Stealing the Garments of the Unmarried Gopī Girls

Next, Twenty-second Chapter, subject matter: "Stealing the Garments of the Unmarried Gopi Girls"

According to Vedic civilization, the unmarried girls from ten to fourteen years of age are accustomed to worship either Lord Siva or goddess Durga for pleasing them in order to get a nice husband. But the unmarried girls of Vrndavana, they were already attracted by the beauty of Krsna. But when they were engaged in the worship of goddess Durga just in the beginning of the hemanta season [hemanta season is called just prior to the winter season]-the first month of hemanta season is called Agrahayana [October and November]-all the unmarried gopis of Vrndavana began to worship goddess Durga with a vow and after eating havisyannam.

This havisyannam is a kind of foodstuff prepared by boiling together mung dal and rice without any spices or turmeric. This kind of foodstuff is recommended especially to purify the body before acting some ritualistic ceremony according to Vedic injunction. So all the unmarried girls or gopis in Vrndavana, they used to worship daily early in the morning after taking bath in the river Yamuna goddess Katyayani. Goddess Katyayani is another name of goddess Durga. The goddess is worshiped by preparing a doll by hand. These dolls were made out of the sand mixed earth from the bank of Yamuna. For worshiping any kind of deity, it is recommended in the Vedic scriptures that they can be made in different kinds of material elements. They can be painted, they can be made of metal, they can be made of jewels, they can be made of wood, they can be made of earth, they can be made…

[break] …food grains, twigs of plants. In this way, they began to worship the deity.

After worshiping the deity, it is the custom of the worshiper to pray for some benediction. So these unmarried girls of Vrndavana, they used to pray with great devotion from the goddess Katyayani, addressing her, "O the supreme eternal energy of the Personality of Godhead, O the supreme mystic power, O the supreme controller of this material world, O goddess, please be kind upon us and arrange for our marriage with the son of Nanda Maharaja, that is, Krsna." The Vaisnavas generally do not worship any other demigod. Srila Narottama dasa Thakur has strictly forbidden that if anyone wants to advance in pure devotional service, he must give up all kinds of worship of the demigods.

Now here we can see that the gopis, of whom there is no comparison of affection for Krsna, still they are seen to worship goddess Durga. Sometimes the worshiper of other demigods give this example that the gopis also worshiped goddess Durga. But we have to see the purpose of the gopis. Generally people worship goddess Durga for some material benediction. Here, the gopis are praying to the goddess for becoming the wife of Lord Krsna. The idea is if Krsna is the center of activity, a devotee can adopt any means to achieve that final goal. The gopis could adopt any means for satisfying Krsna or serving Krsna. Such is the superexcellent characteristic in the life of the gopis.

The gopis thus worshiped goddess Durga completely for one month in order to achieve their goal of life, namely Krsna as their husband. Every day they prayed for Krsna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, to become their husband.

They used to go to the bank of the Yamuna to take bath, and while going, all the unmarried gopis assembled together, capturing each other's hand and loudly singing about the wonderful pastimes of Krsna. And thus very early in the morning they used to go there to take bath. It is the old system amongst the Indian girls and women that when they go to take bath in the river, they dip into the water completely naked, placing their garments on the bank of the river. As such, the portion of the river where the women and girls take bath are not strictly visited by any male member. In other words, it is still the system that the places for taking bath in the river are differently situated for male members and female members. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, knowing the mind of the unmarried young gopis, in order to benedict them with their desired objective, that is, they prayed for Krsna to become their husband, and Krsna wanted to fulfill their desire. And thus at the end of the month, Krsna, along with friends, appeared on the scene.

Another name of Krsna is Yogesvara. Yogesvara means master of all mystic powers. Generally the yogi, by practicing meditation, can study the psychic movement of other men, what to speak of Krsna; He could readily understand the desire of the gopis. Krsna, thus appearing on the scene, immediately collected all the garments of the gopis, got up on the nearby tree, and with a smiling face and joking words began to say as follows: "My dear girls, please come here one after another and pray for your garments and take it away. I am not joking with you. I am just talking the real truth. Because I have no desire to play a joke with you, as you are already tired by your observing the regulative principles for one month about your katyayani-vrata, the vow of worshiping goddess Katyayani. Please do not come here all together. Come alone. We want to see you in your complete beauty, and all of you have a thin waist. But I have requested you to come alone as before. Please comply with it."

