Lord Krishna’s Vraja pastimes took place on Earth 5ooo years ago, and were meant as an exhibition of the transcendental loving pastimes that is experienced by the denizens in the Kingdom of God. In the conjugal pastimes of Radha and Krishna there is no sexual intercourse, as all such transcendental activities of prema-rasa are in the category of pure spiritual emotion (bhava), which is far, far beyond the fleeting pleasures of the kama-rasa or mundane sex-life. Radharani and the milkmaids, the gopis, and the cowherd-boys, the gopas, who take part in Krishna’s Earthly pastimes, are all nitya-siddha devotees, which mean they are eternally perfected beings, who descend from the spiritual world along with Krishna, to assist Him in manifesting the wonderful Vraja-lila pastimes on the Earthly plain, for the benefit of the world.
Lord Krishna’s internal potency, hladini-shakti, is personified as Shrimati Radharani, who provides Krishna with complete and absolute spiritual bliss. She is the most beloved of Krishna and epitomizes mahabhava, the highest mood of ecstasy, which keeps Krishna completely spellbound. In order to increase Krishna’s pleasure, Radharani expands herself as the ashta-sakhis, her eight female companions. Each of these eight companions embodies one of the eight primary bhavas, or loving spiritual emotions. Shrimati Radharani further expands herself as all the other prominent gopis who display different bhavas in order to please Krishna in various ways. The Brahma Samhita confirms that the gopis are all expansions of Radharani for increasing Krishna’s ecstatic bliss. “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Radha, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhis], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.” (BS.5.37)
From His transcendental birth, up to the age of seven, Krishna enjoys His infant-hood and then boy-hood pastimes of herding cows, while surrounded by the gopas, His cowherd boy-friends of the same age group. From the age of seven Krishna enjoys His youth-hood pastimes, referred to as madhurya-lila, or conjugal pastimes, and sports with Radharani and the other young gopis, the enchanting milkmaids of Vrindavana, who are all around one year younger than Krishna. When these milkmaids get married, Krishna enters a new variety of madhurya pastimes with the newly-married milkmaids, referred to as the pastimes of parakiyu-bhava. The parakiya- bhava is the beginning of the most super-excellent phase of Krishna’s Vrindavana pastimes, which is considered to be the pinnacle of all rasa, and the highest transcendental aspect of divine love between Krishna and the gopis headed by Radharani.
