Çré Ramä Ekädaçé Issue no: 222 9th Nov 2023

Deep Feelings of Separation

The Gopis Sing of Krishna as The Company of Krishna
He Wanders in the Forest Srila Santana Gosvami
Srila Sukadeva Goswami

Twenty-five Subdivisions of Cows Deep Feelings of Separation

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
 Issue no 222, Page — 2
The Gopis Sing of Krishna as
He Wanders in the Forest
Srila Sukadeva Goswami
Sukadeva Gosvami said: Whenever Krishna
went to the forest, the minds of the gopis would
run after Him, and thus the young girls sadly spent
their days singing of His pastimes.
[The gopis said:] When Mukunda vibrates
the flute He has placed to His lips, stopping its
holes with His tender fingers, He rests His left
cheek on His left arm and makes His eyebrows
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nityaà bhägavata-sevayä
dance. At that time the demigoddesses travel-
ing in the sky with their husbands, the Siddhas,
become amazed. As those ladies listen, they are
embarrassed to find their minds yielding to the
pursuit of lusty desires, and in their distress they
are unaware that the belts of their garments are
loosening.
O girls! This son of Nanda, who gives joy to the
distressed, bears steady lightning on His chest and
has a smile like a jeweled necklace. Now please
hear something wonderful. When He vibrates
His flute, Vraja’s bulls, deer and cows, standing
in groups at a great distance, are all captivated by
 nityaà bhägavata-sevayä
the sound, and they stop chewing the food in their
mouths and cock their ears. Stunned, they appear
as if asleep, or like figures in a painting.
My dear gopi, sometimes Mukunda imitates the
appearance of a wrestler by decorating Himself
with leaves, peacock feathers and colored min-
erals. Then, in the company of Balarama and the
cowherd boys, He plays His flute to call the cows.
At that time the rivers stop flowing, their water
stunned by the ecstasy they feel as they eagerly wait
for the wind to bring them the dust of His lotus
feet. But like us, the rivers are not very pious, and
thus they merely wait with their arms trembling
out of love.
Krishna moves about the forest in the company
of His friends, who vividly chant the glories of His
magnificent deeds. He thus appears just like the
Supreme Personality of Godhead exhibiting His
inexhaustible opulences. When the cows wander
onto the mountainsides and Krishna calls out to
them with the sound of His flute, the trees and
creepers in the forest respond by becoming so
luxuriant with fruits and flowers that they seem
to be manifesting Lord Vishnu within their hearts.
As their branches bend low with the weight, the
filaments on their trunks and vines stand erect out
of the ecstasy of love of God, and both the trees
and the creepers pour down a rain of sweet sap.
O goddesses of Vraja, when Krishna is enjoying
Himself with Balarama on the mountain slopes,
playfully wearing a flower garland on the top of
His head, He engladdens all with the resonant
vibrations of His flute. Thus He delights the entire
world. At that time the nearby cloud, afraid of of-
fending a great personality, thunders very gently in
accompaniment. The cloud showers flowers onto
his dear friend Krishna and shades Him from the
sun like an umbrella.
O pious mother Yashoda, your son, who is ex-
pert in all the arts of herding cows, has in- vented
many new styles of flute-playing. When He takes
His flute to His bimba-red lips and sends forth the
tones of the harmonic scale in variegated melodies,
Brahma, Shiva, Indra and other chief demigods be-
come confused upon hearing the sound. Although
they are the most learned authorities, they cannot
ascertain the essence of that music, and thus they
bow down their heads and hearts.
As Krishna strolls through Vraja with His lo-
tus-petal-like feet, marking the ground with the
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distinctive emblems of flag, thunderbolt, lotus and
elephant goad, He relieves the distress the ground
feels from the cows’ hooves. As He plays His re-
nowned flute, His body moves with the grace of
an elephant. Thus we gopis, who become agitated
by Cupid when Krishna playfully glances at us,
stand as still as trees, unaware that our hair and
garments are slackening.
