Divine Madness | The Samādhi of the Gopīs
6/3/20261 hr
What looks like madness from the outside is the whole goal of yoga from the inside. Jacopone da Todi — Crazy Jim from Todi — found that every door of the senses leads straight to God. The gopīs of Vrindavan, wandering through the forest after Krishna disappears from the Rāsa Dance, singing his name, asking the trees if they've seen him, declaring to one another: I am Krishna — they found the same thing. This is not madness. This is samādhi. This is what love does when it takes over every sense.
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.30.1-6
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First 90 secondsRaghunath· Host0:00
Wow.
Kaustubha Das· Host0:00
Mm.
Raghunath· Host0:01
It's like what he's describing is, like, every door you try to walk out of, sight, right? Sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, you walk straight into God. Like, there's no exit. Love has completely surrounded him.
Kaustubha Das· Host0:19
Huh. Yeah.
Raghunath· Host0:21
You know, most people would look up and, and, and say, "Okay, this guy's, like, lost his mind." But I, I think [clears throat] about what's actually happening. Every single sense pointed in the same direction, every experience leading to the same place, nothing pulling him away, nothing distracting him. You know what that is, Mr. K?
Kaustubha Das· Host0:39
What is that called?
Raghunath· Host0:40
That's the whole goal of yoga.
Kaustubha Das· Host0:41
Mm.
Raghunath· Host0:42
That's what the entire practice is painting tow- po- pointing towards. This is like a one-pointed absorption where the mind stops scattering, everything converges on a single object, right? Isn't this the goal of yoga?
Kaustubha Das· Host0:56
Yeah.
Raghunath· Host0:56
The profession of yoga.
Kaustubha Das· Host0:57
Mm-hmm.
Raghunath· Host0:58
Yogis spend their lifetimes trying to achieve that type of one-pointedness that our scattered brains do not possess any longer.
Kaustubha Das· Host1:05
Mm-hmm.
Raghunath· Host1:06
Love just took over every sense. Every door leads to the same place. That's the whole goal of Bhakti. Love God with your heart, mind, soul. Not forcing the mind to focus, but love so strong, so deeply that it focuses on its own. And they call him crazy, right?
Kaustubha Das· Host1:24
[laughs] Yeah.
Raghunath· Host1:25
But what looks like madness from the outside, that's complete, unbroken