Passage 4

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In plain words

Everything in this world moves only by the power of God. By his own power man can achieve nothing at all. There are many powers in this world. Some think that someone created these powers. They are not things that anyone creates. They are nothing but the powers of Prakṛti! They have come forth by God's will.

Suguṇa, who saw Gopāla in the lamp

In Gokula there was a custom. Every evening, when a lamp was set outside in front of Nanda's house, the Gopīs would light their own lamps from that lamp and carry them home. The people of that time believed that if the poor took a lamp from a rich man's house, they too would become rich. A new daughter-in-law named Suguṇa came to that village. Her mother-in-law said, “Go to Nanda's house, light the lamp and come back.” When Suguṇa went to Nanda's house and was lighting her lamp, Kṛṣṇa appeared to her in that lamp. She forgot herself and stood gazing at that lamp and nothing else. Though her hand was burning, she paid it no heed at all and went on looking straight at the lamp, full of joy. The other women and girls who had gone to light their lamps saw this sight and were amazed.

He appeared to our Suguṇa, they say; in Nanda's house, Gopāla, they say, appeared in the lamp, they say....

Singing this song, they began to dance for joy. Hearing the song, Yaśodā came running out from inside, pulled Suguṇa's hand out of the lamp: “What is this, my girl? The lamp is burning your hand away and you do not even notice! Do you want to bring a bad name on our house?” she said. Suguṇa's mother-in-law had a bad temper to begin with; when she learned what had happened, she ordered that Suguṇa must never again go to Yaśodā's house.

Each one's fortune is their own

When Kṛṣṇa, who had gone to Mathurā, did not come back, the Gopīs kept watch till their eyes ached, ‘When will He come, Kṛṣṇa?’