Now Krishna is standing somewhere counting
His cows on a string of gems. He wears a garland of
tulasi flowers that bear the fragrance of His beloved,
and He has thrown His arm over the shoulder of
an affectionate cowherd boyfriend. As Krishna
plays His flute and sings, the music attracts the
black deer’s wives, who approach that ocean of
transcendental qualities and sit down beside Him.
Just like us cowherd girls, they have given up all
hope for happiness in family life.
O sinless Yashoda, your darling child, the son of
Maharaja Nanda, has festively enhanced His attire
with a jasmine garland, and He is now playing
along the Yamuna in the company of the cows
and cowherd boys, amusing His dear companions.
The gentle breeze honors Him with its soothing
fragrance of sandalwood, while the various Upa-
devas, standing on all sides like panegyrists, offer
their music, singing and gifts of tribute.
Out of great affection for the cows of Vraja,
Krishna became the lifter of Govardhana Hill. At
the end of the day, having rounded up all His own
cows, He plays a song on His flute, while exalted
demigods standing along the path worship His lo-
tus feet and the cowherd boys accompanying Him
chant His glories. His garland is powdered by the
dust raised by the cows’ hooves, and His beauty,
enhanced by His fatigue, creates an ecstatic festival
for everyone’s eyes. Eager to fulfill His friends’ de-
sires, Krishna is the moon arisen from the womb
of mother Yashoda.
As Krishna respectfully greets His well-wishing
friends, His eyes roll slightly as if from intoxica-
tion. He wears a flower garland, and the beauty
of His soft cheeks is accentuated by the brilliance
of His golden earrings and the whiteness of His
face, which has the color of a badara berry. With
His cheerful face resembling the moon, lord of
the night, the Lord of the Yadus moves with the
grace of a regal elephant. Thus He returns in the
Bhāgavata Mahāvidyālaya
 Issue no 222, Page — 4
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evening, delivering the cows of Vraja from the
heat of the day.
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said: O King, thus
during the daytime the women of Vrindavan
took pleasure in continuously singing about the
pastimes of Krishna, and those ladies’ minds and
hearts, absorbed in Him, were filled with great
festivity.
— Çrémad-Bhägavatam (Bhägavata Puräëa) » Canto 10: The Summum
Bonum » Chapter 35 » Verses 1–26 » Translations by Disciples of His Divine
Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Twenty-five Subdivisions of Cows
His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Srila Jiva Gosvami explains that in the after-
noon Sri Krishna dressed Himself in a different
outfit and then went out to call the cows home.
Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti gives the follow-
ing information about the transcendental cows
of Vrindavan: "For each of the four colors of
cows—white, red, black and yellow—there are
twenty-five subdivisions, making a total of one
hundred colors. And such qualities as being
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colored like sandalwood-pulp tilaka [speckled]
or having a head shaped like a mådaìga drum
create eight further groups. To count these 108
groups of cows, distinguished by color and form,
Krishna is using a string of 108 jewel-beads....
"Thus when Krishna calls out 'Hey Dhavali [the
name of a white cow],' a whole group of white
cows come forward, and when He calls 'Hamsi,
Chandani, Ganga, Mukta' and so on, the twen-
ty-four other groups of white cows come. The red-
dish cows are called Aruni, Kunkuma, Sarasvati,
etc., the blackish ones Shyamala, Dhumala, Yamu-
na, etc., and the yellowish ones Pita, Pingala, Har-
italika, etc. Those in the group with tilaka marks
on their foreheads are called Chitrita, Chitra-ti-
laka, Dirgha-tilaka and Tiryak-tilaka, and there
are groups known as Mådaìga-mukhé [mådaì-
ga-head], Siàha-mukhé [lion-head] and so on.
