You may ask –

‘O Uddhav! If you are born as a blade of grass, then you will remain on the side-walk, while the beautiful and fortunate Vraja-gopis will stroll away on the main road – then how will get their foot-dust?’

To this I reply –

‘When the flute will drive the Gopikâs mad and they will run helter-skelter towards their Prân-vallabh^[1], then as if they will realize which the road is and which the side-walk is! I am looking forward to that situation – and so I am begging to become a grass and moss.’

O sage! I wanted the foot-dust of the Gopis to perform my abhishek^[2] and this intense greed made me pray repeatedly to the dust of the lotus feet of the Brijwâsini Gopikâs. How sweetly they sang Sri Krishna-kirtan with voices that are absorbed in prem! How it purified the three worlds! After going to Brijdhâm I have repeated sung those songs that would immerse me in the ocean of bliss. It is well–known how I had behaved and what desire I had while I was in Brijdhâm. O exalted sage! I am afraid that if I glorify them I will start expressing the symptoms of Sri Bhagavân’s love-ecstasy and that is extremely painful and disastrous. As a result I cannot say anything more. I beg humbly of you that please do not insist on hearing further about this topic.”

Parikshit said – “Mother! Sri Rohini devi had resided for a long time in Gokul, and was very dear to those residents. When she heard Sri Uddhav speaking thus, she understood what he meant. She gazed at him with eyes full of tears and said, “Dear Uddhav! Please calm down. I have stopped thinking about them, and so I feel little bit happy now. Please don’t bring to memory those Brijwâsis – they are greatly unfortunate, struck by vast ill-fate, immersed in the ocean of grief, scorched in the forest-fire like viraha, and writhing in pain caused by the venom like separation. Ever since Sri Vasudev had brought me from Gokul, the painful picture of the Brijwâsis suffering in the pangs of viraha is still today sketched in my memory. At that time, the miserable cries of Mother Yashodâ had made hard rocks too weep with her; her piteous cry of suffering ahd disintegrated the Thunderbolt^[3], and who can describe the condition of Sri Râdhâ and the other Gopis? Who knows whether they are dead or alive?

Dear Uddhav! When your guru Sri Krishna had returned from the âshram of His guru Sândipani, then I had briefed Him about the situation in Brijdhâm. Although I knew that it was futile, still I told Him to lessen the burden of my heart. My words had certainly not softened your Master, for in stead of going there Himself, He sent you, who are an expert in oratory and ambassadorship.

O Uddhav! You have just now glorified the Brijwâsis as the ‘topmost recipient of Sri Krishna-kripâ’. Yet, we see that the Brijwâsis are struck with ill-fortune. Is this the characteristic of blessedness? When your Lord and Master was in Brijdhâm, He never brought them any joy – I assure you. I have lived long enough there, to come to this conclusion. Ever since Sri Krishna had gone there, demons have been troublig that land. Starting from Putanâ, right upto Keshi – there is no limit to the attacks by the asurs. Devatâs such as Varun and pythons too had caused so much trouble! The Brijwâsis never inquired in to the cause of their suffering; neither had they tried to mitigate it. They were only mesmerized by the Sri Krishna’s sweetness, and prayed for His welfare. They were never interested in their own welfare. The Brijwâsis had natural love for Him and they whatever they had – they surrendered to Him, for His pleasure. They knew Him as ‘Nanda-nandan’^[4]; they never considered Him as the ‘Supreme Being’ or the ‘Lion of the great Yadu dynasty’. Consequently they were in love with Him and it was possible for them to behave in such a manner.

Your Master lived in Brijdhâm purely out of selfish motive, and as long as He did that, He never ever did any favor on the Brijwâsis. And now that He has achieved His selfish ends, especially since He is living most happily with His relatives – what He is doing for them – we can very well imagine.

(Commentary – Rohini devi wants to say that – ‘Sri Krishna has abandoned the Brijwâsis, and is burning them in the tortuous fire of His viraha; one cannot describe how much He is deliberately tormenting them! Here there is none who can feel this pain, so I don’t want to go into the details.’)

