The word hemante refers to the month of Mārgaśīrṣa — from approximately the middle of November to the middle of December, according to the Western calendar. In Chapter Twenty-two of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments that the gopīs “first ate haviṣyānna, a kind of food prepared by boiling together mung dāl and rice without any spices or turmeric. According to Vedic injunction, this kind of food is recommended to purify the body before one enacts a ritualistic ceremony.”

The word balibhiḥ in this verse indicates offerings of clothing, ornaments, food and so on.

According to various ācāryas, the goddess Durgā mentioned in this verse is not the illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa called Māyā but rather the internal potency of the Lord known as Yoga-māyā. The distinction between the internal and external, or illusory, potency of the Lord is described in the Nārada-pañcarātra, in the conversation between Śruti and Vidyā:

“The Lord’s inferior potency, known as Durgā, is dedicated to His loving service. Being the Lord’s potency, this inferior energy is nondifferent from Him. There is another, superior potency, whose form is on the same spiritual level as that of God Himself. Simply by scientifically understanding this supreme potency, one can immediately achieve the Supreme Soul of all souls, who is the Lord of all lords. There is no other process to achieve Him. That supreme potency of the Lord is known as Gokuleśvarī, the goddess of Gokula. Her nature is to be completely absorbed in love of God, and through Her one can easily obtain the primeval God, the Lord of all that be. This internal potency of the Lord has a covering potency, known as Mahā-māyā, who rules the material world. In fact she bewilders the entire universe, and thus everyone within the universe falsely identifies himself with the material body.”

From the above we can understand that the internal and external, or superior and inferior, potencies of the Supreme Lord are personified as Yoga-māyā and Mahā-māyā, respectively. The name Durgā is sometimes used to refer to the internal, superior potency, as stated in the Pañcarātra: “In all mantras used to worship Kṛṣṇa, the presiding deity is known as Durgā.” Thus in the transcendental sound vibrations glorifying and worshiping the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṇa, the presiding deity of the particular mantra or hymn is called Durgā. The name Durgā therefore refers also to that personality who functions as the internal potency of the Lord and who is thus on the platform of śuddha-sattva, pure transcendental existence. This internal potency is understood to be Kṛṣṇa’s sister, known also as Ekānaṁśā or Subhadrā. This is the Durgā who was worshiped by the gopīs in Vṛndāvana. Several ācāryas have pointed out that ordinary people are sometimes bewildered and think that the names Mahā-māyā and Durgā refer exclusively to the external potency of the Lord.

Even if we accept hypothetically that the gopīs were worshiping the external Māyā, there is no fault on their part, since in their pastimes of loving Kṛṣṇa they were acting as ordinary members of society. Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in this regard: “The Vaiṣṇavas generally do not worship any demigods. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has strictly forbidden all worship of the demigods for anyone who wants to advance in pure devotional service. Yet the gopīs, who are beyond compare in their affection for Kṛṣṇa, were seen to worship Durgā. The worshipers of demigods also sometimes mention that the gopīs worshiped goddess Durgā, but we must understand the purpose of the gopīs. Generally, people worship the goddess Durgā for some material benediction. Here, the gopīs prayed to the goddess to become wives of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The purport is that if Kṛṣṇa is the center of activity, a devotee can adopt any means to achieve that goal. The gopīs could adopt any means to satisfy or serve Kṛṣṇa. That was the superexcellent characteristic of the gopīs. They worshiped goddess Durgā completely for one month in order to have Kṛṣṇa as their husband. Every day they prayed for Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, to become their husband.”

The conclusion is that a sincere devotee of Kṛṣṇa will never imagine any material quality to exist in the transcendental gopīs, who are the most exalted devotees of the Lord. The only motivation in all their activities was simply to love and satisfy Kṛṣṇa, and if we foolishly consider their activities to be mundane in any way, it will be impossible for us to understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, this incident occurred on the day the young gopīs completed their vow, which was a full-moon day. To celebrate the successful completion of their vow, the girls invited young Rādhārāṇī — the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu and the special object of their affection — along with other important gopīs, and brought them all to the river to bathe. Their playing in the water was meant to serve as the avabhṛtha-snāna, the ceremonial bath taken immediately upon the completion of a Vedic sacrifice.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows: “It is an old system among Indian girls and women that when they take a bath in the river they place their garments on the bank and dip into the water completely naked. The portion of the river where the girls and women bathe was strictly prohibited to any male, and this is still the system. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, knowing the minds of the unmarried young gopīs, awarded them their desired objective. They had prayed for Kṛṣṇa to become their husband, and Kṛṣṇa wanted to fulfill their desires.”

As the master of all masters of mystic power, Lord Kṛṣṇa could easily understand the desires of the gopīs, and He could also fulfill them. The gopīs, like all young girls from respectable families, considered the embarrassment of appearing naked before a young boy to be worse than giving up their lives. Yet Lord Kṛṣṇa made them come out of the water and bow down to Him. Although the bodily forms of the gopīs were all fully developed, and although Kṛṣṇa met them in a secluded place and brought them fully under His control, because the Lord is completely transcendental there was not a trace of material desire in His mind. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the ocean of transcendental bliss, and He wanted to share His bliss with the gopīs on the spiritual platform, completely free of ordinary lust.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that the companions of Kṛṣṇa mentioned here were mere toddlers two or three years old. They were completely naked and were unaware of the difference between male and female. When Kṛṣṇa went out to herd the cows, they followed Him because they were so attached to Him that they could not bear to be without His association.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this verse as follows:

“The gopīs were from most respectable families, and they might have argued with Kṛṣṇa: ‘Why don’t You simply leave our clothes on the bank of the river and go away?’

