Uddhava

In Hindu mythology, one of the god
Krishna’s friends and companions. In
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Uddhava
the devotional (bhakti) literature,
Uddhava is most famous for the message he carries from Krishna back to the
gopis, the cowherd women of Braj (a
northern Indian region on the Yamuna
River south of the modern city of Delhi)
who are Krishna’s devotees (bhakta) and
who love him more than life. Uddhava
tells the gopis not to be concerned with
Krishna’s physical absence, since as the
supreme divinity, Krishna is always with
them, even though he may not be visible. The gopis reply that such talk is fine
for intellectual folk such as Uddhava,
but that for simple women like themselves, who have had the delight of associating with Krishna in the flesh, such
abstractions are absolutely useless.
Uddhava and the gopis are symbols for
two different types of religious life: one
cool and abstract, focused on an impersonal divinity, and the other based on
passionate love for a particular deity.
Differing accounts of this story give different endings, according to the writers’
inclinations. In some of the stories,
including the earliest version in the
Bhagavata Purana, the story ends in a
standoff, with each side unable to convince the other. Yet in at least one of the
accounts, Uddhava is converted to the
gopis’ point of view. For further information see R. S. McGregor (ed. and
trans.), Nanddas, 1973.