The Rasa Dance: Introduction 191

When the full moon rose in the east, it tinged everything with a reddish
color. With the rising of the moon, the whole sky appeared smeared by red
kunkuma. When a husband long separated from his wife returns home, he
decorates the face of his wife with red kunkuma. This long-expected
moonrise of the Sarat season was thus smearing the eastern sky.

The appearance of the moon increased Krsna’s desire to dance with the
gopis. The forests were filled with fragrant flowers. The atmosphere was
cooling and festive. When Lord Krsna began to blow His flute, the gopis
all over Vrndavana became enchanted. Their attraction to the vibration of
the flute increased a thousand times due to the rising full moon, the red
horizon, the calm and cool atmosphere, and the blossoming flowers. All
these gopts were by nature very much attracted to Krsna’s beauty, and
when they heard the vibration of His flute, they became apparently lustful
to satisfy the senses of Krsna.

Immediately upon hearing the vibration of the flute, they all left their
respective engagements and proceeded to the spot where Krsna was
standing. While they ran very swiftly, all their earrings swung back and
forth. They all rushed toward the place known as Varhgivata. Some of
them were engaged in milking cows, but they left their milking business
half finished and immediately went to Krsna. One of them had just col-
lected milk and put it in a milk pan on the oven to boil, but she did not
care whether the milk overboiled and spilled—she immediately left to go
see Krsna. Some of them were breast feeding their small babies, and some
were engaged in distirbuting food to the members of their families, but
they left all such engagements and immediately rushed towards the spot
where Krsna was playing His flute. Some were engaged in serving their
husbands, and some were themselves engaged in eating, but neither caring
to serve their husbands nor eat, they immediately left. Some of them
wanted to decorate their faces with cosmetic ointments and to dress
themselves very nicely before going to Krsna, but unfortunately they could
not finish their cosmetic decorations nor put on their dresses in the right
way because of their anxiety to meet Krsna immediately. Their faces were
decorated hurriedly and were haphazardly finished; some even put the
lower part of their dresses on the upper part of their bodies and the upper
part on the lower part.

While all the gopis were hurriedly leaving their respective places, their
husbands, brothers and fathers were all struck with wonder to know where
they were going. Being young girls, they were protected either by husbands,
elderly brothers or fathers. All their guardians forbade them to go to
Krsna, but they disregarded them. When a person becomes attracted by
