Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj gives us a glimpse of a divine pastime that took place 5,000 years ago during Shri Krishna’s descension (avatar) in Vrindavan.

One day, a gopi came to Mother Yashoda with a complaint against Krishna. “He broke my pot, He tore my shawl (chunari).” As proof, she brought those items with her. She had gathered all the pieces of the broken pot and brought them, and also brought the torn shawl.

Thakur Ji thought, “Today I will be beaten. She has brought all the proof!” Up until then, it used to be that the sakhis would just say verbally that He did this or that, but today the proof was right there.

Thakur Ji went and sat in His mother’s lap very affectionately, just as innocent children sit, and placing His hand on His mother’s chin, He says, “Maiya, you are very innocent. Let me tell you the truth. She is an incarnation of lies!”

Pointing towards the sakhi who had come to complain, He says “This cowherd girl (goojari) with a filled pot was walking down the lane. She was looking here, there, and in all four directions”

The real reason was that this gopi had a thirst for the vision (darshan) of Shyamsundar, which is why she kept looking in all four directions in hopes of spotting Him.

“Braj was, and is, full of all sorts of hills, pebbles, and stones. And it might have also rained a little, and her mind was somewhere else, so her foot slipped and she fell to the ground and her pot broke!”

Mother Yashoda thought, “Hmm, that is possible”. So many women slip and fall and if someone is distracted, they will naturally fall.

Mother Yashoda said, “Yes, this cannot be wrong, He is telling the truth”. But how did this shawl get torn by falling? This part she did not understand.

Krishna continues, “When the pot broke, I laughed.”

When a grownup falls, small children laugh. This is very natural. They cannot think so deeply as to realise, “This person must be hurt, let us go pick them up and do something.”

“She fell like Tataka, so I laughed. When I laughed, she glared at Me with great anger”.

“Then Mother, shall I tell you further?” “Yes.”

“When she began walking forward, a large monkey which was sitting on a tree; it pounced on her head, took her shawl, tore it, and threw it away. I saw it with My own eyes, I am not speaking from hearsay, and you know I do not lie.”

“And now she was very angry! I laughed earlier when she fell and again when her shawl was torn, I laughed once more. So, she thought, “Fine, now I will vent all my anger on Him. How can I vent anger on the monkey? It ran away”.

“So, she falsely blames your child. And Maiya, when people lie, they often exaggerate a small truth and present it as fact”.

This happens all the time. A child gets into a small fight and when his mother asks him what happened, he fabricates lies against the other child out of habit. But when there is no truth at all and still someone lies, that is called a white lie. White, meaning not even one percent true. By making up stories, someone can plant hatred in abundance against someone else. Nothing bad has happened, yet hatred can be created between husband and wife, father and son, between brothers, friends, neighbours.

For telling lies, one gets a hell named Aveechi at the abode of Yamraj. There are 28 types of hell to punish living beings for committing sins. For those who lie, there is a hell named Aveechi. The gopis know all this. They have heard everything from Durvasa Ji: committing this sin leads to that hell, committing another sin leads to another hell. Yet they are not afraid.

Consciously telling a lie is the biggest offense. Even if one commits a sin unknowingly, punishment will be given, but to commit an offense knowingly is a very great offense.

“So Mother, it is like this. She is telling white lies and has no fear of hell!”

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj humorously characterises the Gopi as an “incarnation of lies”. During Shri Krishna’s descension, one category of these Gopis were actually personifications of the Vedic mantras (richas). Despite possessing the supreme, omniscient wisdom of the Vedas, they deliberately played the role of innocent, illiterate village women to playfully argue with Shri Krishna.

Source: “Tu ati bhori Maiya”, Yugal Ras
Blissful devotional songs of Shri Radha Krishna’s divine pastimes, written and composed by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj