Day 16
Once Lord Krishna had a headache and all the doctors came but they could not find the reason for his headache. No medicine would work. Krishna said one medicine would work, “If the dust from the feet of any one of my devotees is applied on my head, my headache will go.”
Were there no devotees in Dwarka, in the place where he was? Many people were there, but how many would put the dust of their feet on his head, because the scriptures say that if you put the dust of your feet on the Lord, then you will go to hell.
It is a sin and nobody wanted to go to hell. Then Krishna sent one of his messagers, Udhava, to Brindavan. As soon as he came, all the Gopis asked him, “Oh, tell me, what is the news in Dwarka? How is Lord Krishna? Is everything okay?” “He is fine,” the messenger replied, “but he has a headache.”
A cry arose, “He has a headache. Are there no good doctors there? Are there no Vaidyas there?” He told them that they are there but the medicine was not available. “What is that medicine?” they asked, “Come on tell us, what can we do?”
He said that he needed the dust of the feet of devotees. “How much do you want? Take truck-loads” Udhava reminded the Gopis that if they put the dust from their feet on the head of the Lord, they would go to hell. “Never mind, even if we have to go to hell, have to be in hell for 1000 of years, 14,000 years, we don't mind.
You take the dust. We can't bear our Lord having a headache.” There was not a bit of selfishness in the love of the Gopis. The ‘I, ‘I’ had totally dissolved. They existed as though they were not-so hollow and empty.
And there are many such stories - the love of the Gopis with Krishna is something unique. It is one depiction of what divine love is. Tatrapi na mahatmya gyan. Often, love and respect are in conflict. Respect needs a certain distance and love cannot tolerate any distance.
Often when people come together, when they have so much love, they lose respect for each other. And there is a conflict in trying to gain the respect. Finally, they have neither respect nor love-they loose both. Most marital problems end up like this, because there is a need for love and there is a need for respect, too.
But they are seemingly opposite. It is only in divine love that respect also grows and love also grows. The closer you come, the more respect you get and the farther you go, the more love you experience. Distance is not a factor in divine love, in the love which is fully blossomed.
Such was the love of the Gopis. They did not forget the greatness, the respect, the glory which belongs to you. That which is part of you seems to lose its glory. But in divine love the glory increases.
You do not forget the glory, the closer you get. That is a sign of enlightenment, of knowledge, of wisdom, of blossoming in love. Love cannot tolerate distance and respect cannot do away with distance. Divine love is a combination of love and respect and both are totally nurtured.
