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Divine Lila, Gods Play

A spiritual discourse exploring divine play, devotion, and karma through storytelling.

"His friends were called gopas, what we call disciples or friends. And his female disciples are known as gopīs."

"There is no power in the entire universe that can tie me, or close me, or stop me. But there is only one power that I cannot break, and that is love."

The lecturer narrates the pastime of young Krishna being bound by a "rope of love" to illustrate God's voluntary surrender to pure devotion. He expands on the theme by explaining the protective power of a guru-given mantra and mala, and recounts a detailed karmic parable about a leper, a donation of ghee, and a storekeeper's theft to underscore the law of cause and effect. The talk concludes with reflections on truthfulness and a brief linguistic note.

Filming location: Wellington, New Zealand

A beautiful līlā, a beautiful play. Sometimes God or saints have to behave like a little child, and sometimes differently. When Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa was in bala-rūpa—bala-rūpa meaning a small child—he was about eight years old. Like every child who has friends, he also had many friends. And as children are sometimes naughty, they all were. That is why one of the names of Kṛṣṇa is Nāṭhkaṭhā. Nāṭhkaṭhā. Do you know what it means? Nāṭhkaṭhā is not like "naughty" in a negative sense; it is a very sweet word. It means the naughtiness that is put into good manners. His friends were called gopas, what we call disciples or friends. And his female disciples are known as gopīs. So, who is here as male disciples? You are the gopas of Swāmījī. And all female disciples, you can say, are the gopīs. Now, people misunderstand. Many people around the world try to destroy Indian culture, especially the spiritual culture. They put it in very negative words; they try to. But you see, a cloud comes and covers the sun, but it cannot cover it forever. Similarly, that spiritual culture, that spiritual heritage, is called Satya. And no jhūṭhā (falsehood) can destroy it. For a while, you take sand and dust, and you don't like the sun; you are shouting at the sun. And you are looking, how far is it going? All the dust falls in your eyes and on your head. This is karma which will come back, and more. Now they begin to play. They were playing with the butter, cow butter, and the curd. Children like it very much because, at that time, there was no ice cream, and there was also no frozen butter. And sometimes, as fun, they would take the part of the butter that the cat couldn't reach, or the mouse, or some possum. It was hung in a beautiful basket made out of wood, with a string, hung up so high that even grown persons had to reach for it like this. What these boys were doing: one would stand down, another climbed on him, and they took it down or broke it, and so on. Sometimes they couldn't reach, so they threw a stone. Naturally, no one likes this. It doesn't matter who. So all these people were angry. The men were in the field, working. The ladies were at home. They went for water, came back, and found the butter falling down; they whooped. And many times they said, "Kṛṣṇa is dead." So, what did they do? The friends were always using Kṛṣṇa to do it. What we call "to fire a gun, you take the shoulder of another." It means you want to target and shoot, but you are using the shoulder of others. So it was always like that. The gopīs came. There was nobody, but Kṛṣṇa was inside. The boys ran away, and they closed him in. Quickly, they went to Mother Yaśodā to complain. "Sister Yaśodā, Yaśodā band, Yaśodā band, look what Kṛṣṇa has done, destroyed everything." And she comes in, and Kṛṣṇa is sitting and eating there. She says, "But he is sitting, he is eating here." They say, "I am sorry." She goes back there, opens the door, and Kṛṣṇa runs out of the door. Many, many times. One day they caught him. They caught him and said, "Today we will tie him to the pillar. Then we will bring Yaśodā here. Look, this is your son, what he is doing, naughty one." So they brought the rope and tried to tie it, but the rope breaks. Kṛṣṇa is standing there, okay, if you want to tie me, do it. Many, many ropes—all were just like nothing, like rotten or like spaghetti, they broke. They are surprised at what is happening. Then one gopī came with one old rope, very thin. Anyone could break it. And she said, "I brought one strong rope. Kṛṣṇa cannot break it at all." And they tie him, and she