Leelas of Krishna are, as you said, amazing, wondrous; but yet sweet and meaningful. They are not tainted by the desire to show off the Divine Nature. The common man is drawn by external pomp, and apparent motives. So he judges the Leelas as common and even low. The inner meaning and purpose are not easily patent to all. But the Lord can never engage Himself in purposeless and paltry activities. His advent is for the uplifting of the world from the morass of wickedness and unrighteousness, for fulfilling the needs of those devoted to Him, for the reestablishment of right and morality and for the revival of the Vedas. He has to take into account the merit acquired by each in previous lives and shower His Grace accordingly. He makes Himself available through the granting of boons. His Leelas or Divine activities are so shaped that they suit the time, the person, the aspiration and the compassion which cause each shower of Grace. Therefore, who can comprehend correctly and interpret aright these Leelas?
‘The amazing Leelas of Hari are known to Hari alone’, it is said. He can be interpreted by Him alone, not by another. One observation however, can be made with confidence. The Manifest Incarnations of God will not engage themselves in the least, for their own sake or for the sake of fulfilling any personal likes! All activity is for the good of the world! Though without Them, the world cannot exist and survive, They move and act as if the world has nothing to do with them. In every word and deed of Theirs, one can observe the underlying current of total renunciation. For Them who hold the worlds in the palm of Their hands what can the world give or withhold? They can shape it as they like.
‘Fools, persons without faith, persons who deny God, persons caught in the coils of ignorance, those who do not learn anything—these may see the Leelas of God as self-centred and even motivated by delusion, like the actions of ordinary mortals. But genuine Bhaktas will cherish them as significant and sustaining examples of Grace. How can Tat (That) be grasped by those who are engrossed in Tvam (this, the individual being)?
The actions of Rama, Emperor of Kosala, and of Krishna are, you should remember, wide apart. When the wicked and cruel enemies of righteousness were about to overwhelm the good, Krishna and Balarama, the two brothers were born, the one black and the other white (as a head of hair, both black and white), and by their acts that transcended the comprehension of man, astounded the world.
‘The Leelas of Krishna are beyond the comprehension of anyone, however, scholarly or wise. His movement, his walk, his talk, his smile, his laughter, his gesture, his speech, his song – each is charming with a unique artistry. ‘Wherever He went, He created some strange mischief or other. Like a typhoon sweeping over the land, He left behind in every home that He visited a series of upheavals, quarrels, wailings and tears!
‘There was no need to invite Him ceremoniously into any house. He would enter, uninvited, unannounced. Every house belonged to Him. He would get in and take whatever He desired from wherever it was hidden, and eat to His heart’s content. ‘He was everyone’s dearest kinsman, fastest comrade. So, He could take anything from any house with impunity. But He was not content with that. He took away much more than His own need, for He gave away large quantities to His companions too. And they were quite a large number! The owners might bewail the loss, and condemn the theft, but He did not care. He gave the things away as if they were His own! No one could hinder His sport. No one could go against His word. If any dared oppose or threaten, the sufferings that will be heaped on his head were indescribable.
‘But the truth must be told. The smallest act of His was saturated with supreme sweetness. Even the sufferings He inflicted on those He wanted to punish were sweet. So, no one felt the least anger towards Him. Instead, they yearned to meet Him more often, to play with Him longer, to talk with Him and stay with Him as much as possible. Whatever His pranks and practical jokes, the victims never felt annoyed at Him. ‘The reason was: the Prema, the undercurrent of Love, that motivated all His words and acts. The cowherd maids rushed towards Him with sticks to beat Him off; but when they neared Him and cast their looks at Him, their hearts were filled with Prema, and they came away, with a prayer on their tongues. Whatever He did, appeared as Divine sport, Leela.
‘And the manner of His Speech! It was so pleasing and so clever. It was mostly intended to mislead! He put sand into His mouth, before all His companions; but when His mother took Him to task for it, He denied it and put out His tongue to prove His denial! He rendered true statements false and false statements, true! He went daily to Vrishabhendrapura, the village where Radha lived. Many people saw Him on the road, while going and returning. But yet, when His mother accosted Him and challenged Him saying, ‘Why are you trekking every day such long distances? Have you no comrades here, in this place itself, to play with?’ He replied, ‘I do not know that road at all!’ He caused confusion in every home, created factions between mothers-in-law and the daughters-in-law, set them one against the other, and enjoyed the fun. He was seldom stationary in one place, from dawn when He rose from bed till the hour when He went to sleep. This little bundle of mischief roamed from house to house, without rest.
‘In spite of all this, the villagers could not bear His absence, even for an instant! If He did not put in His appearance any day, the milkmaids watched for His visit, peeping at the road through the windows or looking into the distance from the terrace. Such was the charm of the Divine Love that Krishna showered on them and the Love that the people had towards Him. His pranks were so heart-warming.
They were so inspiring and meaningful. ‘The blue Boy was the Master of subterfuge and diplomacy. He saw through every artifice, however cleverly camouflaged. When the ogress Putana approached Him as Mother to feed Him at her breast, He pretended to be taken in by that stratagem. He sucked her life out and felled her to the ground. Many an Asura (demon) came near Him to destroy Him, some assuming the familiar forms of the cowherds and milkmaids of the village; but He discovered their identity and despatched them to the City of Death.
