216 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta [Madhya-lila, Ch. 8
PURPORT
The means for returning home, for going back to Godhead, is devotional ser-
vice, but everyone has a different taste in the Lord’s service. One may be inclined
to serve the Lord in servitude (dasya-rasa), fraternity (sakhya-rasa), or paternal
love (vatsalya-rasa), but all these cannot enable one to enter into the service of
the Lord in conjugal love. To attain such service, one has to follow in the footsteps
of the gopis in the ecstasy of sakhi-bhava. Then only can one understand the
transcendental mellow of conjugal love.
In the Ujjvala-nilamani, Srila Rapa Gosvami advises:
prema-lila-viharanam
samyag vistarikd sakhi
visrambha-ratna-peti ca
One who expands the conjugal love of Krsna and His enjoyment among the
gopis is called a sakhi. Such a person is a confidential gopi in the conjugal affairs.
Such assistants are like jewels in the form of Krsna’s confidence. The actual busi-
ness of the sakhis is described thus in Ujjvala-nilamani:
mithah prema-gunotkirtis
tayor asakti-karita
abhiséro dvayor eva
sakhyah krsne samarpanam
narmasvasana-nepathyam
hrdayodghata-patavam
chidra-samvrtir etasyah
paty-ddeh parivaficana
siksé sangamanam kale
sevanam vyajanadibhih
tayor dvayor upalambhah
sandesa-presanam tatha
nayika-prana-samraksa
prayatnadyah sakhi-kriyah
In the conjugal pastimes of Krsna, Krsna is the hero (nayaka), and Radhika is the
heroine (nayika). The first business of the gopis is to chant the glories of both the
hero and the heroine. Their second business is to create gradually a situation in
which the hero may be attracted to the heroine and vice versa. Their third busi-