said, "This is a rope of love." Now he is standing there, and the gopīs went to Yaśodā. The gopīs were calling, "Kṛṣṇa, come, come! What are you doing? It is a very weak rope, break it! The string is not very strong. Always you are saying that I am strong and no one can do this. What are you doing? Come on quickly before Yaśodā comes." He said to his friends, "My dear friends, there is no power in the entire universe that can tie me, or close me, or stop me. But there is only one power that I cannot break, and that is love." Because the gopī said, "This is a rope of love," and I am bound. I will respect the love, the eternal love. So in this play, God is explaining in such a way that everyone can understand. Often the butter was broken, the pot falling on the ground. They went home; Kṛṣṇa was sitting there. They came back; there was nothing broken. So they were thinking, "Are we schizophrenic? Do we have a hallucination?" But that's called Līlā. Bhagavān kī Līlā, Santoṅ kī Līlā, Gurudev kī Līlā—very few understand. And that's why the Līlā Amṛt book, the nectar of Mahāprabhujī's Līlā, the bhakta understands. And so, there is one bhajan about how the bhaktas take. A beautiful bhajan in Gujarati language, but here it is not. I don't have the correction. Is there correction here? Gurujī, nāmnī, oh mālā se ḍokmā. Oh, my dear friends, because someone went and said, "Why don't you talk like this?" What we call blackmailing, backbiting. You don't talk yourself, but you try to blackmail others. You should say it like this. So there was a bhakta who had guru-mukhī, meaning he had a mantra initiation from Gurudev. And when you have that, then you are not supposed to be influenced, manipulated, blackmailed, because the truth is different than what you are talking, and immediately you can feel it, yes, the truth is different. So someone asked him, "Do it this way." Prakash, do this. He said, "That's not correct." It doesn't matter. We are telling, "Go." He said, "No, why?" Then, the bhakta is calling in the bhajan the Gurudev, the name of Gurudev. "The blessed mālā is in my neck. By any means, I am getting these mālās, and that is my protection. Whatever I speak, this mala is the bit nice, and that can this time I all bad car miles, or can that means you are in this up. Yeah, this is not all you, some beats, but this is your passport to the come from local, given by Gurudev. Don't change. This mala Gurujī gave me in 1960, ah, 1966. Sometimes I have forgotten, so I flew back with the aeroplane and telephone, and personally I got it back. And many times, Gurujī's mālā, when it was broken, Gurujī said to me, 'Maiś, give me your mālā because I have to do my mālā.' So many times, Gurujī was using my mālā. I have the name of Gurudev, the mantra, the promise in my neck. I can. What can I not?" Mahāḷase dhokum, Avalochalayanati, O Mahāḷase dhokum, Gurujī Nānamni, O Mahāḷase dhokum. Gujarati language is so sweet. Gujarati language has such beautiful bhajans. And in all of India, Gujarat is like a diamond of bhakti, devotion. That's a blessing, special blessings to the Gujaratis. And you will find more saints in Gujarat, of course in the Himalayas and everywhere, but not like that, like in Gujarat. So Gujarat is great. So, jhūṭu bolāyi nāti, I cannot lie. I cannot lie, khūṭu levāyi nāti. And I cannot accept or take anything which is not correct. Someone said, "Okay, I'll give you money, and do it for me." He said, "No." He said, "This is wrong. Can I?" Jho tu bolāyī nātī, kho tu levāyī nātī, avalu chalāyī nātī, o mālā se dokmā, avalu chalāyī. And I cannot behave like this. I walk straight. My actions, my words, my everything are very clear and straight. You know, I don't want to do that. You go, and I will go. We meet there. Where? No. Aulu chalai nathi. And aulu chalai nathiyo mala se dokma kishanam sepan. Then, sukama chakkai nahiyo. Chakkai, what is this? No, no... But I can read it, understand, but the words I can't understand. No, but here it's written wrong. That's why I'm chakra gaya meyam. Nati honu chaiye, naru nahi. So it is written wrong, so that I can... So when I have happiness, when I'm very happy, then I'm not overjoyed. Because I am happy, hey, I am happy, hey, I am happy. Kiyo ki sukha aur dukh kā jodhā hai. When you are happy, then be ready and prepare thyself for unhappiness. And when unhappiness is there, then celebrate: "I am happy, I have to prepare for happiness." Sukha aur dukh kā jodhā hai. Like your body and the shadow of the body, they are all parallel. In the troubles, I am not crying