Slokam 8

The Paramathma loves butter that the Gopis make.  He goes to them singing and dancing to entice them into giving him butter.  They “succumbed” to the enticement of the Paramathma and give Him butter and milk which the Paramathma consumes with great relish.

The request by the Paramathma for butter is actually an effort to entice the Gopis into a conscious intertwining with Himself so the Gopis are freed from the bondage of life.  The Paramathma entices everyone of us with His various forms,  enactments,  attributes,  infinite expansiveness,  and unlimited compassion.  Like He does to the Gopies, He puts us into various situations,  tests our reactions, makes us realize our helplessness, and when we finally turn to Him for help,  He surely extricates us from the situation.  When we go through the experience of this life,  we are shown the Paramathma’s hand over and over again.  Just as the Gopi’s think that the butter that they have belongs to them, because they think they have made it,  all by themselves, likewise, we also think that we own our consciousness, our mind, our body and many other worldly things as well

Just as the Gopis think that they are doing the Paramathma a favor by giving Him Milk and Butter, likewise we also think that when we set out on the Spiritual Path,  we are giving up our independence, our relationships, our wealth, our family.  So we think we are doing the Paramathma a favor by setting out on the spiritual path. We think of it as an obligation to the Paramathma. 

In truth, there is nothing here that belongs to us.  Liberation is attained when we realize that nothing belongs to us.  Moksham is attained when we surrender our “possession” at the feet of the Paramathma.

The milk and the butter are produced in reality, by the Paramathma alone.   The Gopis are the privileged enactors of the process of producing the butter from the milk drawn from the Paramathma’s creation, the cows,  by coordinating  the faculties of the senses and the limbs  using the mind and consciousness which are both the property of the Paramathma.

May we ever, consciously place our “prized possessions” of sukham, dukham, success and failure, at the feet of the Paramathma without any doubt as to who is the true cause behind these experiences and to whom the fruits of “our” actions belong.