Text 28]
Departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa for Dvārakā
545
vraja-striyaḥ —the damsels of Vrajabhūmi;  sammu-muhuḥ —often fainted;  yat-āśayāḥ —expecting to be favored in that way.
TRANSLATION
O friends, just think of His wives whose hands He has accepted. How they must have undergone vows, baths, fire sacrifice and perfect worship of the Lord of the universe to constantly relish now the nectar from His lips [by kissing]. The damsels of Vrajabhūmi would often faint by just expecting such favors.
PURPORT
Religious rites prescribed in the scriptures are meant to purify the mundane qualities of the conditioned souls to enable them to become gradually promoted to the stage of rendering transcendental service unto the Supreme Lord. Attainment of this stage of pure spiritual life is the highest perfection, and this stage is called  svarūpa , or the factual identity of the living being. Liberation means to renovate this stage of  svarūpa . In that perfect stage of  svarūpa , the living being is established in five phases of loving service, one of which is the stage of  mādhurya-rasa , or the humor of conjugal love. The Lord is always perfect in Himself, and thus He has no hankering for Himself. He, however, becomes a master, a friend, a son or a husband to fulfill the intense love of the devotee concerned. Herein two classes of devotees of the Lord are mentioned in the stage of conjugal love. One is  svakīyā , and the other is  parakīyā . Both of them are in conjugal love with the Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa. The queens at Dvārakā were  svakīyā , or duly married wives, but the damsels of the Vraja were young friends of the Lord while He was unmarried. The Lord stayed at Vṛndāvana till the age of sixteen, and His friendly relations with the neighboring girls were in terms of  parakīyā . These girls, as well as the queens, underwent severe penances by taking vows, bathing and offering sacrifice in the fire, as prescribed in the scriptures. The rites, as they are, are not an end in themselves, nor are fruitive action, culture of knowledge or perfection in mystic powers ends in themselves. They are all means to attain to the highest stage of  svarūpa  to render constitutional transcendental service to the Lord. Each and every living being has his individual position in either of the above-mentioned five different kinds of reciprocating means with the Lord, and in one's pure spiritual form of  svarūpa  the relation