The Gopis Attracted by the Flute 151
creatures. When Krsna and Balarama played on Their transcendental
flutes, the moving creatures became stunned and stopped their activities,
and the nonmoving living creatures, like trees and plants, began to shiver
with ecstasy.

Krsna and Balarama carried binding ropes on Their shoulders and in
Their hands, just like ordinary cowherd boys. While milking the cows, the
boys bound the hind legs with a small rope. This rope almost always hung
from the shoulders of the boys, and it was not absent on the shoulders of
Krsna and Balarama. In spite of Their being the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, They played exactly like cowherd boys, and therefore every-
thing became wonderful and attractive. While Krsna was engaged in
tending the cows in the forest of Vrndavana or on Govardhana Hill, the
gopis in the village were always absorbed in thinking of Him and dis-
cussing His different pastimes. This is the perfect example of Krsna
consciousness: to somehow or other remain always engrossed in thoughts
of Krsna. The vivid example is always present in the behavior of the gopis;
therefore Lord Caitanya declared that no one can worship the Supreme
Lord by any method which is better than the method of the gopis. The
gopis were not born in very high brahmana or ksatriya families; they were
born in the families of vais yas, and not in big mercantile communities but
in the families of cowherd men. They were not very well educated,
although they heard all sorts of knowledge from the brahmanas, the
authorities of Vedic knowledge. The gopis’ only purpose was to remain
always absorbed in thoughts of Krsna.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Twenty-first Chapter of
Krsna, “The Gopis Attracted by the Flute.”
