Sunday, 01 February 2026
[Mayapur, West Bengal, India Time]
Sri Krishna Madhura Utsava
Sri Krishna Madhura Utsava is another celebration of the rasa dance, in which Krishna dances with many of His cowherd girlfriends in the moonlight, on the banks of the river Yamuna in Vrindavan.
Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on how to properly understand Krishna’s rasa-lila:
“Devotee: You said… If these pastimes of rasa-lila are only for liberated souls, and yet in Krishna Book, in Nectar of Devotion, there are some descriptions of pastimes of Radha and Krishna…
Prabhupada: That is very cautiously mentioned. Yes. It had to be given because it is part of Krishna’s pastimes. We cannot avoid it. Therefore it has to be heard from right person. He will be cautious to present the things. Anusrnuyat. The injunction is one should hear from a person bona fide, anusrnuyat, not directly. Not directly.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Surat, January 3, 1971)
“So this discussion of rasa-lila is the summit of Krishna consciousness. It is not ordinary thing. They’re purely spiritual. There is nothing material. But because we are not completely free from material concept of life, we may think that Krishna’s lila is something like this material. So that is offense. But that is the ultimate goal, to understand Krishna’s rasa-lila.
But you have to wait for relishing that Krishna’s rasa-lila, to become more perfect in Krishna consciousness. Anarthapagamanam. Anartha means when one is freed from all anarthas. But it is so nice, even those who are with anartha, misgivings, if they are devotee, if they have got full surrender unto Krishna, so they also will derive benefit.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Los Angeles, November 15, 1968)
“Radha-Krishna lila is not so cheap. Therefore they are called sahajiya. They have made it cheap. If they want to read Bhagavatam—immediately rasa-lila. If they want to hear something about Krishna—immediately rasa-lila. Because it appears similar, just like young boy, young girls. But it is not that. It is ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhis tabhir ya eva nija-rupataya kalabhih (Brahma-samhita 5.37). Radharani is the expansion of Krishna’s energy, and the gopis are expansion of Radharani’s body. They are not ordinary things.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Calcutta, January 30, 1973)
“Don’t think that Krishna had rasa dance with ordinary girls or Krishna was ordinary man. As Krishna was not man, He’s God, similarly, the gopis and Srimati Radharani, they’re internal potency of God, or Krishna. This should be understood. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam (Bhagavad-gita 9.11). Krishna says, ‘Mudhas, rascals, they think that I am a human being, ordinary human being.’ And therefore they imitate. Sometimes the rascals imitate rasa dance. ‘Krishna had rasa dance; then we can have also rasa…’ But they do not understand that Krishna’s rasa dance is not ordinary ball dance like that. No. It is an imitation, perverted imitation.
Because the tendency is there in Krishna, therefore we have also got the tendency. But we do not know how to enjoy that dancing spirit. That is our illusion. We think this ordinary dance and Krishna’s dance is the same thing. No. That dancing, to take part in that dancing, it requires many, many millions of years of tapasya. It is not ordinary thing. Krtapunya-punjah. Sakam vijahrur krtapunya-punjah (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.12.11). To join with the rasa dance of Krishna, or to play with Krishna as cowherd boy, it requires many, many millions of births’ pious activities.
So Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavana with the cowherd boys and with the gopis, they are all spiritual. They are not material. But Krishna manifests, exhibits the lila, coming here personally so that you may hear about Krishna and you may be attracted: ‘So how I can go and play with Krishna? How I can go and dance with Krishna?’ Or ‘How I can become a tree, a grass, in Vrindavana, so that Krishna may trample over me?’ This is called krishna-prema. So Krishna practically demonstrates, for the facility of the conditioned soul.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Vrindavana, March 15, 1974
