashyana
Buddha used breath as a vehicle for two things
simultaneously. First to create consciousness and
second to allow this consciousness to penetrate to
the very cells of the body1 “Breathe consciously,”
was Buddha’s message. Buddha never meant
pranayama. It was meant to make breath an object
of awareness. But not changing it.
There is no need to change the breath. Leave it as it
is. Just natural! The only necessary thing is, breathe
consciously. As the breath comes in, allow the
consciousness to move in. And let the
consciousness move out with the outgoing breath.
Let there be total attention on breath. Move with it.
Flow with it. Never forget even a single breath.
Buddha is reported to have said that if you can be
aware of your breath for even one hour, you are
already Enlightened. But never let a single breath
be missed.
Definitely, one hour seems like a small fragment of
time. But it is not so. When you are trying to be
aware, one hour seems like a millennium. It is so
because generally you cannot be aware of your
coma for months, yet still breathing goes on.
Breathing is an unconscious mechanism.
There are two aspects of breathing – the Incoming
breath and the Outgoing breath. When you
breathe in and pause, there is a gap, and then you
breathe out. After you breathe out, there comes
another gap, before you start breathing in or
inhaling again. Therefore, there are two gaps. The
first one happens within you after the breath
comes in. This creates a Center within. This is
known as your Soul or Inner Center. The other
happens when the breath is out and waiting to
come in. This gap is called Parmatman or Cosmic
Center. If the breath that has gone out does not
come in, it is referred to as Death while the gap
within is called Life.
breath for more than five of six seconds. Only a
very alert person can be aware even for that long.
We miss awareness every moment. You can start
awareness with incoming breath, but no sooner the
breath has come in you are somewhere else. And
suddenly you realize that you were to breathe
consciously but the breath has gone out and you
were somewhere else.
To be conscious of the breath simply means that no
thought can be allowed. Thoughts distract your
attention. Buddha never said to stop thinking. His
only emphasis was on ‘conscious breathing’. And
when you breathe consciously, thoughts cease
automatically. You cannot breathe consciously and
think at the same time.
As a thought comes in your mind, your attention is
withdrawn from breathing. A single thought is
more than enough to make you unconscious of
breathing. This technique seems very simple, but it
is vital. Buddha told his monks to do whatever but
not to forget one simple thing: the incoming and
the outgoing breath.
As you continue to do this frequently, you will
grow in consciousness. It is difficult. But once you
have done this you can no longer remain the same
person. You will be a different person and a
different being. As you begin to breathe in and out
consciously, by and by you move to your center. It
is so because each time you breathe in, your breath
and with the breath the life force touches the very
center of the Being.
Physiologically you think that breath just purifies
the blood. This is a bodily function. But when you
begin to be aware of your breathing, by and by you
go deeper than physiology. Then one day you will
begin to feel your center, right near your navel. You
can feel your center only when you move with the
breath continuously. You have to continue, because
as you reach nearer the center, it will be even more
difficult to remain aware. You can start when the
breath is entering. When it is almost touching the
nostrils, be aware of it. As it move inwards,
awareness will be more difficult. A thought may
come in or a sound or something else may happen
and you move away from the awareness.
If you can reach to the very center, for a brief
moment breath stops and then comes in a gap. The
breath comes in and then goes out, between these
two there is a subtle gap. This gap is your center –
the center of the being. It is only after practicing
this breath awareness for a sufficiently long time
you will be able to remain with the breath. You can
be aware of the gap only when there is no breath
movement. Now the breath is neither coming in
nor going out. Between these subtle gaps, between
two breaths, you are at your center. Thus, breath
awareness was used by Buddha as a means of
reaching to the center.
Be conscious when you breathe out. Again there is
a gap. In fact, there are two gaps; one gap comes
after the breath comes in and before it goes out.
Another gap comes in when the breath is out and
before it comes in. This second gap is more difficult
to be aware of. And between these incoming and
outgoing breaths lies your center. However, there is
another center – the Cosmic Center. You may call
this as God. The Cosmic center lies between when
the breath goes out and before it comes in.
However, these two centers are not two different
things. In the process first you become aware of
your inner center and then you become aware of
your outer center or the cosmic center. Then one
day ultimately you know that these two centers are
one. Thus, the outer and the inner lose their
significance.
Buddha says, move consciously with the breath.
Then you will create a center of awareness within
yourself. As this center is created, awareness will
begin to move to your very cells and provide
nourishment to the cells as every cell needs oxygen.
It can be said that each cell breathes. Even the earth
breathes, say scientists. With the universe breathing
in, the earth expands and when the universe
breathes out, the earth contracts. According to
Hindu scriptures, creation is Brahma’s single
incoming breath and destruction or dissolution is
Brahma’s outgoing breath.
There are three aspects of anything that is going on.
They are rising, existing, and falling away. In case
of breathing, it can be said that there is a cessation
of breath. This can lead to a silence and therefore, it
is possible for us to transcend the consciousness of
breathing. It seems that breathing automatically
stops but in reality it is not so. Breathing gets
deeper and even. Then you breathe internally and
do not feel the movement. When we do not see the
gentle movement it is said that breathing has
stopped. So when silence becomes more significant
then you can transcend the consciousness of
breathing. In that case do not cling to the object.
The preliminary object is only to start with.
Naturally you tend to pay attention to the
immediate object which is evident. Thus, there is no
set object. Everything that enters the consciousness
eventually becomes the object of meditation. We
identify with attention, awareness, and
watchfulness. In this process we are not the
observer. And when we begin with meditation,
both the mind and the body discharge. However,
we have to know what is happening, knowing just
for the sake of knowledge and not for doing
anything. Awareness is at work, but we are no
more.
When you sit in meditation for long, your legs tend
to go to sleep. You will get concerned about it; let
the legs go to sleep, but keep the body in an upright
position. Sometimes the legs may wake up, but you
should remain unconcerned. And do not move
because of pain or discomfort. If you move, you
cannot observe all that is going on in the mind. The
body will certainly feel the discomfort. In that
situation go on looking constantly. A point will
come when knowing happens. So no more doing,
instead seeing alone!
Also when you are sitting in the rain let the rain
drops fall and just observe what is happening in
your body and the mind. Feel your attitude. When
a situation arises do not look for any technique to
get out of that situation. Be in that situation
completely, because without it you cannot learn.
Life is always open. Life has both shallow and
deeper moments. Go through every aspect of life.
Expect nothing, but take things as they are and as
they come.
In this form of meditation keep your eyes closed.
Keep your attention steady and focus on the rise
and fall of. In the Eastern monasteries, before
meditation begins, a bell is rung three times. One
has to listen to the sound from the beginning to the
end, follow the sound, and be aware of the
continuity of hearing.
When meditation begins there are fears and
uncertainties. Buddha narrated a story to his monks
to help them in practice. It is said, once a man came
across four poisonous snakes, symbolic of water,
earth, fire, and wind. He became afraid. To escape
them he ran into a village expecting some help.
There he did not find anyone. This made him more
fearful and uncertain as well. He ran until he came
across a vast stretch of water. He did not know
what to do. There was no boat to take him to the
other shore. He became even more frightened. He
decided to make a raft. He collected some reeds
and branches and made a raft. Then he started his
journey. On reaching the other shore he abandoned
the raft. He was now free to enjoy himself on this
new island.
Something like the above happens in meditation. In
the beginning it maybe like trying to escape from
these poisonous snakes. Sooner or later we shall
arrive at a challenging situation. And in that
situation we cannot rely on anything. Nothing is
available. But then when we look into ourselves,
we can bring about everything we need and build a
raft.
Buddha told the monks that this raft was for
crossing the ocean of life, not to cling to it. When
there is clinging, grasping, and attachment then
you may stay in the ocean or you may even drown.
Also, you cannot carry it with you as you set foot
on the other shore. Then it will become an
unnecessary burden. All techniques and teachings
are for help to flow. When you try to hold on to
them, you become rigid and fixed. Then no
movement is possible. All such techniques are
useful but never fix yourself on them. When you
are fixed to any specific teaching then you become
narrow-minded. When you are sick you take
treatment and medicine. Also you follow a
particular pattern of treatment and take
precautions. But once you are cured you do not
carry the prescription anymore. All your
prescriptions, treatments, and medicines are
dropped then. So when you are fixed you are
narrow-minded. No more openness! No flexibility
or adaptability! When you want to move from one
position to another, be always open. In that case
awareness becomes stronger. In Buddhism this is
self-reliance.
 UPSURGE OF ENERGY IN VIPASHYANA MEDITATION
Quite often it happens when you are doing
Vipashyana Meditation; there is an upsurge of
energy. And because of this you feel very sensual.
You are so silent and energy is not dissipated.
Generally, much energy is dissipated
unnecessarily. This makes you feel exhausted. So
when you are sitting ideally, you automatically
become a reservoir of energy. This goes on getting
bigger and bigger and then there comes a point
when it begins to overflow. This makes you feel
sensuous. Sensitivity arises. It appears as if all
senses are now fresh and alive. You feel as if you
have taken a bath. This happens.
For this very reason, Buddhist monks who have
been doing this meditation for a long time do not
eat much. It is not that they suppress appetite.
There is no need. They eat once, a very small
meal. It is almost like a breakfast. Even sleep gets
less, but there is no loss of energy. They go on
working hard. They naturally engage in works
like wood cutting, gardening, and field work. In
fact, they work the whole day, but still there is no
dissipation of energy.
Also, the sitting posture is very energy
consuming. The lotus posture Buddha uses is
such that all ends of the body meet – feet upon
feet, and hands upon hands. From these points
energy moves and flows out. Energy always
moves from the nerve ends. That is the reason the
male sex organ has a particular shape so that
energy leaks out. When too much energy is
flowing within and you are unable to do
anything, it gets released through the sex center.
During a sexual act, a woman never releases
energy. This is the reason that a woman can go on
making love to many persons in one night but a
man cannot. A woman can even conserve energy,
if she learns the technique of conservation. She
can even get energy.
No energy is released through the head because of
its rounded shape. Thus, the brain never loses
energy, instead it conserves it. Energy never leaks
from any rounded shape. This is the reason all
planets and stars are round in shape. So when you
sit in the lotus posture you become rounded.
Therefore, when one end releases energy the other
receives it. Instead of going out, the energy moves
within almost like a circle! Energy is conserved,
and thus the body becomes a reservoir of energy.
Because of this you feel full; you may not have
eaten but there is certain fullness. This is a good
sign, enjoy it!