“Kṛṣṇa might have replied, ‘But there are so many of you that some of the girls might take clothes belonging to another.’

“The gopīs would reply, ‘We are honest and never steal anything. We never touch another’s property.’

“Then Kṛṣṇa would say, ‘If that’s true, then simply come and get your clothes. What is the difficulty?’

“When the gopīs saw Kṛṣṇa’s determination, they were filled with loving ecstasy. Although embarrassed, they were overjoyed to receive such attention from Kṛṣṇa. He was joking with them as if they were His wives or girlfriends, and the gopīs’ only desire was to achieve such a relationship with Him. At the same time, they were embarrassed to be seen naked by Him. But still they could not help laughing at His joking words and even began to joke among themselves, one gopī urging another, ‘Go ahead, you go first, and let us see if Kṛṣṇa plays any tricks on you. Then we will go later.’”

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives the following example of joking between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs.

Kṛṣṇa: O birdlike girls, if you do not come here, then with these garments caught in the branches I will make a swing and a hammock. I need to lie down, since I have spent the entire night awake and am now becoming sleepy.

Gopīs: Our dear cowherd boy, Your cows, greedy for grass, have gone into a cave. So You must quickly go there to herd them back on the proper path.

Kṛṣṇa: Come now, My dear cowherd girls, you must quickly go from here to Vraja and perform your household duties. Don’t become a disturbance to your parents and other elders.

Gopīs: Our dear Kṛṣṇa, we will not go home for an entire month, for it is by the order of our parents and other elders that we are executing this vow of fasting, the Kātyāyanī-vrata.

Kṛṣṇa: My dear austere ladies, I too, by the strength of seeing you, have now developed a surprising mood of detachment from family life. I wish to stay here for a month and execute the vow of dwelling in the clouds. And if you show mercy to Me, I can come down from here and observe the vow of fasting in your company.

The gopīs were completely captivated by Kṛṣṇa’s joking words, but out of shyness they submerged themselves in the water up to their necks. Shaking from the cold, they addressed Kṛṣṇa as follows.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments, “When the gopīs saw that Kṛṣṇa was strong and determined, they had no alternative but to abide by His order.”

The gopīs had assured Kṛṣṇa that they were His eternal servants and would do whatever He said, and thus they were now defeated by their own words. If they delayed any longer, they thought, some other man might come along, and this would be unbearable for them. The gopīs loved Kṛṣṇa so much that even in that awkward situation their attachment to Him was increasing more and more, and they were very eager to stay in His company. Thus they did not even consider drowning themselves in the river because of the embarrassing situation.

They concluded that they could do nothing but go forward to their beloved Kṛṣṇa, putting aside their embarrassment. Thus the gopīs assured each other that there was no alternative and rose up out of the water to meet Him.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments: “[The gopīs’] simple presentation was so pure that Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately became pleased with them. All the unmarried gopīs who prayed to Kātyāyanī to have Kṛṣṇa as their husband were thus satisfied. A woman cannot be naked before any male except her husband. The unmarried gopīs desired Kṛṣṇa as their husband, and He fulfilled their desire in this way.”

For aristocratic girls like the gopīs, standing naked before a young boy was worse than death, and yet they decided to give up everything for the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He wanted to see the power of their love for Him, and He was completely satisfied by their unalloyed devotion.

Kṛṣṇa wanted to see the full surrender of the gopīs, and thus He ordered them to offer obeisances with their palms joined above their heads. In other words, the gopīs could no longer cover their bodies. We should not foolishly think that Lord Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary lusty boy enjoying the naked beauty of the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth, and He was acting to fulfill the loving desire of the young cowherd girls of Vṛndāvana. In this world we would certainly become lusty in a situation like this. But to compare ourselves to God is a great offense, and because of this offense we will not be able to understand Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental position, for we will wrongly take Him to be materially conditioned like ourselves. To lose transcendental sight of Kṛṣṇa is certainly a great disaster for one trying to relish the bliss of the Absolute Truth.

The transcendental position of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is clearly described here. The gopīs decided that it was better to renounce their so-called family tradition and traditional morality and simply surrender unto the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. This does not mean that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement advocates immoral activities. In fact, the devotees of ISKCON practice the highest standard of restraint and morality, but at the same time we recognize the transcendental position of Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa is God and therefore has no material desire to enjoy young girls in sexual affairs. As will be seen in this chapter, Lord Kṛṣṇa was not at all attracted to enjoying the gopīs; rather He was attracted to their love and wanted to satisfy them.

