CHENNAI: Uddhava was very much delighted to be appointed by the good lord himself to teach great beings such as the Gopis. Eager to teach the Gopis he went to Vrindavan.
There, he was astonished to see the condition of the Gopis. They were so completely immersed in love for Krishna that they lost themselves completely.
They would go about their day to day activities, but as they dipped their water pots in the river they would look at the water and say ‘Hey Krishna’.
As they walked up the bank, they would say ‘Hey Krishna’. They would embrace the calves and say ‘Hey Krishna’. As Uddhava watched them, he thought to himself, “These women are maniacs. They have gone completely crazy! Are they so deluded that they are seeing Krishna everywhere and in everything?”
Uddhava greeted the Gopis and they welcomed him with great love. They enquired with him about Krishna and Uddhava conveyed Krishna’s love for all of them. Addressing all the Gopis he said, “Lord thought that you must all be depressed without him so he sent me to help you out of your condition. Kindly sit down and listen to me.” The Gopis sat around Uddhava and thus he began to speak — “You are all deluded. You look at the river, calf and call it Krishna. You embrace a tree and call it Krishna. This behavior is crazy. Listen to me attentively O Gopis. Yoga has 8 limbs.
You will have to practice them from now on. Sit for meditation and withdraw your consciousness into your heart. In the heart there is a lotus and it there that you will see Krishna. If you meditate in this manner you will experience him within you and find peace too.”
Sage Narada beautifully describes the condition of the Gopis. He says that even though the gopis were highly intoxicated with love for Krishna they had not lost their decorum. They neither lost their power of memory nor their power of comprehension. They were highly aware of everything.
Gopis listened to Uddhava patiently. After Uddhava finished explaining the yoga vidya to them, the gopis said, “O Uddhava, we have only one mind and that mind has gone to Krishna. Then with what mind are we going to practice yoga and meditation that you have just spoken about? What are we going to see in meditation?
The lord permeates our entire being from head to toe. He is our mind and he is our breath. We see him in the animate as well as the inanimate. Wherever we look we see Krishna.”
As Uddhava listened to this he became quiet. He understood that through concentrated devotion, the Gopis were already meditating on Krishna and had attained complete union with him.
In their husbands they saw Krishna, in their children they saw Krishna, in their cows they saw Krishna. With heightened awareness they saw Krishna in all.
This story is a true example for 19th verse of the guru Gita —“guror dhyanam sada kuryatkulastri svapateryatha.” If you have this kind of love, meditation upon the guru happens. Guru will reveal to you the wisdom for enlightened living.