Sunday, November 26, 2023
Baelvana
Laksmi-devi could not enter Vrndavana, even though she performed severe austerities in Baelvana. She wanted to cross the River Yamuna and see the rasa-lila, but she could not.
Yogamaya is greater than Laksmi, and she can control everyone. When she saw Laksmi’s austerities, she approached her and said, “You are a chaste lady, a brahmani, married to Narayana. Can you give up your husband and marry somebody else – a gopa?”
Laksmi replied, “I cannot do it. How is it possible?”
Yogamaya said, “Can you make cow dung paddies?”
Laksmi replied, “Oh, I cannot do that. I don’t know how.”
Yogamaya asked, “Can you milk cows?”
Laksmi replied, “I have never done it before.”
Then Yogamaya told her, “You cannot go to Vrndavana, because you are not qualified. First you would have to take birth from a gopi’s womb, associate with the gopis, and try to follow them. You would have to marry a gopa like Durmukha, Durmada, Abhimanyu, or Govardhana Malla. Then, when you have given up that husband, you would be able to go to Krsna and make Him your beloved. This is the only process.”
In one kalpa it was Yogamaya who questioned Laksmi-devi, and in another it was Krsna Himself, but both of them had to tell her the same conclusion: she is unfit for this rasa.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Baelvana
https://harekrishnainfo.blogspot.com/search/label/YogaMaya
Later -
https://harekrishnainfo.blogspot.com/search/label/LaxmiVrindaTulsiRukmini
Source