Bhagavad-gita, 8.21
“That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.”
If you just remember for the future, this eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gita is where Krishna so often declares: one should go there, you never come back to this material world. He is also declaring He is the supreme destination.
Purport. “The supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is described in the Brahma-samhita as cintamani-dhama, a place where all desires are fulfilled.”
This is clearly seen that even when one reaches spiritual perfection, there still will be desire. And, of course, the impersonalists and the Buddhists, etc., promote the idea that when you reach perfection, there are no desires, all desire is bad and the goal is to become free of desire. But, of course, that is because they don’t know that beyond this desireless state which is the brahmajyoti, or nirvana for the Buddhist, there is another world of personality and activity, and relationship, and love, and desire.
So it is the nature of the soul to have desires. But if they are material desires, then that’s against the well-being of the soul. However Krishna’s abode is filled with people who have desires and all desires are fulfilled. In the material world few desires are fulfilled.
“The supreme abode of Lord Krishna known as Goloka Vrindavana is full of palaces made of touchstone. There are also trees which are called “desire trees” that supply any type of eatable upon demand, and there are cows known as surabhi cows which supply a limitless supply of milk.”
Obviously Krishna’s abode is perfect: perfect for enjoyment, enjoyment for Krishna and enjoyment for all the residents there. And so it’s describing what perfection is.
Trees that are filled with the fruits that you may want, whatever type you want, “Oh, I want an orange!” There it is. “Oh, I feel like a peach, mango.” Whatever. Desire trees fulfill desires, they supply any type of eatable upon demand.
Krishna wants us to have our desires fulfilled. It’s not that Krishna is against having our desires fulfilled. He provides the whole material world so we can try to fulfill our material desires as perverted as they are, He still provides us with the objects of desires. The spiritual world is where it is in its perfected state.
Surabhi cows, these are spiritual cows, they are not these cows of this planet. They are cows which are able to supply limitless supply of milk. It means milk is a good thing. It’s the beverage of the spiritual world. We read about all the milk products, all the things that were made from milk, and Krishna enjoyed those.
It’s all present in the spiritual world, not just the spiritual world but Goloka Vrindavan. We should be quite specific here. Goloka Vrindavan. There’s variety in the spiritual world also, it’s not all the same, every planet is not the same. So when Krishna is speaking about His Supreme abode, He is talking about specifically Goloka Vrindavan, Krishna’s personal planet.
And obviously it is possible to go there, He is describing it here: become Krishna conscious, worship Krishna, specifically Krishna, and you go to Krishna’s personal abode. This is what Krishna’s promoting, this is what all the acharyas in our disciplic line promote.
“In this abode, the Lord is served by hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune (Laksmis), and He is called Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes.”
Is Krishna different than Govinda or Govinda different than Krishna? No. Krishna in Vrindavan is known as Govinda, Gopala.
“The Lord is accustomed to blow His flute (venum kvanantam).”
He plays His flute.
“His transcendental form is the most attractive in all the worlds—His eyes are like the lotus petals and the color of His body like clouds. He is so attractive that His beauty excels that of thousands of cupids.”
Of course, it would be impossible to describe the beauty of Krishna. So it is described, of course, but it’s also described that if one sees Krishna, then they are never attracted to anything else. What did the gopi say? If you ever want to be with your husbands and so on, never look at Krishna. Once you see Krishna, it’s finished. That’s the end. He is so beautiful, so attractive.
“He wears saffron cloth…”
So specific, He even tells us what color His clothes are.
“…saffron cloth, a garland around His neck and a peacock feather in His hair.”
We have many pictures of Krishna, they are all bona fide because they are painted directly from description.
“In the Gita Lord Krishna gives only a small hint of His personal abode (Goloka Vrindavana) which is the supermost planet in the spiritual kingdom. A vivid description is given in the Brahma-samhita. Vedic literature states that there is nothing superior to the abode of the Supreme Godhead, and that that abode is the ultimate destination.”
So we can be very clear about this. And when you hear of nirvana or Samadhi (nirvikalpa Samadhi – the impersonal realization), it’s not very attractive.
-Oh, would you like to just merge into the light?
-Umm, I don’t think so.
It’s nothing, it’s like “why do that?” when you can go here. It’s just because they have no desire to have this in their life, they don’t believe it’s true. There are all these reasons that they think, “Oh, the Brahmajyoti is superior.” The main thing is that they don’t accept Krishna. If you don’t accept Krishna, then nothing can be right. Everything will be incorrect.
So again,
“Vedic literature states that there is nothing superior to the abode of the Supreme Godhead, and that that abode is the ultimate destination. When one attains to it, he never returns to the material world. Krishna’s supreme abode and Krishna Himself are non-different, being of the same quality. On this earth, Vrindavana, ninety miles southeast of Delhi, is a replica of that supreme Goloka Vrindavana located in the spiritual sky.”
And if one has eyes to see, there is no difference. Goloka Vrindavan in India and Gokula Vrindavan in the spiritual world are the same, there is no difference. But if you go there today, you’ll see a little bit different than described here, it doesn’t look the same like that. But underneath that material covering, which we will see with our material eyes, it’s the same.
The devotee is seeing purely and the rest are seeing through the covering of illusion.
People think that they can buy a ticket to Vrindavan, that by buying a plane ticket to Delhi or a train ticket to Vrindavan you can go there, but it’s not correct. The only way you can go to Vrindavan is through devotional service.
“When Krishna descended on this earth, He sported on that particular tract of land known as Vrindavana in the district of Mathura, India.”
So all the things you read about in Krishna book, that is where it took place. The Yamuna river and all the forests where Krishna and the cowherd boys used to play, Govardhan hill – all of it is right here.
But again, it looks very different than you would think. However with the spiritual vision you can see. So tourists go there, “Oh, it is cool to see that.” And they walk around in their tour bus, get out, go and look, “It’s quite dirty here! It does not look so nice here. Let’s go to Agra! That is where the Taj Mahal is.” “Oh, this is nicer. This is what we’re looking for. The Taj Mahal…”