I am referring to a post way back 10/5/2004 at 10:51 pm about Sri Vaisnava position on Radha/gopis because it is based on knowledge of the scriptures. I am looking forward for answers as complete as that one about a few disturbing queries I have for a few years. The main one is about the real significance or meaning of the pastime of Tulasi devi. How is it posible that she was cursed by Radha, hladini shakti, the internal potency of the Lord, to the material world. As an associate and intimate friend of Radharani, was she actually an eternally liberated jiva? What was her position in regards to Radha and Krishna? What did she do so bad as to deserve a curse.
As a corollary to that one, what is the actual meaning of madhurya rasa and why bhaktas are encouraged to include that one as one of the possible relations with the Supreme? What would be the actual relation of a liberated soul, who has developed a relation of madhurya rasa, with Radha and Jrishna? Does Madhurya rasa has any similarity with the catholics mystics or mystics of any other religion, like Santa Teresa de Jesus, San Juan de la Cruz.\, etc?
Finally, does the pastime means that jivas can fall back again to the material world if they do something "wrong"? And, do conditioned jivas, after liberation, actually go to the spiritual world, or do remain forever in the material world?
I believe this may have different answers according to the different sampradayas, yet I also believe for some very deep reason it is included in the scriptures, and no dogmatic answer is going to satisfy a soul looking for answers. Actually, although I have been with these queries for a few years, looking for answers, not until now the time has come to be able to pose them, after reading the post on sex and spirituality by a Gaudiya Vaisnava devotee.
