What is reason behind Sri Krishna’s false sleep ?

‘shritum shrotra-manoharam vrajavadhu – lilâm – itho – jalpitam’. It means, ‘to hear the attractive conversation of the Vrajavadhus’.

Meaning of ‘Vrajavadhu’ and ‘lilâ’ in the verse

“Vrajavadhus are those who bind Sri Krishna with the cords of love-ras. He is performing the pastime of false sleep so as to witness how they steal His flute, and to hear their ras-full conversations.

“Lilâ” – means imitating a dear one by dressing up and acting like He does”. – (U.N.)

For example Sri Ratimanjari told her sakhi –

“O Beautiful One! Look, there is Râdhâ Who is deranged in Sri Krishna’s viraha^[1], so She is smearing musk on Herself, has worn yellow garments, has tied Her hair with beautiful peacock feathers, has worn a garland of wild flowers, and is imitating Madhuripu (Krishna) by playing the flute. May She protect us!”

– (Chhando-manjari)

Flute stealing – a very sweet lilâ

“Sri Râdhârâni slowly moved Her feet in a manner so as to silence Her anklets, carefully moved Her gold bangles upwards and casting swift glances all around, smilingly lifted the flute right from Mâdhav’s lap.” – (Padyâvali – 254)

Sri Krishna is performing this false–sleep to witness such captivating sweet pastimes (for example, flute-stealing) and to relish the sweet conversations of Sri Râdhârâni and the sakhis.

What sort of conversation ?

“shrota – manoharam’. It means ‘that which steals the auditory senses and the mind.’ The Vrajavadhus’ conversation steals the auditory senses because it is sweet, soft and pleasing. It steals the mind because it is charged with meaning. The mind is the director of all the other senses. Hence when the mind is attracted, all other senses stop functioning. Hence Sri Krishna is spellbound when He hears such sweet talk.

Explanation of ‘prem- odbheda – nirargata – prasrimara – pravyakta – romodgamam’

It means that Sri Krishna’s deep love is extremely enhanced. So He cannot contain His excitement. His hairs are standing on end. Let us worship that false–sleep of Sri Krishna.

Srila Kavirâj Goswâmipâd has explained the word ‘upâsmahe’ (literal meaning = we worship), as ‘pashyâmah’ meaning ‘we behold’. Srila Bhatta Goswâmipâd has written ‘sevema’ or ‘we serve’. Both express the true feelings of Sri Lilâshuk. Besides these, from the point of view of the sâdhak, there may be another explanation of ‘upâsanâ’. (‘upâsmahe’ is the verb-form of ‘upâsanâ’). Sripâd Shankarâchârya has defined ‘upâsanâ’ in the preface to the purport of Chhândogya Upanishad^[2] as –

” ‘Upâsanâ’ is defined as meditating on some object specified in the Scriptures and uniting the mind so completely with it that we should not be aware of anything else.”

Meditating on the daily pastimes of Sri Sri Gour–Govinda is an intimate bhajan of the Goudiya Vaishnavs. We should control our mind and gradually absorb the mind in the Divine pastimes. We should practice this so that the subconscious mind is not aware of anything other than the forms, qualities and pastimes. Srimad Jiva Goswâmi has chalked out the method of practicing ‘smaran’ in a very expert manner. He says.

“Smaran consists of five stages-

(1) When we think of the pastimes occasionally, with intervals, it is called ‘smaran’.

(2) When we wilfully drag our inner mind away from all sense objects and think of the pastimes in an ordinary manner it is called ‘dhâranâ’.

(3) When we meditate and can see distinctly the forms and qualities of all that is involved in the pastimes, it is called ‘dhyân’.

(4) When we meditate unbrokenly (continuously) like a flow of nectar, it is called ‘dhruvânusmritih’.

(5) When all the pastimes spontaneously (without any conscious effort on our part) fill our inner mind as soon as as we wish to meditate, it is called samâdhi. – (B.S.278)

Generally in the practicing stage, we may attain smaran, dhâranâ and dhyân. Dhruvânusmriti is attained when we possess ‘bhâv–bhakti’ and samâdhi is possible on reaching prem-bhakti alone.21.