Today it was Gita Jayanti, I thought I'd share a Gita moment we had over here weeks ago.
We were walking to the field to harvest the mung beans. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that one should meditate on Krsna and Balarama on a jeweled throne, in the middle of the forest and surrounded by the cowherd boys; now I can't find it, so maybe my mind added stuff.
Still I told Gaurasundara that since Vrndavana is the land of bhava, and "what it feels like" is much more important than the "what it is", maybe the golden throne bedecked with gems, at least during the earthly lila was just a huge stone decorated with shells, but that wouldn't make any difference.
GS quoted BG 6.8:
"A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything — whether it be pebbles, stones or gold — as the same."
He quoted that verse in passing, but to me it opened a huge portal, as I had never thought of that verse in relation to Vraja lila. I felt like we were being blessed by Srila Sridhara Maharaja, who is so expert at drawing Vraja lila out of the driest piece of Vedantic knowledge.
I don't see the harm in seeing the gopas in that verse. After all, they are always united (yukta) with Krsna, so they must be the best of yogis. In the case of my analogy, with stones and shells, it really reminds me of my childhood, where we would play for hours: "You would say this, and I would do this, and this was a golden this or that" and although we were using sticks, stones and blankets as props, the bhava wouldn't suffer one bit from it.
One may say that in Goloka Vrndavana everybody is really bedecked with gold and jewels, but the point remains: if gold, pearls and gems are so common, what would make them so special? Again, it's the bhava of the participants that gives valence to everything. Pebbles and gold really are the same.
Thank you for sharing this Syam! I was thinking about Vraja like that sometimes but I was never able to see such thoughts in the light of scriptures.