The Supreme Perfection 279

tification. They want only to satisfy Krishna.” In the Srimad Bhagwatam this
is further confirmed in the Tenth Canto, 31st Chapter, when the Gopis or
damsels of Vraja were talking among themselves, as follows: “My dear Friend,
Krishna, You are now roaming in the forest with Your bare feet, which You
may sometimes keep on our breasts, and although we keep Your Foot on our
breasts, still we think that our breasts are so hard, and Your sole is so soft.
Now You are wandering in the forest, traversing over the particles of stones;
and we do not know how You are feeling, because You are our life and soul.
And so Your displeasure in travelling over the rough stone is giving us much
distress.” Such feelings of the damsels of Vraja, are the highest emotions of
Krishna Consciousness, and anyone who becomes captivated by Krishna Con-
sciousness approaches this highest level of the Gopis.

There are sixty-four kinds of devotional service, and by performing these
regulative principles one can rise up to the stage of this unconditional devotion
of the Gopis. Affection for Krishna exactly on the level of the Gopis is called
Raganuga, spontaneous love. In that spontaneous loving affair with Krishna,
there is no necessity of following the Vedic rules and regulations.

There are different kinds of personal devotees of Lord Krishna in the trans-
cendental Abode. For example, the servants of Krishna known as Raktak
and Bhadrak are friends of Krishna, just like Sridham and Subhad; and there
are parents of Krishna, just like Nanda and Yasoda, who are also engaged in the
service of Krishna in their different transcendental emotions. One who desires
to enter into the Supreme Abode of Krishna may take shelter of one of the
above transcendental servitors, and then execute loving service in such a way
as to achieve the highest result of transcendental affection with Krishna at the
end. In other words, the devotee in this material world who executes loving
service in pursuance of the activities of those eternal associates of Krishna also
achieves the same post when he is perfect.

The sages who are known in the Upanishads and in Sruti also desire the post
of the Gopis, and they also follow in the footsteps of the Gopis in order to
achieve that highest goal of life. This is confirmed in the Srimad Bhagwatam,
Tenth Canto, 86th Chapter, as follows: The sages practice Pranayam, a trance,
by controlling the breathing process and the mind and the senses, by the mystic
Yoga practice. And thus try to enter into the Supreme Brahman, or be merged
into the Supreme. The same thing is also obtained by persons who, atheist by
Nature, fight the principle of the existence of God; if they are killed by an
incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they also achieve the same
result, or merging into the Brahman existence of the Supreme Lord. But
