Vastra Harana Lila

The lila in which Krsna stole the clothes of the young maidens occurred during the month of Agrahayana (November-December), the beginning of hemanta, the winter season. It is described in chapter 22 of the tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam in twenty-eight verses. A controversial chapter to the uninformed, it provides important insight for serious spiritual practitioners regardless of their tradition and especially for Gaudiya Vaisnavas, whose acaryas, Sanatana Goswami, Visvanatha Cakravarti, and Jiva Goswami, have revealed its esoteric significance.

The vastra harana lila is a prakata (manifest) lila in which the participating milk maidens are devotees who have reached the stage of svarupa siddhi in their spiritual practice. Svarupa siddhi is the final stage before entering Krsna lila forever, never to return to material life. Eternal participation in the drama of Krsna lila is called vastu siddhi. From svarupa siddhi, in which the devotee is situated in his or her spiritual body and takes “birth” wherever Krsna lila is manifested in the material world, such devotees associate directly with Krsna's eternal associates. In this association, they intensify their prema (love) in developmental stages relative to their particular relationship with Krsna (sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anurag, bhava, mahabhava).

In their previous life, the maidens of this lila were sages living in the Dandakaranya forest in South India. In their spiritual practice, they engaged in mantra dhyana (meditation) on the Gopala mantra. The form of God described in this mantra is Gopala Krsna, the cowherder of Vraja and lover of the gopis. The presiding deity of this mantra is Durga, from whose influence it is difficult (dur) to go (ga), or she whom it is difficult to go to.

Durga is an expansion of Radha, Krsna's eternal consort. She presides over the material nature as maya sakti, and is thus difficult to go beyond. Indeed, Krsna has said in Bhagavad-gita that this maya of his is insurmountable (mama maya duratyaya) unless one surrenders unto him (mama eva ye prapadyante), in which case passing beyond maya is easy (mayam etam taranti te). Passing beyond maya is, however, not all that is involved for one desiring to enter Krsna's lila. Along with a passport to leave the material world, one requires a visa to enter the divine play of Krsna. That eternal drama is conducted under the influence of another sakti.

Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami has written, radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini shaktir asmad: “The transformation of love that is Radha Krsna is conducted under the influence of hladini sakti (ananda potency). Radha herself is the essence of this sakti (radhika hayena krsnera pranaya-vikara), and it is thus she who presides over Krsna's life and love. This sakti, personified as Radha, brings the Absolute to life. Without Radha, there is no meaning to Krsna.

It is by one's energy that one accomplishes that by which he becomes known, and thus the extent to which we know a person's energy we know them in terms of both their person and potential. Knowing Krsna comprehensively implies entering his lila, and this is not very easy to do. Without the grace of Radha it is impossible. As much as it is difficult to go beyond the snare of maya it is just as difficult to go to that realm where Radha presides. In the tantric literature it is mentioned that Durga is another name for Radha.

The sages of Dandakaranya meditated on the Gopala mantra as a regular practice. One day during their meditation, the Rama avatara of Krsna passed through the Dandakaranya forest during his exile from Ayodhya. When the sages saw Ramacandra, they desired to be his consorts, assuming spiritual bodies like that of Sita. However, Rama told them that in this incarnation he had taken a vow to have only one wife (eka patni vrata). Yet consorthood with the Absolute was indeed the furthest reach of the Gopala mantra's efficacy, and Rama was the Absolute himself now appearing before the sages. Although they had the direct darsana of Ramacandra, they were still not perfect in their spiritual practice in terms of their spiritual aspiration for divine consorthood. Rama told them that he would again come in the next millennium as Krsna, and at that time he would accept their proposal. In the gopi vastra harana lila, these sages acquired the spiritual bodies of young maidens and Krsna stole their clothes.

Sukadeva Goswami begins the narration of this lila thus: hemante prathame masi nanda-vraja kumarikah. The word kumarikah is significant, as it refers to young unmarried girls. From the use of this word it is understood that the principal maidens of this lila are different from those mentioned in the previous chapter. In Venu gita, chapter twenty-one in which the maidens glorify Krsna's flute, these maidens are referred to as gopis, not kumaris. They were already married by the arrangement of Paurnamasi, whereas the kumaris in this chapter were not yet spoken for.

