Lord Krishna and Gopis
Lord Krishna and the gopis
By Justice Katju
Man has two basic attributes, reason and emotion. While the French thinker Voltaire ( 1694-1778 ) emphasized on reason, the French political philosopher Rousseau ( 1712-1778 ) said that overemphasis on reason and ignoring emotion will result in man becoming cunning, crafty, scheming and totally selfish and calculating, instead of being patriotic and compassionate towards his fellow human beings
In this connection we may consider an episode.
Lord Krishna is a figure worshipped as a God by Hindus. When he grew up he permanently left Vrindavan, where he had spent his younger days, and went to Mathura, but the gopis ( girls) in Vrindavan were still madly in love with him.
Lord Krishna’s close friend was Udhav ( or Udho), who told him that the gopis should be advised to forget Krishna. They had at one time a teenage infatuation for him, but now that they had grown up and would soon be married and have families of their own, they should now display maturity and forget their love for Krishna
Now Udhav represents reason, while the gopis represent emotion or passion. Udhav was very learned in the Vedas and other shastras, but he did not know about the second attribute of man, viz. emotion. He was a gyani, who believed in nirguna barhman, and had no understanding of bhakti maarg.
Lord Krishna smiled at Udhav’s suggestion, and told Udhav to go himself to Vrindavan to explain to the gopis that they should forget him.
When Udhav reached Vrindavan he was very confident that with his reasoning ability he would be able to persuade the gopis to forget Krishna.
However, when he met the gopis and told them to forget Krishna, the gopis were shocked. They said to him :
” Udho, man na bhaye das bees
Ek huto so gayo Shyam sangh
Ko aaraadhe ees ”
( the verses are of Surdas, the great Hindi poet )
i.e.
” Udhav, we do not have ten or twenty minds
We have one, which has gone with Shyam ( Krishna ).”
When Udhav still tried to reason with them they started calling him a madman, and drove him out of Vrindavan.
When Udhav returned to Mathura and informed Lord Krishna about what happened in Vrindavan, the latter smiled, and told him that he ( Lord Krishna ) would have himself told Udhav that his effort would be futile, but Udhav was so full of vanity about his learning that Krishna thought that the only way he would understand was by personal experience. So he sent Udhav to meet the gopis in Vrindavan.
I have mentioned the above story to explain that what is needed in India today is not just reason but also emotion ( in the form of patriotism and the passionate desire to help our suffering countrymen and women ) to solve India’s massive socio-economic problems of widespread poverty, record and rising unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index, and the condition is getting worse, India slipping from position number 101 to 107 in recent years of the 125 countries surveyed), almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc.
Patriotism and a passionate desire to help the country is the crying need of the hour, but the unfortunate fact is that today’s Indian youth, who should be in the forefront of this struggle, are almost totally selfish and unpatriotic. After completing their studies they only want comfortable well paid jobs in the civil services, or in the corporate sector, or as doctors or engineers, or to go to a western country to settle there. There is no patriotism or desire in them to serve and uplift India.
A classic example of the patriotism required today in India is of the ancient Roman Cincinnatus, who had retired from public life and had become a farmer, but who was summoned by the Roman Senate to take command of the Roman army with dictatorial powers when Rome was in mortal danger, being attacked by an enemy.
After defeating the enemy, Cincinnatus relinquished all his powers and command of the army, and returned to his plough as a simple farmer
In the American War of Independence ( 1775-81 ) great Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. came forward to lead their country’s fight against British rule, at the risk of their own lives. These were rich people, and if they had only thought and cared for themselves and their own families they would never have fought the British rulers who would have hanged them if the former were defeated. But it was the spirit of patriotism which made them forget their own comforts and self interest to fight for their country.
Similarly, in India, great revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda), Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Asfaqullah, Sukhdev, Khudiram Bose, etc gave their lives fighting against British rule without a thought for themselves.
One of my heroes is John Brown, who though a white man, gave his life fighting against slavery of blacks in America
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879 ) the publisher of the journal ‘The Liberator’, who strongly advocated abolition of slavery in America, despite great personal dangers to himself, wrote :
” Slavery will not be overthrown without excitement, a most tremendous excitement “
Similarly, poverty, unemployment, hunger, and other great socio-economic evils in India, will not be overthrown without ‘tremendous excitement’, which means a massive, historical, united, protracted people’s struggle and a people’s revolution, led by patriotic, selfless, modern minded leaders determined to set up a political and social order under which the standard of living of our people steadily rises and they get decent lives
