The Physician of Vrindavan

Dadi: "Guddu, tonight's story will teach you about the difference between respectful love and fearless love."

Guddu: "Aren't all types of love the same?"

Dadi: "*smiling gently* Listen and you'll understand. One day in Dwaraka, Lord Krishna started showing signs of a terrible fever. He was shivering and seemed to be in great pain."

Guddu: "Krishna got sick? But he's God!"

Dadi: "It was a divine play, beta - a lesson he wanted to teach. The great sage Narada saw Krishna suffering and offered to fetch medicine."

Guddu: "What medicine cures God?"

Dadi: "Krishna said something mysterious: "The only medicine for me is the dust from the feet of my devotees. If you can get that, I will be cured.""

Guddu: "Dust from someone's feet? That's such a strange medicine!"

Dadi: "Narada immediately went to Krishna's queens - Rukmini, Satyabhama, and all the others. They loved Krishna deeply."

Guddu: "Did they give the dust?"

Dadi: "They were horrified! "Give the dust of our feet to our husband? To the Supreme Lord? That would be the greatest disrespect! We would go to hell for such a sin!""

Guddu: "They refused because they were too respectful?"

Dadi: "Exactly. Their love was mixed with awareness of who Krishna truly was - the Lord of the Universe. That knowledge made them afraid to do anything that might seem disrespectful."

Guddu: "So Krishna stayed sick?"

Dadi: "Narada traveled to Vrindavan, where the gopis lived - the cowherd girls who had played with Krishna in his childhood. They hadn't seen Krishna since he left for Dwaraka. They missed him every single day."

Guddu: "Did they give the dust?"

Dadi: "The moment they heard Krishna was sick, they didn't even let Narada finish speaking! "Take the dust from our feet! Here, take mine! No, take mine!" They were almost fighting over who would give the medicine!"

Guddu: "*surprised* They weren't worried about going to hell?"

Dadi: "Narada warned them: "But if you give the dust of your feet to the Supreme Lord, you'll suffer terrible consequences. You'll go to hell forever!""

Guddu: "What did they say?"

Dadi: "*voice full of emotion* The gopis said: "If our dust can cure Krishna, and we have to go to hell forever, we accept it gladly. Let our Krishna be happy and healthy. What happens to us doesn't matter. Only his well-being matters.""

Guddu: "*awed* They loved him that much?"

Dadi: "That, beta, is the highest love - a love that doesn't calculate, doesn't worry about consequences, doesn't think about oneself at all. The gopis didn't care about heaven or hell, respect or disrespect. They only cared about Krishna."

Guddu: "But weren't the queens' love also true?"

Dadi: "Their love was mixed with knowledge and awe. They knew Krishna was God, and that knowledge created distance. The gopis loved Krishna as their friend, their everything - their love was so pure that they forgot he was God. They only remembered that he was theirs."

Guddu: "Which love is better?"

Dadi: "The gopis' love is considered the highest in the bhakti tradition. When you love someone so much that you forget yourself completely - that's the purest devotion. The queens' love was beautiful, but it was cautious. The gopis' love was reckless and total."

Guddu: "It's like how Mummy doesn't think about herself when I'm sick..."

Dadi: "*hugging him* Perfect example! A mother doesn't calculate what she might lose by caring for her sick child. She gives everything without thinking. That's the love of the gopis - maternal, unconditional, complete."

Guddu: "Dadi, I want to love like the gopis."

Dadi: "Then love without conditions, beta. Don't love people only when they do something for you. Don't stop loving because it might be inconvenient. Real love gives everything and asks nothing."

Guddu: "Did Krishna get better?"

Dadi: "Of course - he was never really sick! It was all to show this lesson: that the gopis' selfless love was greater than the queens' respectful love. Both are good, but one reaches higher."

Guddu: "I understand, Dadi. Love that forgets itself is the highest."

Dadi: "Sweet dreams, mera bachcha. May you always love fearlessly and completely."