In English
left and the and reached . The whole of was suffering from the pangs of separation. The who had experienced the taste of divine company did not want to have any other experience. The were anxiously waiting for the return of . Every day, the were looking at the path along which might return. They were waiting to have his vision. , who knew the minds of the , sent his friend to console them. Nobody knew when reached . As the day was dawning, they found a huge chariot in front of ’s palace. The were overjoyed because they thought that their Lord knew of their sorrow and came to console them. In a moment, the news of the arrival of the chariot spread throughout . Unable to control their happiness, the came in groups to ’s house. As soon as they came there, they realised that had not come, but sent a messenger to console them. Sinking in disappointment, they fell on the ground. At that time, came out and wanted to give them news of . Since the had totally surrendered themselves to , they were not in the habit of looking at or talking to a stranger. Their minds did not agree to a direct conversation with . They took a bee as an intermediary and they talked to through the bee. The word is a Sanskrit word for bee and this episode is known as . tried to explain to the that is God himself and that he has no qualities and that he is omnipresent. He advised them that since was omnipresent, there was no need for them to feel sorry that he was away. He told them that they should accept ’s presence everywhere. In fact, from the very beginning, the were used to worshiping the pure, clean sathwik form of . Having been used to worshiping a form, they could not readily agree to think of as a formless divine aspect. Addressing through the bee, they said “Oh, ! He may be a great to the , but to us, he is and we want him in the form in which we know him. We do not want him in the form of a . Will it be possible to get rid of all the darkness in the world by simply bringing a message about some brilliant light? Will the poverty of a poor man disappear merely by his listening to the might of wealth? Will a hungry man’s hunger be relieved only by hearing a description of the food? Will the disease of a sick man be cured if you describe the greatness of various medicines to him?” They would not talk directly to . They were only addressing the bee. Continuing they said, “Oh, bee, by simply bringing in messages, is our sorrow going to be diminished? By looking at you and hearing your message, can we get the sweet form of ? By listening to your message, our sorrow is not going to be reduced. In order that we may have the vision of the Lord, we have been spending each moment as a . By the pangs of separation, our hearts have become heavy and we have become weak. Under these circumstances, your message will not satisfy us.” From their childhood, the had played with and had experienced his divinity. They will never be satisfied with a message, and they can never accept the suggestion to think of as a formless entity. So, they said, “Oh, Bee, keep your message to yourself. We need , but not the message. Do what you may, bring to us and show him to us. We heard that you are a friend of . We also heard that will readily accept a friend’s advice. Please go back to and make efforts to bring to . Reduce our suffering and help us.” Another gopika took up the conversation and said, “We have only one mind, and even that mind has gone with . We do not have another mind to listen to you and appreciate that aspect of formless divinity that you are preaching. If we had more minds than one, we would have gladly listened to you, but now it is not possible for us to listen at all. Since we have no other mind, there is no chance of our listening to your preaching. So, please return to .” To this, said, “, do not be in a hurry. At least, listen to the message that God has sent, read the note that I have brought and send a reply.” The then said, “ is a small village, there are no big schools here. We are illiterate and cannot read the note. We do not have the ability of reading ’s message. We are not the type who will be satisfied with a message or a letter. For one who is used to enjoying what is immortal, a letter does not mean anything.” Clearly and categorically, they said that the letter is of no use to them. Another gopika said, “By the suffering of separation, our bodies have become hot and unbearable and it is possible that because of this heat, the letter may get burnt. Alternatively, the letter may get drenched by the tears of sorrow from our eyes. In either case, it will not be possible for us to read the letter sent by .” When he heard these sacred thoughts of the , several ideas were sprouting in the mind of . He was a great scholar, but he did not realise the intensity of the suffering of the . Within himself, he tried to understand each and every word uttered by the and gave it a sacred Vedic meaning.