VIPASHYANA MEDITATION - A technique of breath awareness

To create this inner sun of awareness within, Buddha invented a technique of meditation almost twenty-
five centuries ago. This technique not only creates the inner sun of awareness, but at the same time it
also allows the awareness to penetrate into every cell of the body and then to the entire being. The
technique that Buddha invented is known as Anapana Sati Yoga. This is the yoga of incoming and
outgoing breath awareness. It is also known as Vipashyana meditation.

The word Vipashyana has two words put together – Vi and Pashyana. Vi means neutral and Pashyana
means to see. Thus, Vipashyana means to look at everything with a neutral attitude.
 WHIRLING
A COSMIC DANCE OF ONENESS
Whirling is part of a sacred ceremony in which the dervish rotates in a precise rhythm. He represents the earth revolving on
its axis while orbiting the sun. The purpose of the ritual whirling is for the dervish to empty himself of all distracting
thoughts, placing him in trance; released from his body he conquers dizziness.
W hirling is the dance that brings inner
harmony first and then expresses itself
through various hand and facial gestures
as calmness, serenity, bliss etc. In its esoteric sense
it is quite similar to Hindu Mythological dance of
Rasa Lila where Hindu incarnation of God in the
form of Krishna danced on the banks of the Blue
river Yamuna under the full moon, a perfect
ambiance, in the company of his consort Radha and
other milkmaids. Beyond all finiteness of amorism
it is an expression of Love divine or ishk-e-
haquiqui.
Whirling Dervish (wurl-ing dur-vish) is a mystical
dancer who stands between the material and
cosmic worlds. His dance is part of a sacred
ceremony in which the dervish rotates in a precise
rhythm. He represents the earth revolving on its
axis while orbiting the sun. The purpose of the
ritual whirling is for the dervish to empty himself
of all distracting thoughts, placing him in trance;
released from his body he conquers dizziness.
‘Ride the breeze of dawn into eternity,
Becoming dust under the hoof of the horse of a Dervish!’
Rumi
The rituals of the Rumi’s followers (Whirling
Dervishes) are among the enduring as well as the
most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual
whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a
drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured
form within which the gentle turns become
increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes
strive to achieve a state of Trans. The music that
accompanies the whirling from beginning to end
ranges from somber to rhapsodically. Its effect is
intended to be mesmerizing. Chanting of poetry,
rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a
synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a
feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight. This
brings harmony within first and then the same
harmony becomes the cause of ecstasy or suroor.
However Whirling has a Sufi origin. It evolved
under a different situation, circumstances, time etc.
All these things have a deep effect on the technique
and its outer appearance. In Sufi terminology
whirling is known as a Sufi technique. A Dervish
or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim
ascetic path or ‘Tariqat’. It is quite similar to
mendicant friars in Christianity or
Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.
Dar in Persian means ‘a door’, so Dervish literally
means ‘one who goes from door to door’. The word
is also related to terms for ‘ascetic’ in some
languages, as in the Urdu phrase darwaishana
thabiyath, ‘an unflappable or ascetic temperament’.
 Religious practice
Many Dervishes are mendicant their specific traditions. Some
ascetics who have taken a vow of practice quiet meditation, as is the
poverty, unlike mullahs. The main case with most of the Sufi orders in
reason they beg is to learn South Asia, many of whom owe
humility, but Dervishes are allegiance to, or were influenced by,
prohibited to beg for their own the Chishti order. Each fraternity
good. They have to give the uses its own garb and methods of
collected money to other poor acceptance and initiation, some of
people. Others work in common which may be rather severe.
professions; Egyptian Qadiriyya –
The whirling dance or Sufi whirling
known in Turkey as Kadiri – are
that is proverbially associated with
fishermen, for example.
Dervishes, is the practice of the
Dervishes (Mevlana mausoleum,
Some classical writers indicate that Konya, Turkey) Mevlevi, or more correctly Maulvi
the poverty of the Dervish is not meaning the learned one, Order in
merely economic. Rumi, for instance, says in Book 1 Turkey, and is just one of the physical methods
of his Masnavi used to reach religious ecstasy (majdhb, fana). The
name Mevlevi
Water that’s poured inside will sink the boat
comes from the
While water underneath keeps it afloat.
Driving wealth from his heart to keep it pure Persian poet,
King Solomon prefered the title ‘Poor’: Maulana Rumi
That sealed jar in the stormy sea out there who was born
Floats on the waves because it's full of air, in Balkh,
When you've the air of dervishood inside modern day
You'll float above the world and there abide... Afghanistan
Orders and whose
shrine is in
There are various orders of Dervishes, almost all of
Turkey. He
which trace their origins from various Muslim
was a Dervish
saints and teachers, especially Ali and Abu Bakr.
himself. This
Various orders and suborders have appeared and
practice,
disappeared over the centuries.
though not
Other groups include the Bektashis, connected to Whirling dervishes, Rumi Fest intended as
the janissaries, and Senussi, who are rather 2007 entertainment,
orthodox in their beliefs. Other fraternities and has become a tourist attraction in Turkey now like
subgroups chant verses of the Qur'an, play drums any other practice world over.
or dance vigorously in groups, all according to
K
nown to the west as Whirling Dervishes,
the members of the Mevlevi Order (named
for their founder Mevlana) from Konya
lived in what we might call cloisters or monasteries
- what to them was a Mevlevihane. The one at
Galatia in Istanbul is a product of late Ottoman
architecture, and quite elaborate in having a tomb,
a large chamber for the ceremony of the whirling
dance (Sema), a fountain from which water was
charitably distributed to the public, a time keeper’s
room, cells for the dervishes, separate quarters for
the Master, a section for women, a chamber of
silence, a large ornate fountain for ablutions, and a
laundry room.
The Mevlevi Order founded by Mevlana in Konya
during the Seljuk period is made up first and
foremost of structure analogous to the monasteries
of the West. The first of these tekkes is named for
Mevlana and was considered as the originator of all
the rest. Divani Mehmet Celebes stands out in the
early spread of the order. The Celebes or gentle
ones who went out to break new ground and make
converts saw themselves as disciples of this great
master, and an astonishing number of tekkes were
established during Divani Mehmet Celebi’s lifetime
and thanks to his efforts; in Aleppo, Egypt and
Algeria, on the islands of Chios (Sakiz) and
Mitilene, and of course on the Turkish mainland.
The rituals of the Rumi’s followers (Whirling
Dervishes) are among the enduring as well as the
most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual
whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a
drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured
form within which the gentle turns become
increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes
strive to achieve a state of trans. The music that
accompanies the whirling from beginning to end
ranges from somber to rhapsodically. Its effect is
intended to be mesmerizing. Chanting of poetry,
rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a
synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a
feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight.
The Mevlevi sect belongs to the Sunni or orthodox
mainstream of Islam. Its doctrine never developed
a revolutionary strategy - and although it was
occasionally criticized for its heretical ideas, it
always enjoyed the respect of the officialdom.
Many later Ottoman Sultans, including Mehmed,
the Conqueror of Istanbul, were enamored of
Mevlevi ideals. The reformist Sultan Selim III was
virtually a member. Suleyman, probably the
greatest of the Sultans, held the Mevlevi dervishes
in high esteem and their ‘Sema-hane’ (whirling
hall) constructed for them as his imperial gift. The
hall/mosque stands next to Rumi’s mausoleum in
Konya.
Besides Mevlevi dervishes, also Bektashi Order’s
dervishes were highly regarded by the sultans and
other common people. The dances of Bektashi
dervishes were called as ‘Kirklar Sama dance’,
which didn’t involve whirling like the Mevlana’s.
The Whirling Dervishes played a vitally important
part in the evolution of Ottoman high culture. From
the 14th to the 20th century, their impact on classical
poetry, calligraphy, and the visual arts was
profound, while music was perhaps their greatest
achievement. Since Islamic orthodoxy opposed
music as being harmful to the listener and
detrimental to religious life, no sacred music or
mosque music evolved except for the Mevlud, a
poem in praise of the Prophet Mohammed, chanted
on high occasions or as a requiem (funeral song or
lament). Rumi and his followers integrated music
into their rituals as an article of faith.
In his verses, Rumi emphasized that music uplifts
our spirit to realms above, and we hear the tunes of
the Gates of Paradise. The meeting places of the
dervishes, consequently, became academies of art,
music, and dance. Today, the Performances of The
Whirling Dervishes include twelve musicians (on
traditional Turkish instruments) and 12 dancers.
There is also a master of ceremony. A performance
is broken into two parts with the introduction
conducted by the master followed by 3 or 4 pieces
of music. This is followed by a 4-part whirling
ceremony.

