His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, preached on the basis of Vedic literature like Bhagavad Gita and Shrimad Bhagavatam that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Krishna has no desire to be fulfilled but He nevertheless wants to enjoy the company of the gopis in the Rasa dance. But these gopis are not ordinary girls. Gopis have a spiritual form which is full of eternity, knowledge and bliss. In the Shrimad Bhagavatam the word “Bhagavan-api” is used, which signifies that their dancing is not the ordinary dancing of young boys and girls within this material world. The difference between love and lust is compared to the difference between gold and iron. From the view point of metallurgy, gold and iron are both metals but their quality is completely different. Here in the material world there is nothing such as “love”. There is only lust, which means only to satisfy one’s own senses. When Lord Krishna plays His flute, the gopis rush toward the spot of the Rasa dance with the transcendental desire to satisfy Krishna. In other words acts when enacted for personal sense-gratification are material acts, but when they are enacted for the satisfaction of Lord Krishna then they are spiritual activities. The spiritual form of Lord Krishna is full of eternity, knowledge and bliss. He has a loving relationships with His devotees in the spiritual world (Goloka Vrindavana), as a son, as a friend, as a lover, as a loving master. These relationships are eternal. In this world all relationships are temporary because they are connected with the temporary material body. If one thinks one can perform Rasa Lila like Lord Krishna then one must also lift Govardhana Hill on a little finger. One must drink poison like Lord Shiva. One must be able to show the Universal Form in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. According to the Vishnu Purana, Bhaga means opulence and van means one who possesses the six opulences in full — wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. To understand the super-excellent activities of the Lord one must engage oneself in the chanting of Hare Krishna Mahamantra (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare). Anyone who engages in the chanting of the Mahamantra becomes free from the evil effects of this age of Kali, as stated in Kali-Santaran Upanishad. The writer is governing body commissioner, ISKCON