The marriage of the gopis is itself a complex theological subject. In reality, they belong to no one other than Krsna. The mystic illusion of their marriage to young cowherds has been explained in various ways by the Gaudiya commentators. Here it will suffice to say that their marriage, although illusory, is real inasmuch as this apparent marriage to others makes it possible for the gopis and Krsna to experience the acme of sacred rapture, transcendental paramour love. This paramour love never deteriorates into taking one's lover for granted, and the element of risk involved in it intensifies the experience of conjugal love. Such intensified romantic love gives Krsna the greatest pleasure in sacred rapture (rasa), and the extent to which Krsna is pleased determines reality. Satisfying God is reality, whereas satisfying one's material ego self is illusion.

The kumaris being younger girls were not married when the illusion of the older gopis' marriage was arranged by yoga maya, appearing in Krsna lila as the elderly Paurnamasi. However, as maturity approached they spontaneously developed a desire to live in the house of Nanda Maharaja with Krsna as their husband. With this in mind, they prayed constantly that they might become brides of Krsna. On the first day of Agrahayana, to the surprise of one another, they met on the banks of the Yamuna, having gone there separately, all with the same intention.

The secret each of the Kumaris kept locked within their hearts, to be shared only with the gods, shown brightly like the sun on one another's faces. Each saw their own heart reflected on one another's faces, and in the language of love they acknowledged that which they had in common. At that exact moment, in the midst of consoling one another, the natural spiritual environment of the sacred forest responded to their heart's necessity. The forest gopi Vrinda arrived at the banks of the river.

Vrinda gopi was acutely aware of the kumaris' love for Krsna, and from Paurnamasi she received instruction on the performance of the Katyayani vrata (sacred vow). Katyayani is one of the many forms of Durga. As such she has both a material and spiritual manifestation. Vrinda devi instructed the kumaris how to petition her, observing a vrata for one month with the intention of being wedded to Krsna.

Sukadeva Goswami says, cerur havisyam bhunjanah. During the one month observance, they subsisted on havisya, unspiced rice and dhal boiled together. This is not a very palatable dish, but these young girls were willing to undergo this austerity in order to get Krsna as their husband. Implied here is the fact that young girls in general underwent this type of dietary regime merely for the sake of getting a good husband. How much should we as sadhakas then be prepared to undergo dietary restrictions when they are favorable for serving Krsna?

Daily at sunrise, the coldest time of the day during the winter season, they gathered on the banks of the Yamuna to bathe and observe ritualistic worship of goddess Katyayani. From the earth they fashioned a deity of the goddess and then offered aromatic substances such as incense, flower garlands, and sandalwood pulp along with fruits, betel nuts, leaves, lamps, clothing, ornaments, and other items to her. While offering worship they chanted the mantra given to them by Vrinda, “O Katyayani, you who are the great potency of God, great mystic, and powerful controller,” nanda gopa sutam devi patim me kuru te namah, “Please make the son of Nanda my husband.”

This ritualistic worship was but an extension of the spiritual practice that the kumaris had cultured in their previous life. The goddess petitioned was one form of the presiding deity of their mantra. One cannot petition one's worshipable deity in pursuit of that which the deity itself does not have. The manifestation of Durga who presides over maya has a particular function in relation to Krsna. Her service to him is not liberating souls, rather keeping them in bondage and thereby providing negative impetus for spiritual pursuit. Here the kumaris worshipped Krsna's internal potency, not his external potency. However, if one is unaware of the authoritative statements of the tantras that speak about the goddess Durga who represents Krsna's internal spiritual energy, he may insist that the names Katyayani and Bhadrakali found here in the text indicate the goddess presiding over the material world. Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept this claim, still we are taught in this chapter that the Goddess presiding over maya cannot give love of Krsna. Were it possible for her to do so, love of Krsna would be within the jurisdiction of the material world and Krsna's theft of the kumaris' clothes questionable.

