Krishna performs the Maha Raas on Sharad Poornima, full moon night in the month of Sharad, according to the Hindu lunar calendar. On this day Krishna is said to make gopis – souls of beings — experience the ecstasy of merging of the Param tattva with the atma, soul.
On Sharad Poornima, the moon at its brightest, its whitest and the moonbeams are at their curative best. While the sun gives growth and colour to the plants, the moon showers them with the medicinal qualities. And it also imparts ‘Ras’, juice, nectar to vegetation. In beings, moon imparts spiritual ‘ras’ that induces true joy of life. On Sharad Poornima it is at its maximum. Romanticism and creativity are at their best on this day.
All evolved souls mystics, Sufis, poets all have spoken about the meeting of atma and Prabhu. Krishna made humans on this dharti feel the climax of sublimation, experience that orgasm, that anand which is beyond human capacity to think of — that sublime state which occurs when soul merges with the highest entity.
One can experience that divine feeling by being in His dhyan constantly, seeing Him everywhere, knowing that whatever is happening – it is His will. When you meet someone you never intended to, who made that happen? Hari. It is Hari’s wish that you meet this person, so accept and honour the situation as Hari iccha – Hari’s wish. And when you let go of your wishes and let Hari’s will prevail, gradually your desires and wishes drop and you become Hari ki iccha wali – that which Hari wishes.
Maha Raas has another meaning too. The sharir, physical being, has many senses and desires arising there from. When you merge with the feel of Hari, all the senses — sense of touch, seeing, tasting, smelling, and sense of hearing, all the desire arising there from, and needs of the sharir are fulfilled. This is because Hari or the Supreme, according to the Vedas, is sarva-kamah, sarva-gandah, sarva-rasah – Raso Vai Sah — the source of all kinds of rasas, flavours of life. When we are connected with Him, all our sensual desires are satisfied.
Hari is a vibration which helps blissfully release all accumulations in the body by itself, if you are in constant dhyan of Hari, just like Goddess Saraswati, who does not need any male for bodily gratification, because she is able to release herself through creativity and get anand or bliss through it.
Hari is a sound which takes you upward from the root chakra and this ends the need for gratification of sensual pleasures. You will no longer depend on outwardly things to tend to the sensual pleasures, and will address them only to fulfil the dharma of the body, so that you stay healthy; after being in constant thought of Hari, you will not feel like indulging in these pleasures. The urge to have different types of attractions will end, because now you are contracting your senses and rising above the basic instincts. If you get to eat these, it is fine, you enjoy them, after all Krishna too enjoyed chhappan bhog, 56 foods, and other pleasures of life but never indulged in them, or got perturbed if they were not there.
Hari is the sound mantra given to that highest entity which is above us all, which is unseen; we cannot see but we can experience it and see its attributes in an evolved human. Krishna says, ‘I am THAT and you have the potential to be THAT .’
And who will recognise Hari? Only the one who knows that highest entity by its essence, its tattva – its gunas, its nature of being ever growing, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient – can see Him. Wherever such a person goes, he hears Him, sees Him, feels Him.
That is why it is stated in the shastras that be a tattva gyani to know Supreme through tattva.
-Meena Om