The Ritual of Sama

T
he fundamental condition of our existence is Fix-footed, the samazen provides a point of contact
to revolve. There is no object, no being which with this Earth through which the divine blessings
does not revolve. The shared similarity can flow. Turning from right to left, he embraces all
between all created things is the revolution of the creation as he chants the name of God within the
electrons, protons, and neutrons within the atoms heart. The Sama ritual consists of seven parts:
that constitute their basic structure. From the
1. It starts with the singing of the Nat-i-Serif, a
smallest cell to the planets and the farthest stars,
eulogy to the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon
everything takes part in this revolving. Thus, The
him), who represents love. Praising him is praising
Samazens, the ones who whirl, participate
the truth of God that he and all the prophets before
consciously in the shared revolution of all existence.
him brought.
The Sama ceremony represents a spiritual journey.
2. This follows the call of the drum and the slap
The seeker’s turning toward God and truth, a
of glory, calling the samazens to awaken and Be
maturing through love, the transformation of self as a
Awaare. This begins the procession known as the
way of union with God, and the return to life as the
Sultan Veled Walk. It is the salutation of one soul to
servant of all creation.
another, acknowledged by bowing.
The Samazen (with a camel’s-felt hat representing a
3. This is followed by the Sama ritual itself. It
tombstone and a wide white skirt symbolizing the
consists of four Salams or salutations. The First
death shroud), upon removing his black cloth, is
Salam is the birth of truth by way of knowledge. The
spiritually born to Truth. The samazens stand with
Second Salam expresses the rapture of witnessing
their arms crossed, ready to begin their turn. In their
the splendor of the creation. The Third Salam is the
erect posture, they represent the number one,
transformation of rapture into love; the sacrifice of
testifying to God’s unity. Each rotation takes them
mind and self to love. It represents complete
past the sheikh, who stands on a red sheep skin. This
submission and communion with God. The Fourth
is the place of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi , and the
Salam is the samazen’s coming to terms with his
sheikh is understood to be a channel for the divine
destiny and his return to his task in creation. In the
grace. At the start of each of the four movements of
fourth Salam, the sheikh enters the circling dervishes,
the ceremony, the samazens bow to each other
where he assumes the place of the sun in the center
honoring the spirit within. As their arms unfold, the
of the circling planets.
right hand opens to the skies in prayer, ready to
receive God’s beneficence or grace. The left hand, 4. The Sama end with a reading from the Quran.
upon which his gaze rests, is turned towards the The sheikh and dervishes complete their time
earth in the gesture of bestowal. together with the greeting of peace and then depart,
accompanied by joyous music of their departure.
One of the beauties of this seven-centuries-old ritual
of whirling is the way that it unifies the three
fundamental components of man’s nature; mind,
emotion, and spirit. Combining them in a practice and
a worship that seeks the purification of all three in
Dervishes performing the sacred dance of Whirling
the turning towards Divine Unity is the very essence
of WHIRLING. But most significantly, it implies the
enrichment of this earth and the well-being of
humanity as a whole.
 VENU GITA
If you have to sow or nourish the seeds of transformation or love for the divine you have to create such sentiments and
qualities of a FLUTE within you. Only then you can understand the VENU GITA.

The pastimes of Krishna or different aspects of Rasa-Lila cannot be understood by hasty readers. Rasa-Lila is the
dance of inner harmony and ecstasy in its union with the cosmic one.

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Tenth Canto, Chapter Twenty-One

V
enu Gita is the part of Srimad Bhagavatam
Canto 10 and Chapter 21. Winter season
began approaching Krishna arrives in
Vrindavana. The gopis prayed and worshipped
Krishna with Venu Geet. Krishna played the
mystical flute as the clarion call to these gopis.
Venu Gita is important aspect of Srimad
Bhagvatam as it takes you into a deeper realm of
the qualities of Venu. Krishna plays flute on the
banks of the River Yamuna and with this flows the
eternal call from a master to continue and begin the
process of transformation. Hearing which the
Gopis cannot resist and they start gathering for the
Rasa-Venu-Lila. Before I go into Venu Gita it is
important to know something about Venu. Venu is
the Hindi word used for flute.
There are certain qualities of flute. It is part of reed
bed. And then one day it is separated from the reed
bed. A few holes are made along the physical kaya
or the body of the flute. It is well decorated. And
then prana –vayu as air is blown through it. Out of
this comes the song of lament of separation. Since
the piece of the bamboo was separated from the
reed bed it felt the pain of separation. It continues
to lament this separation through various melodies
and calls of lament.
There are three qualities of flute:
1. Flute does not say anything or sing unless it
has to do so. This is the quality of a master.
He is here to speak out of any material gain.
He speaks only when he finds it to be
necessary for the growth of the aspirant.
2. Flute is hollow inside. There is no resistance
or inertia of its own. This implies there is no
desires, anxieties, agitations etc within. This
is another quality of the master. He has
attained harmony and oneness within. And
when there is harmony and oneness within
love flows like the fragrance of a flower for
anyone who is open to it.
3. Flute whenever it says anything it is always
pleasant, and melodious. Whenever a master
speaks it is for the transformation of the
aspirants. He has attained and there is
nothing to gain or do in the three worlds.
Yet still he continues to operate and interact
because men follow him in many ways.
As an individual we continue to nourish from the lakes with it. The infallible Nanda-
differences, bitterness, anger and many such Nandan Krishna entered that enchanting
emotions and feelings. If you have to sow or Vrandavana forest, accompanied by His cows and
nourish the seeds of transformation or love for the gopas.
divine you have to create such sentiments and
qualities within you. Only then you can understand EXPLANATION
the VENU GITA. With this we will now enter the
Sukadeva explains the very nature and the
VENU GITA.
ambience of six seasons. Summer and the rainy
Text One season had just passed, and now the autumn is
approaching in its pristine beauty and splendor.
Sri suka uvacha
Autumn is followed by winter and then vasanta, or
ittham sharat-svaccha-jalam
padmkara-sugandhina spring is to follow. Although Vrandavana is always
ittha arat-svaccha-jala springlike, there are certain differences between the
nyavisad vayuna vatam seasons. This first verse of the Venu-gita describes
sa-go-gopalako cyutah the autumn season.