One Asura took the form of a calf, and moved among the calves and cows which Krishna was tending, awaiting an opportunity to kill Him. But the three-year-old Divine infant saw through the device. He caught him by the tail, raised him, swung him around and beat him on the ground, so that he breathed his last. ‘Such strength and skill were quite out of proportion with that Infant Form. But He demonstrated His Divinity in a million ways, in order to convert and convince men. He taught everyone, whether they were elders, women, or crooks, or His own kinsmen and well-wishers. He advised them into good ways. He entangled some of them in dilemmas. His maternal uncle, Kamsa, was drunk with imperial power and heroic audacity. He caught him by the tuft of hair, pulled him down from the throne, fisted him to death, and dragged the body along the main thoroughfare right down to the bank of the Yamuna! The entire population of the City of Mathura saw in every act of His a wondrous mixture of the amazing, the astounding, the sweet, the charming, the enticing, the beautiful and the simple.
‘While yet an infant, He ended the lives of Putana, Trnavarta, and Sakatasura. He was then, a tiny thief in search of butter in every home! When His mother tied Him to a wooden mortar, He dragged it behind Him, and with it, He pulled down two giant trees, growing together. He curbed the conceit and fury of the serpent Kalinga, which poisoned the waters of the Yamuna and made them disastrous for men and cattle. When His mother attempted to tie Him up with a rope round His waist, he revealed to her His Universal Form, the Form in which the entire Universe was found to be but a part of Him. The parents and the people of Gokula were wonder-struck at the remarkable experience of His Divinity. Through His yawn, He showed them the macrocosm and the microcosm, both!
‘He showed His dear cowherd comrades His Paradise, which knew no grief or loss (Vaikuntha). He persuaded Nanda to stop the usual Puja for Indra and to offer worship to the Govardhana Hill, instead. When the Rain-God Indra, stung by this neglect, poured terrible rains on the village, Krishna held aloft on his little finger, the Govardhana Hill inviting the entire village to take shelter under it!
He raised the cowherd boys and maids into ecstatic moods, by means of His playful pranks and His melodious music on the flute. To interpret this as low and sensuous is a sign of foolishness. ‘When Krishna danced in the moonlight, with the maids, each maid having a concrete Krishna by her side, it is interpreted by low-minded persons as laxity of morals and as a vulgar pastime. There is no basis for such inference at all. Krishna was only five or six years old when these miraculous incidents took place. How then can the experience be condemned as lascivious? The Lord has no attributes or qualities. The Rasakrida, as this incident is called, is but a means of rendering the gopis worthy of Grace, an example of Devotion and the fruit of Devotion, Dedication. The Lord was showering on them the Grace they had earned by their meritorious acts. It was a boon, a blessing.
‘When that superhuman Divine Manifestation is taken to be merely human, lasciviousness and thievishness may be attributed; but consider which human can achieve even an iota of what He did? He saved the world from the harassment of such monstrous evildoers as Pralamba, Dhenuka, Kesi, Banasura, Arishta,Mushtika, Kuvalayapida, Kamsa, Naraka, Poundraka, Dwividha,Jarasandha, Dantavakra, Sambara, Kambhoja, Kuru, Matsya, Kailaya and many such powerful heroes. Can it be said that all this is within the capacity of a mere man?
In this unique Avatar, every act is an amazing miracle. Even when angry, He could not but evince His overflowing Prema. In Love His compassion flowed unhindered. Through His Darshan (seeing), Sparshan (touching) and Sambhashan (conversation), one could earn Liberation. He granted immortality to those who reminded themselves of His Name. The cowherds among whom He lived and moved tasted the nectar of ecstasy whenever they witnessed His deeds or remembered them.
The Bhagavatam is not merely the narrative of the Lord’s story, in the background of Mathura, Brindavan, Gokula, the banks of theYamuna, Nanda-Yashoda, Vasudeva-Devaki and others. Bhagavatam includes the stories of all the incarnations of Bhagavan or the Lord. All incarnations were the manifestations of the self-same Gopala, Krishna, from Go Loka or Vaikuntha. The story of each is but the story of Vasudeva, emerging from Him and merging in Him. That Divine Power is the sustaining factor for all incarnations as well as all living beings.’ (Bhag Vahini, pp. 275-283)
When Krishna made his advent on earth, he also had to play His part according to His role. While Shishupala was railing at Krishna, he allowed him a long rope and destroyed him when the appropriate time came. The Bhagavatam relates the story of how Krishna retreated repeatedly in His encounters with Jarasandha. How can the All-knowing, All-powerful, Omnipresent Lord flee from anywhere? Where can He hide Himself? This is utterly fanciful.
When one has faith in the ways of the Lord and abides by the will of the Lord, the Lord can be understood and experienced. For instance, there is the example of Draupadi in the Mahabharata. In the court of Duryodhana, although she was humiliated and dishonoured by Duryodhana and Dushasana, Krishna, in accordance with the role He had to play, did not intervene, as both of them were destined to meet with their death at the hands of Bhima.
During Krishna’s lifetime, he was the target of attacks and accusations by many wicked persons. But the Divine has no likes or dislikes. The wicked persons suffer from the consequences of their own actions according to their deserts. What one gets in life is dependent partly on what he has earned by his actions. This is called ‘Prarabdam’. This is by its nature temporary. What is got as the fruit of a past action will not last long. Forgetting this fact and forgetting also his true nature (Svabhavam) man is carried away by the transient and acts according to his whims.
When an actor in a play is assigned a certain role, he studies the entire play. But while acting his role, he has to play his part alone in each scene as required in the play and not all the roles that he knows. He has to suit his actions to the demands of his role in each scene in the play. Likewise, the Lord, when He has assumed a role in the Cosmic play, has to act in each situation according to what is appropriate to it and according to the rules of the game. (SSS Vol.27, pp. 133-134)