________________
CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES 227. At an early period in life he subdues the SerpentKing, Kaliya, which has already been explained, as representing manas (desires). When Indra (the impure ego) endeavours to interfere with the cows, Krishna raises the Gobardhana bill (the desiring manas) on the tip of his little finger and thus protects the kine. The luring of gopis from the beds of their busbands in the the darkness of night, the giddy moonlight dances on the banks of the Jumna, the stolen kisses and embraces, all of wbich would be highly condemnable from a moral point of view, if ascribed to an actual being, are fully appropriate to the Messiah or Christos. For Krishna is the divine ideal for the soul (gopi), to pour forth all her affection upon. She must wander out in the solitude of night (when the mind is not occupied with worldly things) on the banks of the placid Jumna (mind stuff, hence the mind), disregarding both her love for her husband (worldly attachments) and the fear of society. When she stands before her Redeemer, stripped of her clothes (worldly possessions), when she gives up even the last vestige of feminine modesty, and, standing upright joins her hands above her head, disregardful of her nudity and the rules of worldly decorum, then is the notion of duality between Love and the Object of Love dispelled from the mind, and the fruit of Love enjoyed.
The hopes and fears of the love-lorn gopis, their neglect of their household duties, their abandonment of their children and husbands, their passionate yearnings to be enfolded in the arms of the Beloved all these are
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
