Uddhava, Friend and Counsellor

Uddhava, Krishna's friend and counsellor, who went to teach the gopis and came back having learned the lesson of loving devotion.

Uddhava was a great sage of the Yadu dynasty, an intimate friend of Shri Krishna and his trusted counsellor in Dvaraka. The Shrimad Bhagavatam describes him as a disciple of Brihaspati, teacher of the gods, and as exceptionally wise. He resembled Krishna so closely in nature and appearance that he is counted among the Lord's dearest devotees.

After Krishna went to Mathura, he sent Uddhava to Vraja to comfort Nanda Baba, Mother Yashoda and the gopis, who were overwhelmed by separation from him. Uddhava went with teachings of knowledge and yoga, but in Vraja he found a love that no teaching could contain. While he was speaking with the gopis, a bumblebee came near, and one gopi (according to tradition, Shri Radha) spoke to it as though it were Krishna's messenger, with words of loving reproach. This episode is famous as the Bhramara Gita, the Song of the Bee, later sung by poets such as Surdas and Nanddas.

Seeing the gopis' devotion, Uddhava's pride in his learning melted away. He prayed that he might be born as a creeper, a bush or a blade of grass in Vrindavan, so that the dust of the gopis' feet would fall upon him.

Much later, when the Lord was about to conclude his earthly pastimes, Uddhava begged to go with him. Krishna then gave him profound teachings on renunciation, devotion and knowledge of the self, found in the eleventh canto of the Shrimad Bhagavatam and known as the Uddhava Gita. They include the famous account of the avadhuta and his twenty-four teachers. Afterwards the Lord instructed him to go to Badarikashrama and devote himself to spiritual practice. Uddhava teaches us that knowledge finds its fulfilment in humble love.

Relation

Friend, devotee and counsellor

Source

Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, ch. 46–47; Canto 11