Sri sukah uvacha - Sri sukadeva said (or Sri Since autumn comes after the rainy season, the
sukah, the very dear parrot of sri Radhika , said); ponds and rivers are filled with pure water and the
ittham - in this way; sharat the beautifully lotuses are in full bloom. The bees hover around
decorated season of autumn; svaccha - clear; jalam the flowers for nectar as they fly all around
- having water; padma- kara - from the lakes, drinking nectar. The air is full and heavy with the
ponds and rivers such as the Yamuna, fragrance of the various blossoms like bel, kamal or
Kusumasarovara, Manas-ganga, Govinda-kunda lotus, juhu and others such flowers of immense
and other such reservoirs of water filled with lotus beauty and fragrance.
flowers; su-gandhin - with the sweet fragrance;
It is in such an environment of gaiety of
nyavisat - He entered; vayuna - by the cool and
Vrandavana that Krishna, the gopas and cows enter
fragrant breeze; vatam - ventilated; sa - with; go -
the forest every morning. Balarama is also with
the cows; gopalakah - and the cowherd boys;
Him. The gopis watch Krishna and His friends
achyutah - the infallible Nanda-nandana Sri
enter the forest from their homes, and then
Krishna
amongst their friends who share the same moods in
PURPORT love for Krishna, they discuss His pastimes.

The season of autumn is approaching. Its beauty is
spreading all around. Sukadeva explains this to
Raja Parikshit, Vrandavana became extremely
beautiful due to the exquisitely decorated season of
autumn. The lakes, ponds and rivers were filled
with clear, sweet water. Gentle and fragrant
breezes blew, carrying the aroma of lotus flowers
This verse describes the morning season. Although
Krishna has already entered the Vrandvana forest,
the gopis are still seeing His entrance into the forest
and hearing His flute song in their hearts. They
have gathered together in their specific groups to
talk about Krishna and to express their minds to
others who are in the same bhava or mood.
There are different groups (samuha) of gopis. The this in turn makes the gopis restless as well.
term samuha refers to a general group consisting of Krishna steals their hearts (vikshipta-manaso-
both older ones in the parental rasa and younger narpa) and takes them into His own heart. Thus the
gopas who have a conjugal relationship with gopis become senseless; their hearts are with
Krishna. Within that group are many parties Krishna.
(yutha). Each yutha has a yutheshwari or leader.
Sri Radhika is the leader of one group of gopis,
Chandravali is the leader of another, and Shyama ,
Bhadra, Chitra and sometimes Lalita and
Vishakha are other group leaders as well.

Within the yutha, the gopis are divided into smaller

groups consisting of those who are experiencing
the same bhava or loving feelings for Krishna.
Within these smaller groups (ganas), the gopis
reveal their hearts to one another. In this way, they
become immersed in this particular pastime and
are able to actually see it flowing in their hearts.
The gopis are not remembering their homes, their
physical bodies, or anything material. They are
only seeing Krishna and their pastimes with Him,
although they are at home and He is in the forest The gopis are expressing purva-raga, the mood of
with the cows and the cowherd boys. anticipation in meeting Krishna. There are two
kinds of purva-raga, one for the sadhaka who is
This pastime takes place in the autumn (sharat), practicing raganug - bhajana, and one for the
between summer and winter. The flowers are siddha devotee. The raganug -sadhaka can
blooming and the weight of their fragrance makes
experience only a shadow or semblance of purva-
the air so heavy that even moving about in it is
difficult. Anyone who tries to run in this air has raga, but the vraja-vasis experience pure purva-
difficulty. Because it is autumn, the air is also cool. raga. When Sri Radhika meets Krishna, She thinks
it is the first time She has ever has seen Him and
Although the gopis are at home in the village, they Krishna thinks He has never met Radhika before.
can see Krishna on the bank of the Yamuna within Radha and Krishna are nitya-navina: They are ever-
their hearts because they are immersed in
fresh. The raganug -sadhaka can only realize
remembrance of His pastimes. Because they have
purva-raga when visuddha-sattva (pure goodness)
given their hearts and all their attention to Krishna,
they have become restless and all the symptoms of enters his heart. Until that time, he experiences
ecstasy are manifest. purva-raga only in a theoretical way. When the
sadhaka attains the siddha stage, he can realize
In the first few verses of the Venu-gita, the gopis everything in the pure form.
describe both the scenery of Vrandvana and
Krishna’s beauty as He enters the forest with Both the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Brahad Vamana
thousands of cows and cowherd boys (sa-go- Purana explain that the gopis hearing Krishna’s
gopalako chyutah ). Achyuta means that Krishna is flute were of three types: the kaya-vyuha of Sri
infallible. His face is beautiful. He is restless, and Radhika; nitya-siddhas; and sadhana-siddhas. The
gopis belonging to the category of kaya-vyuha are
not jiva-tattva. They are bodily expansions of Sri
Radhika who is the personification of the haladin -
sakti. The nitya-siddha gopis are jiva-tattva who
have manifested from Baladeva Prabhu. They were
never conditioned at any time. The sadhana-siddha
gopis are of two kinds: yauthaki and ayauthaki.
The word yauthaki means that which pertains to a
group (yutha) or, in other words, a member of a
group. The yauthaki gopis were in special groups
and the yauthaki gopis were not. The yauthaki
gopis are further divided into two categories: the
shruti-cari gopis (personified Vedas) and the rshi-
cari gopis or muni-cari gois (the sages who
meditated in Dandkakaranya).
The shruti-cari gopis had been practicing raganug -
sadhana for many thousands of years, and they had
pleased the Lord by offering beautiful prayers. By
His grace, they attained the association of advanced
devotees and developed in the past the stages of
shraddha , nistha , ruchi, asakti and bhava. When
they reached the stage where their bhava was about
to be converted into prema, they left their bodies
and took birth in the wombs of gopis in
Vrandavana. Then they attained the association of
nitya-siddha devotees and were able to join the rasa
dance and the other lilas.
The rishi-cari gopis did not practice full raganuga -
bhajana. They had not become siddha. They
attained the level of suddha-sattva by their
meditation. They also had lobha for bhajana. When
they saw Lord Ramacandra, their greed became
thicker and they took their next birth in the wombs
of gopis, by the Lord’s mercy. According to their
previous qualifications, some of the rishi-cari gopis
received the association of nitya-siddha devotees
and some of them did not. Those who did receive
the association of nitya-siddha gopis were purified
by that association and thus were able to join the
rasa dance. Those who were not associated with
nitya-siddha gopis were held back by Yogamaya.
Both the shruti-cari gopis and rishi-cari gopis are
ayauthaki gopis they are in special groups
according to their bhava or mood in serving
Krishna. The ayauthaki gopis are the daughters of
the demigods and of many others. All of them had
developed lobha (greed) to associate with Krishna
in the conjugal mood by hearing and seeing
Krishna’s pastimes. The yauthak gopis were
practicing under the guidance of the nitya-siddha
gopis.
When Krishna called the gopis to the forest in the
middle of the night for the rasa dance, only those
gopis who had attained perfection were able to go.
By the influence of Yogamaya, the nitya siddha
gopis have no real relationship with their husbands
and they have no children. Therefore, they are able
to go to Krishna. The less advanced gopis do have
relationships with their husbands and so they are
hindered by them. By Yogamaya’s influence, these
gopis are restrained from going to Krishna for the
rasa dance, but because they experience intense
purva-raga, and because of their greed to associate
with Krishna, the fire of separation burns up their
good and bad karma and they become purified.
Their purva-raga was so strong that simply by
hearing His flute, they became immersed in
remembrance of Krishna in deep separation.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.29.10 states:
duhsaha-preshta-viraha, tivra-tapa-dhut subhah
For those gopis who were confined to their houses,
intolerable separation away from their beloved
caused an intense agony that burned away all
impious karma. Their bodies were partly material
and partly chinmaya (spiritual). The basis of their
impious karma (ashubha) was that they had some
attraction to their husbands and children and to
worldly affairs. But the fire of separation burned
everything away. Krishna appeared to them at that
time and they took Him in through their eyes and
brought Him into their hearts, embracing Him so
deeply that all pious and impious karma was
washed away (prakshina-bandhanh).
Their impious karma was washed away, but their
shubha karma was also washed away. What is this
pious karma? Ashubha means worldly attachment;
subha means praise, wealth, reputation,
followers everything that automatically comes
when one practices bhakti. Both are obstacles in
bhakti. In the case of these gopis, their husbands
and other relatives loved them so much, and their
attachment to this shubha-karma was an obstacle
that was washed away when they took Krishna
into their hearts.
At present we have both shubha and ashubha-
karmas because we are entangled in the many
pains and pleasures of our bodies. Due to being
embodied, we suffer in so many ways, and this
appears to present obstacles to our bhakti. When all
the anarthas the non-essentials are cleared from the
heart, then Shuddha-bhakti can enter.
In the case of the rishi-cari gopis, not everything
was washed away by their practice of
raga nuga sadhana; they still retained a small
amount of shubha and ashubha-karma. The shruti-
cari gopis were in a different position because by
their association with the nitya-siddha devotees,
they were completely free from both the pious and
impious activities. As a result, they were able to go
to Krishna when He called them with His flute.
These gopis were not ordinary souls. They were
able to meditate on Krishna twenty-four hours a
day in purva-raga. The gopis in the Venu-gita have
passed through all the stages of sadhana and have
attained prema.
It is erroneous to consider Rasa Lila or such dance
sequences between Krishna and the Gopis as mere
sensuous ones. Many times yogamaya stops gopis
from entering the rasa. Rasa Lila represents the
most intimate relation between the master and the
aspirant. The aspirant has reached to level from
where he can understand the subtle message of the
master.
The Gopi tatwa
signifies the state
of the aspirant.
There is no inertia,
and such other
negativities. This
signifies that the
energy has shifted
from head to the heart. There is no pride. Yet still
there is one danger that is of jealousy arising out of
the other which is quite natural for a female and
also this brings greed to be more and more in the
company. All this is signified by various terms
used in Venu –Gita.
The pastimes of Krishna or different aspects of
Rasa-Lila cannot be understood by hasty readers.
Rasa-Lila is the dance of inner harmony and ecstasy
in its union with the cosmic one.
 TAOSHOBUDDHA RESPONDS
Thank you Taoshobuddha, Sir (I don’t know how to refer you), it is great to know that
you cook your own food and see and reply the mails yourself. I thought may be a PA
or someone would first see things that is why I wrote Harsh as in Hindi language, to
non Indians my name looks weird.

