Krishna Manifests His Jvara-lila
In Dwarka, Krishna once manifested His jvara-lila, where He was shivering with a high fever. Seeing Krishna in this condition, Narada Muni came and inquired:
“What happened?”
Krishna replied, “High fever.”
Narada Muni offered, “I will get some medicine for You. Then You will be cured of the fever.”
Krishna responded, “Oh Narada, there is no medicine for My body. Only one medicine is there. If you can get it, then I will be cured. If you go to some of My devotees and beg some dust from their feet, that is the medicine for Me. No other medicine will work for this body.”
Narada Seeks the Dust from Devotees’ Feet
Narada thought, “Here in Dwarka, there are so many hundreds of thousands of queens, Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, and others. Surely they will give some dust.” So he approached them, saying, “Krishna is sick. He has a high fever and the medicine is with you. Please give me some dust of your feet so Krishna will be cured.”
The queens were horrified, “Oh, what are you saying? Krishna is our revered husband. Shall we give dust from our feet and go to hell? Get out! We cannot give.” They refused to give the dust.
The Gopis’ Unconditional Love
Narada then went to Vrajabhumi. Seeing Narada Muni, all of the gopis ran to him. The gopis thought, “He can give us information about Krishna and inform Krishna how we are always thinking of Him and feeling acute pangs of separation from Him.”
Narada Muni said, “Yes, I have information. Krishna is very sick now with high fever. I have come to you for medicine.”
“What medicine is that?” asked the gopis.
“If some of you gopis can give dust from your feet, that is the medicine. Krishna will smear it on His body and He will become cured.”
“Oh, that medicine. All right, take from me,” said the gopis.
There was some competition between them about who would give the dust for Krishna’s headache.
“O Narada, take from me!”
“No, no, no! Take from me!”
“How many bags will you take?”
They said, “If giving dust from our feet is required for Krishna, and we have to go to hell and suffer forever, we are prepared for that. Let our Krishna be cured and happy.”
Moral of the Story
This is love. This is the difference between their love and the love of the queens of Dwarka. Where there is jnana and aisvarya, love is shrunken, priti-sankucita. Gopi-prema, radha-prema, is kevala-bhakti; only pure love is there. It is not mixed with jnana and aisvarya. They are prepared to go to hell and suffer there forever, “Let our Krishna be happy.”
So, we should ask ourselves today, how can we make Krishna happy?
(Story narrated by His Holiness Gour Govinda Swami in his book Mathura Meets Vrindavana)
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the devotees to please forward and share these moral/instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and His dear devotees.