When the old, senseless, impudent^[5] Padmavati (the mother of Kamsa) heard Rohini devi, she shook her head and exclaimed, “Aho! It is so sad! The Gopas were so cruel to dear Achyut! They sent Him to the dark and deep forest since childhood and engaged Him in cattle-grazing. They did not even give Him shoes although they made Him wander in the thorny woodlands. If driven by hunger, He ever drank little buttermilk or milk, the monstrous Gopis such as Yashodâ bound Him with ropes meant to tie the cattle! After Yashodâ had meted out such barbarous treatment to Him, if He, out of hunger, ever drank little milk from the neighbor’s house, they would holler and let loose all hell – “O Yashode! Look at this son of yours! He lets loose the calves; He mocks at us if we scold Him, sometimes He steals milk and curds and distributes them to the monkeys” etc. etc. such statements are very famous in Srimad-Bhâgavatam, is it not? What could the poor boy do? He was, after all, a mere child. Therefore, He was forced to tolerate all the suffering in silence. He bore tremendous pain and served their cattle; thus He has done them more than enough favor –now what more can He possibly do?”

Parikshit Mahârâj said – “Dear mother! Rohini devi, who was very serious, neglected Padmâvati’s speech entirely (as if she had not spoken at all), and addressed Uddhav. She said, “Dear Uddhav! Now your Master has vanquished all His enemies and has become the King of Kings. He is relaxing in the capital of the Yâdavs in peace. Currently even the devatâs are offering obeisance at His feet. Alas! Now He no longer remembers those poor Brijwâsis!”

Rukmini devi, who loves Sri Krishna more than her life, was so far listening silently to Rohini devi’s lamentations. Now she spoke – “Dear mother! The Lord is soft like butter from within. Without knowing what is going on in His heart, why do you speak so? The Lord has told me so much about the greatness of Sri Vrindâban and He has expressed such remarkable bhâvs – please hear about them. Do you know, the Lord speaks about Brijdhâm even in His sleep? Soemtimes He lovingly calls out sweetly to His cows – Gangâ, Yamunâ, Shyâmali, Dhavali? At other times, He stands in a beautiful tribhanga-form. Sometimes He says – ‘Mother! Please give me butter!’ Ocasionally He mistakenly addresses me as – ‘Dear Râdhe!’ or ‘Dear Lâlite!’ Now and then He tugs at the hem of my sari and exclaims, ‘Dear Chandrâvali! How can you deceive me so?’ Sometimes, He wets the ground with tears, and other times, He gets up from the bed, crying miserably. We drown in sorrow, when we hear His piteous cries.

(Commentary – We should remember that we can control Sri Bhagavân only by love, however to what extent we can control Him depends on the type and amount of love. The love of the Brijwâsis is supreme – amongst them, the prem of Srimati Râdhârâni is the topmost. Consequently, it is natural that they control Sri Bhagavân entirely. Yet we see that most of the times they are suffering in the pangs of viraha. This is because of two sweet prem-rasas – viraha (separation) and milan (conjugation). Both of them arise from prem, and so both are intensely blissful. Our preceptors have accepted viraha as a separate ‘ras’ in its own right, since viraha nourishes milan. Sri Ujjwal-Neelmani says –

‘binâ vipralambhena sambhogah pushtimashnute’

Srila Vishwanâth Chakravartipâd has explained this statement in his Ânanda-chandrika purport as follows –

You may ask, “If the only function of viraha is to nourish the conjugal ras, then why call it a separate ras? Why not consider it simply a part of sambhog-ras?” We reply that—viraha does not have only one function—that is, to nourish sambhog-ras; when a lover and His beloved have the permanent mood of passion and love, then viraha arouses intense sphurti of each other in them. Their world becomes full of one another. Viraha gives them a relish that is much more exceptionally wonderful that even sambhog-ras. As a result, we feel justified in conferring on viraha the status of a separate ‘ras’.

