The search for salvation becomes meaningful only when the aspirant realises that Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya are to be mandatorily cultivated. There is no other easy route and the Upanishads too state that without renunciation liberation is not possible.
The Bhagavata Purana focuses on Bhakti to the Supreme Lord so that we realise gradually that by seeking God we automatically develop the Jnana and Vairagya. In a lecture, Srimati Prema Pandurang pointed out that the episode of the Gopi’s single-minded love for Krishna exemplifies the stages by which such a love subsumes all other blemishes such as ego sense, pride, and worldly attachments that act as hurdles in our search for salvation.
The mesmerising notes from Krishna’s flute brought the Gopis to the woods and they were overwhelmed with love for Him. It was a divine experience when they lost themselves totally to Krishna, the ideal state of attaining oneness with the Supreme. The Gopis then felt themselves as special ones, being thus favoured by the Lord. They succumbed to the human failing of pride and a sense of superiority when they realised that the Lord had treated them with special concern.
The omniscient Lord, decided to purge them of their ego. The Lord left their presence and walked away with Radha. As they suffered pangs of separation from Him, they enacted the exploits of Krishna and became almost mad.
They now began searching for Krishna and spotted only Radha who also had been abandoned by the Lord. She too had been caught by pride. All of them now realised their folly and began to feel penitent about their petty sense of ego. Once this self-realisation dawned on them the Lord appeared in their midst and gave them again a chance to revel in their union with Him.
When the dance began, the Lord stood between two Gopis so that each Gopi felt His immediate presence. The celestials rushed to Brindavan to savour this marvellous spectacle.
The Gopis’s longing for Krishna symbolises the Soul’s quest for the Lord and teaches us the value of humility.
