0:20Feeling separation with Krishna when he goes out before us, and how to reconcile that with Radha-Karyalila when we know that Krishna meets with Radhika during the day. So they're lamenting and they would eat, but yet we also know that he's meeting. That is very simple. You have to just look at the context. The context is Pūrva-rāga. Pūrva-rāga means the awakening of prema in the state of separation, prior to having the chance to meet. That means that the gopīs have fallen in love with Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but they have not yet had the chance to meet with him, because it's Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam chapter 21.
1:13So the Rāsa-līlā doesn't begin until chapter 29. I thought that was 35. No. 35 is Yugala-gīta. Yugala-gīta, also I don't know Yugala-gīta, I'm sorry. I met Yugala-gīta. Oh, you met Yugala-gīta. Oh, well, that's a totally different question.
1:32So, in Venu-gīta, the answer is very clear, because the Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, they have not met yet.
1:50Also, because, one thing to consider, is because of the nature of prema, the nature of anurāga, that anurāga makes the experience of Kṛṣṇa and the experience of love new and fresh. So Pūrva-rāga, or the feeling of separation from Kṛṣṇa before having met with him, can also be experienced after having met with him, because the person, the gopīs, they can become forgetful that they ever met with him.
2:35And so, though Pūrva-rāga is a love prior to meeting, but even after meeting, it can be again experienced due to the influence of anurāga or mahābhāva, making the gopīs feel as if they've never met with him. And so there's something called prathama-samāgama, prathama-samāgama means the first meeting, and there's also such a thing that another meeting, after the first meeting, is also experienced as if it were the first meeting as well.
3:03So then Yugala-gīta is a, is a, it seems very similar to Veṇu-gīta. You can see, I gave a class in Alachua last year, comparing the verses of the five different gītas, I don't know if you heard that. So, where's Messina making breakfast? He was saying organize that program. So you can look, last year, in my seminars in Alachua, and I spoke on how each gīta has its own unique mood.
3:39So with Yugala-gīta, it's chapter 35, it takes place after the Rāsa-līlā.
3:49And so you'll see that it is called a prauḍha-prema, mature. The prema has become so mature now. Why? Because even though the feeling of separation before the Rāsa-līlā, before meeting with Kṛṣṇa, Pūrva-rāga, that separation was intense. But once Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa met and they've united with each other and in their loving pastimes, Rādhikā expresses, I am not the beloved and he is not my lover.
4:37Kṛṣṇa has melted our hearts and made us one. Once they experience that intensity of oneness with each other, then the separation that comes after that is many, many times more intense than the separation before meeting. And so, Yugala-gīta is the prauḍha-prema. Love has been intensified to higher and higher states. So even though there is a lot of similarity in Yugala-gīta, you can see the gopīs describe how the demigods in the sky become attracted to Kṛṣṇa and they are fainting in the laps of their husbands, just like Veṇu-gīta does.
5:23It will describe how the cows, they stop chewing, and they raise their ears, and they hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa, just like Veṇu-gīta does. It will describe how the Yamunā River becomes stunned, in a way similar. None of the verses are exactly the same, but some of the topics, the themes, the same motifs are there.
5:47But the difference is this, in Veṇu-gīta, the gopīs are speaking about nature, the way that the trees respond to Kṛṣṇa's flute, the way the demigods respond, and so on, and the cows, and the peacocks, but their mood is, alas, alas, I am so unfortunate that even though all of, even the creatures and plants, they completely give up their dharma, and their behavior becomes opposite to their real nature by the influence of Kṛṣṇa's flute, But I am so unfortunate that I cannot give up my dharma and I cannot just drop everything and leave the house and go and meet with Kṛṣṇa.
6:32I have some fear. So that sentiment is there in Veṇu-gīta. But in Yugala-gīta, the actual mood is, oh, just see, everything is changing, its dharma due to the influence of Kṛṣṇa's flute. So why not us? Let's not wait anymore. But once we should go and meet with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. So there's a much more, the prema is more intense, and the gopīs are, the dhvani, that means the suggestion of their words is not, I'm so unfortunate we cannot go, the dhvani of the words is, let's go at once, without delay, and try to meet with Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
7:15Now, it is said that after the Rāsa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs were then going and meeting secretly in the forest every night, and then in the day they were in separation, and this separation is now more intense than the separation in the day previously before they met, because of the reasons we've already discussed.
7:40And so at the point of Yugala-gīta, the gopīs' lives are divided into two, the night-time pastimes of the intense joy of meeting, and then the day-time pastimes of the greater intensity of separation than ever before.
8:01And so Kṛṣṇa, he cannot tolerate the gopīs' more intense separation. and so in order to solve this problem that okay we don't have a problem at night because now we're meeting but in the day it's become worse than before so solve this problem you'll see after chapter 35 what's the next chapter because the next chapter will answer your question the slaying of Ariṣṭāsura the bull demon okay the slaying of Ariṣṭāsura so you see yeah so that's the answer to your question yeah
8:47Yes, because there is no Rādhā-kuṇḍa until Ariṣṭāsura is killed. So chapter 36 is the answer to chapter 35. Do you understand? The Rāsa-līlā is complete in chapter 33. In chapter 34, the Vraja-vāsīs, they go to Ambikāvana to celebrate the Śivarātri. So they travel very far, and then also Kṛṣṇa has many chances to meet with the Vraja-vāsīs in different disguises. Do you know this pastime?
9:24No, no, just from that. A doubt? No. If you have not heard, my class on this subject then. Okay, so there was some relief there because Kṛṣṇa could meet with the Vraja-gopīs during the day, during that festival in Ambikāvana. But when they returned back to Vraja, now the nights are full of joy, but the days are more painful than ever before.
