या भर्तृपुत्रादि विहाय सर्वं
लोकद्वयार्थाननपेक्ष्यमाणाः ।
रासादिभिस्तादृशविभ्रमैस्त-
द्रीत्याभजंस्तत्र तमेनमार्ताः ॥
अतो हि या नो बहुसाधनोत्तमैः
साध्यस्य चिन्त्यस्य च भावयोगतः ।
महाप्रभोः प्रेमविशेषपालिभिः
सत्साधनध्यानपदत्वमागताः ॥
तास्वेतस्य हि धर्मकर्मसुतपौत्रागारकृत्यादिषु
व्यग्राभ्योऽस्मदथादरैः पतितया सेवाकरीभ्योऽधिकः ।
युक्तो भाववरो न मत्सरपदं चोद्वाहभाग्भ्यो भवेत्
संश्लाघ्योऽथ च यत्प्रभोः प्रियजनाधीनत्वमाहात्म्यकृत् ॥

yā bhartṛ-putrādi vihāya sarvaṁ
loka-dvayārthān anapekṣyamāṇāḥ |
rāsādibhis tādṛśa-vibhramais tad-
rītyābhajaṁs tatra tam enam ārtāḥ ||
ato hi yā no bahu-sādhanottamaiḥ
sādhyasya cintyasya ca bhāva-yogataḥ |
mahāprabhoḥ prema-viśeṣa-pālibhiḥ
sat-sādhana-dhyāna-padatvam āgatāḥ ||
tāsv etasya hi dharma-karma-suta-pautrāgāra-kṛtyādiṣu
vyagrābhyo’smad athādaraiḥ patitayā sevā-karībhyo’dhikaḥ |
yukto bhāva-varo na matsara-padaṁ codvāha-bhāgbhyo bhavet
saṁślāghyo’tha ca yat prabhoḥ priya-janādhīnatva-māhātmya-kṛt ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.82–84)

“[Rukmiṇī Devī speaks in praise of the Vraja-gopīs:]
[They] Who being heart-stricken,
Forsaking everything—husband, son, and so on,
And disregarding the objects of the two worlds,
Worshiped him—he there—in that manner
By means of such graceful movements as rāsa and the like,
And who thus indeed attained in full the state of being
The object of paramount adoration and meditation
Accompanied by series of special expressions of prema
For our Great Master,
He who has been an object of attainment for us
By means of a profusion of the most excellent adorations
And an object of contemplation
By means of bhāva—
His greater, most beautiful bhāva for them [viz., the gopīs]
In comparison to us—
We who are his marital partners,
His servants with reverences
Because of his being our husband,
And intently concerned
About propriety (dharma), rites (karma), sons,
Grandsons, home, and duties—
Shall be appropriate,
Not an object of envy,
And rather fit to be highly praised [by us]
Since it is a cause for our Master
Of the greatness of being subservient to dear persons.”

Commentary

Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda explains in his commentary on these verses that the gopīs’ being “heart-stricken” (ārtāḥ) conveys that they feel extreme disconcertion [because of their prema for Śrī Kṛṣṇa] or that they are affected by extreme thirst [for Śrī Kṛṣṇa because of their prema for him].¹ Their “disregarding the objects of the two worlds” (loka-dvayārthān anapekṣyamāṇāḥ) refers to their disregarding all the objects to be accomplished and all means of accomplishment that can be found on the earth and in the other planes throughout the realm of saṁsāra.² That the gopīs “worshiped him—he there” (abhajaṁs tatra tam enam) conveys that they worshiped Bhagavān, namely, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, there in Vṛndāvana, in the secluded bowers and so on, where he was decorated with the garb and so forth of that environment.³ That they worshiped him “in that manner” (tad-rītyā) conveys that they worshiped him in a manner that was replete with ineffable greatness, or, a manner that is unfit to disclose in the presence of everyone present where Rukmiṇī Devī is speaking these verses at Raivata Mountain in the midst of the replica of Vṛndāvana that Brahmadeva had created there because of the manner in which the gopīs worshiped Śrī Kṛṣṇa being most confidential, which is to say, the gopīs worshiped him in Vṛndāvana with a special type of madhura-bhāva that resembled that of an unchaste woman who engaged in amour [i.e., an extra-marital affair with Śrī Kṛṣṇa as a paramour].⁴ The gopīs’ “graceful movements” are said to be “such” (tādṛśa) because they are ineffable,⁵ and because of their superlative worship they became “the object of paramount adoration and meditation accompanied by series of special expressions of prema for our Great Master” (Mahāprabhoḥ prema-viśeṣa-pālibhiḥ sat-sādhana-dhyāna-padatvam), meaning, they became the ultimate object to be attained and the ultimate object of meditation for Śrī Kṛṣṇa such that for their sake Śrī Kṛṣṇa enacts endless series of extraordinary expressions of prema.⁶ Śrī Sanātanapāda cites the following statement of Śrī Uddhava to the gopīs as a reference in this regard:

Even yogīs are not able to follow
The path of you all in separation [from Kṛṣṇa]
Since you all have reached
The difficult to attain position
Of being the object of meditation
Of the Supreme Puruṣa,
He whose form is the object of meditation [of yogīs]. (Cited in Padyāvalī 347)

Rukmiṇī Devī further describes “our Great Master” (Mahāprabhoḥ), that is, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as “he who has been an object of attainment for us by means of a profusion of the most excellent adorations” (no bahu-sādhanottamaiḥ sādhyasya) so as to convey that he has never been freely available to Rukmiṇī Devī and her co-wives but rather attainable only by means of a profusion of excellent attendant services and the like.⁷ She further describes Śrī Kṛṣṇa as “an object of contemplation by means of bhāva” (cintyasya ca bhāva-yogataḥ) to convey that he is only an object of meditation for them, and not rather directly attainable for them, by means of a wealth of prema, or by means of one-pointedness of mind,⁸ meaning, he is not fully under the control of their love such that he is always directly available to them even when they express a wealth of prema for him or fix their minds upon him one-pointedly since he is often absorbed in the thought of the gopīs such that he is inattentive to Rukmiṇī Devī and her co-wives, as was described earlier in this chapter of Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta.

Rukmiṇī Devī distinguishes herself and her co-wives from the gopīs by describing she and her co-wives as “we who are his marital partners, his servants with reverences because of his being our husband, and intently concerned about propriety (dharma), rites (karma), sons, grandsons, home, and duties” (dharma-karma-suta-pautrāgāra-kṛtyādiṣu vyagrābhyo’smad athādaraiḥ patitayā sevā-karībhyaḥ … codvāha-bhāgbhyaḥ). Śrī Sanātanapāda elaborates on the significance of this description in his commentary as follows:

It is to be inferred that in this way [i.e., by means of Rumiṇī Devī thus describing herself and her co-wives as “we who are his marital partners” and so forth] contrariety between herself and the gopīs is stated. [The hidden intention of Rukmiṇī Devī in this description of herself and he co-wives is as follows:] “Moreover in this regard, they [viz., the gopīs] are free from regard for all objects of this world and the next, while we are intently concerned about them [i.e., worldly objects]. They worshiped [Kṛṣṇa] by means of the ineffable graceful movements of the play of rāsa and so forth, whereas we are just renderers of service [to him], and further in that regard, [we are such] with reverences because of [his] being our husband, and not rather with a special form of the highest, most pure prema [like them]. Sometimes, upon hearing the trick of a special signal-sound from him while he is hiding in the corner of their household after covertly arriving [there] at night, they arose from bed, just slightly and slowly, slowly opened the wooden bolt across the door out of fear of their father-in-law and so on, left the house, found him present nearby, and pleased him with firm embraces, kisses, and so on. Sometimes, even during the day, after he had gone to a signaled bower or otherwise near the Yamunā, prepared a bed of soft shoots and flowers, and cast his sight towards the path of his dearmost ones [i.e., the path by which they would come], imaging their arrival even at the sound of a leaf falling or the like, they went out on the pretext of fetching water from the Yamunā or otherwise and delighted him. Sometimes in the evening they became maddened by the signal of the flute’s sound, had their garments and hair slip down repeatedly, donned their ornaments in reverse, ran with haste, arrived, became heart-stricken with immense sorrow because of the manner of his words of deceit [which he spoke to them upon their arrival] as he engaged in dissimulation, begged openly for their desired object with faltering voices, and then became highly elated as a result of understanding his humorousness after his breaking out of his dissimulation. [At that time] They grabbed hold of the edge of his yellow cloth or otherwise, by force pulled him to a hollow in a bower, and satisfied him. In this way in a variegated manner they worshiped [him] freely by means of amour. We, however, being his wedded wives and obedient to society and propriety (dharma), worship him only by means of the proper conduct (dharma) of a householder and so on. Therefore, [his most beautiful bhāva for them] shall also not be an object of envy (matsara-padam) for us, because of the impropriety of rivalry (sāpatnya) on the part of inferiors [viz., us] with persons who are highly exalted [viz., the gopīs], as in the case of maidservants with [their] mistresses (svāminīs). Furthermore, on the contrary, [his most beautiful bhāva for them] is verily fit to be highly praised (saṁślāghyaḥ) [by us] since (yat) that most beautiful bhāva [of his] for them is such that it creates the greatness, the special glory, of our Master’s, that is, our Husband’s, being subservient to dear persons, or that state [of being subservient to dear persons] because of being captivated [by dear persons]. When this [i.e., the aforementioned most beautiful bhāva of Śrī Kṛṣṇa for the gopīs] is indeed so, even those like us shall have an aspiration for it.” This is the hidden intent [behind Rukmiṇī Devī’s statement].

Although they [viz., the queens of Dvārakā led by Rukmiṇī] have no actual attachment to propriety (dharma), rites (karma), and so on, and even when that [seemingly] occurs, there is also no fault whatsoever because of that on the part of them all being for the sake of Bhagavān and [thus] rather verily a quality because of [its] being a cause of a variegatedness of worship [of him], still it is to be understood that this statement by Bhagavatī [viz., Rukmiṇī] is [made] out of an abundance of her own natural modesty or because of the absence [on the part of her and her co-wives] of the fortune of such worship of the gopīs [i.e., the fortune of the the worship which the gopīs offered to Śrī Kṛṣṇa]. Such is to be inferred elsewhere as well [i.e., also in other cases later in the text when great bhaktas of Śrī Bhagavān speak of themselves as being attached to objects other than Śrī Bhagavān, since such remarks are to be understood as being inspired by humility or recognition of the special fortune of other bhaktas]. (DDT on BB 1.7.84)⁹

Footnotes

1ārtāḥ parama-vyagrāḥ parama-tṛṣṇāturā vā … |

2loka-dvayasya arthān sādhya-sādhanāni anapekṣyamāṇāḥ |

3tatra vṛndāvane nikuñjādau taṁ tādṛśa-veśādi-vibhūṣitam enaṁ bhagavantam … |

4tayā anirvacanīya-māhātmyayā, yad vā parama-rahasyatvenātra prakāśayitum ayogyayā rītyā prakāreṇa aupapatya-kṛta-svairiṇīvan-madhura-bhāva-viśeṣa-paripāṭyety arthaḥ |

5tādṛśair anirvacanīyair vibhramair vilāsaiḥ …|

6ata etādṛśa-bhajanād eva hetoḥ mahāprabhoḥ śrī-kṛṣṇasya prema-viśeṣāṇāṁ asādhāraṇa-premṇāṁ pālibhiḥ śreṇībhiḥ kṛtvā sator utkṛṣṭayoḥ sādhana-dhyānayoḥ padatvaṁ viṣayatāṁ parama-sādhyatvaṁ parama-dhyeyatvaṁ cety arthaḥ |

