Qualities of Krsna Further Explained 196
many fascinating pastimes, whenever I think of the rasa-lila, which
I perform with the gopis, I become eager to have it again.”

One devotee has said, “I know about Narayana, the husband of the
goddess of fortune, and I also know about many other incarnations
of the Lord. Certainly all the pastimes of such incarnations are ex-
citing to my mind, but still, the pastimes of the rasa-lila performed
by Lord Krsna Himself are wonderfully increasing my transcendental
pleasure.”

In the Tenth Canto, 3lst Chapter, 15th verse, of Srimad-
Bhagavatam, the gopis lament: “My dear Krsna, during the daytime
when You go out into the forest of Vrndavana with Your cows, we
consider one moment to be twelve years, and it is very difficult for us
to pass the time. And again when You come back at the end of the
day, by seeing Your beautiful face we are so much attracted that we
are unable to stop looking upon You constantly. At these times, when
there is occasional blinking of our eyelids, we condemn the creator,
Lord Brahma, as a dunce, because he does not know how to make
perfect eyes!” In other words, the gopis were disturbed by the blink-
ing of their eyes because for the moment that their eyes were closed
they could not see Krsna. This means that the gopis’ love for Krsna
was so great and ecstatic that they were disturbed by even His mo-
mentary absence. And when they saw Krsna, they were also dis-
turbed. This is a paradox. .

One gopi, expressing herself to Krsna, says: “When we meet You
at night, we consider the duration of night to be very small. And why
speak of only this night? Even if we had a night of Brahma* we
would consider it a very short time!”” We get an idea of Brahma’s
day from the following statement of the Bhagavad-gita: “By human
calculation, a thousand yuga cycles taken together is Brahma’s one
day. And such also is the duration of his night.” (Bg. 8.17) The gopis
said that even if they could have that duration of night, it would still
not be sufficient for their meeting with Krsna.

* 64,300,000,000 solar years equals twelve hours or one night of Brahma.
