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Excerpt

Gopi-gita is part of rasa-panca-adhyaya, the five chapters of Srimad-Bhagavatam that relate rasa-lila.

The body has five kinds of life-airs (panca-prana) residing in the heart, and among these five, one is most vital. The twelve cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam are likened to twelve parts of a body. The Tenth Canto is the heart of that body. Within that heart, the five chapters that constitute rasa-panca-adhyaya are its five life-airs, and among them, Gopi-gita is the foremost.

We begin our discussion of Gopi-gita by remembering the chapter in Srimad-Bhagavatam that describes the gopis’ worship of the goddess Katyayani-devi to attain Krishna as their husband. The first verse of this chapter states:

sri-suka uvaca

hemante prathame masi

nanda-vraja-kamarikah

cerur havisyam bhunjanah

katyayany-arcana-vratam

Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.22.1)

Srila Sukadeva Gosvami said, “During the first month of the winter season, the young, unmarried girls of Gokula observed the vow of worshipping goddess Katyayani. For the entire month they ate only unspiced khichri.”

The gopis who observed the vow to worship Katyayani were young and unmarried. What, then, was Sri Krishna age at this time? Krishna had left Gokula at the age of three and a half. According to Srila Vyasadeva and Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, He was seven years old when He lifted the mountain, Giriraja Govardhana, on the little finger of His left hand. After He lifted Giriraja, all the elders and their priests gathered together and told Nanda Baba, “You should not treat Krishna as if He were your son. He is actually not your son. He may be a demigod, or perhaps He is God, or someone like God. We have heard that Narayana Himself has come in the form of Krishna, and perhaps it is true. So you should not treat Him like an ordinary boy. Do not bind His hands, and do not chastise or punish Him. He is only seven years old, and yet He lifted a mountain like Govardhana. How is that possible? This is indeed mysterious.”

“Oh,” Nanda Baba laughed. “I have heard that gopas only become mature and intelligent at the age of eighty. They cannot properly decide anything before then, because their minds are not fixed. Krishna is just an ordinary boy.

“God has far more good qualities than even the perfected saints. Such saints do not become angry, and they are not disturbed by hunger, thirst, or any other material distress. They do not steal or tell lies.

“Krishna tells lies. He weeps and becomes angry. He plays tricks on people, and He is naughty in so many other ways. He sometimes cries for butter and sugar candy. If He does not get what He wants, He becomes furious and hurls all the items in our home onto the ground, and then scatters them here and there.

“This is conclusive proof that He is not God. In any case, even if you would insist that He is God, He is still my son, so I will admonish and punish Him and treat Him as a father should treat his child.”

Nanda Baba continued to laugh at the notion that Krishna is God; then Yogamaya came, and by her influence, everyone present forgot this idea.

This incident took place during the month of Kartika, when Sri Krishna was seven years old, and it was just after Kartika that the gopis worshiped Katyayani.

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