People ask why Krishna danced with young girls. “Why did he perform the rasa dance?” asks Parikshit Maharaj to Sukadeva Goswami to clarify his doubts. “Lord Krishna is the Supreme Power who emerged to establish religious principles. Why then did he mingle with others’ wives in the dead of the night?”
According to Vedic injunctions, this is not allowed. Some may think Krishna was lusting after young girls but Parikshit Maharaj said this is impossible, because from material calculation, Krishna was only eight years old. At that age, a boy cannot be lustful.
Krishna himself is not lustful but he might have been induced by the gopis. He said Krishna is the most exalted in the dynasty of the Yadus. He addressed Sukadeva Goswami as suvrata. Sukadeva was an educated brahmachari and under the circumstances, it was not possible for him to indulge in sex. Sukadeva answered that isvaranam or the Supreme Controller may sometimes violate his instructions.
Sukadeva warned that the conditioned followers who are not actually in control should never even imagine imitating the uncommon activities of the controller. He gives an example — vinasyaty acaran maudhyad — if somebody, out of foolishness, tries to imitate, he is completely destroyed, like — yatharudro ‘bdhi jam visam.
A Mayavadi philosopher may falsely claim to be God or Krishna, but he cannot lift the Govardhana Hill. In Orissa, Thakur Bhaktivinode also punished a so-called incarnation of Vishnu who was imitating rasa lila with young girls. Sukadeva warns if one tries to imitate Krishna’s rasa dance, he will be killed, just like a person who wants to imitate Lord Shiva’s drinking of an ocean of poison. Shiva drank an ocean of poison and kept it in his throat; the poison made his throat turn blue. That’s why he is called Nilakanta.
When Shiva or Krishna perform certain unusual activities, they are in the position of Ishvaras — controllers. The followers are simply supposed to follow the instructions of such great controllers. Krishna has given his instructions in the Bhagavad Gita for all of us to follow. If we try to imitate him, we will be completely destroyed.
Sukadeva adds that Krishna is transcendental to all activities and religious principles. He is untouched by material nature. Therefore it is not possible for him to act irreligiously. He is the Supreme Controller of all living entities, either among humans or demigods, the heavenly planets or the lower life forms.
Those who descend from the spiritual world — Krishna and his pure devotees — are not bound by the laws of nature; they are completely transcendental. Krishna may execute some religious principles to teach us to act according to religious principles.
The next point is that great sages and devotees who are washed clean of all conditional life can move freely even within the contamination of material nature by keeping Krishna within their hearts. They do not become subject to the laws of pleasure and pain. If it is possible for them to be free from the law of karma, then what do we say of Krishna, who appears in his own internal potency?
The gopis belong to Krishna’s internal potency. So when Krishna appears, he appears with his internal potency. So those gopis in Vrindavan apparently were married young women. So the Bhagavatam explains that this marriage of the gopis to some other men was actually an arrangement by Yogamaya for Krishna to perform his pastimes of parakiya rasa.
Krishna enjoys two kinds of rasa. In the madhurya rasa, there are two divisions. One is called svakiya rasa and the other is called parakiya rasa. So Krishna demonstrated svakiya rasa with his queens in Dvaraka and, he demonstrated the parakiya rasa in Vrindavan with the gopis. So when Krishna played his flute on that night of the sharad purnima, all the gopis left their houses and went to Krishna in their spiritual forms. The bodies of the gopis laid next to their husbands.
One more point Sukadeva clarifies is that Krishna never danced with the gopis in their material forms. Krishna himself is completely spiritual — isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah — he has nothing to do with any material form of this world. If somebody should hear this description of the rasa dance, it should be from the proper source. Sukadeva says that one will then attain devotional service to the Supreme Lord and lose all attraction for material enjoyment in this world — hrd-rogam kama apahinoty acirena dhirah — one will become a dhirah.
One will be able to subdue his senses and conquer lust by hearing from the right source with faith — sraddhanvito nusrnuyad. There is no possibility of lust being awakened. You will be able to control your senses and you will develop bhakti towards god. Bhaktim param — pure devotional service will be developed only by such a devotee.