Volume 3 - Prabhupada Books

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 Ujjva/a-nilamaQi, Srila ROpa Gosvami advises:
prema-lila-vi haraQarh
samyag vistarika sakhi
visrambha-ratna-peti ca
One who expands the conjugal love of Kr�t:�a 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 Kr�t:�a's confidence. The actual busi­
ness of the sakhis is described thus in Ujjvala-nilamaf)i:
mitha/:1 prema-guf)otkirtis
tayor asakti-karita
abhisaro dvayor eva
sakhya/:1 k($Qe samarpaQam
narmasvasana-nepathyarh
hrdayodghata-patavam
chidra-sarhvrtir etasya/:1
paty-ade/:1 parivaficana
sik$a sangamanarh kale
sevanarh vyajanadibhi/:1
tayor dvayor upa/ambha/:1
sandesa-pre?aQaril tatha
nayika-praQa-sarhrak$a
prayatnadya/:1 sakhi-kriya/:1
In the conjugal pastimes of Kr�t:Ja, Kr�t:�a 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-