The girls in the water, when heard from Krsna such joking words, they began to look one another and smile. But they were very much engladdened to hear from Krsna such request, because they were already in love with Krsna. Out of shyness they began to look upon one another, but they could not come out from the water because they were all naked. While hearing the joking words of Krsna, and while they were smiling amongst themselves, on account of remaining in the water for a long time in naked body they were feeling cold and shivering. But at the same time, by hearing from Govinda the pleasing and joking words, they were also perturbed in their mind with great joy.

They began to say, addressing Krsna, "My dear son of Nanda Maharaja, please do not try to joke with us in that way. It is completely injustice to us. You are very respectable boy because You are son of Maharaja Nanda, and at the same time You are all very dear to us. You should not play a joke with us in this way because we are all shivering on account of cold. Kindly deliver our garments immediately, otherwise we are suffering."

They began to appeal to Krsna with great submissiveness and addressed Him, "My dear Syamasundara, we are all Your eternal servitors. Whatever You order us to do, we are obliged to perform it without any hesitation because we consider it, it is our religious duty. But if You put such questions which is impossible to be performed by us, then certainly we have to go to Maharaja Nanda and lodge complaint against You. If Maharaja Nanda does not take action on this, then we shall appeal to King Kamsa about Your this misbehavior."

Upon hearing this appeal of the unmarried gopis, Krsna answered, "My dear girls, if you think that you are My eternal servitors and you are always ready to execute My order, then My request is that with your smiling faces please come alone, one after another, and take away your garments from Me. It is My order that you should come here and take away your garment. If you do not come here, however, and lodge complaint to My father, I do not care for it because I know My father is old, he cannot take any action against Me."

When the gopis saw Krsna was strong and determined, they had no other alternative than to abide by this order of Krsna. Thus they one after another came out of the water, but because they were completely naked tried to cover their nakedness by placing the left hand palm upon the vagina. In that posture they were all shivering, and their simple presentation was so pure that Lord Krsna immediately became pleased upon them. In other words, all the unmarried gopis who prayed to Katyayani to have Krsna as their husband was thus fulfilled. A woman cannot be naked before any male except her husband. The unmarried gopis desired Krsna as their husband, and Krsna fulfilled their desire in this way.

Krsna thus being pleased on them took their garments on His shoulder and began to speak as follows: "My dear girls, you have done a great offense by putting yourself naked in the river Yamuna. By this action, the predominating deity of Yamuna, namely Varunadeva, has become very much displeased upon you. Please, therefore, fold your hands and with folded palms just touch your head and bow down before the demigod Varuna in order to be released from the offensive act." The gopis were all simple souls, and whatever Krsna said they took it as truth. Therefore in order to be freed from the wrath of Varunadeva, as well as to fulfill the desired end of their vows and at last to please their worshipable Lord, Krsna, they immediately abided by the order of Krsna and thus became the greatest lover of Krsna and the most obedient servant of Krsna.

There cannot be any comparison of the Krsna consciousness of the gopis. Actually, they did not care for any Varuna demigod or any other demigod; they wanted always to satisfy Krsna. Krsna thus became very much indebted to the simple dealings of the gopis, and being satisfied by their pure feelings He immediately delivered their respective garments, one after another. Thus although Krsna cheated the young unmarried gopis in this way and made them naked before Him and enjoyed joking words with them, and just like dolls made them standing before Him naked, stolen their garments, in spite of all this so-called misbehavior of Krsna upon the gopis, they were still very much pleased upon Him and they never lodged any complaint against Krsna.

This attitude of the gopis have been described by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He prays, "My dear Lord Krsna, You may embrace me or You may trample down under Your feet, or You may make me brokenhearted being never present before me. Whatever You like, You can do, because You have complete freedom to act. But still, in spite of all Your dealings, You are my Lord eternally, and I have no other worshipable object." This is the attitude of the gopis towards Krsna.

