THE RASA DANCE

On the Yamuna's banks Lord Govinda began the pastime of the rasa dance in the company of those jewels among women, the faithful gopis, who joyfully linked their arms together.

The festive rasa dance commenced, with the gopis arrayed in a circle. Lord Krsna expanded Himself and entered between each pair of gopis, and as that master of mystic power placed His arms around their necks, each girl thought He was standing next to her alone. The demigods and their wives were overwhelmed with eagerness to witness the rasa dance, and they soon crowded the sky with their hundreds of celestial airplanes.

A tumultuous sound arose from the armlets, ankle bells and waist bells of the gopis as they sported with their beloved Krsna in the circle of the rasa dance. In the midst of the dancing gopis, Lord Krsna appeared most brilliant, like an exquisite sapphire in the midst of golden ornaments.

As the gopis sang in praise of Krsna, their feet danced, their hands gestured, and their eyebrows moved with playful smiles. With their braids and belts tied tight, their waists bending, their faces perspiring, the garments on their breasts moving this way and that, and their earrings swinging on their cheeks, Lord Kṛṣṇa's young consorts shone like streaks of lightning in a mass of clouds.