When Maharaj Ji told us a little something about Mahārās during his ‘Rās Panchādhyāyi’ series of lectures, he said,
“You know, we can’t enter that palace. We’re not qualified yet. We have to reach the status of the Gopis. Then we can become qualified to even hear about Mahārās, what Mahārās really is.”
But he said there’s no harm in just looking around the outside of the palace. You can see what the architecture is like from the outside, how beautiful it looks, where the doors and windows are, and how the gardens surround it. You can’t actually know what’s happening inside the palace, but you can take a little stroll around the outside.
Or, when you’re walking down a street and there’s a garden with tall hedges, you can’t see what’s inside. But you know it must be beautiful because there’s a fragrance, a very deep, subtle fragrance from many different kinds of flowers, wafting out of the garden. So, even though you can’t see the flowers in the garden, you can get some idea of what’s inside. Similarly, we can get some idea by hearing about Mahārās. What is it? Why is it so great? But we can’t really know what it is.
Even in the Bhagwatam, Shukdev Ji didn’t give a full, detailed description of Mahārās because Parikshit kept questioning,
“Okay, how did the Gopis attain the Divine world again? Because many of the Gopis loved Krishna in what seems to be a worldly way. Some of them didn’t even know He was God, and they just loved Him like you would love any boy in this world. And yet they attained the Divine abode. They crossed over maya (the material energy that keeps souls bound to the material world). How is it possible?”
He kept asking questions like this, and Shukdev Ji explained a couple of times that Krishna is Divine. So, if you attach your mind to any Divine personality, you’ll attain the Divine abode. Whether you know that They are Divine or not doesn’t matter. You love Them. You surrender to Them. So, you get the result of attaching your mind to that Divine personality.
He explained it like this a couple of times, but Parikshit kept questioning,
“But He’s meeting with the Gopis in the middle of the night. That’s against dharm (righteous conduct), and Krishna is the founder of dharm, the teacher of dharm. He’s supposed to set the example of what dharm is, and here He’s breaking all the rules of dharm!”
He kept questioning.
So, in the end, Shukdev Ji said, “Okay, I think I’ve explained enough about Mahārās. If he’s just going to keep questioning, then he’s not qualified to hear any more!”
We’re not even near the level of King Parikshit. Our minds are much more polluted with worldly desires than his.
पाँचे भूलै देह सुध, छठे भावना रास की। …
Pāṁche bhūlai deh sudh, chhaṭhe bhāvanā Rās kī …
Swami Haridas Ji says there are different levels of Divine absorption. He says that, at the fifth level, you’re so absorbed that you lose total consciousness of your physical body. Beyond that, at the sixth level, that’s where you’re qualified for Rās (Divine bliss and loving exchange).”
So, imagine, what is our state? Never mind losing consciousness of our body. All we can think about is our body: what our belly wants, what our tongue wants, what our eyes want to see, and what our ears want to hear. We’re so attached to our physical desires. So, we are not nearly qualified, but we are aspiring devotees. We are trying to follow the path of devotion.
So, out of their graciousness, God and the Saints have revealed little glimpses of what Mahārās is.