After this, Lord Krsna being very much pleased upon them, and as all of them desired to have Krsna as their husband, He began to say as follows in order to please them: "My dear well-behaved girls, I know what is your desire about Me and what for you worship goddess Katyayani, and I completely approve of your action. Anyone whose full consciousness is always absorbed in Me, even their desire for lust is not abominable. As a fried grain cannot be fructified by sowing, similarly, any desire in connection with My loving service cannot produce any fruitful result, as in ordinary karma."

In this connection, there is a statement in the Brahma-samhita where it is stated that karmani nirdahati bhakti-bhajam [Bs 5.54].

The meaning is that everyone is bound up by his fruitive activities, but the devotees, because they work completely for the satisfaction of the Lord, they have no action and reaction of their activity. Similarly, the gopis' attitude towards Krsna, although seemingly it was lusty, but it should not be considered like ordinary lusty desires of ordinary women. The reason is explained by Krsna Himself and giving the example that as a fried grain cannot produce any more growth of plant, similarly, activities in devotional service for Krsna are transcendental to any fruitive result.

"My dear gopis, your desire to have Me as your husband will be fulfilled, because with this desire you have worshiped goddess Katyayani. So I tell you that during autumn season next you shall be able to meet with Me, and you shall enjoy Me as your husband." In this way Lord Krsna, the son of Devaki, accompanied by His cowherd…

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Krsna, tape number twenty-four. Krsna, tape number twenty-four.

Thus taking shelter of the shade of the trees, He became very happy and He began to address all the inhabitants of Vrndavana and speak as follows: "My dear Stokakrsna, My dear Varūthapa, My dear Bhadrasena, My dear Sridama, My dear Subala, My dear Arjuna, My dear Visala, My dear Rsabha-just look to the most fortunate trees of Vrndavana. All these trees have dedicated their life for the welfare of others. Individually they are tolerating all kinds of natural disturbance, such as hurricane or torrents of rain, scorching heat, piercing cold. But they are very much careful to relieve our fatigues and thus give us shelter in this way.

"My dear friends, I think their this birth like the trees are very much glorified in this way, because they are so much careful to give shelter to others. They are like noble, highly elevated charitable men who never denies to give in charity if somebody approaches to ask such generous person for some benefit. Exactly like that, nobody is denied shelter by these trees. All these trees supply various kinds of necessities of the human society, just like they supply leaves, flowers, fruits, shade, roots, skin, flavor extracts, fuel, bones and similar so many things required in the human society. It is exactly the example of noble life, because a noble life means one who has sacrificed everything possible by his body, mind and activities, intelligence and words engaged for the welfare of all living entities."

The Supreme Personality of Godhead thus was passing on the bank of the Yamuna through all these nice trees, touching their leaves, branches, fruits, flowers, twigs, and praising their glorious welfare activities. People of different views may accept about these welfare activities in the human society according to their own views. But exactly the welfare activities that can be rendered to the people in general for eternal benefit is to spread Krsna consciousness movement. For propagating this movement everyone should be prepared, as instructed by Lord Caitanya that one should be humbler than the grass on the ground and tolerant like the trees. The toleration of the trees are explained by Lord Krsna Himself. And those who are engaged in the preaching work of Krsna consciousness movement should learn lessons from the instruction of Lord Krsna and Lord Caitanya through Their direct disciplic succession.

While passing through the forest of Vrndavana and on the bank of Yamuna, sat down on a beautiful spot and allowed the cows to drink the cold and transparent water of Yamuna, as well as all the cowherds boys and Krsna-Balarama, they also drank the water after being fatigued. In this way, because till morning after seeing the young gopis taking bath in the Yamuna they did not have any breakfast, and therefore by this time all of them became very hungry. The cowherds boy therefore approached Krsna and Balarama and began to say as follows.

Next paragraph.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of Twenty-second Chapter of Krsna in the matter of "Stealing the Garments of the Gopis."