Verse 2.3.112

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 2.3.112:

द्वारका-वासि-विप्रेण कृष्ण-भक्ति-रसार्थिना ।
इतो नीतः सुतास् तत्र स-चातुर्य-विशेषतः ॥ ११२ ॥

dvārakā-vāsi-vipreṇa kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasārthinā |
ito nītaḥ sutās tatra sa-cāturya-viśeṣataḥ || 112 ||

dvārakā-vāsi–living in Dvārakā; vipreṇa–by a brāhmaṇa; kṛṣṇa–to Śrī Kṛṣṇa; bhakti–of devotional service; rasa–for the nectar; arthinā–by praying; itaḥ–from here; nītāḥ–brought; sutāḥ–his sons; tatra–there; sa-cāturya-viśeṣataḥ–through special intelligence.

A brāhmaṇa residing in Dvārakā, desirous of the nectar of devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, devised a clever scheme to retrieve his sons from this realm of liberation and bring them back to Dvārakā.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

In addition to scriptural evidence, the virtuous behavior of exalted personalities also proves the insignificance of impersonal liberation (sāyujya-mukti). For this reason, Śrī Mahādeva speaks this verse beginning with dvārakā. He says, “A brāhmaṇa of Dvārakā in a particularly clever way had his sons retrieved from muktipada, the abode of liberation, and brought back to bhakti-pada, the abode of devotion known as Dvārakā. Those who resided in Dvārakā during the Lord’s pastimes in this world had bodies that were fully saccid-ānanda. Moreover, forever relishing the nectar of wonderful loving service to the lotus feet of Śrī Devakī-nandana Himself, they despised the pleasure of liberation. It was therefore impossible that any resident of Dvārakā would desire to go to the abode of liberation.”

There are those who posit an argument, saying, “We hear of the births and so on of the residents of Dvārakā, so they must have been ordinary human beings with bodies made of the five material elements. But on the strength of their precious and deep, pure love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the residents of Dvārakā enjoyed a special relationship with Him.”

Also according to this opinion, it is said, “The residents of Dvārakā only seemed to have material bodies, but factually their bodies were not material because it is impossible to interact with Śrī Bhagavān, the embodiment of eternity, knowledge, and bliss, in a body consisting of the five material elements.”

Otherwise, it can be said, “If the various ingredients that are the instruments of the Lord’s play were not fully sac-cid-ānanda, they would not be fit to participate in His pastimes. That is, if those who resided in Dvārakā during the Lord’s pastimes in this world had bodies that were not fully sac-cid-ānanda, there would be a contradiction between this and the established fact that ‘by the power of devotion to the Lord (bhagavād-bhakti), material bodies completely transform into spiritual ones.’” [Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.3.139, Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā]

If someone says, “Śrī Bhagavān’s form also imitates the human form,” that is an absurd assumption because all of Śrī Bhagavān’s forms are eternally true and all-pervading. (This will be discussed later in detail.) Especially since the Lord’s divine form, which is eternally real in nature, perpetually manifests according to the unlimited moods of His countless devotees, this form cannot possibly be an imitation of the human body. Even when some residents of Dvārakā or any other sacred abode of the Lord seem to quit their human-like bodies that are imitations of material forms, this is seen as a function of their sac-cidānanda form.

Thus, according to the previously-mentioned opinions, the meaning of the following passage of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.29.9–11) is:

अन्तर्-गृह-गताः काश्चिद् गोप्यो’लब्ध-विनिर्गमाः
कृष्णं तद्-भावना-युक्ता दध्युर् मीलित-लोचनाः
दुःसह-प्रेष्ठ-विरह-तीव्र-ताप-धुताशुभाः
ध्यान-प्राप्ताच्युताश्लेष-निर्वृत्या क्षीण-मङ्गलाः
तम् एव परमात्मानं जार-बुद्ध्यापि सङ्गताः
जहुर् गुण-मयं देहं सद्यः प्रक्षीण-बन्धनाः

antar-gṛha-gatāḥ kāścid gopyo’labdha-vinirgamāḥ
kṛṣṇaṃ tad-bhāvanā-yuktā dadhyur mīlita-locanāḥ
duḥsaha-preṣṭha-viraha-tīvra-tāpa-dhutāśubhāḥ
dhyāna-prāptācyutāśleṣa-nirvṛtyā kṣīṇa-maṅgalāḥ
tam eva paramātmānaṃ jāra-buddhyāpi saṅgatāḥ
jahur guṇa-mayaṃ dehaṃ sadyaḥ prakṣīṇa-bandhanāḥ

