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Stories told by Śrīla Prabhupāda
<< 33 Gopal goes to the heavenly planets >>
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| The next one is called “Gopal goes to the heavenly planets”. Gopal is a famous joker, who was in the court of a king Krishna Candra. He was always considered very controversial person, because he was always making jokes, making trouble. Some ministers of king Krishna Candra wanted to get rid of Gopal, as he was just too cunning, too clever. So they devised a plan. They employed the local barber, as the barbershop is a place of gossip. And this barber was also the personal barber of the king. So when the king came to the barber, the barber asked him: “So king, how are your relatives doing in the heavenly planets?” It means the relatives who have left the world. And the king replied: “Well, I don’t know.” The barber said: “You should sent some up to the heavenly planets to find out.” “Oh, that’s a good idea,” the king thought. But the barber continued: “It should be someone very confidential and close to you like your Gopal for instance.” “Yes, that’s a very brilliant idea, Gopal should go to the heavenly planets and find out how my relatives are doing.”
| | The king went back and he consulted wit these ministers who all wanted to get rid of Gopal. “What is the best way to arrange for someone to go to the heavenly planets?” And the ministers said: “Yes, we know, the sastric way is that this person must be burned in fire, be placed within a sacrificial fire, then he’ll be carried up to the heavenly planets.” Then the king called for a Gopal and said: “Gopal, it’s time we send someone up to the heavenly planets to check on my relatives and my ministers tell me that the way that this can be done is that you have to be burned up in a sacrificial fire.” Gopal is very clever so he said: “Of course Your Majesty, yes, I’d be very happy to do this.” What he did was, because the fire was to be made the next day, he went that night to the yajna shala, the sacrificial arena and he built the trap-door at the place where the fire would be made.
| | Then the next day he came and there were brahmanas, and the fire was made, he stepped in the middle of the fire, reactivated the trap-door and just dropped between the flames. And he escaped through the trap-door and crawled through a tunnel to his house and he stayed there. And he stayed there for 6 months. The king was always wondering: “When will Gopal come back with news?” Meanwhile the ministers were thinking: “Hah, we’ve got rid of the guy, he burnt up in the fire.” But after six months Gopal walked into the kings courtroom. All the ministers were astonished: “Gopal, you are back?” The king said joyfully: “How is everyone in heaven?” “They’re all very well Maharaja,” Gopal said “except for one small thing.” “Oh, what was that?” “Well, Your Majesty, your relatives, they have weird hair cut. The whole time they are up there, they say they need to have a barber to be sent up to heaven.” So you know what that meant, that meant that that barber who told this to the king would be put in the fire and sent to heaven.
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