The Lord disappeared from the midst of Gopikas for awhile because of their pride, and they were unable to bear this separation.
True devotees of the Lord can never bear to be away from Him, and the Gopikas’ love for the Lord was unparalleled, Sankararama Dikshitar said in a discourse. Every second that they were not in His presence seemed to them like a yuga. A yuga consists of several lakh years. So the love of the Gopikas for the Lord can be gauged to be immense.
The Gopikas thought of how Krishna would leave every day to graze the cows, and how He would return, and expressed their grief at His absence.
Every day, when Krishna returned in the evening, His hair would be dishevelled, His face covered with sweat. As the cows ran, their hoofs would kick up dust, which would settle on Krishna’s face. But even this dust could not make Him unattractive.
The Gopikas would wait anxiously for His return. The cows would come running first, followed closely by their calves, and then by the other children who accompanied Krishna. Finally, at the end of this group of animals and children, would be Krishna Himself.
The Gopikas waiting for Him would therefore first see the horns of the returning cows, then they would see the calves, and then the children, and finally their hearts would be filed with joy when they spotted Krishna. They would watch Him without batting an eyelid. In fact, His absence was the only time when they could bat their eyelids! They would curse the Creator Brahma, for giving them eyelids, for wasn’t it the eyelids that batted every now and then and kept them from seeing Krishna without a break?
The Gopikas could even scold Krishna, for they had the privilege to do so, by virtue of their love for Him. They even worshipped Him rather lightly, and not intensely, for they were afraid that His feet, if enshrined in their hearts, would hurt because of the hardness of their hearts!
Can anyone compare with the Gopikas when it comes to love for Krishna? So when He disappeared from their midst, and they had no clue to where He was, they were agitated.
