Uddhava Gita: Song of the Bee (Part 6)
Bhramara Gita - Gopis' message
In a flashback, when Uddhava visited Vrindavan as Krishna's messenger, the Gopis responded to a bee (bhramara) as if speaking to Krishna. Their profound message of love-in-separation, the Bhramara Gita, reveals the highest reaches of devotion. Even Uddhava aspires to be dust at their feet.
The Song of the Bee
Before we move to Krishna's final departure, the Bhagavatam takes us back to a pivotal moment years earlier, when Uddhava, at Krishna's request, journeyed to Vrindavan as a messenger. What he encountered there transformed his understanding of devotion forever. The Bhramara Gita (Song of the Bee) that the Gopis sang is considered the highest expression of divine love in all of Vedic literature.
Uddhava's Mission to Vrindavan
After killing Kamsa and establishing Himself in Mathura, Krishna could not return to Vrindavan. The simple cowherd life was over; royal duties awaited. But His heart remained with the Gopis, those village women whose love for Him transcended all understanding.
Krishna sent His dearest friend Uddhava to console them. Uddhava was a jnani, a philosopher who understood the nature of the Self. Surely, Krishna thought, he could help the Gopis understand that the Lord was never truly absent, that He existed in their hearts always.
Uddhava arrived in Vrindavan at twilight, that magical hour when the Gopis' longing for Krishna was most acute. He found them not in mourning but in a strange state, simultaneously devastated and ecstatic, their minds so absorbed in Krishna that they could perceive nothing else.
The State of the Gopis
The Gopis were experiencing vipralambha, love in separation, which the devotional traditions consider higher even than love in union. When the beloved is present, love may become complacent. When absent, love becomes a fire that consumes everything else.
Every tree reminded them of Krishna. Every sound of the flute, whether real or imagined, made their hearts leap and then crash. They wandered the forests where they had danced with Him, touching the places where His feet had touched, speaking to plants that had sheltered His form.
They no longer cared for their homes, their families, their duties. Society called them mad. But they knew a truth society could not comprehend: that having tasted divine love, everything else was ashes.