Stimulation for Ecstatic Love 216

ance of these symptoms has made Him extraordinarily beautiful.”

In this connection, in the Tenth Canto, 21st Chapter, 5th verse, of
Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit: “My dear
King, I shall try to describe how the minds of the gopis became ab-
sorbed in the thought of Krsna. The gopis would meditate on Krsna’s
dressing Himself just like a dancing actor and entering the forest of
Vrndavana, marking the ground with His footprints. They meditated
on Krsna’s having a helmet with a peacock feather and wearing ear-
rings on His ears and yellow-gold colored garments covered with
jewels and pearls. They also meditated on Krsna’s blowing His flute
and on all the cowherd boys’ singing of the glories of the Lord.”
That is the description of the meditation which the gopis used to
perform.

Sometimes the gopis would think about His soft nails, moving eye-
brows and His teeth, which were catechu colored from chewing pan.
One description was given by a gopi to her friend: ‘“‘My dear friend,
just see how the enemy of Agha has assumed such wonderful fea-
tures! His brows are just like the brows of Cupid, and they are
moving just as though they were dancing. The tips of His nails are so
soft—it is as if they were dried bamboo leaves. His teeth are reddish,
and so it appears that He has assumed a feature of anger. Under the
circumstances, where is the chance for a young girl not to be at-
tracted by such beautiful features and not to be afraid of becoming a
victim to such beauty?”

Krsna’s attractive features are also described by Vrnda, the gopi af-
ter whom Vrndavana was named. She told Krsna: ‘“‘My dear Madhava,
Your newly-invented smile has so captivated the hearts of the gopis
that they are simply unable to express themselves! As such, they have
become bewildered and will not talk with others. All of these gopis
have become so affected that it is as if they had offered three sprin-
kles of water upon their lives. In other words, they have given up all
hope for their living condition.” According to the Indian system,
when a person is dead there is a sprinkling of water on the body.
Thus, the statement of Vrnda shows that the gopis were so enchanted
by the beauty of Krsna that because they could not express their
minds, they decided to commit suicide.
