Srimad Bhagavatam
Canto Ten. Volume 7. Chapter 29
TRANSLATION AND PURPORT BY Mahamandaleshwar Mahant Sri Krsna Balaram Swamiji
Lord Krsna disappears from the Gopis
Text 2
tadodurajah kakubhah karor mukham
pracya vilimpann arunena santamaih
sa carsaninam udagac chuco mrjan
priyah priyaya iva dirgha-darsanah
Translation
Then, just as a lover is overjoyed upon meeting his beloved after a long period of time and adores her face decorated with vermilion (kumkuma) powder, similarly, the moon decorating the eastern-horizon with its vermilion-like soothing rays rose and removed everyone's exhaustion from the heat.
Purport
A rule of love is, it is not consistent at any stage, it is always unsteady, which is why the sages state that love always changes into new stages. There is a difference between someone overwhelmed with love and overwhelmed with lust for a person. One overwhelmed with lust gets frustrated in due course, because the infatuation reduces day after day until the emotion reverses. But love of Godhead always increases and never reverses at any stage, but only increases unlimitedly. Just as a greedy person is never satisfied with any amount of wealth they have acquired, similarly when love for God arises in a person's heart it only increases and only after meeting with the Lord it becomes pacified.
One has to be completely pure to be qualified to become a participant in one of the Lord's pastimes. To become pure one has to follow an authentic spiritual tradition directly descended in the unbroken chain of disciplic succession. Unless one rigidly follows this established procedure their spiritual life bears no fruit. As stated in the Nyaya Sastra, asampradaya vit sarva sastra vid-api murkhavad upeksa-niyah, "Even though one may be learned in the scriptures, if they do not know the details of the spiritual tradition they are following they are considered fools." One who does not know the science of spirituality properly cannot understand the Supreme Lord correctly. That is why the Vrhad-aranyaka Upanisad states, na vedavin manute tam brhantam, "One who does not believe that the Vedas reveal the real truth cannot understand the Supreme Lord." As stated in the Svetasvatara Upansad:
tasya priyam eva siro modo daksinah paksah pramoda
uttarah paksah ananda atma brahma puccham pratistha
"The Supreme Lord is the sum of total happiness and the source of all pleasure because anyone who genuinely participates in His spiritual path experiences pleasure. The side effect of accepting genuine spiritual life results in real happiness, because the right side of the Lord emanates pleasure and from His left comes happiness. The condition to obtain this happiness is that one has to become very dear to Him by becoming supremely pure."
The Gopis were supremely pure, that is how they could romantically participate with the Lord in His pastime. Confirming the purity of the Gopis the Padma Purana states, pura maharsayah sarve dandakaranya vasinah gokula stri garbha sambhutah, "All the sages who performed rigorous austerities in Dandakaranya forest took birth as Gopis from the womb of Vrajavasi ladies in Gokul to participate in the Lord's romantic dance." Furthermore in the Padma Purana it is stated, srutayo'pi gopyo jatah, gayatri casu jatah, "Gayatridevi and other personifications of scriptures also took birth as females from the wombs of the Gopis." In the Krsnayamala it is stated, devesv amsena jatasya krsnasya divi tustaye, "The goddesses from heaven appeared as Gopis in Gokul to please Lord Sri Krsna." Thus all the Gopis were the purest of all pure devotees, that's why they were qualified and could please the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.
One may wonder why does Sri Sukadeva Goswami give the example of the moon in this text? Lord Krsna appeared in the Moon Dynasty and is therefore related to the moon. In this moonlight Lord Krsna is attracting the Gopis who cannot be attracted to anyone except through marriage. Srila Jiva Goswami states that although the moon spreads its rays everywhere, it rises in the east and therefore gives its soothing rays first in the east, similarly Lord Krsna was loved by everyone in Vraja, still He first desired to remove the anxiety of the Gopis who wanted to romantically participate with Him. According to the Dasama Tippani the word carsani, everyone, specifically indicates to the human beings because although the moon's soothing rays remove everyone's fatigue, still the human beings appreciate it the most. As is confirmed by the Nirukti Dictionary, carsanir manuse sasye srante cadhvani vahane, "Human beings, crops, a tired entity, a path way, and a carrier cart are called carsani." Therefore even though Lord Krsna played His flute outside in the open, still only the Gopis heard it because they were truly qualified to be with Him. One may wonder why only the Gopis were qualified to hear the flute if all the Vrajavasis were pure devotees of Krsna and had played with Him? In answer the logic of the Visnu Purana states, "Unless one is supremely pure by practicing spiritual life for thousands of births one will not become truly qualified to participate in Lord Krsna's romantic pastimes." Just as if one is unaware of sugar candy's sweet taste but senses its sweetness as soon as their tongue tastes it, similarly even if the Gopis did not know Krsna is God, as soon as they first saw Him they were mesmerized and wanted to be with Him.
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