It is great to get a reply from the one who knows. Somehow I came across Osho’s
books and liked them and then through internet I downloaded some audios (I am
annoyed that they were put down from Oshoworld.com).

For meditation I generally use the simplest of technique, I learned this through a video
of Shri Akhil Swami Saraswati.

In the video Swamiji first instructs you to jump, and dance and jog for 5 minutes. Then
he instructs to become aware of all five senses and then finally a silence follows.

The first time I did it, whole day was sort of lucky for me. In my class (I am just 10 and
would be joining college from July 27) I said which I thought I could never say, mean
that they were out of mouth and then I understood what I had said.

Once in a while after meditating I feel really calm and aware. It feels as if I was before
meditating sitting in dim light but after meditation someone has put a more powerful
source of light. Everything looks fresh and I can see clearly it feels as if I was in some
kind of sleep which got broken. Also I can more clearly feel the air touching my arms
around my ear, through my hairs. But within an hour or two they stop. And it is not
always that I feel these. Sometimes more clearly while other times very little. I also feel
such things after a very vigorous work.

And if I feel it very clearly I try it out soon but most times I do not get the same result
and then all my wish to continue ends and then I meditate after maybe a week or two.
Kindly try to explain the meaning of all these effects and what should I further do to
strengthen these observations on myself.

FROM HARSH CHANDALIA, INDIA

Beloved Harsh,

It is really good to know that someone at such a tender age of 10 is so keen on meditation.
This is indeed the outcome of the past lives. Continue the journey. I am awlays with you
whenever you need me or my assistance. You can connect with me through an internet phone
facility called Skype.com. First this you have to download and install on your PC. Then the
next step is to create contacts. Once you are on my contact list as soon as I am on line you will
get the indication. For this facility you will need a web cam or head phone with a mic facility.
The voice quality is very clear.

All the mails are an intimate communion between the writer and the one to whome it is
addressed. Therefore it is to be read and responded by the one to whom it is addressed.

You had mentioned the name of Osho. He is a beautiful master of masters. Very rarely a
master of this type is ever born:
hjarae sal nrigs ApnI benUrI pe raetI hE

bfI muiZkl se haeta hE cmn me< dIdavr kae$ pEda.

He has created many meditations. I will e mail you the PDF copy of his meditations. His
dynamic meditation is very effective. It proceeds in 5 steps. It is 60 min meditation
comprising 5 stages. Osho responded all his mail himself. He used to get the mail sorted out
and put in an order so that all similar questions can be responded together.

All the experiences that you mentioned do happen in the process. In the beginnging these
states do not long for long. However as you continue consciousness creates grooves within
and then such state can last for a longer period of time.

I have created and uploaded many videos that are available for free viewing on
www.youtube.com/taoshobuddha01 and on www.totalbhakti.com/taoshobuddha

You can start with one video at a time and listen to it persistently at a particular time for a
period of 3 weeks there will definitely be the difference. Choose part one of any of the
following videos:

1. Relax into being part 1, 2, 3

2. Light of the being part 1, 2, 3

Fell free to send me mail any time.

Love,
TAOSHOBUDDHA
TAOSHOBUDDHA WAY

MA PREM SUTRA

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

 STUFFED CABBAGE ROLES COOKED IN SHAHI GRAVY
I have not come across a recipe like this in any cook book.
This is a recipe from my mothers’ kitchen. During winter
and summer on Sundays she will cook this dish and serve
along with rice, whole wheat chapaties, daal taduka and
chutney of the season and onion-tomato salad with
spinach leaves.
only those special recipes. Other Shahi, Moughalai and
other dishes I can cook and get anywhere but not this.
Therefore when Prem Sutra expressed her desire to
compile these recipes in book form it was decided to
present these recipes as a special section ‘Recipes from my
Mom’s Kitchen’.

The taste still lingers with me. It has been several decades In this series I will present certain special recipes as I have
when we had tasted this recipe cook by her. Therefore modified these for better presentation and as a savory
when I visited India in 2007 I had requested her to cook dish.

Ingredients floats on the surface. Divide the mix in two

portions and set aside the half.
1. Cabbage - large 3
2. Onion. Ginger, garlic paste 3 tbs 5. Add shredded cabbage to the remaining and
3. Seasonings paste 2 tbs cook dry. Add mushroom and cook together.
4. Onion diced 1 cup
5. Cashew nuts crushed ½ cup When almost finished add cashew nuts and
6. Mushroom diced fine ½ cup turn off the heat. Allow to cool.
7. Freshly grind Coriander and
6. Spread each leaf and place some of the
Fennelle seeds 2 tbs
8. Shahi masala 1 tbs mixture and fold the leaf from all sides to get
9. Tomato puree ¾ cup
the shape of a square or rectangle. Set aside
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil to cook until all are done.
12. Fresh cream 2 tbs 7. Once again using the wok type pot heat and
13. Fine thread to tie the rolls
add the remaining gravy remaining tomato
puree and water if necessary. This dish is
Methodology
served wrapped in gravy
1. Remove the outer hard leaves from cabbage 8. Now add fresh cream and slip the cabbage
without damaging. Wash and place in boiling rolls gently and allow simmering until done.
salted water until tender. Remove and set 9. Serve these garnished with a dash of
aside spreading each leaf. coriander, and few parsley or mint, or
2. Shred cabbage and set aside. coriander leaf and a few strands of carrot
3. Mix all seasoning and the Masala pastes and beet root.
together so that the grains get soaked in
water and become softer. Serve this as compliment with other dishes for a
4. In a shallow wok type pot heat oil and add savory dinner or lunch.
Masala mix and ½ tomato puree until oil
 KRISHNA
THE MYSTERIOUS MASTER
Totality of the being is indeed paradoxical. It is this paradox that makes Krishna difficult to understand.
Therefore, people who have loved and worshipped him have done so by dividing him into parts, and they
have worshipped his different fragments, of their liking. No one has accepted and worshipped the whole of
Krishna. No one has embraced him in his entirety.