“The gopīs who were prevented from leaving their homes on the night of rāsa-līlā abandoned their bodies consisting of modes of material nature (guṇa-maya deha)^[1] and immediately attained transcendental forms of eternity, knowledge, and bliss, which surpassed the modes of material nature. Thus, as they had desired, they happily enjoyed amorous pastimes with Śrī Bhagavān, unhindered.” Some also say that according to the lines: tam eva paramātmānaṃ jāra-buddhyāpi saṅgatāḥ, those gopīs received fully sac-cidānanda bodies and became similar to Bhagavān–in other words, they intimately associated with Him.

Therefore, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.47.37), in the message sent by the Lord to the Vrajavāsīs through Śrī Uddhava, it is stated:

या मया क्रीडता रात्र्यां वने’स्मिन् व्रज आस्थिताः
अलब्ध-रासाः कल्याण्यो मापुर् मद्-वीर्य-चिन्तया

yā mayā krīḍatā rātryāṃ vane’smin vraja āsthitāḥ
alabdha-rāsāḥ kalyāṇyo māpur mad-vīrya-cintayā

When I performed rāsa-līlā at night in Vṛndāvana, the gopīs who were checked from coming by their husbands and other superiors were most fortunate because they obtained Me by meditating on Me.

A similar incident is seen in the episode of Jaya and Vijaya, the gatekeepers of Vaikuṇṭha who were cursed by Śrī Sanaka Kumāra and his three brothers. When, during their third birth as Śiśupāla and Dantavakra, they met their deaths at the hands of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the curse ended and their souls directly entered into Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s effulgence. It appears that they achieved sāyujya-mukti, but actually they did not merge into the Lord. Rather, they were reinstated in their service as Jaya and Vijaya. Indeed, how can the most odious liberation be suitable for those who had been living in Vaikuṇṭha as Śrī Bhagavān’s devotees?

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.1.47), Nārada explains how Jaya and Vijaya again regained their positions as the Lord’s personal associates:

वैरानुबन्ध-तीव्रेण ध्यानेनाच्युत-सात्मताम्
नीतौ पुनर् हरेः पार्श्वं जग्मतुर् विष्णु-पार्षदौ

vairānubandha-tīvreṇa dhyānenācyuta-sātmatām
nītau punar hareḥ pārśvaṃ jagmatur viṣṇu-pārṣadau

They used to continuously meditate on Śrī Kṛṣṇa with feelings of extreme enmity. As a result of that intense absorption, they again attained Bhagavān and returned to be near Him as His associates.

When gold is melted in fire, only the impurities in the gold are destroyed, not the gold itself. Similarly, only Jaya and Vijaya’s offence, or the curse that represented their external contamination, was destroyed. Therefore, their effulgent souls entered into Śrī Kṛṣṇa and they returned to Vaikuṇṭha. That they merged with Śrī Kṛṣṇa is only popular belief; it is not the actual fact. Because they are the personal associates of Bhagavān, it is inconceivable that they would receive sāyujya-mukti, the most undesirable type of liberation. Indeed, the merciful Bhagavān had told them when they ‘fell’ from Vaikuṇṭha, “You will obtain Me after three births.” Therefore, the advent of Jaya and Vijaya in this world due to the curse of Śrī Sanaka and his brothers was just like a divine appearance.