As we shall see, when the kumaris completed their vow, the goddess never appeared to grant them the benediction they sought. Were she the goddess presiding over the material world, she would have appeared to grant the boon of a material husband to the girls petitioning her thus. If it was this goddess that the kumaris worshipped, they worshipped the wrong person with the right idea. Their heart being properly situated in terms of loving Krsna, the goddess would have directed their worship to the department that could deal with their request.

Some people worship the right person for the wrong thing, others the wrong person for the right thing. However, If we worship Krsna for the fulfillment of material desire, rather than the god or goddess whose primary function is to fulfill that particular desire, or if we worship a god or goddess other than Radha Krsna with a desire to attain love of Krsna, in either instance, we will ultimately attain love of Krsna. In the first case, Krsna will fulfill our material desire first, and eventually give us knowledge, and then love of God. This is mentioned in the Seventh chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. If out of ignorance we petition the wrong god or goddess with a desire to love god in a way that only Krsna reciprocates, in reverence of that very desire itself the god or goddess petitioned will defer our heart's longing to the lotus feet of Radha Krsna.

The spiritual conclusion is that the kumaris' spiritual passion alone made possible the fulfillment of their desire. Their spiritual passion, fueled initially by the eagerness to attain Krsna as their husband, in the end amounted to the transformation of the presiding deity of the Gopala mantra herself, appearing in their purified hearts. As Rupa Goswami has said in Bhaktirasamrta-sinduh, suddha sattva visesatma prema suryamsu samyabhak, “Bhava is the transformation of the suddha sattva appearing as a ray of the sun of prema in the devotee's heart.” Such is the nature of spiritual emotion (bhava) and love (prema). It constitutes an infusion of Krsna's internal energy into the heart of the sadhaka. This infusion is a combination of hladini and samvit sakti of the suddha sattva.

Spiritual passion for loving Krsna begins with an acute eagerness to love him as one of his eternal associates does. This eagerness is called lobha, sometimes translated as greed. In proportion to one's spiritual greed, one traverses the sacred path of passionate love. On this path, constant chanting of Krsna's holy name and mantra dhyana on Gopala mantra as prescribed by the spiritual preceptor, brings the sadhaka to svarupa siddhi. This is the Bhagavatam's version of liberation, muktir hitvanyata rupam svarupena vyavastitih. It involves not merely removal of the negative influence of ignorance, but more, becoming situated in one's own spiritual nature or identity in relation to serving Krsna. In the course of progressing to this stage, devotees pass through stages of meditation (smaranam), which are energized by continued chanting of Krsna's holy names (kirtanam). In the stage of svarupa siddhi, mantra dhyana has fulfilled its function, while chanting Krsna's name in a post-liberated status furthers our love of God.

Sukadeva Goswami continues the narration in text six with mention of how the kumaris engaged in sankirtanam (congregational chanting). He says, usasy utthaya gotraih svair anyonyabaddha-bahavah krsnam uccair jagur yantyah kalindyam snatum anvaham: “Daily they rose at dawn, calling one another by name. They held hands and loudly sang in glorification of Krsna, as they went to the Kalindi (Yamuna) to take their bath. “

We should follow the example of the kumaris, rising early, bathing, and engaging in sankirtanam with like-minded devotees. This practice is highly recommended for the present age. It is both sadhana (spiritual practice) and sadhya (spiritual perfection).

The events described in the first six verses of this chapter are a general description of that which the kumaris did for the entire month of Agrahayana. Verses seven through twenty-eight describe the full moon day on which the kumaris completed their sacred vow. It was on this day that Krsna stole the maiden's clothes. Acarya Visvanatha Cakravarti envisions that on this day other married girls featured in the previous chapter accompanied the kumaris to celebrate the completion of their vow. Owing to their exuberance resulting from the completion of their vow, the girls remained playfully within the water for some time, their colorful clothes strewn on the shore.

