[Advaita-l] Raslila

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

> where does bhAgavata says krishna rAsaLIla was only in the dream of
> gOpika-s??
>

Bhaskar it is a pity you were not able to join us in Bangalore when we 
visited Swami Paramananda Bharati.  You would have been fascinated by his 
sage explanations of this and other topics.

Although you are correct that the Bhagavata does not explicitly say this, 
there are reasons to infer it.

first of all in 10.29.1 it specifically says that Bhagavan decided to 
start the Rasalila by means of his yogamaya.  (yogamAyAmupAshrita.h)

Secondly in the description of the reactions of the Gopis to the 
bewitching sound of the divine flute, the Bhagavata says some were milking 
the cows, some were serving food to their families, some were still 
cooking, some were bathing, some getting dressed, and some were going to 
sleep.  How could all these activities be going on at the same evening 
time.

Third in the process of describing the forests of Vraj, the Bhagavata 
mentions the flowers being in bloom and bees gathering honey etc. In other 
words signs of spring.  But the event is supposed to have taken place 
during Kartika which is autumn in Vraj.

Fourth, the Bhagavata says the Gopis never realized their wives were 
missing.  And I think if your wife suddenly ran away while serving you 
dinner you would notice wouldn't  you?!

Swami Paramananda drew attention to the fact that the participants are 
described as tejasvi which is not the first adjective one might think of 
to describe cowherd women.  But if you understand it as being in the 
taijasa state then it makes sense.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>