"Thus being called by name, the cows are coming
forward, and Krishna, thinking that when it is time
to bring them back from the forest none should be
forgotten, is counting them on His jewel-beads."
 nityaà bhägavata-sevayä
— Çrémad-Bhägavatam (Bhägavata Puräëa) » Canto 10: The Summum
Bonum » Chapter 35 » Verse 21 » Translations by Disciples of His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
The Company of Krishna
Srila Santana Gosvami
The slightest touch of pure prema, love for
Krishna, destroys all faults in a devotee. It satisfies
the devotee so completely that nothing inferior
can divert his attention. To outsiders, the effects
of prema may seem painful: the devotee seems to
burn in torment while separated from the Lord,
and even while enjoying the Lord’s company he
burns in apprehension of separation to come. But
in fact viraha-bhäva, devotional service in separa-
tion, is the highest essence of loving ecstasy. The
intimate devotees of Krishna in Sri Vrindavan
constantly experience viraha-bhäva. As Sukade-
va Gosvami says in describing the fall season
in Vrindavan [Çrémad-Bhägavatam 10.20.45]:
äçliñya sama-çétoñëaà
prasüna-vana-märutam
janäs täpaà jahur gopyo
na kåñëa-håta-cetasaù
“Except for the gopis, whose hearts had been
stolen by Krishna, the people could forget their
suffering by embracing the wind from the flow-
er-filled forest. This wind was neither hot nor cold.”
The gopis of Vrindavan were so intensely ab-
sorbed in viraha-bhäva that the cool breezes of
autumn only increased the burning in their hearts,
because this was the time of year when the fever
of their hankering to be with Krishna reached its
peak. Hanuman cites the analogy of a man suffer-
ing from hunger: The fire of extreme hunger dries
up all the elements of his body, so that he can no
longer enjoy the pleasure of clothes or other objects
of enjoyment or even the association of family and
friends. Possessing worldly things merely adds to
his frustration. Only when his hunger is removed
will he be relieved of anxiety. Similarly, the gopis
can be satisfied only by the company of Krishna.
— Çré Båhad Bhägavatämåta » Çréla Sanätana Gosvämé » Text 1.4.117 »
Volume 1 » Translated by Gopiparanadhana Das
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Issue no 222, Page—5
Deep Feelings of Separation
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
yugäyitaà nimeñeëa
cakñuñä prävåñäyitam
çünyäyitaà jagat sarvaà
govinda-viraheëa me
My Lord Govinda, because of separation
from You, I consider even a moment a great
millennium. Tears flow from My eyes like tor-
rents of rain, and I see the entire world as void.
When rati-bhakti reaches the state of sthayi-bhä-
va, or constancy in spiritual emotions, then in mix-
ing together with the other four bhävas—vibhäva,
anubhäva, sättvika and vyabhicäri—it becomes
transformed into bhakti-rasa, or the sweet mellow
of devotional service. In this stage, the ecstatic symp-
toms of anubhäva and sättvika-vikära find their
full expression. Srila Rupa Gosvami, in describ-
ing prema, writes in the Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu:
“Bhäva-bhakti which, from its very first stages,
so excessively affects the heart that it melts and
becomes a sublime salve of love, bringing the
highest feelings of divine bliss within easy reach,
and generates an intense desire for Krishna. The
fully perfected souls term this over-vaulting ecstasy
as prema.”
From this statement it is obvious that ex-
treme attraction, deep affection, and spon-
taneous dedication to Lord Krishna is syn-
onymous with prema, love of God.
Rasa—ecstatic relationship with Krishna
The relationship between the viñaya, or object
of love (Krishna), and the äçraya, or the abode
of that love (the devotee), is exchanged through
five principal rasas, or mellows namely, neutral,
servitor, friendly, parental and conjugal. When the
relationship is cursory, there are seven subsidiary
mellows: laughter, wonder, pity, chivalry, anger,
fear and ghastliness. Of the principal rasas, the
conjugal or mädhurya-rasa is the most excellent.
As madhurya-rasa increases in intensity it becomes
prema, praëaya, mäna, sneha, räga, anuraga, bhava
and mahä-bhäva, manifesting different features
and excellences of divine love one after another.