because I understand this is what it is. So, I'm not overjoyed when there is happiness, I'm not sad and crying when there is unhappiness. In all my situations, life situations, I cannot forget my bhakti, devotion. Bhakti pradhāna, kaliyuga kevala nāma ādhāra, sumira sumira narahoi bhavapāra. Karma hai ādhāra kalyug kā, but bhakti sabse baḍā hai. Nām kā ādhār bhakti hai, jo bhakti bhulāy nahīṁ ho. Mālā se ḍok māṁ the mālā is in my, because Gurudev's mālā. You will see all the saints, the difference between Indian saints and other saints, that Indian saints always have their mala around their neck. It doesn't matter where you are. Jala bāpā nī mālā johī tamāī. And so many people, they are the same. When they go to a party or somewhere, they put their mala away. Then God said, "My dear, you put me here, and now you are going to Kushaṅga." Thank you that you don't take me with you to the Kushaṅga. Because now you can do anything, because you don't feel that Gurudev or God's mala is in my... Therefore, this is not a mala. This mala will go out only if my head is chopped off. If someone says, "Take your mala away, don't wear it anymore," no. And this orange dress is not a cloth, it's my skin, that's it. Because this is what my Gurudev came to me for, always reminding me what is good and what is bad. Don't play, otherwise he knows. I am not here to collect money, property, or a house, these or that. Yeah? Whatever comes, I just give it. Donation, donation. And ek lukhā vyānanāti, I cannot eat only alone. It means I'm not occupying the whole property for me only. It's for all. What a beauty. Yoga in daily life, 42 years I have been working hard, day and night, without feeling tired. This is the 41st time that I am going around the globe. Everywhere, so many centers and teachers are living from that. I cannot say it's all mine. No, give it. Everyone, be happy. Be happy. But don't use, misuse. Because this is the karma that otherwise will tie you. It's not easy to digest the Puṇyaka Peśā. There's a story. There was one man who had a leprosy disease. Fingers fall out. Toes were full of blood, and knees were bleeding. You know how the leprosy disease is terrible. One day, his parents and family members said, "We are sorry, but we will give you shelter somewhere else. Otherwise, all will get the disease." That is not allowed. We are selfish. As long as the horse runs, feed it well. If the horse doesn't run, then give it to someone else. As long as the cow gives milk, give it. At that time, put this, that, and that. If it doesn't give milk, then kill it. Either kill it or go somewhere else. You know, we are very selfish. As long as our racing horse is strong and running and racing, we are feeding him very nicely. We are massaging him and everything, and brushing every day. And how nice. And when he gets retired or has some effect in his knee or hips, we just sell it. And some people just shoot and eat. As long as the cow is giving milk, you are feeding her very nicely. You feed her a green feeder, and this feeder, and that feeder, and water. And when she stops giving milk, you send her somewhere in the field. We are so selfish. As long as we have the lemon we buy in the market, a beautiful lemon, we pay the money, we carry it carefully, we come home, we take the juice out, and this is the world. So as long as a family member is healthy and working and bringing money, you are beautiful, you are good, you are... "Oh Gurudev, my son is a very brave one. You know, he's going to work, he's earning money, he comes home, he brings all his salary, and gives it to his parents. He's a very nice boy." A boy who has no work, and he's not working, and going with friends, sitting here and there, said, "Oh, God. Guru Dev, can you give him a little knowledge? We are all fed up with him." Duniya tumhari dambri se pyār karti hai, chambri se nahīṁ. People love your money, not your skin. So they send this leper there. They made a little hut for him outside the village. And there was a banyan tree. He could slowly, slowly go and sit under the tree, akhila, alone, night and day. They sometimes came once a day and gave him some food and that. One day he was sitting under the banyan tree, and one sādhu came. There was one chabutra, a podium, a sādhu sat there, because I had walked long, and he had a mālā type, he was making a mālā. The man was sitting in the fine, cool sand, putting sand on his hands because of the flies. When the sādhu finished his meditation and he saw one leprous ill person sitting, he said, "My