All bliss, all joy, all rasa – is from Paramatma – Shri Krishna. The Self is the source of all bliss. The supreme Truth is rasa. The jiva becomes blissful on attaining this rasa.

Rasa is the essence, the juice of everything which is the sweet nectar – the nature of bliss; rasa is ananda and that bliss is Paramatma – the supreme Infinite seen as Krishna. All your desires are fulfilled only in bliss; it is only in the Infinite that all sense of incompleteness, all yearning and wishes come to an end. It is a victory over all egocentric desires.

It was a Sharad Purnima night; the bees were humming around the fragrant and blooming jasmine flowers; the moon was in its full effulgence, the wind was flowing softly, the weather was cool; Shri Krishna stood in the forest and played His flute. Hearing it, the gopis dropped everything and, with hearts pining for the Lord, ran to the forest. These gopis were not ordinary village women; they were exalted sannyasis; they had given up all desires and with their thoughts ever concentrated on Krishna, they served everybody seeing Him in all. They came and fell at the Lord’s feet. With tearful eyes, they requested Him not to abandon and send them back; He alone was their Lord, the Self of all beings, the source of all happiness. Krishna smiled; He had been testing the gopis – one cannot obtain the Lord of love if there is lust in the heart. Now satisfied, touched by their devotion, their pure love and knowledge, Shri Krishna danced with them.

There was one Krishna amongst all the gopis, yet each one felt that she was the special chosen. They started feeling proud; the ego reappeared, and the Lord disappeared. When they noticed that Krishna was not in their midst, despondent and distressed, they ran around the forest searching for Him.

Burning in the fire of separation from Krishna, overwhelmed with intense pain, the gopis began to act like Him and imitated His deeds. They sang the woeful and beautiful Gopika Geet. Weeping for Krishna and remembering all His glories, they forgot their ego.

The moment the gopis forgot themselves and remembered Krishna with total absorption, they found Him sitting amongst them. Somewhat offended, they proceeded to tell Him that He had remained unresponsive to their love – was He ever unattached like exalted saints and sages?  Krishna replied that He would do anything for His devotees – break pots, dance, play the flute, steal butter, take away their clothes – in order to destroy all their attachments and intensify their devotion so that they would constantly think of Him.

Now that the gopis had given up their ego, the dance of divine love began. The heavenly devatas gathered to see this beautiful, unforgettable and unique sight, showering fragrant flowers on Shri Krishna, standing in the middle with the gopis dancing around Him. His form could be seen between each gopi. Finally, one gopi left the circle and embraced the Lord. Radha and Krishna stood in the centre, and everybody danced around them.

This Raasa Lila is meditation at its highest. It is the dance of bliss and realization. The gopis are thoughts – all thoughts arise from Consciousness. On hearing the spiritual call of the flute, abandoning all external impulses, desires and attachments, the gopis run to Krishna and dance around Him. In the seat of meditation, when all thoughts are centered on the Lord, the seeker sees the blue spark of Consciousness between each thought. At first, the seeker observes the dance of thoughts and sees the spark of divinity in-between all of them; as meditation deepens, he/she leaves all thoughts, moves to the Eternal, fixed Centre and attains the bliss of pure samadhi.

The Srimad Bhagavatam declares that anyone who reads the five chapters of Raasa Lila will overcome selfishness and lust. This beautiful dance of love and bliss goes on for eternity. The dance still continues … when you are in bliss, when you are absorbed in the Lord, when there is no ‘you’, Eternity becomes a moment, and a moment is Eternity.

Swami Swaroopananda is Global Head, Chinmaya Mission.