The Story of Uddhava ji Meeting Radha ji

I hope this part is clarified today because tomorrow someone comes and tells you that singing bhajan is the highest path. Because so many in India will tell you that, in what way will you understand? Uh huh. In a way, in a way, yes, it's right that maybe their temperament is such that they resonate the most with singing devotional song. You see, but we are not to get shaken because we see that it cannot be just in the singing part itself. So if you were to ask them, "So what happens, my brother or sister? What happens after you sing the bhajan? Why are you calling it the highest?" I can guarantee you they will say that it brings us to God's presence, God's light, when we are silent after the bhajan. So then we don't say, "No, your path is not the highest, it's so indirect, how many bhajans you have to sing." Yes. Whatever resonates with you, as long as you come to His darshan, true revelation about His reality, which is the same as my highest reality, then that pathway is the best.

So these are modern problems that we have. Hopefully—I don't know actually, no, because even in the past there was so much debate. But I doubt that anybody would go to Tukaram Ji and say, "Why you go from village to village with your veena and keep singing these bhajans? You see, don't you know that you should ask yourself who you are?" Or, "Oh Mira Bai, why are you composing all these bhajans and all? Such a waste of time." So we must not get into any of that pride. In fact, the whole story of Uddhava Ji meeting Radha Ji is about this. All of you know of this story. I think maybe on Zoom they may not be soon. I'll just share a quick—and I'm the worst teller of this story, so please don't rely on my telling of it.

So Lord Krishna had a very close friend who was a Mahagyani. His name was Uddhava Ji, Uddhava. So what happened is that one day Lord Krishna was missing Radha Ji so much that he was physically ill in bed with the amount that he was missing her. You see, now Uddhava Ji was Ashtavakra variety of sage, so he went to Lord and said, "My saka, my friend, don't you see that your Maya has got you? You see, what are you crying over a woman? You are the Lord of this universe. None of this is real. You see, how could you be so badly caught in avidya?" So the version of the story I like, Krishna being the only trickster more than Maya who's ever been, said, "Yes, yes, thank you brother, you've opened my eyes. I now see how badly I was caught up in Maya. You see, but now there's a problem. All these villagers of Vrindavan, they are caught up in the same affliction, you see. So can you do me a favor? I have some busy, you know, kingdom stuff to run. Can you go to my dear Vrindavan and explain to all of them that this is all Maya? You see, they're wasting time remembering me and crying."

See, and this part I can't—I wish I could tell it better. So Uddhava Ji takes it on to himself, the Mahagyani, that "I will go and enlighten people." See, so he gets to Vrindavan and there he sees everybody is missing Krishna like they've lost their very breaths. They just crying out of love for him. And he said that there was a river which was not on the maps, and that river was because they had all cried so much since he had left. You see, so they saw that the king's chariot is coming. So they thought that their beloved Krishna, who played with them when he was a baby and a young child, he has come. And all of them got their hopes up saying, "We get to see our beautiful Krishna again."

And they see that not Krishna, but somebody else who looking very royal has come. So they say—they welcome him first and they say, "Oh, have you got us a message from our beloved one?" So he says yes. And some Gopis are there, some of Krishna's friends, sakas, are there. So he says, "Yes, Krishna has told me, he has sent me here to enlighten all of you that you are badly stuck in Maya because you attached to a body. You're badly stuck." So they hear this report and all of them got deeper into that missing of Krishna and say, "See this trickster? He didn't come. Not only has he not come, he sent a friend who telling us such bitter thing—that our love for our Krishna was just Maya, it was never real, that what we feel for him was not reality, it was just an attachment."