"’Therefore do thou show favor to us and permit us to serve Thee.’ Moved by their piteous appeal, Krishna gave his company to the Gopis. Proud of that company, the Gopis deemed themselves superior to all other women on the earth. To put down this loss of mental balance, caused by good fortune and this pride, Krishna suddenly disappeared from amongst them. The Gopis became disconsolate. Their hearts had been too much taken up by the gestures and movements of Krishna. So they imitated his deeds and even called themselves Krishna. They all sang loudly together and madly searched for Krishna from forest to forest. They asked the trees if they had seen their lover. They enquired of the creepers, the earth and the deer. Fatigued at last, they again took to reproducing the deeds of Krishna. Some played the part of Pûtanâ or some other Asura, some played the part of Krishna in connection with some of his manifold deeds. They again made enquiries from the plants. They then found out the footsteps of Krishna marked by the divine symbols (flag, the lotus, the thunder-bolt and the goad). Tracing those steps a little further, they found they were mixed up with the footprints of a girl. The Gopis exclaimed: — "’Surely this girl had made _Ârâdhanâ_ (devout prayer for the Lord). Govinda left us that he might take her to a secret retreat. Sacred are the dust particles of Govinda’s feet; even Brahmâ, Śiva and Lakshmî hold them on their head for the extinction of sins. Look here we no longer see the foot marks of that girl. It seems Krishna carried her here on his back and his footprints are therefore deeply marked. Here He placed her down to pluck flowers and touched the earth with his toes only, for the steps are not fully marked. Surely he placed the girl on his lap here and adorned her hair with flowers.’ And what of that girl? She deemed herself very fortunate that Krishna should shew particular attention to her. With this sense of superiority she spoke to Krishna. ’I can not walk. Take me to where I like on thy back.’ Krishna said, ’Get up on my back.’ But when she would do so, Krishna had already disappeared. The girl was loudly lamenting, when the other Gopis joined her. They heard her story and became very much surprised. (It is necessary to draw the special attention of the readers to the girl, who had made Ârâdhanâ of Hari. She is the Râdhikâ of Nârada Pancharâtra and of later day Vaishnavism. Râdhikâ means literally one who makes Râdhanâ or Ârâdhanâ. But I shall not touch upon her in a study of the Bhâgavata Purâna. The study of this Purâna is incomplete without a study of Chaitanya’s teachings. And if I succeed in taking up those teachings, I shall consider the lofty ideal of Râdhikâ).