K
rishna is unique and incomparable in understand him and appreciate his virtues and
many ways. And so is his way of teaching. ways of teaching.
Ordinary human mind cannot understand
The most significant reason is that Krishna is the
the ways of Krishna as a master and for that matter
only being in the entire history of human
they do not consider Krishna a master. Krishna is
consciousness who reached the absolute height or
considered an Incarnation. In that very thinking depth of religion. And yet there is no seriousness
everyone goes on missing Krishna. From the very or sadness, or tears in him. The chief characteristic
beginning Arjuna considered Krishna as his friend of a religious person that we see and know has
and cousin. There was opening in him for been that he is sombre, serious and sad-looking.
arguments and the possibility of growth. And the He looks like the one vanquished in the battle of
life. He is a traitor from life. In the long line of such
moment you take Krishna an Incarnation you have
sages and saints it is Krishna alone who comes
closed all doors for evolution. dancing, singing and laughing under all
circumstance that have faced him throughout.
There are many dimensions of Krishna as a being,
son, husband, friend, and as a master. Here I am
When we look at the religions of the past we find
taking of one dimension Krishna – the master. His
all these were life-negative and masochistic in their
uniqueness lies in the fact that although Krishna
approach. All along these extolled sorrow and
happened eons ago indeed he belongs to the future.
suffering as great virtues. If you keep aside
Man has yet to evolve to a plane of consciousness
Krishna’s vision of religion, every religion of the
so that he can be considered a contemporary to
past presented a sad and sorrowful image.
Krishna. And without reaching to the plane of
consciousness from where he can understand the
A laughing and overflowing religion that accepts
being of Krishna there is no way to neither be a
life in its totality is yet to take birth. And it is good
contemporary to Krishna nor understand the
that all old religions are dead, and along with them,
message of Krishna.
the old God concept is dead as well. It is said of
Jesus that he never laughed. It was perhaps his sad
Krishna is still beyond man’s understanding. He
look and the picture of his physical form on the
continues to remain a puzzle. It seems that
cross that became the focal point of attraction for
somewhere in distant future man will be able to
people, who are unhappy and miserable. In a deep
sense Mahavira and Buddha are against life too.
They are in favour of life somewhere on another
planet. They supported a new kind of liberation
from this life.
All the religions up to now, have divided life into
two parts, and while they accept one part the other
is denied. Krishna alone accepts life in its totality.
Acceptance of life in its totality has attained Total
fruition in Krishna. That is why India held him to
be a Total Incarnation. All remaining incarnations
were considered as imperfect and incomplete. Even
Rama is described as an incomplete incarnation of
Vishnu. But Krishna represents the ‘Totality of
God.’
And there is a reason for saying so. Krishna has
accepted and absorbed everything that life is. He
accepted the flowers, the thorns, the leaves, the
stem, the roots and in fact the plant in its entirety.
Albert Schweitzer remarked that the religion of
India is life negative. And this is correct to a large
extent. However Krishna is left out. His statement
is utterly wrong in the context of Krishna. If
Schweitzer had tried to understand Krishna he
would never have said so.
It is indeed unfortunate that we did not allow
Krishna to influence our life in its totality. He
remains the solitary dancing island in the vast
ocean of sorrow and misery that our life is. Or, we
can say he is a small oasis of joyous dancing and
celebration in the vast desert of sadness and
negativity, suppression and condemnation that we
really are. Krishna could not influence our entire
life, and for this we are alone to blame. Krishna is
not in the least responsible for it. We were not that
worthy, or deserving, to have him, or imbibe him,
or absorb him.
Up to now, man looked at life in fragments. Also
life is thought dialectically. The religious man
denies the body and accepts the soul. Thus he
creates a dichotomy between the body and spirit.
He denies this world, he accepts the life beyond.
Naturally our life is going to be sad and miserable
if we deny the body, because all our life’s juice – its
health and vitality, its sensitivity and beauty, and
all its music – has its source in the body. So a
religion that denies the body is bound to be
miserable. Such a religion is bound to be lifeless
like a dry leaf fallen from a tree. And the people
who follow such a religion, and allow themselves
to be conditioned by it, will also be sick and prone
to death as these leaves are.
Krishna alone accepts the body in its totality. And
he accepts it not in any selected dimension but in
all its dimensions. Apart from Krishna, Zarathustra
is another. About him it is said he was born
laughing. Every child enters this world crying.
Only one child in the entire history laughed at the
time of his birth, and that was Zarathustra. And
this is an indication of the fact that a happy and
laughing humanity is yet to be born. And only a
joyful and laughing humanity can accept Krishna
in its totality. Krishna has a great future.
After Freud the world of religion is not going to be
the same as it was before him. Freud stands as a
watershed between the religions of the past and the
religion of the future. With Freud a great revolution
has taken place and human consciousness attained
a breakthrough. We shall never be the same again
after Freud. A new peak of consciousness has been
touched and a new understanding, an altogether
new perspective, a new vision of life has come into
being. And it is essential to understand it rightly.
All the religions of the past taught suppression as
the only way to God as a result he was to suppress
everything – his sex, his anger, his greed, and his
attachments. It was believed that only then he
would find his soul, would attain to God. This war
of man against himself has continued long enough.
And in the history of thousands of years of this
war, barely a handful of people, whose names can
be counted on one’s finger can be said to have
found God. So in a sense we lost this war, because
down the centuries billions of people died without
discovering their souls, or meeting God.
Certainly beyond doubt there must be a basic fault
in the very foundation of these religions. It is as if a
gardener has planted ten thousand trees and out of
them only one tree brings fruits – and yet we accept
his scripture on gardening on the basis that at least
one tree has blossomed. But we fail to take into
consideration that this single tree might have been
an exception to the rule. Or it might have
blossomed on its own. The rest of the trees, that
remained barren, bear testimony that the gardener
has failed.
If a Buddha, or a Mahavira or a Christ attains to
God in spite of these fragmentary and conflict-
ridden religions, it is no testimony to the success of
these religions at all. The success of a religion, or let
us say the success of the gardener, should be
acclaimed only when all the trees of his garden,
with the exception of one or two, flower. Then the
blame could be laid at the foot of the remaining tree
for its failure to bloom. Then it could be said that
this tree remained barren in spite of the gardener.
note asking him to abduct her from the wedding
Krishna did not run away. As one who has known
and experienced God, he alone does not turn his
face from war or any other situation. He is full of
love and compassion, and yet he has the courage to
accept and fight the war. His heart is totally non -
violent, yet he plunges into the fire and fury of
violence when it becomes unavoidable. He accepts
the nectar, and yet he is not afraid of poison.
In fact, one who knows the deathless should be free
of the fear of death. And of what worth is that
nectar which is afraid of death? One who knows
the secret of non-violence should cease to fear
violence. What kind of non-violence is it that is
scared of violence? And how can the spirit, the
soul, fear the body and run away from it? And
what is the meaning of God if he cannot take the
whole of this world in his embrace?

With Freud a new kind of awareness has dawned

on man. Suppression is wrong. It brings with it
nothing but self-pity and anguish. If a man fights
with him he can only ruin and destroy him. If I
allow my left hand fight with my right hand,
neither is going to win, but in the end the contest
will certainly destroy me. While my two hands
fight with one another, I alone will be destroyed in
the process. That is how, through denial and
suppression of his natural instincts and emotions,
man became suicidal and killed himself.

Krishna alone is relevant to the new awareness. In

the wake of new understanding that came to man
because of Freud and his findings Krishna hold the
future. It is so because in the whole history of the
old humanity Krishna alone is against repression.

