Mystic’s Musings By Sadhguru – Founder, Isha Foundation

Q: Was it correct for Krishna never to look back at the Gopis, after he left Vrindavan?

Sadhguru: Oh, the Gopi is concerned? [Laughter]

At a certain point, after his experience of the reminder of who he is, his life just flipped over into a completely different dimension. Suddenly, he had a new cause and a new mission to live for, so he took to it.

Many times, people reminded him, “Is it right for you to stay away from them? After all, they are just across the river. So why don’t you visit them?”

Krishna said, “I don’t want to spoil what is very beautiful for them. They have seen me as Gopala, the son of Nanda, a joyful child and youth. They have heard my flute. They have danced to my step and beat. They have known me that way. Now here I have become somebody else with a missionary’s zeal to establish a new order in the society. If I go back like this, I will destroy everything that is precious to them. They are happy just remembering Krishna, because their remembrance is a live Krishna for them. They are still living in me and I am living in them. I don’t want to destroy that, I don’t want to go and tell them all these complex matters of dharma. They are just fine. They gave themselves absolutely to me. They transcended their limitations in their simplicity.

Now I don’t want to go and complicate things for them.”

Any number of times people reminded him, “Is it fair? You never went back. Not once. You were not a fake. You really love them — and they loved you. Why is it that you don’t go back?”

So Krishna said, “There is no going back because I never left. The Gopala that they knew, I have left there for them. This Krishna is different now, so this one should not go there.”

Q: Did Radhe get married after Krishna left to Dwaraka?

Sadhguru: See, she fell in love with Krishna — that is very important and significant. She got married — that is not a significant event in anybody’s life. [Laughter] Did Radhe eat? Did she reproduce? Maybe, maybe not, who cares? Radhe is significant for the way she loved Krishna. Radhe is significant because she became an embodiment of Krishna. Not because she ate, not because she got married, not because she reproduced. That everybody does, it’s of no consequence to life.

We don’t want to know whether 3,500 years ago, somebody got married or ate or went to the toilet. If they did something beyond the limitations in which human beings live, then we want to remember them. They did something so beautiful and tremendous that we don’t want to forget them for that.

[Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times best-selling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. www.ishafoundation.org]