Every living entity is woman. Those who are thinking of becoming man, they are in illusion.
Prakṛti, puruṣa. Puruṣa means the bhoktā, the enjoyer, and prakṛti, strī, means enjoyed. So every living entity is described as prakṛti. No living entity is puruṣa. Puruṣa is only Kṛṣṇa. So when we are thinking, "I have become a puruṣa, enjoyer," that is māyā. That is māyā. (break) . . . as woman or man, but actually, every one of us, woman, prakṛti. Every one of us. And every one of us are thinking as man. Even the woman. Man means enjoyer.
So everyone is thinking enjoyer, "I am enjoyer." And this is called māyā. And about the gopīs, it is better not to speculate. The speculator's writing has no value. Gopīs, they are pleasure potency expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya (Bs. 5.32).
- ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
- tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
- goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ . . .
- (Bs. 5.37)
So gopīs are also expansion of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. Gopīs are not these ordinary women; neither Kṛṣṇa is ordinary man. So unless we understand Kṛṣṇa as were discussing this morning, the verse, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ . . . out of many millions of siddhas, one can understand Kṛṣṇa as He is. If we do not understand Kṛṣṇa, then how we can understand gopīs?
So this is not the subject matter of the mental speculators. Better not to read all these books. Because they are not realized souls, neither they are devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Neither do they know what is Kṛṣṇa. So what they will understand about Kṛṣṇa? So if we want to understand Kṛṣṇa, er, gopīs, then we have to learn it from the perfect devotee of Kṛṣṇa, not from the speculators, mental speculators. This is simply a waste of time.
Just like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, rūpa-raghunātha-pade haibe ākuti, kabe hāma bujhabo se yugala-pīriti (Gaurāṅga Bolite Habe). Yugala-pīriti, the love between Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī . . . the gopīs are expansion of Rādhārāṇī, pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. These are all spiritual subject matter. So this is not mental. A ordinary man, if he thinks that, "I am becoming go . . ." that is artificial. That is artificial. This is not artificial thing. And the parakīyā-rasa, the sense of paramourship, that is also there. But this is not this parakīyā-rasa, as we understand from this material world.
Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu, er, Sanātana Gosvāmī has said that avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam, śravaṇaṁ na kartavyam. Those . . . one who is not Vaiṣṇava . . . so it is, mental speculator, it is useless to learn from them what is the relationship between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa. Neither it has to be practiced artificially. These things are rejected. So my request is that you should not read all these books, simply waste your time.
(break) . . . Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. This has been discussed by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, that Kṛṣṇa is Para-brahman, and to relish brahma-sukha, a person in austerity gives up all the material sense enjoyment. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). They try to relish brahma-sukha. Now, when they . . . brahmā-sukhānubhūti, Kṛṣṇa is the goal of brahma-sukha anubhūti. So when Brahman wants to have pleasure, does it mean that He takes pleasure within this material world? To understand Brahman, one has to give up all material pleasures. And when the Brahman relishes pleasure, does it mean this is material pleasure? Try to understand this fact.