The same scriptures that talk about Lord Krishna's Raas Lila also talk about Him being the Supreme Lord, capable of accomplishing impossible tasks. A devotee can enter into any relationship with Him, and He is always there to reciprocate proportionately.
Each devotee worships the Lord in a unique mood. Some devotees wish to serve Him as their master and some wish to enter into a relationship with Him as a friend, as did Subal, Sridama, Arjuna and others. Some wish to serve Him as parents like Yashoda-Nanda and Devaki-Vasudev, whereas some like the gopis desire to see Him as their beloved. In all cases, Lord Krishna is simply reciprocating with the desires of His dear devotees. So essentially, there is no difference between Lord Krishna's dealing with the peacocks and parrots of Vrindavan, His receiving service from His servants like Raktak, Him being cared for by Yashoda and Nanda, or Him dancing (Raas Lila) in great joy with the gopis of Vrindavan. All are on the same platform because in all of these, there is nothing but His reciprocation with the devotees as they desire.
Instead of criticizing Him for His Raas Lila, we should feel happy that our kind Lord is ready to go to any extent to satisfy His devotees' desires, and if we also desire a particular type of reciprocation from Him, we shall receive the same. So, the Raas Lila of the Lord should fill us with hope rather than remorse.
In addition, the gopis of the Raas Lila were not ordinary girls. They were Lord Krishna's own energies who, for the sake of pastimes or lilas, had descended with Him from the spiritual world. Thus, there is no harm if Krishna He is dancing with His own shaktis or energies.
Also, if this pastime is immoral as many think, why would it find a place in such a great scripture as Srimad Bhagavatam, in which the chapters describing the Raas Lila are considered to be the best?
If the Raas Lila were immoral, why would great renunciants such as Sukdev Goswami many others even and talk about and glorify it?
The reality is that this pastime or any pastime of Krishna is enacted on a spiritual platform, and from a mundane platform, it is very difficult to comprehend. As Krishna confirms in the Bhagavad Gita (4.9):
janma karma cha me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna
'One who knows the divine nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."
Anyone who can understand the truth behind Lord Krishna's activities achieves liberation. This goes to show that this understanding is not easy. We have to dive deeper as explained above.
If He was too eager for the Raas Lila, why would He disappear from it as soon as the gopis developed subtle spiritual pride? He clearly indicated that he was not attached to it and was there simply because the gopis prayed for it.
If Lord Krishna was at fault for indulging in the Raas Lila, why would great beings such as Lord Shiva, Narada and Goddess Laxmi participate in it? When we see such great beings participating in an event, we can only conclude that the event must be special.
When people find fault with Lord Krishna and consider Him to be immoral on account of His Raas Lila, we must understand that the same scriptures that describe the Raas Lila also talk about Him as God who is faultless, as the lifter of the gigantic Govardhan Lila, as the God dancing thousand-hooded serpent Kaliya or killing ferocious demons when He was just three days old, all of which are strong evidence of His divinity. But some people, to demean the on the Lord and justify His atheism, conveniently select a particular episode and ignore others from the same scripture. They say, 'Oh, it is false. How could He lift a mountain?' Just because something is impossible for us does not mean it is impossible for everyone else, and certainly not for the Supreme Lord. If we accept one part of the scripture, we have to accept the other parts too. As one great saint said, 'You either be hot or be cold. If you are lukewarm, I spit you out.' So either we believe everything from the scriptures or we do not believe at all.
When we see the Lord engaging in an activity that is difficult to make sense of, rather than accusing Him and implicating ourselves in the karmic cycle, we should be humble, thinking, 'Oh! I am so ignorant that I cannot understand why the Lord is doing this!' As a second step, we should approach a dedicated devotee of the Lord for an explanation as only His devotees can understand and explain the truth about Him. Srimad Bhagavatam (7.15.28) explains:
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita by arthah
prakashante mahatmanah
'Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of the Vedic knowledge automatically revealed."
In essence, the Raas Lila is a purely spiritual, loving reciprocation between the Lord and His dear devotees enacted beyond the platform of our limited, ordinary understanding.
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