He accepts life in all its facets, in all its climates and

colors. He alone does not choose one thing for the Krishna accepts the duality the dialectics of life
other. Instead he accepts life unconditionally. He altogether and therefore transcends duality.
does not deny love. Being a man he does not run Transcendence is not possible so long as there is
away from women. When Rukmani send him the conflict or as long as you choose one part and reject
the other. Transcendence is only possible when you
are choice less and accept life in its totality. That is
why Krishna has great significance for the future.
And his significance will continue to grow with the
passage of time. When the glow and the glamor of
all other godmen and messiahs has dimmed, when
the suppressive religions of the world have been
thrown in the waste basket of history, Krishna’s
flame will be attain to its peak, moving towards
the pinnacle of its brilliance. It will be so because,
for the first time, man will be able to comprehend
and understand him. And not only will that man be
able to imbibe him. And it will be so because, for
the first time, man will really deserve Krishna and
his blessings.
It is really difficult to understand Krishna. It is easy
to understand that a man should run away from
the world if he wants to find peace, but it is really
difficult to accept that one can find peace in the
thick of the market place. It is understandable that
a man can attain to purity of mind if he breaks
away from his attachments, but it is really difficult
to realize that one can remain unattached and
innocent in the very midst of relationships and
attachments, that one can remain calm and still live
at the very center of the cyclone. There is no
difficulty in accepting that the flame of a candle
will remain steady and still in a place well secluded
from winds and storms, but how can you imagine
that a candle can remain lit steadily even in the
midst of raging storms and hurricanes? So it is
difficult even for those who are close to Krishna to
understanding Krishna.
For the first time in his long history man has
attempted a great and bold experiment through
Krishna. For the first time, through Krishna, man
has tested, and tested fully his own strength and
intelligence. It has been tested and found that man
can remain, like a lotus in water, untouched and
unattached while living in the throes of
relationship. It has been discovered that man can
hold to his love and compassion even on the battle
field that he can continue to love with his whole
being while wielding a sword in his hand.
It is this paradox that makes Krishna difficult to
understand. Therefore, people who have loved and
worshipped him have done so by dividing him into
parts, and they have worshipped his different
fragments, of their liking. No one has accepted and
worshipped the whole of Krishna. No one has
embraced him in his entirety. Poet Surdas sings
superb hymns of praise to the Krishna of his
childhood, Bal Krishna. Surdas’ Krishna never
grows up, because there is a danger with a grown-
up Krishna which Surdas cannot take. There is not
much trouble with a boy Krishna flirting with the
young women of his village, but it will be too much
if a grown-up Krishna does the same. Then it will
be difficult to understand him.
We can understand something on our own plane,
on our own level. There is no way to understand
something on a plane other than ours.
So for their adoration of Krishna, different people
have chosen different facets of his life. Those who
love the Bhagwad Gita will simply ignore the
SRIMAS BHAGVATAM, because the Krishna of
the GITA differs from the Krishna of the
BHAGVATAM. Similarly, those who love the
BHAGVTAM will avoid getting involved with the
GITA. While the Krishna of the GITA stands on a
battlefield surrounded by violence and war, the
Krishna of the BHAGVATAM is dancing, singing
and celebrating. There is seemingly no coordination
whatsoever between the two.
Krishna will remain beyond human understanding
until you are transformed. Arjuna could
understand Krishna because he was transformed
first and then he could visualize the cosmic nature
and the form of Krishna. Seek transformation you
will come to realize the essence of Krishna.
 Stealing the Clothes of Gopis
There are two types of veils. One is that which veils the manifestation of God.
Know this as Maya. The other veils the jiva or microcosm. Know this as vasna or lust.
When these two veils are removes one gets the vision of divinity! This is ‘Raso vaishya’!
T
here are two types of veils. One is that which
veils the manifestation of God. Know this as
Maya. The other veils the jiva or microcosm.
Know this as vasna or lust. When these two veils are
removes one gets the vision of divinity! This is ‘Raso
vaishya’!
Just as when you roast the seed its capacity of growth is
destroyed. So too when an aspirant comes to me I
destroy the desire seed. Thus is destroyed the capacity
of the seed to bring forth new fruits and the seeds. And
when this desire seed is destroyed aspirant can continue
the inward journey. This is why I order the RASA LILA
in different forms.
One of the pastime of Krishna is the stealing of the
clothes of the Gopis while they were bathing. This is
highly misunderstood. The acts that Krishna performed
cannot be understood at the level of the mind. And
when you look at these at the level of the mind you are
sure to misunderstand. These are mystical in nature.
Therefore these need the mystical insights of an
enlightened one.
Stealing the clothes of gopis is by far the most popular
childhood tale of Krishna. First try to understand the
incident in simple terms as recorded in the Srimad
Bhagavatam: and then I will give the mystical insight.
“In the first month of winter, the girls of Nanda’s village
performed a certain vow to the goddess Katyayani
(Durga). They ate rice cooked with clarified butter. They
bathed in the water of the Kalindi (another name of
Yamuna) river at sunrise. They made an image of the
goddess out of sand and worshipped it with fragrant
perfumes and garlands, with offerings and incense and
lamps, and with bouquets of flowers, fresh sprigs of
leaves, fruits, and rice. And they prayed: ‘Goddess
Katyayani, great mistress of yoga, empress of great
deluding magic, make the son of the cow-herd Nanda
my husband. I bow to you.’ Saying this prayer, the girls
would worship her, and having set their hearts on
Krishna, the girls performed this vow for a month. Also
they worshipped Bhadrakali (Durga) so that the son of
Nanda (Krishna) would be their husband.
Arising at dawn, calling one another by name, they
would join hands and go to bathe in the Kalindi every
day, singing loudly about Krishna as they went. This
was everyday practice of these girls. One day, when
they had gone to the river and taken off their clothes on
the bank as usual, they were playing joyfully in the
water, singing about Krishna. Krishna, the lord of all
masters of yoga, came there with his friends of the same
age in order to grant them the object of their rites. He
took their clothes and quickly climbed a Nipa tree, and
laughing with the laughing boys he told what the joke
was: ‘Girls, let each one of you come here and take her
own clothes as she wishes. I promise you, this is no jest,
for you have been exhausted by your vows. I have never
before told an untruth, and these boys know this.
Slender-waisted ones, come one by one or all together
and take your clothes.’
When the cow-herd girls saw what his game was, they
were overwhelmed with love, but they looked at one
another in shame, and they smiled, but they did not
come out. Flustered and embarrassed by Krishna’s
words and by his jest, they sank down up to their necks
in the icy water, and, shivering, they said to him, ‘You
should not have played such a wicked trick. We know
you as our beloved, son of the cow-herd Nanda, the
pride of the village. Give us our clothes, for we are
trembling. O darkly handsome one, we are your slaves
and will do as you command, but you know dharma:
give us our clothes or we will tell your father, the
chieftain.’
The lord said to them, ‘If you are my slaves and will do
as I command, then come here and take back your
clothes, O brightly smiling ones.’ Then all the girls,
shivering and smarting with cold, came out of the
water, covering their crotches with their hands. The lord
was pleased and gratified by their chaste actions, and he
looked at them and placed their clothes on his shoulder
and smiled and said, ‘Since you swam in the water
without clothes while you were under a vow, this was
an insult to the divinity (to Varuna, god of the waters).
Therefore you must fold your hands and place them on
your heads and bow low in expiation of your sin, and
then you may take your clothes.’
When the village girls heard what the infallible one
said, they thought that bathing naked had been a
violation of their vows, and they bowed down to
Krishna, the very embodiment of all their rituals, who
had thus fulfilled their desires and wiped out their
disgrace and sin. Then the lord, the son of Devaki, gave
their clothes to them, for he felt pity when he saw them
bowed down in this way and he was satisfied with
them. Though they were greatly deceived and robbed of
their modesty, though they were mocked and treated
like toys and stripped of their clothes, yet they held no
grudge against him, for they were happy to be together
with their beloved. Rejoicing in the closeness of their
lover, they put on their clothes; their bashful glances, in
the thrall of their hearts, did not move from him.
Knowing that the girls had taken a vow because they
desired to touch his feet, the lord with a rope around his
waist said to the girls, ‘Good ladies, I know that your
desire is to worship me. I rejoice in this vow, which
deserves to be fulfilled. The desire of those whose hearts
have been placed in me does not give rise to further
desire, just as seed corn that has been boiled or fried
does not give rise to seed. You have achieved your aim.
Now, girls, go back to the village and you will enjoy
your nights with me, for it was for this that you fine
ladies undertook your vow and worship.’ When the
girls heard this from Krishna, they had obtained what
they desired; and, meditating upon his lotus feet, they
forced themselves to go away from him to the village.”
Srimad Bhagavatam10:22:1-28.
Compare: Brahmavaivarta Purana 1:27;
Brhaddharma Purana 3:17.
This was the version as narrated in Srimad Bhagvatam.
Another narration is given now. In spite of certain differences
the theme is common. And this is what you need to focus.
By the time Krishna was seven years old, he was both a
darling of and a terror to the gopis in Vrandavan. The
gopis loved his cute appearance and radiant face, but
hated it (or pretended to) when he stole butter and curd
from their homes and shattered their earthen water pots
with his sling. Very often Gopis would complain to his
mother, Yashoda. With constant complaints Yashoda
would be compelled to scold or even punish Krishna in
front of the gopis. This irked Krishna and he thirsted for
revenge.
It so happened one afternoon he saw the gopis bathing
in a secluded spot in the river, Yamuna. They took off
their garments as these lay on the riverbank. They enter
the river bare for the bath. Krishna saw this and decided
to take the revenge. So he collected all the clothes and themselves as His slaves and were more than happy to
scuttled up a tree and ensconced himself in the do whatever he asked them to do.
branches. The ladies came out of the water, laughing at
After having returned the clothes of the unclad gopis
the latest village gossip. Water droplets were trickling
bathing in the sacred waters of river Yamuna, Krishna
down their bodies and their long, black hair were falling
congratulated them for their unflinching devotion
on their backs like serpents. When they realized that
towards him and promised that he would sport with
their garments were missing there was a horrific shriek.
them during the forthcoming autumn nights.
They realized the presence of someone and were sure
that the person has taken their clothes. The gopis True to his word, when he observed the blooming
covered their nakedness with their arms as best as they jasmines, and the moon smearing the eastern sky a
could and looked around for their clothes. brilliant crimson red (like a lover returning after a long
absence makes his beloved blush with his touch), all
Suddenly they spotted their clothes hanging on the
being conducive, Krishna let forth from his flute a
branches of a tree well out of reach. Then they saw
breathtaking symphony, which stole the hearts of the
Krishna and realized what had happened. But Krishna
gopis of Vraja (modern day Mathura and Vrandavana).
refused to acknowledge them and began playing his
flute. They begged in vain but Krishna would not relent.
After they had pleaded, Krishna told them to come out
from hiding so that he could see them one by one. And
then seek forgiveness for complaining every now and
then to his mother. The gopis readily complied. But
Krishna was not through. He dropped one garment. The
gopis leapt upon it and Krishna enjoyed the ensuing
scuffle till the owner retrieved her garment and put it
on. This continued till all the garments were delivered.
Then Krishna jumped down from the tree and departed
nonchalantly playing his flute. He heard one of the
gopis remarking. ‘Thank God! He is only seven.’ And
Krishna could not figure out what difference it made
whether he was seven or seventeen.

