FOR THE SAKE OF THE BELOVED, I GO TO HELL
"Consequently, O Lord Sadguru Sai, I offer my bodily pride to you. From now onwards take care of me as there is no self with me." "Take away my bodily consciousness so that I feel neither pain nor pleasure. Control me so that I act only in accordance with your wish." – Shri Sai Samartha Satcharitra, Ch. 26, Verse 16, 17.
Sri Krishna lay ill. His pure, tender body was inflamed with fever. No drugs or charms had any effects.
The Mother, Yashoda, felt deeply worried. She asked Krishna, "Shyama, my darling, we have tried everything within our power, but your fever keeps on mounting. Won't you tell me what will make you well once again?"
Sri Krishna smiled and said, "Ma, only one thing can cure me."
"What is it, my child? Tell me that I may procure it without delay."
Krishna said, "Mother, apply the dust of the feet of someone, who loves me dearly, on my forehead and I shall get well."
"That is easily done!" said Yashoda. "The whole place is full of gopies and gopas who love you more than life itself. Soon I shall bring what you need."
Yashoda goes out. She enters the house of a gopi "Welcome Mother," says the gopi. What can I do for you?"
Yashoda explains to her the situation and asks for the dust of the gopi's feet. As the gopi listens to this strange request, the colour of her countenance changes. "Mother!" she says, "you know fully well that there is nothing in the world I would keep from Beloved Shyama. I would gladly lay down my life for His sake. But this I can never do! For it is laid down in the scriptures that a devotee goes to hell if the dust of her feet touches the forehead of the Lord."
Yashoda moved from house to house. She meets gopies and gopas – lovers of the Lord. They tell her that if Sri Krishna wants their heads, they will gladly sever them, with their own hands, and place them at his feet. But they will never commit a crime of which the penalty is hell.
At last Yashoda meets Radha. To her, she makes the same request. And Radha says to her, "Mother! All that I have belongs to Shyama. Take what you will – the dust of my feet or the crown of my head! All, all is consecrated to the Lord!""
Surprised Yashoda says, "Radha, do you know what it means? Whoever giveth the dust of her feet to the Lord has to go to hell!"
Calmly answers Radha, "Blessed, indeed, would I be if, for the sake of the Beloved, I go to hell! Take the dust of my feet, Mother, and do not delay. If only that the beloved gets well, I shall gladly endure the tortures of a hundred hells!"
Yashoda is speechless. In silent wonder, she gazes at Radha's face. Yashoda picks up a little of the dust of Radha's feet and returns home.
Sri Krishna is no longer on his sick-bed. He is up and breaking milk pots. He is eating butter with great relish.
Yashoda now knows that Krishna's fever was His leela. After that day, no one questioned why Radha was so dear to Lord.
The law of love is the law of the Cross – law of Sacrifice. If you would love, be prepared to sacrifice all you are and all you have at the Lotus Feet of the Lord.
