Stimulation for Ecstatic Love
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ance of these symptoms has made Him extraordinarily beautiful.” 27
In this connection, in the Tenth Canto, 21st Chapter, 5th verse, of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit: “My dear King, I shall try to describe how the minds of the  gopīs  became absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. The  gopīs  would meditate on Kṛṣṇa’s dressing Himself just like a dancing actor and entering the forest of Vṛndāvana, marking the ground with His footprints. They meditated on Kṛṣṇa’s having a helmet with a peacock feather and wearing earrings on His ears and yellow-gold colored garments covered with jewels and pearls. They also meditated on Kṛṣṇa’s blowing His flute and on all the cowherd boys’ singing of the glories of the Lord.” That is the description of the meditation which the  gopīs  used to perform.
Sometimes the  gopīs  would think about His soft nails, moving eye-brows and His teeth, which were catechu colored from chewing  pan . One description was given by a  gopī  to her friend: “My dear friend, just see how the enemy of Agha has assumed such wonderful features! His brows are just like the brows of Cupid, and they are moving just as though they were dancing. The tips of His nails are so soft—it is as if they were dried bamboo leaves. His teeth are reddish, and so it appears that He has assumed a feature of anger. Under the circumstances, where is the chance for a young girl not to be attracted by such beautiful features and not to be afraid of becoming a victim to such beauty?”
Krṣṇa’s attractive features are also described by Vṛndā, the  gopī  after whom Vṛndāvana was named. She told Krṣṇa: “My dear Mādhava, Your newly-invented smile has so captivated the hearts of the  gopīs  that they are simply unable to express themselves! As such, they have become bewildered and will not talk with others. All of these  gopīs  have become so affected that it is as if they had offered three sprinkles of water upon their lives. In other words, they have given up all hope for their living condition.” According to the Indian system, when a person is dead there is a sprinkling of water on the body. Thus, the statement of Vṛndā shows that the  gopīs  were so enchanted by the beauty of Krṣṇa that because they could not express their minds, they decided to commit suicide.