In the Bhagwat Purana this incident is presented in a
philosophical manner. At this time the gopis were
engaged in a month long ritual in which they were
praying to Durga to make Krishna their husband. By
bathing naked in the river they had exposed their bare
bodies to the demi-God Varun, who resides in all water
bodies, thereby vitiating the effect of their prayers. So as
not to lose the effect of their prayers, they would have to
atone for the sin that they had committed. The
atonement was that they come out of the water with
their clasped hands held high and then collect their
garments. The gopis considered Krishna their God and
What actually veils the spirit or the soul from
manifestation? It is in fact the ignorance or ego, or Nafs
that veils the light of the being from manifestation.
Clothes are the veil - that obstructs the light mystically.
A master strips you naked of your mind, conditioning,
thoughts and thus makes you appear innocent in front
of the master bereft of any veil. This is what is to be
understood by this incident. If you try to understand
such incident in their dictionary meaning you are bound
to misunderstand. Scriptures are the narration of the
sages as a device of transformation.
 Rasa Lila:
The divine love-play
In Vrandavan Dhama
Woh hai Rangeela, Chail chabeela, Rasa rachaiya.
Woh hai natkhat, woh jamunatat phere lagaye murli bajaye,
Gopiyon ke sang raas rachaaye, Murli bajaiyaa
raas rachaiyaa, shyam salona hai…...

Jo hai albela mad nainowala….

jiski deewani brij ki har bala

woh kisna hai,woh kisna hai…….

The “sweet pastime” of Krishna

Lord Krishna’s disappearance

H
owever, the Gopis became filled with pride
and considered themselves superior to
each other after performing Rasa Lila with
Krishna. One night during Rasa Lila, Krishna while
in Rasa, suddenly disappeared from the scene to
remove the Gopis ego. On not finding Krishna
amongst them, they became extremely miserable
and started praying to make him come back. They
then sang songs now popularly known as Gopika
Gitam. After which they started crying and fell
silent. Krishna returned smilingly, when he saw that
the Gopis had learnt their lesson and had been
cured of vanity. After which he blessed them with
Maha Rasa. The eternal love legend
Rasa Lila is based on the legendary love story of
Radha Krishna. The loving interplay between God
and the human soul is interpreted through Lord
Krishna and his love play with the Gopis. The
blissful love of Radha for Krishna can be seen as the
soul’s wish to be one with the Almighty. It finds
itself manifesting in many ways.
Though Radha never married Krishna, her love for
him was so total and pure that even today we
worship Krishna along with Radha. This love story
has been called ‘Rasa’ by the great Rishi Vyasa. All
artists; be it a musician, painter or poet have been
besotted with this love story.
The Divine Dance Form
The classical Manipuri dance presents the love story
of Lord Krishna and Radha, his
beloved, along with the cowherd
girls in Vaishnavite style. It is the
most beautiful presentation of
Rasa Lila.
But in different parts of the
country Rasa Lila is performed in
different ways along with folk
songs and devotional music.
Usually Rasa Lilas are performed
only by boys or boys disguised as
girls.
Rasa Lila performances by Vaishnavas of Vrandavan
are considered to be an out of the world experience.
The eternal spiritual abode of Radha Krishna, the
Sakhis and Nitya Vrandavana Dham are described in
the devotional songs, chanted during the
performances.
Rasa Lila on Janmashtami
The Rasa Lilas form one of the most important
aspects of Janmashtami or the birth celebrations of
Krishna. Nowadays boys in the age group of 10-13
perform these acts with main focus being on the
formative years of Lord Krishna.
Rasa Lila has now attained such proportions that the
devotees rush to touch the feet of the boy who plays
the Lord. The young boy becomes the embodiment of
Krishna himself during
the festival.
The holy Nidhi Ban, Seva
Kunja and Nidhuban are
gardens where Krishna
performed many of his
pastimes. It is believed
that on the eve of
Janmashtami, Krishna
performs Rasa Lila with
Radha Rani and other
‘gopis’ here. No one is allowed to stay inside after
dusk because according to popular belief the Krishna
visits the place with Sri Radha Rani.
Seva Kunj is surrounded by temples like Radha
Damodar Temple, Radha Syamasundara Temple,
Radha-Vrandavan-Kendra Temple.
At Nidhiban (Nidhuban, Nidhuvan), Krishna is said to
have rested with his beloved Sri Radha Rani. The
shrine inside has a bed, which is decorated with
flowers by the priest every evening. This divine dance
form has continued to enthrall all across the
centuries and continues to do so. There is nothing
more pure than this dance that expresses passionate
love for the Almighty.

Kumati is a life lived in cowardice and ignorance of the higher ideals. A life wasted in pursuit of
material acquisition and scholarly rhetoric with no inkling to spirituality. What Adi Shankara calls
dukrinyakarane – useless indulgence in the semantics and rules of grammar without understanding
the essence of the message? Or what Shakespeare refers to as ‘a tale told by an idiot full of sound
and fury but signifying nothing.’ Kumati is an application of intelligence in trivia and pettiness. This
word kumati comes from two words ku and mati. Ku implies the negative or outward or the
downward movement of the energy or faculty of discerning. And mati refers to the faculty that can
discern. It is the opposite of Sumati . Sumati implies the use of the discerning faculty for the positive
or inward movement of the energy. And transformation happens only when the energy moves
within.
HANUMAN CHALISA – A Mystical Dimension
Swami Anand Neelambar
 THE IMMACULATE MISTAKE

To trust when doubts is thy only companion

To dream when nightmares is thy only vision

To believe when despairs is thy soul’s solace

To hope when lies is thy constant comfort

To rise above deceit and still be fooled

To love and feel the pain and hurt

To need a touch and receive a fist

To care when it is too late

To wish when the memories are faded

To desire when the heart is broken

To heal when the scars are open

To feel a power not your own

To hold a friend from falling when you can’t stand

To help a needy when you don’t have for yourself

To give thanks in thy pity

To win and not seek reward

To lose and not feel remorse

To think when the head is confused

To breathe and feel the pulse of death.

The immaculate mistake is to die in vain

Never trusting that all things are possible

With the gentle hand of love.

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