Sukadeva Goswami then addresses Krsna as Yogesvaresvara, an extension of his famed title as Yogesvara from the Bhagavad-gita. He is thus not only the master of yoga and mysticism, but the master of masters in this regard. Sukadeva implied that Krsna was the master of the maha yogini, Katyayani, whom the gopis thus addressed in their matrimonial mantra. He also addressed Krsna as Bhagavan, God, possessor of all opulence, as he was now about to steal the maiden's clothes. This act of thievery is only play for God, for when one steals from himself, it is nothing more than this.

Bhagavan tad abhipretya, God knew what the kumaris were doing. He could see in his mind's eye their hearts voiced in a petition to the goddess and shinning now on their lotus faces. Thus he went there in the company of his intimate chaps, vayasyair avrtas tatra, to crown the kumaris' endeavor, gatas tat karma siddhaye.

Part Two

Krsna has many cowherd friends. There are four basic groups, sakhas (ordinary friends), suhrit sakhas (well-wishing friends), priya sakhas (dear friends), and priyanarma sakhas (bosom buddies) who accompany him in his cowherding adventures. Rupa Goswami has also identified two secondary groups, vidhusakhas (jokers) and vitas (artists). Both the priya sakhas and the priyanarma sakhas are aware of Krsna's affairs with the gopis, as is the famous vidhusakha, Madhumangala. The priyanarma sakhas headed by Subala are directly involved in these affairs, indeed Rupa Goswami calls their love for Krsna 'sakhi bhava' in his Radha Krsna gannodgesa dipika. Their friendship is mixed with conjugal love such that they can expertly council Krsna in his love plight with the gopis. However, his priya sakhas, although aware of his secret love, never speak about it, and they are not directly involved in it. It is interesting that the pals of Krsna accompanying him on this day were his four most intimate priya sakhas, Sridama, Sudama, Vasudama, and Kinkini.

Of the priya Sakhas, Sridama is the foremost. He is the brother of Radha. In the central meeting shrine (Yoga pitha) of sakhya rasa, Sridama stands at the western gate, Sudama at the northern gate, Vasudama the eastern, and Kinkini at the southern gate. In the center stand Krsna and Balarama, and on the eight petals of this hexagonal lotus stand Stoka Krsna, Angshuka, Bhadra-sena, Arjjuna, Subala, Vilasa, Mahabala, and Vrisabha. On the central, golden hexagon is carved the kama bija, klim, which is sva sadhya (self-accomplishing).

The Gautamiya tantra identifies the four principal priya sakhas as manifestations (antahkaranarupa) of Krsna's intelligence (Sridama), ego (Sudama), heart (Vasudama), and mind (Kinkini). As one can not go anywhere without these four, these boys either manifest or unmanifest are always with Krsna. Appropriate to their relationship with him they are silent with regard to his conjugal life. Although personally present on this occasion, they remained as if unaware of the implications of the event that was to ostensibly constitute a virtual marriage in disregard of socio-religious convention. In terms of the divine drama, the acaryas have described them at this time as being too young to comprehend what was actually taking place.

As they walked with Krsna to the Yamuna, they repeatedly asked where he was taking them. The kumaris were bathing in a place otherwise unknown to males. As they neared the river, Krsna crouched and observed, forbidding his friends to laugh lest they be found out. Then he stole the maidens clothes, tasam vasamsi upadaya.

Krsna next climbed to the top of a kadamba tree with his friends and all five of them laughed loudly in unison, especially his fun loving friends who had thus far been restrained. Hearing the laughter, the girls recognized the deep voice of Krsna with surprise and inner delight. Looking up they saw him and his pals in the tree, their clothes no longer on the shore. Quickly they lowered their breasts into the Yamuna so that only their faces could be seen. It was as if the flower of their faces had bloomed out of season. As Krsna looked on, the bumble bee of his eyes drank the honey of the kumaris' flowering lotus-like faces.

