As Krishna’s mission unfolded, He left Gokulam and His childhood companions to be the King of Mathura. Gopikas, who had never experienced being away from Krishna’s company, could not continue to live life in normal manner. Many of them stopped eating and taking proper care of their bodies. Swami narrated a story about Neeraja, who yearned to see Krishna in her last moments.
Here was an occasion when Krishna laid His flute aside and declared that He would not play it again. It is a long story, not found in books. I alone must tell you about it, for only the Person who has experienced it can describe it.
A bride called Neeraja came to Gokulam as the daughter-in-law of a Gopa family. Once she peeped into a crowd of enthusiastic gopikas watching the dance of Radha with Krishna in a flower bower near the hill. She was so captivated by the divine presence that she was no longer the same person.
Another day, while on the Yamuna river bank, she saw Krishna fashioning a flute from a reed taken out of bamboo bower, and she heard Him play! Oh, it was overwhelmingly ecstatic! It was a call to transcend the material bonds to free oneself from the trammels of earthly endeavours. Neeraja did not care for anyone now. She became God intoxicated. She spent her days in the bamboo bower, her whole mind fixed on the Lord whom she had installed there.
Years passed. Nanda, Yasoda, and Radha left the world. Neeraja was now 52 years old. One day, she prayed desperately to Krishna, “I can no longer bear this forlorn life. My eyes have gone dry and they have no more tears to keep this love green. My heart is fast turning into a wasteland. Come, O Lord, come and save me, take me unto yourself.”
Krishna heard the prayer. He responded to her yearning and called her by name so sweetly that His very voice filled her with new life. The bamboo bower was fragrant with divine glory. Krishna came near and took Neeraja’s palm in His Hand. “What do you desire?” He asked.
She asked “What is the purpose of life?”
“To merge in God.”
“Well let me merge in You ... but before that, before my love merges in yours, let me hear you play on that flute for a short while.”
Krishna smiled and gave the excuse that He had not brought His flute. But seeing Neeraja’s yearning, He plucked a reed from the bamboo bower and broke it right and in a trice converted it into a flute. With Neeraja on his lap, Krishna played so melodiously on the flute that the entire Gokulam and even the whole world was bathed in ecstatic joy. When He stopped, Neeraja had attained final beatitude and was no longer a limited individual gopi separate from Him.
Krishna laid aside His flute and said He would not play on it again. That is the story of one gopi. The story of every gopi will be interesting, each in its own way, for they were all so transmuted by the devotion they bore toward the Lord.
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba ~
(Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 3.19, August 12, 1963)
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