328 The Nectar of Devotion

the eyes of everyone. It is said that once Arjuna was lying in his bed
with his head upon Krsna’s lap and was talking and joking with Krsna
in great relaxation and was enjoying Krsna’s company with smiling
and great satisfaction.

As far as the vayasyas (friends) in Vrndavana are concerned, they
become greatly distressed when they cannot see Krsna even for a
moment.

There is the following prayer by a devotee for the vayasyas in
Vrndavana: “All glories to Krsna’s vayasyas, who are just like Krsna
in their age, qualities, pastimes, dress and beauty. They are accus-
tomed to playing on their flutes made of palm leaves, and they all
have buffalo-horn bugles ornamented like Krsna’s with jewels such as
indranila and with gold and coral. They are always jubilant like Krsna.
May these glorious companions of Krsna always protect us!”

The vayasyas in Vrndavana are in such intimate friendship with
Krsna that sometimes they think themselves as good as Krsna. Here is
an instance of such friendly feeling: When Krsna was holding up Go-
vardhan Hill with His left hand, the vayasyas said, “My dear friend,
You have been standing for the last seven days and nights without
any rest. This is very troublesome for us because we see that you
have undertaken a severely laborious task. We think, therefore, that
you need not continue to stand in that way holding the hill. You can
just transfer it onto Sudama’s hand. We are very much aggrieved to
see You in this position. If You think that Sudama is not able to
support Govardhan Hill, then at least You should change hands. In-
stead of supporting it with Your left hand, please transfer it to Your
right hand, so that we can give Your left hand a massage.” This is an
instance of intimacy, showing how much the vayasyas considered
themselves to be equal to Krsna.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Tenth Canto, 12th Chapter, 10th verse,
Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit: “My dear King, Krsna is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead to the learned transcendentalist, He
is the supreme happiness for the impersonalist, He is the supreme
worshipable Deity for the devotee, and He is just like an ordinary
boy to one who is under the spell of maya. And just imagine—these
cowherd boys are now playing with the Supreme Person as though