9:44That's chapter 35. So this is now a big problem and Kṛṣṇa's thinking how to solve this problem. And so then, Yogamaya, understanding the desire of Krishna, sends Aristasura, Krishna kills Aristasura, the gopis say, you can't touch us because you killed Aristasura, then Krishna makes Shyamakunda, Radhika makes Radhakunda, and after that, now you can have, now this, as the lilas, that your inquire can take place, with the meetings at midday in Radhakunda, and so on, understand?
10:15So, see, Krishna's pastimes, when he comes to this world, are a mixture of nitya and naimittika lila, and also a mixture of some Goloka-tattva and some Vraja-tattva, as well, because in the spiritual world, there's the Vraja-tattva, which is pure parakiya, and so on, and there's some, the outer aspect of that, the Vaibhava-prakasha, the opulent feature of Vraja-Gokula, is Goloka.
10:45So when Krishna comes to this world, then there's a mixture of nitya and nitya, eternal pastimes, and occasional pastimes, and also a mixture of the Goloka-tattva and the Vraja-tattva, and the Gokula-tattva as well, when he manifests his lila in this world. So, but if a person just reads the flow of Srimad Bhagavatam, unless they are rasika or realized, they will not understand the context or which aspect of the lila, Yogamaya, is manifesting here in the prakata, in the manifest pastimes in this world.
11:21So, now, now we've answered according to the crown of Srimad Bhagavatam, Vraja-vilasa is purvaraga, they haven't met. Then the Rasa Lila takes place, after the Rasa Lila, now not meeting the day becomes an extreme problem, due to the maturity of their prema. And so, to solve that Yogamaya brings Aristasura, then Radharani is manifest, and now, the more aspects of the nitya lila, of the astakaliya lila, can be manifested here, within the prakata lila. This is one thing. But there's another consideration. And that is that the verses of Srimad Bhagavatam can also be taken out of the context that they're in in Srimad Bhagavatam as well. And so even verses from Venu Gita or Yugala Gita and so on, they can be used in meditation of the devotees in connection with the astakaliya lila as well.
12:28So, one Vaishnava in the line of Narottama dasa Thakura named Nityananda dasa Thakura, he's actually the father of Chaitanya dasa Thakura, he has written on the book where he's collected all the verses of Srimad Bhagavatam from many places, which are, if you take them out, sometimes in the same context, sometimes also, if you take them out from the context of the flow of the prakata lila, then they pertain to the astakaliya lila as well. That study is called the astakaliya lila in Srimad Bhagavatam. Very good. So we will translate and publish that after some time. Already some of my publication team they're working on the manuscript for that. So another consideration is this, that according to Jiva Goswami, the first meeting took place in the rasa lila.
13:29But according to Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Radha and Krishna, and sometimes Radha and Candravali, though rasa lila hasn't taken place yet, but they've actually met together, somehow or other. Also in Kavi Karnapura's Ananda Vrindavana Campu, Radha, Krishna makes Suta and Ravali first, and then later he has a secret meeting in a cave during the rainy season, before the rasa lila takes place.
13:55And in Srimad Bhagavatam, in the context, Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has described Krishna meeting with Radhika and the gopis secretly, even as early as chapter 15, and that that's hinted in Krishna's words when he's speaking to Balarama in the chapter on the killing of Dhenukasura as well. So, the Srimad Bhagavatam has unlimited meanings, and it's not that the different Acharyas are contradicting each other, but we're to speak of different Acharyas having different realizations or pastimes being revealed to them in different ways, even the same person can realize the Srimad Bhagavatam and the pastimes in different ways on different days as well, because Krishna lila is not like, we think there's, well I'm a subject and there's the objective world and the objective world is one fixed.
14:51objective truth. But Krishna lila is not like that. Krishna's pastimes are going on in different prakashas. That means there are multiple, actually infinite, multiple dimensions of Krishna lila and the lila is going on and in each dimension it goes on in a different way. And so sometimes one day a Vaishnava may be chanting and he enters into this prakasha and sees the lila goes on in this way and on another day he's chanting and he enters into this prakasha and the lila goes on in a different way.
15:23And then a person who doesn't understand the multi-dimensional nature of Krishna lila, now he's in a dilemma, because they're trying to reconcile irreconcilable features of Krishna's different lilas, they're trying to reconcile them because they don't understand that his lila is not like what we're experiencing, everything's going on now in one dimension, but rather there are multiple dimensions.
15:50So there's no need, there's no need at all to try to reconcile them. Because the ego of each Vrajavasi in each dimension, even though the same Vrajavasis are in each dimension, the abhimana, they have abhimana way, that means each Vrajavasi, though they may be present in multiple dimensions, doesn't know about their own self in the other dimension.
16:15They only know that dimension that they're in. And that very same Vrajavasi in another dimension only knows that dimension. So there's simply no need to reconcile it at all. So these are just some perspectives. There are many perspectives. So that's why Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura can describe a certain aspect of a pastime in different ways sometimes.
16:38Yes, different Acharyas say different things, and the same Acharya on different occasions may say different things, according to their realization of that particular prakasha. but mainly they're consistent with themselves, mainly, but it's not necessarily so. Just for example, Lalita Madhava, where Krishna goes to Dvaraka and then all the gopis become the queens.
17:08It doesn't have to tally with the discussion of the queens and the gopis in Srimad Bhagavatam, where Krishna goes to Kurukshetra and the queens come with him from Kurukshetra and the gopis come from Vrindavana. so they're two completely different sets of shaktis of Krishna, whereas in Lalita Madhava, the gopis become the queens and there are no separate queens, so you can't reconcile Bhagavatam with Lalita Madhava, and there's no need to because these are separate prakashas.
