42 / Fraternal Loving Affairs

Krsna’s age, His beauty, His bugle, His flute, His conchshell and
His pleasing attitude all provoke love in friendship for Him. His
exceptional joking abilities, exhibited sometimes by His pretending
to be a royal prince, or even the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
also give impetus to devotees developing love for Krsna in friendship.

Learned scholars have divided Krsna’s age into three periods: the
age up to five years is called kaumara, the age from the sixth to the
tenth year is called pauganda, and the age from the eleventh to fif-
teenth year is called kaisora. While Krsna is spending His days as a
cowherd boy, He is in the kaumara and pauganda ages. In the kaisora
age, when Krsna appeared at Gokula, He acted as a cowherd boy, and
then, when He was sixteen, He went to Mathura to kill Kamsa.

The kaumara age is just suitable for reciprocating the love of a
child with Mother Yagoda. In the Tenth Canto, 13th Chapter, 9th
verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit:
“My dear King, although Lord Krsna is the supreme enjoyer and the
beneficiary of all kinds of sacrificial ceremonies, He still used to eat
with His cowherd boy friends. This is because at that time He ac-
cepted the pastimes of an ordinary boy, keeping His flute under His
arm and His bugle on the right side in His belt, along with His cane.
In His left hand He would hold a lump of rice paste with yogurt, and
in His fingers would be pilu, the king of fruits. When He would thus
sit amongst His friends, it would appear that He was the whorl of a
lotus flower and that the friends surrounding Him were petals. As
they thus enjoyed joking amongst themselves, the denizens of heaven
would become struck with wonder and would only stare at the
scene.”

336
