 Krishna was known for his ras, the ecstasy of life. Shiva, who was in the Himalayan region, heard about this. So Shiva decided to borrow the boatman's wife's clothes and went to ras. This is ultimate appreciation of the feminine. Today is special day, today is Krishna Janmasthami. When we say Krishna, there are too many misconceptions about Krishna. But we must understand that his butter business was all till he was six years of age or eight years of age. At the age of sixteen, when his guru Sandipani made him realize what is the purpose of his life, first of all he left Vrindavan, never again came back, never again came back to see any of his relatives or the girls or boys of its area, that was the end of it. At sixteen he left. When he was leaving, today if we say Krishna, we say Radhe Krishna. Radhe comes ahead of Krishna because their love, their intimacy, their romance caught the imagination of a whole culture in the entire subcontinent in such a way that we don't say Krishna, Radhe, we say Radhe Krishna. But at the age of sixteen, he saw her for the last time and never again saw her. And at the age of sixteen, when he was leaving, he said, I played this flute for you. Now I'm going and not coming back. So as an offering to you, for the love that you are, I'm going to give this flute to you and never again play the flute again and he never again played the flute. From then on it was Radha who played the flute. He never played flute after sixteen. From sixteen to twenty-one, he lived as a brahmachari. He took sannyas, lived as a brahmachari, went through severe sadhana. After that, his entire life was committed to marry political life, political process and the spiritual process. These things are never spoken of in the northern plains of India. He set up over one thousand ashrams because he wanted spiritual process not to be a separate thing. He wanted spiritual process to be a part of life. As we live, as we brush our teeth in the morning, we meditate. He wanted to bring spiritual process not as a fringe thing, but as a mainstream life, particularly to the rulers of the country, of those many countries that India was at that time. So he lived an absolutely dedicated and committed life. But generally people think all he did was eat butter, play flute and dance with the girls. No, that's not what his life was. But that was also an important aspect. There's a very beautiful story. Today being Krishna Janmasthami, I think I should tell you the story. Krishna was known for his ras. The word ras literally means juice. The biggest problem with most people in their life is they don't have juice. They have hormones. They don't have life juices in them. There's no life, there's no intensity of life. So ras means the juice of life, not of the body, but of life. Because body's juices will vary, it'll fluctuate from time to time. But he's talking about the juice of life. So the dance that happened in the full moon night was referred to as ras because this dripped of life, this is not a hormonal party in the night. This is not a party of drunkards. This is not a party of lustful people. This is a party of people who are dripping with life, the ecstasy of life. So this was referred to as the ras. The repetition of this ras spread, people who participated or who witnessed, they spoke about it and it started spreading. Shiva, who was in the Himalayan region, heard about this, that something fantastic is happening on the banks of Yamuna. So he wants to see, because he's not the ras kind, he's thundered. He closes his eyes, he doesn't know who is around him. Because when he dances nobody's around him, no man, no woman. They cannot be, that's how he dances. So when he heard about this new kind of dance which is dripping with ecstasy, he wanted to see. He came to the banks of Yamuna and he wanted to cross the river. The boatman who was there looked at him because Shiva is man-man. Probably, not probably, Shiva is the most athletic god on the planet. Yes? In the Lord, in the yogic lore it says, he was nine feet tall. Why they're saying this is, when he came down south to southern India, they say he was twice the height of an average woman. So they were generally in southern India at that time, women were somewhere between four-and-a-half to five feet. So it is assumed he is somewhere between eight-and-a-half to nine feet tall. So he is a man, all-man, the man. So the boatman looked at him and said, you are too much of a man. You can't go to rasas like this. There, there is only one Purusha, one man. Krishna is the only man. This kind of man cannot go there. Shiva looked at him, what am I supposed to do? He said, at least dress up as a woman and go. He was, what? Me dressing up as a woman and going. He said, otherwise there's no rasas for you. Then he said, where do I get woman's clothes? Then he said, the boatman said, I will ask my wife to give her clothes to you. You wear and go. You must participate in the rasas appropriately, as a feminine, not as masculine. So Shiva decided to borrow the boatman's wife's clothes, which she was wearing. I mean it's a poor family. Then he looked, it is not even spare clothes. He's asking him to wear clothes that she's wearing right now. There's a beautiful painting in some places, which are the Madhavani kind of thing, where a woman's hand has come out of the door and Shiva is receiving like this and went to rasas. This story is in appreciation of Krishna, where if you want to experience this, you must know the feminine, otherwise you will not know rasas. This is ultimate appreciation of the feminine. Understand? This is a most fabulous appreciation of the feminine, not female feminine, because in this culture we always saw that unless masculine and feminine play an equal role, there will be no beauty to life. Today we're building a world where feminine is being massacred. Even if a woman wants to be successful, she has to be like a man. Otherwise there is no way she will succeed in today's world. Feminine is being massacred. See, it's already happening. You go sit anywhere in the world. No more are people in normal conversations, are people even discussing whether as they used to do in the past. The only thing every idiot on the planet talks about today is economy. Yes? Wherever you go, how is the economy doing? How is the stock market doing? Nobody is asking how is the monsoon doing? Everybody is only talking about how is the economy doing, how is the stock market doing? This means masculine has taken over. Survival has been raised to heaven. A simple process... Economics means what? Simple, survival. Yes? Survival complicated. Yes or no? Process of survival, how to procure food, how to do this, how to do that, how to build this. This is all survival, building a home, eating, wearing your clothes, doing a little bit of shopping. Is survival, isn't it? Now survival is the only thing we are talking about because feminine is largely banished. At least in your homes you must keep it. Out in the society is largely gone. Masculine is everything. So today is Krishna Janmasthami. Here he is making a point saying that if the feminine is not on in a society, there is no real life. We are not talking about men and women. We are not talking about male and female. We are talking about two fundamental qualities called masculine and feminine. So Krishna's life is about celebrating the feminine because masculine in any way manifests. That is the nature of the masculine, but feminine has to be nurtured, otherwise it will go away. Anyway the rocks will be there, but flowers won't be there. You have to nurture them, isn't it? Yes? In the land rocks will be anyway there, if nothing will happen, whatever kind of weather, whatever the temperature, rocks will be there. Flowers have to be nurtured. If you don't nurture them, there will be no flowers left. With rocks we can build. What can you do with flowers? Nothing. It is just that life doesn't happen just because of utility.