son, you have this disease, come with me to my āśram, I personally will take care of you." He said, "Gurujī, I love my village and my parents, though they throw me out of the house, but I want to be here. Can you bless me or tell me some medicine, how to cure the nephra disease?" Gurujī closed his eyes. "Yes, my son, 25 liters of pure Indian cow ghee. Donate to that ashram. Your disease will go away. Finished." Āryauṁ tatsat Nārāyaṇa Nārāyaṇa. Swāmījī calage. Poor people have not even 25 paisa, and he is broken. But chand tale, sūraj tale, mahāpuruṣ ke bachan na tale. May the moon and sun change their direction. But the word of the saint will not change. Sooner or later, it will, like an arrow, touch you. At present, you are very happy. Time will come. He slowly, slowly went to the village. And there was a very nice, very kind businessman, a business person, not like a Naginbhai, but like his wife, his wife. Now he will complain to his wife, you know. So he went to Naginbhai and said, "Naginbhai, Ek mātmā, the one saint came and he told me this and this, I need 25 litres or kilos of the ghee. I have no money, but I will go to the market and beg and give you slowly, slowly payback." Naginbhai's heart, in his heart, dayā āvī gayī, mercy, compassion. Daya. Dayā dharma kā mūla hai. The roots of the mercy. Dharma is the mercy. In whose heart there is no dayā towards the Bhagavad Gītā, 12th chapter, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, "Arjuna, who loves the friend and enemy equal, I love that bhakta who has no hate to the enemy and no attachment to the friend, who stands above name and fame." Arjuna, the entire Bhakti Yoga chapter 12 is beautiful. He said, "No, no, bhai, no, my brother, no, I will do it. You can have the ghee." He said, "Please, can I request you, if this ghee can be brought to that ashram and given to them? Coming Pūrṇimā, they should make prasād." The businessman said, "Okay, I will do it. Do you want to eat?" And the businessman took his dress away, cleaned him, and gave him a new dress. And he said, "He made a kind of wooden table and arranged for two persons to carry him back to his hut." Daya, ghee came to the ashram. And that businessman tells the Gurujī of the ashram, the Gurudev, "This is 25 kilos of ghee for the coming Pūrṇimā prasāda, because thousands of people are coming. And that person told me that his Gurujī saw one saint, and the saint told him, 'This 25-kilo ghee is for prasād, and his disease will go away.'" Gurujī said, "Okay." Guru Ji called the kitchen in-charge person. The kitchen in-charge person came, and Gurujī said, "Coming Pūrṇimā, the halwā prasāda should be done from this 25 kilo ghee, and give all prasāda." Say, yes, Guru Dev. While carrying ghee in the storeroom—oh, real cow ghee. When you smell the garden cow ghee, you think there is ghee. This is butter and ghee. This butter and this ghee don't smell like that. That milk, what is the taste of those cows which are whole day walking in the dry fields and eating many, many different herbs? Beautiful. And that ghee has a yellow color because cows have, by nature, automatically in their body, what is called the gold. According to Ayurveda, we know we need silver, we need gold, we need iron, we need all. So, that man was thinking. 10,000 people will come, 25 kilos of ghee. Everyone will get only one spoon of halwa. Maybe 10,000 will not be enough. I will buy vegetable ghee, Dalda, from the market. And this I will consume for half a year, and I will be like a bodybuilder. And he begins to do his gymnastic bodybuilding. And morning, get up and make a halvā, make a parāṭhā. Lunchtime also halwa, this, that, evening everything. He was using every day one katori, two katori ghee, and doing his sport and muscles. In four months, he consumed 24 or 25 kilos of ghee. It came, summer began, spring began, and that leper person, he became healthy. But bhaktas used to come to the ashram, and they said, "Gurujī, your storekeeper of the kitchen has some disease. Please, can you tell him not to work in the kitchen and give him some treatment, Ayurveda or something? Sorry." Gurujī called him and looked. His fingers were like this, like this. And so many pimples, so many pimples around the whole body that you can't imagine, around the whole body. And Gurujī asked him, "What happened to you, the bhakta?" Bhakta said, "I don't know, Gurujī. My legs, my whole body is burning like a fire. My skin is tearing, splitting." Gurujī said, "Okay, you rest. I will call some Ayurvedic doctor, good, and we will