Hare Kṛṣṇa,
Another splendid section of the Gopī-gītā. The gopīs’ separation from Kṛṣṇa—their anguish, their glorification of Him, and their extraordinary poetic genius—seem to deepen with every verse.
In this lesson, I was able to draw two striking parallels to the pastimes of Śrī Mahāprabhu.
The gopis said, “O Kṛṣṇa, You exactly resemble Dhanvantari, the crest-jewel of physicians. Please give us some medicine, for we are fainting from the disease of lust. The medicinal nectar of Your lips enhances erotic pleasure and removes the pain of separation. You should not say, ‘How can I give such valuable medicine for free’, because You are a great hero in giving charity. Therefore, You should give it away freely, even to the most wretched persons. Consider that we are losing our lives and that now You can save us by giving us that nectar. After all, even Your flute, which is just a hollow bamboo stick, fully tastes the nectar of Your lips, and then exhales sweet melodies.”
Kṛṣṇa: “But the people in this world follow a very unhealthy diet of attachment to wealth, family, followers and so forth. I will not give the particular medicine you’ve requested to such people.”
Gopis: “But the medicinal nectar of Your lips makes one forget all other attachments. We have directly experienced that this remarkable medicine acts like a powerful herbal drug which counteracts bad dietary habits. Therefore, please give that nectar to us, O hero, since You are most charitable.” (SB 10.31.14 Saratha Darsini)
[Please kindly excuse me—I am exercising a bit of author’s liberty in extending this discussion further.
Kṛṣṇa thinks: My beloved gopīs are truly the most deserving recipients of the medicinal nectar of My lips. They are the best of devotees, knowing no one but Me. Having given up everything, they are fully surrendered unto Me.
But what of the pitiable living beings of the soon-to-arrive Kali-yuga? They are the most unfortunate—short-lived, quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky, and always disturbed (SB 1.1.10). They are burning in the blazing fire of material existence. They, more than anyone, need this medicinal nectar. They have no shelter and no hope other than Me. I am the Supreme Lord and the best well-wisher of all. How can I be unfair to them?]
Fast-forward five thousand years: Kṛṣṇa appears as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to freely distribute the medicinal nectar of His lips. That nectar is the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Śrīman Mahāprabhu did not consider our qualification or disqualification, nor did He mind our unhealthy diet of attachments to wealth, family, followers, and so on. He simply bestowed the mahā-mantra without restriction, giving it freely to all.
In the song Emona Durmati, Saṁsāra Bhitore, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura further reaffirms this truth.
nanda-suta jini, caitanya gosai,
nija nama kori’dana
tarilo jagat, tumi-o jaiya,
loho nija-paritrana
Translation: “Sri Caitanya, who is Krishna Himself, the son of Nanda, has saved the world by freely distributing His own holy name. Go also and receive your deliverance.”
Therefore, Srila Rupa Goswami glories Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in CC Madhya 19.53,
namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
“O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.” (CC Madhya 19.53)
*******
Another realization is the gopīs’ intense separation from Kṛṣṇa, where they anguishingly declare that even “a tiny fraction of a second becomes like a millennium.”
Gopis: When You go off to the forest during the day, a tiny fraction of a second becomes like a millennium for us because we cannot see You. And even when we can eagerly look upon Your beautiful face, so lovely with its adornment of curly locks, our pleasure is hindered by our eyelids, which were fashioned by the foolish creator. (SB 10.31.15)
In Text 15, the Gopis further says: “When You go to the forest of Vrndavana, a truti (1/1700 of a second) seems like a millennium (yugāyate) for us because we cannot see You. The pain of separation makes the eight hours You are away in the forest seem like three months for the other inhabitants of Vraja. But for us gopis, this eight hour-period seems as long as a billion ages. There is no cause for this except our bad fortune. Even when we get the opportunity to see Your face at the end of the day, the foolish creator makes us suffer by giving us eyelids to interrupt our vision of You. Thus even in seeing You we are thrown into an insurmountable ocean of suffering. The fraction of a second that an eyelid blinks is an interruption to our sight of You. Although it only takes nine hundred trutis for the eye to blink, it seems like nine hundred yugas to us. Thus we are so unfortunate that we suffer whether we see You or not.”
According to Maitreya Rsi, “The time duration needed for the integration of three trasareṇus is called a truṭi, and one hundred truṭis make one vedha. Three vedhas make one lava. The duration of time of three lavas is equal to one nimeṣa, the combination of three nimeṣas makes one kṣaṇa.” (SB 3.11.6)”
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also felt the same separation.
yugayitam nimeshena
chakshusha pravrishayitam
shunyayitam jagat sarvam
govinda-virahena me
“O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.” (Siksastakam 7)
Such is the deep, consuming separation felt by the gopīs—and echoed in Mahāprabhu’s heart. In this way, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya’s inner pastimes appear as a continued unfolding of the gopīs’ love in separation during the rāsa-līlā. It is this very love that Śrī Kṛṣṇa longed to relish.
***********
When will I, so fallen and unqualified, develop even a trace of the gopīs’ pure love and experience that sacred mood of separation from Kṛṣṇa, His intimate associates, Śrī Guru, and the Vaiṣṇavas? When will my heart soften enough to cry while chanting the Holy Name in separation? When will even an instant of forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa burn within me like a punishment worse than hell?
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 