The greatest offense is to imitate the activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In India there is a group called prākṛta-sahajiyā, who imitate these affairs of Kṛṣṇa and try to enjoy naked young girls in the name of worshiping Kṛṣṇa. The ISKCON movement sternly rejects this mockery of religion, because the greatest offense is for a human being to ludicrously imitate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the ISKCON movement there are no cheap incarnations, and it is not possible for a devotee of this movement to promote himself to the position of Kṛṣṇa.

Five hundred years ago Kṛṣṇa appeared as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who practiced strict celibacy throughout His student life and at the age of twenty-four took sannyāsa, a lifelong vow of celibacy. Caitanya Mahāprabhu rigidly avoided contact with women in order to carry out His vow of loving service to Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa personally appeared five thousand years ago, He exhibited these wonderful pastimes, which attract our attention. We should not become envious or shocked when we hear that God can perform such pastimes. Our shock is due to our ignorance, because if we tried to perform these activities our bodies would be afflicted by lust. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, is the Supreme Absolute Truth and is therefore never disturbed by any material desire whatsoever. Thus, this incident — in which the gopīs gave up normal standards of morality and, raising their hands to their head, bowed down in compliance with Kṛṣṇa’s order — is an example of pure devotional surrender and not a discrepancy in religious principles.

In fact, the gopīs’ surrender is the perfection of all religion, as Śrīla Prabhupāda describes in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: “The gopīs were all simple souls, and whatever Kṛṣṇa said they took to be true. In order to be freed from the wrath of Varuṇadeva, as well as to fulfill the desired end of their vows and ultimately to please their worshipable Lord, Kṛṣṇa, they immediately abided by His order. Thus they became the greatest lovers of Kṛṣṇa, and His most obedient servitors.

“Nothing can compare with the Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the gopīs. Actually, the gopīs did not care for Varuṇa or any other demigod; they only wanted to satisfy Kṛṣṇa.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments, “This attitude of the gopīs is described by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He prays, ‘My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, You may embrace Me or trample Me under Your feet, or You may make Me brokenhearted by never being present before Me. Whatever You like, You can do, because You have complete freedom to act. But in spite of all of Your dealings, You are My Lord eternally, and I have no other worshipable object.’ This is the attitude of the gopīs toward Kṛṣṇa.”

By association with their beloved Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs had become more attached to Him than ever. Just as Kṛṣṇa had stolen their clothes, He had also stolen their minds and their love. The gopīs interpreted the whole incident as proof that Kṛṣṇa was also attached to them. Otherwise, why would He have gone to the trouble of playing with them in this way? Because they thought that Kṛṣṇa was now attached to them, they glanced at Him with shyness, and being stunned by the rising of their ecstatic love, they could not move from where they stood. Kṛṣṇa had overcome their shyness and forced them to come out of the water naked, but now, having dressed properly, they again became shy in His presence. In fact, this incident increased their humbleness before Kṛṣṇa. They did not want Kṛṣṇa to see them staring at Him, but they cautiously took the opportunity to glance at the Lord.

Just as Kṛṣṇa is free of all impure desire, so are the gopīs. Their attempt to gain Kṛṣṇa as their husband was therefore motivated not by a desire for personal sense gratification but by their overwhelming desire to serve Kṛṣṇa and to please Him. Because of their intense love, the gopīs did not see Kṛṣṇa as God but rather as the most wonderful boy in all creation, and being beautiful young girls, they desired only to please Him by loving service. Lord Kṛṣṇa understood the pure desire of the gopīs and was thus satisfied. The Lord could certainly not be satisfied by ordinary lust, but He was moved by the intense loving devotion of the cowherd girls of Vṛndāvana.

The words mayy āveśita-dhiyām are very significant here. Unless one has achieved an advanced degree of devotion, one cannot fix the mind and intelligence on Kṛṣṇa, since Kṛṣṇa is pure spiritual existence. Self-realization is a state not of desirelessness but rather of purified desire, wherein one desires only the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The gopīs were certainly attracted to Kṛṣṇa in a mood of conjugal love, and yet, having fixed their minds and indeed their entire existence completely on Kṛṣṇa, their conjugal desire could never manifest as material lust; rather, it became the most exalted form of love of Godhead ever seen within the universe.

The gopīs’ desire was fulfilled because Lord Kṛṣṇa had agreed to act as their husband. A young girl can never spend the night with any man except her husband, and thus when Kṛṣṇa agreed to engage the girls in the nocturnal rāsa dance during the coming autumn season, in effect He was agreeing to reciprocate their love for Him in the role of a husband.

Having described how Lord Kṛṣṇa stole the garments of the young gopīs, Śukadeva Gosvāmī now begins introducing the description of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s blessings upon the wives of some ritualistic brāhmaṇas.

Lord Kṛṣṇa was preparing to bestow His mercy on the wives of the hard-hearted ritualistic brāhmaṇas, and in these verses the Lord indicates that even trees who are dedicated to the welfare of others are superior to brāhmaṇas who are not. Certainly the members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should soberly study this point.

This translation is quoted from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 9.46).

This translation is quoted from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi-līlā 9.42).

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that the cowherd boys were concerned that Kṛṣṇa would be hungry, and thus they feigned their own hunger so that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma would make suitable arrangements to eat.