Krsna then suggested that they come out of the water and take their clothes. He insisted that this was no joke, stayam bruvani no narma, biting his tongue in indignation as the girls suggested there might be something improper about his proposal. Krsna told them that compassion should not be misconstrued regardless of what form it takes. They were fatigued from their vow and now, freezing in the cold winter water, yad yuyam vrata-karsitah, while he was the solution to their predicament, their clothes in his hands.

Could Krsna's honesty be questionable? Na mayodita-purvam va anrtam, “I have never ever lied, tad ime viduh, and these boys are my witness. Let one of you come, or all come together, O slender waisted girls.”

Krsna's friends' testimony was hardly what the kumaris considered credible. They laughed at what was obviously his jest with a sense of fulfillment, for he was joking with them as if they were his wives. They nonetheless remained too shy to leave the water, yet too cold to remain within.

The cold winter water of the Yamuna provided the perfect opportunity for the girls to express their hearts to Krsna and at the same time deny their heart's ambition should anyone else find out, or in the unlikely event that Krsna did not accept their proposal. This latter concern is relative to the very nature of conjugal love of Krsna. Each and every cowherd boyfriend of Krsna feels that he is the favorite of Krsna, and each and every one of them is right. The milk maidens, however, feel just the opposite. Each girl continually doubts Krsna's love for her, even while it is all pervading.

The girls sensed that Krsna was trying to bring them out into the open. He wanted to hear directly from their lips the essence of that which they secretly uttered in worship of goddess Katyayani. The cold water of the Yamuna provided the pretext for them to do so. Such is the friendly nature of the Vraja environment, the bitter cold water's current appeared favorable to the girls. Indeed as their hearts melted hearing Krsna's request, the cold water afforded them some sense of composure that made them all the more becoming. This is the vision of the highest devotees. That which would otherwise be unfavorable is perceived by them as favorable. Their vision turns the world of adversity into an abode of joy, visvam purnam sukayate. The magical, mythical land of Vraja lies in this vision. One must learn to flow with the eternal current of God's will.

Then they said it: syamasundara te dasyah karavama tavoditam, “O Syamasundara, we are your maidservants, and we shall do whatever you say.” The girls followed this heartfelt submission wrapped in the pretext of physical distress with a reminder for all of us. In asking for their clothing again, they declared Krsna to be the knower of dharma, dehi vasamsi dharma jna. There was nothing remotely irreligious in what he had requested. This affair was an example of paro dharma, as it demonstrated ahaituky apratihata yenatma samprasidati. The gopis love, that is, was without motive and without reservation as to what they would do for the satisfaction of the Supreme Self, whose satisfaction is the criterion of religious perfection, samsiddhir hari tosanam.

Spiritual truth of the matter aside, absorbed in the drama of apparent irreligiosity, the girls intended, by calling attention to dharma, that it was enough that Krsna was insisting that they bare themselves before him, and therefore he should not add insult to injury by not returning their clothes once they left the river. The feeling of their addressing Krsna as “dharma jna” was thus: “Don't arm yourself with untruth as you prepare to do battle with the very essence of religion.” A thinking person should conclude that a relationship between boy and girl out of wedlock is the antithesis of spiritual love, even while it wraps its nature in a sense of freedom and spontaneity that we sense to be at the heart of that which is spiritual. One who develops feeling for this drama of divine love will never again be troubled by the call of the wild, the voice of the mind and senses that steal the heart of the soul.

The young maidens then threatened to report Krsna to the king if he did not return their clothes once they came out of the water. Both this and their previous statement came as Krsna hesitated to respond, which had in turn heightened the uncertainty of the young maidens. His hesitation revealed his own amazement at the depth of the girls love. He had no fear of King Kamsa, although had they intended to tell King Nanda, his father, one might think that there could have been cause for concern. However, Krsna knew the girls had no intention of telling anyone, and his fearless nature called upon by their idle threat, thus came to the surface.