Viraha is more prominent in the Vraja-beauties. It is this viraha that has made their love unsurpassed in all creation. When a large elephant walks freely on the road, we cannot ascertain the degree of its strength; however if the elephant is tied up with fetters, and it displays its complete strength to break free from the shackles, all are astonished to see the vast amount of strength it possesses. Similarly, during milan, the lovers can relish each others howsoever they wish – thus we cannot estimate the prowess of their anurâg. But when they are shackled by the fetters of viraha, and they cannot relish their beloved according to their desire, then alone the agitation of anurâg bursts from within. Then the rasik devotees can realize the strength of their anurâg.

It is as if the Gopis’ viraha is like an ocean, and Sri Bhagavân has churned this ocean using viraha like Mount Mandâr^[6]. When the devatâs and the asurs had churned the Ocean of Milk, it had thrown up plenty of gemstones. Similarly, Sri Krishna has churned the viraha-ocean of the Gopis so that they throw up all the precious dazzling bhâvs that were hitherto concealed in their bosom, and now He has placed this garland of prized bhâvs around the His loving devotees. The truth is that, Sri Bhagavân had not forsaken them. Love naturally makes the lovers experience one another. During viraha, externally the lovers burn in separation, however inside they enjoy the intense pleasure of experience of their loved one. Therefore, the Mahâjan has said –

“The tormentuous viraha of the Vraja-gopis is continually dancing in glory over all the pleasures of the realm of love.”

This means that – if we take the sum total of allthe joys of love – even then the pain of viraha is so much more pleasurable than all these joys taken together, that it celebrates victory over conjugation. This is the exceptional state called ‘mingling of poison and amritam’ in prem. It is a peculiar condition. Thus, although Sri Bhagavân is residing in Dwârakâ, we should remember that He is subordinate to love and that He is relishing the remarkable prem-ras of the Vraja-gopis in this manner.)

Rukmini Devi said, “Mother! Even last night the Lord saw some dream and has become miserable. He was crying and is now depressed. He has covered His beautiful face with His upper cloth and is lying down as if He is asleep. Alas! He has not performed any of His daily duties.”

Hearing this, Queen Satyabhâmâ said in envy, “O Bhâmini! Are you mad? As if the Lord behaves like this only in sleep! He acts in such a manner even when He is awake! Realy, I think we are His wives only in name; in fact, even the maid servants of the Vraja-gopis are more dear to Him than we are.”

King Parikshit said––“Mother! When Sri Baladev, Sri Krishna’s elder brother heard the queens speak in this manner, He seemed to become angry. He said, “O daughters-in-law! We are engrossed in discussing the poor Brijwâsis; that is how brother Krishna is pretending to be asleep and is putting on the act of seeing dreams. He is trying to deceive us. I have been to Brijdhâm to console the Brijwâsis. I understood very well, that no one other than Sri Krishna can restore their health and happiness. So, on returning, I pleaded with Him in all earnest, “Dear brother Krishna! Please go to Braja once and save the Brijwâsis.” He assured me “I will”, yet in His heart He does not desire the same.

As soon as Sri Krishna heard this, He quickly got up from the bed and because He is completely under the control of His dear ones, He started crying loudly. As He left the bed, tears streamed continueally from His eyes that are as beautiful as the petals of a fully bloomed lotus. He said in a choked voice, “True! My heart is made up of great thunderbolt, since it is still not breaking into pieces. Those Brijwâsis brought me up and took care of me since childhood, yet I am so callous that I have now forgotten their extraordinary love. Forget helping them in any small way, I am only tormenting the gentle Brijwâsis. Dear brother Uddhav! You know everything and are dear to me––please, immediately tell me what should I do? Please save me from this ocean of sorrow!”

Parikshit Mahârâj said—“Mother! Devaki mâtâ, the ever-loving mother, was afraid that Sri Uddhav would advise her son to go to Gokul, so she replied before Uddhav could open his mouth. She said, “Dear child! The brijwâsis are indeed your best well-wishers. Just give them all that they want.” Hearing this, Padmâvati, the Queen of the Yadu dynasty (since she was King Ugrasen’s wife), became instantly afraid that Sri Krishna would give the kingdom to the Brijwâsis. Therefore, although Rohini had disr