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The Nectar of Devotion
mediately began to massage His legs.” Such are the activities of Krsna’s friends out on the pasturing grounds.
The more confidential friends are called  priya-sakhās  and are almost Krṣṇa's age. Because of their very confidential friendship, their behavior is only on the basis of pure friendship. Other friends' behavior is on the ground of paternal love or servitude, but the basic principle of the confidential friends is simply friendship on an equal level. Some confidential friends are as follows: Śrīdāmā, Sudāmā, Dāmā, Vasudāmā, Kiṅkiṇi, Stokakrṣṇa, Aṁśu, Bhadrasena, Vilāsina, Puṇḍarīka, Viṭaṅka and Kalaviṅka. By their various activities in different pastimes, all of these friends used to give transcendental pleasure to Krṣṇa.
The behavior of these confidential friends is described by a friend of Rādhārāṇī, who told Rādhārāṇī: “My dear graceful Rādhārāṇī, Your intimate friend, Kṛṣṇa, is also served by His intimate boy friends. Some of them cut jokes with Him in mild voices and please Him very much by this.” For example, Kṛṣṇa had one  brāhmaṇa  friend whose name was Madhumaṅgala. This boy would joke by playing the part of a greedy  brāhmaṇa . Whenever the friends ate, he would eat more than all others, especially  lāḍḍus , of which he was very fond. Then after eating more  lāḍḍus  than anyone else, Madhumaṅgala would still not be satisfied, and he would say to Kṛṣṇa, “If You give me one more  lāḍḍu , then I shall be pleased to give You my blessings so that Your friend Rādhārāṇī will be very much pleased with You.” The  brāhmaṇas  are supposed to give blessings to the  vaiśyas  (farming and merchant caste), and Kṛṣṇa presented Himself as the son of Mahārāj Nanda, a  vaiśya ; so the  brāhmaṇa  boy was right in giving blessings to Kṛṣṇa. Thus Kṛṣṇa was very pleased by His friend’s blessings, and He would supply him with more and more  lāḍḍus .
Sometimes a confidential friend would come before Kṛṣṇa and embrace Him with great affection and love. Another friend would then come up from the rear and cover Kṛṣṇa’s eyes with his hands. Kṛṣṇa would always feel very happy by such dealings with His confidential friends.
Out of all these confidential friends, Śrīdāmā is considered to be