Krsna responded through the voice of Sukadeva as he continued the narration, addressing Krsna as Bhagavan. In order to conceal the actual reason for his hesitation, Bhagavan said: “Well if you are willing to become my maidservants, what are you waiting for? If you really intend to do as I say, then come here. Right now you are neither acting as maidservants nor coming to get your clothes. If you really want to do as I say, then come here wearing only your smiles and each of you can take your clothes from me. If you don't do as I say, it is you who will be known as untruthful. Then what will the king say to a compassionate person like myself, who tried to help ordinary girls like you, even while you have nourished false hopes?”

We should do our service to Krsna cheerfully, not begrudgingly. The latter is not service at all. Although we will be asked to perform many difficult tasks, these tasks are not difficult in and of themselves. The difficulty lies in our attachment to a false sense of identity. This false identity is not easy to give up. Krsna asked the girls to wear only their smile as they came out of the water. Similarly, we should never begrudge one who asks us to bare our soul. We must allow ourselves to be exploited for a purpose greater than our own mentally conceived ideal. The world of the mind is mean spirited, and we should not allow it to vent itself towards those who are our well-wishers, those whom the mind can never fully understand.

Now the girls became silent and proceeded to exit the river, desperately hoping that Krsna's words about false hopes were words only. Their bodies had been practically immobile due to shyness more than the temperature of the water. And as they moved forward, their shivering too was only apparently due to the cold. Stepping out of the river, they covered their pubic area with their hands, their long black hair on bowed heads covering their breasts, as the shorter girls stood in front of the taller ones.

As Krsna watched the embarrassed girls one by one climb out of the water, he was satisfied with the measure of their love. He sensed that their hesitation that caused them to cover themselves even after they had come out of the water was due to nothing else than the fear that he might not accept them. They themselves had the conviction that should he turn away from them, they would give up their lives. Such was the intensity of the sacred vow they had undertaken. Krsna wanted to satisfy further his thoughts, as well as the minds of his buddies, with visible evidence as to the cause of the girls fear. Thus he spoke in jest with the appearance of gravity, assuring his pals that the girls had not yet reached menstruation, as if this changed the equation.

As Sukadeva changed the meter of his poem, Krsna told the girls, “Your religious observance is flawed, for you bathed in the river without clothes. Varuna, the God of the waters, must be appeased. Fold your hands above your heads in respect and only then will I give you back your garments.”

Distracting Krsna's chums by telling them they heard someone coming, the girls did as Krsna ordered, editing his mandate thus: they paid respect with hands folded above their heads to him, with the sense that the wife's husband represents the gods for her in the religion of the Veda. As they did so, Krsna returned their garments to them.

Sukadeva then interrupted his own narrative with these reflective words. “Although the girls had been completely cheated and deprived of their modesty, laughed at and played with like toys, their clothes stolen, they felt no enmity towards Krsna. Rather, they were overjoyed to have been able to have the company of their beloved.”

Quickly the girls put their clothes. While Krsna's chums assumed the whole affair was now finished and pulled on one another to go, the girls sat motionless. They waited in anticipation. As is done in the marriage ceremony, they wanted to touch his lotus feet.

Krsna then spoke to them. Accepting them, he assured them that the vow they had undertaken would bear fruit. He told them that the desire they cherished for uniting with him in love was pure. “Such pure desire can never lead to anything else but the fulfillment of its own objective. As fried seeds have no potential to sprout, even though they continue to look like seeds that can, the desire seed to love me can never give rise to material fruits, even though it looks like that is what it is all about.” Mysterious indeed is the nature of the highest love.

While the girls expected Krsna to perform a Gandharva marriage rite then and there, he told them that marriage itself is all about the feelings they shared, rites and rituals were subsidiary. Then he promised to consummate the affair on a future night.

The future night on which Krsna's promise was fulfilled was the night of the rasa dance one year later. The kumaris needed to further refine their love for Krsna in association with nitya siddha gopis and those who are expansions of Radha, whose company they shared on the final day of this lila. In their continued friendship throughout the next year, the kumaris perfected themselves. What was it in them that needed yet to be removed so that they could consummate their relationship with Krsna? Some acaryas have reasoned it was their desire to be his wives rather than his paramours. Now, where are we in terms of this attainment?