make it." In the night, Gurujī was meditating. Why did it happen to my bhakta? He is working day and night. Hardly he goes home, doing seva, tirelessly doing seva. Prayer, meditation, and everything. How is it possible that my bhakta got this disease? Close, bhakta. He meditated. And now, as he was meditating, a leper came into his meditation. That businessman came. The ghee came. And he gave the ghee to the storekeeper. And the storekeeper changed his mind. And everything Gurudev saw like a movie. The next day, Gurujī called him Gopāla. His name was Gopāla. Praṇām Gurudev. He couldn't fold his hands even. Pranām Gurudev. Yes, Bhai. Haan beta. "Do you remember, about five months ago, I think, I handed over to you 25 kilos of ghee to make the halwā and give the bhaktas prasād. Did you?" He looked to Gurujī and he looked up, tears big. Guruji said, "You took this karma. 10,000 people, if they would have got one, one pimple could be treated. But now you have 10,000 pimples on your body. Karma took from the leper because the ghee was donated in the name of that leprous person. And you, somewhere this karma should go, so that would have gone to 10,000 people. Hardly could they feel and get a treatment. But now, my dear, you have to carry this." Therefore, karma will return. It will come. You are happy now for a while, but then you have to go through. And therefore, it is said, So, no duality, and I can't eat alone. Best is to distribute. Distribute, and therefore it is a give. If you are a strong person and someone is carrying a suitcase, you give a hand. "Can I help you?" That's giving. If someone, a blind person, is walking, can I give a hand to let him cross the street? Give physical, give material, give intellectual, give something. It must not be that you give money. Only money is not giving, but give comfort, give happiness, give, give. Finally, give the compassion and love blessing. That is the way of the Bhakta. Others are not the Bhakta; they are only Bhakta. Bhakta means talk, talk, blah, blah... okay. And that Bhakta who is doing Bhakta, in the next life he will become a duck. And always duck means duck, duck, duck. I cannot change. Keep thy word. Rāghu kulari tā sadā calī āī. Prāṇa jāye para vacana na jāhī. So, bolio bulai nai. What I have given promise, I cannot forget. Tekne trajai nai. What I have made a promise, that means my saṅkalpa. What promise I made, I cannot change. Mata, mata, lajvāyī nahīṁ, malā se ḍokmā. I don't want my mother to one day feel ashamed because of me, that I changed my behavior, I changed my word, I changed my saṅkalpa. For a mother is ashamed when her children will do this. So you are not doing for you, you are doing for the sake of your mother, for the sake of your father, you are doing for the sake of your nation, for the sake of all your friends. That is why the beauty, the glory of God, Rāma, is great. Bholio bhulaye nahi, teka tajaye nahi. Tajna means give up. Mātā la jai nahī o, malā se ḍokmā. ... Gurujī nā nām nī o, malā se ḍokmā. Mātā la jai nahī, Gurujī la jai nahī o, malā se ḍokmā. And your Gurujī will not say, "What a shame, what kind of disciple you are." Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī, Deveśvar Mahādev kī, Sanātana Dharma kī. These bhajans have to be corrected. Someone should write, because you know Kuntī. Who was Kuntī? Kuntī was the mother of Arjuna. We write "Kuntī." Na aatā na bīch mein. Aur tum Kuntī kī jagah, wo na nikāl doge, to kuṭṭī ho jāyegā. Ane wo na nikali gayo. You see the Kuntī, there is an N between. Kuntī. And if you remove the "na," then it becomes "kutti," which means female dog. And the other one, who will translate it into the other language, yeah, it will say that dog. Gurujī kī kuṭṭiyā, but they cannot pronounce. They say, "Guruji, Guruji kutya." So kutya and kutya, they are different. This is the language. Everyone has a different kind of pronunciation. The tongue is used from the mother language. So many words, how the New Zealand people are pronouncing in dialect, English, you know, they have found the best, and many words in English are even, how do you call, created by Indians. Hardly will you find such good English grammars and writers as Indians in the English language. And for example, like Tagore, Dr. Radhakrishnan. So language is also something of knowledge. But it doesn't matter; we are not going that far. We learn what we can, we do what we can. Okay, now we will have prayer. Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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