However, it is our [Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī’s] belief that, although the forms of the devotees in this world are human in appearance, just as Bhagavān’s forms seem to be human, they are nevertheless fully sac-cid-ānanda. They appear and disappear from public vision just like the Lord. Their advent, departure, and other activities occur only in accordance with the pastimes of their Lord, or sometimes due to their intense love for Bhagavān. In scripture, sages use the words jahu or deha-tyāga, meaning ‘to unmanifest or to give up the body,’ to describe the disappearance of the transcendental bodies of the devotees.

Therefore, the meaning of the three verses quoted above beginning with antar-gṛha-gatāḥ (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.29.9–11) is as follows: Guṇa-maya indicates that the gopīs immediately abandoned their bodies that were endowed with all good–that is, transcendental–qualities. In other words, by the power of Yogamāyā (līlā-śakti, the pastime potency) their transcendental bodies disappeared without anyone noticing.

One might ask, “How is this possible?” Śukadeva Gosvāmī therefore says, “Those gopīs considered the Supreme Personality of Godhead (Paramātmā) to be their paramour, or upa-pati. Therefore they obtained saṅgatā, or direct association with Kṛṣṇa.” Considering Kṛṣṇa their paramour was the prime cause of the gopīs being able to enjoy with Him. They had been bound by the constraints of social etiquette. Now it was simply that their bondage was dissolved, as they were special recipients of Śrī Bhagavān’s mercy.

As proof of this, we see the words of Śrī Nārada in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (4.29.46):

यदा यस्यानुगृह्णाति भगवान् आत्म-भावितः
स जहाति मतिं लोके वेदे च परिनिष्ठिताम्

yadā yasyānugṛhṇāti bhagavān ātma-bhāvitaḥ
sa jahāti matiṃ loke vede ca pariniṣṭhitām

When Bhagavān Vāsudeva shows mercy to someone by manifesting Himself in a person’s heart, then that person becomes free from allegiance to material affairs and to the path of Vedic fruitive activities.

[As revealed in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.29.10] Thereafter, in their meditation, the gopīs obtained nivṛtti, or distinct joy, in receiving the embrace of Acyuta, the infallible Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Or, it can be said, the gopīs received the unbroken (acyuta) embrace of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The auspiciousness of the gopīs, in the form of the bliss of embracing Śrī Kṛṣṇa, remained undiminished (akṣīṇa-maṅgala). Even their tilaka and other marks of their worship of the Lord were not destroyed.

Another understanding is that despite obtaining the great good fortune of Kṛṣṇa’s embrace in their hearts, due to the intolerable, burning pain of being physically separated from their beloved, the gopīs quickly lost (dhutā) their luster. Alternatively, it can be said that inauspiciousness in the form of the gopīs’ future separation from their beloved Śrī Kṛṣṇa was eliminated (dhutaṃ).

Furthermore, because the gopīs nourished paramour love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, they were able to obtain His association. Since their prema is extremely confidential and secret, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī did not openly speak about it in the assembly. This indescribable, most famous paramour love, known as jāra-bhāva or parakīyā-bhāva, has been revealed in the verses of Śrī Gīta-govinda: “nibhṛta nikuñja-gṛhaṃ gatayā–In the mood of illicit love (parakīyā-bhāva), Śrī Rādhā and the gopīs secretly went to rendezvous with their paramour Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the secluded love-bower.”

How did the gopīs meditate upon Śrī Kṛṣṇa? In the [three] Śrīmad Bhāgavatam verses under discussion, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, “mīlitalocanāḥ–with eyes half-closed or else fully-closed in meditation.” Another understanding of their eyes being closed is that with the two eyes of Śruti and Smṛti (the Vedas and the Purāṇas) shut, those gopīs turned their backs on the words of the scriptures, which consist of regulative principles and directions (vidhi-mārga), and giving up their regard for public opinion (loka-lajjā), entered the path of spontaneous love (rāgamārga) with deep love (anurāga). This is the purport of their meditation. Then, because they were locked inside their houses and could not go out, the gopīs gave up their bodies, or in other words, their transcendental bodies disappeared [from their homes].

This is an overall understanding (dig-darśana) of this discourse.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This is from the perspective of the other persons whose arguments are being presented. Guṇa-maya deha can also be translated as ‘remaining material attachments.’