316 The Nectar of Devotion

enemy of the Mura demon, just think of Your personal servant
Raktaka. Simply because he saw a peacock feather he is now closing
his eyes and is no longer attentive to pasturing the cows. Rather, he
has left them in a faraway pasture and has not even bothered to use
his stick to control them.” This is an instance of mental imbalance
due to separation from Krsna.

When Lord Krsna went to the capital of King Yudhisthira, Uddhava
was so afflicted by the fire of separation from Sri Krsna that the
perspiring water from his enflamed body and the tears from his eyes
poured from him, and in this way he became completely stunned.

When Sri Krsna left the city of Dvaraka to seek out the Syamantaka
jewel, He was late returning home. Uddhava became so afflicted that
the symptoms of disease became manifest on his body. Actually, due
to his excessive ecstatic love for Krsna, Uddhava became known in
Dvaraka as crazy. To his great fortune, on that day Uddhava’s repu-
tation as a crazy fellow was firmly established. Uddhava’s craziness
was practically proved when he went to Raivataka Hill to minutely
observe the congested black clouds. In his disturbed condition, he
began to pray to these clouds, and he expressed his jubilation by
bowing down before them.

Uddhava informed Krsna, “My dear leader of the Yadu dynasty,
Your servants in Vrndavana cannot sleep at night thinking of You, so
now they are all lying down on the bank of the Yamuna almost para-
lyzed. And it appears that they are almost dead because their breath-
ing is very slow.” This is an instance of becoming unconscious due to
separation from Krsna.

Krsna was once informed, “You are the life and soul of all the
inhabitants of Vrndavana. So because You have left Vrndavana, all of
the servitors of Your lotus feet there are suffering. It is as if the lakes
filled with lotus flowers have dried up from the scorching heat of
separation from You.” In the example given here, the inhabitants of
Vrndavana are compared to lakes filled with lotus flowers, and be-
cause of the scorching heat of separation from Krsna, the lakes—along
with the lotus flowers of their lives—are being burned up. And the
swans in the lakes, who are compared to the vitality of the inhabi-
tants of Vrndavana, are no longer desiring to live in that lake. In other