Bhāgavata Mahāvidyālaya
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Development of rasa
Çänta-rasa, or neutral love of Godhead, is marked
by excessive exultation. Attachment to brahman
is quintessential in çänta-rasa, coupled with an
air of disregard and unconcern for everything
and all other rasas. With the increase of mamatä,
or affection, this attraction deepens and is then
known as däsya-rasa, or love in servitorship. In
awe and reverential worship, there is a lack of
praëaya. But such praëaya ecstasy, in a mature
state turns mischievous and introduces a crooked
mood which, due to a plethora of affection, is very
unusual in texture. This is known as mäna. The
mood of mäna becomes active when the devotee
expresses loving resentment. Even the Supreme
Lord, desires to relish this particular emotional ex-
change, and especially enjoys the mood of recon-
ciliation with His devotee that follows resentment.
The super-abundance of love that completely
melts the heart to a state of unimaginable liquidity
is known as sneha, which is indicated by pro-
fuse, unchecked tears. It is in this stage that the
devotee's yearning to see Krishna never admits
fulfillment. Although Krishna is admittedly the
master of everyone and everything, in vatsa-
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lya-rasa or parental love, the devotee anxiously
hopes that no harm befall Him. These are the
peculiar symptoms of the mellow of parental love.
Sneha supplemented by intense craving becomes
raga, and in this stage of pure love, even a moment's
separation from the beloved is unbearable, while in
union, even extreme grief feels exhilarating. Raga
is disposed in such a manner that the object of
worship is made to appreciate His own ever-fresh,
perennial form. This ever-new raga transforms
itself into anuraga, where the sense of lover and
beloved enrapturing each other into the state of
complete compliance increases. In the rapture of
anuraga, there are longings to be born as animals
and other lower species that have a direct connec-
tion with Krishna. This is known as prema-vaic-
itra, or varied love. Even in separation, Krishna
begins to manifest Himself as only the lover knows
and loves Him, giving the lover excessive bliss.
Mahä-bhäva—the last word in ecstasy
When anuraga is filled with unsurpassable and
matchless magnificence of love, reaching the
plateau of madness, it becomes mahä-bhäva. In
this stage, even the blinking of an eyelid veiling
the view of the beloved for less than a moment,
 nityaà bhägavata-sevayä
becomes intolerable, and seconds stretch to eons.
Separation for even a moment seems to expand to
timeless eternity. In mahä-bhäva, both in union and
in separation, all the symptoms of sattvika-bhäva
and sancari-bhäva find their fullest expression. In
this çloka, Lord Chaitanya has very succinctly given
us, like an ocean bottled in a pitcher, a synopsis of
the elaborate dissertation on the different grada-
tions of the most sublime loving relationship with
the Supreme Lord, as found in the Priti-Sandarbha
by Srila Jiva Gosvami.
Deep feelings of separation
The word yugayitam is simple and direct. The
phrase govinda virahena expresses deep feelings
of separation. Self-realized rasika devotees have
divided vipralambha, or the mood of separation,
into purva-raga, mana, pravasa, and so on. Yet
the recondite import lodged deep within this
çloka composed by Lord Chaitanya is that the
devotee living in this world need only relish the
separation of purva-raga. The scriptures also say
that the mood of viraha, or separation, has ten
attendant conditions: pondering, sleeplessness,
perturbation, emaciation, pallor, incoherent
speech, being stricken, madness, delusion, and
death (or unconsciousness). In Caitanya-caritämå-
ta [Antya lila 20.40-41] Lord Chaitanya says,
“In My agitation a day never ends, for every mo-
ment seems like a millennium. Pouring incessant
tears, My eyes are like clouds in the rainy season.
The three worlds have become void because of
separation from Govinda. I feel as if I were burning
alive in a slow fire.”