7no’smākaṁ bahubhiḥ sādhanottamair utkṛṣṭa-sādhanaiḥ paricaryādibhiḥ sādhyasya, na tu svācchandyena prāpyasya |

8bhāva-yogataḥ prema-sampattyā cittaikāgratayā vā cintyasya dhyeyasyaiva na tu sākṣāl-labhyasya |

9evaṁ gopībhya ātmano vaiparītyam uktam ity ūhyam | tathā hi—tatraihikāmuṣmikāśeṣārthāpekṣā-rahitā, vayaṁ ca teṣu vyagrāḥ | tā rāsa-krīḍādy-anirvacanīya-vibhramair bhejuḥ, vayaṁ tu sevā-mātra-kāriṇyaḥ, tatrāpi patitayā gauravaiḥ, na tu viśuddha-parama-prema-viśeṣeṇa | tāḥ kadācit niśi gṛha-koṇe nibhṛtam āgatya līnasya asya vicitra-saṅketa-śabda-bhaṅgiṁ niśamya śayanād utthāya śvaśrv-ādi-śaṅkayā śanaiḥ śanair dvārārgalam īṣan mocayitvā gṛhān niḥsṛtyābhimukhe militam etam upalabhya gāḍhāliṅgana-cumbanādinā sukhayanti sma | kadācid divāpi saṅketita-yamunā-nikuñjādi-gataṁ komala-pallava-puṣpa-śayyāṁ racayantaṁ patra-nipātādi-śabdenāpi priyatamā-samāgamam āśaṅkyamānaṁ tad-vartma-nihita-dṛṣṭiṁ kālindī-jalāharaṇādi-vyājena gatvainam aramayan | kadācit pradoṣe veṇu-nāda-saṅketena unmāditā muhur bhraśyad-dukūla-keśā viparyaya-dhṛta-bhūṣaṇā vegena dhāvitvā gatyā avahitthā-parasyāsya śāṭhya-vacana-paripāṭyā mahāśokārtāḥ kākubhir nijeṣṭaṁ spaṣṭaṁ yācamānāḥ paścād avahitthā-bhaṅgān narmatva-jñānena parama-hṛṣṭāḥ | pīta-vastrāñcalādau dhṛtvā balād enaṁ nikuñja-kuhare samākṛṣya samatarpayann ity evaṁ vividha-rītyā svacchandam aupapatyenābhajan | vayaṁ tu vidhivad gṛhīta-pāṇayo loka-dharmādi-paratantrā gārhasthya-dharmeṇaiva bhajāma ity-ādi | ata evāsmākaṁ matsara-padaṁ mātsarya-viṣayaś ca na bhavati paramotkṛṣṭair janaiḥ saha nikṛṣṭānāṁ sāpatnyāyogāt, yathā svāminībhiḥ saha dāsīnām | atha ca pratyuta saṁślāghyaḥ samyak ślāghā-yogya eva | yad yasmāt prabhoḥ sva-bhartuḥ priya-janānām adhīnatvena vaśyatvena tad-rūpaṁ vā yan-māhātmyaṁ kīrti-viśeṣas tan karotīti tathā sa bhāva-varaḥ | tathā saty evāsmādṛśīnām api tatrāśā bhaved iti gūḍho’bhiprāyaḥ | yadyapy āsām api dharma-karmādiṣv āsaktir nāsty eva, satyām api teṣāṁ sarveṣām eva bhagavad-arthakatayā na ko’pi ca doṣo ghaṭate, pratyuta bhajana-vaicitrī-hetutvād guṇa eva, tathāpi nija-sahaja-vinaya-bhareṇa gopī-sadṛśa-bhajana-saubhāgyābhāvena vā tathoktaṁ bhagavatyeti boddhavyam | evam anyad apy ūhyam |

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