Purport by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
“O Govinda, the world is simply an immense void
in Your absence. My eyes are raining tears like mon-
soon-laden clouds, each batting of an eyelid seems
to last a millennium.” This is an excellent example
of vipralambha-rasa. The çloka intends to point out
that for the jata-rati devotee, it is absolutely essen-
tial that he seek to experience vipralambha-rasa,
and not care for sambhoga, or enjoyment.
Spiritual separation causes ecstasy
In material life viraha, or separation causes only
grief, whereas on the transcendental plane it pro-
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Issue no 222, Page—7
duces exultant ecstasy even though it seems like
acute anguish. Vipralambha nourishes sambhoga,
or enjoyment. As a matter of fact in prema-vaicitra,
or variegatedness of love within the vipralam-
bha-rasa there is sambhoga, but only externally.
Vipralambha is marked by incessant and intense
recollections of Krishna and His pastimes, and in
fact one never forgets Krishna. This is the super-ex-
cellent stage of bhajana.
Gaura-nagaris are sense enjoyers
The over-indulgence in sambhoga exhibited by the
pretentious group known as the gaura-nagari, who
are not actually sincere followers of Lord Krishna,
is due to hypocrisy; it simply causes obstacles on
the path to pure devotion. Their sambhoga is noth-
ing more than self-aggrandizement and selfserving
pleasure. It is bereft of pure devotion to Krishna.
If one inderstands the meaming of the following
çloka, then he will not allow himself to be goaded
into enjoying his senses, and hereby as an excuse
try to present Lord Chaitanya as a pleasure-seekers,
or nagari [Caitanya-caritämåta, Adi-lila 4.165]:
“The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama
(lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord
Krishna is prema (love).”
Pure devotees take shelter of separation
The esoteric import of Lord Chaitanya's pastimes
is that although Lord Krishna has accepted the
sentiments of an asraya-tattva, or a pure devotee,
He is always situated in the mood of vipralam-
bha. Jéva is asraya-tattva; for him to fully relish
sambhoga-rasa and give it full expression he must
take shelter of vipralambha, or the mood of love
in separation. To propagate and exhibit this truth
Lord Krishna appeared as Lord Chaitanya who
is eternally the embodiment and incarnation
vipralambha-rasa. Devotees should discard any
notions of endeavoring for sambhoga-rasa, since
such an attempt will certainly end in failure.
References and Notes from Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakur's Çré Bhajana-rahasya
Other scriptural statements supporting this çloka:
From Kåñëa Karnämåta [41]:
Bhāgavata Mahāvidyālaya
 Issue no 222, Page — 8
amüny adhanyäni dinäntaräëi
hare tvad-älokanam antareëa
anätha-bandho karuëaika-sindho
hä hanta hä hanta kathaà nayämi
“O Supreme Shelter of the destitute, Hari, You
are an ocean of mercy. Alas, O alas! With-
out seeing Your lovely, face, how shall I live
through these wretched days and nights?”
Sri Madhavendra Puri's words as recorded in
Padyävali [400]:
ayi déna-dayärdra nätha he
mathurä-nätha kadävalokyase
hådayaà tvad-aloka-kätaraà
dayita bhrämyati kià karomy aham
“O compassionate Lord of the helpless, O Lord
of Mathura! When will I be able to see You? Your
absence has made my stricken heart extremely
anxious. O my beloved! What am I to do now?”
From Ujjva1a-nilamani [64]:
cintätra jätarodvegau tänavaà malinäìgatä
praläpo vyädhir unmädo mohomåtyurdaçä daça
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nityaà bhägavata-sevayä
“Srimati Radharani is completely smitten, and
She is experiencing a limitless ocean of suffering
as the ten conditions of separation wash over Her.
She experiences pondering, sleeplessness, pertur-
bations, and grows emaciated and pallid. While
speaking incoherently, She is stricken, becomes
mad and deluded, and swoons almost to death.”
— Çré Sanmodana Bhäñyam on Çré Çikñäñöaka » Translated by Sarvabhavana
das
!! Sri Sri Nitai Gaurchandra Jayati !!
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